Belle Vue Aces Vs Poole Pirates 29/4/2013

[Skyjack2]

Either BV are guilty of a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth

regarding the 2nd bend being waterlogged, or they've been

spanked by the SCB for calling it off too early before the referee

arrived.

 

Poole riders posting pictures of a different part of the track

than the part claimed to be waterlogged is/was not helpful.

Especially when an MEN journalist then contacts a Poole

rider on Twitter in order to write a story about his Tweeted picture.

 

It would be helpful if the SCB published the facts that influenced

their decision and stated what BV are guilty of.

[woodenspoon]

A fair judgement. The only thing I would have liked to have seen, is that ALL clubs will be vetted, when they have call off meetings, not just Belle Vue.

Belle Vue got punished because they were stupid enough to be caught out. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

[AndyJ]

Whilst it's hard to argue against the fact that a mistake was made and, applying the letter of the law, that punishment is deserved it does appear that Belle Vue are just the first to be 'found out' and being made the scapegoat in order to send a strong message to all.

 

Assuming the "flooded track" story was concocted in lieu of any valid-by-the-rulebook cancellation reason, the biggest concern I have is that we may find the impact to be damaging to the sport. Personally I'd much rather a meeting featuring non-competitive teams be cancelled early enough to prevent travel by both sets of fans (riders flights being a separate issue) rather than pay to watch it. My view being that it is more damaging to have spectators paying good money to watch a weakened product. All clubs are struggling with sparse crowds and need the product to be as entertaining as possible. For the home team to field an understrength team, that is almost certainly going to be battered, is unlikely to be considered entertaining by the bulk of the paying customers....

[SteveLyric2]

After the SCB ruling about Miedzinski last year I wasn't holding out much hope that anything would be done! How wrong was I? - this sends the right message out to all clubs and seems very fair indeed.

Steve0, the SCB clearly took notice of ALL the facts in both cases and came to the correct conclusions in each case! Nothing more to say really!

[BWitcher]

Whilst it's hard to argue against the fact that a mistake was made and, applying the letter of the law, that punishment is deserved it does appear that Belle Vue are just the first to be 'found out' and being made the scapegoat in order to send a strong message to all.

 

Assuming the "flooded track" story was concocted in lieu of any valid-by-the-rulebook cancellation reason, the biggest concern I have is that we may find the impact to be damaging to the sport. Personally I'd much rather a meeting featuring non-competitive teams be cancelled early enough to prevent travel by both sets of fans (riders flights being a separate issue) rather than pay to watch it. My view being that it is more damaging to have spectators paying good money to watch a weakened product. All clubs are struggling with sparse crowds and need the product to be as entertaining as possible. For the home team to field an understrength team, that is almost certainly going to be battered, is unlikely to be considered entertaining by the bulk of the paying customers....

 

Belle Vue should have contacted Poole, explained the situation and requested a postponement. If Poole had (within their rights) refused this, then Belle Vue should have announced the situation, let the public know they are having to race with a weakened team, they requested the meeting be postponed and Poole declined. They would have come out smelling like roses and Poole bashers could have had a go at Poole. No member of the public would have been misled either as they should make it clear before people pay to go in what the situation was.

 

Wolves have been in this circumstance before when Mikael Karlsson/Max had a flight cancelled and missed a meeting at home to Eastbourne (they had a decent team that year), we had to track Joe Haines in his place. The meeting was superb as the crowd got behind the weakened Wolves team and it created a great atmosphere. I think Wolves lost by 2 in the end, but I could be wrong.

[Steve0]

 

Steve0, the SCB clearly took notice of ALL the facts in both cases and came to the correct conclusions in each case! Nothing more to say really!

 

Yes you wind-up merchant

[bigcatdiary]

About time the authorities showed they had some bite. Now next time Len silver calls a meeting off at 10am lets hope they send a referee to the track at 7pm!

 

Reasonable penalty but it certainly wasn't hard as a rain off costs the host club thousands anyway.

