'THE MAN FROM THE ICSF ' SPEAKS OUT - posted 30 July 2010

I'm responding to John Heard's request for some Euro 2010 comments from myself (having been described as "the man from ICSF").  Apologies that this is such a long  reply......but I would ask that everyone who found time to complain about Euro 2010 take time to read this following please.

Firstly, I'm not quite sure where the "Man from the ICSF" title comes from as I'd prefer to be known as "the man from Exeter who went to Poland to ride for Wales" (ie the country of my beloved Grandmother that I have proudly represented since 1987).

I think it worth clarifying that the ICSF is a body representing the cycle speedway national bodies from Australia, Britain, Poland and USA and their representatives are the ICSF, with myself acting as a non-subsidised volunteer in the role of secretary - basically acting as a coordinator and facilitator for meetings and communications between the members.

The members propose and agree on rules, regulations, promotional activity and allocate World and European events to hosts.  It is then the responsibility of nominated host nations to organise and stage events, while all member federations have an obligation to facilitate the entry and participation of their riders and associated national teams.

I would point out that I had no obligation to fulfil any official ICSF role or capacity at the Euro 2010 event and was only there as a member of the Wales squad.  However, I did use the opportunity to organise and attend an ICSF meeting, in Leszno, chaired by the Polish Federation and attended by BCF representatives. 

I am advised that the BCF did pay some travel expenses for a representative to attend the event in an official capacity (although I'm happy to stand corrected by Paul West, if this statement is incorrect) and I understood that this representative would have been expected to attend the ICSF meeting and, where possible, witness any draws on behalf of its British membership. However, I don't believe that BCF representation was present at all the draws.

Having clarified the above points, I will happily share my views as follows:  The pre-event coordination of the British entry was a shambles and not helped by a large number of withdrawals from original entry - (the Poles, by contrast, implemented a strict entry process and even had to stage qualifying rounds as their rider numbers exceeded the prescribed limit).  The pre-event communication (from the local organisers and myself) of a schedule, the draw and referee appointments was poor (much of it aligned to delays caused by the lack of clarification on the British entry (stated above).

During the weekend the weather was horrendous during the qualifying rounds, making life difficult and uncomfortable for riders, spectators and organisers. The provision of food and drinks at Zielona Gora was inadequate for such an event - although most resourceful people gathered what they needed from local shops and take-aways.

The impact of the bad weather on the team finals was as bad as the impact on the individual finals was good - (eg while the team final at Zielona Gora was quite a miserable night, the individual final at Leszno was well presented and as good any event staged in Britain or overseas in recent years).

The Poles proved that they remain more talented and capable of success in such events than the British (particularly the overrated English contingent). English riders need to look at the examples set by Steve Harris and Andy Angell (in particular) if they want to succeed in future - (the good news is that the Academy, and Welsh cycle speedway, is starting to produce a wave of youngsters with a better approach and more professional preparation).

Too many British riders seem to take such championships as a reason to party late into the night - although it appears that the eventual European Champion even beat
the English contingent on levels of vodka consumption!!!!

The sheer volume of Polish individual finalists has made life difficult for the successful British riders and this has resulted in an increased potential for team riding in such events - I applaud those referees who took action to try and stamp this out, although of little comfort to poor Mark Carmichael.

I note that the British Cycle Speedway community appears to have allowed its love for Poland, and appreciation of the unique Eastern European approach to presentation
of cycle speedway, to have waned in recent years - ironically just as the Poles have steadily, emphatically and regularly proved that they are superior to the British on the track.

Finally - there was a positive discussion, at the ICSF meeting, with agreement that all federations now need to work together at promoting cycle speedway across Europe
and the World to attract interest from the international cycling fraternity and speedway nations. The first agreed initiative will be the joint creation of an ICSF promotional DVD and the full details of this will be announced via the forthcoming ICSF meeting minutes, due to be published in August.

Maybe this will one day allow us to crown a 'true' European cycle speedway champion rather than what is effectively the combined champion of Poland and Britain - (just offering that as a reality check for us all).

I hope that my response has provided an interesting, educational (from perspective of ICSF role) and thought-provoking insight of my views.    

Best regards
Dave Murphy (the man from Exeter)

INTERESTING TO SEE COMMISSION'S PLANNING FOR EURO 2010 - posted 30 July 2010

This is in reply to John Heard, regarding British Cycling coverage of the Euro in Poland.

Firstly, as with Australia 2009, I questioned BC on its coverage.  The reply appeared to be as the event was not in Britain it was for the host nation to publicise the event.  A further factor is has anybody on the tour sent a news report to BC?  Yes BC has appointed a publicity officer to cycle speedway. However BC still needs news items along with photos.

Let look at a fact.  I was at Colchester last Sunday 25 July. I sent in photos of the event to BC which they put on their website.  However I have yet to see a match report to go with it. Maybe yes I could have provided this along with the photos, however I feel the host club, is better placed for this role. This give them better coverage in which to promote their club. Isn't that what clubs are required to do? It's all about getting your event/club noticed.

Moving back to Poland, it would be interesting to see the Commission's planning of this event as to press coverage and appointing persons to provide news coverage.  But as these meetings are held in secret, behind locked doors with limited information as to matters being addressed, one may never know!

