This one is a bit of a taboo subject to discuss as many people get very emotional over it, but I genuinely believe it's worth discussion.
Every year there's the inevitable post of 'there's more injuries this year than there ever have been before'. There's obviously 1 year that that's been true, however in reality it just isn't true (especially if you decided to remove Adam Roynon from the official figures!) and safety has come on leaps and bounds even since I've been going for the last 15 years or so. In a way, these comments are insulting to those improving safety within our sport. It needs to stop, if for no other reason than to stop giving fuel to the people who suggest everything was better in the old days, when injuries especially certainly weren't.
There's an obvious case study that I'm going to use that sums up pretty much everything good and bad about the speedway community when injuries occur, and that's Darcy Ward. I always appreciate comments on my blog, so feel free to discuss what I'm going to write however keep the death threats to a minimum if possible!
Injuries do happen, it's a part of our sport that none of us like, however if there wasn't a certain danger element would riders and fans get the same rush they get now? It will never be totally safe so that's sort of a moot point but it's worth considering.
Ward was a rider who split the speedway community prior to injury. There were the 'Wardettes', the lovers of all things Aussie and especially Ward and those of us, like myself, who couldn't stand the guy. The one thing that neither side can deny is that the bloke was a genuine talent on a speedway bike and the fact we won;t see him back on one IS a loss to the sport.
After his injury there was a lot of mud slinging from both sides. Firstly, there were the Ward fans who started lashing out at those who have spoken about Ward negatively in the past. This is never the answer after serious incidents occur. I appreciate it's an emotional time for people who either know riders personally or who are emotionally attached to the sport and it's stars, but it's not the way to react and no one ever comes out of it feeling good. I learnt this the hard way after the loss of Lee Richardson. As a big Lee fan, it was hard to read people who I know actively disliked him posting heartfelt messages and pretending they were always a fan (I'll come to that later) and I started lashing out with my online comments. In reality, all it did was make me hurt more and didn't help vent any anger at all after the event. At time like this the speedway community always comes together, however the points scoring always has to take place prior to this which is not the way to go about it and I would recommend for any readers of this who face a similar situation in the future to leave it a while before they hit the net or start posting for everyone's benefit.
Ward was not a rider I, or many others, liked for a number of reasons. Should that mean that we are guilt tripped into saying nice things about the man just because of the injury? Of course it doesn't. Yet either one of 2 things happened, either people were guilt tripped into saying things they didn't mean post the event, or they became complete hypocrites and decided to join the we love Darcy club just because of the injury. I don;t know which category the majority fall into. I believe the age old saying is 'if you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing'. For anyone who knows me, I don't believe in this saying, but it's something worth considering in these circumstances so that fans of that rider aren't upset anymore at the time.
Following Ward's injury, another injury occurred to Vitaly Belusov, prompting a snidey group of people to start asking whether the same amount of coverage and fund raising efforts would be made for his cause as there were to Wards, including some ridiculous tweets to Nigel Pearson about the issue. OF COURSE NOT. You wouldn't expect the same level of media coverage following the death of supporting cast members from dead poets society as there was for Robin Williams.
I'm a man who with everything in life has to consider 'what's the point' before I do something, and for that reason I don't quite understand the 100s of posts I saw on twitter featuring things like someone drinking out of a Darcy mug with the hashtag #staystrongDarcy as I know if I was Darcy that would be doing my head in, but I suppose it's each to their own!
The speedway world did come together for Ward and whilst some of it felt like overkill (not every race for eternity can have been done for Darcy - it is their job!), some of it was genuinely heartwarming and I hope he does have a full recovery and lives a life as close to normal as possible. I don't like Darcy, but there were few riders I'd enjoy being beaten more than him, and for that reason he'll be missed by me. You can't like everyone, if you did you wouldn't care who wins!
Sometimes it needs a high profile 'victim' for things to change. Just look at Ayrton Senna's death in formula one for an example. Safety improved ten fold following his death, and it was another 20 years before a freak accident saw another formula one death. If one positive can come out of Darcy's accident, I hope it's that safety improves for other riders. If it encourages more riders to use neck braces and other safety gear and a few less riders get injured because of it in the future, then it hasn't been completely in vain.
The only other topic I wanted to discuss was cheering when riders fall off. We've all done it, yes even you, and don;t claim you haven't! Perhaps some more than others and some more maliciously than others, but there will be few who didn't chuckle at Kildemand's pathetic comedy fall at Coventry earlier this season, along with many similar examples. In these instances, it's a normal human reaction, and the same way we might react to a footballer missing a penalty or being sent off.
