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Humphrey Appleby

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Posts posted by Humphrey Appleby

  1. Posted

    18 minutes ago, racers and royals said:

    Not quite correct- who beat who when they met comes before ranking.

    That's what I thought, but the 2022 SGP regs say the following...

    9.2. Ties
    After the completion of heats 16 or 20
    When establishing the order between the riders in the list of intermediate classification at the conclusion of heat 16, 20,
    a) Precedence will be given to the riders (tied on race points) having the most number of 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th placings (a “0” for last placing is better than M-R-F-T-d-N).
    b) If the tie still persists and involves only 2 riders, precedence will be given to the better placed rider in the heat or heats where the 2 riders met.
    c) If the tie still persists and involves more than 2 riders, it shall be checked whether there is a possibility to determine a proper precedence (e.g. 3 riders tied on points: A, B, C:
    • Rider A has beaten rider B
    • Rider A has beaten rider C
    • Rider B has beaten rider C
    Then the precedence will be: best position for rider A, then rider B and then rider C.
    d) If solutions a), b) and c) cannot resolve the tie, then the rider with the lowest allocated SGP number will be deemed the better placed rider.

  2. Posted

    7 hours ago, a4poster said:

    With the Speedway Grand Prix I know the top eight scorers progress to the semi-finals but how is it decided which riders go into which semi-final? 

    1st, 4th, 6th and 7th to Semi-Final 1

    2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th to Semi-Final 2

    Where the confusion may come in is when two or more riders are tied on points after Heat 20, in which case the ranking goes on most wins, most seconds and so on. If that doesn't break the tie, then precedence goes to the higher ranked rider at the start of the season (lowest race jacket number). 

  3. Posted

    Just now, iris123 said:

    I do remember an indoor meeting in Kiel, possibly 10 years ago with Tobi Kroner and Matten Kröger for instance. On a concrete floor and quite tricky. Think Tobi broke his leg the first day and so the field was quite depleted on the second day. Anyway, to get to the point, in one heat there were a number of falls or exclusions, and only one rider left, when the heat restarted. Not sure who it was, but he was excluded for not racing !!!! :blink:

    It also happened some years ago at Coventry from memory. 3 riders were excluded and only Rick Miller was left in the race, who was then excluded for pulling wheelies!

    • Like 2

  4. Posted

    7 hours ago, IronScorpion said:

    There has been quite a few instances on the updates site of riders giving up when at the back. (cruising round & not racing)

    What, in your opinion, would a race score be if a rider gives up(cruising not racing) & the rider in 3rd has a problem( engine, chain or fall) & does not cross the line. The rider in 4th continues round & crosses the line. Does he get that point?

    Note; do NOT check Rules & Regs for an answer! Opinions please.

    The 'not trying to race' regulation is there for a specific reason and I don't think really intended for riders still in the race. I suppose they could theoretically be excluded from the race under that regulation, but what's to say they're not having engine issues of their own? So provided they complete the race within the time limit, it's reasonable to award the point.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

  5. Posted

    On 7/31/2021 at 4:55 AM, AndyO said:

    OK so in true investigative journalist style and cutting to the chase with the important questions of the day... Start Marshall's - what's the point!

    They wave the last lap and chequered flags?

    That could of course be done with a digiboard these days, although there's probably still some need to make sure riders are lined-up inside their gates. 

  6. Posted

    He wasn't entirely my cup of tea for various reasons, but you could never doubt his commitment to speedway. I think commentary, and particularly speedway commentary where there are long gaps to fill, followed by quick bursts of action, is a thankless task and fair play to him for not only stepping up but anchoring the role for a long time.

    His passing at just 52 is of course also very sad for all those around him. RIP

    • Like 7

  7. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    5 hours ago, enotian said:

    The appropriate football analogy would be the length of the game.  And yes if there was a chance the match might only last 60 minutes football supporters would want to know what they're paying for.  As it's been 90 minutes infinitum they don't need to ponder that. Speedway is different with different formats applicable to different types of competition. It should all be part of the promotion of the event.

    I don't see why wanting to know what you're paying to watch is nerdy. Just common sense especially when people have less money and there are plenty of alternatives. 

    I don't know how many it times it has to be said, but speedway isn't football anymore than cricket is football. There's at least 4 different types of professional cricket match currently played in England lasting from 3 hours to 5 days (even if don't always know whether the last couple of days will actually happen), and even more formats if you take club cricket into account.

