NeilWatson

This one? 29th April 2013 COVENTRY were left battered and bemused at Brandon as local rivals Wolverhampton swept to an emphatic 59-31 away victory. The form book prior to the meeting would have made the in-form Monmore men favourites to extend their impressive start to the season – but not to inflict the Buildbase Bees’ heaviest home defeat of the modern era. Yet there could be no argument over the gulf between the sides, with Tai Woffinden and Freddie Lindgren both scoring maximums for the visitors, helped by plentiful support from the lower-order. Woffinden was only once threatened, that coming in Heat 11 by a bold effort from Coventry captain Scott Nicholls who charged inside the team-riding Woffinden and Ty Proctor going into the last lap. Woffinden, however, turned back for the inside and beat Nicholls into the third bend to keep his unbeaten run going. Nicholls had the mild consolation of ending Proctor’s maximum hopes with second place, and he was also the nearest to beating Lindgren until the Swede switched inside him off the fourth bend in Heat 13. A night of catastrophe started badly with Aaron Summers falling in Heat 1 and Krzysztof Kasprzak conceding maximum points to Woffinden and Proctor. The margin was held at four points after Heat 4, but Wolves put the match beyond doubt by the halfway stage with a devastating run of four successive 5-1s starting in Heat 5. One of those saw Nicholls outgunned by Ricky Wells and Adam Skornicki when on a tactical ride, and Grzegorz Zengota’s effort for double points in Heat 12 was similarly unsuccessful. By that stage it was damage limitation, with Kasprzak and Summers supplying a rare 5-1 for the Bees in Heat 10, and returning duo Olly Allen and Stuart Robson teaming up in Heat 14. Both of the newcomers scored to the level expected and Allen was testing machinery on the circuit following the conclusion of the meeting – which happened in predictable fashion with Woffinden and Lindgren taking Wolves to the brink of the 60-point mark with a 5-1 in Heat 15. Coventry promoter Mick Horton said: “All I can do is apologise to the fans who turned out tonight. I think that’s probably the worst performance I’ve seen from a team in Coventry colours, and live on television as well. It’s devastating. “All you can do is try to keep spirits up. We have to dig in and hope we can pull out a win from the next meeting against Lakeside, but really everyone is lost for words at the moment. “Our top two aren’t firing and then it’s like a domino effect. Everyone is low, and I don’t understand it – but fair play to Wolverhampton, they thoroughly deserved it. Something is going wrong with our boys but no rider goes out to deliberately lose a race.” BUILDBASE BEES 31: Stuart Robson 6+1, Grzegorz Zengota 6, Olly Allen 6, Scott Nicholls 5+1, Aaron Summers 5, Krzysztof Kasprzak 3+1, Michal Szczepaniak 0. WOLVERHAMPTON 59: Tai Woffinden 15, Freddie Lindgren 12+3, Ludvig Lindgren 9+1, Ricky Wells 9, Ty Proctor 7+3, Jacob Thorssell 4, Adam Skornicki 3+1. BUILDBASE BEES 31 Krzysztof Kasprzak 1 R 2* 0 = 3+1 Aaron Summers F 1 1 3 0 = 5 Grzegorz Zengota 3 1 F 1^ 1 = 6 Olly Allen 1 0 2 3 = 6 Scott Nicholls 1* 1^ 2 1 = 5+1 Michal Szczepaniak 0 0 0 = 0 Stuart Robson 2 2 0 0 2* = 6+1 WOLVERHAMPTON 59 Tai Woffinden 3 3 3 3 3 = 15 Ty Proctor 2* 2* 2* 1 = 7+3 Ricky Wells 2 3 1 3 = 9 Adam Skornicki 0 2* 0 1 = 3+1 Freddie Lindgren 3 2* 3 2* 2* = 12+3 Ludvig Lindgren 3 3 1 2* = 9+1 Jacob Thorssell 1 0 3 0 = 4 1 WOFFINDEN 58.8 Proctor, Kasprzak, Summers (f) (1-5) 2 L.LINDGREN 59.8 Robson, Thorssell, Szczepaniak (3-9) 3 ZENGOTA 60.1 Wells, Allen, Skornicki (7-11) 4 F.LINDGREN 59.4 Robson, Nicholls, Thorssell (10-14) 5 WOFFINDEN 58.9 Proctor, Zengota, Allen (11-19) 6 L.LINDGREN 60.4 F.Lindgren, Summers, Kasprzak (ret) (12-24) 7 WELLS 60.1 Skornicki, Nicholls^, Szczepaniak (13-29) 8 THORSSELL 60.3 Proctor, Summers, Robson (14-34) 9 F.LINDGREN 60.9 Allen, L.Lindgren, Zengota (f) (16-38) 10 SUMMERS 60.3 Kasprzak, Wells, Skornicki (21-39) 11 WOFFINDEN 60.5 Nicholls, Proctor, Szczepaniak (23-43) 12 WELLS 60.6 L.Lindgren, Zengota^, Robson (24-48) 13 WOFFINDEN 60.1 F.Lindgren, Nicholls, Kasprzak (25-53) 14 ALLEN 61.5 Robson, Skornicki, Thorssell (30-54) 15 WOFFINDEN 60.5 F.Lindgren, Zengota, Summers (31-59)

