Did He fall or Was He……………

Well they always say there’s many a true word said in jest. You may recall that in my last piece I mused over football’s offside rule and what rules speedway referees have in guiding them to a decision on unfair riding. I came to the conclusion after years of study that “ Basically if get hit by another rider and stay on it’s all ok – if you fall off he gets excluded …” It was all in the best possible taste and it was of course said in jest. But in true speedway fashion and just as you think it can’t get sillier we see the report in the August 22 edition of the “Star” when Belle Vue rider James Wright was hit by Ryan Fisher in the final of the Ashfield Classic. The racing incident – which James agrees was not intentional - caused him to go from first to last. Apart from the loss of the championship and trophy there was the small matter of £1000 prize money too. “ I would have stopped the race and excluded Fisher if you’d have fallen off ” said the ref apparently to James whose perp had never been so plexed. So being penalised for avoiding an incident is now acceptable – you couldn’t script it !! Yes I know he was a trainee ref – but who’s training him ?

For those of you who read the Star I made it into print in the October 3^rd edition. I couldn’t help making some comments about the super 7 series. Apparently we are told – in several programmes and the Star itself - that it was another successful season. The inference being that not attempting to stage the events on neutral tracks did not affect the competition, in fact the converse was true and we supporters attended these events in droves. In two events the home side were just pipped in the final and this in the eyes of the promoters proves that there is clearly no home track advantage – well I beg to differ.

Home track advantage is a big part of speedway just as making it to the first turn first gives you that edge.

So why do so many people support these events if they consider that they know the outcome? Well the Somerset meeting you can understand, it being the night before the GP and a lot of fans being in the area. But the Workington meeting ? That’s a bit more difficult to understand I don’t think anyone came away surprised with the result. The fours always had some predictability about even all those years ago when it was held at Peterborough when the track was always noted for its combined speedway and grasstrack racing.

The second division riders championship always used to be on a neutral track and I remember when it was held at Wimbledon when that was a first division track – now that was an occasion and I remember watching rank outsider Ian Gledhill win it. I remember the outcry one year the Wimbledon meeting was stopped because of rain. The resulting re-run was held at Peterborough. It was won by Ian Barney who rode for ………….you guessed it - The Panthers. It would no doubt have been a different story back at Wimbledon. It was good when the meeting was held at Coventry and I don’t dispute that Sheffield is a very good stadium and has good presentation but how often does a home rider win it ? And because of this it’s not seen as being fair to all the riders. This is a view from within the sport – so what must people from the outside think ? Quite frankly those who think the situation is tickety–boo are kidding only themselves.

I too remember the debacle that was the Belle Vue staging of the meeting and this is the one that is cited every time as the reason for not using a neutral Elite League track. Yes I was there and it was crap. A dry dusty track that was barely raceable and where were people supposed to stand on a back straight that is still awaiting regeneration, as our local council’s like to call it. It was at the least ill-conceived, at worst it was sabotage - but this one event is always trotted out as the reason for what we now have.

With all this in mind I suggested that the fours and pairs meetings could go to one of the non qualifying premier league tracks.

Anyway my letter was with the Star for some six weeks before they printed it - coincidently in the same edition as the report of Mr Ashworth’s win at Sheffield and of course the rather smug Mr Machin pontificating about what a success the meeting was. We never saw that result coming either now did we ! Neither for that matter did Mr Ward or Mr Woffinden who anywhere else – one of whom, it has to be said would have more likely be taking the spoils. I know Ricky had one of those dream meetings when everything went his way but if you can’t win it in your own back yard well………………

On to the second most important meeting in England after the GP – the G.P. Challenge. Top presentation as ever from Coventry and some good racing – with passing - a phenomenon not always associated with the Brandon venue. However what started well turned into something of an endurance test. I know the crashes caused plenty of delay and particularly the ones involving Zorro took some time to sort out - but it was 11.15pm when the fireworks were going off. The promotion must really endear themselves to their neighbours – good job this wasn’t Perry Bar !!

Anyway was it really a good idea to start a 20 heat meeting at 8 15pm ? I know it was a Friday night but I reckon there wasn’t just me who had the delights of a cone festooned M6 to look forward to before I could arrive back at base camp. I’m sure some of the delays during the course of the meeting could have been reduced and surely fans should leave the stadium enthusing about what they have seen not glad its over !!

The end of season play-offs - well nearly every team is involved in something unless of course you are in the bottom two of the premier league then maybe you make your own competition up the Scot - Welsh trophy , or the west coast mainline trophy, or wooden spoon purple handbag or something.

I witnessed the first leg of the play-off trophy at Monmore Green. I have to say that apart from the GP and the GP challenge I haven’t seen a bigger crowd at a meet for some time and I think it’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at Wolves.

Two questions spring to mind :

Why was the admission and programme prices increased ?

And where have these people been all season ?

While I have actually seen better racing in previous meetings at “The Green” Wolves did what they needed to do and the atmosphere was electric. Full marks to Porky and Spike aka Mr Wolf who kept everyone entertained between races. Their efforts during the lengthy delays of the sky televised semi-final are also particularly noteworthy. Two and a half hours for basically 15 minutes of racing – that’s a lot wolf cries, and Max & Paddy impressions, particularly when you were earlier in the season suffering a potentially career ending injury caused by an over enthusiastic Stavros Flatly impression !!

So what about the new league scoring system then ? Has it been a success ? In one way I think it has. At match level it does seem to keep interest going even though it is clear who is likely to win. However at league level it does seem to have created quite wide gaps between teams at the top and bottom of the league. I noticed an article in the Coventry v Eastbourne programme of 31^st August by Chris Robottom who had compared the elite league using the 2007,2008 & 2009 rules. Basically there was hardly any difference at that point in the season. As Chris pointed out the best teams are picking up a bigger number of 4 point away wins and by definition are harder to beat at home, therefore taking a large number of 3 point home wins. The new rules still provide an opportunity for the better teams and those with significant home track advantage to amass even more bonus points than under the old system. Chris suggests that the system could be amended to :

Home Win 2pts

Home Draw 1pt

Away Win 3pts

Away Draw 2pts

Away loss by 6 or fewer 1pt

Good idea? – I think it may be worth a try - apart from anything else it is more straight-forward than the existing system and doesn’t reward massive home wins.

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