World Championship Pairs

[iris123]

27 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

 

No it wasn't a good start. When have we ever had a classic on the German tracks? It's tempting to ask when we've ever had a simply memorable (for the right reasons) meeting.To them and other nations it's a Sunday afternoon amateur sport and they simply can't step up to the level required. That's been obvious since Norden.

Before the first major meeting at Teterow a few years back I posted here that it was a big mistake because the track imo is terrible.Regardless of it being situated in a field in a failry small town,the racing I have witnessed has been poor to dangerous.I stopped going there after a few meetings,but one or two of my friends from the area told me it had improved since then.So I went to the U21 team qualifier that was in danger of being called off because riders were falling or getting in trouble on one bend.A meeting after that was called off because riders thought the track too dangerous,yet they were awarded big meetings!!! Obviously just because they are willing to pay the money....

The thing Is just down the road at Güstrow they have imo a great track and a better stadium.Only a week or so ago they got 9,000 fans in to watch an individual meeting of no real consequence!!!!.So I as you might imagine disagree with your opinion 

 

As an aside to this,i do wonder if Teterow are getting themselves into financial trouble hosting such meetings?This season for the first time they only held their Bergring grasstrack meeting on the 1 day instead of the usual 2,stating the costs were too high etc and I think the falling crowds....And a decade or so ago it was normally the case that the grasstrack weekend funded the club for the season.I'd hate to see the club get into real trouble,but if I remember correctly the Parchim club got into financial trouble with their ambitious plans to host the Longtrack world final that turned out to be a big flop.Yesterdays attendance couldn't have helped Teterow much 

Edited June 3, 2018 by iris123

[RobMcCaffery]

16 minutes ago, iainb said:

So they made a mistake... just like you did when you typed "help" as "hep"

It's if these mistakes keep happening  on a regular basis that people would be justified in complaining

I have made mistakes. There are degrees of mistakes however. Comparing a typo to a huge commentary gaffe is ridiculous. I have commentated on nearly two hundred speedway meetings in the past, for video and satellite TV in its early days. Included in this were world finals. I also hosted my own studio-based speedway news programme. I think I might have an idea of what the job entails and requires, don't you? 

As most will know I rarely attack Nigel and Kelvin's work. This is not because I am looking after 'mates'. I can't recall ever meeting the former and I haven't spoken to Kelvin since interviewing him when he was the new reserve at Wimbledon. In any case I was scarcely a member of the speedway 'establishment' when I tried to help the sport out. 

I know that commentators do not have the freedom of choice or action that the public assume they have. They are answerable to producers and directors, literally through the meeting. Commentating while your boss is screaming in your ear isn't the easiest of jobs. 

Yes mistakes happen, but this one was sloppy and perhaps a product of overconfidence that needs to be learned from.

I agree with those who acknowledge Nigel and Kelvin's knowledge, love and respect for the sport. Nigel's constant inclusion of mentions of events taking place in Britain in the coming week clearly goes over the heads of many people's heads but it's clearly an attempt to use commentary to sell the sport directly to the casual viewer. "Hey if you like this you can go and watch it yourself". The question, as ever is one of balance. At which point does repetition earn diminishing returns?

It's been mentioned that they are under constant pressure to cater for the casual viewer who may have joined the coverage part way. The question is how far should the balance tip away from those who know the sport, know what is good and don't need the hype in favour of those whose attention needs to be grabbed and massaged. That's not the commentators' role. They do not run the programme and I'd suggest that BSI and BT at least review whether excellent content is being damaged by the volume and hype. Unlike other sports like football I do suspect that the majority of viewers are 'casuals'. 

Yes there are mistakes. Yes they are acceptable. When they're serious enough and avoidable enough it's complacent and arrogant just to shrug shoulders and carry on defiantly. 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2018 by RobMcCaffery

[RobMcCaffery]

8 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Before the first major meeting at Teterow a few years back I posted here that it was a big mistake because the track imo is terrible.Regardless of it being situated in a field in a failry small town,the racing I have witnessed has been poor to dangerous.I stopped going there after a few meetings,but one or two of my friends from the area told me it had improved since then.So I went to the U21 team qualifier that was in danger of being called off because riders were falling or getting in trouble on one bend.A meeting after that was called off because riders thought the track too dangerous,yet they were awarded big meetings!!! Obviously just because they are willing to pay the money....

