Swindon V Coventry 3/4/14

[Woz01 3,589]

Remember how Coventry fans accused Poole of being cheats because they wanted to ride heat 10 at Belle Vue so that they would get a result?

Just sayin'......

See above, a big difference between the two meetings.

[Gavan 5,049]

Imagine if this one of the last meetings of the regular season and Coventry needed the 4 points to qualify for the playoffs. Swindon didn't want to continue but the Coventry riders came out to the tapes for heat 10. The ref said to continue and Coventry got the required gap for 4 points. Then suddenly Coventry said the conditions were not safe and that the meeting should be abandoned. Ring any bells? Lets have 60m pages of bile then! Oh hang on it's not Poole!

Imagine if this one of the last meetings of the regular season and Coventry needed the 4 points to qualify for the playoffs. Swindon didn't want to continue but the Coventry riders came out to the tapes for heat 10. The ref said to continue and Coventry got the required gap for 4 points. Then suddenly Coventry said the conditions were not safe and that the meeting should be abandoned. Ring any bells? Lets have 60m pages of bile then! Oh hang on it's not Poole!

always nice to see you get the facts spectacularly wrong again! Read what is written by the people who were there and then perhaps you will understand why it was called off! At Belke Vue it was the TRACK at Swindon it was VISABILITY but when did you ever get anything right

[Grachan 7,314]

Only the losing team can ask for a track inspection #JustSaying

 

 

 

See above, a big difference between the two meetings.

 

Not so big really. sure, if you look at the exact turn of events they are not exactly the same, but it's the same principle. The meeting continued in conditions that should have seen the meeting abandoned so that a result could be obtained.

 

#justorating

always nice to see you get the facts spectacularly wrong again! Read what is written by the people who were there and then perhaps you will understand why it was called off! At Belke Vue it was the TRACK at Swindon it was VISABILITY but when did you ever get anything right

 

Not so relevant.

Edited April 4, 2014 by grachan

[Red Robin 200]

track was the same for both teams.

 

it says on twitter is was visibility that was the problem

Yes the fact that only the leader could see out of his goggles, anyone behind got filled in with very wet mud, was seriously dangerous and the Ref should have stopped it much earlier, one of the wettest matches I have seen at Swindon. Shambles !!!!!

[trubruv 26]

Lets be honest hear! Coventry fully deserved their lead which was 6 points before heat ten! track inspection called with the visabilty unsafe for all riders (Fact) Ref decides to have one more race so that a result in favour of Coventry is had!

 

Coventry get a 5-1 ref abandons match.

 

In my mind the referee acted neglegently, as he had no regards for riders safety otherwise he would have called a halt far earlier!

 

With 5 heats remaining and only 10 points behind Swindon could have got something from the match (look at Lakeside last match) so once again the fans are cheated and Speedway becomes a laughing stock!

 

I dont know what the answer is! but this wasnt right!!!

[Bagpuss 10,757]

There was also an obvious agenda that night at Belle Vue, Sky blatantly wanted Poole to collect the four points come hell or high water.

 

Anyway well done Coventry.

[Woz01 3,589]

Yes the fact that only the leader could see out of his goggles, anyone behind got filled in with very wet mud, was seriously dangerous and the Ref should have stopped it much earlier, one of the wettest matches I have seen at Swindon. Shambles !!!!!

It wasn't that bad early on! Riders get filled in with wet shale all the time and no threat to abandon the meeting. It was fairly obvious Swindon only wanted a track inspection after heat 9 as they knew they would lose the points, the riders were already on track for heat 10! Why didn't they ask earlier I wonder? I was kind of disappointed it didn't continue as I think the bees wouldve won comfortably anyway.

[kingbee 510]

And the defence - it wasn't the track it was visibility

As I previously said the better team won in the conditions but that wasn't my point

you were blaming the track in an earlier post make your mind up you weren't even there

[Skidder1 7,632]

Only the losing team can ask for a track inspection #JustSaying

 

 

After heat 10!! just saying.

 

 

SCB Rule 15.11

 

15.11 After Heat 10 in an official Team fixture, only the Team that is losing may request a track

inspection, or seek abandonment of the Meeting.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Skidder1

[houdi 535]

Wonder how many of the fickle Bees 'supporters' are calling for Havelocks head now?.......one victory and it's ultimate cockiness from some...Coventry totally deserved this but Swindon were absolutly dire..Pedersen exempted

Not sure what particular part he had in the Bees victory,he didn't choose the Bees team, and each heat was run as per programme. The difference is that when Rosco became the Bees team manager,everyone knew he was a Swindon 'legend', however he totally committed to the Bees and didn't go on about Swindon incessantly, in fact he never really mentioned them. In short he behaved in a proper professional manner. Havvy from day 1, has seemingly wittered on incessantly about his love of all things Poole.It is hard to see how he could have been more crassly insensitive,and rather than seeking to get the fans onside he seemed to take a perverse pleasure in riling them.Because of the 'antics' of 1 person, virtually every Bees fan I know,now loathe Poole.So in a lexicon maybe he can understand, STFU about Poole.

