ITEM: Fantastic news from Glasgow last weekend, when long-time Tigers'
fan Alun Biggart became the latest member of the "somewhere-based
businessman" club that is speedway owners - Denmark, in Biggart's case.
Joining with former promoter, Isle of Man-based businessman Gordon Pairman, Biggart's intervention has saved the Tigers from a similar extinction to that facing their wildlife counterparts, and ensures that speedway continues in Scotland's biggest city.
Biggart grew up attending Friday night speedway at whatever Glasgow stadium the Tigers called home during the '80s, and wants to take the club back to that tradition. There is a small stumbling block in that Edinburgh also run Friday's, just 30 miles away, but I'm sure common sense can prevail.
Biggart seems smart, enthusiastic, and passionate about Glasgow speedway and, while these qualities have been found in abundance in many a failed speedway promoter, he's made a good start to what I hope will be a long association with the sport.
Now we just need someone to sort out Workington and Plymouth, and the Premier League looks good for 2013...
ITEM: For someone who looks so young, Josh Bates caused a whole heap of trouble last weekend. It's not strictly his fault - past recovering from injury sooner than expected, anyway - but his inclusion in the Mildenhall team to face Dudley in the first leg of the National League KO Cup final almost brought the meeting to a halt.
Until he broke his arm in August, Bates had been a valuable reserve for the Tigers, racking up a 5.30 average and scoring vital points for the double-chasing side. With his injury seemingly ruling him out for the rest of the season, Tigers recalled Aaron Baseby from the Isle of Wight, only for Baseby to be ruled out due to injury himself.
Having redeclared the side with Baseby in it, they redeclared again, signing Gareth Isherwood, late of Buxton and Stoke, to plug the gap. This seemed to be the team that was to take them into the NL play-offs, and KO Cup final - Baseby may have been averaging less than Bates, and Isherwood less than Baseby, but the team still averaged a full 7 points over the limit agreed at the start of the season.
When Dudley arrived at West Row on Sunday they found Bates listed in the Mildenhall team. The Tigers claimed they had been given permission by National League co-ordinator Peter Morrish to include Bates in their 1-7 in September, after Baseby's injury, but also given permission to use Isherwood as an injury replacement in the interim, though this is not apparent from the published team declarations on the BSPA website.
For their part, Mildenhall claim they have an audit trail backing this up, although the BSPA position seems to be that Bates was not legally allowed to ride - with Bates not named in the 1-7 (and Mildenhall had ample time to correct this) the only replacement for the absent Isherwood should have been an unattached 3.00 rider. It is also worth noting that Mildenhall have two injured riders declared in their 1-7 aside from Bates - if riding was important to his development (and I'm a fan of giving young riders as many rides as possible) they could have legally and fairly redeclared with him in place of Lewis Blackbird, himself out for the season.
Dudley, understandably, raised the issue with the meeting referee, and with the Tigers, who - it is reported - refused to ride without Bates at reserve. With a stadium full of fans, including Dudley's usual large travelling contingent, Peter Morrish was put on the spot and ruled that the meeting should go ahead with the team Mildenhall wanted.
The result was a massive 28-point win for the Tigers, though this was in small no part due to the horrendous crash, and subsequent broken leg, suffered by Heathens' skipper Byron Bekker. Lacking an old head, the Dudley team simply fell apart.
There has been bad blood between the two teams already this season - understandable between the two biggest fish in a tiny pond - and this will not have helped one bit. The fans, for their part, seemed blissfully unaware of the row, and enjoyed what entertainment there was. The respective managements, however, seem at loggerheads - further proof can be found by looking at Mildenhall's proposed date for their leg of the play-off final (should they get there) - a Friday, in no way a usual Tigers' race night (and not their declared "off" night) but one which will see Dudley missing Tom Perry, who doubles-up with Somerset.
As I've written before, rules should be rules. They're written down and published for fans, riders, and promoters alike to see, and should be adhered to. According to the rules, and the published team declarations, Mildenhall were unable to use Bates, yet chose - backed by the NL equivalent of the Wizard of Oz - to go ahead and do so. If there is any consistency, Bates's points should be removed - lining up a juicy second leg with only 18 points between the sides - and the Tigers ordered to redeclare their team to include him (which would require some jiggery pokery but is by no means impossible!).
