The White Knight Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Seems to me that there was only Scott Nicholls left as a GB rider who was available but the BSPA/SCB blocked it. Danny King, Chris Harris, Eddie Kennett, Kyle Howarth and Ben Barker all unavailable riding for their clubs last night, and also with Craig Cook admitting he was not fit. So which GB rider would have been available without postponing a meeting in the UK last night. Give me a credible riders name who could have ridden then I will agree with you. Maybe one off the EDR's (British Speedway Elite Draft Riders) could have ridden who knows, some of them were riding for their clubs last night. Rosco did not seem to want to go down that route of using the afore mention riders ie EDR's. I like yourselves are not in a position to solve any or all of the problems speedway as just like yourselves it is just an opinion. It isn't an opinion that they couldn't find a decent British Rider to ride for Great Britain (not the dreadful TeamGB by the way). It is a FACT. If the BSPA/SCB blocked Scott Nicholls from riding - why did they permit Alun Rossiter to attend as Team Manager? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Bearing in mind that Rory has guested for EL teams on so many occasions, I don't see why there's a surprise he guested for Team GB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midland Red Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Well Kylmäkorpi have ridden for Finland in the SWC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland_national_speedway_team but is now listed in the preliminary Swedish SWC squad: http://www.svemo.se/sv/Grenar/Speedway/Nyheter/SverigestrupptillSpeedwayWorldCup2015/ Although he does have both Finnish and Swedish citizenship. Imo the whole licensing thing needs to be straightening out. We have riders like Rasmus Jensen who are doing the Danish GP qualifiers on Danish license (I presume) since he is Danish but at the same time he will use a Swedish license when he rides for his Swedish league team Dackarna, Imo he should be forced to choose, either Danish qualifiers on a Danish license or Swedish league on a Swedish license but not both. Didn't Marvyn Cox and Andy Smith ride on German and Polish licences? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falcon Hammer Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Guess problem is that we didn't enter the competition at the start; could've organised the fixture-list around it (& Tai could've done the same) Good to see that GB entered tho, & hopefully next year will be there at the begining Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruiser McHuge Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 So if I organise a made-up speedway event and bill it as between 'national teams', should it still be taken seriously? I think if it was televised and advertised as a National Pairs event then yes it should be taken seriously....I think that's the least TV viewers expect and deserve Now if you were organising it as a filler challenge meeting at the local track then maybe not.....but the fact it is billed as what it is and it is televised around Europe then yes I do think it should be taken seriously. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCB Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 (edited) Didn't Marvyn Cox and Andy Smith ride on German and Polish licences? I believe that Marvyn had a German license but still a British passport. But Andy actually took out Polish citizenship because each team could only have x amount of foreigners but he still rode in the GPs as a Brit on a British license. edit > Andy must have had a Polish license in 1999 as he was reserve for the Polish final. Edited May 10, 2015 by SCB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bavarian Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 It is taken serious on the Continent. It is regarded as the "unofficial" World Pairs Championship. Teams are true representative selectins of their respective countries, except the British pair last night, which has really spoilt the credibility of this event by including an Aussie in the British team. The USA had the dignity to withdraw from the Esbjerg round since there was no other American rider available to partner Greg Hancock on this occasion. They did not even think about employing a guest rider. Great Britain accepted to replace the Americans and arrived with a foreign rider. It's a disgrace, and if I were OneSport I wouldn't invite GB back next year. Let's rather have the Czechs, Latvia or Finland in the SBPC serie, but don't let the BSPA spoil the occasion again and make a mockery of this international pairs competition. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
June01 Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 For such an "unimportant challenge meeting" a lot of top riders seemed to take it pretty seriously. