Bob was the voice on the mic when Tim Stone brought the sport back to Newport in '97 and he was great at it. Clear, fun, authoritative but never trying to be the centre of attention like some. And I'm sure we all ready his articles in the speedway press over the years to know how good they were.
A few years back Bob added me as a friend on Facebook and we spent many nights chatting away on Facebook about the sport and just life in general.
Not only someone who I respected immensely for his voice and written word in Speedway by also a great man on a personal level.
RIP Bob.
It's lovely that the Gb Final winner gets the place but Danny King last year, what was the point? If Schlein, Nicholls or Harris get it this year? Whats the point. Can you imagine the Poles putting Pepe in? We should be sending Cook or Lambert to Cardiff - Lambert ideally but I can see the argument for Cook with the way he's riding. Anyone is a waste of time as they're never going to amount to anything in the GPs
It's nothing to do with Mickey Mouse or incompetence. The rules say that when a team declares the BSPA will give any riders who don't already have a new average a new average. This rule has been invoked a few times, Poole were stopped in 2009 and Coventry were also stopped the same season. Coventry because Jordan Frampton had raced 1 meeting short due to riding for his PL club Newport so the BSPA said he had to be used on his 5.5 average from the meeting he had completed not his sub 4 from the start of the season. There have been other times it's been used.
What would be Mickey Mouse and incompetent would be to allow a team to break the rules, right?
Scunny had Douglas and Wilkinsons averages drop enough that they were able to sign Stef Nielsen. Nobody is saying Berwick can't strengthen up in the same way.
Ipswich as a team had not at the time completed 4 home and 4 away and so the rule about the BSPA using average of riders who had not done 4 home and 4 away didn't count (which IMO is stupid. But rules are rules) so we able to replace Covatti with the slightly higher Sedgmen as they had a little bit left over under the 40 point limit.
Berwick are causing a stir as they can't make these changes according to the rules.
Tried to put him on a TR in heat 8 when he was a reserve change.
Lets be honest, even if Starke had been the TR in heat 8, the result would have been the same!
None of the Scunthorpe rider who hadnt achieved a new average yet were averaging more though, they were all going to drop, so Scunny would have actually had a little more to play with.
As for guests, it's not relevant. Different rules.