British Cycling have been busy organising and staging training courses

and seminars for cycle speedway referees this winter.

Regional training courses were staged in January in three regions - North & Scotland at Manchester Velodrome, Eastern at Norwich Harford Park, South and South Wales at the Poole clubhouse. The course material was compiled by the Cycle Speedway Commission's referees' officer Mike Hack and British Cycling's education officer Kathryn McClelland.

Courses were delivered by Mike Hack, Terry Ashford and Graham Sutton. Follow on mop up sessions were provided by Terry and Graham for people who had booked in, but weren't able to attend the course on the original date. In total, 44 referees attended this winter's regional training courses.

As a result, there are 27 newly trained referees from this round of

courses, who are Grade C referees for the 2014 season.

There are 78 graded cycle speedway referees who have all been trained, listed for the 2014 season, plus another two under-age officials who have completed the course, but will not be allowed to officiate until they reach their 18th birthday. In addition there are 43 referees listed as

trainee referees, who have yet to complete a training course.

Following on from the round of regional courses, referees were invited

to attend the national commissaires and referees' conference in February at Leicester. This event was one of four conferences staged in each region, but the only one featuring cycle speedway, chosen for its

central location. 11 cycle speedway referees booked in, but there were

several late withdrawals and no shows meaning that just six referees

attended.

Delegates attended generic workshops in the morning, which

covered Risk Assessments and Managing Parents. Discipline specific

workshops were held in the afternoon, with Mike Hack facilitating the

cycle speedway workshop. Topics covered included an open discussion on various racing incidents and rule changes for 2014.

Across all cycling disciplines, numbers attending the conferences

continues to rise each year, with positive feedback supplied by

delegates. The Cycle Speedway Commission has decided to run cycle

speedway workshops at two of the conferences next year, one at the North venue and one at one of the Southern locations, in an attempt to raise the numbers of cycle speedway referees attending.

NEW RULES PUBLISHED – posted 1 February 2014

British Cycling has published revised cycle speedway rules ahead of the 2014 season.

Many if the changes are cosmetic, tidying up or rationalising current regulations but one major change puts additional responsibilities on team mangers and referees.

Under new regulation 1.1.8, team managers are now required to fill a rider registration form for every team match. Similarly referees have responsibility for ensuring a registration form is completed for every Grand Prix style event. The promoting club is responsible for collating the forms and forwarding them to British Cycling headquarters in Manchester with the appropriate registration fees within seven days of the match.

There are few changes to the racing rules. However an amendment to rule 5.5.3 means that riders now face exclusion if they unfasten their helmet straps during or before they get back on the pits.

Perhaps the biggest cosmetic change is the deletion of the word 'veteran' from the rule book and the substitution of over-40, over-50 etc instead.

If you would like more details of rule changes, please click on

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/bcst_rulebook_and_constitution.

REFS' TRAINING WELL SUPPORTED– posted 24 January 2014

This winter's round of regional referees' training courses were held

last Sunday. Courses were scheduled for each of the four regions, but

the Midlands one was cancelled due to a lack of entries. The other

regions all staged theirs.

The Eastern course took place in Norwich, was facilitated by Terry Ashford and had nine participants. Graham Sutton was the tutor for the South and South Wales region at Poole, with seven referees attending. The biggest turnout was at Manchester, where the North and Scotland region had a mix of twenty new and existing referees in attendance. Mike Hack was the course facilitator. Special mention goes to five officials from the newly formed Glasgow club who were present.

Plenty of work over the past twelve months by British Cycling's

officials Education Officer, Kathryn McClelland and Cycle Speedway

Commission Referees' Officer, Mike Hack, resulted in the production of

an improved Referees' Resource Pack, an online course module and a

PowerPoint presentation for the training.

Particpants also completed a rulebook test, with all new referees becoming Grade C referees on completion of the day's course. The four hour long courses went well, with plenty of interaction amongst the course participants, as the more experienced referees shared the benefits of their knowledge with the new referees.

Complementing the regional courses, will be the National Commissaires and Referees' Conference at the Hilton Hotel, Leicester on Sunday 16th February. All cycling disciplines will be catered for at this event. The day will consist of generic workshops in the morning, followed by discipline specific sessions in the afternoon.

The purpose of the conference is for the more senior cycle speedway referees from across the across the country to get together to share views aimed at achieving interpretation consistency, whilst at the same time learning from the experiences of Commissaires in other cycling disciplines. Referees who haven't yet booked on this course, but who wish to do so, should register their interest straight away with Paul West.

