2016, Rain-offs, Postponements, Abandonedments, Are There Other Reasons, Not The Weather?

[Shale Searcher]

Well, couldn't believe Belle Vue have postponed tonight's meeting v Leicester.. Based on a slightly iffy forecast. With their state of the art drainage, even without covers, as long as it's not raining at the start, they should have no major problems..??

 

What's the real reason for these advanced rain offs?

[Fromafar]

Well, couldn't believe Belle Vue have postponed tonight's meeting v Leicester.. Based on a slightly iffy forecast. With their state of the art drainage, even without covers, as long as it's not raining at the start, they should have no major problems..??

What's the real reason for these advanced rain offs?

These advanced rain-offs are doing the sport a lot of harm,fans are taking the same attitude of why bother it might be raining at the end of the week and arranging something else to do.

[HAMMER180]

I was wondering about all the rain offs I think it

must be to do with the belle vue GRAND OPENING FARCE

teams are now worried about upsetting people that commit

on the day only to find it is off. after the backlash of

people rightly moaning about fuel and hotel bills etc.

Lakeside are the only team to ride all their meetings so

far. Regarding belle vues call off of todays meeting I reckon

the tracks still not right that's why called off so readily

with the iffy forecast.

[Reliant Robin]

These advanced rain-offs are doing the sport a lot of harm,fans are taking the same attitude of why bother it might be raining at the end of the week and arranging something else to do.

And vice-versa I'd imagine. Weather starts being spoken about across social media days in advance of a meeting....the negative outlook and knowing they would be racing in front of half of their usual crowd will play a part in calling a meeting off.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Reliant Robin

[Star Lady]

As posted on duplicate thread

Stoke on Sat & Buxton on Sun now off. No reason given

[mikebv]

To assist the promoter of Leicester, I have postponed my trip to his track tomorrow just in case it rains anywhere in the vicinity of the Leicester area...

 

Hope it helps....

[robert72]

It seems today's riders will only ride on wet tracks if the cameras are there.

 

I am not sure how the sport can recover from all these issues of the past months.

 

It could take 10 years to rebuild the sport with the mess it's in now.

[LunnasPerm]

Forgive me, but what mess and why does the sport need rebuilt? Simply because a few meetings have been postponed?

 

I haven't been a regular at the speedway for five years, so may be missing something, but meetings have been getting postponed since time began.

[Woz01]

Forgive me, but what mess and why does the sport need rebuilt? Simply because a few meetings have been postponed?

 

I haven't been a regular at the speedway for five years, so may be missing something, but meetings have been getting postponed since time began.

But not two days in advance for a dodgy weather forecast that isn't even dodgy. Edited April 8, 2016 by woz01

[BuxtonTiger]

Whats the point, I had three meetings planned for this weekend and then Birmingham on wednesday. Three are off but the weather forcast is good (can someone let me know how to access the Speedway "Promotors" weather forcast). As for next wednesday, I think I will save the stress of the M6 and go to the pub. It even opens when it rains!

[Fromafar]

And vice-versa I'd imagine. Weather starts being spoken about across social media days in advance of a meeting....the negative outlook and knowing they would be racing in front of half of their usual crowd will play a part in calling a meeting off.

Speedway is a dry track sport now,the riders won't ride if there's rain about,the promoters can't complain if fans take that view.Thats just the way the sport is these days.

[daveallan81]

Including today, and assuming Lakeside goes ahead tonight, the EL has had 10 of it's 21 scheduled fixtures called off.

 

I ran cancellation & abandonment figures a while ago, I've now added two graphs to show the steady increase in both since 1967.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/trhbefu9j4uubgr/Abandonments%20%26%20Cancellations.pdf?dl=0

[Shale Searcher]

Including today, and assuming Lakeside goes ahead tonight, the EL has had 10 of it's 21 scheduled fixtures called off.

 

I ran cancellation & abandonment figures a while ago, I've now added two graphs to show the steady increase in both since 1967.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/trhbefu9j4uubgr/Abandonments%20%26%20Cancellations.pdf?dl=0

 

Hi, is there a way of opening these without dropbox? I have security issues with dropbox and I no longer have it....

Cheers.

[Shale Searcher]

Ok, not a lot of interest in this thread. To open the subject up a bit, what is the main reason riders do not like riding on wet, heavy, slippery tracks? Is it visibility, is it grip?

If its a combination of both, then surely the once saviour of speedway, the dirt deflector needs an update, and also the tyres used, why not have a wet track tyre available? If the visibility issue could be resolved, then I'm sure the tyre issue could be as well???

[steve roberts]

Ok, not a lot of interest in this thread. To open the subject up a bit, what is the main reason riders do not like riding on wet, heavy, slippery tracks? Is it visibility, is it grip?

If its a combination of both, then surely the once saviour of speedway, the dirt deflector needs an update, and also the tyres used, why not have a wet track tyre available? If the visibility issue could be resolved, then I'm sure the tyre issue could be as well???

I recall that when dirt deflectors were first introduced it was thought that meetings would be less prone to postponements and/or cancellations due to adverse weather. The case for their introduction was that they would ease visibility and that meetings that would normally be cancelled would take place. That scenario never really did happen in my opinion (just another cost passed onto the riders) and it seems that postponements are even more prevalent nowadays judging by the comments.

 

I'm sure there's a statistician out there who could either confirm or deny the ratio of meetings postponed prior to dirt deflectors being introduced and meetings postponed after their intervention? Personally I wouldn't be very surprised if the figure worked out about even.

Edited April 11, 2016 by steve roberts

[waiheke1]

Refer Dave Allan's post a few up for year by year stats

[Star Lady]

A few years back, probably before Sky became involved, very few league matches were raced before April. The season didn't start until March 15th and the first few weeks were taken up with challenges, individual meetings and Spring Cup type fixtures. Those matches were far less important, so postponements didn't have such an impact.

 

Personally I think March is far too early for evening (and sometimes daytime) meetings it's far too ruddy cold. Not that I thought that when I was younger of course

[Shale Searcher]

When I was younger, I used to really look forward to going to the speedway, if the weather was iffy, the conversations were about which team would adapt better to a heavy track, would the rain give the advantage to the visiting team, a leveller, would any of our riders be able to find their gating gloves...

It was never, well, this will be cancelled because we've had a bit of rain, we looked forward to seeing a different kind of meeting..

We never expected a rain off, we always looked forward to a different kind of meeting..

[SCB]

When I was younger, I used to really look forward to going to the speedway, if the weather was iffy, the conversations were about which team would adapt better to a heavy track, would the rain give the advantage to the visiting team, a leveller, would any of our riders be able to find their gating gloves...

It was never, well, this will be cancelled because we've had a bit of rain, we looked forward to seeing a different kind of meeting..

We never expected a rain off, we always looked forward to a different kind of meeting..

Same. At Newport in Tim Stones era there couldn't have been more than half a dozen ran offs and if a meeting started it almost always finished - the first meeting being the exception! If it rained before a meeting the track was sometimes a mess but we still got a meeting.

 

When did it change?

[longlivefrankie]

Same. At Newport in Tim Stones era there couldn't have been more than half a dozen ran offs and if a meeting started it almost always finished - the first meeting being the exception! If it rained before a meeting the track was sometimes a mess but we still got a meeting.

When did it change?

True about time stone era, one of the wettest meetings I ever seen was wasps v a Russia team on a good Friday I think

 

A boat would have been of more use