Grand Central

Because the body that controls the sport, the FIM, passed a ruling that they should. A small point, I know. But sufficient reason, nonetheless.

To save your blushes. A clue. What were we all doing last Monday, just seven days ago?

It is also a little odd that the referee cannot complete the programme notation correctly either. Jarek Hampel should be FN in Heat 4 not F. This may seem over pedantic. But this is an FIM event, and these are the Official signed off results; so you would think that the ref would be able to get it right. It's not actually difficult is it?

This is one of those areas where those that wax lyrical about the halcyon days come unstuck. The old small print of admission terms and conditions said 'should it be necessary through any cause to abandon the meeting prior to the start of the sixth race, readmission tickets issued will be valid for for any one of the next three meetings' So you got nowt back even if you only saw FIVE horrendous rain affected processions completed. Truth is. On this score, if nothing else We've never had it so good !

That just does not make sense. If the FZ increases footfall by 20,000; then it will do that wherever it is placed. It cannot make H&S sense to put it where that extra footfall is MORE congested. Or is the thinking that by making it deliberately more unpleasant to attend people will be coerced into keeping away?

Fair enough. Just a couple of extra points. Not really sure that it was any more disliked or outdated with the fans when it was removed than it ever had been. I can't say that I remember an increasing clamour on the terraces for its removal in the mid eighties that was not there ten, twenty or more years before. Equally I dont think the people that left at the interval were doing so with any great ill feeling. It suited them to do so. And they returned next time and quite happily did the same again, week after week. And on top of all that the BJL matches never really got those droves to turn around and stay to the bitter end either One little anecdote from my youth in the North. Quite few of my parents friends went to The Shay every week and left at the end of heat 13 (and before the interval) so that they could go back to their local and enjoy the rest of their Saturday night as they wished. The Speedway being just part of their premier weekend night out. When the a Dukes moved to Odsal in 86 they were champing at the bit to get out of the Stadium ASAP as they now had further to travel back to the local. In 1988 the match was extended to15 heats and the powers-that-be put the interval after Heat 10 AND there was then always an extra delay before the running of the nominated Heat 15. In one move there was no more chance of a 'complete ' Saturday at Speedway AND Pub. Their answer to this dilemma was to drop Odsal and go straight down the pub! PS Just to keep this relevent. John Louis rode some fantastic second half races in 1981 and 1982. More than one of his Scratch Race final wins over Kenny Carter during this time were superb. Some second halves may have been tame, but KC did not give him an inch!

I hold no particular brief for the 'old second half' but there is no value in changing history. Some people left after the main match, that is true. Some riders had no interest in them, but this was really only a very small handful of top men who had lucrative continental commitments to dash off to. The rest saw it them just extra races in which to earn money at their job. Cash earnt there was just as useful as cash earned during the match to most first team riders But these were the excuses which were waved around by the promoters masquerading as 'reasons' in the usual bogus PR. The single reason for the change was to cut costs. Just like the introduction of EDRs was (despite protestations of 'rider development'). Most tracks cut the number of 'premium cost races from 17 or 18 down to 15 in one single move. And gave us the BJL which was done on a shoestring. But they still managed to 'sell' the fact that the league match increased from 13 to 15 races as a reason for us to be grateful. But of course like all promoters bright ideas of cost cutting, it rarely works. By reducing the number of races they rode in, most ended up just bumping up the pay rate on their remaining races. Bonkers as always I am not advocating the return of second halves, just that reinventing the facts after almost thirty years needs to be curtailed.

The joy of watching a sport that has genuine integrity. EDIT: Even though it was not a deliberate 'fail' by Zmarlik. The very fact that we believe that this is how the rules are created and abused. Is bad enough.

With fewer riders in some races now. The referee may find it easier to make just one decision correctly.

I do wish someone would sort out airfences. It is far, far too common where the rider goes under the fence . And thereby misses the entire protective performance of it.

FIM deployed the Joker in Heat One. Craig Ackroyd.

Good grief. 1 second into the SWC. And Ackroyd throws down a marker. Idiot.

Oh, Phil, you've changed your post! I thought your first was a little ... provocative. Anyway, I wonder how long it will be be before real life imitates art. A drugs arrest at a meeting would even mark a new low point for us. Even considering our recent descent into farce and ignomy. Imagine the sort of 'statement' the SCB, BSPA - or god save us - Terry Russell would produce on the matter. Or the interview NP & KT - our very own Woodward and Bernstein - would have with the felon. .

Ah I remember this being said. If only we had been given advance warning of the one-time-only nature of his sincere apology offer. That it would be available within the limited time frame of that night and would last for just the duration he was being interviewed. That once. Done and dusted, After which he was washed so clean by the appreciative applause that any further expressions of any minor level of regret over the whole affair would be excessiive. I wonder if Tony Blair has considered the wondrous cleansing effect of a South Coast Awards night? His reputation and legacy could be restored so simply. .

A funny old week really. All the events of Monday night. And then the battle for the title of 'Worst PR in Speedway'. Darcy Wards' Woeful TV Interview vs. Terry Russell's P!ss Poor Statement. For a sport that almost prides itself on the dire nature of it's public relations. It takes something to have TWO such stinkers within 24 hours. Well done, lads. What's next?

I just love the way companies feel it necessary to produce a politicians statement. It is intended to sound so reasonable and conciliatory. When it is nothing of the sort at all. So much so that it just ends up showing them to be tawdry and rather disreputable. To use the word 'liaise' to describe the scene in the Pits that we all saw live is particularly comical. And, simultaneously, deeply disingenuous. It is easy to fib about the goings on behind closed doors. A bit more difficult when it is actually being broadcast in HD. .

Correct in every respect. Magic is my absolute Number One favourite of the moment. And Poole, in my personal experience, the best promoted Speedway in the UK. Phil is as blinkered and confused as Starman when it comes to 'their' Poole/Darcy issues.

.Do you actually think that he has any people around him that would qualify for such grandiose title as 'advisor to DW'. Apart from Muddlo ? Surely he just has a few mates with him. All of them with similar IQ. But then again Philip Rising has judged the interview a success. He detected 'contrition'. So if that is how the appearance will be reported. Who cares what normal people think, eh? .

.On this we agree. You are right. How you come to your conclusions on this issue is a complete mystery to me. .

Clearly they did. Nigel Pearson 'prepped' him throughout the interview itself! And still the gormless thicko in the middle could not make sensible use of it. To think that some people actually WANT this no mark anywhere near the World Championship Trophy. And the PR disaster that would then unfold.

Apparently he has learnt plenty. Specifically, to watch Greg Hancock, and his gating. Nothing about getting p!ssed the night before a GP though. So at least his fans will get the 'same old Darcy' back at the end of the month. .

Oh, for goodness sake! Have we not suffered enough this week already?

August 29, 1992. Would be the last day when that was not the case.

The principle of the Heat 10 type rule would be reasonable in most sports. But Speedway is not run in a reasonable way by people of principle. The licensed officials that have been at the centre of the last few televised disasters have been woeful in every respect. Messrs Clarke, Steel, Lawrence, Russell et al. A disgrace one and all.

This is factually incorrect. From 1968 to 1988, the regulations for Second Division/National League allowed for a guest ONLY where a rider was on international duty. That was obviously very, very rarely used. There was never a statutory facility for a guest for any other reason during this time. As with everything in Speedway it was the 'special dispensations' that came in from the early eighties that led to, sadly, more relaxation later. But for most of those twenty years most tracks hardly ever saw a second tier league match with any guests, at all.