Fromafar 10,336 Posted April 10, 2014 Not none sense at all, bit of common sense. Matt said, " I felt a sense of injustice when German Martin Smolinski celebrated on one wheel, punched the air with delight and spoke of Saturdays debut win in the NZ GP as being on of the greatest days of his life. Please don't get me wrong, what Martin produced on Saturday was something quite unbelievable. To come from last to first in a GP final is a stunning achievement, particularly on your first taste amount speedways elite field. And it's certainly nothing against Martinbwho I have always had the greatest respect for. He's earned his right to bein the GP this season and the rest of the top boys know he is not there just to make up the numbers. The reason I am angry and confused is the way speedway allows rough justice to go unpunished. Without any question, when Martin hit a rut and T Boned Darcy Ward into the fence and out of the meeting in he at 14 it was an unintentional move. A complete accident. But the fact is it ended Darcys GP involvement, suffering concussion, a broken thumb, a dodgy knee and has put him out of speedway for anything up to six weeks. Yet for my money, it's no different from an over the top tackle in football. A player races in tries to get the ball,but takes out his opponent instead. However, the difference in punishments are polar opposites. A footballer will be either immediately red carded, and miss the rest of the match, or suffer a booking, which could lead to him missing games in the near future. What happened to Martin, in this instance, was he suffered an exclusion, when he was last anyway. And that was it. That's all anref can do within speedways current rules. I remember watching a meeting at Brandon a few years ago when a similar thing happened. In the first ride he overlooked a corner and sent the opposing reserve into the fence and out of the meeting in his first ride. In his next race he did exactly the same thing and ko'd the other Ipswich reserve, putting him out. But this rider was still able to go out and race for the rest of the meeting helping his side win against the opponents who had to race several races with three riders only. In my book, although he didn't mean to injure the riders in both cases he caused a major problem and wasn't punish for it. As far as I was concerned on Saturday in Auckland, Martin Smolinski accidentally took out an opponent but suffered no disciplinary punishment, and less than an hour was top of the podium! If it had been a football match and Luis Suarez had produced an accidental but clearly bad challenge on an opponent that had seen this layer stretchers off to hospital and out of the game for six weeks, and then had gone on to score a hat trick, there would have been a riot in football about the injustice of it all. And before anyone claims I am biased towards Darcy, believe me, Inwouldnhave said exactly the same thing if our skipper had done the same thing." A poor statement to make from a Promoter ,I suppose it's just the usual sour grapes because it's aPoole Rider involved.There would be no rider left in some meetings I have seem over the years. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 20,938 Posted April 10, 2014 And before anyone claims I am biased towards Darcy, believe me, Inwouldnhave said exactly the same thing if our skipper had done the same thing." He wasn't doing too bad until that last sentence!!!!I don't agree with his statement,but he was putting across his views quite well,until he dropped that bit in Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westhamboy66 599 Posted April 10, 2014 Normally i would steer clear of comments like sour grapes etc levelled at Poole and their Management but this is a load of rubbish from Mr Ford. Had any other rider bar a Poole rider been injured in a racing accident Mr Ford would have not said anything on the subject. Very little blame can be apportioned to anyone with regard to Darcy's injury. The track provided a couple of holes or ruts that caused several riders to go out of control, nothing worse than happens every year at Cardiff. Accidents happen and Smolinski was the victim of the rut Darcy was on the end of a racing accident, yes Smolinski at fault and didn't gain anything from the race so end of story. This sort of thing happens every week. On this occassion Poole lose an asset which is a shame but if it upsets his British Promoter so much then perhaps he needs to quit the EL and drop into the NL where he would have better control over where and when his assets ride. By the way an over the top tackle is not an accident it is generally a dangerous action carried out by a player who knows exactly what he is doing and a million miles away from what happened to Darcy. Get well soon Darcy 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Shovlar 10,439 Posted April 10, 2014 Very little blame can be apportioned to anyone with regard to Darcy's injury. Can't agree wit that. Clearly it was 100% Smolinskis fault. A racing accident absolutely but only one person caused it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
horneymikh 86 Posted April 10, 2014 (edited) This probably wouldnt be being discussed if it involved any other rider other than Ward or Holder. How many times have we seen racing incidets like these before? Smoli was rightly excluded, that should be an end to it, as there was no intent or malice. Edited April 10, 2014 by horneymikh 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BWitcher 12,453 Posted April 10, 2014 (edited) The difference being - as the commentators pointed out - Darcy controlled it better, Smolinski didn't!! Actually he didn't, the rider alongside him was far enough ahead to avoid the out of control Ward is the only difference. As for Fords comments.... a load of tripe. Edited April 10, 2014 by BWitcher Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The White Knight 9,039 Posted April 10, 2014 Thanks for your Reply Steve. There are always two sides to everything. I don't think Martin did anything deliberately wrong, like you. I thought it was just a racing accident. As for Darcy - I'm sorry for him but this sort of thing, sadly, happens to Speedway Riders all the time. I sincerely hope Darcy is back racing soon. All the best Ian PS - you never mentioned your Americanism. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mothorsen 39 Posted April 10, 2014 An accident, which happens all the time in speedway without yellow and red cards, banning riders and soforth. Is Ward born under a special star since his crash has to be punished? Did Laguta get banned after sending Gollob head first in the gravel? An accident, nothing more. It's the way the game is played. Get over it. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark 1,497 Posted April 10, 2014 Can't agree wit that. Clearly it was 100% Smolinskis fault. A racing accident absolutely but only one person caused it. Are you Paul Burbidge in disguise ? He's a biased as you are. Maybe 2+2 =5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oleoleole 227 Posted April 10, 2014 What a load of rubbish from the usual suspects. If you banned every rider who caused a crash they'd be none left. I like Tai but I thought his challenge that ended Gollob's season was much worse, very reckless, but I didn't see any comments from Mr Ford then. As shown in a previous post, Darcy tried exactly the same move in the 2013 NZSGP. Maybe rather than banning riders who cause crashes, we should ban overtaking, then there would be far fewer accidents......... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCB 0 Posted April 10, 2014 Sounds like jealousy from Matt Ford to me. Sure Starman would agree. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
waiheke1 4,295 Posted April 18, 2014 (edited) I assume matt fords next programme notes will be saying that milik should have been red carded for injuring another rider... Edit. Typo fixed Edited April 18, 2014 by waihekeaces1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The White Knight 9,039 Posted April 18, 2014 I assume matt fords next programme notes will be saying that milik should have been ree cwrded for injuring another rider... I'm sorry - I don't speak Maori. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted April 18, 2014 I'm sorry - I don't speak Maori. LOL Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