The case study here should be Harris in the elite league semi at Poole when he was chasing down Kennett. The majority of the stadium cheered when Harris slid off and I would have if the situation was reversed, however the wrong thing is the denying and the excuse. The excuse given was that the cheer was for Kennett winning the race (bit strange considering it was a loud roar going into turn 3). It's utter rubbish. The reason we cheer is normally because our team has gained because of the fall. That's a perfectly acceptable reason to cheer, however the reason our team has gained is because of the fall. Ergo, we are cheering the fall. There are times it isn't acceptable, and I'd like to think most people know what these are, but before we over react to what fans of other clubs do, let's just think about what we'd do if roles were reversed first!
My message from this blog is to think before posting 'what's the best that can come of this if I do post this'. After injury, there's often little you can say to make it better.
I hope this season has less injuries than normal, however please remember it's unlikely this season will be the worst ever!
#StayStrong ;)
Tuesday 17 November 2015
Sunday 27 September 2015
Coventry Bees 2015 Season Review
For the first time since I completed a full season with Oxford in 2006, I attended every Bees meeting in 2015 so who better to give their opinion on the season than myself? (Other than higher skilled, better qualified sports writers, obviously).
It's a season that, despite seeing the Bees spend the majority of the league season at the top of the league, had plenty of ups and downs. This was demonstrated quite early in the season by being thumped 63-27 by what appeared to be an average Leicester side in the very first meeting before revisiting in our first away league meeting of the season and taking all 4 points.
We all know the ins and outs, who scored what and when and who averaged what so this is more of a subjective overview of the Bees season which not everyone will necessarily agree with. Regardless of this, I hope you all enjoy reading.
The riders
Even pre-season was eventful for the Bees, with no more than 4 different teams declared prior to our first league meeting at Leciester. The first of which contained Cameron Woodward, an utterly bizarre first signing for the Bees, who had relied massively on his Eastbourne home form to maintain his average. It soon became clear he wouldn't be fit for the start of the season, and was replaced by former Bee Lewis Bridger (groan). No one wanted Bridger at Brandon, he was the forgotten man of the 2010 title success and despite an impressive effort to maintain his EL average from heat leader the season before, it was largely considered that like Woodward, Bridgers average was down to riding at a track with such home advantage. It was then clear that Bridger wasn't really interested in riding for the Bees and quit amid claims that the promotion had gone back on their word regarding machinery. There were still plenty of options available for this space, Joonas Kylmakorpi looking like the obvious candidate, but there were rumours abound he was asking for the same money as Hans Andersen and the Bees were unwilling to pay. Jakub Jamrog was instead signed by the Bees, with Horton quoted in the press release at the time of the signing as "Havvy has a good feeling about him" and "All I'd say is give the lad a chance and let's see what he can do". Horton gave him a grand total of 2 chances in a Bees race jacket, with just home and away challenge matches against Leicester being completed before he was chopped for Joonas Kylmakorpi. This decision did beg the question of why Kylmkaorpi wasn't the original choice either before signing Bridger or after Bridger quit, but it was definitely the right decision by Horton, vindicated by some excellent performances throughout the year from JK. Letting Jamrog start the league season would have left him undroppable until he received a new average and there was a chance the Bees could already have been struggling to make the play-offs if this had been allowed to happen.
Eventually we had our settled 7 to start the season: Hans Andersen, Chris Harris, Danny King, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Stuart Robson, Jason Garrity and James Sargaent. Here are there appraisals:
Hans Andersen
Almost the complete opposite of last season. Last year Andersen (along with Harris) frequently got us out of trouble when required and had a good season until capitulating in the last few weeks including the play offs. This season Andersen has put us in major trouble with some very poor scores leaving others to bail him out. Failing to beat an opponent on more than 1 occasion is just not good enough from a rider signed as number 1. He came in for criticism from many people, myself included, which has lead to some spectacular twitter rants including the infamous 'sack me I don't care' after the team riding incident with Sarjeant.
Best meeting: Swindon away in the B fixture where some of his first bends were nothing short of spectacular. He lead from the front that night and kept us in with a real chance, until falling on the last bend when on a 5-1 that would have seen us nick a point. Regardless of that, a brilliant performance from the guy.
Worst meeting: Where to start? The worst was probably Poole at home in the A fixture. A massive meeting for us and he didn't turn up and didn't even appear to be trying. Dreadful. Made up for it (to an extant) with a stunning play off semi against them.
Chris Harris
A classic Chris Harris season. Provided some real entertainment without ever truly dominating the league. Have to question the decision to move Harris to 1 when Andersen dropped in the averages, he's never been a go out in heat 1 and do the business kind of rider and he wasn't when we moved him there. Battered and bruised when it came to play-off time, it wasn't vintage 2010 play-off Harris that turned up but still one that never put less than 100% in when in a Bees jacket.
