arnieg

Remember Amsterdam - they couldn't give the tickets away

some highlights: 6. In the protocol from the breath test (the “Test Protocol”), it was noted that the test results for Mr Ward were “0.52” at the first breath test, followed by “0.44” at 1:55 pm, “0.37” at 2:30 pm and “0.34” at 2:37 pm (jointly the “Test Results”). In the Test Protocol it was also noted that the test results for the other two riders were “0.00”. 12. The submission from Mr Ward was accompanied by four written testimonials concerning Mr Ward ́s person and character; one from Mr Matt Ford, Club Owner, Poole Speedway Ltd, dated 2 September, one from Mr Mark Lemon, Australia Speedway Team Manager, dated 26 August, one from Mr Joe Parsons, Director of Special Marketing Projects, Monster Energy, dated 27 August, and one from Mr Neil Middleditch, Team Manager of the Poole Pirates, dated 3 September 2014, (jointly the “Ward Testimonials”). Paras 15-19 confirm that all the postponements were at the request of Ward's legal team. 60. Mr Ward stressed that his drinking on the evening of 16 August 2014 was not aimed at enhancing his performance. The drinking was caused by the sad news he received from his father during the dinner. He had lost focus and drunk maybe 5 – 7 vodka drinks with lemon during the evening. He guessed they were “strong” drinks but he did not feel drunk. 65. Mr Ward confirmed that he knew that alcohol was prohibited in-competition in motorcycling but claimed that he was unaware about how long it took to eliminate alcohol from the body. He was willing to participate in FIM ́s educational programme for young riders regarding alcohol use in motorcycling sport. 90. Mr Ward has questioned both the validity of the testing procedures and the Test Results from many different angles. Mr Ward has however not provided any evidence to prove that the assertions with regard to errors and departures from CAD or the Guidelines could reasonably have affected and/or caused the positive Test Results. Considering all the circumstances and facts in this respect, CDI therefore concludes that the testing procedures in this case must be considered to be satisfactory and the Test Results reliable. CDI notes in this respect i.a. that: - the selection of the riders to be tested was made in accordance with Article 5.7 CAD; - the testing was conducted by the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, in accordance with Article 5.2 CAD; - a CMO must, according to Article 09.6.1 of the FIM Medical Code, be a fully registered medical practitioner authorised to practice in the relevant country or state in which the event is taken place; - the testing was executed in a separate room; - besides the referee there was an official from FIM who was administering the test; - a new mouthpiece was used for Mr Ward's test which he placed on the Device himself; - after the first test Mr Ward requested and was granted a new test; - after the second test Mr Ward requested and was granted two more tests; - Mr Ward saw the readings on the display of the breath analyser; - the CMO, Dr Bekmanis, has signed the Test Protocol and thereby certified that he had tested Mr Ward and two other riders with the results set out in the Test Protocol; - Mr Ward did read the form that was filled in about his tests; - the display of the Device according to the Device Photo shows that the reading was made at 17 August 2014 at 2.26 pm corresponding to Mr Ward' s third test result; - the display also shows the word BAC and the value '0.37 ‰' corresponding to the third result of the Test Results; - the unit ‰ corresponds to g/L; - the Operating Instructions for AlcoQuant 6020 state that BAC indicates that the unit is displaying the Blood Alcohol Concentration. 97. While stating that it would not be easy to go below a (16) sixteen-month suspension in view of all the circumstances of the case and the Cilic jurisprudence, the FIM Legal Director deferred the decision on the quantum of sanction to the CDI Single Judge. The FIM Legal Director nevertheless submitted that a period of ineligibility ranging from 10 (ten) to 16 (sixteen) months would appear as a just and proportionate sanction in this case. On the other hand, Mr Weston claimed that the fault of Mr Ward was very low and that the latter should not get more than a reprimand or alternatively, a period of ineligibility “of a few months rather than many”.

Full decision published Let the debate resume! (It's a download from the FIM site - haven't found a link yet, but google 'FIM alcohol breath test ward' and it should come up Edit: got the link now: http://www.fim-live.com/en/library/

I was there for that one - a hell of a way to travel to see your team concede a series of nil-5s. One detail that really needs to be included in any description of that evening is that Gresham went on to fight on track with Bobby Schwartz... his team mate!!

