False dawn

Sinister? Where no information is forthcoming, can you blame anyone for drawing their own conclusions? The Chris Harris situation is a little complex in that the Longtrack championship is involved. Not something the average speedway fan would relate to, especially when it comes to participation in a domestic grasstrack event. A three line explanation and the reason a rider replacement facility was granted before today's meeting would have defused any speculation. Given the other recent absence, I would have thought Peterborough would be quick to keep fans in the loop.

One man's dangerous is another man's track record (almost) apparently.You ride a bike, a very powerful (tuned) bike, set up for a badger's arse on a grippy track and it'll frighten the life out of you.

Hey, don't hold me responsible for the Panthers lack of communication or Worky's for that matter. I'm a Bees fan and should therefore be treated with some sympathy. Seriously, my point was that many clubs don't communicate well with their fans. There is no excuse with the availability of their websites, not to mention FB, Twitter or a bloody pigeon if you like. I'm fed up with being taken for granted. Team changes, absences due to injury, or riders riding in another country are all of interest and could be properly communicated in a timely fashion. Why is silence seen as being justified?

Getting the facts straight by reading the Peterborough / ACU / SCB / BSPA website you mean? Oh, that didn't work. Or is the average fan supposed know the rules governing such cases?

But for the only proper explanation to be given at the meeting today at Peterborough over the tannoy in a noisy stadium is less than ideal. I thought that was what the club website was for, before the meeting.Oh, and the absence of 2 Workington riders due to injury, albeit from a meeting held last night, might have been nice to know about before the meeting.

Was it Kelvin in commentary that said something to the effect, "Dry, wet, grippy, dusty, you've got to ride them all"?

Don't kill the messenger....It was announced at Peterborough today that Chris was forced to ride in the Masters by the ACU in order to qualify to be a long track rider next year. I have a vague recollection about long trackers having to take part in a minimum number of international events and the Masters counts. Especially the foot stamping when he was beaten into 3rd place in heat 15.

Deserving? Worthy? Anymore words? I guess we have to define what being World Champion really means. Here's one definition to get you going... The World Champion is the rider that wins the World Championship. And for completeness.... The World Champion is not the rider (necessarily) that most deserves it or is the most worthy or anything else actually.

Interesting. Maybe the question should be "Was the system of determining the World Champion, worthy?". Just to complicate the discussion, there was a speedway Hall of Fame (not the several goes we've had on here but one announced by Briggo, I think) some years ago. It automatically contained all the previous World Champions, which, at the time I thought made it a bit pointless. To be a "worthy" enshrinee (what the US call their NFL Hall of Famers) surely you would have to be more worthy than simply winning the World Championship. Indeed there is a case for a handful of riders who never won the Championship.

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.