WembleyLion

The yellow exclusion light came on almost immediately following the clash on the home straight. The red lights came on a little later. Good to see James and Nathan shaking hands tonight.

I agree OM - I hope strong sanctions are taken against Jim Lawrence for his total mishandling of the situation.

I don't think anyone has blamed the ref for throwing punches. The criticism levelled was for his inept handling of the events prior to the start of heat 10.

Based on what I saw there will be plenty of evidence for the Police to press charges. I think there are a few who may not be sleeping too well whilst waiting for an invitation to assist the Police with their enquiries. I also hope that Jim Lawrence (the ref) is suitably punished as I am convinced none of this would have happened had he exercised due care and control.

Jim Lawrence the ref lost all control over the start and tempers were clearly becoming frayed. Lawrence could and should have prevented the situation by taking firmer and more decisive action before the start of the race. Once the race was underway Nathan was excluded for unfair riding and the red lights were put on and then a series of thoroughly unpleasant events took place which no doubt the Police who arrived at the scene will be investigating. Not nice to watch.

Well done Coventry for a comeback against a strong Kent team. I thought the Greenwood's rode very well and Danny Ayres was impressive. I also agree with the comments made about Chris 'rerun' Gay!

FIM fixture list now changed and the meetings originally scheduled for 12 October have been put back one week. No news yet of any other meetings on the Sunday after Torun.

No exclusions but at Peterborough this season a race was stopped because the lights went out - fortunately not the red lights!

A few strange exclusions I can remember:- I recall Kai Niemi was excluded for losing his crash helmet during a race. Also two Berwick riders once rode in the wrong race and were excluded at the end of the race they shouldn't have been in. I recall the two riders who missed the race were also excluded! I saw Carl Askew excluded at Peterborough for 'boring'

Agreed Ove. The problem is there is nobody organising anything and that is why we ended up in this mess to begin with and I guess it's not really surprising the lack of organisation continues.

I was there on Friday and Saturday and like you I agree there were heavy showers but nothing that should have prevented a meeting going ahead on a properly prepared track that had all the necessary equipment in place to do any remedial work. In fact there was a very heavy shower just before the meeting at Daugavpils which had no real impact at all. I feel BSI actually played up the Riga weather and were probably hoping it would be much worse than it was so to give them a convenient excuse. As you say if the track had been properly prepared we would have seen Speedway on Saturday evening or by Sunday at the latest.

I hope to attend this and the Valsnatta at Hagfors the following night, where there is a similar line up:- Alexander Liljeqvist Martin Liljeqvist Johan Jensen Natalie Thelenius Johannes Stark Rasmus Broberg Jonas Engdahl Joel Larsson Anders Mellgren Gustav Johansson Emil Gröndahl Adrian Bergqvist Ricky Törnqvist Kenny Persson Pontus Högberg Victor Flood Two more Swedish tracks off my list all being well!

According to the FIM fixture list there are two promotion/relegation race off meetings scheduled for that day http://www.fim-live.com/fileadmin/alfresco/2014_Amended_International_Speedway_League_Calendar_as_per_28.08.2014.pdf

Not that far from Trieste airport either.

Hans Nielsen?

Gelsenkirchen?

Thanks for the response Phil but I feel at the very least there could have been more help for those stranded in Riga even if it was just information. I am well used to getting myself around Europe for Speedway but I have to say that Saturday afternoon challenged me somewhat to come up with a solution for myself and six others travelling with me. Thanks to some help from our Hotel we did source a minibus which is not an easy thing to do at the best of times especially at a weekend and when there is a very short notice period. Unfortunately many were not as fortunate as me and there were many disappointed and upset fans I bumped into over the weekend and on Monday.

I agree to the above post and when I visited Saturday morning the Stadium had clearly been improved. The track preparation was a shambles but pretty much down to a failure to clear blocked drains earlier in the week. BSI were clearly trying to deflect blame onto the local promoter but in my view it was largely BSI's fault as they failed to properly oversee matters. It would seem BSI were also hoping they could blame the weather on Friday and Saturday. Well I was there both days and on Saturday they were watering the track in the morning. There is no way a few cloud bursts on Friday or Saturday should have had any impact at all. It doesn't at Malilla or Vojens and other GP circuits. I suspect BSI were really hoping Saturday's weather would be so atrocious they could then hide behind that as a reason for a call off. Well they came unstuck! I wonder when they decided to actually call the meeting off as it was certainly 'off'' well before it was officially announced. It would have been better to have known on Friday thus affording those in Riga more time to make plans to go to Daugavpils. Also it would have prevented many from needlessly flying out on Saturday morning. No thought at all given to the fans. As oleoleole says surely it would not have been too difficult to give some help or guidance to those fans in Riga in terms of laying on a few coaches or even just providing some information on the possible alternative ways of making the trip. I was fortunate enough to be able to sort out a way of getting to Daugavpils but speaking to many in Riga and at the airport on Monday it was clear a large number didn't even entertain attempting the journey. Finally, to make matters worse the Darcy Ward situation then deflects much of the heat from BSI and overshadows their incompetence. Now awaits post(s) in defence of BSI

The Darcy Ward story has also taken the organisational shambles out of the limelight!

Big downpour recently but now lovely and sunny. If it were Malilla or Vojens or Terenzano or ... it would be all systems go! Maybe if they had unblocked the drains earlier in the week it would have helped.

Lovely day today in Riga just as it was yesterday. The current weather has little to do with this being off. They were watering the track when I was there a few hours ago just before calling it off! Heads need to roll on account of this shambles !

Not a great forecast tomorrow so is Sunday an option I wonder?

Bob Dugard?

I'll watch them both, the Swedish match should be virtually finished by the time Berwick starts so not too much channel hopping I hope!

must have heard Peter York!