 

I liked the bit about only a licensed referee or official could now call off a meeting at BV, I can see no real reason why that shouldn't be standard procedure for all fixtures everywhere.

[AndyJ]

Belle Vue should have contacted Poole, explained the situation and requested a postponement. If Poole had (within their rights) refused this, then Belle Vue should have announced the situation, let the public know they are having to race with a weakened team, they requested the meeting be postponed and Poole declined. They would have come out smelling like roses and Poole bashers could have had a go at Poole. No member of the public would have been misled either as they should make it clear before people pay to go in what the situation was.

 

Wolves have been in this circumstance before when Mikael Karlsson/Max had a flight cancelled and missed a meeting at home to Eastbourne (they had a decent team that year), we had to track Joe Haines in his place. The meeting was superb as the crowd got behind the weakened Wolves team and it created a great atmosphere. I think Wolves lost by 2 in the end, but I could be wrong.

 

Can't argue with any of that (assuming the rulebook allows such an agreement to be made between both teams at such a late stage). I'd hope that, faced with such a decision, Poole would consider the bigger picture and act in the best interests of the sport rather than selfishly chasing the easy points.

[ouch]

Belle Vue bashing - 50 years and still going strong.

 

Twas always thus, and always thus will be."

 

Anybody who thinks this will send a message to other clubs is deluded. They have and will continue to do as they please, if it can be at our expense all the better.

 

RIP

1974 - 2013

Goodbye

 

[AndyJ]

Reasonable penalty but it certainly wasn't hard as a rain off costs the host club thousands anyway.

 

I liked the bit about only a licensed referee or official could now call off a meeting at BV, I can see no real reason why that shouldn't be standard procedure for all fixtures everywhere.

Probably not feasible because it'd require the official to be at the track much earlier. Doubtful that speedway officials are paid enough to negate the need to have a 'day job' - so the extra demand on time would most likely be problematic for them.

[arthur cross]

Belle Vue have been punished properly and the severity of their punishment probably also reflects the botched way they handed the situation.

 

Looking forward, is there any way the SCB or BSPA could insist on riders' flight details being logged a few days in advance of each meeting so that it can be checked easily whether any flight delays or cancellations match up with any team's line-up ?

 

Clearly there would have to be some flexibility to allow for late changes in travel plans (eg, a rain-delayed Grand Prix not being completed until Sunday) but it surely can't be too difficult for the authorities to have a database of the international journeys of the riders - at the most, I reckon you'd need to keep track of about 100 Elite or Premier riders who also take part in meetings abroad.

 

If that sounds a bit far-fetched for the riders, don't forget any Olympic sports require their top stars to keep updating where they'll be for an hour each day (usually around breakfast-time) so that drug-testers can prepare a schedule for their random out-of-competition checks.

 

Belle Vue's problems in this case began with Zagar and Zetterstrom having their flights affected - if their travel plans had been logged a few days' earlier, all the Aces would have had to do to begin any damage-limitation would have been to alert the SCB/BSPA that those riders had travel trouble.

[SteveLyric2]

And now the BV promotion say they are 'disappointed with the SCB decision and will be carefully considering their position before they appeal'!!! WTF???

Edited May 15, 2013 by Skidder1

[lino wolf]

Belle Vue should have contacted Poole, explained the situation and requested a postponement. If Poole had (within their rights) refused this, then Belle Vue should have announced the situation, let the public know they are having to race with a weakened team, they requested the meeting be postponed and Poole declined. They would have come out smelling like roses and Poole bashers could have had a go at Poole. No member of the public would have been misled either as they should make it clear before people pay to go in what the situation was.

 

Wolves have been in this circumstance before when Mikael Karlsson/Max had a flight cancelled and missed a meeting at home to Eastbourne (they had a decent team that year), we had to track Joe Haines in his place. The meeting was superb as the crowd got behind the weakened Wolves team and it created a great atmosphere. I think Wolves lost by 2 in the end, but I could be wrong.