Best meeting: Wolves away. An absolutely flawless paid maximum. He wasn't dropping the clutch first but the bike was unreal, driving in all the right places. He was riding at half throttle the whole evening to team ride home and Wolves still couldn't get near. Superb.
Worst meeting: In stark contrast it's hard to find a worst meeting for Harris as he so rarely lets us down. The first Lakeside away he struggled and didn't win a race but he popped out in 15 with King to finish the meeting off for us in style.
Danny King
Much like Harris, we got exactly what was expected from King. Some poor meetings and some good ones. Better at second string than at heatleader. Always throws in a bad ride. The one thing that did change is that in the past it's been easy to say King hasn't turned up in the big heats but for Coventry it's been the opposite of that, frequently winning massive heat 14's and 15's when we've needed him.
Best meeting: Lakeside away in the A fixture. He raced to 13 that night including 2 stunning round the fence swoops and a stunning last heat 5-1 with Harris to seal the victory. Others hadn;t turned up that night so it's a good job King did!
Worst meeting: He was injured at the time so it seems harsh to choose either Kings Lynn away or Swindon at home that fell within 3 days of each other, despite the fact he was dreadful in both he really shouldn't have been riding. His actual worst performance came in the play-off semi at Poole where he struggled to beat any Poole riders despite 2 good previous meetings there.
Joonas Kylmakorpi
Whilst often unspectacular in terms of scoring or riding, he was arguably the signing of the season when you compare what he scored through the year to the other options we had available. Again a winner in some big heats for us when required but was in poor form prior to his injury. You'd fancy a different Kylmo would have turned up for play-off time though that would have outscored Lindgren and RR and left us more confident going into the meetings.
Best meeting: Leicester away. After the previous battering it was important a different Bees side turned up when we went there in the A fixture and it did - lead by Kylmakorpi the Bees were excellent that day. Some great gating and stunning second bends saw him post a big score as we picked up our first away win.
Worst Meeting: Swindon away - 0,0,0. Need I say more?
Stuart Robson
I like Robbo. He tries hard, he's a racer and seems like a genuinely nice bloke, highlighted by the amount of support he offered the Bees this year even when not riding. Was he the right signing for the Bees though? The place looked nailed on to go to Summers, and with more improvement from Summers surely due it was a shock we went for Robson. Regardless, we saw 100% from him whilst he was there. He had some nasty crashes that ultimately lead to his dropping, but you have to look at whether he should still have been in the team at the time given the options we had available (up to nearly 7 to replace him with at various points). People complain Poole win every year, but it's because if they had been left with that option, there's no way Robson wouldn't have been replaced earlier.
Best meeting: Leicester at home. Battled hard for points all night including some stunning overtakes which gave him a deserved heat 15 appearance.
Worst meeting: Kings Lynn away in the A fixture - many things went wrong that night that lead to us not picking up a point by just 2 points but Robbo miscounting the laps when we were on a clear 5-1 has to be the worst the lot.
Kyle Howarth
It took way too long to get Howarth signed, and by the time we had he'd ridden himself into poor form in the premier league. The less said about his performances the better.
Best meeting: Was there one? He did win 1 heat against Leicester at home so I'll go with that.
Worst meeting: The home play-off leg 0,0,0 whilst not on the pace except to try and block our own riders was the pick of the bunch.
Jason Garrity
A brilliant season and a match winner so many times. He's become a proper elite league rider, beating second strings every meeting and providing dollops of entertainment every time he's on track or being interviewed. Rider of the season for the second season in a row without question. Desperately unlucky to get injured when he did but how brave to carry on riding and score vital points against Poole in the play-off semi.
Best meeting: Belle Vue away in the A fixture. We were superb that night as a team but Garrity was pick of the bunch with a flawless 12 point maximum. The highlight being a stunning gate from the graveyard gate 3 that no-one else got off of all night. He could have ridden all 15 heats that night and I still doubt anyone would have touched him.
Worst meeting: Poole at home in the B fixture. On that infamous evening, his terrible performance went under the radar. He didn't beat an opposition rider and managed to fence Robbo in the process.
James Sarjeant
Has there ever been a more infuriating rider? He started the season on fire, which is exactly what we needed as Jason was having some issues right at the start. He's progressively got worse throughout the season, losing to riders he has the ability to beat easily just because he's been outgated by them. He relies on his 'fliers' but with refs now fully aware of them, he needs to find himself a new way to win. And fast.
Best meeting: Wolves at home - 3 wins/paid wins that night in what became a very tight meeting were vital in getting us over the line.
Worst meeting: Away the Poole in the play-offs. With Garrity out injured we needed a big night from Sarj and he turned up with a big fat 0.
