ITEM: Regular readers will know that one of the things that really gets my goat is the lack of support for young - or otherwise - British riders, especially in the Premier League. Places that could - and should - be filled by up and coming young talent are instead given away freely to riders of a dubious standard from anywhere but Great Britain, with recent examples coming not only from that perennial thorn in the side Australia, but also from Finland, Germany, and even Argentina! This collection of low-ability riders, all averaging under five points a meeting, are at least from the lesser speedway nations, and you could argue that we are aiding the development of speedway on their shores (not that we can afford to, with so much work to be done here) but there is another, less-worthy group of riders equally taking up valuable space that is being robbed from our young riders.
Young riders have made dramatic improvements before. Something clicks and a four-point rider becomes a seven-point man, a long-time second string becomes a dependable heat leader, and so on. So while it's unlikely, a few seasons in the PL may bring about improvements to these "Brit blockers". But even if you accept that there is a place for us to aid the development of Finnish, German, or Argentinian riders, there is no sensible argument for us to carry under-performing riders from the major European nations, and so the presence of Danes at the bottom of our second division teams is baffling to say the least.
It becomes even more ridiculous when you consider that the Danes, above any other speedway nation, are boring. Leaving aside Nicki Pedersen, when was the last time an exciting Danish rider took to the track? Frede Schott? It just doesn't happen. They're a lovely people - and their dedication to saunas is commendable - but they're dull. Like their most famous export, Lego, they're functional and may pass a few hours, but you can't really do much with them except admire their neatness. Their role as filler in some PL teams is just that and we can ill-afford bland stuffing from a nation that is - at the top end of the sport - stuffing us on the track.
The likes of Jan Graversen, Kasper Lykke, and Simon Nielsen are not world beaters. They never will be. Their averages may rise above six points per meeting on occasion, but will also fall below four. I'm sure they're very nice people but they - along with the Helfers, the Daveys, and the Albins - are hindering the progress of our youngsters by taking away the opportunity for them to ride with a better standard of rider, which is how any young rider improves. The Danes already have their own, very comprehensive set-up to bring along their own young riders, and we should not be aiding them at the expense of ours.
Even if there was a will amongst Premier League promoters to stamp this out, the current rules don't help them. The scrapping of the discount for team building on British riders removed even that tiny incentive, and while they hide behind weasel-words about EU laws (which, strangely, they ignore in most other aspects) little will be done. There is a general feeling that change is in the air, at least at the top level of the sport in this country - it would be a shame if we didn't take the chance to sort it out at every level and remove these cancers on the development of our future talent. So come on Mr Trigger, Mr Silver, Mr Biggart, be brave and give up your Danish comfort blankets - you have everything to gain and only really, really boring riders to lose!
ITEM: That the Speedway World Cup ended up with an exciting finish - a true last heat decider - was more down to the closeness of the result than any actual excitement on track. The choice of Prague as a venue for the race-off and final was disappointing, and that's before you factor in the accompanying seeding of the Czechs to the final. Prague is not an exciting racetrack. It is big and flat, and so rewards fast gating and fast engines above track craft. While it may have close proximity to one of the best cities in Europe to visit as a tourist, and is easily accessible by air, so is Barcelona and they've yet to suggest a Speedway World Cup round on Las Ramblas.
None of that matters to BSI, of course, and at least you could argue that the Czechs are a traditional speedway nation, although their recent fortunes are less than stellar. Their place in the final - in which they scored a pathetic twelve points - came at the expense of a competitive nation, although you might argue that those were few and far between this year. Again, BSI don't seem to care - the decision to seed the hosts straight through to the final is made with the aim of maximising attendance. That seems to have backfired this year, with the race-off sparsely attended at best, and the televised final revealing lots of empty seats. Only Event 2, at King's Lynn, had anything resembling a successful crowd - the rain-delayed Event 1 at Czestochowa attracted a crowd Buxton might have been embarrassed by!
Where to hold next year's SWC is going to be a tricky decision. The Czechs, by reason of their seeding, are in the top seven, and so will be seeded to the Event rounds. The same is true for Latvia and the US, and - at least for now - TeamGB. Sweden and Russia, who had terrible world cups by their standard, will have to go through the qualifying rounds, unless they are chosen as hosts, in which case TeamGB would have to qualify! Russia, with problems surrounding the issuing of visas for riders, let alone fans, would be a brave choice, and Sweden held the SWC - and were seeded to the final - only last year, and would be a very unpopular choice, but I wouldn't rule anything out when it comes to BSIs travelling circus.
