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After the embarrassing debacle of the Ipswich match in the full glare of live television, they've had three weeks - THREE WEEKS! - to make sure that everything is in tip-top condition to avert even the remotest chance of a repeat of the needless embarrassing delays; and what happens? before a wheel has turned there comes the wearisome announcement of "track electrician to the referee's box" and there's a thirty-five minute delay because of the perennial problems with the starting gate. And even after it has been decided that the gate is never going to work, it takes the referee another twenty minutes to explain to the riders that they have to start on the green light. Throughout all this, poor old Ryan Guest has the thankless task of "entertaining" the increasingly-restless crowd by staging inane interviews with Steady (who repeats ad nauseum all the 'news' he's already written in the programme notes) and Adam Ellis, who tells us how interesting it is to be riding at number three rather than number five. I can't believe I paid good money to be treated - along with a thousand others - with such casual offhandedness. Maybe Damian Bates will now realize what he should have done years ago, that it makes sense to pay an electrician a day's wage to come in and re-wire the endlessly-failing starting gate system and replace all the ageing components that have let us down with monotonous regularity, meeting after meeting, for years. It's a small price to pay to ensure that the paying customers are not frustrated and disgruntled at having to wait an hour on their feet before they get to see the racing they've paid for. I wonder if the truth will dawn on the promotion that they've got another three weeks to fix the problems, rather than waiting till 7.30 on race-night. What utter plonkers! Damian Bates had the gall to write in the programme notes of his "disappointment" with people who write on here to express their well-justified displeasure at having been treated like fools, having paid good money to be left standing around for endless minutes at the Ipswich fiasco waiting for something to happen. He slags us off in the programme notes and then DOES IT AGAIN AT THE VERY NEXT MATCH! Has the man no shame? He thanks us for our "patience and understanding" but clearly this is just empty rhetoric to cover over the cracks. Well, Batesy old boy, I for one DON'T understand and my patience is wearing thin. There are other things to do on a Thursday night and like many others I now regard speedway as being in the last chance saloon. Frank Varey must be spinning in his grave. Best get your finger out.

There didn't seem to be any reason in particular other than no-one could believe Troy Batchelor scored 13 points!

If Bates is publicly expressing his disappointment in his paying customers expressing their opinion it shows all you need to know as to why speedway finds itself in its current position......

If the stadium is going to go completely cashless, then fair enough. But it's not, so don't understand why they can't take cash on the gate.

Yes, I don't doubt you're largely correct. But if you're doing your best and it's still not good enough or in fact you're making things worse, maybe it's time to throw in the towel. There's really nothing worse than well meaning people who think they're holding things together, when in fact they're actually discouraging better people from getting involved.

I didn't go last night, but the amount on the terraces can be a little deceiving. They are limited to only 2,000, so the terraces never look full even when it's sold out. That said, it wouldn't surprise if the crowd was a little down, chances of reaching the playoffs dwindling/non-existent etc. It will be interesting to see if it picks back up for the Jubilee Trophy. The online gimmick is still definitely a factor, though. I couldn't go last night, and my old man would have gone on his own if he could have paid on the gate with cash. He didn't fancy buying a ticket online as he's not that comfortable doing it. I'm sure he's not alone in that feeling.

Personally I think it odd that cash/card appears not to be acceptable on the gate? Booking for an attraction online became the norm during COVID but surely things should be getting back to some sort of normality? It's only recently that an arboretum near where I live has again accepted cash/card payments at the door which was madness in that they continued with the policy of booking online for so long...an arboretum for goodness sake!

Edited for adult accuracy

Harris tac sub heat 7

Previous British Finals have finished at 11pm before.

He was late in arriving, having attended a meeting with Bill Rose, the scriptwriter for the film 'Once A Jolly Swagman'. Still wearing the suit he had hired for the meeting, he needed the umbrella to keep it dry.

Won't bother Poole, been hated for a loooonnnggg time. If you want to scare them, cheer them! That will really mess their head up lol

Okay, so let's all sit back and do nothing! Oxford isn't likely to close because of 'constructive criticism' on a forum, it'll close due to dwindling revenue due to lost ticket sales. I'm not moaning, I will happily buy a ticket online every week, just pointing out that I think a lack of cash payments is a missed opportunity.

Nothing new though is it, the BSPL are completely not interested in generally what their fans have to say, if they did they would ask instead of completely ignoring the paying public. Most of them (not all) work on the assumption they do a wonderful job in providing the fan base with something to watch thinking it’s mostly wonderful and exciting racing when in reality 90% of the time it’s boring gate and go utter shyte.