Something similar happened at King's Lynn in 1969. Heat one was rerun at the end of the match after it became apparent that Reading's Mike Vernam, who had been excluded for breaking the tapes in the opening race, took part in the original rerun.

2010 play-off final Newport v Buxton - what was the result of that leg?

Interesting post from Roman Chyla on the yahoodiscussiongroup: The latest research of ARC Rynek i Opinia ( Market and Opinion Company) on sponsorship in sport and culture in Poland and published by wirtualnemedia. pl, have found that speedway in Poland - contrary to the wide spread opinions - does not belong to one of most popular sports there. In fact it is placed on the lowly 21 st position in the ranking. Speedway however holds high 5th place (after football, volleyball, handball, and basketball) in the ranking of the most watched live sporting events . The report says that:-speedway draws interested mostly in men (they account for 80% of the supporters of the discipline), in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas, people mostly with primary, vocational and secondary education. The highest interest declared people of Lubuskie County (Gorzow,Zielona Gora), Kujawsko-Pomorskie (Bydgoszcz, Torun, Grudziadz) and Podkarpackie (Rzeszow, Tarnow, Krosno). The best known Polish speedway rider is Tomasz Gollob, who holds 16th place among the most famous Polish athletes. The study shows that the widest recognised team comes from Tarnów. I'd guess that last Saturday's events aren't going to help speedway's standings in the eyes of the average Pole on the street - if they even noticed them. From my limited experience of live Polish speedway the one thing they do have going for them is a much younger age profile than the UK. I would be particularly interested to hear the views of our Polish contributors - where is speedway going in Poland post Gollob?

It is worth noting that although Connor Dug Ard scored paid 7 every rider he beat fell off - which shows just how many points Cradley through away. But it made for a great meeting. Particularly pleasing to see the progress made by Arron Mogridge and Darryl Ritchings racing again. I thought BWD was over - hyped before the season started, but he has justified all the praise heaped on him.

Nicki Pedersen has broken cover: Nicki Pedersen does not hide that he is embarrassed by what has happened in Warsaw. The Grand Prix of Polish fans saw only twelve runs. Participants were afraid for their health, because from the beginning the track at the National Stadium was dangerous. In addition, the band broke up page, so they went straight speedway riders from the green light goes out. The last time this was the case 20 years ago. It is not surprising, therefore, that the participants are embarrassed Saturday night. - It was a tragedy. I do not understand how such a thing could happen in 2015. It was a circus, not a Grand Prix - comments in the Danish media Nicki Pedersen. The famous rider recognizes, however positive the Polish GP at the National Stadium. Three-time individual world champion admitted that he had long since players were not so united in one case. -Finally, we all stood on one side. However, the situation was very dangerous. We have done everything for the fans to continue to compete, but it was too dangerous - admits Pedersen. Sportowefakty + google translate Sportowefakty appears to scapegoating Olsen (does nobody in Poland share some of the blame?). There are clearly a lot of unhappy Polish fans. I suspect Onesport will shortly be announcing more money and/or rounds for the European Championship and some of the leading GP riders will start making noises about not riding in the GPs. Hancock, Holder, Batchelor and Doyle will take out Swedish licences. And what a sad way for Tomasz Gollob to bow out of the world stage - truly a great of his generation.

Or becoming poet laureate!

Best to get two books: 1) Speedway The Pre-war Years by Robert Bamford (Tempus) and 2) British Speedway Leagues 1946-64 - Peter Morrish e-bay is probably your best bet. There are no books covering the post-1965 era other than Peter Oakes' 'Complete History of the British League' (and the Alan Robertson 'sequel') which are good statistical summaries, but have no narrative.

Changed your mind yet?

What amuses me is when the rider on the rostrum is under 18 and they still get champagne (well cheap fizzy wine anyway)

Great issue - but what happened to Croatia?

No - if statistically significant it would prove that there are/aren't more injuries. What it wouldn't do is explain why. Constructing a statistical model that tests a 'why' would I think be too difficult (too much random noise, too many subjective judgements), which I think is the jist of the rest of your post with which I do agree.

Oh Shawn!!!! For one who holds such great faith in statistics this is a prime example of their misuse, commiting two cardinal sins: a) too small a sample to draw any meaningful conclusions cherry picking a single example - what if you'd chosen 1993 or 1995?

