El Pairs

[marko 956]

Would like to ask how many fans travelled to Swindon unaware that one or two of their riders would not be taking part.

There was no mention from Arena that Max wouldnt be riding for us and in fact Johnno has a higher average than Leigh so we had to use our 2nd and 4th best.

 

Ipswich looked in just as bad a situation (no Loram or Louis) as did Wolves with no Karlsson or Hamill.

[salty 2,202]

To be honest I was surprised only 3 out of the 22 cried off.

[Rob B 1,257]

Obviously delighted with our win yesterday, third time lucky, we had to beat Swindon eventually! But wasn't happy about a few things :

 

The format. With 6 teams in one group and 5 in the other I paid £20 and only got to see my team 4 times during the 25 heats of qualifying whilst others saw there's 5 times. In my opinion they should of just used the top 10 pairs averages, the bottom one missing out. Also no semi finals this year.

 

Missing riders, before hand the only rider we knew would be missing was Barker, then suddenly Loram, Karlsson and Max are missing. I presume Loram missing was something to do with this form he didn't sign but where were Karlsson and Max? I bet they will be riding tonight.

[Eastie 0]

The whole problem with the method they used to decide who went through to the final is floored.

 

The scoring is 4,3,2,0. So after the second bend, a team decides quickly to let the rider in front go, and settle for a heat winning 4-5. Thats the whole point of pairs. Beat the opposition by riding tactically. No need to win the race as second and third win the heat and see you qualify. Alegedly. So a teams scores 21 points, and ties at the top with another side. What happened when the two teams met? The team more tactically aware team rode out the guy at the back. While his mate went on to win the heat, they lost the heat 4-5. Great tactics. But no. The team that lost the heat 4-5 go through, because the team using tactics and winning the heat didn't have a rider win the race!

 

Winning the heat now doesn't count. Oh but wait. It does again in the final. What a pile of crap.

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Shovlar,

Its funny how you didn't mention about this rule last year or the year before

but this year its worked against Poole and dont we know it

[Grachan 7,362]

Adams = silly man.

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Leigh is a great team rider if his partner manages to gate with him, but when it comes to slowing a race, getting a partner through, it's not something he does. Normally I'd say fine. It's not his forte so why take the chance. In this though - a one off final - there really was no point going off into the distance like that and leaving Seb Ulamek to fend for himself against Crump and Stead.

 

How great would that final have been if Leigh had slowed right down as well and tried to temp Crumpie past him. We could have had all four going of the line together in a blanket finsish. It would have been great.

 

Now then. Just how obsessed are people with Steve Shovlar on here? A perfectly logical point to be raised, yet everyone is having anti-Poole rants. The qualification in the event of a tie was very odd, when the whole system was altered to make riding as a pair the main priority.

 

Who beat whom is the logical way, as the scoring was set up to always have a winner in the heats. In the event of a 3 way tie, then it could have gone to the number of times the riders finished as a pair. Or, as SCB says, have the normal system with bonus points counting in the event of a tie, which is effectively the same thing.

[ABS 231]

I just love the honesty of speedway riders - Kylmakorpi really had nothing to ride for, other than professional pride and points money, but gave it his all in beating Lindback and Pedersen. But for his ride in Heat 25, us Aces fans would nothing to celebrate.

 

I do believe that Kylmakorpi should be in the GP, but "politically" there are only around 4.5 million in Finland, so not a huge expansion market for BSI. I hope JK and Hans Andersen both qualify for the GPs next season, as both are better than quite a few of this years crop.

[John Leslie 3,213]

The format was bizarre.

25 qualifying races for 1 final made it a snoozathon.

 

In the group of 6 they shouldn't have had 15 heats with everyone racing every other pair.

They should have cut back so that each team met 4 of the 5 other teams. Then the top two from each group should have gone to 2 semis and a final.

That would have kept more interest, rather than half the teams being out of contention halfway through the 25 heat qualifying snoozefest.

 

The method of deciding a tie on race wins was also strange for a pairs contest...

 

BUT

 

The rules were clear to everyone. In the event of a tie race wins were more valuable. Crump reacted accordingly and went for those race wins. Poole also knew the rules. They weren't settling for a 5-4 in their last qualifying race, they were going for the win which they knew they needed. They failed to win and failed to qualify.

 

In the Final the 5-4 gave a win and again Crump acted accordingly (with the astute Thomas). Adams off the wrong gate, and shooting off into the distance abandoning his partner, got it wrong (with the help of the less than astute Rossiter).