2014 REFEREE GRADINGS – posted 8 January 2014

One of cycle speedway’s best known and most respected referees has been downgraded following British Cycling’s annual review of referee gradings. Terry Ashford has been relegated a tier from international to national status.

John Whiting returns to the elite division along with Mark Winwood whose rise to the top level has been meteoric.  Only twelve months ago Sutton Coldfield-based Winwood was rated at National B, so has leapfrogged a whole division following rave reports from club officials.

The 2014 gradings are:

International A

Al Bentley, Mike Hack, Mike Legge, Bob Prince, Colin Simmons, John Whiting, Mark Winwood

National A

Wayne Aris, Terry Ashford, Steve Copping, Ralph Doughty, Darren Kent, Mick Knowles, Robin Spicer

B Grade

Gary Colby, Roger Dainty, David Dart, Alan Farrell, Alan Hewitson, Dave Hunting, Graham Lush, Andy Moody, Bill Phillips, Alan Taylor

Regional B

Mick Aris, Tony Bennett, Bill Brooke, Gary Brown, John Burston, Chris Davies, Phil Davies, Geoff Gamage, Kevin Greaves, George Hollebon, Neil Howarth, Richard Hunt, John Oakley, Chris Parish, Ray Pyke, Andy Schofield, Kevin Wells, Phil Widdas

Grade C

Phil Adams, Jamie Ball, Stuart Bentley, Chris Bingham, Martin Glover, Teresa Greenslade, Tim Grimes, Ben Higham, Dave Hughes, Jordan Stant, Tony Stant, Adam Stephenson

SIMMONS RUNNER-UP IN NATIONAL AWARD – posted 10 October 2013

A leading cycle speedway referee has been voted as runner-up for Services to Commissairing, promoted by the Welsh Cycling Union.

Newport-based Colin Simmons, who has been refereeing for over 30 years, was nominated for the award by the WCU and was “thrilled” to have been recognised at national level.

Unfortunately Colin, 56, was unable to attend the glittering Welsh Cycling Awards ceremony at a Cardiff hotel because he was on holiday at the time but was subsequently presented with his commemorative certificate.

REFEREES’ FEES - MAJOR CHANGES PROPOSED – posted 22 September 2013

Following the announcement that British Cycling will no longer be able to pay referees’ fees because of their responsibilities for declaring it to her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and deducting tax at source, arrangements are being made to pass that responsibility to promoting clubs in 2014.

For most national championship events including Elite League matches, clubs will be responsible for paying the referee’s match fee (usually in the region of £25) and travelling expenses which accordingly to guidelines issued by British Cycling could range between £100 and £125 per match depending on locations.

In principle, British Cycling will provide, free of charge, unengraved championship medallions, the numbers varying from competition to competition, together with the champions’ jerseys.  In return clubs will be permitted to keep all competition entry fees.  Clubs will meet the cost of the referee’s medallion.

One of the mostly costly events to run is the British Youth and Junior League.   As the contract agreement with sponsors Wosskow Brown Solicitors ends later this year, it is proposed to charge host clubs £250 toward the cost of 100 medallions, 60 of which are presented to the winning team and 40 to the runners-up.  Clubs will be responsible for collecting the match fee of £3 per rider.

Under the emerging proposals, Elite League clubs will be required to pay a one-off fee of £100 to British Cycling for “Development Officer and award costs.”

Some clubs have already voiced their concerns about the new proposals, arguing that the cost of providing referees is becoming cost prohibitive.  For example if a neutral referee travelled from Newport to Ipswich for an elite match, a not unusual occurrence, the cost to the host club would be in the region of £145.

Cycle Speedway Commissioners have been asked for their comments on the proposals by Wednesday 25th September.  Thereafter BCHQ is expected to formally announce fees and charges for 2014.

NEW IMAGE FOR REFEREES – posted 9 April 2013

Cycle speedway referees have been given a modern new image that will bring them in line with other cycling disciplines.  Out go the traditional black and white striped shirts and in come a new grey polo version.

Explaining the change British Cycling's Paul West said “Following discussions at the recent cycle speedway referee conference, the Commission endorsed the conference’s view that the style of the referee shirt be changed to the standard grey polo shirt and supporting clothing as used in all other cycling disciplines.  The main reason for this change is to make the uniform of referees less ‘imposing’ than that which has previously been used."

MIKE HACK – REFEREE OF THE YEAR – posted 21 January 2013 

Mike Hack is cycle speedway’s Referee of the Year 2012.

Mike, who is also national referees’s co-ordinator on the Cycle Speedway Commission, received the Dave Blinston memorial cup from 2011 winner Bob Prince and BC Board member Richard Kennedy at yesterday’s development conference at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.