Bet you a tenner you don't

We are thinking along similar lines - if the hypothesis about faster bikes is correct then those periods when technical changes produced a step change in the speed of racing (e.g. periods when lots of track records got broken) would show higher injury rates. I haven't got any data on laydowns, but I think a case could be made looking at four-valves and the rash of fatalities in the decade that followed.

Statistics are extremely useful, if they are used in context and their limitations are properly understood. Statistics save lives (read the works of Ben Goldacre for numerous examples)

You seem to be confusing anecdote and assertion with evidence. SCB is a fair minded fellow, if you can provide some evidence then I'm sure he would happily accept the theory (which is indeed plausible) that faster bikes are causing more accidents.

I agree entirely with you SCB (and I wrote the article in the Star analysing guests). One of the things that struck me was that Lewis Blackbird was the only rider to miss more than one third of his EL fixtures due to injury.

A very interesting discussion. FWIW I broadly agree with screamer although I also think that SCBs point about a shorter timescale is also valid. In the 1970s there were a whole load of speedway books (Champions Book of Speedway etc) that usually had a chapter entitled 'Stars of Tomorrow' that would highlight future stars like Bobby McNeil, Chris Turner, Malcolm Ballard and Frank Auffret - none of whom went on to become world beaters. I'd say that any prediction based on less than three years of racing is likely to be little better than a guess (unless you are dealing with a Michael Lee, Darcy Ward or Tai Woffinden). Compare Ellis Perks (aged 18) with Tai Woffinden at a similar age. Wuffy was already banging in double figure scores in both the Polish Extaliga and Swedish Elitserien. Perks may turn out to be a very good rider (say on a par with Rory Schlein or Danny King) but it would be hard to rate his prospects as higher than that. [Rory Schlein turned 18 late in 2002 a season in which he averaged 10.96 in the Conference League and over 6 in the PL] Looking at those who've appeared for Team GB in the World Cup since 2006 gives us 11 riders, one of whom (Scott Nicholls) started riding before the Conference League began. The NL/CL careers of the other 10 suggests that to reach international standard a rider should be averaging 8+ in their first season (I've ignored instances where the rider made less than 5 appearances), and 10+ in their second season. Seven riders meet those criteria (I've included Lewis Bridger and Lee Richardson as their one year in the CL produced a 9+ and 11.64 averages respectively) - and three don't (one of whom - Chris Harris - didn't have a second season in the CL) Other riders meet these criteria and still haven't made Team GB: Paul Lee, David Howe, Josh Auty, Chris Neath, Lee Complin (who averaged over 7 in the PL in his second season). [and Australia in the case of Matty Wethers who averaged 9+/10+ in his two CL seasons.] Back to Robert Lambert, he averaged 9.97 as a 15 year old in the NL. I can only find three riders who bettered that at 15: Tai Woffinden... 9.99 Josh Auty ...10.10 (turned 16 late in the season) David Howe .. 11.02 (he scored a 15 point maximum on his debut) [best averages for 16 year olds: Joe Haines 11.40, Ed Kennett 11.30, Woffinden 11.25] Apart from Robert Lambert the other current rider who meets the '8/10 test' is Cam Heeps (9.94 as a 15 year old and 11.18 in year two). Three other current young riders compare well with Danny King and Ben Barker (the two Team GB members with slower starts to their careers): Adam Ellis (8.24/9.73) Kyle Howarth (4.62/7.43/10.50), and Jason Garrity (7.07/9.48/10.45) These figures are used to illustrate the point that you can't tell who will and who won't make it to the top (consider the slow but steady assent of Jason Doyle). The strength of the CL/NL varies from one year to the next for various reasons so averages from one season aren't strictly comparable to another and examining early years in the PL would also give a fuller picture. And if asked to predict I'd expect to see Robert Lambert in the GPs, Kyle Howarth riding for Team GB while Garrity, Ellis and Max Clegg might make Team GB. [Thanks to Malcolm Vasey for providing most of the stats]

We should be thankful nobody in speedway management is so stupid http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3007539/Karl-Oyston-charged-FA-calling-Blackpool-fan-retard-offensive-text-messages.html And I'm sure if they were the BSPA would act against such appalling behaviour.

Well someone should say it: Bloody good meeting, well organised, congratulations all round - I suspect that an impressive sum was raised.

Jason's got a stalkerJason's got a stalker