Humphrey Appleby
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Posts posted by Humphrey Appleby
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6 hours ago, OveFundinFan said:whilst determining whether Emil and Artem should or should not ride in the GPs, this morning's tv news has just shown a 40-mile long column of Russian tanks, armored vehicles, supply trucks just 20 miles north of Kyiv........ in the next few days there could be absolute destruction and mass killings by Russian troops. Any thought going towards those people in Kyiv and the surrounding area?. It is ok I suppose, give it 5 years, and Putin and his gang will stand before a court in the Hague, that will make it ok. .
I don't know what that has to do with Russians resident in other countries being allowed to continue to work. I'm fully aware it's an appalling situation - not least because I was talking to some people in Ukraine most of last night - but that's not the fault of every Russian.
All the Russians I know, including my office mate who's lived in the Netherlands for over 20 years, are appalled by the behaviour of Putin. Why should they be denied work or even worse expelled from the countries they may have lived in for many years, unless they're somehow connected to Putin regime?
Let's not start any torchlight pogroms which will just play into Putin's victimhood complex and give him an excuse to invade countries on the grounds of 'protecting Russians'. We should never repeat the appalling treatment of Japanese-Americans, Japanese-Canadians, or German Jews who'd sought refuge in the UK during WW2 and had every reason to support the Allied effort.
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3 hours ago, Triple.H. said:But they have 2 passports, maybe more. So they can pick and choose their nationality on a whim
Yes, that's the way it works. People should be able to do that if they links to more than one country.
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40 minutes ago, Technik said:It most certainly doe's not say anything of the sort within the IOC statement. Post's like yours are the type that cause the arguements. none of the points made in your post appear in the linked statement that was posted by Grachan.
The statement as issued by the IOC Executive Board says exactly that, if you could be bothered to go and read it on the IOC website which is surely the authoritative source. I quoted part of that statement verbatim, so not sure what the confusion is on your part, but you can read it for yourself here...
No, the link that Grachan posted did not say that, because it was an article in the Gulf Times that left out the important detail.
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4 hours ago, hammer1969 said:Fortunately I do not have to sort out all the ifs and buts in these awful times the Ukranian, and many Russian ordinary citizens find themselves in. Loktaev, although born in Russia, in the searches I have done is listed as Ukranian nationality, so I'll leave it to the people who issue the entry Visas to sort that one out.
There are many Russians with Ukrainian parentage, or born in the Ukraine, and vice-versa. The two countries were intertwined for decades if not centuries, in the same way that Britain and Ireland have been.
That's the particular tragedy of the situation - brethren are fighting brethren in many cases.
Whilst there clearly have to be sanctions against Russians representing Russia in sport, I honestly haven't come across a single expat Russian so far who supports the invasion. Should my Russian workmate who I sit opposite when I'm in the office really not be allowed to work, and by extension how are individuals in professional sport different to that?
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3 hours ago, Triple.H. said:All 3 should be banned from riding outside Russia. The only reason they have Polish passports/citizenship is to make it far easier to ride for Polish clubs. The clincher is which national federation do they represent.
No, it comes down to their passport(s) for individual purposes.
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54 minutes ago, Technik said:After reading this statement from the IOC I don't think the FIM have any option but to exclude Sayfutinov & Laguta & all other Russians from any of their events. I would also assume they will issue a directive to all member federations to exclude any competitor or official from any events within their territory.
The IOC are not proposing to ban individuals, and if Sayfutinov & Laguta are also Polish citizens (as suggested on here earlier) then I think it's unlikely they could be banned anyway.
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1 hour ago, Grachan said:The IOC is now calling for a ban on all Russians from World sport.
IOC calls for ban on Russians from world sport (gulf-times.com)
The IOC seems to be saying they can still compete as independent athletes, just not under any Russian banner. The Paralympics is coming up shortly, so the matter is pressing.
The relevant text is...
"Russian or Belarusian nationals, be it as individuals or teams, should be accepted only as neutral athletes or neutral teams. No national symbols, colours, flags or anthems should be displayed."
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1 hour ago, hammer1969 said:I don't know how, or even if, Emil and Artem voted and who for in the Russian elections but unfortunately at present they and all Russian sports persons need to be excluded from competing in other countries whether as individuals, part of a team or under a different flag. Yes it is hard on those Russians who don't agree with Putin but what about the Ukranians whose lives have been turned upside down. The sanctions being put in place against Russia have to be adhered to 100% as Putin seems to have completely lost the plot.
If they also have Polish citizenship then that would be academic anyway.
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8 hours ago, Technik said:Simon at the time was in dispute with the ACU. At the time he was the World Long Track Champion & wanted to race in all the major events in the European calender. THE ACU insisted that Simon must race in the British grasstrack championship for which he would have been happy to do, however as he had missed the previous seasons championship he would need to ride in a minimum of 6 club events then the qualifing round before the British final & if he didn't do this then the ACU would not enter him in the Long track Championship. Simon was not prepared to give up 8 weeks racing as the champion & found a loophole. That loophole was to race under a Dutch licence, Their only stipulation was that he would race for the Dutch speedway team also. Ironicly another rider was also having issues with his own federation at the same time. The Italian Armando Castanga & both riders represented the Dutch national team in a pairs event in Russia.
