Grachan

Deadline applied by whom? The BSPA? I don't see how there would be a UKBA deadline.

Even if you can't appeal, you can re-apply. It's not the same thing. An appeal is based on the application you put in whereas if you re-apply it is a fresh application and the previous one has no bearing on the outcome. The current Government are becoming biger and bigger pains in the backsides over visa rules lately. You can't afford to cut corners any more.

If they were legally settled in the UK and you were born here or if you were born here before 1983 then yes.

He probably put in a bad application, so I would imagine it's a case of re-applying. The clubs need to take a lot of responsibility with visa applications in my opinion. they are, after all, the sponsors and it would be partly up to them to prove that Doyle is worthy as well as making sure all the documentation is in order. You would only qualify if your parents are legally resident of the UK. I don't know his situation, but presumably they weren't. Yes, if they are settled here then their kids would qualify as citizens.

I remember Brian Leonard selling speedway bikes in his shop in Thatcham. It must have been the late 70s and they were about £500-£600 if I remember correctly.

I feel he came short because, for many years, just on riding ability alone Hans Nielsen was totally in a class of his own in the British League. There was nobody who came close. When you rode against Oxford it was like winning the match if anyone in your side managed to beat him. A rider of his ability should have won about 10 world titles and could have been the undisputed greatest of all time, but in world Finals he often over rode and made errors - including when he won it Poland and should have been excluded in one race for bringing off Tommy Knudsen. So on World Titles alone I feel he under achieved, but as a league rider he was possibly the greatest of all time.

Top tier - the three big ones: 1. Ivan Mauger 2. Tony Rickardsson 3. Ove Fundin (because I never saw him, so he had to come third) Second tier: 4. Barry Briggs 5. Erik Gundersen 6. Hans Nielsen (best league rider I ever saw, but individually often came short) 7. Ole Olsen Number 8. So difficult to choose 8, but I'll go with the most naturally gifted rider what I ever did see. 8. Michael Lee

Yeah. do it. Maybe in Years Gone By.

Ha! Yes, you could well be correct about the Russians.

The one about putting British juniors in the reserve berths of top flight teams? That must be been about 25 years ago.

The incident that caused Dave Lanning to accuse the Poles is here at about 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1eOmHuX2Lk To be fair, Dave Lanning's commentary on that World Final was nonsense. The original referee's decision (which Lanning was complaining about) seemed fine to me. Plech was leading, was brought off by the Chlynovski. The ref excluded the Russian and ordered a re-run. What's the problem with that? It was only when everyone started going crazy about it that the ref changed the decision under pressure, so it was a weak referee. The original decision seemed ok to me. And as for the Poles trying to get a champion and it being a stitch up - had that been the case, then Plech would have been awarded heat 19 to put him in the title run-off, but wasn't. He was leading at the time of incident after all. As for Szczakiel, he was definitely a bit of a surprise champion, but he had scored a maximum in a World Pairs Final previously so he certainly wasn't a no hoper. And regarding the run off. Mauger fell off. Yes, the race should have been stopped, but even if it had Szczakiel would still have won. There was some strange refereeing going on that night, but Jerzy Szczakiel won the tile fair and square and it was another Pole - Zenon Plech - who suffered most from the poor refereeing.

Sorry, but you're still coming across as someone who is determined to undermine this in any way that you can. I'm not really sure what your motivation is here. So, the BBC SPOTY programme - which is nationally known competition - proved more popular than a vote for a minority personality on a minority channel. Well, of course it did. We all know that. I just don't see what you're trying to achieve with your posts other than try to knock the fact that Tai Woffinden won a vote on a TV show. Maybe I'm just missing your point. Or are you going to try and say that you're not making a point but merely bringing up facts without opinion? (No offence, but this is a speedway forum, so if you constantly try to say how rubbish speedway is to speedway supporters you must expect some opposition.)

Does it really need that much credibility though? It's just a vote put together by a tv show. It's not really a big deal. Nevertheless, it's still nice to see that Tai won it.

Editing out the words "but you come across as" because they invalidate your comment about speculation. Sheer BSF-style selective editing on your part.

You seem determined to knock this. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you come across as slightly peeved that a speedway rider has actually won some sort of award. It must be hard for you. And of course it's not as prestigious as the SPOTY award. Maybe there's a clue in the word "minority". It's just a small thing from a fledgeling TV channel, so I wouldn't take it too seriously. But it's still great that Tai won it, so let's at least try to be pleased about that, shall we? My guess is that this is the first of its kind, and the announcement looked slightly shambolic, but maybe it will grow in significance in future years if BT Sport gets more of a foothold. It's not a big deal, but it's great that Tai won it. Quite ironic that he wasn't there to collect his award, though, after all the stick some people gave Andy Murray on the "Tai Woffinden for SPOTY" Facebook page for not being there to collect his!

I totally agree regards the present league scoring. It should be a good way of getting rid of the silly TR. The score was Sheffield 47 Glasgow 48. So would have been Sheffield 47 Glasgow 42 (assuming Glasgow got 6 extra points from the TRs).

It's not because it's difficult to understand. It's because people immediately think it's stupid.

The trouble is you HAVE to tell them about the TR otherwise they get the score wrong. That's the problem with the TR.

You can at Aldi.

Shhh. Don't let on, but I think he was taking the pee....

To be honest the BBC would probably avoid having nominees from sports like Squash and Speedway as they are the type of sports that might encourage orchestrated voting campaigns and the nominees might end up winning. Then you'd have a SPOTY winner that hardly anybody has heard of!

Update on World Squash Championship. The winner was Nick Matthew. Nick Clegg even wrote a letter to the BBC in support of him getting a nomination. So he was probably above Tai in the reckoning. http://www.psaworldtour.com/news/20131120/nick-clegg-backs-nick-matthew-for-bbc-award_2281852_3543909

I didn't say the figures would be higher or lower. Just that you're not comparing like-for-like events. I'm neutral me! Remember when Tai won and featured on BBC breakfast? The following week they featured a Brit who won the World Squash Championship. He hasn't been nominated either. Anyone know his name? This British winner of the World Squash Championship? I don't. I'm sure in the world of squash there are plenty of people going into swearing fits on Facebook about how HE should have been nominated too. I'm sure there's plenty of others out there. The Ben Ainslie nomination is maybe a bit tenuous, but even if he hadn't been nominated the next in line wouldn't have been Tai Woffinden.

Actually, we're not comparing like-for-like here. If we're taking viewing figures from when the America's Cup was won then it needs to be compared with the GP viewing figure when Tai won it. Just saying. The thing with Ben Ainslie is people know who he is. I saw The One Show last night when they were doing drawings of each nominee. I think people need to be realistic here. Had they announced Tai Woffinden as a nominee and done their little sketch most of the people watching would have gone: "Who the hell is that?" In 1976 Peter Collins' World Final win made the front page of the Daily Mirror - and he still came nowhere.

That's because you are very very stupid. No he didn't. He had no choice what he did. That's because he was a.. what's the word?.. oh yeah, slave. What you describe may not be ideal, but it sure ain't slavery. The riders do this out of choice and they have a choice not to do it if they prefer not to.