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! 

Week 2 - Woffy, Woffy, Plymouth

After the initial disappointment of week 1 I was really hoping this blog may be a bit more positive, but with so many ridiculous goings on between then and now it's actually going to be a struggle to fit all the poor news in, let alone attempt to fit in any good news but I'll do my best!

Woffy, Woffy, Woffy

Those who know me will know in every sport I watch I will always try and back the Brits ahead of any others, whether that's in a team or individual sport. Those same people will also know my personal feelings on Tai Woffinden. He's selfish, arrogant and holds British Speedway to ransom.

He's now managed to endear himself even more to me and others by pulling out of the British Final due to the possibility of him 'burning out'. He also states it gives 'someone else a chance to win it'.

For years Woffinden has come up with threats to British Speedway whenever something is happening he doesn't like he threatens to throw the world cup towel in, or change his allegiance back to Australia. For a British rider, being British champion is one of the main aims during a season. For many of the current crop it's still a huge meeting, hence the many many re-runs in the semis and finals in recent years as people refuse to give an inch. And therein lies the issue. Woffinden isn't a British rider.

There are so many issues with everything Woffinden does. He bitched and moaned about the lack of a Team GB training programme including fitness, diets, bike set-ups etc including one very public rant on camera during the world cup itself. Thanks to the Poultec academy, which looks like a fabulous set up, this is now being addressed at source, however there were still (correct) calls for existing GB riders to have the same conditioning. Team GB finally took a step in the right direction and set up a camp in Croatia, where Woffinden's concerns were to be addressed. And who better to learn from than a 2 time world champion, who after his earlier outbursts would definitely be there to offer help and advice? Nope. Didn't bother to go.

He states about how fitness has been such a massively important issue in turning him into the rider he is today. He's constantly in the gym to get himself in shape and weighs about the same as 1 of my limbs. Fair play. However is it just me that finds this fitness a bit fake? Rickardsson, Crump, Pedersen, Holder and Loram (5 of the last 7 World Champions) all rode in 3 major leagues, (including the British league when it included the KOC and craven shield) and competed in Grand Prix series without any complaints of fatigue. And certainly not at the age Woffinden is at now. How can someone that fit struggle to make it through the season without burn out? I smell cow excrement.

The British final is 2 extra meetings (possibly even 1 if they'd reached an agreement to offer a wildcard to the final, which whilst still showing massive favouritism would have offered a potential solution and ensure the world champion rode in one of our show piece events (I still don't see the point in 2 British semi finals, 1 maybe but definitely not 2).) and yet the man can't find the stamina to ride his speedway bike for a maximum of 12 minutes in his home country for fear of burning out. It's nothing short of pathetic and those defending him really need to have a word with themselves.

Woffinden states that this gives an opportunity for someone else to win it. Laughably arrogant. Cook had it won last year prior to the rerun. And after Cook, Nicholls, Lambert and Harris have all had meetings at the new Belle Vue there's no reason they couldn't have taken the crown with him there. It's as if whoever wins it now will have had the crown tainted by Woffinden's refusal to ride. Perhaps Tai's titles should be tainted by the fact he hasn't had to compete against Emil to win them? Maybe he should give up riding in the world championship to offer an opportunity for someone else to win them?

Champman and Rosco need to have a serious word with themselves too. Rosco's statement is laughable, using the fact Aussie riders often don't ride in the Aussie championship as justification for Woffinden's decision. The top Aussie riders are based in Europe and to send kit half way around the world for 3 or 4 meetings is ridiculous when often these riders aren't going back to Australia anyway. I understand he wants to use Woffinden to get the results he so desperately needs but how long will it be before Woffinden is threatening to quit Team GB again if things go wrong? Chapman was meant to be the straight talking BSPA man who wouldn't stand for all the rubbish previous chairman have put up with. Since taking over Chapman has achieved nothing and if anything the season so far is even more farcical than usual. With Chapman refusing to stand up to our 'prized possession' and instead rolling over and having his belly tickled it seems like Woffinden will be able to dictate to British Speedway for the foreseeable future.

The fact is, if there was a bigger prize on offer, Woffinden would be there. Burn out or no burn out.

Woffy, Woffy, Woffy? Aussie Aussie Aussie more like.

Call Offs

Bad weather over Easter (and some convenient electrical problems at the East of England showground) has lead to many rain offs over the period. The manor in which these call offs occurred has been nothing short of shambolic.

