ITEM: So, we have a new world champion. It may surprise you,
but I’m not going to say he’s not worthy of it. All of them would have been. Even
Peter Ljung. But to reach that point in your chosen sport, even if your bikes
are suspiciously fast to my untrained eye, takes a level of skill many will
never possess, whether by hard work or natural talent. Nothing I can say could
ever take that away from him.
The manner in which it was won, however, leaves a poor taste
in the mouth. Eight times out of ten Holder would have been excluded for that
move. Anywhere other than the first bend, and you could make it ten out of ten.
Pedersen clamped him down, and Holder had a choice – come off the throttle, or
take your chances that Pedersen would move over. He chose the latter, Pedersen
maintained his line, and the rest should be history.
It would have made for excellent drama, too. Pedersen still needed
to make up six points, and would not even have been guaranteed to make it to
the final in a re-run. But, no, instead we were treated to a farce and the
sight of jumped-up little scrotes getting involved in something they had no
business being anywhere near.
Still, Pedersen found it within himself to be the bigger
man, and history will not record how the championship was won, just that it was,
over twelve rounds. So, for twelve months at least, Chris Holder is the
undisputed world champion. Let’s hope he grows into the role.
ITEM: There was a meeting of the BSPA in Rugby
this week to discuss what they’re going to discuss at the AGM next month. It
sounds silly, but it makes a twisted kind of sense. Well, it does if you don’t
then change what you agree on to the detriment of two of your member clubs. But
I digress.
I hope they wore their thinking caps, because the sport – at
all three levels – in this country is at
a crossroads. The National League has to decide what kind of league it is –
professional or development, or if it’s possible to be both – and the Premier
League has to work out how to maintain interest through to the end of the
season without Frankenstein competitions. By far the biggest challenge,
however, faces the Elite League.
Put simply, we cannot go on as we are. We have an unwieldy
fixture list which has meant the biggest rivals of the past few season meet
just once home and away this season, and which has seen some clubs finish their
fixtures in September rather than the traditional Halloween cut-off. We also
have a massive imbalance, not only between the top and bottom sides – which is
to be expected, to some degree – but also in the make-up of the teams
themselves. No-one wants to see two races in one, but due to the huge gulf in
class between the top and bottom riders in the Elite League, it’s become a
permanent fixture this season.
There seems to be two options. We can either bring back the “stars”,
who for some are a panacea, an all-dancing fan-magnet, despite no concrete
evidence to back it up, or we can take a hit and reduce the number of those
star riders we have already, in an effort to make the racing closer, and more
affordable to struggling promoters. In a perfect world, the former would be the
choice every time, but is it the answer we need?
The stars we are talking about are the GP riders. They have
name recognition within the sport, though I wonder how many non-regulars, or
lapsed fans, know who they are. The debut of Emil Sayfutdinov, and the return
of Nicki Pedersen, last season enhanced some crowds, but I doubt that, if they
had been EL riders again this season, that would have lasted. What the GP
riders do bring is a disruptive schedule, and extra costs.
To accommodate them we may have to switch to 1 or 2 uniform
race nights, which is entirely unsuitable for some tracks for historic or
availability issues, and there is no guarantee that their presence will do
anything but increase the gap between the best and worst riders in the league.
You do have to speculate to accumulate, however, and it may be a gamble worth
taking. It’s not my money, so it’s easy for me to say that!
The other option is to try and increase the excitement and
closeness of the racing by losing some quality at the top, and adding it onto
the bottom. This should bring costs down, but square pegs have a habit of
asking a king’s ransom to fit into a round hole. It would mean that clubs could
keep their favoured and convenient race nights, without disruption by the BSI
cash-cow, but also that the “stars” would disappear overnight. Clever promoters
would create new stars, as we have discussed in these pages before, but others
may still look for that crutch to lean on.
I’ll go on record and declare I’m in favour of the second
option. To reduce costs would enable some clubs to get on a level footing,
without throwing good money after bad, year on year, and it may tempt other
clubs up into the top division, increasing competition and variety. We stopped
promoting an “Elite” league long ago, and finances dictate that we may not get
there for some time. This way, at least, we can safely televise the action
without worry that Justin Sedgmen – and I mean no slight on him – is trailing
in half a lap behind Darcy Ward.
