Thanks to Theo!

ROB GODFREY, promoter of the FluidAir Power Scunthorpe Scorpions, supported by Henderson Insurance, has thanked skipper Theo Pijper for his contribution this season… and wishes to explain why the club were placed in a position where there was no choice but to place a 28-day-ban on the Dutchman.

Godfrey says: “The series of events is as follows. Theo phoned me during the week, to let me know he had aggravated an existing shoulder injury off-track following his guest appearance at Berwick on Saturday and that he wouldn’t be fit to ride for the Scorpions.

“Following this, we asked him for a medical certificate. When it became apparent that Theo was still going to ride in the World Longtrack round in Germany on Saturday, the medical certificate would only cover two days – Plymouth on Thursday and Scunthorpe on Friday.

“It’s not uncommon for a rider to try to ride in a World Championship event with an injury. In an individual event, he can only let himself down, whereas if you ride in a team competition while injured, there’s every chance of letting down your team.

“Ironically, we were unable to find a suitable guest for Thursday in any case, and we used MDL junior rider Sam Darroch in place of Theo at Plymouth.

“It then came to light that Theo had taken part in the practice in Germany on Friday. The ironic thing is that it was actually Theo’s injury that had convinced him he needed to ride in the practice – to test it out to make sure it was strong enough for the meeting.

“But taking part in the practice counts as riding and therefore his medical certificate was then invalidated as far as Friday’s Scunthorpe vs Plymouth meeting was concerned.

“We were left with two stark choices: field a junior rider in place of Theo, or place a ban on him for 28 days, to allow us to use a facility for him.

“To us, it was important to place ourselves in the best position to win our final home meeting of the season to send away the fans happy for the winter, and therefore we took the latter option and placed the ban on Theo. Having a junior instead of a guest rider at No 2 would have just left us too vulnerable.

“I feel vindicated when you look at the final score of 53-40 in our favour against Plymouth. Take out Andre Compton’s guest contribution of 8+1 points at No 2 and it would have been very close.

“I’ve seen it said on the internet that the ban will not affect Theo, because our final meeting of the season is at Peterborough on Sunday in any case. However, it does mean, that once Theo’s shoulder improves, he’ll be ruled out of any guest bookings for a month.”

“It’s not a decision we took lightly. I hate placing a ban on any rider, let alone one of the ‘good guys’.”

Godfrey feels Pijper has helped the team avoid the dreaded wooden spoon in the 2015 Premier League.

He adds: “I will fully admit that when we signed Theo at the start of the season, to replace the injured Ryan Douglas, I wasn’t sure how it would go, because Theo wasn’t an Eddie Wright Raceway track specialist.

“But he got to grips with the track, while at the same time, he proved invaluable at away tracks where sometimes we’ve struggled, for example we would have never drawn at Rye House without Theo’s big contribution that night.

“It soon became apparent that we had signed someone who was a team player, hence Theo becoming skipper as the season progressed.

“Without Theo, we’d have never lifted ourselves out of last place in the league. He was determined that we wouldn’t finish in that position, and made sure the lads stayed motivated to avoid that from happening. It was Theo who helped drive that through.

“I wish him well in the World Longtrack, and hope that his injury doesn’t take away his chance of finishing in the overall top three.

“Theo has been as good as gold this season, we never had any problems with him, and that’s why it’s such a pity that we’ve ended the season having to place a ban on him”, Godfrey concludes.