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SCB 2018 rule that “riders must remain astride their machine when ‘gardening’ at the start-line. As we saw/heard last night in the first meeting of the season at Belle Vue, 3 riders excluded having got off their bikes to prepare their start position. Riders/managers complaining of this rule. I believe rule possibly brought in to speed meetings up. But it doesn’t. Riders in my opinion should be able to prepare their start position, have a cup of tea or what ever within the 2 minutes allotted time. As in Poland a digital clock should be placed by the start, the referee starts the 2min. count down and if a rider not ready, then he is excluded. This system should be in place for all leagues in all countries. Same rule everywhere.

Especially the shorter ones?

Sad but true on all count JC. . .and I still have the Shell suits! :-) We may not have seen eye to eye on some occasions but there is no doubt that you were a forward thinker who had great ideas to move the sport into a new direction and bring it up to date. The atmosphere that we all generate in that amazing era was 2nd to none and one of the best times I can remember in speedway.

He has saved plenty by ensuring his team look will look like the Poundland Pirates

JPB replaced by both teams on the same day he walks.........don't let the door hit you on the @rse on your way out

Looks like a swift and excellent resolution to the issue from Coventry. From what i have seen Connor is far more professionally setup than JPB was and i feel will provide more consistent results from the number 1 jacket. Add in that he is familiar with riding alongside Armstrong & Ruddick from his Mildenhall days and i feel that this move will actually make Coventry stronger in the long term.

As usual it's a knee jerk reaction to appease the vociferous minority who whinge about a complete triviality such as 'gardening'. As said, 2 minute warning, ready to race when clock hits zero, no more gardening at that point. Oh so simple.

You’ve got to feel sorry for Tungate who has no chance of gardening astride his bike

You can be prepared as you like and just have absolutely no luck on any given night, it happens although fortunately not very often. Panning the poor chap is pretty harsh but not unexpected on this platform.....Belle Vue fans know what Tungate can do and won't be too concerned.

I feel sorry for any new promotion team at Lynn, as I think it is hard to meet the expectations of fans who supported the club during that era... and for good reason. The parade track rolling out to the intro of 'welcome to the jungle' always made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and everyone involved (from fans to riders) were emotionally immersed in the club. 9 titles in 4 years (from memory) is as good as it gets and shows what the club was all about back then. Unfortunately since then the club has lost yourself, Rob Lyon and me and personally I do not believe any have been appropriately replaced... although not through lack of trying as I did recently read a job advertisement for a centre green announcer who must like wearing illuminus shell suits

Didn't finish a race all night? That doesn't happen to the best riders, who are usually the best prepared.

Teams will be getting a bit fed up at being let down by this lad. He's not gone out of his way to make friends in the sport and I'm sure he won't be missed (especially in Sheffield, Glasgow and Coventry).

Jury is out for me regarding Holder. Very busy start to the season with Poole Fri, Torun Sat, Sheffield Sun. Obviously it would have been Wolves Mon too! Dont think he will rock the boat too much as a testimonial is around the corner. Feel sure he would prefer it at Poole. I dont see him as being a real top line NO.1 anymore. Happy to be proved wrong though. Not overly bothered, as long as Poole do well. Happy to see all our riders chip in with some decent scores. Whatever unfolds, I hope everyone enjoys their speedway and there not any controversial moves later on!

If a rider keeps gardening just before two minutes is up, its a choice to ignore the start marshall. So he’s earned an exclusion. Very simple.

Just did. Ha ha

Exclude them under the 2 minutes then, if it's expired.

Jordan Tyrer, Saul Bulley, or for experience go for David Speight. There is, also, your mate, Mason Searsby who are all not fixed up yet.

My all time favourite rider.

I can understand why people don't want to spend their money, it's their money, they do what they want with it If I really liked a drink, for example, and they changed the ingredients in the drink, and I didn't like it anymore, I wouldn't keep buying it just because it was my favourite before, I would stop, same theory applies for sports teams, music, just about anything, so I can see where these people are coming from, me however, I know I will still love watching the speedway on a Sunday night And think it's still worth the money

Sounds like a typical first meeting some riders better than expected others no so good, mechanical gremlins that need ironing out overall a good night's entertainment. It isn't what happens on the first meeting that define your season.

Re the gardening - it serves no purpose to insist the rider remains on the bike. The 2 minutes is 2 minutes whether they are on the bike or doing a dance around it...

Jenga in talking sh*te shocker but its only banter isn't it. On another subject breaking news Jenga has found another brain cell to go with the one he already had , Joined up writing should now be achievable with lots of practice. Hopefully in years to come the dribbling will stop fully which should save a fortune in washing powder cleaning his bibs.

What a load of old tosh as usual, well happy with the performance from the Robins also for the Aces Bewley/Tungate had bike problems.Zach has just comeback from a serious back injury these meetings are there to blow away the cobwebs and get ready for the league programme.