However, as we've seen, consistent application of the rules is not something speedway gets on with, so I expect it'll be swept under the carpet, despite Dudley making a formal complaint this week. As for Morrish, it calls into question his position - if the NL is to be run as a semi-professional league, with fixed rules and regulations, you have to wonder why we need a "co-ordinator", whatever one of those is. Especially one who seems to have made such a hash of this particular situation...
ITEM: This season has been horrible. Do much has gone wrong, and so many unpleasant things have happened, that we may as well write it off. At the least we should attach a new slogan - "British speedway - what a shambles!' - to the sport and try and cash in on what seems to be an endless stream of crap.
That stream almost broke its banks this week with the farcical KO Cup settling one tie on the basis of one leg, and another on the toss of a coin. Let's forget for a moment that we're having quarter-final (effectively the first round) ties in October, and reflect on that...
It's hard to get your head round, isn't it? Can you imagine it in any other sport? Can you imagine any other sport allowing two teams to decline to take part in one of only two competitions available to them because of a worry about fixture congestion? Only for both those teams to finish their seasons with eight weeks of the season remaining?
Put simply, the KO Cup has been treated like a red-headed stepchild from the outset, which only makes it worse for the sides who have taken it seriously - Coventry, Lakeside, Poole, and Wolves all managed to stage their quarter-finals in the summer - and Coventry and Poole have been waiting some time to find out their opponents. For a team like the Bees, drastically out of contention for the play-offs months ago, the cup represents a chance of silverware, keeping their season alive - and crowds interested - long after King's Lynn and Eastbourne have packed up for an extra-long winter.
Critics of the KO Cup point out that Sweden and Poland do not have a cup competition. Like many of those who eulogise speedway in those countries, they ignore the facts. What Sweden provides could barely be called a season (which is why any Swedish rider who takes the sport at all seriously can be found in the UK and/or the GPs), and Poland fills its calendar with so many supplementary competitions that it's hard to list them all without missing the Upper Silesian 22-25yr olds' Handicap Pairs Trophy, held over six legs, or something ridiculous like that. Besides, for all their attractions, Sweden and Poland are not Britain. We have our own peculiarities and these should be celebrated: knockout cup competitions being a British tradition, of course.
The KO Cup, in its present form, may not be attractive to many promoters. Some fans, it is said, don't take it seriously, and adding in laughable tweaks like "man on man" action is not going to help.
Running it earlier in the season would obviously help - using it as a curtain raiser would overcome the smaller crowds, with fans desperate to see any action, with the final left as a showcase later on, perhaps a one-off tie at a neutral stadium? Or resurrect an inter-league aspect to the competition, for those PL tracks willing to upgrade their sides for a couple of meetings a season? I'm sure the collective brainmass of fans, riders, and promoters have the answers - it's just asking the right questions.
Whatever is done, the tradition of knockout cup speedway in this country cannot be allowed to lapse. I only hope the BSPA feel the same way.
ITEM: The less said about Chris Holder's triumphant homecoming the better! Having said that...
Poole had arranged a challenge match with auld enemies Coventry to welcome their new World Champion home (or celebrate his silver medal, I guess) and hoped for a big crowd - what with the Pirates not having faced the Bees since Easter.
What few fans bothered to turn up - home fans mindful of the upcoming play-off double-header with Swindon, and away fans unwilling to travel in numbers to line Matt Ford's pockets for a meaningless challenge - were treated to the sight of four vehicles driving slowly round the track, trying to pack down a surface seemingly so poorly prepared that Belle Vue fans might have laughed at it.
The fans then got to see Holder receive a new engine from Ford, before watching Chris Harris practice-start into the fence and Darcy Ward teeter round before declaring he wouldn't ride. And that was it. No 15pt maximum from the new world champion, no humiliating defeat of the Bees, nothing.
Fans were then told they had to queue for a refund - with only the play-off final left inked onto the fixture list, taking an extra £4 on the night was seemingly beyond the ken of the Poole administration - and many were unhappy at the attitude of those in the office. This included some newcomers, brought to the stadium by the local publicity surrounding the new world champion, and they are hopefully not lost to the sport.
Whatever you think of his dirty tricks, and there have been many, Matt Ford has always been a superb promoter for his business, and events run smoothly at Wimborne Road. He dropped a massive ricket on Wednesday, and seems to have gotten away with it. His pet journalist has been silent when similar happenings at other tracks have felt the lash of his tongue, and I can only imagine the outcry if it was Belle Vue, and not Poole.