The Speedway Regulations are available to download from http://www.britishspeedway.co/2017_speedway_regulations_website.pdf IRR (Injured Rider Replacement) is a rule that covers injury during a meeting and is explained at Art 18.11

Using Jordan Jenkins again as an example, he has a 'current' average of 6.93, so once Mildenhall get new MAs they would be faced with replacing him with an unattached 3 point rider. Hardly an encouragement to bring on new talent - as the better they are the more the Club (and their business) would suffer. Tom Brennan at Eastbourne is currently running a 10 point average and is likely to be Eastbourne's No 1 in the first MAs - so their disadvantage would be even greater.

I'm surprised, given how quick some are to criticise, that no-one has commented on the very slick presentation last night - 100 minutes to complete the meeting (helped of course by no falls and just a couple of false starts). I don't recall the referee using the 2-minute warning much, the riders were being despatched from the pits very promptly. Allied with the exceptional racing and the warm evening this made for a very enjoyable meeting.

You're not wrong there........ http://www.peterboroughpanthers.co/news.php?extend.2918.2

Neither Leicester nor Sheffield have a scheduled fixture.

Currently 2.40 according to www.speedwaygb.co

Only until he gets his 'true' average for Poole

Brian Under the system you propose, one contemporary example would be that MIldenhall would not have been able to include Jordan Jenkins in their team this year. Their team building would have had to comprise seven riders who could commit 100% to the NDL fixture list, which would suggest journeyman riders. In my opinion Jordan Jenkins is exactly the type of rider that the NDL should embrace, both for now and for the future of speedway. I accept the current rule may be used in a different way on occasions, but it is always the Club official that decides what team to declare, not the rider. The NDL Is exactly what it says, a DEVELOPMENT league, and speedway will be the poorer if the whole flavour of the league changes.

The licence to run speedway at Coventry is 'on-ice' with the BSPA - it has NOT been removed from Mick/Coventry Speedway Ltd who remain the only party who could run speedway at Coventry in the future unless a sale of the licence is concluded.

No unbeaten riders - Holder beat both Lambert and Worrall in Heat 15

What a superb meeting, fantastic showpiece for the motorcycle show. Stunning racing.

A track-share for a few meetings early doors may have been viable. Running two Premiership teams at the same stadium (and on consecutive nights) would not.

This vindicates our team selection prior to the stadium problems, when Leicester have four of our 1-7 in their team and posters above are suggesting two more of the 1-7 as possible team members!

What's the alternative Brian? Without that rule you pretty much exclude from the NDL riders without a driving licence, and/or still at school, and/or needing to work to support their racing. The league becomes a haven for experienced professional riders towards the end of their career.

Nick Morris at 1, Brady Kurtz at 4

Tom Brennan is still 15 (until 2nd July)

Add in the costs of rent, insurance, staff costs, tyres, track preparation, equipment maintenance, mileage etc etc and the break-even point is nearer 2000.

The preview on the Stars website suggests that it is RR for Scott Campos. Newcastle are not riding today.

You'll be pleased to know that Lindgren actually leads the series, by virtue of his lower GP number!

Steve Boxall is not eligible (nor any rider annotated with NEG in the NDL green-sheets).

The declared 1-7 has to comply with this rule, there is no requirement for the declared line-up for a particular meeting to comply.

The 'Sport in Pictures' section today features a full-screen action shot from the Poole v Somerset meeting.

www.savecoventryspeedway.com/news.php?extend.42.1 explains the composition of the Group and how they are managing the fund-raising. (Edited to add exact link)

You're correct Steve that Mick retains ownership of the Coventry licence. However, none of the proceeds of the challenge meetings go to the Club.