The management
It's only fair they are judged too, and yet again they have done little to entice fans back whilst alienating a few more. The way the Poole home sky meeting was handled was poor, the lack of a replacement for Robson through so much of the season and the eventual replacement was disappointing too. We had a fair while to get a rider to come over for a few play-off meetings too, and it's hard to believe that no rider would come over for a few meetings with Poland winding up and the likes of Dudek, Jonasson and Larsen all expressing some form of interest.
Havelock has grown as a manager, certainly tactically, whilst providing constant amusement to sky TV viewers. I think he did well this season.
Horton himself has yet again gone on misguided rants and made some nonsensical decisions. Mick clearly cares, but I'm not sure he's the man I want leading the Bees into battle to attempt to save the stadium. As infuriating as the North situation was, refusing to go to Poole for our biggest meeting of the season was childish, as was near enough encouraging our fans not to go either.
Neil Watson is a constant annoyance. It's good that the club interact with their fans, however Neil Watson going in arguing the points he thinks he can win, then refusing to reply to questions or facts he doesn't like does more harm than good.
God knows what Rodgers does at our club, but it's even become an in joke amongst riders, promoters and fans alike how frequently he managed to get his face on the TV.
The ultimate moment of our management has to be the entire management team celebrating like we'd won the league as Andreas Jonsson pipped Andersen on the line at Lakeside to cost us a win. Utterly embarrassing. Everyone in the stadium knew AJ had got that. Except them.
Meeting of the season
This is not in doubt. Belle Vue at home in the B fixture had absolutely everything. We had drawn at Belle Vue on the Monday and the Friday return looked a potential banana skin for us. In that meeting there was the best racing seen at Brandon for years, a last heat decider which the Bees won, massive controversy with a very dodgy Garrity exclusion where he actually went nowhere near Worrall when he fell, before a forceful first bend from the lad in 13 had Nicholls down and losing his rag. Garrity's celebration donuts in front of Nicholls were nothing short of comedy. Grajzconek's riding left a lot to be desired that week, and beating them in the end was my favourite moment of the season. The travelling Belle Vue fans created a great atmosphere that night too, and I wish speedway was like that every week. If it was, we'd see Brandon packed week after week.
Worst meeting of the season
It would be easy to pick the Poole capitulation in the play-offs but the Swindon home fixture was a shambles of epic proportions.
We knew we had injuries that week after riding at Kings Lynn on the Wednesday. King was injured on the Wednesday, Garrity was injured on the Wednesday, Andersen was already riding in Denmark and Robson was still out. Lindgren was surely available in the UK after guesting on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, but instead of booking him, a quarter fit King rode round half a mile behind the rest of the field. Danny Ayres was booked for Garrity with options severely limited. As fans, we knew it would be difficult with a full team against Swindon and even more so with no Jason and relatively poor replacements for him and others. So what did the club do? Refuse to announce any team details despite being asked to all day long by numerous fans via social media. Potentially scared of fans not turning up if they knew, yet again what they actually achieved was 'disillusioning' (to use Mick's new favourite word) the fans who did turn up that day. Mick also then gave an interview basically apologising that we could only get Danny Ayres just before the lad was about to ride for us (and a good job he did, too). Not the way to build a riders confidence up prior to the meeting, though! The performance was poor, Swindon were dominant, and we went away knowing the play-offs might be one step too far. Very frustrating.
Ride of the season
It's difficult to pick just 1 but at a push it has to be Harris' absolutely stunning last bend to pass Doyle in heat 15 of the Leicester B meeting at home. Doyle had near enough drilled Andersen in the first running and Andersens parking on the track had lead to him being excluded. With Doyle already disliked prior to the running of that Harris Harris' last bend dummy and blast round the fence brought the house down. Absolutely brilliant.
The other 2 that stick in the mind were Harris' heat 15 at Belle Vue in the B fixture to line up and pass Zagar to give us a draw to take home, and Garrity's first lap ride against Newman in the home leg of the play-offs which was utterly bonkers but my word - those are the moves that make me keep coming back, no matter how much of a shambles both Coventry and the sport as a whole can be.
The SKY fiasco
I'm torn on this one. Yes we were made to run the meeting but would we have been complaining and wanting the meeting off if we were leading at heat 8? No we wouldn't, as was evidenced by our willingness to rush the Lakeside home meeting through to heat 10 to get us the result in very similar conditions.
It's not right that we are forced to run the meeting, and rob Horton of one of his biggest crowds of the years as people stay at home to watch on sky anyway and even more so when the weather is poor. It's also not right that you aren't allowed to do what you want to the track when sky are in town. One thing that definitely isn't right is being told there will be a track inspection after heat 9 before there subsequently wasn't one.
