Grachan

It is rule 012.2 "A Premiership Transfer Window opens after 25% of the League fixtures are complete and closes when 75% of League fixtures are complete. This permits changes to the team on 2 occasions, except for proven long term injury." It seems pretty clear that the SPIRIT of these two rules is that there are no transfers outside the transfer window except for long-term injury replacements, and none at all after 28 August. This was clearly their intention when they refused Belle Vue permission to use Lambert. Of course, there was enough ambiguity in these two rules when put together for any half-decent lawyer (or even fan for that matter!) to find a loophole. If that was their intention, then it should have been stated clearly in BOTH rules what they meant.

That's not the rule that causes the issue. The rule is 010.3.1, which, for some reason, no Belle Vue supporter seems to want to take any notice of despite it being quoted on this forum when Rob was first refused permission. The rule reads: "No team changes will be allowed after 28th August with the effective date being 31st August. Except riders returning to the team after injury who must re-take their position, dictated by their MA, with their replacement being released." Personally, I'd rather be watching Rob Lambert racing tonight, and in terms of who wins I'm completely neutral. But if you want to look at rules, you need to include that one too, which gives no mention of long-term injuries.

I suspect it was more likely that a lawyer proved that the rules couldn't be proven to disallow them a replacement rather than proving they allowed them one.

They didn't read the rules correctly. The rules could be interpreted one of two ways. Same old same old.

Got to love Speedway and its rule book, eh? What is the point of having a rule that specifically prevents this if it is then overridden? Yes, there is also a "long-term injury" rule allowing signings, but that is relevant to the transfer-windows, not the end of the season, although I'm sure they will quote this rule as the reason it was allowed. In which case, why disallow it in the first place? Still, from a neutral point of view, having Lambert ride makes the meeting more appealing to watch. So why not just include the "long-term injury" rule in the "no signings after August 31" rule. Then there's no argument?

Well someone needs to bloody do it. As mentioned, David Rowe did it perfectly in the closing stages of the Euros last year whilst also commentating on the races. There is a lot of talk time between races on this Eurosport coverage. Plenty of time to go through that sort of thing.

For me it's an integral part of their job.

Indeed.

Yes. So frustrating. Just a load of guess work. They really need someone who has a clue on this. I had no idea that Magic was third and neither, it seens, did they.

Some similar moments there to the ones I remember, Sidney. Renember the 1974 double header against Hackney and Belle Vue? My first season and the biggest crowd I ever saw there with Bob Kilby guesting for both sides. Couldn't believe it when it was later announced that Kilby would be at Blunsdon in 1975. I also remember Malc Holloway riding through the flower beds while the track staff scattered in all directions. So funny. The Ashby/Jansson Golden Helmet. I git Tommy's autograph that night. Crump and Lee was another one. For me, the best riding I've ever seen from any rider ever was Michael Lee that night. He was beating Crump by the length of a straight and pulling wheelies at the same time. I remember it clearly. Another great memory for me was Andrew Silver coming in as our number 8 and riding straight between a couple of Wolves riders who were team riding on a 5-1.

I wonder if the statement from Tomlinson forced GI to come out with that?

The irony of all this that I am not getting adverts for Taylor-Wimpey all over my social media telling me that they are "building a better World".

More from Justin Tomlinson MP. "SWINDON SPEEDWAY - Detailed Response (I hope it helps)... I have been personally involved in supporting Swindon Speedway since the initial campaign to block the closure in 2008. To save the stadium, it was agreed housing adjacent to the stadium could be built if the stadium remained open and ultimately modernised (new stand etc). At the time this was a huge relief and Swindon Speedway carried on with many years of success. As fans were nervous about the stadium owners intentions, it was agreed that the final phase of planned housing (where the stadium owners get a financial share) could only proceed once the stadium works have been completed. Swindon Council repeatedly held firm on this. Whilst speedway continued, works to upgrade the stadium never materialised despite repeated promises / false starts. Covid then hit, speedway was paused, and all seemed lost. Perhaps to many people’s surprise the long awaited new stand appeared ready for construction earlier in the year – finally we seemed set to get the promised new stand and associated works. After a flurry of work, again progress stalled. We all continued to press for action, or at the very least updates. Finally, this week it was confirmed that Swindon Speedway would not be able to proceed as the stadium would not re-open, triggered by an expected loss of the greyhounds. Speedway only operates 20 nights per year, paying a relatively small amount of rent, so the stadium is reliant on the greyhound TV money to remain viable. It is important to understand the stadium is privately owned so no-one can force them to either complete the stadium works or operate speedway. However, Swindon Council are rightly still refusing to relax the conditions, so if the stadium owners cannot complete the works, the final phase of housing will remain blocked. Taylor Wimpey (the developer of this final phase) had been set to start, as the owners had promised them stadium works would shortly be completed. They have now been told that works cannot proceed. Both Swindon Council and I will make sure that the owners cannot escape the planning conditions. So, what happens now? Firstly, nothing. This isn’t ideal for anyone – more seasons pass with Swindon Speedway unable to compete, fans drift away making it harder for them to return competitively – especially in the wider context of the challenges national speedway is facing with declining crowds and deteriorating finances. Secondly, the stadium owners may have to accept the work needs to be completed to unlock the housing. This would be very welcome but doesn’t guarantee how long the stadium would then continue to operate, especially if reliant on just 20 evenings of speedway per year. Thirdly, the stadium owners have suggested an alternative site is found. This is nonsense, the Abbey Stadium has been perfectly suitable all these years and is surely easier to modernise than starting from scratch in some unknown location. Finally, the owners could and should actively seek to sell the stadium to someone who could complete the works and find other uses to sit alongside speedway to make it financially viable. Would this work, is there a potential buyer? Only time will tell, but for the sake of generations of fans it is only right this is explored fully and urgently. The stadium looked lost in 2008, let’s hope we can see another last-minute saviour come forward."