    Half the attraction of speedway for me is the different types of meeting, different formats, and that you can scale things to fit around the time / spectator attention span available. But it's not unreasonable to ask what you're actually getting for your money, and even just because you're an anorak is a perfectly acceptable reason. 

  8. Posted

    On 4/5/2022 at 3:26 AM, Diamonds85 said:

    I'm just not  aware of a 6 team pairs meeting format ever taking place? 

    I seem to remember 6-pair formats occasionally being run in open meetings, not to mention that it's been used in Poland and I'm sure other countries as well in the past. 

    Pretty much every 3TT, 4TT, 5TT and pairs events of varying numbers format (certainly 6, 7 and 9) has been run at some point in speedway's history. 

  9. Posted

    6 hours ago, arnieg said:

    Furthermore an increasing number of Australians are launching their European careers in Denmark and Poland - Kenyan Rew, Mathew Gilmore, Fraser Bowes

    In fact this is a curious thing. Australia and some EU countries have much more relaxed visa conditions for 'working holidays' than the UK and Australia have.

  10. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    18 hours ago, *JJ said:

    We've already got 5 million Indians ... but the news refered to Australia, Canada and New Zealand, for work visas.

    That's a subset of the Commonwealth and still represents 60 million people.

    If "30 million Romanians and Bulgarians coming to Britain" were a Brexit issue, then how is 60 million (plus an additional 5 million from Hong Kong of course) not going to be?

    And the fact remains there would have to be reciprocity, and those countries only want the 'brightest and best' from the UK... :D

    Sadly, when it's all said and done, speedway makes no significant economic, social or cultural contribution to the UK and doesn't warrant any special treatment. 

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    13 minutes ago, arnieg said:

    No - a complete fantasy. Anyone that imagines the UK government would give unrestricted access to Commonwealth citizens (including 1.4 billion Indian citizens) is deluded.

    No more than Australia wanted to allow 65 million Britons to go to Australia ;-)

  12. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    On 3/30/2022 at 12:21 AM, HenryW said:

    You can imagine a legal challenge coming in if this continues, as it basically says there are two levels of Polish Citizenship based on whether you were born in the Country or not.

    I'm not sure that fits with EU law.

    Doesn't fit with UN or EHRC law either.

    Discriminating against those of an accident of birth who've spoken against the policies of their country of the birth, is not only moralisticly wrong, but plays into the victimhood narrative of Putin. 

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    54 minutes ago, mikebv said:

    Different rules..

    One is a one off individual event and the other is a "years" worth of employment by a non UK person.. 

    You can come as a regular visitor for a sports tournament or event provided only expenses and/or prize money are paid. For paid employment over 6 months, a visa that will basically cost you a minimum of GBP 868 for a year and takes up to 3 months to process, is now required. 

    I suppose you might get conceivably get away with claiming you're just on holiday, but if you've already got a pending visa application it's going to look suspicious. 

    It used to be simple and now it's not since Brexit. 

  16. Posted

    1 hour ago, Grachan said:

    Or is it possible that Laguta has already decided to revoke his Russian citizenship to ride in Poland so the Russians are pre-empting that? If Laguta then rides in Poland they can say that, as he has gone against their ban by riding in a foreign league, they are expelling him from Russian and revoking his citizenship.

    The Russian constitution prohibits the revocation of Russian citizenship from anyone born in Russia, assuming that some lip service is still paid to the legalities there.

  18. Posted

    2 hours ago, chris4gillian said:

    Every governing body in sport around the world disagrees with you....so you must be correct :t:

    Even if that were true - which is isn't - it still wouldn't make it right.

    Russians representing Russian federations and in official Russian teams are being excluded from sporting events, and few would object to that. However, wielding the pitchforks against people simply because they had the misfortune to be born somewhere, is really not the way to behave regardless of the strength of everyones' feelings against Russia. We need to distinguish ourselves by our higher standards of behaviour. 

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    1 hour ago, chris4gillian said:

    The simple answer is yes.  We may not agree with it, but there cannot be exceptions.  All Russian born athletes/sports people need to be considered in exactly the same way.

    The simple answer is that's complete nonsense.

    If someone has actually taken the citizenship of another country then you can't ban them simply because of an accident of birth. Otherwise you'll create different classes of citizenship within a country, and would be especially unworkable in a country with a largely immigrant population such as Australia. 

