hulvik

When it comes to visas it's funny how the minority sports like speedway always have trouble when it comes to non EU residents. You never hear of an overseas footballer in the Premier league having a visa application turned down

As you pointed out yourself the the Scunny leg was rained off making them them the STAGING PROMOTION and seeing how Rob as stated his frustration over the mic at Scunny on more than one occasion at the fact this fixture asn't happened sooner makes me think the failiure the meeting as taken so long to put on can be put at Peterbrough's door

I'm sure I recall Rob saying over the mic in the past he wanted this match out of the way, But was having trouble sorting out a date. As Many Scunny fans know Rob tends to be very accommodating when it comes to changing race nights and put double headers on to help out other teams with a back log of fixtures. Something he can do being one of the few tracks in the UK that isn't governed too much by local council red tape such as curfews and limited alternative race nights something that people tend to forget when they moan about rain offs and rearranged fixtures

Dammed if you do dammed if you don't. What was Rob meant to do with the best information at his disposal at the time. How many of us would have wanted to witness another event like last week. Waiting around for over an hour and half only for the match to go ahead half hearted or not at all. Surely it's better to call the match off early and stop fans having the cost of travelling to the EWR only for the match to be called off once they have got through the turnstyles.

I take it your referring to heat 5 where Craig blasted out of start raced faster than a black cat trying to get out of Rob Godfrys way. Only to sudden realise on quickly catching Mason Campton who was in 4th and wearing the black and white helmet cover,he'd proved the track was raceable back off and try and kid everybody watching he was struggling with the condition, only for Mason to stop on the back straight. Then having won Craig rode very quickly and sheepishly to the pits to a barrage of cat calls and boos

Good luck to James if he does race on Thursday if he shows the same spirit as he showed at Scunny on Sunday am sure he'll do ok. Unlike other bigger name in the Workington team who despite being told the track was fit to race by the Ref Mr Phil Griffin And their team captain thought it was ok go to the start and chug to the second bend as if they were on a Honda 90 and give up just to pay lip service to the rules and not to be done for withholding their services which in theory is what they were doing

While we may be supporters and give our opinions on the track and we aren't the experts it should be pointed out that after the work to the track had been finished and before a bike fired up the track was inspected by the ref Mr Phil Griffin and both team captains who decided the track was raceable

One person who does deserve some credit was Mr Griffin the ref who having inspected the track along with the team captains decided that track was raceable made the riders "race", an action that I'm sure will see him been taken off one or two Christmas card lists this morning . As fans we are often quick to knock refs but when they stand up for us it's only right we recognise it and give them credit

that attitude smacks of disrespect for fans and the track staff who worked hard to try and get the meeting on to me

Not being at Working to the night in question I can't comment on it only to say that having been at the Eddie Wright Raceway in Scunny last night James Sarjeant was only one of a couple of riders from both teams who showed any respect to the fans and the track staff and actually tried to race even coming out in 3 races on the trot when some of the "bigger" names in the Workington team theoretically withheld their services by riding around the track for half a lap and stopping showing no interest in racing at all

Common sense really ( some might say a rare thing in speedway these days) If you can use a guest pick on that goes well around the track your visiting and Kyle's recent scores around the EWR make him the ideal choose

You only have to go on YouTube and watch some of the races from before the no touching rule came in to see the rules around the start were bent as much as the tapes. But in truth while some rides got away with flyers on the whole it didn’t really have any effect on the overall out come of meets ( but I’m sure somebody will be only to happy to state differently to that) . As things stand we have endless reruns and a period at the start where the riders do more digging than a farmer putting in next years spuds, slowing the whole meeting down. Because starts have become so important as a result of trying to make them so clinical. Under the old rules the only reruns you tended to get of a tapes offence was when a rider actually broke them. Personally it doesn’t bother me if a rider touches the tapes or tries to anticipate the start if they get away with it good luck to them Maybe the most simple thing is to take the human element out of the start and once the green light goes on the delay till the tapes goes up is done on a random electronic time delay ( As I believe somebody as already suggested )

Bit of a blow for Stefan and judging from the article that’s his season over before it really got going. Hopefully the fact we won’t see him on a bike until next season will mean Stefan’s shoulder injury will have time to fully heal. As we have just seen with Josh Bailey sometimes it takes longer for a rider to get back to full fitness than they realise and the results of coming back too early can be disastrous for both the rider’s morale and the team as a whole You have only to go back a couple of seasons and look at David Howe to see the effect of trying to carry on when you’re not full fit. In the mean time I’m sure what with Tero’s place in the team assured ( although I’m guessing he wouldn’t have wanted it to be under these circumstances) he’ll push on and continue to do the good job he’s doing

Well the "lets make a result up when bad weather stops play " works well in cricket so why not use it in speedway

I'm not saying Rob Godfrey isn't above pulling a few strokes but he's still along way behind Ian Thomas. Rob didn't bring Josh onto the centre green and introduce him as "Dave East"

Act in haste repent in leisure. Haven’t we all done or said things in the heat of the moment that on reflection we have regretted. And I’m sure this is the case with Josh. For the last few weeks before his “retirement” It was clear that there was something wrong with Josh and his head wasn’t in the right place and as we all know that confidence breeds success, in the same way lack of confidence brings bad form. While we can only guess what was going on in Josh’s head hopefully he as got it out of his system now. As for the ban that is down to the board of control. Josh as also lost his place in the British final and maybe the board feel that along with a 14 day ban is enough. I’m guessing the board are more informed about things than we are

I Was there as well and yes the track did look heavy after they had worked on it. But I have seen it looking worst at the beginning of meetings in the past and normally after a few races its fine. In fact the sun was out and in parts it looked like it was already drying out. But as the riders walked around it was clear from the body language that one team were happy to ride and one team wasn't going to

Scunny now have R/R at no5 as Josh Auty as announced he is quitting the sport as well

As long as there as been sport different refs have interpreted differently. As for the riders knowing this Ivan Mauger famously had a note book in which he wrote down what he could get away with with the different refs

Heard on the grapevine that the gentleman who runs the track shop as retired. Would be nice to see if something could be done to sort out a replacement if this is true.

As we are all now aware Fritz as a badly broken hand following his fall at Edinburgh. Rob as said that it is a long term thing but we are going to muddle through to the next set of averages at the end of the month then see about getting somebody in. So who would you like to see in the team?

Smacks a bit of the situation in the 70's with Hull and RR Egon Muller for the full season

I Know the last couple of seasons have been tough for Dave and I like many others have watched him struggle around scunny. But when things went well he was a force around the Scunthorpe track and will be sorely missed along with his family.Good luck for the future David hope you have a long and Happy retirment

One thing i find interesting about of all of this is, be it knocking Josh off on purpose or just intending to shower him in shale the Ipswich fans are happy to condone Mr Tungate's bad sportsmanship

Is it true that the SBC have requested that in future all tracks provide a bowl of water and rug on the floor in the ref's box for Peter Clark's guide dog