Bomber Bomber Bomber

This weeks blog has a focus around the many stories following Chris Harris around this week (no, not Laurence Rogers) and various other petulant goings on throughout the week.

GP qualifiers -Any point?

It seems we can't get through a GP qualifying campaign without it becoming a disorganised mess these days. It should be simple, riders should be put forward by their nations, then the top 8 from each of the 4 quarter finals go through to the semi finals, and then the top 8 from each of those go through to the final and the top 3 from there make the GP series. If any rider drops out they are then replaced by the next riders in line from the previous rounds. Why then, do we have wild cards at all? All it does it cause controversy and ultimately seems utterly unfair.

This weeks decision to offer Robert Lambert a wild card has raised more than a few eyebrows, considering that Craig Cook was in line ahead of Lambert after winning a run off against Lambert in the quarter final at his home track. Cook has taken a mature attitude to being snubbed, stating that it's his own fault he didn't qualify, rather than having a bitter swipe at the decision, which should be applauded. In theory, Cook is more deserving of that place, but if they were going to give it to the next people in line, there would be no point in having the wild cards.

Wildcards in the qualifiers give the organisers a couple of options, either to offer the place to people who are going to sell more tickets at that venue or to give a helping hand to those that are wanted permanently in the series. With their willingness to do this though, why do they bother with the qualifying process at all?

In other motor sports such as Moto GP, Formula One, World Superbikes etc the riders have to be signed by a team that wants them and this isn't solely down to ability and other factors such as how marketable that person might be are taken into consideration. Fans often complain that without a qualifying system in the speedway world championship that it couldn't be considered the world championship as not everyone could enter but would that be the end of the world? A case could be made that a 'closed shop' would actually improve the quality of the GP line up, as the top riders in the world would still be in the competition, but it takes away the possibility of anomalies like Chris Harris qualifying. From the top 8 downwards, the next batch of riders are inconsistent enough that it makes it nigh on impossible to justify with any certainty who is next in line so do we not want the most exciting mix to fill the rest of the series? Allowing the people marketing the series would probably guarantee that was the case.

It's a suggestion worth discussion, although I personally don't see any problem with having qualifiers (although I mind rather more so when KK is missing for the Bees because of them!). At the moment, though, they aren't one thing or the other. Either the riders should all have to get through all the qualifying rounds on merit or wait and see if they get a permanent GP wild card.

Harris is probably the rider that's caused more discussion than any other concerning GP qualifying in recent but it seems this year is a case of 'come in number 37 your time is up'. His comments concerning being eliminated are nothing short of ridiculous. As our senior rider, he shouldn't be given the round he wants at Lynn, we should be helping the less experienced riders to get through the qualifiers by offering them the home round. If Harris, a GP rider for many years, can't make the top 8 of that field in Denmark, what exactly is the point of him being in the GP's anyway? Not all World Championship rounds are held at King's Lynn! He also states that he doesn't think he's ever done a round in the UK, even though he's previously ridden in qualifiers at Poole and berwick. It's not as if we host them regularly enough for him to have been ignored every year.

There isn't a rider who has entertained me more in British speedway over the last 10 years than Bomber, but to hit out at Britain for him not being able to choose where he goes is petulant in the extreme. I'm sorry, Chris, but when you're having to blame riding in Denmark for not being able to finish in the top 8 of a quarter final of the qualifiers, it's time to give the World Championship dream up.

NB It's also worth saying that harris scored 5 points at Kings Lynn earlier this season and was beaten by Lambert 3 times. There's a good chance he wouldn't have got through lynn, either.

British Semi Finals - The latest cock up    

The next Chris Harris incident of the week is the British semi finals. Danny King was forced to miss his British semi final due to his commitment to GP qualifying the day after the Glasgow semi final, whilst Chris Harris had to miss GP practice to race at Scunthorpe, a situation easily avoided by swapping the 2 riders around, or so you would think.

Interestingly, in Harris' comments on the GP website, he states that 'we decided Scunthorpe would be the better option'. That, to me, suggests that he was given the option of where to compete in his semi final. You wonder whether all riders got the option in which semi final to compete, despite Harris' claims that he isn't given preferential treatment. Hmm.

