weatherwatcher

Maybe. Just maybe, he is starting to sit down and start to think things out for himself, rather than listening to the bunch of loonies whohave been there behind him, telling what he should or should not do, like a ventriaquists doll.

It seems that the FIM have forgotten to make the anouncement on Darcy, and it looks like Darcy has given up his quest and gone very very quite.

The Lions need a big shake up the way they are starting off again this season we have every chance of doing the double with another bottom place. Lets get KK in to replace pederson and get a new team manager, one that can get the team working together and not against one another. There dosn't seem to be any team spirit in place at the moment. Couldn't do any worse than trying to get Phil Morris to take over.

I just hope he sits back and lets the ban finish and then get back and lets see if he can be a good boy just for once in his life. Not just for a few weeks but for the rest of his life. He has so much talent, that it would be a shame if he just mucked about and ended his career, through sheer stupidity. We shall just have to wait and see, what Darcy Ward does when he returns.

I think that the min problems that arise are the facts. The bikes are now to over powered, the tracks to slick and at the start of the season the riders are not getting enough practice time in and then go on to the tracks going at it hell for leather as they did the season before. With tired old arms and legs. Also they younger riders are now up in the big league and are out to try and prove a point that they are good enough to be there and race above their capabilities. How many of the younger lads do we see try gung ho tattics and end up coming to grief. over the past 5 years or so we have see these riders having so very bad injuries. We only have to look at the air fences they either go under them or hit them and fly onto the track with the bike doing it's own thing either falling on top of the rider or hitting another bike. I still say it is now time to bring in some changes to the bikes and the tracks.

The way they are now developing the engines, it will not be that far in the future that they become over developed, and become an ever more dangerous peice of equipment. You can only go so far for before they get to the point, that the engines will blow them selves up a little bit on the lines of a dragster. I personally think it is time to have a complete rethink on the engine production and go back to the old Jawa engines. Put more dirt on the tracks, yes the lap times would be slower, the riders would have to re think the way they ride. But in th end it would give us far better, closer racing, than the full out throttle from the start and keep it at maximum revs untill the end of the race. They would have quite a shock I think when they had to use their right wrist a lot more to control the bike, instead of just open it up and go.

It does not matter one iota how much he had to drink, if he was over the stated limit set by the FIM, then he was over the limit to be riding a speedway bike. It didn't matter if he was rolling around dead pan drunk, the fact is he was over the limit no matter what. I just hope he sits back and just lets the ban go by and dosen't fight the case, because he could end up getting worse that he has got now, so come the end of his ban, I hope we see a far more sensible Darcy Ward than the one we have been used to for the past I don't know how many seasons. Because if he dosen't change his ways his speedway career will be over very quickly.

I still think that over the past 10 years the bikes have started to become more uncontrolable, there is no great stut down of speed when you close the trottle, so as with Barker you end up giving your do or die tactics and end up worse for wear, today adds another top rider to the list with Davy Watts out with a broken foot. The old laydowns where far more contralable then the new uprights, they could be rode on tracks that where not having to be set up like a billiad table, as with the new bikes, don't think they would get around a track with plenty of dirt at the speeds that they achive now, so is it the bikes or the tracks that are at fault, or is it just the fault of the way modern riders seem to be unable to ride on anything other than slick flat tracks.

It seems to be a daily tally of riders that are coming to grief, not sure what the total is now, but it is not just the young riders that are getting bad injuries even before things start to kick off. Miklson Leicester, just seen that Barker may have a fractured collar bone. It seems to be happening more and more each and every season, so what is the underlying problems is it the tracks, the bikes that are uncontroalable, or the speed that they ride now. We should not be seeing this happen on a far to regular basis, how long before something really seasious happens, will they then start to take a look and see what is the factor that is causing these serious injuries. The way things have been going these last few weeks, there will be no riders left to make up the teams.