Still, it's nice to know that even the Dark Lord of Dorset gets things wrong sometimes - "British Speedway, what a shambles!"
Joining with former promoter, Isle of Man-based businessman Gordon Pairman, Biggart's intervention has saved the Tigers from a similar extinction to that facing their wildlife counterparts, and ensures that speedway continues in Scotland's biggest city.
Biggart grew up attending Friday night speedway at whatever Glasgow stadium the Tigers called home during the '80s, and wants to take the club back to that tradition. There is a small stumbling block in that Edinburgh also run Friday's, just 30 miles away, but I'm sure common sense can prevail.
Biggart seems smart, enthusiastic, and passionate about Glasgow speedway and, while these qualities have been found in abundance in many a failed speedway promoter, he's made a good start to what I hope will be a long association with the sport.
Now we just need someone to sort out Workington and Plymouth, and the Premier League looks good for 2013...
ITEM: For someone who looks so young, Josh Bates caused a whole heap of trouble last weekend. It's not strictly his fault - past recovering from injury sooner than expected, anyway - but his inclusion in the Mildenhall team to face Dudley in the first leg of the National League KO Cup final almost brought the meeting to a halt.
Until he broke his arm in August, Bates had been a valuable reserve for the Tigers, racking up a 5.30 average and scoring vital points for the double-chasing side. With his injury seemingly ruling him out for the rest of the season, Tigers recalled Aaron Baseby from the Isle of Wight, only for Baseby to be ruled out due to injury himself.
Having redeclared the side with Baseby in it, they redeclared again, signing Gareth Isherwood, late of Buxton and Stoke, to plug the gap. This seemed to be the team that was to take them into the NL play-offs, and KO Cup final - Baseby may have been averaging less than Bates, and Isherwood less than Baseby, but the team still averaged a full 7 points over the limit agreed at the start of the season.
When Dudley arrived at West Row on Sunday they found Bates listed in the Mildenhall team. The Tigers claimed they had been given permission by National League co-ordinator Peter Morrish to include Bates in their 1-7 in September, after Baseby's injury, but also given permission to use Isherwood as an injury replacement in the interim, though this is not apparent from the published team declarations on the BSPA website.
For their part, Mildenhall claim they have an audit trail backing this up, although the BSPA position seems to be that Bates was not legally allowed to ride - with Bates not named in the 1-7 (and Mildenhall had ample time to correct this) the only replacement for the absent Isherwood should have been an unattached 3.00 rider. It is also worth noting that Mildenhall have two injured riders declared in their 1-7 aside from Bates - if riding was important to his development (and I'm a fan of giving young riders as many rides as possible) they could have legally and fairly redeclared with him in place of Lewis Blackbird, himself out for the season.
Dudley, understandably, raised the issue with the meeting referee, and with the Tigers, who - it is reported - refused to ride without Bates at reserve. With a stadium full of fans, including Dudley's usual large travelling contingent, Peter Morrish was put on the spot and ruled that the meeting should go ahead with the team Mildenhall wanted.
The result was a massive 28-point win for the Tigers, though this was in small no part due to the horrendous crash, and subsequent broken leg, suffered by Heathens' skipper Byron Bekker. Lacking an old head, the Dudley team simply fell apart.
There has been bad blood between the two teams already this season - understandable between the two biggest fish in a tiny pond - and this will not have helped one bit. The fans, for their part, seemed blissfully unaware of the row, and enjoyed what entertainment there was. The respective managements, however, seem at loggerheads - further proof can be found by looking at Mildenhall's proposed date for their leg of the play-off final (should they get there) - a Friday, in no way a usual Tigers' race night (and not their declared "off" night) but one which will see Dudley missing Tom Perry, who doubles-up with Somerset.
As I've written before, rules should be rules. They're written down and published for fans, riders, and promoters alike to see, and should be adhered to. According to the rules, and the published team declarations, Mildenhall were unable to use Bates, yet chose - backed by the NL equivalent of the Wizard of Oz - to go ahead and do so. If there is any consistency, Bates's points should be removed - lining up a juicy second leg with only 18 points between the sides - and the Tigers ordered to redeclare their team to include him (which would require some jiggery pokery but is by no means impossible!).
However, as we've seen, consistent application of the rules is not something speedway gets on with, so I expect it'll be swept under the carpet, despite Dudley making a formal complaint this week. As for Morrish, it calls into question his position - if the NL is to be run as a semi-professional league, with fixed rules and regulations, you have to wonder why we need a "co-ordinator", whatever one of those is. Especially one who seems to have made such a hash of this particular situation...