Our protests were always going to be in vain, the meeting was never going to be rerun, that would have set a dangerous precedent if it had been, and Hortons threats of pulling Coventry out the elite league if we didn't get what we wanted are frustrating and mess with the fans who want stability from their management.
Our fans also can't seem to grasp that Poole did nothing wrong that night except win the meeting. Sky and the meeting stewards you get when sky are in town didn't act differently that night to how they would have if we were riding Wolves or Swindon etc. It was just unfortunate.
The other thing that was frustrating is that we claimed that track was not fit to ride after heat 9 and that heat 10 shouldn't have happened, ergo we refused to send our riders out. By that logic, why were the fans who did turn up not given their token £1 off the next meeting, for only seeing 9 races. It would have also made a statement to the SCB whilst costing the club very very little in the process (the crowd at that meeting was dreadful).
The vendetta
It's hard to agree with a lot of Havelocks rantings on SKY, and genuinely don't believe refs have any kind of Coventry vendetta BUT it;s hard to think of many decisions that have gone for us this year. Sarj does not get away with fliers, despite many times when he hasn't moved prior to the tapes going up. The decision on the sky meeting to exclude both of our riders was absolutely terrible and one of the poorest bits of reffing I've ever seen. Andersen exclusion against Swindon when Rose rode into him was terrible. Iversen wiped out both bees riders after missing the start in the A fixture at Lynn and yet was placed back in the rerun. However the worst decision all season was in heat 12 away at Poole in the A fixture. I was stood looking right down the straight at the time, and watched Newman come off the white line and completely wipe out 3 other riders. Garrity, one of the innocent victims, was excluded for it, which could have completely swung the meeting at the time.
Whilst there's no vendetta against the Bees, refs clearly exclude based on reputation and bottle decisions against home sides too often. It's not right and having 2 riders in our team with reputations it's made it a tough season of decisions.
The verdict
Overall it's been a very enjoyable season. I didn't think this team was any better than around 4th/5th this season, especially after the opening day at Leicester. To top the table for so long and win so often away from home has been an absolute delight so thank you to all those involved. It's frustrating that with the right team change at more than 1 point of the season we could have really pushed for the title but ultimately it's not our own money that's invested in the club and if certain riders aren't viable financially then it has to be for the best. It's disappointing, but I'd rather see speedway in Coventry continue rather than bankrupt ourselves for the sake of 1 title attempt.
I hope you've enjoyed reading my updates and tweets through the season (at least some of them) and I'll be back for more next year.
Onwards and upwards!
It's a season that, despite seeing the Bees spend the majority of the league season at the top of the league, had plenty of ups and downs. This was demonstrated quite early in the season by being thumped 63-27 by what appeared to be an average Leicester side in the very first meeting before revisiting in our first away league meeting of the season and taking all 4 points.
We all know the ins and outs, who scored what and when and who averaged what so this is more of a subjective overview of the Bees season which not everyone will necessarily agree with. Regardless of this, I hope you all enjoy reading.
The riders
Even pre-season was eventful for the Bees, with no more than 4 different teams declared prior to our first league meeting at Leciester. The first of which contained Cameron Woodward, an utterly bizarre first signing for the Bees, who had relied massively on his Eastbourne home form to maintain his average. It soon became clear he wouldn't be fit for the start of the season, and was replaced by former Bee Lewis Bridger (groan). No one wanted Bridger at Brandon, he was the forgotten man of the 2010 title success and despite an impressive effort to maintain his EL average from heat leader the season before, it was largely considered that like Woodward, Bridgers average was down to riding at a track with such home advantage. It was then clear that Bridger wasn't really interested in riding for the Bees and quit amid claims that the promotion had gone back on their word regarding machinery. There were still plenty of options available for this space, Joonas Kylmakorpi looking like the obvious candidate, but there were rumours abound he was asking for the same money as Hans Andersen and the Bees were unwilling to pay. Jakub Jamrog was instead signed by the Bees, with Horton quoted in the press release at the time of the signing as "Havvy has a good feeling about him" and "All I'd say is give the lad a chance and let's see what he can do". Horton gave him a grand total of 2 chances in a Bees race jacket, with just home and away challenge matches against Leicester being completed before he was chopped for Joonas Kylmakorpi. This decision did beg the question of why Kylmkaorpi wasn't the original choice either before signing Bridger or after Bridger quit, but it was definitely the right decision by Horton, vindicated by some excellent performances throughout the year from JK. Letting Jamrog start the league season would have left him undroppable until he received a new average and there was a chance the Bees could already have been struggling to make the play-offs if this had been allowed to happen.