It seems that Darcy is playing the role of team captain in the pits. He should not have been allowed anywhere near the track and it would also make more sense to keep him out of the pit area. He is not a rider on the team or a machanic. So if anything he should be sitting in the crowd or tucked away in the office with Matt. No doubt he is proving that they can't manage without him as team captain and Majic is just there as a pretender to the role. He must be keeping his feet under the table and getting ready for when he makes his come back. Who will be the poor Bu***r who has to give up his place in the team just to make way for the super hero Golden Boy, who never does any wrong.

Dogs that are not highly strung, seem to love motorcycles and the noise they make. in the early 1970's I had a 650cc A.J.S twin with a double sidecar on it and my Samoyed used to love nothing better than riding in the sidecar. The noi in there was far above what you get at a speedway meeting and he used to lay on the seat and go to sleep. My Japanese Spitz I have now, would just hate going to a speedway meeting, she just seems to be scared of anything and everything. It is up to the owner and if they have any sense they will know what their dog likes and dislikes.

The perfect person to test it on, they could bring it in to trail the night before he rides his next GP to see if he can be allowed to ride or if he fails a breath test. The only rule being that if he does fail, is that he was trailing a new product and that he will not be charged or even expect to race. If he doe's pass the test, then he will be able to go out every night and drink this stuff until it poor's out of his ears, Because he has no brain in there to stop it, from coming out of his ears or any other orrafhat matter. Or is this just some Aussie taking the the P**s out of Darcy

Anyone who try's to make a fast buck, by selling an item of Ivan's that is not a genuine item, needs to be stood up in front of a firing squad. It is bad enough that Ivan is now coming to the end of his life with this horrible condition, it must be so hard for his family. I am sure that he will go down as one of the greatest speedway riders that we saw in his day and I hope that he manages to stay with us for a number of years yet. Best wishes to him but most of all to his familt, through these trying times, it is horrible to be there and have to go through it. Some times it is harder for those that have to sit by the bedside and remember the person they used to be.

Still think the Lions will pip it.

Lets hope that he sits down and listens to the older riders to help him with his gatting. Max Clegg was terrible for most of the season at the Lions and it was said he even told riders that he didn't need any help with his gatting, he was left at the start every time and they had gone round the fiorst bend before he evn got his bike down, towards the end of the season he sat and listened and he used all the help and experience the older risers could give him and boy did it make a difference in the last 4 meetings. He came out of the traps like a dog after the hare. So if he listens and uses the help they can give him, he will get there, no use stuggling along on your own as you sometimes only get worse and you have then some very bad habits that are hard to break.

Must say I went to press and practice day ar Leicester and one of the riders was using Castrol R or something very much the same, what with the smell of Methanol and Castrol R it brought back some very fond memories.

No matter what a riders aga is if they are up to class to ride in a senior level age should not come into it. As long as they can prove they are up to it and are not a danger to the other riders and that they are competative at that level be it 14 or young so what. It is lads like this that should be given a chance and not held back. You only have to look at the ages of the so cauled young British riders that are now riding at reserve palces in the EL, to me none of them should be over the age of 21. I know some of them have come into speedway late but other have been at it for years now, if they have failed in all this time to make it into an EL place then I think that they have left it far to late in their lives to do much about it now. The young British lads are being held back and I have to ask the question WHY ??. Have the promoter no confidence in them, even after they shoewd what they where capable of last year, riding at reserve. Garrity, Newman to name just 2 of them should have been given a full team berth this season and all they did was insulte them by making them ride for another year at reserve. When will they give them a chance, at this rate they will be all to old to improve any further, just has happened to riders from over here for the past couple of decades. We are at the lowest of the lowest in terms of young world class riders. Unless more is done for our youngsters then things will not alter. They seem to be doing a bit more these last couple of years, but the way things are going it will take another 5 or 6 years before there are any riders that we can put forward to make up a British squad. What a shambles or speedway has turned out to be.