Well it's a difficult one as it would hardly be fair on other riders if there was an established qualification process that one rider could bypass. As it was, he still had to do a certain number of meetings in the Netherlands (one of which was a speedway meeting that I went to), although from memory they were on Saturdays so maybe he didn't need to miss an lucrative grasstrack/longtrack bookings as a result.
I seem to remember though, that riders needed to finish in the top 20 of the British Masters to get a licence to race internationally, which strikes me as being nothing but restraint of trade and probably illegal.
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6 hours ago, enotian said:So yes a big ask but I don't think we can continue with these quasi bans which allow Russians to compete just without a flag or anthem.
I thought that was farcical appeasement given their 'ban' was because of state sponsorship of doping programmes. To then allow them back to compete as a Russian team, however it was dressed up, was no sanction at all.
No particular problem with Russians continuing to compete as independent individuals (e.g. tennis players and speedway riders), but teams and individuals officially representing Russia should not be allowed.
Life isn't fair. When the UK left the EU, British citizens immediately lost a lot of rights regardless of how they'd voted in the referendum, and that wasn't even about starting a war.
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7 hours ago, steve roberts said:Oxford's announcer, Dave Hammond, was one of the best. Nice bloke too!
Is Dave Hammond still around?
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15 hours ago, Tsunami said:He changed to commentating on the final lap at Reading and was just as annoying.
Every time he opened his mouth he was annoying, especially when he forgot which track he was supposed to be at.
I do actually think it's a difficult job, especially in speedway where you've got to fill a lot of dead time and there's only so many things you can say about four riders going around in circles. I didn't find him too bad as a deejay years ago, albeit a bit Smashie and Nicey, but it was better when he just read out the results at the speedway.
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On 6/14/2020 at 3:32 AM, racers and royals said:I am just watching this is your life with the 3 Bee Gee`s. it said that one of their first singing jobs in 1959 was singing from the back of a van at the Brisbane Speedway to the speedway crowd. . Is this a well known story ? Speedway promoter Bill Goode(?) has just been named.
This reply is a bit late, but the story is quite well known in the Brisbane area at least, and there's a Bee Gees trail in Redcliffe which is a sort of outer coastal suburb of Brisbane.
I cycle over to Redcliffe occasionally.
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3 hours ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:BSI did try don't they taking the GPs to Norway, Australia,New Zealand possibly even Finland? This country's all have some form of speedway competition already there so no matter how small at least some sort of cure support. I remember Prince Albert of Monaco being present at one of the early Cardiff GPs with a veiw of taking one to Monaco. Nothing ever happened to that idea.
Well speedway really only has a sizeable following in about 3 or 4 countries, but the BSI didn't really seem to do much in the way of the promotion in the smaller markets. Only seemed to be interested in getting the staging fees from the local promoters and leaving it all to them, or where they promoted it themselves to fulfil some sort of contractual obligation, to do it as cheaply as possible.
With Monaco, I'd imagine they were under the impression they could wrangle a sizeable staging fee out of the local organisers, but the Grimaldis didn't get where they are by giving their money away. Especially not on a sport with the sort of demographic that speedway has.
There probably was some sort of reasonable attempt in the earlier years to take the SGP to better venues as well as extend the appeal to a wider range of countries, but I think in the end they realised they weren't going to grow it and largely decided to run things at a relatively modest level without pushing the boat out too much.
3 hours ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:Lets see how the new promotion gets on.
Think a new promotion is long overdue and it'll be interesting to see whether they take things further than ING/BSI.
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5 minutes ago, Najjer said:Yep - each signing was assigned a different squad number they had to keep. I think by the end of the season didn’t Oxford end up on 30 something? No surprise but the idea was quickly dropped at the following AGM
If I remember, it was to do with team race suit covers which were made of some sort of stretchy material to which you couldn't easily attach different numbers.
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1 minute ago, enotian said:No different to when squad numbers were introduced in football and it doesn't seem to matter in SGP.
Didn't speedway briefly use squad numbers a few years ago? So riders had both a squad and riding number...
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7 hours ago, steve roberts said:Unfortunately I have no knowledge of the present heat formula and pairings just basing my observation on the old 13/15 heat formula and I'm guessing that things are very different now which is what I guess this particular narrative is about? Under the previous system having a "Star" rider programmed at Number Four gave you a potentially strong pairing in the last heat away from home during the 13 heat formula. Ivan Mauger occasionally rode at Number Two at the County Ground to off-set any potential tactical move by the away team.
Under the 'old' 13-heat format, the order of 1, 3, 4, 5 probably didn't really matter so much provided a strong rider was paired with a weaker one in each heat.
With the 'new' 15-heat format, putting your No.1 at 2 or 4 would unbalance what are intended to be heats for weaker riders, and then mean that Heat 13 wouldn't feature the strongest riders as intended.
