Reading vs Coventry 01-08-07

[Deleted]

Can see this being more than a bit one sided to Coventry.

Adam Shields guests for Greg Hancock

Ben Barker in for Matej Zagar who will be riding in a previously arranged meeting in Poland.

Chris Neath takes his first outing as Racers No.8 for Jonas Davidsson who's also riding in a previously arranged meeting back home in Sweden.

With the number of re-arranged fixtures we have to look foward to because of the weather & BSI fucking us about, this type of line up looks like it could be the sign of things to come for the remainder of the season.

Not happy about it at all, and had JP still been in charge he could have gone singing for my admission money to watch what is effectively a PL side facing one of the top 4 EL sides, but I do feel some sympathy for the new promotion and the problems they have encountered since taking over the club, and to preserve our club they need all the support they can get at the moment.

[admin]

The Polish fixture that Matej Zagar prefers to ride in is the re-arranged fixture between Torun and Czestochowa, which was originally scheduled for July 6th, 2007. And I'm guessing it is a matter of choice, since Reading haven't been allowed R/R to cover him. I suppose Reading should be grateful that it wasn't Torun versus Tarnow, or they'd have been minus Kolodziej as well.

[Deleted]

wacks said:

I do feel some sympathy for the new promotion and the problems they have encountered since taking over the club

Looking at it rationally, it was sheer madness to take-over a dreadful ailing BEL team mid-season, especially if their intention is to run BPL next season anyway. Even more mad when you consider they had no No.1 rider either.

Undoubtedly though, it's a front operation for the beoranged one.

[Deleted]

Unsurprisingly one or two Coventry fans on BSF commented that maybe this meeting should have been postponed due to the team strengths when there was still a doubt over Nicholls, Schlein & Allen riding tonight.

Normal service now resumed after Nicholls & Schein have declared themselves fit & apparently teams with well run promotions shouldn't be penalised for the failings of others.

Full line up as follows:-

Racers

1. Shields
2. Kolodziej
3. Ben Barker
4. Lemon
5. McGowan
6. Neath
7. Simota

Coventry

1. Nicholls
2. r/r for Allen
3. Schein
4. Johnston
5. Harris
6. Fat Boy
7. Smolinski

[schumi]

I don't think there's enough time left in the season to be postponing more meetings are there? Not with all the recent rain offs. And they won't be the first team to have been understrength this year - it seems a pretty common occurrence to me lately.

Edit: just read your first post, Wacks. That'll teach me not to comment before I've read it all.

Having said that, Racer X's comments on the BSF make sense to me if you apply them across the board. He says that facilities should be allowed for times when there is a fixture clash with Poland and Sweden due to re-arranged fixtures from rain-offs.

[Deleted]

It does seem even weirder that if Zagar doesn't ride in Poland tonight due to illness, Torun can use a facility to cover his absense but Reading can't.

Anyway, I'll still trot off to Smallmead tonight even though we're going to get clobbered. Might even go a bit early and offer to buy Nicholls one or two of the dodgy snack bar burgers - see if we can set his guts off again. ;D

[admin]

I'm not altogether sure that Torun can, you know. It depends on averages, I think. I'm not sure whether Zagar is in the top three of Torun's averages. I'd guess that Sullivan, Jagus, Zabik and maybe even Miedzinski would be ahead of him. And I don't think the Poles allow facilities for unwell riders anyway. I think it's only if you have a speedway related injury.
Certainly Rzeszow had no facility granted to them for Nicki Pedersen's absence last season when he had his wrist operation.

[schumi]

I know this won't go down well with the Nicholls fan on here, but I got the distinct impression he was using it as an excuse should he fail, and that he didn't think he was going to do as well as he did. Okay, so food poisoning isn't nice, but if it was really that bad (as food poisoning can be) he wouldn't have been able to take part in the GP.

[Deleted]

schumi said:

I know this won't go down well with the Nicholls fan on here, but I got the distinct impression he was using it as an excuse should he fail, and that he didn't think he was going to do as well as he did. Okay, so food poisoning isn't nice, but if it was really that bad (as food poisoning can be) he wouldn't have been able to take part in the GP.

I think we are all too cynical in this case but I do believe there must have been some colour in him to ride.

After his showing at the World Cup, Nicholls could be quite intent that he has a possible invite for IMG in the bag - so in this case he seems geniune enough. At the end of the day, who is he letting down if he's got not an excuse, only the very small band of British Speedway what thinking the world revolves around the UK and it's merry crooks in BSPA Towers. Many others accept he's never gonna be a world-beater and will be roughly stay in the 8th-12th best rider in the world category.

[Deleted]

harry said:

At the end of the day, who is he letting down if he's got not an excuse

Only the people who pay his wages, which is not BSI/IMG!

[Deleted]

schumi said:

I don't think there's enough time left in the season to be postponing more meetings are there? Not with all the recent rain offs. And they won't be the first team to have been understrength this year - it seems a pretty common occurrence to me lately.

Edit: just read your first post, Wacks. That'll teach me not to comment before I've read it all.

Having said that, Racer X's comments on the BSF make sense to me if you apply them across the board. He says that facilities should be allowed for times when there is a fixture clash with Poland and Sweden due to re-arranged fixtures from rain-offs.

Cheers for that Schumi - maybe I should post on here and I won't get called a hypocrite for my troubles
Jeez that BSF place is choc full of bullies.

Anyway I can't think that even with RR (and I understand we may well have RR) that Reading will get close to Cov even with Scotty and Rory at half pace.

I hope I'm wrong of course!

It will be interesting to see how Neathy goes and if Sam Simota is in form things could get interesting.
I don't think Janusz or Travis currently are in the sort of form that will cause the top Cove boys any bother.

[Genghis]

racerx said:

Cheers for that Schumi - maybe I should post on here and I won't get called a hypocrite for my troubles
Jeez that BSF place is choc full of bullies.

RacerX,

Good to see you on here ;D

I'm someone who still posts on the BSF, but now posts more on here, and I can throughougly recommend it.

The BSF has got too big for its own good, and it's got unpleasant on there.

Strangely enough, although it's largely unmoderated (apart from Sub sometimes goes around correcting spelling mistakes and grammar, which I find highly amusing!!), there's a very good atmosphere on this forum.

Everyone vents their own feelings, sometimes in strong terms, but there's no recriminations about it. And everyone has a good laugh on here, you only need to look at the "favourite vegetable" thread to realise that. ;D

All the best
Rob

P.S. Hope all is going well at Smallmead - and good luck for the rest of the season. You guys need a bit of luck - in some ways, I think Oxford got the better deal in being able to start anew in the Conference League as opposed to having to continue in the sad state of affairs that is Elite League Speedway.

[admin]

And back to the meeting. A win for the Bees as most people expected, but Kolodziej's form will hopefully give the Racers something to cheer about. I suspect, however, they may be strong words about McGowan's showing, which looks to have been, in modern parlance, piss poor.

[schumi]

Travis is a rider I like, but he seems to be having a hard time since his accident, and not scoring at all well, both in domestic and overseas leagues. I wonder if Greg's departure has anything to do with it? They were paired up at Oxford, and Greg always seemed to get the best from him, but he hasn't looked the same recently.

[Deleted]

It was very good at Smallmead tonight. It's the first time I've been there this year apart from when Swindon have been there and was expecting a very poor crowd and a sorry atmosphere, but it wasn't like that at all.

I wouldn't agree that Oxford had it better by starting again in the CL. On tonight's showing Reading is good for EL in terms of racing and atmosphere.

As for financial, well that's another matter. Certainly everything seemed pretty good at Reading from a fan's point of view tonight - even if they did lose.