RobHowe

He looked a class above on Monday - I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t get 15.

For what it’s worth there’s no rain forecast for tomorrow in Sheffield. Some light rain this evening though but no more than that. I honestly don’t think you’ve much to worry about tomorrow night. Assuming Robert Lambert gets 15, which he should, you obviously only need 25 from the rest. 8 each from Zagar and Kurtz, plus 4 from Brennan is 20. Blodorn will pick up a few and Simon Lambert is an upgrade on Etheridge round Owlerton. I see it being close but those last few heat advantages on Monday night have probably edged it in your favour. Its a shame it’s not both of our usual teams lining up against each other but at this stage of the year we know that’s highly unlikely!

I don't know about any other team but Sheffield's league campaign started in May. However I think the TV coverage and their requirements may well dictate when the league starts and, especially, when it finishes. Given that in reality every club currently has circa 13-14 home meetings, not counting Playoffs, to schedule over a 20-25 week season, had they run everything on a week by week basis the season could have been done and dusted by the end of July. Had that happened I'm pretty sure the usual suspects on here would have been complaining about not spreading the meetings out over the whole season. I completely get the frustration though, however we are where we are and complaining after the fact doesn't help.

Sheffield’s “inactivity” on Thursdays through the summer: 9th June - home v Wolves 16th June - Pairs at Ipswich 23rd June - away v Kings Lynn 30th June - no meeting 7th July - Pairs at Kings Lynn 14th July - home v Peterborough 21st July - away v Ipswich 28th July - SoN 4th Aug - home v Wolves - called off due to work on the dog track 11th Aug - no meeting 18th Aug - home Pairs - rained off 25th Aug - home v Belle Vue - rained off 1st Sept - home v Wolves 8th Sept - away v Kings Lynn 15th Sept - home v Kings Lynn So there were two Thursdays when it might have been possible to run a meeting if an opposing team was available. Hindsight is a wonderful thing when you’re sat behind the anonymity of a keyboard and a made up Username, but the reality is without the unfortunate and unforeseen issues with the stadium and some terrible bad luck with weather we wouldn’t be in the position we are in. But you knew that before you posted.

Yep, the plan is to get 6 points in front and then release a herd of sheep onto the track…

Waiting for the referee. And we were first on track. Enjoy your evening.

Took a trip to Oxford yesterday - first time I’d been to Sandy Lane. Very impressed with the work that’s been carried out, the facilities looked great, good crowd too. The track perhaps wasn’t at its best, but there was some good racing. Definitely will return in the future.

You must be pretty special to have literally everything covered in your life. Has nothing ever happened to you that you didn’t have spare parts for or a contingency plan or whatever? I take it you’ve not watched much speedway either. Throughout my entire life of watching the sport there have always been problems and delays that the tracks have had to overcome, if possible. Sudden downpours, no ambulance, sun in the riders eyes (not a problem we often have up here), crashes demolishing parts of the fence / air fence, tapes not working properly or at all. These things happen. Our sport is run on a shoestring and doesn’t have the money that high profile sports to cover every eventuality, as frustrating as this seems to be to some fans. And I assume you’ve read the explanations online? And listened to the No Brakes podcast? In all the years that riders have crashed into the air fence coming out of bend 2, the impact of those crashes has never resulted in the freak set of events that caused the damage in the way it did. Also, I think you’ll probably find that any track with a gate covered by part of the air fence will have the arrangement that Sheffield has. So it’s probably something that could have happened anywhere but hasn’t until Monday.

And you know that everyone is taken for a mug? Or is that just the way you feel about the sport? Also, I’m awaiting your explanation for why you think Sheffield fans are defending the indefensible - you found it funny but for some reason you’ve not explained yourself.

You’re aware that most if not all clubs are hanging in their financially and won’t have the cashflow to do such a thing, as admirable as it is?

All the money available to Wimbledon and they can’t close a roof in 10 minutes?! We can close roofs up here in 5 minutes.

No one? I take it you’ve not ventured onto social media and seen the number of fans slagging off the track staff? Pretty much as you go onto do in this very post….. Given everything you know about what actually happened on Monday night, and the unforeseen and challenging outcome of Danny’s crash, can you please explain why you think Sheffield fans are trying to defend the indefensible? Thank you

I’ll gladly stand corrected, but has any speedway promoter ever offered a refund for a meeting that ran 13 of the programmed 15 heats?

Inclement weather = the rain that had already fallen and that had apparently caused the back straight to be under water yesterday morning. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what your argument is or what point you’re trying to make. It rained heavily in Sheffield on Wednesday, Wednesday night and again on Thursday - what is your issue with this?

It was nothing to do with any forecast for yesterday. The decision was made based on the rain that had ACTUALLY fallen during the preceding 24 hours.

But you won’t accept the posts from people living in Sheffield explaining how much rain we’ve had over the last 24-36 hours, nor the opinion of the promotion that the track was unfit this morning and that given the forecast of more rain this afternoon - which came - that the chances of it being fit for racing this evening we’re slim to none? I’m sure if you ask nicely someone will send you a photo so you know we and they were not lying.

It rained heavily in Sheffield most of yesterday, last night and again this morning. Apparently the back straight was under water today. Pretty sure this wasn’t a “financial decision”.

Indeed and I’m looking forward to it. I like the idea of the single reveal. Interested to see what the club does tomorrow evening. And I don’t think they’ve done a single 1 to 7 reveal before, but I’ll stand corrected.

Very true! I’m still waiting for those in the know to post the Sheffield team that was common knowledge weeks ago. Which is strange given how vehemently they criticised Sheffield for not announcing it because they already knew it.

Oh I don’t know, maybe because it’s what they want to do. That said, have you made a complaint to the club about not announcing riders earlier than they want to?

Oh come, everyone “who knew” knew this already…..it was common knowledge weeks ago

That’s the only reason I read this forum….

No, I was talking about the fans (Peterborough fans, I think) who seemed to think that the 2022 Sheffield team was common knowledge and the club should have announced it already. Strangely when challenged none of them could actually name the team (despite it being common knowledge)

Exactly that. I’m intrigued by the negative and critical opinions of fans of other teams in response to how my team chooses to announce its new team for 2022. However, as opinions are allowed on this forum you won’t have any problem with me expressing mine.

Haha - no. I’m just a fan who’s intrigued by the negativity and criticism made by fans of other teams of my team.