ITEM: I've never really witnessed anything genuinely important. I once saw Margaret Thatcher in Birmingham but sadly no-one shot her. And I ate in a Wimpy in London a week before the IRA blew it up, but that's about as far as it goes. And that's a good thing, because genuinely important things are usually pretty horrible, and involve someone getting killed, or hurt, or their lives being totally changed, and not usually for the better.
For a while on Friday night I thought I was witnessing something horrible. Adam Roynon had gone down, and the trailing Josh Auty had hit him, but it wasn't anything we've all seen a hundred times at tracks all over the world. Only Adam didn't get up. And the longer he stayed down, the more important things seemed to be getting. And when two ambulances arrived, followed by two police cars, both of which made their way out onto the track, I don't think I was alone in thinking the worst had happened.
The stadium was very, very quiet, but not quite the deathly silence that you'd expect. The music kept playing, albeit at a low volume, and that was the right thing to do. Hushed conversations could be heard, and it seemed all everyone could do to take their minds off what might be unfolding before their eyes.
Thankfully, we know now that Adam is at least alive, and compus mentis, and tweeting from his hospital bed. The rest is for a future day, and part of me hopes that I never see him on a bike again. The lad's too injury-prone, and it's heartbreaking to see this happen time and time again, and never really through any fault of his own - certainly no more than any other rider who suffers that occasional lapse of concentration, or whatever it is that causes these guys to crash. But, all in all, I hope he recovers fully, and we see him around for a long time, even if it isn't on a bike.
Now there were a couple of things that arose out of the incident that probably warrant further discussion. The first, and most important to my mind, was whether it was the right decision to carry on with the meeting after the crash. Opinions seem split on this, with no clear club bias in either camp. The match was over as a contest, and the delay of almost an hour did nothing to improve the chances of decent racing on a night where passing was already at a premium (and understandably so, given the conditions). Once racing had resumed, the few fans left in the stadium - most of whom had stayed until something, anything was known about Roynon's condition - observed it, glassy-eyed, dispassionately watching riders go round at a much slower pace, and probably praying no-one would fall.
It was the wrong decision. I'll say that now. The right thing to do was to have waited until Roynon was off to hospital, and send the fans home with a "we'll let you know but things look better than first thought", or whatever, rather than try and pretend nothing had happened and we should watch two more heats in sub-zero temperatures. I can't fathom the thinking behind the decision to continue, and accounts differ as to why they did, and who was responsible. I can't, for the life of me, envisage anyone thinking that an extra point was worth it (Birmingham were only six up at the stoppage, and against a lone reserve in the re-run of heat 14), and it would pain me to believe that anyone could make such a heartless decision based on that alone. Living with themselves must be pretty tough, if that were the case.
But perhaps, as racers and former racers - Havelock, Morris and Drury would have had input into the discussion - they took the decision that they needed to "get back on the horse". I don't understand the logic, but then there are many things about speedway folk I fail to understand.
The other main talking point was a skirmish in the crowd between Josh Auty and a fan. As I mentioned above, Auty was involved in the crash, although there was little to nothing he could have done to avoid it. There have been occasions in the past where riders have deliberately tried to injure opponents, but thankfully these are very few and very far between. There are riders, however, whose riding style when chasing an opponent, or a lack of concentration or flaw in their decision-making, has caused other riders to crash, and sometimes receive serious injuries, and you could lay "blame" at their door. Josh Auty has been, on occasion, one of these riders, prone to "over-riding" with a seeming lack of thought for his own safety, and sometimes that of his opponents. He's not alone, and even the smoothest rider can fall prey to it.
As Auty and Phil Morris returned to the pits while Roynon was still receiving treatment, someone in the crowd shouted, "that's another one you've done, Auty!" I've heard much worse flung at riders - and other sportsmen - and I've seen those it's been aimed at shrug it off or play up to it. That Auty reacted as he did, jumping the fence to confront his accuser, illustrated how serious the injuries suffered by Roynon appeared to be, and how much Auty - a contemporary and friendly rival of the fallen rider - was affected by it.
The guy who shouted it used to help out Kenny Ingalls, who suffered possibly career-ending injuries in a crash with Auty last season, and this may have played some part in his ill-judged comments. Thankfully it did not escalate further, although Morris did return to attempt to have the "fan" - who is actually not, and attends meetings in another capacity - removed, before calmer heads prevailed (although the unwanted and unrequested presence of Ben Barker, buzzing around like a fly around shit, did not help matters at all, and his attempts to inflame the situation while a rider lay very badly injured on the track should not go unnoticed).
Calm minds were needed throughout the stadium, and this doesn't seem to have been the case. It's probably something that needs looking at, and that every club should have in place an action plan in the horrible event that something like this happens.
The most important thing is that Adam Roynon seems to be okay. The extent of his injuries are not known as I write this, but he seems positive. Let's hope it's only good news stories from here on in.
ITEM: Edinburgh and Wolverhampton both had their line-ups disrupted this week by what appears to have been an oversight with Sam Masters's visa. Both clubs moved swiftly to find replacements - Claus Vissing and Ludvig Lindgren, respectively - but questions have to be asked about just whose responsibility it was that Masters's visa expired without a new one being applied for.