Now I may have misremembered, but when I attended my first match at Leicester back in the 1977 season the admission price was £0.75, if you run that through an inflation calculator it equates to that being around £5.75 in today's money. To go to watch a film at the cinema, you can watch any film at any time for £4.99. The price of going to Speedway has spiralled out of control

Think it was the British League Cup, won't say who won it.....

We break from the league for this Mickley Mouse trophy . Tonight should be interesting though as Chris Harris is always entertaining and future Tiger , Knudsen , has his audition . Still it's usually a decent meeting when Berwick are in town , so a night of beer and entertaining speedway is on the cards

Flint back on his feet and excluded rerun

Heat 11 Harris Brennan Nicol Stoneman Great race between Harris and Brennan Harris round the outside of Tom to take the win 3-3 47-19

Just to make yous think he's mince lol

Heat 6 Cook Flint Knudsen Hume Cook stalked Flint for 3 Laps and went round Flint bend 2 lap 4 26 -10

I will keep you up to date when I can Harris now back on his feet and excluded Heat 5 to be rerun.

Unretire. Glasgow 18 Berwick 6 after Heat 4 Tractors out.

13-5 after heat 3 no texter hope this helps.

Absolutely correct. I toyed with the idea of making a formal complaint to the SCB about the referee's slowness to act, but figured I'd be wasting my time. Why did it take him 35 minutes to realize the normal starting equipment was shot? After 10 minutes of the electrician fiddling about unsuccessfully he should have advised the team managers that the green light starting procedure would be adopted (according to the announcer this is the FIM rule) and got on with it. It took him a further twenty minutes to advise the riders of the change in procedure and, even after Ryan announced that the riders had been duly advised, it still took the referee another ten minutes to get back in his box and get racing underway. An utter shambolic example of the referee making a bad situation ten times worse. Apparently Steady puts this latest Owlerton disaster down to 'bad luck.' He should remember the 16th century proverb: "Diligence is the mother of good luck."

So that would be Sunday?

I organise 3 events per year ( autojumbles) https://en-gb.facebook.com/South-Midlands-Autojumble-454079101421891/ while some stall holders choose to take the option of payment in advance at a discount, the majority turn up on the day, cash is the only means of payment on the 3 entrance gates for the public , it has been going 32 years now Using these methods the stall prices have remained the same for 32 years and public admission has crept up from £2.50p to £4.00 in the same period, we looked at on line ticketing and basically it just meant some financial body was dipping into our cash as there would be a fee for their services/card readers/percentage charges, and if the system failed you were basically b*****ed Ok it is a fairly small event relatively, with approx 100 stall holders and around 900 plus paying attendees, but as the majority of customers are in the same ( or older) group as Speedway audiences, it still works, although last year we had some bearded hipster turn up without any cash and said he never carried any and we should take cards, he got instructions to the nearest cash point as strangely enough he did not have any mates who could lend him a fiver, what he thought he was going to buy off the traders with his plastic was anybodies guess as most would suggest a convenient slot for his credit card !

GATERS PARADISE, NO PASSING, BORING WIMBORNE ROAD AT IT'S BEST ON WEDNESDAY! Dunno wot Danny and Zach were doing, c'mon lads don't be doing that you'll be giving us a bad name whatever it is!

I also read somewhere he was based over in Poland this season or now but dunno if it's fact or not, if so it's probably better for him to just ride over there then keep flying back and forth over here, and i bet even the Polish junior League pays more then he got here point money wise.

Having read all the posts on this meeting I am extremely surprised that the person who seems to have escaped criticism is the referee. Rightly the Sheffield promotion should take a lot of the blame but I felt that the referee should have been much stronger with the culprits who were continually rolling (cheating) on several occasions got away with it. When the races were stopped it beggars belief that he could not see the culprit(s) and warn or disqualify them. Th crowds frustration was then further tested by opening the pit gate and the further delays to the meeting were totally unnecssary. When will the powers that be learn!

Whilst I could have understood the need for Houses, do we not have enough McDos and Greggs around the country, the site is going from fast bikes to fast food .

Completely understand what you are saying, and appreciate the complexities of hosting an event where cash is involved. In your honest opinion, though, if you were already taking cash at bars/official food outlets and programme stalls, would it have been that much extra hassle to take cash on the gate? For the motorsport events where you insisted on online payments only, were there cash exchanges going on elsewhere that you had to manage? Just interested if they go hand-in-hand, or not. I guess the Oxford situation will be proven one way or the other once the greyhound racing starts. If that's also online only, I'll eat my hat!

