False dawn

Now you're into semantics. You must, to the satisfaction of the majority at least, define worthy. Just to illustrate the difficulty..., There are many that say that Mr Doyle would have made a worthy champion last year. Well maybe. But had the WC been held in Slovenia, Poland, Denmark, Britain or Sweden as a one off final instead of the GPs held on those dates, then the World Champ would have been Peter Kilderman or Tai Woffinden or Magic Janowski or Antonio Lindback or Greg Hancock. Would they have not been worthy champions? So maybe a worthy GP champion is the one that wins the most GPs. But then what about Mark Loram? (BTW that makes Magic the most worthy champion so far this year). Or scores the most points? Listen to the Greg Hancock critics on that score. One man's worthy is another man's "I can't stand the sight of him". Fans have been having this debate since the year dot. Fun isn't it?

No, it's not that old chestnut about reducing teams to 6 riders. It's more by way of an analysis of what's happened this year. Now let me say straight away that this is not an exhaustive analysis, rather it's a breakdown of 95 meeting results that I had "readily to hand". To date there have been about 270 league meetings (Premiership and Championship) so my sample is significant, representing as it does, about a third of the total. My interest is in the number and frequency of the use of guests and rider replacement. Of the 95 meetings. 19 had no guests or rider replacement. Not a brilliant statistic as this means that 80% of all meetings had at least one guest or RR. At the other end of the scale there were 2 meetings when there were a total of 7 riders missing (1 with 5 guests and 2 RRs and 1 with 6 guests and 1 RR). I hope these represent a record and not one to be repeated or beaten. I hesitate to quote averages but I do believe they indicate something. A total of 121 guests were used or 1.27, on average, per meeting. Rider replacement was used on 73 occasions or 0.77, on average, per meeting. Or to put it another way, on average, there were just over 2 riders missing or 1 per team for every meeting. Therefore, in a way, we already have 6 man teams.

I guess the sponsorship income eases the pain.

I'm still slightly confused. An amateur event, for which Chris didn't qualify (he's been given a wildcard) takes priority over a professional event at Peterborough? Hang on, what am I saying???

Much as I support grasstrack, why are Peterborough allowed any sort of facility for Chris Harris's absence, be a guest or rider replacement?

Barry Hearn was brought in to turn around the fortunes of snooker. The sport had begun to slip off the TV radar and was turning into something of a niche sport (stop me when this starts to sound familiar). Now I'm not saying the two situations are the same but there are similarities. It's ironic now that he has transformed the sport that the players are complaining they are too busy.

We could try and guess the draw. There are only 20,922,789,888,000 possible after all.

How do you know all that? Serious admiration!

Is that how you spell that word? Alright, I'll get my coat. For the record, my computer seems to spellcheck my replies all on it's own. I'm using Google Chrome. numpty comes up as tympanum which is "the tympanic membrane or eardrum" or "a vertical recessed triangular space forming the centre of a pediment, typically decorated". So there.

This is my thread. The idea was to give folks who have a genuine love for the sport (British or otherwise) somewhere to discuss what's good about it. There is at least one (dozen) threads where you can have a moan. That's your right (and mine at times). Here is the good news.

Can I put in a vote for Dave Goddard. I recently "made his acquaintance" while watching the speedway coverage from Sweden on Premier Soorts on Tuesday evening. Dave is a knowledgable and well balaced commentator who also communicates with fans via social media throughout his commentry. And when the channel fills in during the tractor racing with other sports, Dsve is often the commentator as well. If BT or Sky were looking for a new talent, they should look no further.

Interesting, thank you. But then that begs the question does Ivan's family originate there? And the chance that Stan and Ivan are related looks even more likely.