As a Coventry fan, my personal interest in these rain offs was Leciester Vs Coventry. A meeting that looking at every available rain radar was never going to happen. Hours before start time Josh Bates and Kacper Woryna had posted pictures and videos quite clearly showing a track completely underwater and a meeting that was never going to be happen. With a lot more rain due surely the sensible thing would be to call the meeting off at that point? No. They put out a press release stating the rain had stopped (for about 5 minutes according to those already at the track) and the meeting would go ahead at 8PM. The rain started again, as forecast, fans set off expecting a drying Leicester track for the meeting to be called off just 45 minutes before the originally scheduled start time with the track still completely underwater. And the promoters wonder why crowds are dwindling and why we don't trust promoters?!

Other ridiculously handled call offs include the Belle Vue Vs Wolves and Belle Vue Vs Cradley saga (don't let George Lucas get his hands on it - it'll be another 12 hours of your life wasted!). Why didn't Belle Vue just cancel these meetings knowing the amount of track work required and the forecast for the weekend would make these meetings very difficult to run it? Instead they left fans hanging on all week before the inevitable call off. Fans screwed again who couldn't make other plans after being strung along by the Belle Vue promotion.

Updated: Originally I wrote about my disappointment concerning Peterborough Vs Ipswich and their electrical fault with 5 riders who were in the meeting having their Polish teams riding that day. It seems there are in fact clear works going on at the show ground and the 2 things are a genuine coincidence. My apologies to anyone involved at Peterborough for the original comments and fingers crossed it's sorted asap. Given the bank holiday weather the meeting likely wouldn't have happened regardless so hopefully they get a big crowd when Ipswich return as part of a bank holiday double header.
Plymouth

What a strange turn of events there! Plymouth run 1 home meeting, a pointless individual with a poor line up, and use the crowd from that meeting as an indication of how many Plymouth fans would turn up for other meetings during the year.

There are so many unanswered questions for the Plymouth promotion.

Why base your potential crowd figures for the season on a pointless meeting in March?
How could you sign a team of riders knowing your existence was based on 1 meeting?
Why were you expecting your crowd to double over the Winter?
What did you do over the Winter to improve the crowd levels for the new season?

It's been disgustingly handled. I hope the promoters involved get their comeuppance for the difficulties they have caused the riders they signed, and for costing me the chance of seeing one of my teenage idols, Charlie Gjedde, this season.

I hope the Plymouth crowd funding efforts go well and help keep Plymouth on track but looking at the debt figures reported it seems that the money being raised is a drop in the Ocean. Good luck to the Plymouth side, especially the ambitious (despite what Havelock might like to claim) Kyle Newman and Stefan Nielsen, in getting fixed up. It's not nice to see the young Brits without a team place.


NB - as an update on last weeks blog - Woryna was brilliant to watch against Leicester on Friday. He's edging his way towards my like column, however my views still stand regarding riders I do/don't like!

Week 1 - Why can't we have nice things?

In the first blog of the new season, I'm going to talk about week 1. I was expecting us by this point to have waltzed through the opening week of the season with no controversy, all of the winter rantings and goings on forgotten now the racing has started and be well on our way to a jam packed Easter of speedway. Apparently not.

The Belle Vue Fiasco

Deary me. Where do you start?


In possibly the most believable unbelievable thing that's ever happened, the best thing to happen to British Speedway in years, the launch of the National Stadium (© Manchester City Council) descended into a farce at the first opportunity with the meeting called off due to an unfit track. A sell out crowd waited for an hour after the start time, some having been in the stadium for many hours prior to this, before they bravely decided to face the fans..... and sent Coventry's Chris Harris out to face a furious packed house and explain the track was unfit.


Those who know me know that I'm a snob and love my big name stars. I'm often mocked for suggesting I'd pay to watch Matej Zagar ride around Brandon by himself. Despite this I decided to not to bother with the best line up (GPs excluded) that we have seen in years. It just felt like something was always going to go wrong, and with having to purchase tickets in advance it's not like a judgement call could be made on the day. This has turned into the most Belle Vue thing to happen to Belle Vue in recent years. The twitter hash tag of #bellevuedit has been around a while now and will no doubt be back out in force over the coming weeks! My decision not to go didn't change the fact I really wanted it to be a success. There are lots of Belle Vue fans who really deserve this to be a success and to suggest I'm envious of the stadium is an understatement, especially with speedway coming to an end at Brandon.


The terrible press from this all around, with sites such as BBC and motorcycle news running negative coverage of the event (both of whom normally have little to no interest in speedway), has the potential to bury Belle Vue so where do they go from here?


There are lots claiming that this is no different to if the first meeting was rained off, however with more and more rumours coming out suggesting Belle Vue knew the track was going to be unfit earlier in the week it becomes very different. Every fan in the stadium would have accepted if rain had called the meeting off, but this was a huge oversight by somebody. We just don’t know who, nor are we ever likely to find out as is the speedway way!