Now now jealousy!

Just because we don't appear to have a world beating team doesn't mean that the racing won't be entertaining. When we had the all conquering team racking up 5-1 after 5-1 it may have been nice to win but often the actual racing was poor. I'll reserve judgement and be prepared to watch some exciting heats.

Looks like the guy is a waste of space.Cant see Glasgow being messed about.

Bl**dy Day-Glo poncey team suits!

who's dummies out now then

Season over according to some posters on here!!!!

Pretty sure he got a big signing on deal from Glasgow wonder if they will get it back

which to be fair is correct,any official body can only be interested in an official contract,any thin classed as unofficial should be nothing to the with an Official body

Saw him in action at Sittingbourne in September and was very impressed by him. Has a classic effortless style and thought he would have been snapped up by Scunny for their no.7 this Season. Having also seen JPB riding, personally I would have chosen JT ahead of him. Think the Tigs have just improved their prospects for 2018 with this signing.

No way !!!

They usually do the Northern Team promo thing (can't remember its official title) on the Official Practice day on the Monday as well. This may have been put on the back burner with finalising the team taking priority. Hopefully the practice still goes ahead this weekend, weather looks OK at the moment.

Dont forget to spend your hard earned pennies paying in each week mind... and your 20/80 draw ticket.

If that team were riding in the street I'd shut the curtains. I'm hoping the roynan rumour is a windup...

So sitting on your bike 2 meters from the tapes until the clock shows "15 secs to go" is OK, but getting off your bike to dig your groove to be ready by "40 secs to go" is not?

The rule is a good thing. It's just a case of the riders getting into the habit of staying ON their bikes at the start line. In saying that, ALL tracks should have a 2 minute clock on track.

Last team named and draw for Saturday`s opening round eKantor.pl Team: 1. Piotr Protasiewicz 2. Patryk Dudek 13. Grzegorz Zengota Fogo Power: 3. Jarosław Hampel 4. Emil Sajfutdinow 14. Janusz Kołodziej Starkom Racing Team: 5. Vaclav Milik 6. Gleb Czugunow Monster Energy Speedway Team: 7. Greg Hancock 8. Paweł Przedpełski 16. Chris Holder Team Bauhaus: 9. Andreas Jonsson 10. Jacob Thorssell 17. Wiktor Lampart Trans MF Pro Race Team: 11. Martin Smolinski 12. Leon Madsen 18. Andrzej Lebiediew

The riders had been told of the new rule but as Fricke said "old habits die hard". Overall, there was much less gardening so maybe the new rule has achieved it's purpose although we probably need the evidence of more than one meeting before making a judgement.

Yes. I suspect it may not be about him, let's give the lad a break and move on.

I expect a lot of the trouble tonight was habit, one would like to think that after a few meetings and exclusions riders will learn to poverty the new rule.

The die hards found out that he only attended when it was deep and hounded him out, he became disillusioned with speedway and now lives a solitary life in a pigeon cree with only distant memories and a jason king framed photograph to keep him going. :-(

Whos fault is it then? The fans?? I will always suppport them and always will but im not prepared to turn up in the freezing cold to watch us get battered and to pay for the privilege... its a huge gamble putting this team out and sustaining any sort of paying fan base imo. you say in a later post about die hards? Can you tell us how you are a die hard, how long youve been one, how long youve attended and more importantly do you pay to get in?? ive been going best part of 40 years, ive worked on the track, i cleaned riders leathers as a youngin, been a pusher, spannered here and there for a few riders, text updates to the updates site when no one else would, took part in fundraising a good few years ago, lifted sheets at 10'clock at night and paid my entrance fee every week for the past 10/15/20 years etc. what makes you a die hard and me not?? I would guess you are probably part of the inner sanctum at Newcastle speedway coming on here to have a go at those who dare to question or have a different opinion.

Too late after losing 3/4 home matches the damage will have already been done.

That's a bit harsh. None of us know the reasons so we shouldn't jump to conclusions. In the meantime no doubt Ryan will step in for the match against the monarchs

If they did that and they showed old meetings including guests and R/R would you wish to leave??

Full of young whippersnappers like Tony Aiken and Jon Armstrong...young guys with potential to go far in this sport!

Point proven stick in the mud the reason the sports ruined .it's all foreigners fault isn't it there's no one watching the sport is the reason it's on its knees because it's not been allowed to progress and get with the times like other sports because old fuddy duddys are so out of touch with the modern world it's untrue

Check out https://www.airbnb.co.uk/s/Warsaw--Poland/homes?place_id=ChIJAZ-GmmbMHkcR_NPqiCq-8HI&query=Warsaw%2C Poland&refinement_paths[]=%2Fhomes&allow_override[]=&s_tag=eOI4ZEug There's more on offer than just bog standard hotels. I stayed in a flat last time, that was conveniently on the 2nd floor, with a Craft Beer pub on the ground floor. :-)