Onto the meeting, not the best spectacle on a dark dank night. Hopefully Ritchings is ok after a real nasty crash which didn't help Swindon's cause. Both Garrity and Sarjeant proved trump cards, and the Bees do look very strong at reserve. Special mention to Woodward who proved to be an inspired choice of guest.Conditions made it difficult to really judge either sides real prospects, however Fisher has started the season really well, and I believe Hansen will prove a very astute signing.

[Vincent Vega 135]

Bees for the title. Strongest reserves pair by far, good heat leaders and solid middle order. Surprised by Hansen as expected him to struggle.

Ha ha never in a million years more chance of Shovvy becoming your team manager!

[Sandie 53]

I was there. (Just for clarity)
It rained all the way down the A429 and I considered turning back twice. But as I reached the stadium I was amazed at how different it was from the journey, as predicted in the weather charts. There was a mizzle but nothing to stop the meeting from starting.

It was a good enough meeting for me, which was helped by a Bees win. The weather did deteriorate as the evening went on and by heat 10 it was a good steady light rain.
The interesting part for me was no remedial track work. I don't remember the tractors coming out once during the meeting, so obviously the teams were not complaining about the track, otherwise they could have delayed things and started messing with the track. The track was most definitely ride-able. The only problem was the visibility which got steadily worse.And that's why the meeting was abandoned. And I don't feel cheated. I went in knowing what could happen.

[philfromcov 326]

dont know what people are moaning about, Coventry got there usual haul of points from Swindon ie 35/36 points.

 

Swindon didn't get there usual 55 points, isnt that the problem?

 

what a shocker a wet track in April, its never happened before

[Speedy swindon pete 509]

Cov deserved to win the match, well done them. Whether they genuinely were good, or swindon, looking pretty abject at best, made Cov look good, remains to be seen. Not that I'm too bothered about the result. First home meeting of the season in pants weather, is always going to be a bit of a lottery. Won't look too much into the performances, except Klindt barely looked competitive. He was always going to be one of those frustrating riders to have in your team, the fact that he was a bike length or two down on even NL riders going into the first bend is a worry.

 

Sounds like Darryl escaped relatively unscathed, considering the crash he had. It was an absolute sickener. Wrongly excluded too, not that it would have mattered much in the context of the meeting. I said before the meeting Garrity is quick, but not afraid to put it about. He drifted well wide on bend 4, Ritchings came up the inside coming off the bend and was ahead slightly, drifting to the outside of the straight. he went over far enough to block Garrity coming round the outside of him, as he's entitled to do, he didn't suddenly slam the door on him. But garrity kept the throttle open as if the track was going to magically become half a yard wider. His helmet hits the back of Darryls arm, and after that it was just a complete mess. Wreckless move from Garrity in my book.

 

After that, the whole night had an air of inevitability about it.

Massive wait after Ritchings was taken off the track. I know it was a bad one and it probably couldn't be helped, but can't some sort of contingency plan be put together to help maintain the flow of the meeting at all?

The rain starts coming down, lightly.

Strung out racing, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt considering the uncertain weather.

Another crash and wait, rain starting to come down heavier. By heat 8 the rain was pretty steady.

You could tell that the meeting was only going to be 10 meetings long at best by that point.

 

What gets me though is this whole idea of "lets just get to heat 10 and get a result". To me it sums up the shambles that the sport is in and the half arsed manner in which its run. There's no degree of professionalism, or hard and fast rules or protocol. its just a stumbling, bumbling wreck. How can any sport that says, well we'll get to this point and then we'll go home because it'll be less of a pain in the arse than rearranging the meeting, call its self professional? Heat 9 looked a shambles, you could hardly see the back straight. We're told heat 10 will go ahead, in the same conditions, yet 3 minutes later its suddenly not suitable for racing. There was absolutely no difference in the conditions between heats 9 and 10, so why not crack on and see how many heats could be done? It should be black or white, not just whats convenient. Like i've said, i wasn't too bothered with the result, but as a paying customer, theres no consistency. Its either fit for racing, or it isn't.