We will have to wait and see how things go when the season starts. Can't see them come out running for the first few meeting but once they have riden together for a few meetings I think we will see a far better side than we had last year, that won't be very hard to beat anyway. Don't think the Lions will be at the bottom of the league this year and with a bit of luck and hopefully the team stay together for the whole season they even may just have a chance of reaching the play offs/ Lets hope so. Should be a very interesting meeting on Friday. To see how the Lions fare away from home. Still think they will win it by a few points.

I give him no time at all, if he sicks the his bunch of cronnies who give him so many wise words and help him with his life style. If he changes who he associates with for someone who has more sense then the crowd he is in with now, then he may just have a chance of straightening himself out. If not his speedway career will be a very short one indeed.

The only fault that we have now so few up and coming young riders is down to the promoters who seem scared to death of giving the young Brits a full team place. Why keep them in the reserve placings when a few of them proved what they had last season and still they are given no credit. Why bring in overseas riders to make up the EL places when some of those places could have been given to those young lads that rode their a==es off last year. Sorry but British speedway deserves to be in the state it is in when our lads don't get the team places the deserve.

I think that so far in his short speedway career he has been let down by the GB team management. He has had to go and race in Germany because he really had no baking from over here. In all fairness though King Lynne should be congratulated in giving him the chance to take his part in their team. Only hope that the GB team ( I really hate that name) bring him into the team in some shape or form. He should be good enough to come into the senior squad and perhaps to good for the under 19's or 21's sides. Lets wait and see if they include him this year. I hope so because he has the makings of being one of our better riders if looked after and brought on properly.

I like Bomber but I think his days as a GP rider are over. He just hasn't got what it takes at that level now. Last year he was terrible, if his fittness is also a problem then he would have been far better to have given the GP's abreak this year, get himself back in shape and have one last shot at it next year. I am afrais he is doing himself no favours going into the GP's half shot. It is a sport these days where fitness counts, it is more profetinal nowadays and a long shot from speedway in the 60's. With most riders doing it because they loved their sport, not as it is now where money talks. The top GP lads are putting thousands into their equipment and they train hard, Bomber just hasn't got the money that these guys are shelling out. Sorry to say this could well be his last year in the GP's.

Think it will be closer than Sunday happy little joist for the Lions. I can still see them winning the second leg, if the team can up their game away, this will be the first away meeting for the new Lions team. Lions to win by less than 10. Unless the Bees can really start buzzing. But I still think the Lions have one of the strongest teams this year.

Has he actually stood up and said that he did wrong. I think everyone is actually waiting for him to make a statement in public, to say what he did on the night before of which ran into the same morning, not sure when he finished his drinking session. To say that what he did was wrong and just plain stupid and in future I will be on my best behavior and act like a more sensible person, then yes people may just think for once that he may just have realised that what he he does off the track, will reflect on the way it affects his life as a speedway rider. If he ontinues down the road to ruin, then his days riding in any form of speedway or any other form of motor sport will soon be over, because no one will want to emply him. That would be a great shame, he is a rider with great talent, who if he gets his life in order and stops acting like no mater what he does it is OK and he will always have the backing of the promoters and sponsers to keep him as the sports golden boy. I am afraid though, that if he carries on in the way he has been doing these past few years, then he will soon cross the line, that has no going back, they will will all drop him like a stone. His days in the sport will be over and he will soon be forgoten. Get himself sorted out and he could well be the world champion in the next 3 or 4 years. It is up to Darcy which way he wants to go, Up or Down, I would like to think he choses Up for he has so much to offer. I have nothing against him other than the fact, that he acts so stupid at times and he is easily lead astray from what I see of his actions.

It would be just plain stupid to appeal. He did wrong, the punishment has been dealt out, so he should just get on and sort his own life out instead of sitting listening to the same old bunch of so called advisors that have done nothing but lead him down the wrong garden path. Darcy just grow up and pull pull your life up by the roots, get rid of the weeds, that are stangling the person that you could be and show the world that you can become the best in the world. I am afraid if you keep going as you have been doing then you will end up at the bottom of the garden with the rest of the rubbish and forgoten all about.