Oxford vs Redcar - Champ playoffs - 24/09

[Bellers101 350]

5 hours ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Surely they can refuse. Bailey is British. British fixtures come first. Just say no to them. 

He didn't even get a ride. Pathetic situation!

[Redtruck 68]

8 hours ago, iainb said:

So Connor Bailey elects to miss a crucial play off meeting in the UK to not ride in Wroclaw! The same lad that elected to not ride for his country in the SoN2! This lad needs to work out which side his bread is buttered 

As discussed the same when Charles went out if he didn’t go and stayed to ride in the uk for Redcar it would mean a 28 day fim ban so wouldn’t be able to ride anywhere 

[foreverblue 6,125]

Bit pathetic from Masters to have a go at Hume for fighting for his position, as Danyon said on interview,he did nothing wrong.

[Bagpuss 10,843]

1 hour ago, foreverblue said:

Bit pathetic from Masters to have a go at Hume for fighting for his position, as Danyon said on interview,he did nothing wrong.

Masters can be a whingey plank as we've seen over the years, the only one I'd back him over was having a go at Pedersen in the Aussie GP

[Grachan 7,365]

10 hours ago, iainb said:

So Connor Bailey elects to miss a crucial play off meeting in the UK to not ride in Wroclaw! The same lad that elected to not ride for his country in the SoN2! This lad needs to work out which side his bread is buttered 

Don't know the whole situation here, but everyone knows the Poland get priority on Sundays. It's why the Premier League ride on Mondays and Thursdays, as these are the days we get priority (or at least it was last time I looked). So I guess he would have had no choice.

[Bojangles 609]

2 minutes ago, Grachan said:

Don't know the whole situation here, but everyone knows the Poland get priority on Sundays. It's why the Premier League ride on Mondays and Thursdays, as these are the days we get priority (or at least it was last time I looked). So I guess he would have had no choice.

We don't have priority on Thursdays anymore. We gave that up in the deal that allowed riders contracted to Ekstraliga teams to compete in more than one other league.

Polish priority on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

[iainb 5,206]

2 hours ago, Redtruck said:

As discussed the same when Charles went out if he didn’t go and stayed to ride in the uk for Redcar it would mean a 28 day fim ban so wouldn’t be able to ride anywhere 

 

13 minutes ago, Grachan said:

Don't know the whole situation here, but everyone knows the Poland get priority on Sundays. It's why the Premier League ride on Mondays and Thursdays, as these are the days we get priority (or at least it was last time I looked). So I guess he would have had no choice.

You always have a choice, this is all about contracts. If you've signed a contract for a British Club saying you'll be there for all league, cup & play off fixtures, anybody can say anything about reserved race days etc. it doesn't make a jot of difference... of course we don't know what's in Connor's contracts with his clubs.

Something is very wrong here and to just explain it away, like they did on BSN, with a throw away "That's Speedway" line is just not on. Poland used to just plunder our top boys in the top league... now they're dictating to us where and when our junior riders can ride.

I don't really care who's fault it is, at the end of the day the whole sport revolves around the play-offs and for riders to be missing to spectate at another meeting in a foreign country is just not on!

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by iainb

[Grachan 7,365]

14 minutes ago, Bojangles said:

We don't have priority on Thursdays anymore. We gave that up in the deal that allowed riders contracted to Ekstraliga teams to compete in more than one other league.

Polish priority on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

It's amazing the power that Poland holds over everyone at the moment. Just look at what happened with Tai Woffinden yesterday. The problem is that one day the sport will probably decline there too and there will be nothing left anywhere else.

[Grachan 7,365]

12 minutes ago, iainb said:

 

You always have a choice, this is all about contracts. If you've signed a contract for a British Club saying you'll be there for all league, cup & play off fixtures, anybody can say anything about reserved race days etc. it doesn't make a jot of difference... of course we don't know what's in Connor's contracts with his clubs.

Something is very wrong here and to just explain it away, like they did on BSN, with a throw away "That's Speedway" line is just not on. Poland used to just plunder our top boys in the top league... now they're dictating to us where and when our junior riders can ride.

I don't really care who's fault it is, at the end of the day the whole sport revolves around the play-offs and for riders to be missing to spectate at another meeting in a foreign country is just not on!

 

The thing is, this would have been known when he signed up for the Polish league. "That's speedway" actually sums it up perfectly.

