Gemini

By your own admission you only attended two matches this season so as an ex-fan perhaps you'd list out your grievances? Plenty of promoters on here and who knows they may take notice. Personally I think we're pretty lucky at Coventry as Mick and Neil do change things when they can.

He managed to use two fingers then?

Good news ~ I like Josh Bates. He rode well for us when he guested.

Oh yes! The biggest annoyance to me and the only thing I moan about really......well apart from sunbreaks and teams in alphabetical order. Why would I want to watch blinking tractors going round umpteen times when I've paid to watch Speedway? I'm sure half of the time it's not necessary and just something to prolong the meeting so we feel we're getting our money's worth. Must admit Coventry are pretty good with second half racing but that should be the norm at all tracks. Get the youngsters out there for a few races.

Why are you criticizing the management? They only rent the stadium from Sandhu and he wants to sell so what are they supposed to do?

Well, it would be the end for me as I've got no interest in individual meetings if that's all that was on offer.

Well that's good enough.

No-one looks like Tai these days. Watched it on 'Catch Up' tonight and it was quite interesting.

To be fair the track hasn't been poor this season since the 'old' curators came back and I think any late finishing meetings ~ apart from crashes which obviously delay things ~ is down to the referee not putting the two minutes on. They're the ones with the buzzer but some are more efficient than others. Dave Watters for the double header Storm meeting had the two minutes on for the next race as soon as the riders had exited the track from the previous one. I like him. It's not just Coventry though - often at Peterborough the tractor comes out after heat two. I just don't get the need for this to happen so soon. And don't get me started on sun breaks which Leicester and Kings Lynn have. I won't go to Lynn again after waiting 40 minutes for the Coventry match to begin. Yes the sun was out but it was still freezing cold standing around due to a fierce wind. Then another delay while the two Bees riders sorted their bikes out after a tangle with Iversen on the first bend. After that race, when it eventually got going, there was the interval. Why couldn't it have just been brought forward one race? That's what's wrong with Speedway ~ too much hanging around between races.

Thanks for that full explanation. Still a bit puzzled though about the inside becoming bald with no grip because I've always understood track rakers (when we had them) weren't supposed to bring the dirt back to the inside of the track because it made the surface like marbles.....or words to that effect. Tractors too seem to avoid the inside so it stays as it was at heat 1. Anyway, all very interesting but it's still boring standing around in the cold watching tractors go round in circles.

Where have you read that? Can't see anything on Facebook or the Coventry website but perhaps I need to put my glasses on. Really good news anyway.

How come he ended up sliding half the length of the straight on his backside then?

If it takes 5-6 races to create a racing line why do we get tractors coming round after 4 races.....or even 2 in some cases.....to move it all around again? What would happen if the track was prepared before the meeting and that was it? Apart from pleasing people like me who get cheesed off with delays and interruption to the flow of the match would it really produce worse racing if there was no grading?

I reckon E.L. teams would still be far too strong even riding on the P.L. tracks.

Not too bothered myself whether there was any average fixing going on by Eastbourne or not trying too hard. Well prepared track (thanks to the track staff after all the rain on Saturday) that produced two very entertaining matches with lots of good racing so I got my money's worth thank you.

I've no idea what difference it would make as I'm not SCB who understands all these things, but I wouldn't have thought it was worth trying to drop averages in just one match anyway. Surely it would be that small it wouldn't be worth doing. All the Storm riders did well, as did guest Liam Carr, so it's good to end the season on a positive note. Of the others Danny Ayres and Ben Hopwood stood out, also Wilson-Dean looked very impressive once he'd got the hang of the track after his first race and as someone has already said Daniel Spiller looked good and came from 15 metres back to lead heat 7 before having to retire. I couldn't understand why Georgie Wood was used as a tactical in heat 8 when he hadn't scored from his previous two rides. Surely Ben Hopwood with two second places would have been a better option in heat 9, but what do I know? It probably wouldn't have made much difference anyway.

They would have had a real chance with the team they had if Garrity and Kylmakorpi hadn't been injured.

Pity I didn't see you before Rob as I could have let you have one of my printed ones. I suppose the promotion have cut back on the number of programmes they produce as a lot of fans are making their own - shame on them. It wasn't a huge crowd no but certainly more than are usually there so hopefully this will encourage the promoters to continue next season. I hope so because I've enjoyed watching the Storm and seeing the young riders progress. I really enjoyed the two matches today but thought Eastbourne had some bad luck....until I bumped into you of course and you explained what was going on. Hope Tom Bacon is okay.

This really annoys me. Number two on my short list of things that irritate me about Speedway - the first being unnecessary delays. Worse still if we're left standing around not knowing what's going on. Doing this would never make me buy a programme and just makes me more determined not to so it doesn't work! I'll do what I always do if I can't find out the correct order (like you have said P T Preece) print a blank programme and fill it in when I get there. Hope Dave Watters is the referee and there is a good crowd to see off season 2015.

Or bloody Kasprzak! Can't believe someone has suggested him after how he messed us around. Nor Bjerre/ Watt / Batchelor or I might be tempted to support the team up the road instead.

Easy answer if you believe in astrology - he's a Gemini, young at heart.

Yes I agree and congratulations to Poole on becoming 2016 E.L. Champions.

Quite happy to do that and now I've read your post I understand a bit more why you feel the way you do about him, although I didn't realize there was a 'Dave before drugs' as I thought he'd been a user for years and bragged about it on here. Like you say though no one is all bad (well not many anyway) and he no doubt had some good points.

Not all those Conor's again. This could get me very confused.

It's a long old Winter so hopefully there will be a good attendance for the last meeting in the UK this season. I don't know anything about Daniel Spiller but I agree with Alex that he should be riding if he's available. Rider replacement is a pain in the neck if it means a delay between races.