 

Its no wonder the sport is on his knees over here. Theres only so many times that you can make excuses about the weather, nasty incidents, unfortunate delays. No wonder there's barely anyone on the terraces any more. Paying your money in the hope you'll see just a smoothly run meeting (even before getting into the issue of entertaining racing), really doesn't work. I stopped trying to introduce new people to the sport years ago now, if i took someone along last night, i would have made every effort to avoid having to talk to them for the next few weeks. These days i'm too embarrassed to say what i do with my thursday evenings, if I'm asked, hoping that they'll never find out i go and watch speedway.

 

After last year's mess, i'd have hoped that lessons would have been learnt and speedway in Britain will have generally pulled its socks up...or at least started. But after the cobbled together team rulings in the winter, race formats thrashed out on the back of a fag packet, hoping no one would notice and the shambolic "start" to the season on TV....it seems we're still in the same old sinking ship.

 

 

EDIT - Scratch that about Darryl being relatively unscathed, looks like hes got a broken ankle. http://www.swindonrobins.co/news.php?item.2158.1&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Most probably where my doom and gloom post has come from. Seeing a kid who lives just a few roads away from you smashing into the fence just a lap into his swindon career, doesn't put you in the best of moods.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Speedy swindon pete

[Red Robin 200]

 

Cov deserved to win the match, well done them. Whether they genuinely were good, or swindon, looking pretty abject at best, made Cov look good, remains to be seen. Not that I'm too bothered about the result. First home meeting of the season in pants weather, is always going to be a bit of a lottery. Won't look too much into the performances, except Klindt barely looked competitive. He was always going to be one of those frustrating riders to have in your team, the fact that he was a bike length or two down on even NL riders going into the first bend is a worry.

 

Sounds like Darryl escaped relatively unscathed, considering the crash he had. It was an absolute sickener. Wrongly excluded too, not that it would have mattered much in the context of the meeting. I said before the meeting Garrity is quick, but not afraid to put it about. He drifted well wide on bend 4, Ritchings came up the inside coming off the bend and was ahead slightly, drifting to the outside of the straight. he went over far enough to block Garrity coming round the outside of him, as he's entitled to do, he didn't suddenly slam the door on him. But garrity kept the throttle open as if the track was going to magically become half a yard wider. His helmet hits the back of Darryls arm, and after that it was just a complete mess. Wreckless move from Garrity in my book.

 

After that, the whole night had an air of inevitability about it.

Massive wait after Ritchings was taken off the track. I know it was a bad one and it probably couldn't be helped, but can't some sort of contingency plan be put together to help maintain the flow of the meeting at all?

The rain starts coming down, lightly.

Strung out racing, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt considering the uncertain weather.

Another crash and wait, rain starting to come down heavier. By heat 8 the rain was pretty steady.

You could tell that the meeting was only going to be 10 meetings long at best by that point.

 

What gets me though is this whole idea of "lets just get to heat 10 and get a result". To me it sums up the shambles that the sport is in and the half arsed manner in which its run. There's no degree of professionalism, or hard and fast rules or protocol. its just a stumbling, bumbling wreck. How can any sport that says, well we'll get to this point and then we'll go home because it'll be less of a pain in the arse than rearranging the meeting, call its self professional? Heat 9 looked a shambles, you could hardly see the back straight. We're told heat 10 will go ahead, in the same conditions, yet 3 minutes later its suddenly not suitable for racing. There was absolutely no difference in the conditions between heats 9 and 10, so why not crack on and see how many heats could be done? It should be black or white, not just whats convenient. Like i've said, i wasn't too bothered with the result, but as a paying customer, theres no consistency. Its either fit for racing, or it isn't.

 

Its no wonder the sport is on his knees over here. Theres only so many times that you can make excuses about the weather, nasty incidents, unfortunate delays. No wonder there's barely anyone on the terraces any more. Paying your money in the hope you'll see just a smoothly run meeting (even before getting into the issue of entertaining racing), really doesn't work. I stopped trying to introduce new people to the sport years ago now, if i took someone along last night, i would have made every effort to avoid having to talk to them for the next few weeks. These days i'm too embarrassed to say what i do with my thursday evenings, if I'm asked, hoping that they'll never find out i go and watch speedway.

 

After last year's mess, i'd have hoped that lessons would have been learnt and speedway in Britain will have generally pulled its socks up...or at least started. But after the cobbled together team rulings in the winter, race formats thrashed out on the back of a fag packet, hoping no one would notice and the shambolic "start" to the season on TV....it seems we're still in the same old sinking ship.

 

 

EDIT - Scratch that about Darryl being relatively unscathed, looks like hes got a broken ankle. http://www.swindonrobins.co/news.php?item.2158.1&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Most probably where my doom and gloom post has come from. Seeing a kid who lives just a few roads away from you smashing into the fence just a lap into his swindon career, doesn't put you in the best of moods.

 

Good post