Fourentee

Agreed. They looked ominous fixtures from the off, particularly with so many new riders to bed in at Monmore (I'm not losing sight of the fact that Belle Vue have a new track to get used to, but had all gone to plan their riders would have had the Peter Craven meeting under their belts and presumably some practice too before Wolves rode there). Wolves had what looked a pretty decent team in 2012, spearheaded by Woffinden and Lindgren, and lost home and away to Poole in the first two matches and four times to them in all, three of them at home, in the first dozen completed fixtures. They never hit their stride and finished one off the bottom.

Small point, but the other element of American Football which contributes to equality concerns fixtures. NFL divisions are made up of a handful of clubs and their fixture lists are completed by games against teams from other divisions. The schedule, like their draft positions, varies in difficulty depending on previous performance. It's difficult to see that, or something like it, being brought into speedway and accepted by supporters.

Jonathan, you might consider increasing the space between the lines when posting in this fashion, Then we could read between them...

My assumption was that it was Steve Shovlar's query concerning what level of control was exercised at conference by Matt Ford. For the sake of the discussion, could we assume that's the case because I'm sure your reply would interest a lot of forum members.

I've no idea. What difference would it make?

Born in UK, raised in Australia from early childhood, works principally in Sweden and Poland. Your point?

Saw a rider come down on the fourth bend of lap one at Wolves once; race was stopped. Rider who had fallen and caused the stoppage rather cheekily emerged and attempted to take his place in the rerun. "Ah yes," murmured, the gentleman next to me. "Fourth bend bunching..."

Well, that's good to hear. Belle Vue are due a bit of good news. Very pleasing.

Indeed, 'tis a terrible thing to frequent "these forums to cause trouble and find excuses to hurl abuse". Couldn't agree more. speedibee, on 01 Apr 2016 - 10:23 AM, said: Edit: Apologies,forgot this one: "Tai's British fanbase , consists of a few abusive idiots who post on the bsf since his announcement , the best thing would be to put him on ignore along with all the halfwits who cannot debate their argument without the need for abuse of anyone who doesn't agree with them"

True. But what a welcome symbolic gesture it would be, from a British world champion who doesn't participate in league racing in this country (not that I blame him for that), to turn out for his domestic final.

That, as you will know assuming you've read it, is a procedure for settling compensation between employers (the football clubs) in the event of an employee (footballer) breaking a contract. I still await an answer to the question I posed earlier requesting information on any contract broken by Woffinden.

Just remind me what contract Woffinden has broken, please?

The last resort of a man without a cogent argument.

Enlighten me then! I'm with you on the second part. As to the first, I think what made Woffinden the rider he is is, simply, Woffinden. I don't know that those riches looked too apparent when Tai was slogging round the country looking for second-half rides.

Reimburse British speedway for what, exactly? Riders are contracted by clubs, turn up, ride, get paid, go home. Am I missing something?

Oh, the irony.

Well, not knowing the specific circumstances, I can imagine how that would colour your view. It's presumably no consolation to you, but for the record during the time I was covering Wolves I never once saw him refuse an autograph or photograph and he would invariably chat to youngsters in particular while signing/posing for picture. Most speedway riders I've come across do the same, but given the sheer volume of requests in Tai's case it always surprised me a touch just how gracious he was about it.

My point exactly.

Hmm, how could we possibly raise its profile?

You're not going to mention his podium finishes at Swindon and Poole, then? Surprise, surprise.

Fair point. There is some mechanism, is there not, to draft a rider into the British final? I seem to recall it being introduced after Tai went out in a rain-shortened semi? Very disappointing decision on the face of it for Britain's top rider to opt out of his national competition.

To quote your earlier post, "We know this rumour was started by a fan on Twitter on Monday, far more believable that Wolves and Edinburgh were taken in by it and didn't bother to check." Fair play, you now seem to be moving away from that stance, which I think is only appropriate. I wouldn't elevate my own avowed hypothetical assessment to the level of theory; interesting that you should introduce the term charade, however. I just about see where you're trying to go with the final point, but you could then (and I'm not trying to) invert the argument and say that all the huff and puff about track inspections, practice etcetera is the club management trying to display visibly their willingness to put right what has been left wrong by others. In passing, CVS spoke very warmly in support of the project at a fans' function on Wednesday. Anyway, at least we can debate the matter in a civilised fashion. Pretty much everyone appears to be behind the project, you know. I'd be saddened if Aces fans feel they have to develop a circle the wagons mentality over the whole stadium set-up.

Yes, I can see CVS talking on the record to the Express & Star, basing his comments on a post by an unnamed fan on Twitter... To address your point, and speaking hypothetically, an organisation that cancels an event with the stadium full surely risks opprobrium rather than plaudits by then acting early in knocking the second show on the head -- by inference it is conceding that the problems are far greater than it has yet acknowledged. We can talk round and round the issue ad infinitum. The outcome, however, remains the same: Wolves and Edinburgh said the match was off. It's off. Belle Vue, for good or ill a club which right now shouldn't be trying to find itself connected with ill feeling, has somehow managed it.

The unfortunate circumstances surrounding launch night immediately and understandably put a question mark over the next fixture. Clarity was required for Wolves fans intending to make the trip; Edinburgh and CVS supplied it (I remove Cradley from the equation as no official announcement appears to have come from the Heathens). Do you seriously think those two clubs would have acted -- and acted publicly at that -- as they did purely on the off-chance of the fixture not going ahead? The view expressed elsewhere that some fortuitous combination of weather and other elements (I summarise) then somehow saw the fixture postponed is, frankly, risible. The new national stadium can be a flagship for our sport. There is a huge wellspring of goodwill among fans towards the project but, my goodness, there are times when the Aces don't do themselves any favours.

I really don't want to wade in on the Belle Vue promotion over the whole episode; I feel it would serve no useful purpose. But any blushes needing to be saved do not, IMHO, currently reside in Scotland or the West Midlands.