Eventually we had our settled 7 to start the season: Hans Andersen, Chris Harris, Danny King, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Stuart Robson, Jason Garrity and James Sargaent. Here are there appraisals:
Hans Andersen
Almost the complete opposite of last season. Last year Andersen (along with Harris) frequently got us out of trouble when required and had a good season until capitulating in the last few weeks including the play offs. This season Andersen has put us in major trouble with some very poor scores leaving others to bail him out. Failing to beat an opponent on more than 1 occasion is just not good enough from a rider signed as number 1. He came in for criticism from many people, myself included, which has lead to some spectacular twitter rants including the infamous 'sack me I don't care' after the team riding incident with Sarjeant.
Best meeting: Swindon away in the B fixture where some of his first bends were nothing short of spectacular. He lead from the front that night and kept us in with a real chance, until falling on the last bend when on a 5-1 that would have seen us nick a point. Regardless of that, a brilliant performance from the guy.
Worst meeting: Where to start? The worst was probably Poole at home in the A fixture. A massive meeting for us and he didn't turn up and didn't even appear to be trying. Dreadful. Made up for it (to an extant) with a stunning play off semi against them.
Chris Harris
A classic Chris Harris season. Provided some real entertainment without ever truly dominating the league. Have to question the decision to move Harris to 1 when Andersen dropped in the averages, he's never been a go out in heat 1 and do the business kind of rider and he wasn't when we moved him there. Battered and bruised when it came to play-off time, it wasn't vintage 2010 play-off Harris that turned up but still one that never put less than 100% in when in a Bees jacket.
Best meeting: Wolves away. An absolutely flawless paid maximum. He wasn't dropping the clutch first but the bike was unreal, driving in all the right places. He was riding at half throttle the whole evening to team ride home and Wolves still couldn't get near. Superb.
Worst meeting: In stark contrast it's hard to find a worst meeting for Harris as he so rarely lets us down. The first Lakeside away he struggled and didn't win a race but he popped out in 15 with King to finish the meeting off for us in style.
Danny King
Much like Harris, we got exactly what was expected from King. Some poor meetings and some good ones. Better at second string than at heatleader. Always throws in a bad ride. The one thing that did change is that in the past it's been easy to say King hasn't turned up in the big heats but for Coventry it's been the opposite of that, frequently winning massive heat 14's and 15's when we've needed him.
Best meeting: Lakeside away in the A fixture. He raced to 13 that night including 2 stunning round the fence swoops and a stunning last heat 5-1 with Harris to seal the victory. Others hadn;t turned up that night so it's a good job King did!
Worst meeting: He was injured at the time so it seems harsh to choose either Kings Lynn away or Swindon at home that fell within 3 days of each other, despite the fact he was dreadful in both he really shouldn't have been riding. His actual worst performance came in the play-off semi at Poole where he struggled to beat any Poole riders despite 2 good previous meetings there.
Joonas Kylmakorpi
Whilst often unspectacular in terms of scoring or riding, he was arguably the signing of the season when you compare what he scored through the year to the other options we had available. Again a winner in some big heats for us when required but was in poor form prior to his injury. You'd fancy a different Kylmo would have turned up for play-off time though that would have outscored Lindgren and RR and left us more confident going into the meetings.
Best meeting: Leicester away. After the previous battering it was important a different Bees side turned up when we went there in the A fixture and it did - lead by Kylmakorpi the Bees were excellent that day. Some great gating and stunning second bends saw him post a big score as we picked up our first away win.
Worst Meeting: Swindon away - 0,0,0. Need I say more?
Stuart Robson
I like Robbo. He tries hard, he's a racer and seems like a genuinely nice bloke, highlighted by the amount of support he offered the Bees this year even when not riding. Was he the right signing for the Bees though? The place looked nailed on to go to Summers, and with more improvement from Summers surely due it was a shock we went for Robson. Regardless, we saw 100% from him whilst he was there. He had some nasty crashes that ultimately lead to his dropping, but you have to look at whether he should still have been in the team at the time given the options we had available (up to nearly 7 to replace him with at various points). People complain Poole win every year, but it's because if they had been left with that option, there's no way Robson wouldn't have been replaced earlier.
Best meeting: Leicester at home. Battled hard for points all night including some stunning overtakes which gave him a deserved heat 15 appearance.
Worst meeting: Kings Lynn away in the A fixture - many things went wrong that night that lead to us not picking up a point by just 2 points but Robbo miscounting the laps when we were on a clear 5-1 has to be the worst the lot.
Kyle Howarth
It took way too long to get Howarth signed, and by the time we had he'd ridden himself into poor form in the premier league. The less said about his performances the better.
Best meeting: Was there one? He did win 1 heat against Leicester at home so I'll go with that.
Worst meeting: The home play-off leg 0,0,0 whilst not on the pace except to try and block our own riders was the pick of the bunch.