The thing Is just down the road at Güstrow they have imo a great track and a better stadium.Only a week or so ago they got 9,000 fans in to watch an individual meeting of no real consequence!!!!.So I as you might imagine disagree with your opinion 

 

As an aside to this,i do wonder if Teterow are getting themselves into financial trouble hosting such meetings?This season for the first time they only held their Bergring grasstrack meeting on the 1 day instead of the usual 2,stating the costs were too high etc and I think the falling crowds....And a decade or so ago it was normally the case that the grasstrack weekend funded the club for the season.I'd hate to see the club get into real trouble,but if I remember correctly the Parchim club got into financial trouble with their ambitious plans to host the Longtrack world final that turned out to be a big flop.Yesterdays attendance couldn't have helped Teterow much 

Thank you. At timers like this your inside knowledge of the German scene is vital. 

[IainB]

3 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

I have made mistakes. There are degrees of mistakes however. Comparing a typo to a huge commentary gaffe is ridiculous.

We all make mistakes and as long as we learn from them that's good, to say huge commentary gaffe is just as ridiculous, I only pointed out your typo to illustrate how easy it is to make a mistake, nobody died, it's probably an indication of the interest in the speedway that was on offer that there's all this hysteria of a small gaffe. He made a mistake and acknowledged it, he'll make more mistakes as will we all, for people to suggest he should lose his job over it is just sick (and not good sick)

[tyler42]

4 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

 

The worst possible scenario, of course, is that after nearly 100 races we get to the final, Joe Bloggs is excluded for a tapes offence, and the two opposition guys ride round waving to the crowd knowing they cannot be beaten.What an anti-climax that would be.

 

Surely whoever dreamed this up needs to be shot. They get rid of the dreaded joker, but come up with something more pathetic. Two day final that comes down to one race and as you say, if the team with the most points over the two days have a mishap in the final, the other team ride round waving to the crowd and take gold. 

[IainB]

2 minutes ago, tyler42 said:

Surely whoever dreamed this up needs to be shot. They get rid of the dreaded joker, but come up with something more pathetic. Two day final that comes down to one race and as you say, if the team with the most points over the two days have a mishap in the final, the other team ride round waving to the crowd and take gold. 

perhaps execution is a bit strong... Does anybody know what happens if there is an injury on day 1?

[stevebrum]

1 hour ago, paulboy said:

I agree, their commentary around heat 21 summed up speedway in a nutshell

As previously stated If you can suggest a better option please let BT know. 

It’s a new system that even the knowledgable are struggling to explain or understand.

if you can quote me a post that understood the rules better than Saturday then feel free. 

Yes, they are supposed to know and they messed up the important latter stages. In your perfect world nobody would make mistakes I guess.

[waytogo28]

The attendance was poor yesterday. Possibly around 2,000? What does anyone else think? The two day Final must sell out if they are only selling two day tickets. But if you live some way away you might not bother to go to the 1st day I suppose. Watch it on TV, as I do and greatly enjoy it as I do for the GPs, as I can't get there and can't afford to if I could. Not that there was much to enjoy yesterday.

[waytogo28]

3 minutes ago, iainb said:

perhaps execution is a bit strong... Does anybody know what happens if there is an injury on day 1?

You must be allowed a replacement as that is in the rules, isn't it? Does only Phil Morris know? Of course you would need a doctors certificate I imagine.

[Fromafar]

58 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

This goes back to the old argument of type of fans who watch speedway, fans like me are interested in that kind of thing but the majority of fans haven’t a clue about the mechanical side of the sport and are not interested, my Mrs is your typical speedway fan and switches off when i explain about the technical side, it’s not a motorsport it’s a sport on motorbikes, I don’t get the moaning about pearson and Tatum, just turn the sound down, although I watch the polish even though we have BT 

agree,but it's better than going over the same thing every 5 mins.Agree regarding just turn sound down.

[Humphrey Appleby]

57 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

The point about venue options is actually quite chilling. Have we really reached the situation where our supposedly premium events can only be staged on a handful of tracks? If so, why run them?

There are still plenty of tracks that could stage a pairs events, and there are better options in Poland than Wroclaw. Any track still able to pull 9,000 fans these days must be doing something right, but apparently isn't interested in staging a world championship event. 

You therefore have to ask whether the price being asked, or the financial conditions being imposed are too great for those tracks. 