Either way, I just hope that the promoters are ready to
commit. There’s a long history of chopping and changing – rules, points limits,
names – and very little in the way of long-term strategy. Pick a direction,
work out a five-year plan, and stick to it. The rumours of the demise of
British speedway are greatly exaggerated – let’s make sure they stay that way.
ITEM: The asset system is broken. Poole
proved that this season by riding roughshod over precedent with Adrian Miedzinski,
though the writing had been on the wall for some time. It doesn’t work, it hasn’t
worked for some time, and it is quite probably illegal under EU law.
As things currently stand, once a rider becomes an asset of
a club, he stays an asset of that club until they go out of business. At which
point the rights revert to the BSPA, and can be bought by another member club.
The rider has no say in this. The clubs are trading his right to ride in the league
system in the UK
– ie, his right to earn a living.
The mechanics of just how a rider becomes an asset are
arcane and mysterious. I think it involves human sacrifice, but I could be
wrong on that. I know that there are a certain number of meetings a rider has
to complete before he can become an asset, but there are also protected assets,
whereby a rider doesn’t have to ride any meetings at all for a club, and still
becomes an asset, Like I say, arcane and mysterious.
Even if a rider hasn’t ridden in the UK for years,
and quite possibly ended his last stay being fired by his club, he still
remains on their books, and if another club wants to use him they have to come
to an arrangement with that club.
Wacky and ludicrous. And very, very familiar to fans of
football and/or EU law. Because that’s how football worked until some idiot Belgian
club ruined it for everyone by trying to give Jean-Marc Bosman a pay cut at the
end of his contract, and refusing to release his registration when he demanded
a transfer. This led to all football players becoming free agents at the end of
their contracts.
In speedway, riders sign contracts from season to season, if
at all. Technically, though, they are self-employed, and thus regular
contractual obligations shouldn’t even apply, but let’s pretend they do.
According to EU law, as established by the Bosman ruling, a rider not given a
contract for the next season should become a free agent. This obviously isn’t
happening, and so Coventry can still call Greg
Hancock an asset, even though he hasn’t ridden for them for 11 years, and has
spent the last 5 not even in the UK!
All it takes is for one promoter to challenge the system and
it will all fall down. They stick together, though, the speedway lot (except if
you’re Ronnie Russell, and you have a hard-on for a crappy German), and so I
don’t expect much will happen on that front. They must, however, realise it’s a
doomed concept, and try to come up with a new way of doing things pretty soon.
A way that doesn’t penalise asset-heavy clubs like Poole,
obviously.
What I certainly wouldn’t do is spend a five-figure sum on
any up & coming British riders, like a certain Elite League are rumoured to
be considering, or bank on the value of any assets in a possible club sale that
correct due diligence would see right through.
There are sensible ways of getting around all this. Another
challenge for the winter, then!
ITEM: I want to finish on a positive this week by talking
about two success stories for this season. It’s been a horrible season for most
fans, and so any ray of sunshine is most welcome. And I’ve found it in two unusual
places…
Firstly, the success of second-half league racing up and
down the country. From 2010’s Northern Junior League, to the Midland
Development League last season, and the further addition of the Anglia Junior
League and South West Development League this year, second-half league racing
has made quite a comeback in the last few years.
There are now over a dozen tracks that stage such contests
regularly, from Elite League to National League, and Premier in between. It’s
too early to say whether the riders gaining valuable experience on these tracks
will go onto bigger things – though a couple of them look well capable of it –
but from someone who remembers fondly the earliest rides for the likes of
Stonehewer and Screen, the chance that they might is exciting. So, to all those
who help out and make these matches possible, a big thank you, and a big well
done. Onwards and upwards!
My second little ray of sunshine is the form this season of
Ashley Birks. Overshadowed by other graduates of the Scunthorpe production line
like Woffinden, Auty, and the Worrall brothers, Birks has quietly gone about
putting three points on his Premier League average this season, gained a few valuable
outings in the Elite League, and has swept all before him – save an injured
Adam Roynon – in the National League. He continued by winning the National
League Riders Championship last weekend, and may end up with winners medals in
both the PL & NL this season.
Tidy work, by any standards, and well worthy of praise.
Wouldn’t even mind seeing him at Brandon
next year…
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