Wee Eck

Many clubs have, under these circumstances, ignored the published terms and conditions and given free admission to ticket holders. The policy wasn’t designed for an event that only runs two heats as that is clearly unfair on supporters - £10 for two heats is outrageous. Stop hiding behind the rules, Birmingham, and do the decent thing. On the ambulance question, I think the SCB rule is that a second ambulance can’t just be any old vehicle with the word “ambulance” painted on it. It has to ge registered with DVLA as an ambulance and have both a driver and an attendant. My guess is a second ambulance would cost somewhere between £250 and £400 per meeting. Other than for tv meetings, I doubt there are many tracks that have two ambulances, but, given the current strain on the NHS, maybe more should consider it? A final point is to express my disappointment - that’s me using a gentle word - at how very limited the sympathy and support for Josh Auty has been. In the press release, Laurence Rogers referred to the abandonment of the meeting as being a “huge blow” for the promotion and that he felt sorry for the supporters. Not a word about feeling sorry for Josh or any update on his injuries which appear to have been serious enough to require him getting morphine. Birmingham supporters and Birmingham riders deserve better.

I thought that might be the case

What website are you looking at? All the fixtures are there: https://britishspeedway.co.uk/calendar/2022-fixtures-results/

There were, allegedly, reasons other that naivety that caused the demise of Rye House. When clubs run out of money to pay wages half way through a season, it’s because of lack of income. When clubs haven’t even been paying the wages, you have to wonder where the money has gone.

The format is shown in the SCB regulations: SR 16.6.1 (page 147). The whole rule book can be viewed on the SCB website.

Apologies - tried to post race card and failed. See next post

That counts as a starting offence as defined in 11.1.6

Rule 11.1.27 - a rider disqualified for a starting offence can either go off 15mtr or be replaced by a reserve. It’s only if a “qualified” is withdrawn can he be replaced by another qualified rider. It’s been that way for a considerable time

Apologies - I didn’t mean to offend. Meaningless in terms of the league or the cup.and meaningless in terms of the made up opposition. But only my opinion - I prefer a season opener, if it’s to be a glorified practice session, to be en open meeting, an interleague challenge or an inter club trophy. Something that matters, even if it’s just pride.

I’ve just had a look at the forecast. Not surprised! Wet and 3C. And a meaningless fixture. Not good for an opening night so sensible to call off early as they’ve done

R/r rides: Mountain heat 1 Ellis heat 5 Worrall heat 8 Howarth heat 11 ……but only a guess

I had to look Greebo up. Apparently “assigned that title by trendies and rudes”. Sounds about right. Definition as follows: A greebo is a person who listens to rock/punk/metal music and doesn't follow fashion trends. They don't usually class themselves as being a greebo but are assigned that title by trendies/rudes. Some of them may look quite threatening but generally they are all around nice people and they resist starting fights or arguments with people who do follow trends. However, if you were to ask one if they had anything against trendies or rude boys their answer would seldom be 'no'. Almost all Greebos have some kind of disliking towards trendies mainly because they make their lives hell. Abuse is hurled at them when they walk down the street and they frequently get the crap beaten out of them for absolutely no reason other than the fact that they are different.

Many thanks.

What’s the race format for this? 20 heats like in the GPs then the top six to the final or is there some sort of pre-final race off?

It’s all getting close now with the first meeting of the year less than 5 days away. Weather forecast looks good so I hope Josh gets a decent crowd.

What are the rules now on work visas? Do riders still have to be amongst the top two or three in state or national championships and, if so, how does Pearson qualify?

Acknowledged. But, with less than a week to go, there are still only 5 riders announced. And, to paraphrase Shania Twain, three of them don’t impress me much

Has anything been confirmed about Pearson - and Ellis - yet or is this all speculation? Vissing is a great signing and one I certainly didn’t see coming. He’ll do a solid job for the Brummies for sure

Is that a hint that LR has been “let go”? ”….a lot of work put in by the new shareholders” and “….things on and off track are looking promising”

Is the 4-3-2-0 scoring not only in the Super Heat? It would be good to have an explanation why this has been done. There were only 2 drawn meetings out of 20 (?) last year so hardly a major issue I’d have thought?

There are rules about tapping up but those don’t stop a rider going where he wants. Ask Swindon about Adrian Miedinski - on Swindon’s retained list but wouldn’t ride for them.

The retained list system is a private mechanism between promoters and so, as long as it doesn’t contravene equality diversity or, indeed, modern slavery legislation, there cannot be anything illegal about it. It is designed to provide a financial framework in the case of default. It has nothing to do with “employment” partly because no riders are employed. All teams have to have a minimum value of riders on their retained list but they cannot stop any of “their” riders signing for another team so there is nothing for riders to challenge. Promoters could challenge the system if they wanted but, so far, it seems they choose to work within the existing rules.

Yeh, you’re right there. Like Poole. Or, before Kennett packed it in, erm, Plymouth. And they’re not the only ones - how about Leicester, Redcar or, arguably, Scunthorpe. if a rethink is required, it’s to cut the number of teams down to fit the riders available. When Oxford were allowed in, Birmingham should have been refused as, despite all the hot air coming out from Perry Barr, there is no way they can put together a competitive team for the budget that seems to be available. In my opinion

I must admit to wondering about this. I’m not sure about Max. I think he’s got an English partner and that was one of his reasons for coming back to UK, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Lebedevs stays in Europe now. Maybe Josh Grajczonek could be persuaded to bring his new partner over to UK for a “few” weeks?

I think Plymouth have known for a few weeks now…..