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobMcCaffery Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 It is taken serious on the Continent. It is regarded as the "unofficial" World Pairs Championship. Teams are true representative selectins of their respective countries, except the British pair last night, which has really spoilt the credibility of this event by including an Aussie in the British team. The USA had the dignity to withdraw from the Esbjerg round since there was no other American rider available to partner Greg Hancock on this occasion. They did not even think about employing a guest rider. Great Britain accepted to replace the Americans and arrived with a foreign rider. It's a disgrace, and if I were OneSport I wouldn't invite GB back next year. Let's rather have the Czechs, Latvia or Finland in the SBPC serie, but don't let the BSPA spoil the occasion again and make a mockery of this international pairs competition. So a private event organised by a sports promotion company in partnership with a TV channel, and not an official FIM event is taken seriously in some countries? We have a saying in English "More fool them". But then I suppose in Germany you will take such an event seriously given the tiny number of meetings staged in your country and almost all at a much lower level than this event. So, it was a disgrace for Britain not to withdraw. I take it then the Czech Republic should also have withdrawn from the 2013 event when they tracked Slovenian Matej Zagar in their trio. Let us not be blind to what is going on. This pairs event, along with the European Championship is part of One Sport's attack on BSI and has very little to do with the wellbeing of speedway. Obviously it is taken seriously by countries who are desperate for any form of international standard racing but until it comes under the official sanction of the FIM it is as important as my local track deciding to put on a pairs event and calling the pairings after nations. The event has potential but not the way it is currently being organised. As for Britain, we have relied on Friday and Saturday night racing for over 80 years here but the ability to run on these key nights has been severely damaged by the arrival of 12 Grand Prix weekends. Adding-in another six One Sport events is just pushing it too far. British Speedway has been walked over for many years now and while its own incompetence hasn't helped for once they've made a stand to defend themselves. Okay, Britain did well out of using riders from other countries over the years but many riders made a damn good living out of racing here. Now those riders have better pay cheques to chase - for now....... Of course the BSPA weren't interested in helping the development of One Sport's events and for once they've shown some intelligence and balls. Now, how about looking at why once it was agreed to enter a British pair our number one was denied access by his Polish club? Wroclaw obviously have a problem with One Sport and that's why Schlein had to guest, or doesn't that fit in with your anti-British agenda? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxiboy Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 It isn't an opinion that they couldn't find a decent British Rider to ride for Great Britain (not the dreadful TeamGB by the way). It is a FACT. If the BSPA/SCB blocked Scott Nicholls from riding - why did they permit Alun Rossiter to attend as Team Manager? Let's face it, Roscoe will do anything to get his face on TV. Why was Nicholls blocked as a matter of interest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 (edited) Rmc, the only fool here is the British by not taking this seriously . The SWC is also run by "an organisation", an organisation that made a fool out of themselves in Warsaw a few weeks ago . If you want to isolate yourself from the rest of speedway Europe, I think they'll manage just fine without you. Imo many of you sound like you're just grumpy for not being invited o the party and now are excuses to why. the party isn't any fun anyway. Edited May 10, 2015 by Ghostwalker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humphrey Appleby Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Rmc, the only fool here is the British by not taking this seriously . The SWC is also run by "an organisation", an organisation that made a fool out of themselves in Warsaw a few weeks ago. Yes, but unlike the SGP and SWC, the 'Best Pairs' is not a official title and is just masquerading as one. If some 'countries' want to take it seriously, that's up to them, but others shouldn't be condemned for treating it with the lack of seriousness it deserves. Whilst I do think the previous homogeny of BSI does need to be challenged because I don't think they do a particularly good job, neither do I think OneSport are the answer either. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 It is taken serious on the Continent. It is regarded as the "unofficial" World Pairs Championship. Teams are true representative selectins of their respective countries, except the British pair last night, which has really spoilt the credibility of this event by including an Aussie in the British team. The USA had the dignity to withdraw from the Esbjerg round since there was no other American rider available to partner Greg Hancock on this occasion. They did not even think about employing a guest rider. Great Britain accepted to replace the Americans and arrived with a foreign rider. It's a disgrace, and if I were OneSport I wouldn't invite GB back next year. Let's rather have the Czechs, Latvia or Finland in the SBPC serie, but don't let the BSPA spoil the occasion again and make a mockery of this international pairs competition. I agree that it is taken seriously in other coountries.I think Esbjerg announced they would be holding the world pair on their site at first.Might have changed in later announcements.But let's not go over the top,even in official FIM and FIM Europe events we have had things like Team Croatia/Slovenia and Team Europe on a couple of occasions in speedway and Ice speedway I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g13webb Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Congratulations to Denmark on winning the SEC Best pairs Competition, Congratulation also, to the BSPA for highlighting our total inadequacies of any organisation skills. I have no doubt that, when GB were offered a place (wild card entry) in the last round, they