SPOTY

[BWitcher]

6 minutes ago, waiheke1 said:

Tbf, winning the commonwealth games is as big as winning world championships in netball

Fair point.

[Halifaxtiger]

19 hours ago, BWitcher said:

Or ANYTHING involving women.

Look at the pandering to the womens netball team. I wonder how many they play in front off?

I'll admit I am way out of touch as I didn't see a single minute of the Commonwealth games but half watching the programme last night (it was on at my Nans but there was lots of talking from family) I had assumed they had won the World Championships or something similar.. found out later it was the Commonwealth games. Seriously!

If Tai announced he was identifying as a non binary next season and won the Title he'd have a big feature, guaranteed.

The problem is that the BBC are (and it might be argued, have to be) politically correct. That means if by far and away the 5 greatest sporting achievements were made by white males one of them at least would be dropped to accommodate a female and someone from an ethnic minority. It also means that the awards will never have the credibility that they should, even if the allegations of vote rigging are untrue. 

The sadness of that is it damages the achievements of female and black sportsmen, because they don't know if they are there because of what they achieved or because they are female and black. 

While you might - and I think you have a point - object to netball, I would say that skeleton racing is far more of a minority sport in terms of UK participants and spectators. I nevertheless suspect that there would be few who would deny Lizzy Yarnold her nomination as Britain's greatest ever winter Olympian. For me, and in terms of achievement, I would say that hers has been the biggest of all. 

You'd think, though, that others who were the greatest ever Briton in their field - even if that is a minority sport - might at least have been mentioned.

Humph is spot on, though. Just don't watch it.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Halifaxtiger

[steve roberts]

39 minutes ago, Halifaxtiger said:

The problem is that the BBC are (and it might be argued, have to be) politically correct. That means if by far and away the 5 greatest sporting achievements were made by white males one of them at least would be dropped to accommodate a female and someone from an ethnic minority. It also means that the awards will never have the credibility that they should, even if the allegations of vote rigging are untrue. 

The sadness of that is it damages the achievements of female and black sportsmen, because they don't know if they are there because of what they achieved or because they are female and black. 

While you might - and I think you have a point - object to netball, I would say that skeleton racing is far more of a minority sport in terms of UK participants and spectators. I nevertheless suspect that there would be few who would deny Lizzy Yarnold her nomination as Britain's greatest ever winter Olympian. For me, and in terms of achievement, I would say that hers has been the biggest of all. 

You'd think, though, that others who were the greatest ever Briton in their field - even if that is a minority sport - might at least have been mentioned.

Humph is spot on, though. Just don't watch it.

 

 

...Haven't bothered for years since I ceased to watch most sports on TV for various reasons.

[bill94d]

10 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Ronnie Moore and Ivan Mauger are not British (and few will remember they rode for a 'British' team), and were involved in a sport that ranks somewhere alongside cheese rolling nowadays. 

I'm not sure why people are surprised by SPOTY each year - it's never been much interested in sports it doesn't cover. Yet every year there's the predictable letters from 'outraged of Tunbridge Wells' about the omission of so-and-sos favourite sport. Why do people bother watching it? 

Francesco Molinari and Billie Jean King are not British either but got awards. Ivan and Ronnie have MBE and OBE between them, so nearly British. 

[steve roberts]

30 minutes ago, bill94d said:

Francesco Molinari and Billie Jean King are not British either but got awards. Ivan and Ronnie have MBE and OBE between them, so nearly British. 

...and of course represented Great Britain during the sixties and seventies.

[Grachan]

Sometimes I think people watch Sports Personality of the Year to check that speedway isn't mentioned, just so that they can have a moan about it after.

[Tigerblade]

1 hour ago, Grachan said:

Sometimes I think people watch Sports Personality of the Year to check that speedway isn't mentioned, just so that they can have a moan about it after.

Especially when some fans can't even agree if Tai is British or not ..... 

[Spl77]

On 12/17/2018 at 3:13 PM, Richard Weston said:

One of the problems is that the BBC sees speedway as a Sky TV sport (now BT) and not one of "their own".

It seems as if preference is given to sports broadcast by the Beeb.

Shame on them.

The clue is in the title it's BBC sports personality not sports personality so will always focus on BBC sports. 

However I agree that no mention of Ronnie, Ivan or Tai is terrible. 

Having said that I haven't watched the bloody thing for 20 years I got fed up of the beeb blowing smoke up a few over inflated ego's rear ends! 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Spl77

[cuckootoyou]

1 hour ago, Spl77 said:

The clue is in the title it's BBC sports personality not sports personality so will always focus on BBC sports. 

However I agree that no mention of Ronnie, Ivan or Tai is terrible. 

Having said that I haven't watched the bloody thing for 20 years I got fed up of the beeb blowing smoke up a few over inflated ego's rear ends! 

When was the last time F1 was on the BBC?. Speedway just isn't a sport worth showing anymore.

[BWitcher]

On 12/18/2018 at 9:48 AM, Grachan said:

Sometimes I think people watch Sports Personality of the Year to check that speedway isn't mentioned, just so that they can have a moan about it after.