The favourites, at least according to rumour, are the Danes, which would mean a reprieve for TeamGB, and would mean two meetings at a Vojens track which rivals Prague for excitement levels. This is the reality of world speedway while it is held prisoner at the pleasure of a marketing company (although the pre-BSI era was by no means a paradise of full stadiums and racing tracks) and we have to live with it. At least we can be grateful for small mercies and happy they haven't given the final - and a place in it - to the pacific island of Palau. Wait, what's that? Ngerulmud on line 1? Oh FFS...
ITEM: It's coming up to the time when promoters meet for their pre-AGM, when they discuss all the things they'll decide at the meeting proper. Usually this is plain sailing - the proposals raised at the pre-AGM are merely ratified by the later meeting, but recently this hasn't been the case, and things that most promoters think they're aquiesing to turn out to be very different by the time November roles around. Even then, decisions taken and voted on sometimes change by the time they appear in the rulebook, at the whim of the shadowy management committee.
Given that they can't even agree amongst themselves, and sensible proposals from their members go unheard, it would be folly to try and suggest rule changes that they might like to look at. But if there's one thing most of the BSPA can agree on, i's that I'm some kind of fool, so why not have a go, eh? Over the next few weeks, I'll be suggesting a few changes to the rules that might make things a little better. You may disagree, in which case feel free to suggest your own changes and I'll run them here, too. You never know what might happen - Scunthorpe's Rob Godfrey has admitted that promoters have to start listening to fans and I know he's not alone. What a brave, new world...
* Guest / Rider-Replacement Facility to only last for 28 days:
I have no problem with the guest facility. I even find it easy to explain to non-fans, who seem to grasp that it's a common sense way of replacing missing riders in a sport that is as much individual as it is a team event. I don't like R/R so much, but I still understand why it's useful, and again non-speedway enthusiasts seem to grasp the concept with little difficulty. It's one of the great fantasies that it makes no sense, makes a mockery of competition, and is universally disliked, perpetuated by a vocal minority who seem to hate the sport as a whole, never mind these two quirks. However, I do think it can become tiring to see the facility overused, and that fans can become annoyed by a constant stream of guests or R/R next to the name of that continually injured team member. So what I propose is a 28-day limit on the facility, after which the absent rider has to be replaced in the 1-7 by a new permanent team member. This might be difficult when it comes to top riders, but it's the same for all teams, and might bring in a bit of fresh blood to the league from time to time. No system of replacing an injured rider is perfect but with tweaks you might get there.
* Reserves limited to six rides, except in the case of riders ruled out through injury
The use of rolling averages - and, in the case of the National League, early season meetings which do not count towards averages - has led to the rise of the "super reserve". These riders, who have either been assessed too low or have made dramatic impovements in form, occupy the reserve berths when their scring power would usually have them much higher up in the team. Riding at reserve not only means they get to ride in the easiest heat of the night - heat 2 - it also means they can be used to take the place of any under-performing teammates, often meaning they ride seven times - half the programmed heats - and their points can be the difference between a win and a loss for many sides. I'd actually favour restricting them to only five rides, the same as any other team member, but at least restricting them to six rides would still leave some wiggle room for the smart team manager and not make a farce of meetings where (this season) Martin Smolinski, Adam Ellis, and Robert Lambert have scored match-winning maximums from the reserve berth.
* All clubs without strict curfews to run second-half team events
The Midland Development and Northern Junior Leagues have already begun to pay dividends in terms of rider development, despite their tender years (4 years in the case of the NJL, 3 for the MDL), and tracks who've been involved in staging such meetings have found a new stream of young riders to tap. At Coventry, their National League team have used Martin Knuckey and James Shanes, who rode for the Coventry-Mercia Vikings in the MDL, and Luke Crang and Tommy Fenwick, who made a splash in the NJL for Redcar and Workington, respectively, and the Storm are by no means alone in that regard. Tracking a MDL-level side is a win-win situation: the costs are minimal (for most teams only the cost of supplying fuel to their riders, although some don't even do that, and a set of race-jackets), the fans get an extra four-to-six heats for their money (whether they choose to stay and watch is another matter entirely), and the promoter gets to run the rule over future prospects for their teams. I'll accept that this is more beneficial the lower down the pecking order you get, but Adam Ellis made his first UK track appearances for Lakeside's short-lived Anglia Junior League side, and he should be lining up in the Elite league next season, just 18 months after that debut...
ITEM: Happy birthday! No, not you, me! Just over a year ago I posted the first Speeding Motorcycles blog and, barring one skipped week (when I wrote a double edition the following week to make up for it), I've written every week on all things bright and beautiful about our sport. I'd like to say that it's brought me fame and fortune but my life is really little different from a year ago, except that the release this blog provides me with means I'm a little less angry and frustrated about our sport's little foibles. I hope to continue on with it for as long as my interest sustains it - I strongly believe you should only do something for as long as you get a kick out of it - and I hope you'll continue to read. Excelsior!
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