Look at how cycle speedway promoted itself at Bike Radar at Brands Hatch - one of the biggest cycle events of the year, if not the biggest. Well cycle speedway didn't
exploit it. I offered to help. I was snubbed. Well with all those from cycle speedway in attendance on the Sunday. I can see why I was not asked.

This Saturday Kesgrave are staging the Under-13 Club Championship. It would have been good PR for the club and the event to provide BC with a preview, of such a
major event. Well did this happen?

Brian Barnett

ICSF NEED TO REVIEW EURO 2010 - posted 29 July 2010

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all of the people that looked after the British lads over the last weekend in Poland - especially Pete Dalley and Ivan Pike for driving the mini-bus.

Reading Tim Jarvis's thoughts adds weight to the bits that Paul has told me, and certainly it would seem that a number of things need to be looked at at ICSF level if these events are going to be meaningful going forward.  I'm looking forward to hearing other peoples observations too over the next few days and weeks.  Perhaps ICSF man Dave Murphy could share his thoughts as he did in Australia 18 months ago?

Congratulations to Ben Mould on his rostrum place - by all accounts thoroughly well deserved, and also to all of the other lads who raced under some difficult circumstances.  The experiences will all help in the future!

Finally just a quick thought.  Should somebody mention the fact that the event took place to British Cycling? Their web-site has made no mention of it at all since being asked to confirm the schedule nearly two weeks ago!!!

John Heard


LARGE NORWICH CONTINGENT IN POLAND - posted 28 July 2010

Norwich Stars had nine riders competing in the European Championships at Zielona Gora and Leszno in Poland over the weekend of 23-25th July, more than any British club.  Six of the riders were entered in the senior individual championship - Barry and Steve Copping, Ian and Lee Grange, Jason Barker and Leigh Cossey. Leigh Cossey would enter the competition at the semi-final stage as the Ireland seeded rider.  Two riders entered the junior individual championship, George Solomon and Josh Colby, the
latter entering at the semi-final stage as the Scotland seeded rider. The ninth Norwich rider, Gary Colby, would only ride in the Senior European Nations Cup on the
Saturday.

Friday saw the senior individual qualifying matches at Leszno where Ian scored 14 points in the first match to put him into a four-rider run-off for three places in the
quarter-finals. He finished second in this to advance to the next stage. The second match saw Barry carry the Norwich colours where he could only score nine points but advanced to round two anyway as the repechage event for the riders who finished ninth and below in the previous two matches was cancelled as only eigh riders were scheduled to take part.

Qualifying match four saw Lee, Jason and Steve take to the track scoring 9, 7 and 6 points respectively which meant they did have to race in a repechage as 11 riders were scheduled to take part. In this repechage Jason and Ian scored 16 points each to book their places in the quarter-finals but with 11 points it was the end of the competition for Steve.

Whilst all this was happening the junior individual qualifying matches and repecharges were taking place at Zielona Gora where George scored 16 points in the second match to book his place in the quarter-finals.

For Saturday’s quarter-finals the Friday venues were reversed. The juniors raced at Leszno in appalling weather where George scored 15 points in his match to progress to the semi-finals, and the seniors took to the Zielona Gora track in equally atrocious weather conditions where the Grange brothers were in the second match but both were eliminated after Ian scored 8 points and Lee 6.  The third match would see Jason and Barry also bow out of the competition after scoring 8 and 5 points respectively.

The 2010 European Nations Cup saw improved weather conditions and six Norwich riders competing. Josh donned his Scotland shirt for this one whereas for Jason, Leigh,
Gary, Barry and Steve wore Ireland shirts in what was possibly the first time that a senior international team has consisted of riders all from the same club.

There was nearly a major talking point in heat 11. Poland’s Greg Gluchowski was leading the race but behind him Welsh rider Mark Winwood and England’s Lee Aris tangled with the latter falling. Steve had a grandstand view of this and duly nipped through for third place which he held on to until the approach to start the last lap where Aris passed
Steve on the outside to leave Steve wondering “What might have been”. Ireland went on to finish fourth with 34 points, with Jason scoring 10 of these, Gary and Leigh 9
each, Barry 4 and Steve 2.  Scotland trailed in fifth with 23 points, Josh scoring three of these having suffered 2 gate exclusions.

Sunday saw the semi-finals and finals take place for both the senior and junior individual events. The juniors were back at Zielona Gora whereas the seniors were back at Leszno where Leigh rode but he could only score 8 points. Meanwhile at Zielona Gora George rode in the first junior semi-final but suffered a costly exclusion in his first race before going on to record 10 points, not enough for a final slot.

The second semi-final saw Josh take to the track. Having scored 6 points from his opening three races, Josh had a major piece of luck go his way in heat 13. On the second of his two gate ones, he was trailing at the back when suddenly the referee blew his whistle to stop the race and despite being last Josh was declared the winner of the race after the referee excluded all three Polish riders in the race for team-riding. He went on to record a second place in his final race to score 13 points and secure a run-off for the last spot in the final where he would face Krystian Gorniaczyk, one of the Polish riders excluded in heat 13. Josh drew gate two for the run-off and brilliantly kept the Pole on his outside for the entire race to deservedly secure his spot in the final where he scored 6 points.