 

You can't say Poole would have qualified if the rules had been different.

If the rules had been different, Crump, Stead and Thomas would have adapted their tactics to secure 5-4's rather than the race wins which the format demanded.

 

Under the rules Poole weren't good enough. Under different rules they still wouldn't be good enough.

It was the rightful winners who stood on the B&Q paste table at the end of the meeting.

For all neutrals it was good to see a BSPA event not won by the home team. And the whinging from Shovlar is the icing on the cake to show it was an enjoyable result.

[KEITH M 850]

All I can say is that this tournament sucks C*ck big time.  What the f*ck? Rant over.

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Taken from the Forum Rules and Guidelines section:

Obscenity

Contributors are prohibited from posting obscene language including swearing or images on the forum. Please use polite alternative words

 

Hope the mods have lit up his warning box for that, I have young children reading the forum and no doubt many others do to

Edited June 5, 2006 by KEITH M

[ABS 231]

Hope the mods have lit up his warning box for that, I have young children reading the forum and no doubt many others do to

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But had Poole won, it would have been "great event", "great format", "best team won", etc.

 

Still the Crump/Stead victory will further fuel his hatred of Belle Vue, which is bordering on the paranoid.

[John Leslie 3,213]

Taken from the Forum Rules and Guidelines section:

Obscenity

Contributors are prohibited from posting obscene language including swearing or images on the forum. Please use polite alternative words

 

Hope the mods have lit up his warning box for that, I have young children reading the forum and no doubt many others do to

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Absolutely right.

I meant to mention this in my post.

I hope the mods can edit his post to remove his disgusting obscenities before they are seen by more children.

 

I don't think the "report a post" button works.

[The H Man 252]

Agree with several others on here the whole format, wasn't well thought out. With only the winners going through from each group it meant several teams were out of contention after their first rides.

 

I thought the crowd would be bigger arrived at Blunsdon to find big queues outside, but that was thanks to the gates being closed. So had a kip in the car for half an hour and ventured into just before 5pm.

 

I'm sure Ian Thomas' comments were totally tounge in cheek and not meant to offend, whilst it was good to see Crumpy and Steady jumped off the parade truck to acknowledge the BV fans on the back straight!

 

And also we had the all girl band Barely Legal performing in the bar afterwards, which left a certain foum member (who will remain nameless) drooling.

[John Leslie 3,213]

I'm sure Ian Thomas' comments were totally tongue in cheek and not meant to offend, whilst it was good to see Crumpy and Steady jumped off the parade truck to acknowledge the BV fans on the back straight!

Good to see that when they were on the centre awaiting the presentation Thomas could be heard saying to Crump and Stead "When you get your trophies, there are Belle Vue fans there and there" (pointing to the back straight where he wanted them to acknowledge the fans - which they did).

Nice touch.

[ouch 1,191]

Well it was third time lucky for the Aces, and once again against a Swindon pairing. I thought we might have blown it when Steady (ironic nickname) fell whilst on a 7-2. Luckily for us the Reading pair didn’t perform as I expected and it left us the opportunity to again progress to the final.

Simon should remove the Kick Me sign he obviously had taped to his back. After Gollob in the WC last year, Jonsson at the GP and then Ulamek in the final he must feel a little apprehensive every time he takes to the track.

[orion 7,615]

Well it was third time lucky for the Aces, and once again against a Swindon pairing. I thought we might have blown it when Steady (ironic nickname) fell whilst on a 7-2. Luckily for us the Reading pair didn’t perform as I expected and it left us the opportunity to again progress to the final.

Simon should remove the Kick Me sign he obviously had taped to his back. After Gollob in the WC last year, Jonsson at the GP and then Ulamek in the final he must feel a little apprehensive every time he takes to the track.

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And any rider behind him must feel apprensive waiting for him to fall in front of them .

[barrow boy 119]

They all know the rules at the start of the meeting , DONT  come last in the final and what did Swindon do , they cocked it up bigtime.

Not only did they put Adams off 3 instead of 1 , Adams then decides to blast off and win by the proverbial country mile and thenn looks back for his teammate when he has crossed the finish line ....................good teamriding Lee 

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Yes they might have known the rules but was it explained to us. I didn't see the start. Even during the Poole V Arena race to decide Group B Nigel P said that with Poole riders in 2nd & 3rd places this was good enough but thought that with the way that Antonio was riding, Neil M had obviously not given this information to his riders. It would seem however that Poole were in fact very aware and were seeking the heat win to finish on more points. Must agree that the race between the tied teams should decide.