 

[racers and royals]

On 5/19/2018 at 1:11 PM, racers and royals said:

Rules are here http://www.fim-live.com/en/library/  in search put in speedway of nations

more from the rules

Race Off 1 & 2
After the 21 qualification heats there will be 2 additional heats.
Heat 22 will consist of the team in 4th & 5th place.
Heat 23 will consist of the team in 3rd place and the winner of heat
22.
The winner of heat 23 will join the 1st and 2nd placed teams in qualifying
for the finals.
Final 1 & 2
The Scores from Final 1 will be added to the scores from Final 2
(42 Heats) to determine 4th to 7th place for the 2018 SoN.
Final 2 will consist of 2 extra heats, a Semi Final heat and a Grand Final
heat to determine the top 3 of the 2018 SoN.
Heat 22 (Semi Final heat) will consist of the 2nd & 3rd placed teams from
the 42 qualifying heats.
The winning team of the Semi Final heat will join the top scoring team in
heat 23 the Grand Final heat.
The winning team of the Grand Final heat will become 2018 SoN
champions.
The losing team of the Grand Final Heat will become 2018 SoN Runner
up.
The losing team of the Semi Final Heat will become 2018 SoN Third
Place.
 

Time to ressurect this post i made several days ago 

[iris123]

33 minutes ago, waytogo28 said:

The attendance was poor yesterday. Possibly around 2,000? What does anyone else think? The two day Final must sell out if they are only selling two day tickets. But if you live some way away you might not bother to go to the 1st day I suppose. Watch it on TV, as I do and greatly enjoy it as I do for the GPs, as I can't get there and can't afford to if I could. Not that there was much to enjoy yesterday.

On the german forum an estimate of 1,000-1,500 was given and many others mentioning how poor the crowd was....no mention of attendance on the speedweek report from the meeting 

[TheReturn]

See, the racing was so crap we're talking about how crap Pearson was. 

It's such a same that Fletch is brilliant at his job and snapped up by BT to cover football. Now he ticks all boxes, brilliant and balanced commentator and he's a speedway fan (used to see him down at Long Eaton), think he did something to help Tai last season didn't he?

[racers and royals]

Great Britain, Australia and Sweden all  7/4JF  to win Tuesday.

[IainB]

4 minutes ago, TheReturn said:

See, the racing was so crap we're talking about how crap Pearson was. 

It's such a same that Fletch is brilliant at his job and snapped up by BT to cover football. Now he ticks all boxes, brilliant and balanced commentator and he's a speedway fan (used to see him down at Long Eaton), think he did something to help Tai last season didn't he?

He's brilliant until he does something wrong, which he will and then all of the people , who are probably just envious that he has a better job than them, will be calling for his head!

But I do agree that he's good at what he does and it would be nice if BT Sport and IMG woud mix the commentary duties up a bit.

Edited June 3, 2018 by iainb

[racers and royals]

Wonder what the FIM, Rzeszow and Hancock would have done if the USA had got through to Wroclaw yesterday- as he has a Bydgoszcz v Rzeszow fixture today

 

When a Team Manager or a Rider has signed on, he is deemed to have entered the meeting and is not permitted to take part in any other motorcycle meeting until the completion of the FIM SoN, unless eliminated from the competition.

[tyler42]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

The shouting I can deal with when it is genuine excitement

 

Do you honestly think it is genuine? I would say more like being told to shout by their employers to make it more exciting. Still if you think screaming at the top of your voice is ok, thats fine we are all entitled to our opinions, but you should respect other peoples opinions as well.

[IainB]

1 minute ago, tyler42 said:

Do you honestly think it is genuine? I would say more like being told to shout by their employers to make it more exciting. Still if you think screaming at the top of your voice is ok, thats fine we are all entitled to our opinions, but you should respect other peoples opinions as well.

I can respect others opinions regarding style, if you don't like their style that's fair enough, not everybody likes the same thing. What I don't respect is people calling for people to be sacked because of a simple mistake

[Bavarian]

17 minutes ago, racers and royals said:

Wonder what the FIM, Rzeszow and Hancock would have done if the USA had got through to Wroclaw yesterday- as he has a Bydgoszcz v Rzeszow fixture today

 

When a Team Manager or a Rider has signed on, he is deemed to have entered the meeting and is not permitted to take part in any other motorcycle meeting until the completion of the FIM SoN, unless eliminated from the competition.

True ! But what a stupid rule anyway !

Martin Smolinski is prevented from riding in a German 2nd Division meeting at Landshut today ! The local fans expecting to see him here are not happy !