Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater (Edition No.16 Nov 2003)

Yorkshire’s national newspaper “The Yorkshire Post” does give speedway some coverage in its sport section but sometimes one wonders if the old saying that all publicity is good publicity is true. On the 8^th July the paper carried a feature on two recent incidents involving Sheffield and Hull both of which did the sport little credit and both of which were the reason of the BSPA/SCB deciding in their wisdom to omit long standing rules from the 2003 regulations.

In the past there was a rule that teams had to notify each other of their proposed line-up some days in advance, in 2002 the rule was 14-11 which stated that 5 days before a meeting each team must fax the opposing team with their proposed riding order and these declared line-ups could not be changed unless riders were injured. For whatever reason the 2003 regulations do not contain any rule on this line so as the Yorkshire Post reported:

“Sheffield arrived at Kings Lynn for a KO Cup meeting and complained to the referee about the guest rider intended to be used by Kings Lynn on the grounds that the rider he was replacing had been given a new lower average 7 days before and so the guest’s average was too high. The referee decided that the visitors were correct and so Kings Lynn had to find a replacement rider at short notice and the guest rider had a wasted journey.”

This was bad enough on the day and did the sport little credit but when the resulting arguments were featured in the paper matters took a turn for the worse. The Sheffield promoter, Neil Machin was upset that the Kings Lynn promoter had said he had cheated by complaining about the guest and that he had bent the rules. Mr Machin was quoted as saying

“ They should have known that one of their riders was due for a new average it was not my job to tell them … ignorance was no excuse. They slipped up and have tried to wriggle out of it and save face with their fans by accusing us of cheating. I did not know who they would be using until I arrived an hour before the meeting… just because they hadn’t received the paperwork didn’t alter the fact”

I understand from my sources in the corridors of power that an official memo has been issued to all referees that any disputes regarding the legality of any teams line-up must now be decided after the meeting has been held and if needs be the result amended to omit the points of an illegal rider. Any non-speedway fan seeing a report of a meeting result being amended days or weeks after the event must wonder what sort of sport speedway is. Maybe the 2004 rulebook will contain a rule on the lines of the old 14-11 and the days of public arguments between promoters or results of meetings being amended weeks after the events will be history.

In the past the regulations have given a list, in order of priority, of the various types of fixtures held during the season. Up to this year the top event has been listed as FIM inscribed speedway events but in 2003 this has been amended to list the major FIM events in order from GP, World Team Cup, World Championship rounds (why do we have a world championship and a GP does this mean we have 2 world champions?), to the World Junior Championship with the Mickey Mouse Cup sorry I meant British League Cup being listed between Premier and Conference league competitions. The reasons for this change may be explained by the events of the Hull v Coventry British League Cup as outlined in the Yorkshire Post article. Billy Hamill was heavily publicised to be appearing in the meeting. He did not appear and the reason given by the Hull promoter Nigel Wordsworth was that Mr Hamill was riding in Sweden on Tuesday and Thursday and he decided not to travel back to England. Mr Wordsworth was quoted as saying

“ If it had been a Elite League he might have been fined for withholding his services but that doesn’t seen to appear to apply in the Cup”

In the past as the BLC is an FIM inscribed speedway event Mr Hamill would have been fined/banned for missing the meeting for no good reason. No doubt splitting the FIM events down makes sense other wise the rule would have read

“FIM inscribed speedway event, apart from those domestic competitions classed as an FIM event as a means of getting around an county’s employment laws”

In addition I would argue with Mr Wordsworth belief that Mr Hamill could not be fined for staying in Sweden as rule 13-15 states

“ A competitor failing to attend a meeting…. Shall be guilty of an offence”

and Appendix A of the regulations states that a breach of 13-15 means a fine of ranging from £50 - £250. After all this year riders, be they an ex world champion or a Conference League rider, can be fined £50 a race for wearing the wrong shade of helmet colour.

Charles McKay – “The Star of Saransk”