What Bomber also says, is that he thinks the top riders should be seeded and shouldn't have to compete in the semi final. This is something I agree with. 2 semi finals are overkill. 1 semi final would be fine with the top 5/6 (depending on Woffinden riding) or so in the EL averages seeded straight to the final. 

On the flip side, Harris has ridden for Coventry on numerous occaisions on the Friday before a GP and never really cared about missing practice, which could have been part of the reason the BSPA were happy to put him in the semi finals over a GP weekend but they shouldn't be putting Harris in a position where he has to choose. Chris had well documented clutch problems in Poland, and these may well have been sorted if he'd ridden in practice prior to the meeting. Chris has done a lot for British Speedway and will always go out of his way to compete in events in this country which is probably why he rode in the meeting rather than point blank saying no like Danny King did, but it's just another avodiable cock up.

Now I don't know how any conversations between Chris and the BSPA went, but with King's clashed fixture meaning he missed the semi and was offered a wildcard to the final, Harris should really have been offered the sam.

The only other point I will make about it is that Bomber also complains about his lack of meetings so far this season, yet him missing the semi finals would mean another meeting off the calender.

In the latest of what will no doubt become a feature of the season, Rob Godfrey was forced to put out another press release to try and explain the failings of the BSPA after Danny King had to pull out of his semi. Well, I say explain. What I really mean is he came out and said 'it's realllllllllly hard'. I look forward to the next one.

The double up debate 

In the third Harris complaint, he states that all British riders should be allowed to double up, as the Swedes are in Sweden, due to the lack of available meetings for them on the continent. I agree. They shouldn't be given dispensation on their averages and they should have to sign on 12's, but if clubs want to sign the likes of him and Nicholls (and they would, even on those averages) they should be allowed.

We don't do enough to help our own, and whilst there's a danger that it encourages our riders to pick up an easy buck rather than push themselves, it's a chicken and egg situation. They need to earn money to improve kit, and meetings to stay sharp so they can cement a place abroad.

Double Standards

In an incredible match report on the BSPA website from Ipswich Vs Edinburgh, it seems criticsm of refereeing is now allowed. Sam Masters received a ban previously for slagging off a ref on social media, but it now seems it's allowed via official BSPA press releases.

In one of the most bitter comments post meeting I've ever read (and I watch a team managed by gary Havelock!) John Campbell from Edinburgh has a go at 2 of the refereeing decisions in heat 15, says that they'd have won easily without RR for Riss, that most teams will win at Ipswich and that Danny King isn't the rider he used to be.

Riss has been poor when he's visited Ipswich previously, so it was hardly a given, and Edinburgh had had to use a tactical ride to get them back to the point where they were in with a chance to win the meeting regardless. How embarrassing to need to use a double at a track where most teams will win!

Fans are constantly moaned at for criticing riders when there's no need and they are doing it for our entertainment (yawn) - however it seems it's ok for speedway promoters to have random digs at Great Britain internationals.

I've watched King both the last 2 nights for Coventry and rest assured Mr Campbell that there's no one in your Monarchs side I'd rather have in place of King!



This blog is dedicated to Matt Davis and was sponsored by 4 Seasons Landscaping & Garden maitenence.

In our best interests....

As per usual, British Speedway has failed to make it through a week without further descending itself into farce. So here to discuss it is your friendly neighbourhood blogger....

What a cook up 

As everyone likely to be reading this will be aware, Craig Cook's proposed move to Peterborough was blocked by the BSPA, citing rule 16.3.5 which states that the BSPA management committee monitors all proposed moves and has the sole responsibility to approve all (re-)declared team line-ups having been satisfied they are in the best interests of the sport.

Essentially a rule that trumps all other teambuilding rules, and allows the BSPA to block any move they see fit at the drop of a hat without having to make any justification other than these moves not being in the best interests of the sport. But what is in the best interests of the sport? Foreigners scoring big points in protected reserve races, a heatleader list that has actually achieved teams not being able to build to the points limit and Elite League riders having their average decided by converting their premier league averages are just 3 of the decisions they believe are in the interests of the sport in this country from this year alone. Logical? Nope.