Belle Vue claimed in their original press release concerning the call off that the call off was largely down to the poor winter weather, after one of the kindest winters for many a year. The suggestion in the release was that some winter weather had been unexpected. Perhaps it was that weather conditions this winter were actually too good to complete building work? Who knows! There was no responsibility taken by the Belle Vue management for all those who had spent a lot of money and time on the meeting. Another press release was due to explain to fans what would happen concerning a re staging and ticket information. A poor hastily written press release but surely the next press release was going to be better? Wrong!


The next press release was even worse, with David Gordon having a go at supporters blaming Belle Vue, stating it wasn't anything to do with them. He lays into the contractors and states that none of the failures at the meeting were down to Belle Vue speedway. So who are fans to blame? The winter weather? The contractors? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but people paying their ticket money for the meeting entered into a contract with Belle Vue speedway and not the contracting group. Still no mention of refunds or any sort of apology. If nothing else, the way Saturday was handled, keeping fans in the dark and not telling anyone what was going on during the massive delay surely deserves an apology? Maybe not!


Surely, though, the BSPA would help Belle Vue get through one of the most costly disasters we've had for a while? No. Chapman couldn't wait to stick the knife in. He is 100% correct in that the meeting was a Belle Vue promoted event and not a shared event (although from belle Vue's press releases you'd be forgiven for thinking they had absolutely nothing to do with it either!). The rest of the press release throws them straight under the bus, getting upset about the damage it does to the rest of British Speedway, because obviously no other clubs ever do damage to the sport with their decisions. The most pathetic section of the statement is the section stating how they didn't name it the National Stadium. I'm quite sure had Saturday been a success it would have been described by the BSPA as a landmark fabulous event for British Speedway. Yet it's us fans who are fickle, obviously.


From here Belle Vue have to try and re stage the event to try and keep as much of the original ticket money as they can. It won't have the same calibre of line up and it will no longer be the opening of the new era but financially the less they can pay out on refunds the better. Refunds will have to be offered. This should have been avoided and someone was to blame. If Belle Vue had any idea the track wasn't going to be ready they had to call off the meeting earlier to stop people travelling and prevent this nightmare. Most people would have accepted that.


The videos from the meeting make the track look perfectly raceable but if it was already cutting up and the base was moving it's nigh on impossible to race, much like Wroclaw. If Harris says it's not raceable it almost certainly isn't - he'd ride on near enough anything!


The lucky thing for Belle Vue is that the ticket prices for the first meeting and the need to pre book means it's unlikely that they most many, if any, new fans that afternoon. The Belle Vue fans will mostly still go anyway so in the long run it probably hasn't done too much damage to attendances but the short time financial implications are the bigger issue. I have no doubt Belle Vue will recover from this, and I'm looking forward to my first visit, but how they handle the next step is crucial. It's not looking promising though, since Cradley/Wolves have already seemingly announced they won't be going there over Easter before Belle Vue have done.


In a world where everything changes all the time though, it's nice to know that the new Belle Vue era has started exactly as expected. #BelleVuedIt


Opening Meetings

Is it time we started getting rid of these opening meetings? Riders no doubt command the same money for challenge matches as they do a regular meeting, and with crowds down on regular meetings they almost certainly lose money.


Over last weekend, we had the pointless Elite Shield (it's not a real trophy, it never has been) and 2 of the worst individual line ups I've ever seen at Lakeside and Plymouth. The Lakeside one in particular was bizarre, as it seemed to contain entirely riders from this years Lakeside squad, and even then I'm not sure that it had all of them in.


Some premier league clubs started with the league cup. Surely that's a better way to do it? Not the real business of a league match but a match that actually means something.


Time to scrap them?


What makes a rider likeable?


I've suggested on twitter this week that I don;t understand why our fans are so excited about the prospect of Woryna. He's not especially exciting or especially good. He pops a good wheelie and looks happy to be here. For me there has to be something a bit more special in a rider for them to make my yes column. I appreciate everyone is different but what are other peoples views?


The lad deserves a fair crack at it, and he certainly is far more on the pace than Jamrog, however he hasn't turned up and wiped the floor with anyone or done anything exciting at present. You'd be forgiven for thinking Woryna had turned up and beaten Woffinden, Hancock and Pedersen the way our official club twitter and some fans were talking.


I, amongst others, am often criticised for criticising riders and not giving them a fair chance, but building them up too much can have an equally damaging effect on the riders in question. I want the lad to do well, it's better for the Bees if he does, but let's keep this over hyping down to a minimum for now shall we?!


The one thing that is certain, the scientific formula behind the most likeable rider around would be to take Hans Andersen and change every single aspect about him.






I'll be doing these blogs most weeks. It's a good way to get the ranting off my chest without making those who stand near me at Brandon listen. Hopefully some of you find them interesting. As always, feedback appreciated.

Injuries

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 ;)

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!