Well I like a sense of balance. Ban the Aussies or work with them for our future. Write off the Bees due to 17 different conspiracy theories or have some faith and trust in the efforts of those who are trying to actually do something. Slag off the BSPA or slag off the BSPA. Oh well some things are unfixable. Just kidding. I'm not unique but I do have a say. And having supported the same club for nearly 50 years (in this run anyway) I will have my say. I now don't have a club, maybe forever. A sad day indeed. But there are others nearby. Leicester. Are you kidding? Due to a temporary place of residence, once upon a time, I used to go to Blackbird Road and support the opposition every Tuesday. And there are others. But none of them are "mine". And so it's over. I give up on this once great sport. I stop caring who is and is going to be World Champion. The playoffs? Who cares? What's happening on the IOW? Couldn't give a damn. And this forum, I have been missing for a year or three so it's without meaning. Wrong, wrong, wrong and 10x wrong. My interest in Speedway, British and elsewhere is stronger now than ever. I savour the GPs, I look forward to the next SEC round (well I am beating the bookie), the playoffs are fascinating and the AGM can't come soon enough. Oh and when they build our new stadium (with my help) I'll be the first one on the 4th bend shouting for my club against all comers. You have to know when you're well off.

Come off it people. Disliking one or more people for what they say is fine. We are all entitled to our opinion. Banning those same people based on their nationality is a bit strong by anybody's standard. Racist by definition actually. I've made my feelings about Jason Doyle and his ultimatum quite clear. We'll reorganise British for the benefit of all (or perish) not because one senior rider says a particular course suits him. Equally I have made my feelings about what happened on Meltdown Thursday. I was there and have rarely been more angry in my long life. Does that mean all Aussies are bad? Don't be daft. Their distinctive competitive nature is to be admired. Although I must admit to some annoyance by their arrogance at times. [Careful Fd, you're into Nationalistic stereotyping]. You see how difficult this is, if you make the effort to be even handed? There is more at stake here than mere simplistic knee jerk reactions to the ill advised actions of a few riders, be they Aussie or otherwise. If I was to criticise senior Aussie riders for anything, it would not be for they say or do, it would be for what they are not doing. British Speedway is a great breeding ground for young Aussies (yes even now). They should help to preserve that.

When you "gentlemen" (and "ladies") have quite finished. This might just be the final death throws of a once great club. Can you bugger off and bicker elsewhere please?

I would never claim to be a mathematician, but I've got an army of spreadsheets at my command.

Stan Mauger is listed on the Bees Website History as riding for Coventry in 1929 and 1931. He is also listed as an Englishman. I can't find anything about him and with such an unusual surname, I was wondering if he was related to Ivan.

Well I make no comment about your antipodean team member, but Scott will give of his best on track (and be pretty consistent), he'll look for his team mates (somewhat rare nowadays) and he'll work overtime for your team in the pits. There are those amongst us Coventry fans that regret the day he left our team.

Our boys aren't idiots. They didn't come home believing nothing was wrong. And they're not that bad either. This is what we're been saying about sending our best out there to learn their their trade. If others had better engines or better sponsorship or a hand from their older "friends", our boys will learn. It's not a level playing out there. Riding for Sheffield in the Championship one night and riding in a World Championship event a couple of nights later, is not the same thing. We'll go back better prepared next time and the time after that we'll be close to a win. That's how this works. We have the talent, now we need the experience.

Were you in my local yesterday? I was voicing almost the same idea. And if I said it, it can't be daft

Not sure how the nights work out, but what about 1 league, split north and south with unlimited doubling up. Only spoiler is that it would be nice to have the playoffs between the geographical areas. Could end up with the same 7 riders riding for each team in the final.

I'd have thought riding grasstrack would help with the bumps at Wimborne Road

I've no axe to grind. My real interest in King's Lynn this year began when I happened to be on holiday in the region in the 2nd week in July. I looked at the fixture list for Thursday 13th July and saw a rather juicy match in prospect and arranged to be there. What happened next is well documented. But before people begin to hang Buster for his "interest in speedway" I would point out the following. This was the league table on Wednesday 12th July 1 Belle Vue............14 34 (+16) 2 Wolverhampton..14 33 (+9) 3 King's Lynn.........12 25 (+7) 4 Poole..................13 24 (+3)

Lucky as in "Can we move up please?". The "please" is optional.

The fans are bonkers. You'll love it.