Pretty sure it was jack hargreaves who stepped in at no1 that evening mate !! Magnus also missing !! great match that we lost in heat 15 (think nicki went through the card for eastbourne)

[topaz325]

Belle Vue should have contacted Poole, explained the situation and requested a postponement. If Poole had (within their rights) refused this, then Belle Vue should have announced the situation, let the public know they are having to race with a weakened team, they requested the meeting be postponed and Poole declined. They would have come out smelling like roses and Poole bashers could have had a go at Poole. No member of the public would have been misled either as they should make it clear before people pay to go in what the situation was.

 

Wolves have been in this circumstance before when Mikael Karlsson/Max had a flight cancelled and missed a meeting at home to Eastbourne (they had a decent team that year), we had to track Joe Haines in his place. The meeting was superb as the crowd got behind the weakened Wolves team and it created a great atmosphere. I think Wolves lost by 2 in the end, but I could be wrong.

 

Belle Vue would have been fined for fielding a weakend team though.

[SCB]

Belle Vue bashing - 50 years and still going strong.

 

Twas always thus, and always thus will be."

 

Anybody who thinks this will send a message to other clubs is deluded. They have and will continue to do as they please, if it can be at our expense all the better.

 

RIP

1974 - 2013

Goodbye

Yeah, they're out to get you. They're out to get everything, they're a bunch of back stabbing, self interest "people" at the BSPA (and more or less the SCB) but on this one BV are wrong. What was their biggest crime here? Well being a bit thick really and getting caught out. Blame a floodlight failure or electrical fault, it's impossible to prove!

Belle Vue would have been fined for fielding a weakend team though.

It's about £250 for an under strength team but they didn't even have to do that. Book in a couple of guests, tell them when they're on a 5-1 or a 3-3 to let the regular BV rider stay in front so that when the guests points were removed it had less of an effect. That way two full teams complete the meeting, no fines just the illegal riders points removed.

[Dornier]

I thought it was disgusting for the Belle Vue management to think that they could get away with it...Am glad they got their just desserts...Its a lesson for them all, the Belle Vue incident was just too blatant. The loyal Aces fans deserve better

Edited May 15, 2013 by dornier

[arthur cross]

And now the BV promotion say they are 'disappointed with the SCB decision and will be carefully considering their position before they appeal'!!! WTF???

 

The cheque for any SCB-imposed fines usually has to be handed over to that club's next home-meeting referee as part of the referee's pre-match requirements to let the meeting go ahead - this includes the home club giving that referee any fines incurred by the previous meeting's away-team (the home club balances its books on those fines by deducting that amount from the previous away-team's points-money).

 

I don't know if a fine as big as £5,000 would be required to be paid in one lump sum but it's likely Belle Vue will have been told whatever schedule is deemed fair by the SCB for handing over this money - hence, whoever's refereeing at Kirky Lane next Monday will almost certainly be expecting to pick up at least a slice of that £5,000 before letting the meeting begin.

 

I think Belle Vue have got a nerve to even consider an appeal but how strong is their cashflow to cope with paying at least part of that £5,000 in just 5 days' time ? ... alternatively, they can appeal and probably avoid having to pay anything yet.

Edited May 15, 2013 by arthur cross

[BWitcher]

Belle Vue bashing - 50 years and still going strong.

 

Twas always thus, and always thus will be."

 

Anybody who thinks this will send a message to other clubs is deluded. They have and will continue to do as they please, if it can be at our expense all the better.

 

RIP

1974 - 2013

Goodbye

 

Pathetic post.

[EC Rides Again]

And now the BV promotion say they are 'disappointed with the SCB decision and will be carefully considering their position before they appeal'!!! WTF???

"Statement"! A little underwhelming methinks.

[Kester]

Pathetic post.

 

One of the best flouncy-drama-queen-strops seen in a while though. I imagine he put on a Smiths record and sobbed into his pillow immediately after posting.