Bryce

A massive issue. I'd go so far as to say it could cost us any chance of an aggregate win. I do not begrudge Alfie the opportunity to race at a higher level, but surely it's a nonsense that he is going to miss our most important match of the season to race in a meeting that with all due respect he's going to make minimal difference to.

On the letters page of this week's Star Rob Godfrey states that the team the rider signed for first has priority. He specifically says Bates and Bjerre will ride for Sheffield.

Totally agree. One of the highlights of the season to see Jason do so well tonight. The usual decent effort from Hurry and Bowtell, solid guest in Clegg, and an imperious display from Ben Morley. A good win on the night, but I suspect it won't be enough for an aggregate win. Hope I'm wrong, but I think that might be it for speedway at Lakeside for this year at least.

Agreed. I watched Penhall, Schwartz, King, Gundersen etc etc and admired their talent, but my Cradley hero was always Alan Grahame. His partnership with Phil Collins was unbelievable.

There is no doubt that he was fiercely patriotic and riding for England really mattered to him. I would think the English fans of English teams who'd turn up at big events with the flags of other nations (Coventry with Danish flags, Cradley with USA flags etc) were an annoyance to Kenny.

Cradley need 6 points from their last 2 matches to grab the last play off place from Lakeside. Surely they wouldn't just concede the fixture?

I remember that. He told the crowd they didn't deserve to see him ride! I think he'd just beaten Bruce in the Golden Helmet match race which is what had upset them.

Hi there, I was going to send this as a pm to TMC, but his message box is full. Therefore I'll post it as a thread topic, and others can comment if they so choose. I just thought I'd let you know I bought a copy of the above book recently from the track shop at Rye House, and I wanted to thank you for a thoroughly engaging read. It certainly brought back a lot of memories. I must compliment you on the even handedness of the book. It hilighted both Kenny's amazing determination and raw talent, whilst not glossing over the darker side of his personality and story. I have to confess to a slight bias in that I was a Cradley regular in the early 80s and therefore one of those who couldn't have been counted as a Carter fan. Having said that, the insight into his background, upbringing and personality provided by this book does make me feel a little more sympathy and understanding for Kenny. That doesn't condone or excuse the things he did at the end of his life, and I acknowledge that the book didn't try to do that. Thanks again for an excellent book, albeit a whole decade after you wrote it!

Having been to Rye House 3 times in the last couple of weeks, I can say that whilst there are a few people wearing Lakeside colours, there aren't a noticeably large number. However, there's no way of telling how many of Rye's new fans are former Arena regulars in cognito as it were. Certainly I'd think it no coincidence that their crowds have improved whilst ours have halved. I agree that in terms of facilities there's no comparison; Rye House being streets ahead of Lakeside in that regard.

That was indeed a dire meeting. Congrats to Luke Bowen on setting a new NL track record. Jon Cook's remarks were interesting. Very happy to hear of an impending debut for Jason Edwards. Suggested renewed rivalry with Rye House clearly suggests a return to the top division. Perhaps most significant was the fact that he took to the mic at all, for the 2nd meeting in a row. This after months of silence suggests a renewed interest on his behalf?

According to the BBC weather site for Chafford Hundred there is no rain expected until after 7pm. Either way I don't think we'll have much of a crowd for this one.

Have you by chance heard of the concept of libel?

I accept as a valid point the fact that it was Cook's choice to run on Friday, and all the inherent risks that entails. Even so, the traffic problems last night were worse than I've ever seen on a speedway night. He may not be entirely blameless, but I have to feel a little sympathy.

Indeed, though I am no fan of Mr Cook on many issues, there was no way he could be held accountable for the events last night. It took my son and I almost 90 minutes to complete the last mile of our journey to the track, including 45 minutes stationary on the roundabout that goes under the M25 at the junction before the Dartford Crossing. We eventually got to the stadium just before 8 to find the place almost deserted. Even the ambulance and medics hadn't managed to get there at that stage. By delaying 45 minutes they allowed in the end a pretty decent crowd to arrive. Obviously that meant it was getting quite late by the time the heat 14 crash occured. Given that the safety fence was severely damaged including the actual support fencing as well as the air bags, and would have taken a long time to fix, and that the match points were by then settled; nobody I spoke to was at all put out that the meeting was abandoned at that point. It was just one of those nights. It wasn't ideal, but the problems were definitely not caused by anything Jon Cook did or didn't do.

Announced at Rye House tonight that they will be the 2nd half of a double header.

Updates saying this is now rained off.

I concur with this. I've only been to Rye a couple of times this year and on both the racing, whilst faster, was far less entertaining than most matches at Lakeside this season. I also found the fish and chips less good than I remembered, and the stadium "improvements" I can only assume to be a work in progress. Still better than Arena Essex in terms of facilities it has to be said. I did like the new mic man, though it was a bit creepy when he did that whole routine with the start girls and their umbrellas. The best feature of the evening was the very pleasant company of the Rye regulars I was sat next to. Many wistful memories of speedway times past were conjoured in our conversations.

When a rider can earn considerably more money for scoring zero in Poland than he can for a maximum in Britain there really isn't any incentive for them to sign a contract that might prevent them from riding in Poland at any stage. If our league does try to make a stand, it has to be prepared to accept that virtually none of the higher grade riders will choose to ride here. That may be the only long term solution for British speedway. A complete restructure with lesser riders but regular fixtures, settled teams full of riders who have just 1 British club and a willingness to accept that the rebuilding of Britain as a speedway nation will be a very long term project.

Crikey, that's quite some expectations for the lad to live up to. Hopefully he can do so as he certainly is a talented kid. He looks a lot smoother and braver than many older riders. British speedway can only benefit from giving the young man every possible encouragement.

A very enjoyable meeting today. It definitely improves things when the opposition give it a real good go as Eastbourne did today. Too many give up before a wheel is turned when they come to the Arena. Several excellent races and an atmosphere enhanced by a small but vocal band of Eagles fans on the home straight. Lovely weather, cracking match, last heat decider, Hammers win denying Eastie a point at the death. A pleasant reminder of how good speedway can be. Much worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Fair enough. You'd think it might have been mentioned in the match programme at Lakeside, which last night still listed the KOC match as TBA. I notice also that Jon Cook has stopped writing for the programme, and hasn't given his customary end of match comments over the tannoy the last couple of matches. Is he on holiday, or just can't be bothered anymore?

The rules were made to stop teams who'd already lost taking the micky out of paying fans by tracking their worst riders in the last heat. It was to make heat 15 an exciting finish to the meeting irrelevant of scorelines. As ever with speedway rules, a basically sensible idea was then complicated beyond belief.

I've not seen anything official saying we've withdrawn from the cup, only comments on here. Where has this come from? Granted, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it is true. Regarding last night's match, I quite enjoyed it. There were some really entertaining races and everybody gave their all. Given the threatening weather I was glad we got through all 15 heats. The Hammers coped okay with the loss of Zach, but it's going to need a better fix than r/r for the important matches coming up, especially away from home.

I've been told by more than one of the vendors that they are suffering badly revenue wise this year. Rather a worry going forward I think.

I asked my Geordie mate if this was correct and he replied "Aye, well he's bound te."