ITEM: The BSPA banned a rider for 6 months today, the second time in a
year they've used that particular sanction. Last year it was Edward
Kennett, caught using an illegally-adapted silencer in order to lengthen
the shelf-life of his engines. Common sense would tell you he wasn't
the only one to have done it, but he was the first to be caught and
served his punishment with dignity.
This time the recipient of the ban is Rusty Harrison, a Premier League journeyman, lately of Workington Comets. His crime? Retiring from the sport. Yes, only in speedway could you be banned for retiring.
There's more to the story, of course. Internet whispers claim that Harrison was far from happy with the management at Workington, and simply couldn't work for then any more. As always, it's down to you how much you believe internet rumours but Workington seem to have trouble keeping hold of heat leaders, with Craig Cook and Peter Kildemand just two to have fallen out of favour at Derwent Park.
The BSPA claim that Harrison has done this before, and it's for persistent breaking of a contract that he's been punished. This despite the fact that riders are independent contractors, and thus any issue should really be taken up by his employer. Workington, for their part, claim they made no complaint.
So Harrison, a man who relies on skidding a bike for a living, is banned from doing that, should he reconsider his decision to retire. A decade of service is thus rewarded. Meanwhile, various Poles are allowed to pick and choose their meetings for Elite League teams. Well done, BSPA, well done.
ITEM: Over two weeks after Poole lost their unbeaten record at King's Lynn using a team which many would argue should have been declared illegal (and was, but more of that later), after which the King's Lynn management very publicly had the last laugh, Neil Middleditch and Matt Ford re-opened the feud with some fighting words in their local paper.
They'd already had their say weeks ago, with Middleditch crowing about unprofessional comments, and Ford dismissing the Stars as a "less well-run club" than his own, and the new comments added little of interest. The timing of them, however, is just weird.
Trash-talking your opponents - or building them up to be a credible threat - is a well-worn promotional tactic. Done right, it can sway the fence-sitters into spending their hard-earned cash at your event. It's Promotion 101, and more promoters should take advantage of it, especially for low-interest meetings.
You'd expect, then, that King's Lynn would be visiting Wimborne Road any day now, perhaps next Wednesday, and that these latest comments are merely the beginning of the campaign to build the feud and boost the gate. You'd be wrong. King's Lynn aren't due to visit Poole until 2013, unless they meet in the play-offs.
So you have to consider, then, that the Chapman's have gotten under Matt Ford's skin, and this does not bode well for them. The last people to do that were Coventry's Avtar Sandhu and Allan Trump - their crime was to beat a heavily-fancied Poole team in the 2010 play-off final - and Ford's revenge (in which King's Lynn played a massive role) almost tore the sport apart.
It's hardly been a banner year for Poole. Their number one rider endured a sexual assault trial, and latterly broke his hand, and the rider they stole from Swindon, Adrian Miedzinski, refused to extend his short-term contract once he'd achieved a new average. This was the bone of contention with King's Lynn - that Miedzinski was allowed to remain in Poole's 1-7 after publicly declaring he was finished with the club, as per the terms of that contract. The BSPA MC eventually agreed with King's Lynn's position, declaring Poole to have broken the spirit of the regulations, if not the letter. Poole appealed the to the SCB, s body not wholly indistinguishable from the BSPA MC, who ruled in their favour.
A reasonable man might argue that King's Lynn, in grabbing points from a previously undefeated Poole side bending the rules to breaking point, had every right to celebrate that minor triumph with some choice words, but reasonable men, it seems, live nowhere near Poole these days.
ITEM: Coventry promoter Mick Horton appeared on BIKERfm's speedway show this week and acknowledged he'd made some mistakes early in his tenure at Brandon.
Horton is not everybody's cup of tea. I had misgivings when I heard he'd taken over the Bees, and his early decisions did nothing to settle my nerves. Coming after Avtar Sandhu he was on a hiding to nothing, of course, and many fans - if they hadn't already turned against him - were shuffling nervously, perspiring with concern at what was going on at Brandon.
I believe that things can be turned around from just about any position, and so Horton's volte-face is encouraging. I want speedway at Brandon, and speedway needs the Coventry Bees. Hopefully this is a fresh start and it's onwards and upwards from here.
ITEM: Another Speedway World Cup is in the can and once again controversy reigns supreme. The subject of the debate this year was the aptly-named Joker rule, which delivered a kicking to a rampant Great Britain team in the first semi-final, and then turned the final into a tactical farce.
The simple answer is to get rid of it. Speedway is a simple sport - four riders race, and they are awarded points for their finishing position. That a rider could earn more points for finishing second than first is abhorrent, twisted and makes the sport a laughing stock.