Quote from Swindon's MP on Twitter: "I've spent years trying to save the stadium. Nothing has changed, SBC will not allow housing (where GI make money) to proceed until the stadium is completed. If GI can't make it work (because of the loss of greyhounds) they need to try and sell the stadium to someone who can." It will be interesting to see if and when building on the hideously named "Robins Gardens" actually starts.

To be honest, I expect that if you hadn't posted it then it still wouldn't have made its way into the public domain. Because you put that here, they had no choice but to announce it. I'm assuming that the snippet that you posted was from 30 August judging by the numbers at the top. That's a week before they started moving the crates out of the car park and saying that reports of the end of Greyhound Racing at the Abbey were not true. Once you made that post and people became aware of it, they had to make the announcement. It's quite shocking that we had to hear it from you rather than anyone involved with speedway - either the club or the BSPA.

Foxhill Moto X area maybe. I can't see it happening though. The thing is, they could have done that 15 years ago if they really had the inclination so it's probably a pipe dream.

Providing that is real, it looks like the club themselves have now effectively waived the right to prevent any more houses being built and the stadium will no longer be built.

Over a heat-by-heat scoring, Nielsen was clearly a cut above everyone. However, all Gundersen had to do would be finish in the top 8 and make the semi-final. Once in the semi's he would be Hans' worst nightmare!

Under the old scoring system maybe. Under this scoring system Gundersen would have matched him.

It's been obvious for a while that Zmarzlik was going to win this year, but there was a risk of Bewley stealing his thunder at the end of the year. Zmarzlik put that to bed tonight. The way he expertly conned Bewley into the tapes in Dan's last ride was almost genius if it was intended - and, judging from his interview just afterwards, Dan knew it. The future for GB looks good, though, with Rob Lambert and Dan Bewley probably now our top two as Tai rests easy on his laurels. British riders probably should have worn black arms bands considering the effort made by the organisers and having the UK flag at half-mast. That's down to Team GB to sort out probably rather than the riders themselves.

According to this: Taylor Wimpey to begin work on new Swindon housing development (swindonlink.com) the new houses are called "Robin Gardens" of all things. Planning permission was granted in June 2022. "Planning permission was granted in June 2022 and following the exchange of contracts last month - August 2022 - work is due to start on site soon." No mention of any conditions before building work begins.

Details of a new development. This, presumably, is the reason that the containers were moved, as it is in the old car park. Taylor Wimpey to begin work on new Swindon housing development (swindonlink.com) It's even called "Robin Gardens"!

How about a grading system. get the refs thinking a bit and cause some controversy at the same time. Do we need to automatically exclude a rider? In a 50/50 accident have all 4 back. If a rider is deemed the cause of the stoppage then re-run but with a handicap (or a "Yellowcard"). If the rider is seen as dirty rider then exclude them from the race (Red card). Imagine the boos from the crowd when that happened. Top entertainment. Oh, we can't have that can we. And put the ref's phone back by the start line. Nice for a bit of old-skool aggro.

There's plenty of Russians still competing in other sports so they may feel it's not achieving anything if others don't do the same. Take a look at the US Open tennis line up next week. Plenty of Russians and Belarussians in it. Meanwhile Djokovic is barred because he's not vaccinated. Personally I hooe they are back next year. They are Polish citizens after all.

If Dan stats tip 6 I think that supercedes the GP Challenge, so the place would go to the rider who came 4th in the challenge.