Jason Garrity
A brilliant season and a match winner so many times. He's become a proper elite league rider, beating second strings every meeting and providing dollops of entertainment every time he's on track or being interviewed. Rider of the season for the second season in a row without question. Desperately unlucky to get injured when he did but how brave to carry on riding and score vital points against Poole in the play-off semi.
Best meeting: Belle Vue away in the A fixture. We were superb that night as a team but Garrity was pick of the bunch with a flawless 12 point maximum. The highlight being a stunning gate from the graveyard gate 3 that no-one else got off of all night. He could have ridden all 15 heats that night and I still doubt anyone would have touched him.
Worst meeting: Poole at home in the B fixture. On that infamous evening, his terrible performance went under the radar. He didn't beat an opposition rider and managed to fence Robbo in the process.
James Sarjeant
Has there ever been a more infuriating rider? He started the season on fire, which is exactly what we needed as Jason was having some issues right at the start. He's progressively got worse throughout the season, losing to riders he has the ability to beat easily just because he's been outgated by them. He relies on his 'fliers' but with refs now fully aware of them, he needs to find himself a new way to win. And fast.
Best meeting: Wolves at home - 3 wins/paid wins that night in what became a very tight meeting were vital in getting us over the line.
Worst meeting: Away the Poole in the play-offs. With Garrity out injured we needed a big night from Sarj and he turned up with a big fat 0.
The management
It's only fair they are judged too, and yet again they have done little to entice fans back whilst alienating a few more. The way the Poole home sky meeting was handled was poor, the lack of a replacement for Robson through so much of the season and the eventual replacement was disappointing too. We had a fair while to get a rider to come over for a few play-off meetings too, and it's hard to believe that no rider would come over for a few meetings with Poland winding up and the likes of Dudek, Jonasson and Larsen all expressing some form of interest.
Havelock has grown as a manager, certainly tactically, whilst providing constant amusement to sky TV viewers. I think he did well this season.
Horton himself has yet again gone on misguided rants and made some nonsensical decisions. Mick clearly cares, but I'm not sure he's the man I want leading the Bees into battle to attempt to save the stadium. As infuriating as the North situation was, refusing to go to Poole for our biggest meeting of the season was childish, as was near enough encouraging our fans not to go either.
Neil Watson is a constant annoyance. It's good that the club interact with their fans, however Neil Watson going in arguing the points he thinks he can win, then refusing to reply to questions or facts he doesn't like does more harm than good.
God knows what Rodgers does at our club, but it's even become an in joke amongst riders, promoters and fans alike how frequently he managed to get his face on the TV.
The ultimate moment of our management has to be the entire management team celebrating like we'd won the league as Andreas Jonsson pipped Andersen on the line at Lakeside to cost us a win. Utterly embarrassing. Everyone in the stadium knew AJ had got that. Except them.
Meeting of the season
This is not in doubt. Belle Vue at home in the B fixture had absolutely everything. We had drawn at Belle Vue on the Monday and the Friday return looked a potential banana skin for us. In that meeting there was the best racing seen at Brandon for years, a last heat decider which the Bees won, massive controversy with a very dodgy Garrity exclusion where he actually went nowhere near Worrall when he fell, before a forceful first bend from the lad in 13 had Nicholls down and losing his rag. Garrity's celebration donuts in front of Nicholls were nothing short of comedy. Grajzconek's riding left a lot to be desired that week, and beating them in the end was my favourite moment of the season. The travelling Belle Vue fans created a great atmosphere that night too, and I wish speedway was like that every week. If it was, we'd see Brandon packed week after week.
Worst meeting of the season
It would be easy to pick the Poole capitulation in the play-offs but the Swindon home fixture was a shambles of epic proportions.
We knew we had injuries that week after riding at Kings Lynn on the Wednesday. King was injured on the Wednesday, Garrity was injured on the Wednesday, Andersen was already riding in Denmark and Robson was still out. Lindgren was surely available in the UK after guesting on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, but instead of booking him, a quarter fit King rode round half a mile behind the rest of the field. Danny Ayres was booked for Garrity with options severely limited. As fans, we knew it would be difficult with a full team against Swindon and even more so with no Jason and relatively poor replacements for him and others. So what did the club do? Refuse to announce any team details despite being asked to all day long by numerous fans via social media. Potentially scared of fans not turning up if they knew, yet again what they actually achieved was 'disillusioning' (to use Mick's new favourite word) the fans who did turn up that day. Mick also then gave an interview basically apologising that we could only get Danny Ayres just before the lad was about to ride for us (and a good job he did, too). Not the way to build a riders confidence up prior to the meeting, though! The performance was poor, Swindon were dominant, and we went away knowing the play-offs might be one step too far. Very frustrating.
