The Joker Rule Must Go

[father jack 31]

Not for the first time the team that beats the most opponents has lost a major championship, Reading lost the Ellite Leauge a couple of years back, and now the Aussies are robbed of the World cup. The sport I love is destroying itself by giving artifical scores and unworthy winners.

[father jack 31]

Sorry - mods, could you please merge this with the other thread started on the same topic.

[The Doctor... 1,478]

Not for the first time the team that beats the most opponents has lost a major championship, Reading lost the Ellite Leauge a couple of years back, and now the Aussies are robbed of the World cup. The sport I love is destroying itself by giving artifical scores and unworthy winners.

 

australia had 6 heat winners and poland had 8. aus had more lasts than poland. we could go on and on.

 

rules are rules. the australians would have used their joker and won the meeting in the same way if they had the chance.

 

don't be so naive to think otherwise.

 

 

[Robbie B 262]

The joker could make for an interesting meeting, BUT ONLY if ALL teams are allowed to use one, when they want. To penalise a team (whoever they be) for leading the competition is COMPLETLY unfair. And for me made a joke of the result in the 2009 SWC final. I'm sure Australia would never had lost if they could had used a joker.

Edited July 19, 2009 by Robbie B

[SCOTLAND1314 121]

Not for the first time the team that beats the most opponents has lost a major championship, Reading lost the Ellite Leauge a couple of years back, and now the Aussies are robbed of the World cup. The sport I love is destroying itself by giving artifical scores and unworthy winners.

 

 

I hear what you are saying, however, on both counts it provided some fantastic TV, and I am guessing that that was one of the drivers behind the rule changes.

Edited July 19, 2009 by SCOTLAND1314

[essaitch 24]

Didn't Aus knock GB out a few years back with use of the joker?

 

[Mark 1,497]

australia had 6 heat winners and poland had 8. aus had more lasts than poland. we could go on and on.

 

 

Even though that stat is correct it means nothing. it's total points scored that count and that is the only stat, in team sport, that matters

Edited July 19, 2009 by Mark

[Eastie 0]

Not for the first time the team that beats the most opponents has lost a major championship, Reading lost the Ellite Leauge a couple of years back, and now the Aussies are robbed of the World cup. The sport I love is destroying itself by giving artifical scores and unworthy winners.

Who gives a XXXX its only the Aussies.

Do you think they would be worried if it happened to us

[falcon 0]

Craig Boyce (safrican american)

[wotnoaj 0]

I thouroughly enjoyed the World Cup, including the long long final! Huge credit to the track staff for keeping the meeting going and to the Sky team for filling for so long.

Having said that, after sitting through hours of entertaining Speedway, I ended up feeling cheated by the stupid joker. The best team finished second and Speedway looks amateurish because of it.

[The Doctor... 1,478]

I thouroughly enjoyed the World Cup, including the long long final! Huge credit to the track staff for keeping the meeting going and to the Sky team for filling for so long.

Having said that, after sitting through hours of entertaining Speedway, I ended up feeling cheated by the stupid joker. The best team finished second and Speedway looks amateurish because of it.

 

Speedway only looks amateurish because people keeping banging on and on and on about it...

 

Blimey, you watch the meeting fully in the knowledge of the rules, yet people come out moaning like stink afterwards.

 

I assume the same people moaning here because they don't like Poland winning the event with a joker, would also be the same people creaming it when TeamGb benefited from a joker like they did in both the qualifier and the race off ?

 

I'm also just guessing that if the GB team won the meeting in the same style as Poland did yesterday there would be no mention of this at all, but "Team GB World Champions" would be on every thread with calls for Chris Harris to win sports personality of the year!?

 

Yawn....

 

 

[Midnight_Lady 2]

Spot on post.

[Hammer 10]

Speedway only looks amateurish because people keeping banging on and on and on about it...

 

Blimey, you watch the meeting fully in the knowledge of the rules, yet people come out moaning like stink afterwards.

 

I assume the same people moaning here because they don't like Poland winning the event with a joker, would also be the same people creaming it when TeamGb benefited from a joker like they did in both the qualifier and the race off ?

 

I'm also just guessing that if the GB team won the meeting in the same style as Poland did yesterday there would be no mention of this at all, but "Team GB World Champions" would be on every thread with calls for Chris Harris to win sports personality of the year!?

 

Yawn....

 

People watch because they love Speedway and therefore we watch the only version of the sport available even if it includes childish 'it's a knockout' rules.

 

Unfortunately Speedway is still run by Promoters who see it as a sideshow attraction that has to make money. Yes it does have to make money to survive but this surely doesn't have to affect it's purity as a sporting contest.

 

And, if by 'creaming it' you mean cheering???????, I think you are assuming that other forum users are being argumentative and petty. You are wrong, I don't think the other posters would be 'creaming it' if England won by using 'it's a knockout' rules.

 

[barrow boy 119]

Who gives a XXXX its only the Aussies.

Do you think they would be worried if it happened to us

Don't think it is the Aussies themselves who are calling for the changes. In the post match interviews I saw they said they were obviously disappointed but they all agreed they had been beaten fair and square by the Poles who Chris Holder said they were better on the day. It is some of us on here that feel it is unfair and I agree that all teams should be given the opportunity to use a double points ride if they need to. Don't forget also that any team which is a mere paltry 6 points down can if they wish bring in an on form rider to replace an out of form rider which Poland did in addition to doubling up. Australia had no chances to do either therefore in my humble opinion it was unfair.

Edited July 31, 2009 by barrow boy

[Dave C 42]

I thouroughly enjoyed the World Cup, including the long long final! Huge credit to the track staff for keeping the meeting going and to the Sky team for filling for so long.

Having said that, after sitting through hours of entertaining Speedway, I ended up feeling cheated by the stupid joker. The best team finished second and Speedway looks amateurish because of it.

 

I agree entirely with this sentiment. To me the week of World Cup racing is usually the highlight of the speedway year in terms of the excitement and entertainment it usually serves up.

 

The Sky coverage was excellent once again despite the many weather interruptions, and there were many highlights including the emergence of Russia as a real force and the spirited performance of the British lads.

 

But I have to agree that the Polish victory felt very hollow in the circumstances. It is a real shame that a competition that generates such team spirit, passion and commitment from the competitors is completely undermined by this rule. It really doesn't add anything to the overall spectacle and ends up making a mockery of the event. There is no other sport I can think of in the world which has similar rules, let alone at World Championship level.

 

On a related topic, I was bemused to read Jon Cook's rather strange observation in this weeks Speedway Star that BSI should only stage the event every two years. To quote him, "It's a bit predictable that every year we're going to have new World Champions, surely we can think of something a little more attractive than that?" Now I don't know if Cook is being entirely serious with his proposal, but I would imagine that as BSI supposedly paid a lot of money for the rights to stage the competition from the FIM, they would want to maximise the potential of the event by continuing to stage it on an annual basis.

 

In many respects the World Cup has even more potential to grow commercially compared to the Grand Prix series, but judging by the lack of progress in terms of major sponsorship over the years, perhaps the first thing BSI should do is get rid of the Joker ruling, in order to restore credibility to the competition.