There are issues on both sides of this and I'll try to give a balanced view looking at it from both sides.

Fixture clashes are listed as the main reason the signing was blocked in the press release from Rob Godfrey, in which he explains how both Belle Vue and Peterborough are officially listed as Friday night race tracks. Despite this, there would only be 3 home clashes due to Belle Vue's changeable race night and Peterborough riding so many Sundays. There would also be 5 clashes when Peterborough are away, too which doesn't seem to have been brought up, including in Peterborough's official statement. I don't think is an unreasonable amount for any double upper signed mid way through a season and these numbers could either increase or decrease during the season. However the likely hood of future clashes is slightly increased by the race night issue. It's hard to have too much sympathy with Peterborough on this front, though, as since they ride less than 50% of their meetings on a Friday, why did they submit Friday as their official night? Foot well and truly shot. At the same time it's very petty on the BSPA's side to not look at at it in enough detail to see that Peterborough aren't really riding Fridays.

Peterborough were clearly told the move was unlikely to go ahead so why did they go ahead and announce the signings and sack riders before it had been approved? You also have to question the BSPA's 'news' policy, as they posted the signing via the official speedway GB website prior to approval. If this hadn't happened then it would have been a lot easier to deal with the consequences of it being blocked.

Godfrey makes a bizarre claim in his statement explaining the decision, as he says that if this was allowed everyone would be doing the same thing. What? Teams would want to sign riders who were never riding for them, costing the rider money and leaving the teams without their own riders? It's quite clear this wouldn't be a regular occurrence.

The suggestion seems to be that you cannot sign a double up rider doubling up who rides on the same 'official' race night as the other. If that's the case, why isn't it a rule? This controversy wouldn't exist if that rule was in the rule book rather than the deliberately ambiguous 'interests of speedway' rule. And since this ambiguous rule exists, and no actual rule to stop Cook from riding Peterborough, why couldn't they allow it based on the lack of Friday clashes? They have also allowed Daniel Bewley to sign for both Edinburgh and Belle Vue, which are both officially Friday night tracks. As per usual a massive lack of consistency from those in charge.

Cook should also really look at his decision to want to move to a track that rides on so many Sundays though. It would mean he wouldn't be able to pick up a Polish team place during the season if his form dictated there would be one available for him, which is where he wants to be riding. An odd decision.

My conclusion is that since Peterborough are breaking no actual team building rules by signing Cook, the move should really be allowed. Peterborough have handled it badly, though. If they want to stop this from happening, put it in the rule book. Now they have declined it though, they shouldn't be swayed by a petition. They need to have a backbone and back their own decision, even though I don't believe that decision is correct. 2 wrongs and all that...

GP Qualifiers


Like most seasons, we're in a situation where we are unlikely to have any Brits through to the next round of the GP qualifiers. Lambert and Cook were both unlucky to miss out, with Lambert having bike problems and Cook having an exclusion where they both missed out by 1 point. Harris went out in a meeting he really should have qualified in, though.

You do have to question the lack of preparation our riders get for meetings like this though. The qualifiers are individual meetings of a high international standard which the likes of Cook and Lambert get no opportunity to ride in. The perfect opportunity for them to test themselves at that level lies in the European Championship, a series that we fail to recognise as an international event, and subsequently refuse to grant facilities for it, and also refuse to enter. It's time we stopped being stubborn and gave ourselves every opportunity to succeed in the future by entering everything we can to give our own riders the same opportunities those from other countries get. It would no doubt also benefit us by the time it came to the world cup.

Harris is rather different and has ridden in the GP series a number of years. When people have slagged Harris off for reclaiming his GP status via the qualifiers every year, I've always suggested that Harris is probably around the 15th best rider in the world and that's why he continues to qualify but ultimately do poorly in the series itself. I can't do that anymore though, with riders like THJ, Karpov, Lebedevs, Kurtz, Ljung, Huckenbeck and Covatti all qualifying through. He's just an average Joe these days. Very entertaining at league level and always a pleasure to watch but it's no longer possible to justify his place amongst the world's top riders.