ITEM: This season has been horrible. Do much has gone wrong, and so many unpleasant things have happened, that we may as well write it off. At the least we should attach a new slogan - "British speedway - what a shambles!' - to the sport and try and cash in on what seems to be an endless stream of crap.
That stream almost broke its banks this week with the farcical KO Cup settling one tie on the basis of one leg, and another on the toss of a coin. Let's forget for a moment that we're having quarter-final (effectively the first round) ties in October, and reflect on that...
It's hard to get your head round, isn't it? Can you imagine it in any other sport? Can you imagine any other sport allowing two teams to decline to take part in one of only two competitions available to them because of a worry about fixture congestion? Only for both those teams to finish their seasons with eight weeks of the season remaining?
Put simply, the KO Cup has been treated like a red-headed stepchild from the outset, which only makes it worse for the sides who have taken it seriously - Coventry, Lakeside, Poole, and Wolves all managed to stage their quarter-finals in the summer - and Coventry and Poole have been waiting some time to find out their opponents. For a team like the Bees, drastically out of contention for the play-offs months ago, the cup represents a chance of silverware, keeping their season alive - and crowds interested - long after King's Lynn and Eastbourne have packed up for an extra-long winter.
Critics of the KO Cup point out that Sweden and Poland do not have a cup competition. Like many of those who eulogise speedway in those countries, they ignore the facts. What Sweden provides could barely be called a season (which is why any Swedish rider who takes the sport at all seriously can be found in the UK and/or the GPs), and Poland fills its calendar with so many supplementary competitions that it's hard to list them all without missing the Upper Silesian 22-25yr olds' Handicap Pairs Trophy, held over six legs, or something ridiculous like that. Besides, for all their attractions, Sweden and Poland are not Britain. We have our own peculiarities and these should be celebrated: knockout cup competitions being a British tradition, of course.
The KO Cup, in its present form, may not be attractive to many promoters. Some fans, it is said, don't take it seriously, and adding in laughable tweaks like "man on man" action is not going to help.
Running it earlier in the season would obviously help - using it as a curtain raiser would overcome the smaller crowds, with fans desperate to see any action, with the final left as a showcase later on, perhaps a one-off tie at a neutral stadium? Or resurrect an inter-league aspect to the competition, for those PL tracks willing to upgrade their sides for a couple of meetings a season? I'm sure the collective brainmass of fans, riders, and promoters have the answers - it's just asking the right questions.
Whatever is done, the tradition of knockout cup speedway in this country cannot be allowed to lapse. I only hope the BSPA feel the same way.
ITEM: The less said about Chris Holder's triumphant homecoming the better! Having said that...
Poole had arranged a challenge match with auld enemies Coventry to welcome their new World Champion home (or celebrate his silver medal, I guess) and hoped for a big crowd - what with the Pirates not having faced the Bees since Easter.
What few fans bothered to turn up - home fans mindful of the upcoming play-off double-header with Swindon, and away fans unwilling to travel in numbers to line Matt Ford's pockets for a meaningless challenge - were treated to the sight of four vehicles driving slowly round the track, trying to pack down a surface seemingly so poorly prepared that Belle Vue fans might have laughed at it.
The fans then got to see Holder receive a new engine from Ford, before watching Chris Harris practice-start into the fence and Darcy Ward teeter round before declaring he wouldn't ride. And that was it. No 15pt maximum from the new world champion, no humiliating defeat of the Bees, nothing.
Fans were then told they had to queue for a refund - with only the play-off final left inked onto the fixture list, taking an extra £4 on the night was seemingly beyond the ken of the Poole administration - and many were unhappy at the attitude of those in the office. This included some newcomers, brought to the stadium by the local publicity surrounding the new world champion, and they are hopefully not lost to the sport.
Whatever you think of his dirty tricks, and there have been many, Matt Ford has always been a superb promoter for his business, and events run smoothly at Wimborne Road. He dropped a massive ricket on Wednesday, and seems to have gotten away with it. His pet journalist has been silent when similar happenings at other tracks have felt the lash of his tongue, and I can only imagine the outcry if it was Belle Vue, and not Poole.
Still, it's nice to know that even the Dark Lord of Dorset gets things wrong sometimes - "British Speedway, what a shambles!"
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