The issue of needing your best riders in the last heat doesn't really apply to the 15-heat format as the last 3 programmed heats are essentially the same riding positions pitted against each other, followed by the nominated which you can put your two preferred riders in anyway.
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On 12/7/2021 at 8:28 PM, TINYS said:If Welsh rules are anything like Englands then they change with the wind.
And even more ignored in practice, despite being supposedly stricter.
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4 hours ago, mikebv said:Then. Three heats of managers choosing pairs, winning team name theirs first, then losing team pick theirs, and losing team pick two out of the three gate positions, winning team then have what heat is left...
Last three heats lowest to highest scorers, losing team choose their gates for one heat, the winning team then get the other available, then heat 15 is a coin toss..
Would involve a lot of writing in the programme...
For Heat 15, I'd also leave the choice to the losing team, or the away team if the scores are level.
However, I think I'd have 6-rider teams with 5 & 6 as the reserves and 1-4 can be named in any order.
I'd then pair 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 and have them all ride against each other, separated by a reserves race (5 races). Then pair 1 & 5, 3 & 6 and 2 & 4, and have them ride against each other (9 races). So Nos 1-4 would ride against each other twice, and against the opposition reserves once. Nos 5 & 6 would ride against the opposition reserves twice (including in the reserves races), and against the opposition 1-4 twice. Heat 15 could be nominated.
4 hours ago, mikebv said:15 heats in total, only one tac sub in heats 10 to 14 allowed if 8 behind, as gate positions are also used to gain an advantage, and all riders of a reasonable ability level to cover even a missing No1 if the RR facilty is fit for purpose....
I'd look at a handicap scoring system for replacing a No. 1 or even heat leader, so that guests would not be necessary.
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4 hours ago, orion said:Spot on ... all to be a fly on the wall as Clark and co plot there next step to close the speedway down for good . Not sure funny is the right word but can't wait to see what the next move is to stop us racing next season
Surely at some point, it would actually be easier to build a basic stadium and then either let it go bust naturally, or be forced out of business by the noise complaints from the neighbours. How much is the current charade costing...?
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13 hours ago, enotian said:The 15 heat format is pretty good in that it provides a min of 4 rides from 4 different programmed gates for each rider. Not sure if each rider faces every opponent?
Sort of...
1 meets 1 twice, 2, 3, 4, 5 twice and 6 (missing 7)
2 meets 1, 2 twice, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
3 home meets 1, 2, 3 twice, 4, 5, 6 twice (missing 7) / 3 away meets 1, 2, 3 twice, 4, 5, 6, 7
4 meets 1, 2, 3, 4 twice, 5, 6, 7 / 4 away meets 1, 2, 3, 4 twice, 5, 6 twice (missing 7)
5 meets 1 twice, 2 3, 4, 5 twice, 6, 7
6 home meets 1, 2, 3, 4 twice, 6, 7 twice (missing 5) / 6 away meets 1, 2, 3 twice, 4, 6, 7 twice (missing 5)
7 home meets 2, 3, 5, 6 twice, 7 three times (missing 1 & 4) / 7 away meets 2, 4, 5, 6 twice, 7 three times (missing 1 & 3)
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29 minutes ago, HenryW said:I've always found it strange that, in a league that has team building so tightly dictated by "averages", the race format gives such wildly different standards of opposition to riders based on which number they are racing at.
It's not really possible to give a well balanced format with 7 rider teams over 15 heats. The 13-heat format was a bit better, although the No.2 position was a bit of quirk.
It can be done with 6 rider teams, but that causes issues with riders having too many rides too close together, especially if rider replacement and/or tactical substitutions are used. It can also be done with 7 rider teams over 18 heats, as with the old test match format, but that makes for too long a match and the format is a bit repetitive and boring.
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10 minutes ago, Triple.H. said:Was it the late Jon Cook who suggested a team X points behind could choose gate positions, as in we'll go off 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 etc. I think thats worth a go, at the end of the day anything to shake up the same old familiar format must be worth a try.
As I remember, there was a similar rule before fixed gate positions were introduced around 1988 - albeit the choice was 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. A team 6 points behind could choose gate positions and/or bring in a tactical substitute.
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4 hours ago, Najjer said:Isn’t that part of the tactical knowledge the team managers would need though - you could put your stronger rider at no.2 but likely to leave you weaker in heat 12 or 13 potentially.
Under the old 13-heat format, the line-ups for Heats 12 and 13 were naturally more balanced even if you arranged Nos 1, 3, 5 and 4 in different way, based on how things would need to be for the initial heats - 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11.
With the 15-heat format, Heats 8 and 14 were designed to be weaker heats for the second strings and reserves, based on the fact that you'll usually want one of your strongest riders at No. 5 as that position is paired with a reserve three times. The 15-heat format is a bit of a kludge really, even though the traditional 13-heat format had its quirks.
Should Laguta and Emil be kicked out of the GP Series?
in Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup
Posted
And I like I said, are you going to be banning every expat Russian from working, even though most have nothing to do with Putin's regime?
We're not talking about Russian teams or riders officially representing Russia - we all agree they should be banned. It's about individuals being allowed to work and earn a living, even if that's riding in the SGP.