Personally I have no qualms over the 'sport' not being mentioned.

However, a British World Champion SHOULD be mentioned in a round up of 'other British World Champions' which is something they always used to do.

[geoff100]

2 hours ago, cuckootoyou said:

When was the last time F1 was on the BBC?. Speedway just isn't a sport worth showing anymore.

When was f1 ever a sport ?

[Grachan]

38 minutes ago, BWitcher said:

Personally I have no qualms over the 'sport' not being mentioned.

However, a British World Champion SHOULD be mentioned in a round up of 'other British World Champions' which is something they always used to do.

It should probably, yes. I do wonder if the BBC drop it as a deliberate act because of the orchestrated emails they probably get over speedway.

I know people think they are helping the cause by getting people to email the BBC and complain about their lack of coverage, but if they are as bloody minded as I can be sometimes, they might just think "Oh for God's sake!" and make it the first sport dropped.

[fatface]

2 hours ago, BWitcher said:

Personally I have no qualms over the 'sport' not being mentioned.

However, a British World Champion SHOULD be mentioned in a round up of 'other British World Champions' which is something they always used to do.

I'll always tend to leap to the defence of the BBC. No matter what other daftness blights the country, the BBC, for me, remains the world's best and best value broadcaster, bar none. It's not perfect, but what is? 

SPOTY is a classic bit of BBC. High profile, by and large well done, slightly uncool and unrealistically trying to please everyone. I felt Ivan Mauger deserved a nod along with other names lost this year.  He's widely regarded as the most successful speedway rider ever and I think this merited it.

As for Tai Woffinden's ommission, I'd like to have seen it. But I understand the low relevance of speedway on the entire sporting landscape. And "something they always used to do" is never strong basis to simply carrying on doing it. 

I suspect that with the increasingly diverse sports landscape and the UK's unprecedented success in recent times (in what other eras have we simultaneously had the World Heavyweight Champ, the F1 Champ the Tour de France winner, multiple Olympic gold medallists and Wimbledon men's champion?)...that listing all of the British world champions would be quite a process and wide open to leaving some out.

[moxey63]

Speedway fans have a mentality which wants non-fans to notice the sport. For example, if Tai were mentioned, a speedway fan would get a warm feeling like when he receives a "like" on the BSF or social networks.

They know what Tai has achieved, they are fans for god's sake, what he looks like etc.

It's a belief, they believe, if SPOTY shows Tai and mentions speedway,  the blokes at work or down the pub will see it... and perhaps they might feel the speedway fan not as strange as they did beforehand.

Maybe. Just maybe.

[BWitcher]

35 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

Speedway fans have a mentality which wants non-fans to notice the sport. For example, if Tai were mentioned, a speedway fan would get a warm feeling like when he receives a "like" on the BSF or social networks.

They know what Tai has achieved, they are fans for god's sake, what he looks like etc.

It's a belief, they believe, if SPOTY shows Tai and mentions speedway,  the blokes at work or down the pub will see it... and perhaps they might feel the speedway fan not as strange as they did beforehand.

Maybe. Just maybe.

Can't be as strange as someone who doesn't go, doesn't watch, but spends an inordinate amount of his time on a forum telling people this and having a go at the sport he doesn't go to or watch.

 

[moxey63]

34 minutes ago, BWitcher said:

Can't be as strange as someone who doesn't go, doesn't watch, but spends an inordinate amount of his time on a forum telling people this and having a go at the sport he doesn't go to or watch.

 

Merry Christmas, BWitcher. 

 

I know speedway fans are like this, as I was one myself.  

Edited December 21, 2018 by moxey63

[Tsunami]

1 hour ago, moxey63 said:

Merry Christmas, BWitcher. 

 

I know speedway fans are like this, as I was one myself.  

But now an armchair critic with f*ck all to contribute.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Tsunami

[Halifaxtiger]

1 hour ago, moxey63 said:

Merry Christmas, BWitcher. 

 

I know speedway fans are like this, as I was one myself.  

'Was' being the operative word. 

Absolutely no interest now other than to be critical. 

[moxey63]

1 hour ago, Halifaxtiger said:

'Was' being the operative word. 

Absolutely no interest now other than to be critical. 

I could say what a disgrace BBC is for not giving speedway airspace on SPOTY. But you have to be real. If they didn't give it airtime 40 years ago when the sport was booming, you shouldn't have been fooled into wasting three hours of your lives the other Sunday to watch it, and then pretend to be shocked speedway wasn't on it. Get real. Even fans have got sick to the teeth of it and the mess it's drifted into to. It isn't just me. It isn't speedway entirely, just the modern form.

[orion]

1 hour ago, moxey63 said:

I could say what a disgrace BBC is for not giving speedway airspace on SPOTY. But you have to be real. If they didn't give it airtime 40 years ago when the sport was booming, you shouldn't have been fooled into wasting three hours of your lives the other Sunday to watch it, and then pretend to be shocked speedway wasn't on it. Get real. Even fans have got sick to the teeth of it and the mess it's drifted into to. It isn't just me. It isn't speedway entirely, just the modern form.

I bet you have  it on in the background 

Edited December 21, 2018 by orion