[iainb 5,206]

2 minutes ago, Grachan said:

It's amazing the power that Poland holds over everyone at the moment. Just look at what happened with Tai Woffinden yesterday. The problem is that one day the sport will probably decline there too and there will be nothing left anywhere else.

During his evidence statement last week Phil Morris said that riders in the top echelon earn in excess of £1m per year and you have to assume that Woffy is one of these riders, so it's no surprise that when Poland say jump he asks how high?

Connor Bailey does not earn anywhere near that amount though, especially when he's not riding. I'll grant you that British Speedway doesn't help itself by showing it's riders, on the whole, no loyalty at all, but at the end of the day it's the fans that suffer as usual.

[Bojangles 609]

16 minutes ago, iainb said:

During his evidence statement last week Phil Morris said that riders in the top echelon earn in excess of £1m per year and you have to assume that Woffy is one of these riders, so it's no surprise that when Poland say jump he asks how high?

Connor Bailey does not earn anywhere near that amount though, especially when he's not riding. I'll grant you that British Speedway doesn't help itself by showing it's riders, on the whole, no loyalty at all, but at the end of the day it's the fans that suffer as usual.

While I agree with most of what you're saying, can you really blame Connor Bailey for signing for Wroclaw at the stage of the season where he knew he would only be required to race on a Sunday? He wasn't to know that a meeting would then be rearranged for a Sunday, not one of either clubs' dedicated race nights? Should he have turned down the chance to impress in Poland on the off chance?

Bigger issue for me is the fixture congestion/backlog that has caused clubs to try and cram in the playoff fixtures desperately on any day, even knowing they won't be able to field a full strength team.

[iainb 5,206]

1 minute ago, Bojangles said:

While I agree with most of what you're saying, can you really blame Connor Bailey for signing for Wroclaw at the stage of the season where he knew he would only be required to race on a Sunday? He wasn't to know that a meeting would then be rearranged for a Sunday, not one of either clubs' dedicated race nights? Should he have turned down the chance to impress in Poland on the off chance?

Bigger issue for me is the fixture congestion/backlog that has caused clubs to try and cram in the playoff fixtures desperately on any day, even knowing they won't be able to field a full strength team.

That's what I'm saying about these riders needing to make their mind up which side their bread is buttered... a guaranteed season in Britain with however many meetings that entails or the chance of a shot in Poland? At the moment the riders want to have their cake and eat it. Don't get me wrong I can totally understand why they do it as there are many clubs in the UK that show zero loyalty to riders, Leicester and then there are those that probably show too much, Edinburgh, Dayle Wood! So there is no "guarantee" of say 30 meetings a season in the UK and this is where it all falls down.

If Bailey was offered a season contract at the start of the year guaranteeing him a team place for the whole year as long as he raced in ALL fixtures, no matter when they were arranged for, he may be more inclined to turn down the Polish carrot. And until that happens, we're always going to have incidents like this and the fans that have followed a club all year all of a sudden get sh@t on come pay off time

 

[Bagpuss 10,843]

The issue for me is the fixtures and British speedway's inability to get fixtures done in a timely fashion. Oxford should never have had to ride a home fixture on a Sunday in mid September. It wasn't that long ago we were bemoaning the lack of British riders in Polish leagues, we can't now complain that they are missing our fixtures to be there when we can't get our own act together. 

[Fromafar 10,466]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

During his evidence statement last week Phil Morris said that riders in the top echelon earn in excess of £1m per year and you have to assume that Woffy is one of these riders, so it's no surprise that when Poland say jump he asks how high?

Connor Bailey does not earn anywhere near that amount though, especially when he's not riding. I'll grant you that British Speedway doesn't help itself by showing it's riders, on the whole, no loyalty at all, but at the end of the day it's the fans that suffer as usual.

Interestingly a number of years ago Marcin Rempala couldn’t commit to a season at  Berwick he earned more sitting in the pits in Poland and getting very few chances.

[iainb 5,206]

5 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Interestingly a number of years ago Marcin Rempala couldn’t commit to a season at  Berwick he earned more sitting in the pits in Poland and getting very few chances.

He is Polish though and Poland should be his bread and butter. British Riders riding for British Clubs on British Licences should be committed to Britain as their bread and butter, Poland should be the icing on the cake and in time maybe their bread and butter if they're good enough, at the moment they're just chasing a carrot...

I'm hungry now 

Edited September 25, 2023 by iainb