As much as you're trying to make a joke, some of the older generation simply haven't adapted. My father doesn't have a smartphone and has never paid for anything online. The only way he has attended any of the Oxford Cheetahs fixtures so far, is because I've bought him a ticket and have gone with him. I couldn't go this week, so he was unable to attend. I live 50 miles away from him, so what was I supposed to do? Make a 100-mile round trip so he could go? Post it to him? How are any of these options better than paying at the gate? Sure, it's his loss if he doesn't want to pay online, but at the end of the day it's also Oxford's loss. It's £18 less they've made, and I doubt my father was the only one. I'm really not sure why you have such a problem with people paying on the gate? There are people there checking QR codes when you arrive (so definitely enough staff), and plenty of employees handling cash inside the stadium. Just make every option available, and everybody will be happy, no?

So what do you think they do with all the cash that is taken from programme, bar and food sales? All of what you say is already in place (bar the turnstiles, but they are hardly a necessity). There's plenty of handling of cash going on by employees inside the stadium. I'm not against downloading an app onto a phone. In fact you don't even need to do that as it can all be done in a browser. But as I stated, there are people not comfortable doing that (or even not able to do that), so why not provide for them as well?

For those who are familiar with Polish Speedway and the GP`s/SEC. Marcelina has given birth to a boy Milan.

Perhaps he's just a slow learner

Dare one ask why?

Indeed, We have on the forum some within the "inner sanctum", who see at first hand some of those who run the sport "doing their best", hence they get very, very defensive... Unfortunately making excuses, justifying poor performance and condoning mistakes doesnt help, as you then become part of the issue yourself, rather than part of the solution.. Speedways greatest opportunity is to market itself as a collective, to sell "the sport" rather than any specific club, and make national team success the over riding priority.. Sadly, you still have some who see winning leagues that hardly anyone cares about, and will have minuscule impact to the sport collectively, as being "the priority".. These narrow minded people, who collude with those who run the sport that it has some relevance, get exactly the contrived nonsense of a sport that they deserve.. Cannot believe Poland doesnt follow the UK operating model to be honest given it works so well, definitely missing a trick the Poles aren't they? ...

Credit to Batch tonight,, he done the opposite to normal,,, started slow and wobbly but finished like a gp star. Also Credit to Fricke,, by far his best performance at Foxhall

BWD and Roynon would never ride in the same team

Certainly didn'tT look anywhere near a sell out judging by the terraces last night.This pushing online tickets gimmick could backfire on them.It not rocket science to open a cash turnstile.

Why are peoole wetting their pants over a green light start? This has been the standard procedure for years if the tapes fail. Most motor sports start on lights anyway so it's no big deal. Better than calling it off surely. Not sure about the green flag thing though. Why not put the red lights on for starters orders then riders go when it goes out.

Maybe he felt he gave Jonas no room to race? McGregor doesn't really do us any favours usually!! Amazing how viewpoints differ though. My bandit source up there says it was the right decision! I'm just wanting to see reports of my team walking away battered but unscathed.. to ride another day!!

Not at Poole, I always pay cash.

The sheer amount of people complaining about it on here should show that Oxford are potentially missing out. But it's up to them at the end of the day, I'll be very surprised if you can't pay on the gate once greyhound racing restarts, though. And as I've already said, there are plenty of other cash transactions going on inside the stadium, so not sure what they do with that cash if taking it to the bank is such a problem. Perhaps it's pocketed by the employees, so they don't have to worry about it!

You might not have to wait an hour if they can catch the chicken at the first attempt, and find the spade to dig up the spuds.

Thanks for alerting me to that. PS Just checked e-mail from billetlugen sent 9.42 this morning (in English!)

59.12

Feeling the effects of a crash he had with Thomas Jorgensen at Belle Vue on Monday

Start with running the competitions with credibility, as if you dont, you are just wasting your time and money, as enough prospective new followers of a team sport (and major sponsors and mainstream national media), will simply not be interested. And run those competitions on nights when you get your best crowd in, running when your customers want you to, not when your employees dictate to you they are available... And charge an admission fee that people see as reflecting the actual value for money they get, rather than an admission fee that is set to allow competitors in a tiny minority sport to work six months of the year and have six months off... If all you can afford to remain solvent, and have enough for further growth of your brand and sport is semi pro riders, then only use semi pro riders... In short, have a clear structured development plan for your brand, cut your cloth accordingly when it comes to outlay, and, most importantly, open your business for your customers, not your employees, and listen to what your customers tell you... Plenty more obviously but those are the rudimentary obvious starting points..