TV admission

It's no longer possible to get good crowds for sky meetings except for the play-offs and so most clubs now offer reduced admission to try and bump the crowd up. Swindons £5 in advance offer last year was the pick of the bunch, the place was packed and looked great on cameras. Potentially £5 for the SKY meetings are a better option than £10. It might cost the club a little bit of money short term (although based on how many were there for Swindon last year it probably wasn't much) but if a potential sponsor is watching the meeting surely they are far more likely to be impressed and get involved when seeing a busy stadium rather than an empty one? Perhaps it's time to look at the bigger picture.

This week, Coventry stated on their website that people attending the National League meeting against Cradley would gain £10 admission on Monday on the production of their ticket. This has since been changed to allow everyone entry for a tenner, with Neil Watson stating this was because of the large take up of the offer on Friday.

Whilst hard to believe, I don't actually like complaining and the fact it's £10 for everyone is much better promotion than the original offer as it doesn't rule out Wolves fans from claiming the same offer. However, I do feel like the promotion have been slightly dishonest and used the offer they were probably always going to make open to everyone anyway to try and sell more National League tickets. Neil Watson's comments make little sense, since at this point, no one has taken Coventry up on their offer as the Elite League meeting hasn't happened. How many people took them up on their offer can only be worked out after the EL meeting has happened. What he must mean is that there was a healthier NL crowd on Friday than previously. That was always going to be the case with Cradley in town as it's a local derby and Cradley provide a lot of travelling support (I would estimate they were around 70-80% of the crowd on Friday).

I was 50/50 whether to go on Friday and the offer for both meetings swung me into going. If I had known the SKY meeting was going to be £10 anyway I may well have only gone to that, so they've got £12 more from me (and others) they might not have got if they'd announced £10 to everyone. That's why I feel lied to, despite the fact both meetings will still cost me £22, the same as it was before the offer was changed. I commend the promotion for making the offer open to everyone, but it's just been poorly handled yet again by the club. We never do things the easy way, do we?!

Belle Vue'd it

Belle Vue are finally up and running and the track looks great, one thing that they haven't managed to 'do a Belle Vue' to! Too often new tracks are built where the shape really could be a lot lot better (Kent and Leicester 2 obvious examples) but Belle Vue have got it spot on and it looks like it'll produce fabulous racing going forward. They did still manage to do a bit of classic Belle Vue with the car park fiasco but if that's the biggest of their worries this week then it's a massive improvement for the promotion so far this season.

What a find Daniel Bewley is, with such a small amount of racing experience the lad is winning races for fun and I can't wait to watch him ride in the flesh. It's riders like him that get fans excited about National League racing, it's just a shame we don't seem to be able to find any for the Storm!

I find it odd that I've been able to watch 5 or 6 heats from the meeting since the filing ban though, maybe the Belle Vue Rebels would be a better name than the Colts?! 

The fast track daft and other musings....

This blog post has been severely delayed due to a mixture of poor forecasts, waterlogged keyboards and maintenance to the blog site after poor work by the contractors. If you are all sitting comfortable then I'll begin...

The Fast Track Daft

And so it begins...

The ridiculous rules concerning FTR riders gaining averages after 4 meetings has kicked in and it has seen a string of riders moving in to the main body of the team, all of whom are struggling to score a point. Anyone with half an ounce of common sense predicted this would happen after the race format wasn't changed this winter, but surely we had to put trust in our glorious governing body. Surely they wouldn't get it this badly wrong?

Whilst the young Brits the FTD was designed to help (obviously the costs this cut was just a happy aside....) struggle to score, it will allow the likes of Klindt, Kurtz, Tungate etc to score easy points against riders low down the fast track list. Some might think it harsh to state these riders are stealing sweets from kids, and to those people I say this: you're wrong. Riders on proper second string money cleaning up with massive points every week does nothing to help anyone, except their own bank balances. It doesn't improve the product and it will hurt the promoters wallets.

This years 'fixes' to the draft have caused way more issues. The BSPA being entrusted to try and solve any of the problems which require a bit of thought is similar to allowing Joey Essex to be in charge of our country's fiscal policy. Utter carnage.

Davey What? 

