Speedway: After a day of arbitration it has been confirmed Swindon are permitted to retain the three Sky Sports Elite league points obtained on Monday 14th May when they were victorious by seven points at Ipswich.

The Witches had been unhappy with Swindon's use of guest rider Joel Parsons but this afternoon's decision confirms the Robins acted legally throughout.

Robins co-owner Terry Russell has moved to explain the sequence of events leading up to Ipswich's protest over Swindon's use of Parsons who scored seven points in the meeting.

Russell said: "Throughout this whole process Swindon Speedway has deliberately kept a low profile. Ipswich have done all the talking and some of the comments they have released are factually incorrect.

As far as Swindon Speedway is concerned weve done nothing wrong and have acted fairly throughout this procedure.

Its important to point out that we initially booked Joel Parsons as a guest not because he was a track specialist but because his average fitted the jig-saw.

On Monday 14th Aril, whilst on the way to Suffolk for the meeting against Ipswich we received a phone call from the meeting referee, Chris Gay, informing us that a new set of average had been released via e-mail at 2.30pm that afternoon.

These new figures showed Joel Parsons average raising and he therefore no longer fitted into our proposed line up.

We contacted Graham Reeve, the SCB consultant administrator, who agreed to look into the situation and call us back. Planning for the worst, we made contact with premier league rider Shaun Tacey to ascertain his availability if the inclusion of Joel Parsons was deemed illegal by the BSPA.

Shaun was reluctant to ride because hed spent the weekend riding up North with Kings Lynn.

Shortly after speaking to Shaun we received a call from Graham Reeve informing us that it would be fine to use Joel Parsons as the averages that were issued at 2.30pm that afternoon wouldnt apply.

At no point during, before or immediately after the meeting did the Ipswich promotion express their concern about the situation. They didnt lodge an appeal before the meeting and only began to get vocal when they had been defeated.

The new averages were released at 2.30pm, five hours before we were due to ride. As the management and riders were travelling to the circuit none of us had internet access and therefore tracking a replacement at that late stage would be virtually impossible.

We are satisfied by todays decision and can now put this matter to bed