AFCB Wildcat

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/20188101.ringwood-raceway-matchams-close-motorsport/

I was surprised to read Rory Shlein's comments in this week's Star regarding the Madsen - Michelson incident where he believes the referee got it badly wrong. "Leon complained he was being leaned on. Well if you're going to slam into someone coming of the corner you should expect a bit of leaning back. It's grand Prix racing" He then goes on to say that Madsen made contact & was the aggressor. Seems a bit of a tainted view to me, and certainly not how I saw it. We've seen lots of aggressive moves in GP where riders have barged through and moved their opponent right to the fence but I can't see how Madsen 'slammed' into Michelson here. From half way round the first corner Madsen had clear track in front of him and hugs the kerb as he exits and passes Michelson. From that point he has clear track in front of him and doesn't ride an unnatural line or squeeze Michelson who has plenty of room outside of him. Also Madsen didn't "complain" he was being leaned on, he was merely saying that he wasn't to blame for the contact. A racing incident where it was hard to apportion blame yes, but I think the referee got it right in this instance and even if you disagree he certainly didn't get it 'badly' wrong! I take it Rory doesn't like Leon?

I went to Poole regularly in the 70's but not again until comparetively recently so I didn't see when or what changed. Poole Town were still at the stadium when I went and the dog track is still as I remember it, so what changed? Were the dog & speedway tracks widened making the centre green too small for the football pitch? I'm guessing the pitch used to meet the regulation minimum size back in the day?

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding what your saying, but is the stadium site big enough to accommodate even a small football stadium and a housing development? The trend these days seems to be moving sports stadiums out of town centres and in into brown field sites or the back of an industrial estate thus leaving the more valuable land for housing.

Yes Lew used to run training schools at Weymouth but as you say not at the time my lad started. We did get a couple of practice days in at Weymouth though before it closed down completely but little in the way of tuition. It was just pay your money and queue at the pit gate. Interestingly though, my lads first 500 was a Jawa 898 which had been converted to a laydown by Lew Coffin. The Iwade set up is a great facility and I always wondered why the bigger clubs didn't support it more. I understand that the big clubs don't always have access to their own stadiums except for on race nights but If amateur clubs can hire training tracks to run meetings then why couldn't the bigger clubs hire them to run junior leagues etc with riders on hand for tuition etc? I keep hearing how expensive it is to get into speedway but really it isn't at grassroots level. You don't have to spend a fortune to find out if you're good enough to pursue it seriously.

I had the same experience as you. When my son took an interest in riding we contacted our local track (Poole) to enquire how he could get started and where he could receive training and they couldn't offer any advice except that they thought Reading had training sessions (at the time) but you would need all your own equipment. That's a big investment to make to find out it's not for you after a couple of outings. I only later found out through a work colleague who did amateur speedway about Sittingbourne (Iwade) where we could hire equipment and get training initially. After that I spent a lot of time driving lots of miles to amateur events or practice days where you just queue up for track time. I was disappointed that a major club couldn't even point us in the right direction. I think if there were more domestic riders who were a major force on the world stage like in the past it would possibly generate more interest.

I went to the Birmingham meeting on Sunday and there were lots of empty seats in the stand. I don't think you need to worry too much about being at the front either because the seats aren't the conventional plastic chairs, they are benches on top of quite steep terracing. We took our 10 year old grandson and there were much smaller children next to us sat at the back and they had a perfect view.

I believe Dean Park is being used by Bournemouth University and a couple of local teams too at the moment but as you say, due to its location it's a developers dream. I'm not a cricket fan but it's quite close to me and back in the day before all day opening, when it hosted county cricket it was the 'go to' place when my local pub called time in the afternoon because the beer tent was open!

Ah right fair enough. Yes I know the starts are ripped up for grip but just looked particularly heavy to me, but as I say it's been a long time away for me and for some reason I've always watched my speedway from the back straight before so not had such a close view of the start line. The atmosphere used to be so much better on the old terracing where that awful glass stand is now. I know it was built for the dogs but who wants to watch speedway from indoors? I agree100% with everything else you say regarding the landlords. I just wonder though how commited BCP council really are to maintaining this prime location as a sporting facility. The Speedway alone isn't enough to justify it and there's no shortage of all weather 5 aside pitches etc in the area, so with Poole Towns complicated position making a return to the stadium unlikely I don't know what else would work? I know there are covenants supposedly in place protecting it's use as sporting facility but the ones protecting the land gifted to Bournemouth football club by the Cooper Dean estate soon disappeared when they wanted to sell it to build houses on it, before then selling the stadium to property investors.

As I've said, this was my first meeting at Wimborne road for a very long time so I didn't know what to expect although I'd read about the ongoing track problems on the forum. When we arrived at about 4:15 the starting gate looked like a potato field and the bends looked a bit patchy to me. I'm no expert on track prep & as I said, a bit out of touch, but after reading on here about problems with lack of shale on the track and the lack of availability of fresh material, I was surprised to see the tractor removing material from the area where the hole appeared and dumping it on the infield before the start of the meeting. To be fair, after the track work following the incident, there didn't seem to be any more issues. The sun was shining & there was a stiff drying breeze so inevitably it was going to get dusty but it wasn't that bad. I've seen much worse. The attendance I thought was a bit disappointing and the racing wasn't that exciting unfortunately but I'll give it another go on Friday weather permitting. I found Matt's interview a little concerning. It kinda reiterated my views on the situation. The Stadium in such a prime town centre location cannot be sustained by Speedway alone and the situation with the landlords mean some worrying times ahead I think. It's such a shame because it's location is its biggest asset in my opinion. We had a nice afternoon in town having a few drinks & a bite to eat before the short walk to the stadium. I really hope for a positive outcome but I view the current situation as being very concerning. Especially with the problems with speedway as a whole at the moment.