jumped at the opportunity without really thinking of the implications. They immediately assumed Woffy would be available, plus one other (Cookie), with Lambert as a reserve.. Sorted....... Book the tickets..... When Cookie got injured, No worries, we'll put Lambert in the team proper.... Job sorted. .... But someone forgot to contact Woffy to confirm his availability. When he was informed, he had to refuse because of prior commitments with Polish Speedway, (See the explanation on the SCB website). So ,as with so many things before, this again was just another shambles. So at the ninth hour the BSPA had no option other than to get WHOEVER to ride under the GB banner and Rory stepped into the breach. ( Thank you Rory, to him this was just another guest appearance) This selection had nothing to do with nationality, or licence country, it was purely getting Team GB out of a hole. Christ, Why didn't they pair Lambert up with Hancock and called themselves 'Union States' At least that way the BSPA would've save some dignity, the event wasn't even affiliated, but we still managed to mess up...... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldace Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Of course the BSPA weren't interested in helping the development of One Sport's events and for once they've shown some intelligence and balls. Now, how about looking at why once it was agreed to enter a British pair our number one was denied access by his Polish club? Wroclaw obviously have a problem with One Sport and that's why Schlein had to guest, or doesn't that fit in with your anti-British agenda? Correct Rob, not often do I agree with your posts but on this you are spot on. One Sport are nothing but a little wannabe Mafia type organisation who are prepared to do whatever to get their own way. We have already had a Polish play off cancelled on a whim because the owner didn't get his own way. Then we have Emil being used as a puppet and having his career badly damaged by having pressure applied to not ride in the SGP. Lets be clear, these events are there to purely try to undermine the current SGP set up and help one sport get their hands on the big prize. God help us when that happens 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCookster Posted May 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 The USA had the dignity to withdraw from the Esbjerg round since there was no other American rider available to partner Greg Hancock on this occasion. They did not even think about employing a guest rider. Great Britain accepted to replace the Americans and arrived with a foreign rider. This is what makes this all the more ludicrous. The USA pulled out of the event, because they couldn't find a qualified American rider to partner Greg Hancock ... only for Great Britain to replace them with a mixed nationality team. - Credibility out of the window at a rapid rate of knots! Surely for the credibility of British speedway we should have at least fielded two genuinely British riders, even if it meant using a rider of a lesser standard than the manager would have liked. I find it impossible to believe that absolutely no British rider was available. (And yes, I have heard all the excuses about equipment and having the logistical set-up to get there and back, etc. ... Hell, it wouldn't be the first time a speedway rider borrowed a bike if he needed to!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldace Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 This is what makes this all the more ludicrous. The USA pulled out of the event, because they couldn't find a qualified American rider to partner Greg Hancock ... only for Great Britain to replace them with a mixed nationality team. - Credibility out of the window at a rapid rate of knots! Surely for the credibility of British speedway we should have at least fielded two genuinely British riders, even if it meant using a rider of a lesser standard than the manager would have liked. I find it impossible to believe that absolutely no British rider was available. (And yes, I have heard all the excuses about equipment and having the logistical set-up to get there and back, etc. ... Hell, it wouldn't be the first time a speedway rider borrowed a bike if he needed to!) The USA didn't pull out, the USA were never riding in any official capacity. Greg pulled out because it was a pairs event and he had no partner, be that an American or otherwise. What is difficult to grasp about it. It had as much credibility as the made up teams you get in testimonial events "Rory's Roo's" kind of thing. Hopefully for next year more riders will do the same, hopefully even declare an intent to ride and pull out on the day and this organisation can be flushed back down the toilet where it belongs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCookster Posted May 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 The USA didn't pull out, the USA were never riding in any official capacity. Greg pulled out because it was a pairs event and he had no partner, be that an American or otherwise. Talk about semantic pedantry! Pure nonsense, my friend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldace Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Talk about semantic pedantry! Pure nonsense, my friend! No just fact, your post is the nonsense one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCookster Posted May 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 No just fact, your post is the nonsense one Na, na, na, na, na, na! It's just like being back in the infant school playground! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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