Grand Central

The minor points being made in favour of this change to picking the WC could have been made any year. But I don't remember that being the case. I think there was just about unanimity in welcoming BSIs use of the British Final for the wildcard place. So why is 2013 deemed different? A small part of me does think it a little unfair for us to all pick on Chris Harris for eagerly accepting the place. After all he could not possibly have the ability to say 'Thank you very much BSI. but I would prefer to earn the WC place at the British Final by racing against and beating my fellow countryman on an equal footing'. That would be ridiculous Why don't we have similar sympathy for, say, Danny King. If he had won the BF last year he would have been in the GP. This year he didn't even go to Edinburgh for the semi with that being a possibility. But no one told him. Or anyone else.

Well, he's scored six points in 2012, six points in 2011 and six points in 2010. So, I'm not sure if that tallys with your memory, or not. But hey, ho ... let's all look forward to another six points for the GB star.

Let's hope that come June 1st Chris can be relied upon to come up with just the right type of performance that will maximise any possible discomfort to BSI. Now, which would that be? a] Win the meeting or do well enough to scream in their face 'see, you should have seeded me again', or, b] Do so badly that he embarasses both himself and those people that picked him, or, c] Declare that he can live the lie no longer and own up to being Paul Bellamy's love child answers on a postcard to Speedway Star.

No apology needed, but I do think that most contrubutors here understood the qualification method. Just to clarify. If the old method of giving the wildcard place to the highest placed non GP rider was in place this year then any of the following riders could earn it Danny King, Craig Cook, Edward Kennett, Richie Worrall, Stuart Robson, James Wright, Josh Auty, Olly Allen, Richard Hall, Ashley Birks, Chris Schramm, Scott Nicholls, Simon Stead, Ben Barker AND CHRIS HARRIS Under this years system one rider is getting the place without earning it CHRIS HARRIS Not really an improved system is it?

I wonder if Chris ever suffers any pangs of personal embarrasment at the 'special treatment' he is given by BSI. At best, he looks like the Teacher's Pet. At worst he is being labelled like the 'special needs' kid who gets the remedial help.

Er, the one who won his place via the British Final? Just a thought. Or is 2013 different for a reason I don't understand.

Bull Shit Initiative

Yes they coped well ... so much better than being taken back to the sterile atmosphere of Isleworth to listen to Heuwen/Ermolenko. Does anyone know if Europsort do have intentions to have studio coverage .. and if so their address to canvas against any such move. The world feed works on it's own.

Unfortunately the weather spoilt it ... You just about see the back straight through the fog, but only just!

Fair enough ... But ... A Rugby League pitch was mentioned in the original MEN report on the go-ahead, so it is hardly surprising that it's possibilities would be discussed. Do you know anything more?

I'm a little unsure where the figure of £75,000 a year has come from. It sounds like the maths of the infants class. A £4.5 loan to be repaid over 60 years ... isn't that the same as a mortgage? Is there to be no interest over the full term?

Not really true that theory though, is it? It also means that is just a little more difficult for riders further back to make up a few extra points in one GP; therefore not aiding them put in a challenge. One extra query. What happened to the winter decision not to have the Semi-Final gate picks done at the "desk" but instead at the rider's pit bay. Quietly shelved?

You're absolutely right. Keeping the feed going just worked better. The package that BSI create for the world feed is a complete one that lasts 3 hours it does not need to be "added to". The extra money Sky paid for Studio, Huewen and, worst of all, Ermolenko actually seemed to detract from the presentation overall. I just hope that Eurosport don't change that approach for the European stagings.

Great coverage of the GP. Reallly liked the commentary team. The Aussie guy could get on your nerves if we had him more often but Johnno is streets ahead of any other co-commentator we have. Don't know who did the not-in-vision voiceover links for British Eurosport but that was so much better than having the studio rubbish that Sky have given us for the past 15 years.

Drier in February, maybe. But you wouldn't get me out of the warmth to go freeze my wotsits off at Speedway, just because the track was usable.

Oh, dear. That sounds as if the 'official' word from Eurosport is going to be unreliable. I do not think Pearson and Tatum are actually doing the world feed this time. Can someone email them.

I agree as well.

Dong away with the stale studio presentation entirely would be better.

This topic was asking the question 'How to make Speedway more appealing to Younger fans?' And we haven't really come up with much, have we? Just restating how exciting WE think a Speedway can be is not the same as offering anything new to the youngsters, is it? More promotion is always vaunted; as if that was the answer on it's own. Surely we are fooling ourselves to think that. The truth is that standing outside watching Live Sport (with the exception of football) is not a popular activity for many teenagers. And it is not going to increase in popularity in the future either, is it?

I could not agree more. Thankfully you have managed to produce a post that unites pretty much all of us. Thank You.

You mention logic in your second post here, and I am intrigued about your's. Your first post makes plain that you believe that ONLY people who have NOT committed Darcy's offences are qualified to contribute. Your second post infers that those very people cannot have a valid opinion. I am unsure how one is supposed to debate any matter if these are the rules.

Bless you, my son. But I don't think Priests are the ones with an unblemished reputation, are they?

Time and again in this debate someone or another has trotted out this ridiculous line. Usually in an attempt to molify the outrage at Darcy and sometimes just to stifle the discussion. You may, yourself have been a drug user OR you may hold the perperse view of the world is that everyone else has been. But they haven't. And I haven't. Not that any of us need to meet YOUR qualification requirements to contribute, thanks all the same. Methinks more of us 'qualify' that you thinks.

For someone who is forever waxing lyrical about the HD productions why are you, and sky, so wedded to such 2D presentation ideas. Just about every GP for years has been churned out using the same formula. Five bursts of four races bookended by inane chat from Isleworth from boring presenter to same-old 'regular guest'. And then we have EXACTLY the same chit-chat from the studio about the semis/Finals as we had just two weeks earlier. It is always the same. Sky were doing that back in the mid-nineties when the whole thing started. Lets hope for some new ideas from whoever the new people are. And PS NO MORE ERMOLENKO! He just talks drivel.

Middleditch's latest, rational, comments just published in the Star seemed to have moved us a little beyond the discussion of him being misquoted or not in the Poole Echo. But your post here seems to muddy the waters further. This entire thread was discussing the Echo's publication of an interview they did with Middleditch after the incident had been reported in Australia. The Queensland paper has never, to my knowledge, been implicated as the source of that quote.