theflyingkiwi

A roof clearly worked wonders last time with the track!

The issue of the starting gate is laughable. Enough riders would have gone off 15m in their time and these are meant to be the 15 best riders in the world surely they can adjust? . It took away the advantage at the tapes and that for some was enough to get the meeting called off.

As soon as Phil Morris let Pedersen speak to the referee after Doyle moved at the start the riders knew they could have their way. 2 Minutes should have been put on then and then straight away after the track grades had finished after heat 12.

I was at a meeting at Birmingham last year and due to the threat of the rain the meeting finished at 8:40 from a 7:30 start. Some delays in a meeting are inevitable but imo there is no reason why a meeting should run any longer than 90 minutes with a 10 minute interval included. Grand Prix's are the exception as I think that you are there for the event rather just than the racing but when you are standing on the terraces for a league meeting its a different story. I know he may not have been the most popular referee but Fast Fingered Frank Ebdon used to be my favourite ref at least you knew the meeting would flow by how quickly he used to put the 2 minutes on.

There is no higher honour in sport than representing your country, whether that is individual or the national team. The fact Nicholls doesn't want to ride for his national team is beyond me and the fact that some fans would rather have him over Tai who has promoted the sport in this country far more than Nicholls has ever done is ridiculous imo.

Holder and Doyle rode in their National Championship. Likewise, Tai is riding in the semi-final at Kings Lynn for the chance to ride in the British Final, so your point is not really relevant. I would much rather see the British No 1. ride in this country weekly but until the British leagues rival the Swedish and Polish leagues I can understand his decision to give Britain a miss.

This is taken from the latest article on the SGP website about Zagars win on Saturday night. 'Even some of the most seasoned SGP stars had never started races without having tapes in front of them, which left them understandably unsettled.' In my opinion having been there on Saturday night and having watched it through again twice, if the tapes had been working then the Grand Prix would have reached completion or at least till heat 20. It was plain to see that some of the riders were not happy with the green light start as for some it took away the advantage that they got from the gate. When Bomber can out trap you, you know your in trouble. Combine this with a CHALLENGING track, it shouldn't have been such a surprise that some of the riders wanted this meeting called off.

I think that the riders may come to regret this decision in due course. What should have been an advert for the sport turned into a complete farce. In my opinion the riders were allowed to get away with all this because how weak the officials were at the weekend. I have seen on twitter from those in the pits saying don't blame Phil Morris he is in no way to blame but if he had put his foot down on the issue with the tapes, especially the way that Pedersen effectively had Doyle excluded, would it have ended up being cancelled? If the sport had the following of football - would it have mattered that it was cancelled? Unfortunately speedway is a dying sport and there was no good will from the riders to carry on with that meeting. I could understand if it was the third or fourth running of the Warsaw GP and there had been problems then the riders should make a stand but surely they know when they sign up to a GP the potential problems with man made tracks? Most of all I feel sorry for Gollob who has been severely let down by all those in charge of the meeting on Saturday. A true legend of our sport deserved a better send off considering the majority of the tickets to the GP were sold using his name.

What loyalty has British Speedway shown to Woffinden? For instance in 2013 when he was riding in the SEC and the BSPA afforded him or Wolverhampton no help. Last year he promoted speedway in this country like no other has done, probably at the detriment to his own career. He is the only truly world class rider we have and should always be No. 1 on the team sheet.

10 months is pretty lenient as it is backdated to the time of the offence and the majority of that has been spent during the off season. At least he has received a ban though and will hopefully change his behaviour from now on. If not then he has no place in the sport.

Seems like there must be something in the water at Poole... or is that the beer?

I wonder if Muddlo has fallen foul of the SCB's regulations surrounding conduct and social media. 4.1.6 Riders, Officials, Employers & Employees are required to conduct themselves in an orderly and disciplined manner at all times. Proceedings or acts must not be committed that are prejudicial to the interests of any part of the ACU, SCB, BSPA or of the sport of motorcycling generally by way of any and all verbal or written communication in any format. 4.1.7 The use of foul, abusive or offensive language, profane activity or fraudulent comments by any accessible medium, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Texts, Webshots, Instagrams, Public Forums or any other Social Network sites etc., (this list is not exhaustive) is not permitted. 4.1.8 Ungentlemanly conduct and / or acts of a violent, threatening, racist or abusive nature to any Official, Rider or any other person. Couldn't see that the BSPA or the SCB would reprimand poor old Muddlo for it... not that he would even understand the legal goings on based on his present form.

Unfortunately and I would loved to be proved wrong on this one I don't think the likes of Woffinden, Holder Sayfutdinov et al will still be competing at 44. I think that Hancock's ability is the fact that he rarely gets injured unlike many of his colleagues, for me that puts him an all time great list.

Forget the team, DARCY should have known better.

In any other sport they would be fined for improper use of social media and bringing the sport into disrepute. Calling the governing body a joke, wtf it's not a murder trial and abusing fans is unprofessional in my opinion.

Seems like Middlo and Ward think that they are both above the law...

Neil Middleditch @middlo57 · Jan 29 Dropped Darcy at airport to Geneva this morning,keep em crossed for him people#enoughisenough Neil Middleditch‏@middlo57 Jan 30 WTF is going on its not a murder trial for gods sake#howlongtheyneed?!!! Neil Middleditch @middlo57 · Jan 30 No decision till next week !!! What the hell is going on! #fimareajoke I would categorize that as a form of 'mouthing off' Middleditch is not defending what is right, he is defending a rider who seriously transgressed. As previously stated by many posters here the FIM have followed protocol and they are well within there rights to take up to 45 days to make a decision. If Neil hadn't commented on the situation in the manner that he has done and moaned about common practice then I do not think that he would have received any or as much stick as he has received on twitter. What does he really expect with those hashtags?!

Exactly. The FIM have done nothing wrong here, they have followed their protocol and are well within their rights to issue a statement up to 45 days from the tribunal; quite common practice elsewhere. For Muddlo to call the FIM a joke is quite astonishing. The FIM didn't force Darcy to drink that night did they? The FIM have played by the rules... Darcy hasn't.

I think that if he does get off, which is more than likely. There will be a suspended sentence involved somewhere and hopefully that'll help him get in line.

Some of the arguments and statements on the 'support group' are beyond belief. Personally what I think is quite sad is the amount of pictures that have been posted with his younger fans who idolize Ward and that while he let himself down massively, he also let down all of his fans. What is even worse is people like Middlo, Ford numerous fans etc. making every excuse under the sun for someone who has consistently let each and everyone down. Regardless of the hearing and the decision by the FIM, what message are those people sending out? That as long as you are extremely talented you can get away with anything that you want?

Oh dear...

I think that there is a difference between an off duty policeman conducting a roadside breath test than at a Speedway meeting for example. In saying that I would not expect an ON-duty policeman to conduct at Speedway meeting regardless of it's importance because unless I am wrong that's not part of their jurisdiction and I would imagine that they would have more important things to worry about. His employment should not come into it however. If he was entitled to carry out the breath test then that should be it, if he was not an offical then I can see this case being thrown out. I couldnt see the two other riders negative readings have a bearing on this case but it just goes to show Ward is guilty of a crime and is arguing on a techanicality.

Don't forget that Tai missed a GP and struggled with injuries all year. Not saying he would have won if this was not the case but Greg KK & Tai were a level above this year IMO.

I think that it will be interesting to see how much influence the FIM and WADA have over this case respectively.

Holder always seems prone to a rather serious injury in recent seasons. I think Tai could be in line to win his second world title.