Where did that big pile of shale dumped on the grass by the tractor before the start come from. Did that cause the hole? It's right by the area they're working on.

No I didn't know that so 2 in a week after a long absence, thank you

Hopefully the track will be okay. I'm really looking forward to this as it's my first time seeing the Pirates at home for over 15 years. I've only been able to watch league speedway at Lakeside & Eastbourne since the demise of Weymouth as they were weekend tracks but now that unfortunately they are no longer options I hope it's a bumper crowd & that Poole run some more weekend fixtures in future.

Due to working night shifts for the last 16 years and thus only able to do weekend fixtures, this will be my first visit to Wimborne road since the demise of the Buccaneers so advice would be appreciated. I'm obviously a bit out of touch on how things work these days. Can you buy e tickets online and do they take card payments on the gate? I don't do cash! Also with the stadium operation problems, have the catering issues been resolved for food & drinks and is there a bar? How early should I arrive before tapes up to get a decent seat in the stand. I'm assuming it's first come first served rather than allocated seats? TIA

It's not just prices that have changed over the years. In researching how much they had changed in other sports, I found a Chesterfield v AFC Bournemouth program from a div 3 away game I attended in 1985 amongst my speedway programmes. There is a section giving details of their upcoming away trip to Derby County at the old Baseball ground. They say that the cheapest admission on the away terrace is an "extortionate £3", which is £9 odd in today's Monday. In describing the ground it says " The ground is situated in an unsavoury area. Some houses around the ground have been demolished in a slum clearance scheme, the others have been occupied by immigrants and the area has some of the qualities of a ghetto" In today's money that would equate to "a vibrant cosmopolitan area rich with cultural diversity"

They justify this by saying that the gigs are their main source of income now because they don't make so much from recorded music these days with most people streaming from the internet or illegally downloading. At one time bands toured to promote the albums.

That's true, and looking at historic football prices it tells a similar story. 1975 admission prices seem to have been between 50p for a 1st/ 2nd Division game and £1 for the league cup final. It's also true though to say that since then, top flight football and probably Rugby too, has been rebranded and and is no longer just the domain of working class people. Many working class people have been priced out of top flight football but the old terraces once their domain have been replaced by magnificent stadiums where the plebs have been replaced by the prawn sandwich brigade, new breed of happy clappers and football tourists who can afford the eye watering prices. Speedway as a product and the Stadiums it's held in unfortunately haven't moved on enough to attract people in numbers who can afford to pay the extra money now involved.

I just found an old programme from 1975. The programme was 10p. On the back were details of the next week's Blue Riband individual meeting. Admission for this was 75p for the grandstand, 60p for West stand & terraces and children 50p & 42p. Prize money for the event was, winner £50 and a portable TV (value £85!! ) 2nd £30 and 3rd £20. An inflation checker calculates this at about £14 admission for an adult and 2 kids with programs!

Out of interest, how does this compare pro rata to admission prices from the 70's heydays? My Dad wasn't in a highly paid job but he took me and my sister to Poole every week and to Weymouth on Tuesday nights in the summer holidays. We didn't buy drinks or food unless it was out of our pocket money but we always had a programme each. Can anyone remember what the admission prices were then? I can't!

Does anyone know if there is going to be a stream for this one?

It's a bit of a mystery isn't it? Looking at the company's website it appears that they are a subcontract engineering company offering CNC milling and turning services rather than being a design authority. I guess you will have done the same but doing a Google search, nothing comes up at all about this company and a speedway engine other than the page that you linked. I would be interested to know more about it and you would have thought someone in Speedway circles would have been involved and/or know something about it?

I clicked the link and so far nobody has died. It is a link to UK research and innovation website which gives details of funding given to a company called P Mason engineering to develop a new 500cc engine for Speedway/ grass track etc. use.

Yes you're absolutely correct in my opinion, it would be "what about me?" When I was at school 40 odd years ago I remember the girls protesting that the uniform code was sexist as they couldn't wear trousers and it was changed. So then all the boys turned up the next day wearing skirts. Did they really want to wear skirts? No. Did they do it because they were sexist and hate women? No. It was as you say, "what about me?" If it's been accepted that it's sexist for girls to have to wear skirts then it's sexist for boys to have to wear trousers, that was the point. This is the same mentality where people are saying, we've indulged you in celebrating your sexuality, what about me? Sad maybe? But not right wing, homophobic etc.

I would agree with that. With so little time between the start of the stream and the 1st heat and after the failure of the cast option it didn't give long to sort out the problems so I ended up with a crude mirror of a phone screen on my TV with peripheral icons via Google home app. It did the job so I stuck with it as experimenting further meant missing more of the action. If it hadn't been for the unfortunate lengthy delay I would have missed half the meeting. Having said that, I too was impressed with the production and will certainly purchase again if I can resolve the casting issues. I can't believe the comments on social media complaining about the cost of the stream though.What do people expect FFS ? After putting on a meeting at considerable cost with no paying spectators in the stadium, coupled with the production costs of the stream. "Too expensive" "short sighted" they are all moaning It cost me £38 for the takeaway we ate while the 4 of us watched it & only £11:95 for the stream. I know which I enjoyed the most!

Not got any apple products unfortunately. My phone and Chromecast worked admirably for the football streams on AFCB TV and the Belle Vue meetings. Epic fail on this one though