Neither club, publicly at least, expects any problem with the eventual issue of a visa, although there would be a case for a diligent civil servant to reject the application, given Masters was dropped by one of his clubs last season and saw an alarming fall in his scores at the other. Given that the likes of Koppe, Fricke, Horwood, Douglas, and Ringwood were all issued visas when most of them are clearly not up to scratch, however, you wouldn't put too much faith in the FCO actually doing their job on this occasion.
Visa problems have become an issue of late, with Horwood and Ringwood having to go to appeals this season, and Tyson Nelson and Travis McGowan failing to get one last term. Nelson's issues are cloudy, and possibly mired in unsavoury issues, whilst McGowan reportedly fell foul of neither of his British clubs wanting to shell out a sponsor's fee.
Whether a general aura of panic over immigration by a Conservative government adopting not only the rhetoric of a fringe political party but also their policies will impact on speedway down the line is anybody's guess. Given speedway's popularity in the EU, visas are only really an issue for Australians, Americans, and some Russians - our colonial cousins are pretty friendly fayre for middle England, so if I were Denis Gizatullin I'd be worried.
Scottish football reacted to an influx of foreign players by imposing a visa quota, across the whole league, and this may be something that would help, although - as I've written countless times before - there seems to be little impetus amongst the clubs themselves to stem the tide of cheap and grateful talent from Australia, at least.
ITEM: When the new doubling-up rules were announced from the BSPA conference in November, one of the talking points was the abolition of doubling-up partners, and that any absences due to clashes with Premier League fixtures were to be covered by a guest from the Premier League.
So it was with some surprise that when the rulebook appeared those absences were to be covered by rider replacement, in the first instance, and guests only for two or more absences. It also appears that fans weren't the only ones taken by surprise, and the decision to change the original ruling seems to have been made at BSPA MC level.
The way the ruling was originally devised gave promoters a wide scope to fill any gaps created by fixture clashes - something that imposing R/R takes away. It also plays into the hands of those promoters who have double-up riders at reserve (where they can still use guests) or as heat leaders (who can be ably covered by their teammates). Looking down the squad lists, a number of clubs who have double-up riders at positions 4 & 5 in their averages cannot have been happy to have been landed with such a restriction.
There are those that will be pleased about the change. For some unfathomable reason, they believe that guests cheapen the sport, and that casual fans (oh, for some casual fans!) will be unable to grasp - or accept - the fact that a rider can ride against a team one week and for it the next. I took a newcomer to Brandon on Friday, and over dinner beforehand explained to him the basics of the rules, and the reasoning behind guests and rider replacement and all that jazz. You know what? He didn't flinch. It made perfect sense to him. People are too quick to take umbrage on the behalf of others, and the guest system is one of speedway's little peculiarities - a universal selling point, if you will.
Rant over, I can't believe that the change will stand, or at least would like to see the thinking behind it. However, as is the way with such things, like mushrooms we will be kept in the dark, because they believe its best for us, and the inconsistency of their own decisions will build and build and build. Until there's no-one left to hoodwink.
ITEM: As mentioned above, I took a newbie to Brandon on Friday, slightly wary of doing such things, but always willing to risk a friendship for the good of speedway. I've known the fella in question, Paul, for over twenty years, but for the great majority of those I was in the speedway wilderness, following things only in the most cursory way.
In the past couple of years, though, he's listened to the ranting and raving of a born-again fan with interest, and after an aborted attempt to get him along to Lakeside (his local track) last season, I finally dragged him to Brandon.
I wasn't as concerned as I usually am with newcomers when it came to Paul. He's a big sports fan, and loves baseball, so I knew I could hook him with the statistics. And he's spent the last few years watching Isthmian League football, so I knew that the, erm, plushness of the surroundings wouldn't be an issue. Also, as a West Ham fan he's used to a big team underachieving, so that wouldn't be a problem either.
I was worried about the temperature, fearful that we might have to venture inside, where half the appeal of the sport is lost behind glass, and that he may not witness the best racing, given that the track was pretty bare due to the uncertain weather we've been enduring these past few weeks. And then we had the Adam Roynon crash, and a delay of almost an hour, which probably would have put paid to many a newcomer ever coming back, although it is something we hardened fans accept as part of the sport.
As it was, he enjoyed it. The whole package. The faded glory, the roar of the bikes, the unique "characters" the sport attracts, and the on-track action. He almost got to see a punch-up between a rider and someone in the crowd, and looked on in stunned appreciation as Ted Midgley watched Kaspo's every move wearing only a t-shirt.He'll be back to Brandon when he can, and I'll try and get him to Ipswich, Rye House, Mildenhall, and Lakeside, too - all not too far from his Essex base.
What hooked him wasn't the sport appealing to young fans, or bikers, or fans of extreme sports, it was that speedway in this country can be nakedly honest about what it is - it's not sterile, it's not corporate, it's not pretty, and it's not professional. It's about strange fans, committed riders, cheap chips, and a half-time raffle. If you could bottle that, there's a whole load of people who'd be fished in by it.
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