Scrap the Joker, scrap the Tactical Ride in the Elite League, and scrap the double points for Grand Prix finals. Let the riders race and sit back and watch the spectacle. Manufactured competition is no competition at all.
This time the recipient of the ban is Rusty Harrison, a Premier League journeyman, lately of Workington Comets. His crime? Retiring from the sport. Yes, only in speedway could you be banned for retiring.
There's more to the story, of course. Internet whispers claim that Harrison was far from happy with the management at Workington, and simply couldn't work for then any more. As always, it's down to you how much you believe internet rumours but Workington seem to have trouble keeping hold of heat leaders, with Craig Cook and Peter Kildemand just two to have fallen out of favour at Derwent Park.
The BSPA claim that Harrison has done this before, and it's for persistent breaking of a contract that he's been punished. This despite the fact that riders are independent contractors, and thus any issue should really be taken up by his employer. Workington, for their part, claim they made no complaint.
So Harrison, a man who relies on skidding a bike for a living, is banned from doing that, should he reconsider his decision to retire. A decade of service is thus rewarded. Meanwhile, various Poles are allowed to pick and choose their meetings for Elite League teams. Well done, BSPA, well done.
ITEM: Over two weeks after Poole lost their unbeaten record at King's Lynn using a team which many would argue should have been declared illegal (and was, but more of that later), after which the King's Lynn management very publicly had the last laugh, Neil Middleditch and Matt Ford re-opened the feud with some fighting words in their local paper.
They'd already had their say weeks ago, with Middleditch crowing about unprofessional comments, and Ford dismissing the Stars as a "less well-run club" than his own, and the new comments added little of interest. The timing of them, however, is just weird.
Trash-talking your opponents - or building them up to be a credible threat - is a well-worn promotional tactic. Done right, it can sway the fence-sitters into spending their hard-earned cash at your event. It's Promotion 101, and more promoters should take advantage of it, especially for low-interest meetings.
You'd expect, then, that King's Lynn would be visiting Wimborne Road any day now, perhaps next Wednesday, and that these latest comments are merely the beginning of the campaign to build the feud and boost the gate. You'd be wrong. King's Lynn aren't due to visit Poole until 2013, unless they meet in the play-offs.
So you have to consider, then, that the Chapman's have gotten under Matt Ford's skin, and this does not bode well for them. The last people to do that were Coventry's Avtar Sandhu and Allan Trump - their crime was to beat a heavily-fancied Poole team in the 2010 play-off final - and Ford's revenge (in which King's Lynn played a massive role) almost tore the sport apart.
It's hardly been a banner year for Poole. Their number one rider endured a sexual assault trial, and latterly broke his hand, and the rider they stole from Swindon, Adrian Miedzinski, refused to extend his short-term contract once he'd achieved a new average. This was the bone of contention with King's Lynn - that Miedzinski was allowed to remain in Poole's 1-7 after publicly declaring he was finished with the club, as per the terms of that contract. The BSPA MC eventually agreed with King's Lynn's position, declaring Poole to have broken the spirit of the regulations, if not the letter. Poole appealed the to the SCB, s body not wholly indistinguishable from the BSPA MC, who ruled in their favour.
A reasonable man might argue that King's Lynn, in grabbing points from a previously undefeated Poole side bending the rules to breaking point, had every right to celebrate that minor triumph with some choice words, but reasonable men, it seems, live nowhere near Poole these days.
ITEM: Coventry promoter Mick Horton appeared on BIKERfm's speedway show this week and acknowledged he'd made some mistakes early in his tenure at Brandon.
Horton is not everybody's cup of tea. I had misgivings when I heard he'd taken over the Bees, and his early decisions did nothing to settle my nerves. Coming after Avtar Sandhu he was on a hiding to nothing, of course, and many fans - if they hadn't already turned against him - were shuffling nervously, perspiring with concern at what was going on at Brandon.
I believe that things can be turned around from just about any position, and so Horton's volte-face is encouraging. I want speedway at Brandon, and speedway needs the Coventry Bees. Hopefully this is a fresh start and it's onwards and upwards from here.
ITEM: Another Speedway World Cup is in the can and once again controversy reigns supreme. The subject of the debate this year was the aptly-named Joker rule, which delivered a kicking to a rampant Great Britain team in the first semi-final, and then turned the final into a tactical farce.
The simple answer is to get rid of it. Speedway is a simple sport - four riders race, and they are awarded points for their finishing position. That a rider could earn more points for finishing second than first is abhorrent, twisted and makes the sport a laughing stock.
Scrap the Joker, scrap the Tactical Ride in the Elite League, and scrap the double points for Grand Prix finals. Let the riders race and sit back and watch the spectacle. Manufactured competition is no competition at all.
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