    A citizen is a citizen with the same rights as everyone else in their (adopted) country, regardless of the rabble rousing sentiments. If there were going around vocalising support for Russia then you may not want them playing in your tournament (which is fair enough), but if someone is actually condemning Russia what more is expected from them? 

    • Like 2

  20. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    14 hours ago, Triple.H. said:

    Humphrey Appleby will be on your case. I've said more or less the same in a few posts in this topic and he's told me I'm wrong.

    You are wrong to target individual Russians who are resident outside of Russia and have no connection to the Putin regime, whether it's sport or any other job they're doing. It doesn't matter how many times you say it, most have nothing to do with Putin and it's a fair bet many if not most oppose his actions.

    Most of us are outraged by the actions of the Russian government, and frankly I've been outraged by its behaviour for a number of years even if there were a number of apologists for it in the West (and on here) until just over a week ago. You need to make a distinction though, between the Putin regime and the Russian people (even if many have naively support him thanks to the propaganda), and whilst sanctions do have to be put on the country and its residents, believing that exerting pressure on expat Russians will somehow enable Putin's overthrow shows a total lack of understanding of his total control of its state apparatus.

    It's all too easy to get out the torches and pitchforks against anyone or anything Russian, but history (including two World Wars) has shown it's counterproductive to automatically assume 'enemy aliens' will take the side with their parent country. People often leave their countries because of some dissatisfaction or disagreement with political and/or economic conditions there, and Russians are really no different. This quite aside from the fact that by penalising totally innocent expats, you are far more likely to alienate them against your cause and reinforce Putin's rhetoric that Russians are victimised by the rest of the world.

    Or put another way, much of the world including most countries in Europe opposed the invasion of Iraq which the UK participated in. I don't recall any British sportspeople being banned from anything, and would you have considered it reasonable and proportionate for British expats to be expelled from all the countries they were living and working in?

    • Like 3

  23. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    2 hours ago, noaksey said:

    UK motorsport have announced that regardless of the FAI ruling Mazepin will not be allowed to drive in the Foruma 1 British GP

    What's the speedway equivalent of UK motorsport?

    It's actually Motorsport UK, but the motorcycle version is the ACU.

    Motorsport UK have not actually banned Russian competitors, but Russian-licensed competitors.

    I think it's academic about Mazepin anyway, as Haas have pulled Daddy's sponsorship, he's a poor driver, and has had other off-track issues that will make him unpalatable if he's not bringing any money. Moreover, his family is likely closely related to the Putin regime, so it's not quite the same as for other Russian sportspeople. 

  24. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    3 hours ago, Grachan said:

    Is it down to political allegiances too? Russia are waging a war and giving misinformation to their own people to justify it. Did the USA and the UK not do the same when they invaded Iraq? Should Greg Hancock and Scott Nicholls have been kicked out of the Grand Prix in 2003?

    Whilst it's easy to draw parallels, Iraq's regime had already invaded two other countries, had in the past used chemical weapons (against Iran and the Kurds), conducted ethnic cleansing within its own borders, and was largely kept from further bad behaviour through ongoing sanctions and no-fly zones. 

    Now whilst various Ukraine governments have undoubtedly been a bit corrupt and to various extents pursued nationalist agendas, they're certainly not amongst the worst in the world and have never actually invaded anyone nor been involved in state-sponsored atrocities in the past 75 years or so. 

    To be very clear, Putin has long used the invasions of Iraq and the NATO interventions in the Balkan conflicts to justify his behaviour (e.g. annexation of Crimea and establishment of puppet regimes in parts of Georgia and Moldova), but two wrongs don't make a right. 

  25. Posted · Edited by Humphrey Appleby

    4 hours ago, Triple.H. said:

    Stop every Russian outside Russia from working, put them under house arrest for example. This then encourages the Russians  most probably the Army to overthrow the dictator.

    It will not encourage anything of the sort. The average Russian has no chance of overthrowing Putin who controls all the levers of power including the security forces. No more than Saddam Hussein could be overthrown by Iraqis.

    All you will do is reinforce Putin's rhetoric that Russians are being victimised in the world, and turn innocent Russians who don't support Putin against you.

    The only way Putin will be overthrown is when his inner circle, the oligarchs or the Russian military leadership decide enough is enough. 

    There is a strong argument for other countries to make travelling in and out of Russia very difficult, or prevent Russians in Russia from doing business with the rest of the world. It is very wrong to target Russians who already live and work in other countries unless they have some connection to the Putin regime. 

    • Like 2
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