Ride of the season
It's difficult to pick just 1 but at a push it has to be Harris' absolutely stunning last bend to pass Doyle in heat 15 of the Leicester B meeting at home. Doyle had near enough drilled Andersen in the first running and Andersens parking on the track had lead to him being excluded. With Doyle already disliked prior to the running of that Harris Harris' last bend dummy and blast round the fence brought the house down. Absolutely brilliant.
The other 2 that stick in the mind were Harris' heat 15 at Belle Vue in the B fixture to line up and pass Zagar to give us a draw to take home, and Garrity's first lap ride against Newman in the home leg of the play-offs which was utterly bonkers but my word - those are the moves that make me keep coming back, no matter how much of a shambles both Coventry and the sport as a whole can be.
The SKY fiasco
I'm torn on this one. Yes we were made to run the meeting but would we have been complaining and wanting the meeting off if we were leading at heat 8? No we wouldn't, as was evidenced by our willingness to rush the Lakeside home meeting through to heat 10 to get us the result in very similar conditions.
It's not right that we are forced to run the meeting, and rob Horton of one of his biggest crowds of the years as people stay at home to watch on sky anyway and even more so when the weather is poor. It's also not right that you aren't allowed to do what you want to the track when sky are in town. One thing that definitely isn't right is being told there will be a track inspection after heat 9 before there subsequently wasn't one.
Our protests were always going to be in vain, the meeting was never going to be rerun, that would have set a dangerous precedent if it had been, and Hortons threats of pulling Coventry out the elite league if we didn't get what we wanted are frustrating and mess with the fans who want stability from their management.
Our fans also can't seem to grasp that Poole did nothing wrong that night except win the meeting. Sky and the meeting stewards you get when sky are in town didn't act differently that night to how they would have if we were riding Wolves or Swindon etc. It was just unfortunate.
The other thing that was frustrating is that we claimed that track was not fit to ride after heat 9 and that heat 10 shouldn't have happened, ergo we refused to send our riders out. By that logic, why were the fans who did turn up not given their token £1 off the next meeting, for only seeing 9 races. It would have also made a statement to the SCB whilst costing the club very very little in the process (the crowd at that meeting was dreadful).
The vendetta
It's hard to agree with a lot of Havelocks rantings on SKY, and genuinely don't believe refs have any kind of Coventry vendetta BUT it;s hard to think of many decisions that have gone for us this year. Sarj does not get away with fliers, despite many times when he hasn't moved prior to the tapes going up. The decision on the sky meeting to exclude both of our riders was absolutely terrible and one of the poorest bits of reffing I've ever seen. Andersen exclusion against Swindon when Rose rode into him was terrible. Iversen wiped out both bees riders after missing the start in the A fixture at Lynn and yet was placed back in the rerun. However the worst decision all season was in heat 12 away at Poole in the A fixture. I was stood looking right down the straight at the time, and watched Newman come off the white line and completely wipe out 3 other riders. Garrity, one of the innocent victims, was excluded for it, which could have completely swung the meeting at the time.
Whilst there's no vendetta against the Bees, refs clearly exclude based on reputation and bottle decisions against home sides too often. It's not right and having 2 riders in our team with reputations it's made it a tough season of decisions.
The verdict
Overall it's been a very enjoyable season. I didn't think this team was any better than around 4th/5th this season, especially after the opening day at Leicester. To top the table for so long and win so often away from home has been an absolute delight so thank you to all those involved. It's frustrating that with the right team change at more than 1 point of the season we could have really pushed for the title but ultimately it's not our own money that's invested in the club and if certain riders aren't viable financially then it has to be for the best. It's disappointing, but I'd rather see speedway in Coventry continue rather than bankrupt ourselves for the sake of 1 title attempt.
I hope you've enjoyed reading my updates and tweets through the season (at least some of them) and I'll be back for more next year.
Onwards and upwards!
Welcome
Hi,
Welcome to my new speedway blog 'under the scoreboard'. Since Mr Boon has stopped his weekly speedway ramblings I will be doing my best to take over the mantle, hopefully by upsetting less people than my speedway updates achieve.
The first of my blogs will be the Bees season review from this season, however I will try and write at least fortnightly about various topics throughout the winter. If anyone would like me to write a blog about a specific speedway subject then please let me know via twitter @silverbee52.
I hope you enjoy reading.
Alan
Welcome to my new speedway blog 'under the scoreboard'. Since Mr Boon has stopped his weekly speedway ramblings I will be doing my best to take over the mantle, hopefully by upsetting less people than my speedway updates achieve.
The first of my blogs will be the Bees season review from this season, however I will try and write at least fortnightly about various topics throughout the winter. If anyone would like me to write a blog about a specific speedway subject then please let me know via twitter @silverbee52.
I hope you enjoy reading.
Alan
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