People can't seem to grasp why Poole win the league so often. If they ever wanted a text book example, it's reasons like this. Poole are battering sides at home and will still win the majority of fixtures away, so they could easily have allowed Davey Watt to ride himself back into form before play-off time. Matt Ford chooses not to though. If he waited, he might not have got a replacement as ready made as Bjarne, and with other clubs sniffing round Bjarne while looking to strengthen up it's a double blow as now other teams aren't left with the Bjarne option.

Watt is clearly having personal issues but many people go to work with personal issues every day and still have to perform at their jobs. It's important to not forget that riders don't 'do it for our entertainment' - they do it because they get paid to do it. It's a job, and if someone is not performing at their job there are consequences.

It's hard to have sympathy with Davey Watt. He's been at Poole long enough to know how Matt Ford operates and it has to be one of the considerations when signing there. Perhaps if he had more respect for the other clubs he rides for the years Poole aren't interested he might get a bit more sympathy. He frequently looks disinterested, often whinges about nothing and is Australian. If he never rode over here again, I don't believe I'd lose any sleep.

The Storm, or the damp squib? 

Just what is the National league these days? A training and development league? Or a win at all costs professional league? It's quickly morphing into the latter with Birmingham and Eastbourne creating sides that the others can't compete with, and for that reason it's unlikely that the Storm Even Cradley fans are complaining about how uncompetitive the league now is. For fans of irony, that one's for you!

As a Coventry fan I can only really comment on what the fans want at Brandon, but with it being a second side it's got to be one of 2 things: competitive or exciting. Ours isn't either. We haven't found any potential Bees through the NL project since the introduction of the Storm, with the most exciting prospect in this years side Liam Carr, who isn't even a Coventry asset.

I do go to the majority of National League meetings, including travelling away to a lot of them, too but even I didn't go to the Buxton meeting on Friday. Watching a side with nothing in it to get excited about, against Buxton, in front of twenty people is not my idea of  Friday night. Especially when the Coventry promotion expect you to pay 20% more to watch the side than it has done in the previous 3 seasons!

Coventry should have knocked NL on the head at the end of last season when the crowds were appalling and each meeting seemed to descend into further farce. So what does our promotion do? Build another side that no one has any interest in and charge people more money to watch it. Classic.

Return of the GP's 

The GP's are back! Yes the first one was a bit naff, but it's Slovenia and it often is, but we've got one of the most exciting line-ups for years. A full year for Kildemand, the inclusions of Pawlicki, Zmarzlik and Lindback should give us some top action this year. There's not much that can be said about the meeting as it offered us so little and the first round is rarely indicative of how the rest of the season will shape up, except for Harris struggling to even look like he has a change of the semi finals. 

The biggest change this year for us viewers though was the switch the BT sport, and what a breath of fresh air it was. Keeping Nicholls on board was a great decision. He is knowledgeable, concise, and doesn't go over the top. Except maybe in his comments after the Ward incident at the Latvian GP, which were fully deserved. The best thing about the coverage though was our new host Natalie Quirk. She was excellent all round, anchoring her first GP brilliantly whilst asking insightful questions to Scott. It felt so much more professional than Eurosport have offered us over the last few years and long may it continue. The only disappointment was Nigel Pearson not shouting 'get out of the way I'm coming through' after Kildemand's move of the meeting. Great work. 

I would like to see some changes made to the series though by the introduction of penalties for pathetic behaviour. Any rider on the podium taking a selfie should have their trophy taken away immediately. Enjoy the moment, it's not like there won't be photo evidence of the podium, given the podium faces a harem of photographers! Other penalties should also include anyone wearing an ill fitting baseball cap, any rider whose kevlars don't match their bike covers, and any rider seen talking to Monster Joe during the meeting. 

Kenni Larsen

And finally....

After one of the most bizarre and disturbing speedway stories for some time, it seems Kenni Larsen is on the mend. The lad has become a real talent since he left Britain, scoring big points on the continent regularly. I really hope he is able to continue riding speedway following this as there's still a lot of unlocked potential in him. 

He's an incredibly likeable young man and it's fantastic news that it looks like he's going to pull through. The circumstances of the accident are irrelevant to me, but the news he will be ok isn't. Get well soon Kenni!