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Middlo backing Alun over bonus points
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| CALLS: Alun Rossiter |
NEIL Middleditch "fully supports" Swindon team manager Alun Rossiter's plea for an 11th-hour return of aggregate bonus points to the Elite League.
Rossiter, the former Pirates rider, is calling for a change of rules ahead of the top-flight opening clash between Eastbourne and Peterborough on Saturday.
The Robins man believes the bonus point, tossed aside by promoters at their annual winter conference after originally being introduced in 1985, should be re-instated to maintain interest in meetings where one team establishes a big early lead.
He said: "Sometimes you have to hold your hand up, and I feel we got it wrong.
"I would like to see the aggregate point back before the league starts."
Middleditch, Poole Castle Cover's team manager, said: "I agree 100 per cent with Rosco.
"I don't think the bonus point should ever have been taken away.
"The BSPA probably won't vote it back in at this late stage, but it is too important a point not to do anything about.
"I have spoken to a lot of people in speedway and asked why did they do it, get rid of the bonus?' and no-one has really been able to give me an answer.
"I don't see what the reason is behind it.
"If they said because of this', fair enough.
"But I just find it strange because having a bonus point keeps a lot more interest going in a meeting, usually until the very end."
Middleditch, whose side host Swindon in the Craven Shield tonight (7.30pm), added: "Introducing three points for an away win is just compensation for if you can't get a bonus point.
"But you would go for an away win anyway. It won't make the boy's ride harder.
"If you are 10 behind by heat eight the meeting is all but lost.
"Under the old rule you could still fight for the bonus when you were in that position, but now I think those types of meetings will be all but over."
Middleditch continued: "With the rule they have brought in, if you are 10 to 12 points down away from home it is almost a lost cause.
"From a manager's point of view, when you are that far behind you try and keep the boys fired up to get the bonus.
"It showed in the league last season that bonus points were of vital importance to making or not making the play-offs.
"If you began poorly in an away meeting, the riders knew it was about the bonus point and how important it was.
"Getting rid of the bonus has taken a lot out of a meeting."
Bjarne Pedersen and Davey Watt will represent Poole in the Elite League Riders' Pairs' Championship at King's Lynn on Saturday, April 5.
Pedersen and Jason Crump won the trophy for Pirates at the same venue last year.
7:00am Wednesday 26th March 2008
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