RONNIE Russell appears to have been the victim of his own enthusiasm.

The Blunsdon chief took it upon himself to arrange the Robins’ fixtures for the upcoming campaign, only to find the Polish Ekstraliga had brought its season forward by three weeks after he had completed the task, causing major crossover problems.

That put a major spanner in the works given that Swindon are likely to track multiple riders who will also race in Poland next year.

Russell explained: “This year I thought I’d be clever and arrange my own fixtures, but we all know that in speedway if you jump the start, you tend to get pulled back.

“I didn’t want the scenario we had a couple of times last year where we didn’t run on a Thursday, but then ran the following Thursday when we didn’t have Grzegorz Zengota and Maciej Janowski because they were riding in the World Under 21s.

“I had it all done and then Poland brought its season forward a month, so all our Sunday fixtures, press and practice and our opening meeting were all out, and it was back to the drawing board.

“As far as we were concerned, Poland were starting on Easter Monday and all of a sudden they changed it to April 3.

“It was a bit of a swine because I though I had done well to get ahead of the game. It’s probably taken me a week in man hours when you’re trying to get the approval of everyone.”

Russell was hopeful that Swindon would release their provisional fixtures shortly, with Coventry and Peterborough’s involvement in the Elite League still up in the air.

Bees skipper Chris Harris has even admitted he could sit out the British season altogether if Coventry do not compete.

The Grand Prix rider said: “If it all goes wrong, my team and I are discussing not doing Britain at all with everything that’s going on.

“Maybe we’ll sit Britain out for a year until they sort themselves out. It’s getting beyond a joke now.”