Tsunami

DD would NOT be justifying the reason for the call off, probably only mentioned it as it meant you had missed a cold and windy night. NOT a justification. Your response is probably why some promoters get pissed off when they try and do the right thing.

Interesting about Gilkes as he might get a run out at Brough soon in the Gems team due to absences.

It's only till the new averages progress to a normal situation.

Flood it earlier then. It gets into the base so is wet for the meeting.

I'm talking around early 00's, hardly a time when Len was losing money. Just trying to consider his fans and the away team. Ironically that's probably one of the things missing these days but you would get stick for doing it. Like in this case.

Len Silver had it off to and art and saved thousands of supporters, hundreds of pounds with his early call offs. When we were at say Somerset the night before our away meeting at Rye, if the weather was suspect we used to get a call off Len of a tip off that the meeting might be in doubt. As agreed, he would ring us as early as he could on the Saturday morning, and if he was calling it off, we had the leisure and time to shoot back up home from our hotel in Swindon, saving us lots of time and petrol money to return home at our convenience. Likewise for the travelling army of fans who used to stay with the team and the management in the same hotel arranged by Joan English(George's Mam). That was a lot of grateful people. Now tell me how that was wrong.

Are you saying that challenging the fans to come in the rain and getting 10 heats in, is a greater consideration of the fans than not to risk it and holding it the following day. Remember the storm was a massive one with high winds and rain, and forecasts can regular be 30 miles out. As someone said in am earlier post, Promoters are on a hiding to nothing to get things like this right. Makes you wonder why they bother doesn't it. Then when they jack it in, they would get stick for that as well. Oh well.

Well it has worked for probably about 80 years so not such a stupid system then. BTW Selling our assets called Nicki in 1998 and Bjarne in 2001 probably kept us open at those times. Not such a stupid system.

Why. It works, and would cost someone a fair amount of money to change it to an alternative 'fair' system. There's a reason why it hasn't been challenged, and that is because it works in reality. Bigger things to fix in speedway to help it survive.

You don't have to understand it. Whether it is legal or not, it has worked in speedway for many decades without any major serious problems. There are tribunals to resolve issues that occur and an appeal procedure. Nobody is forced to ride where they don't want to ride, and in the case of transfers between clubs, the rider has to agree to be bought and is entitled to a percentage of the transaction, and if he stays with the same promotion for over 10 years he can be awarded a testimonial meeting keeping the takings from such a meeting. Do you understand that ?

Would surely depend on availability of Stewart if he doesn't live in Leicester. People have other lives you know.

Any track is dependant on how much water has got into the base. It needs to be put in early as possible and left to soak in then worked. The colour of the track during a meeting is a usually a telltale of what stage they are at with water. Tracks start dark due to the water content but if it goes pink on the racing lines after few races more water at that stage is a give away. Mark Thorpe when he was at Newcastle in the 90's told me that in NZ, they went to the track early, soaked the track and then had a barbie. Seems like a very social way of doing work.

This meeting could be decided by the form of Sedgeman. It was a risk to sign him and Edinburgh are not the first, or will be the last, to try and give him the opportunity to get his career restarted and he has not so far this season.The beauty of Monarchs/Diamonds meetings is that the are both capable of winning at each others tracks. A few years ago I think that happened in a cup meeting. I think we just won at Armadale, and the Monarchs, after getting an early TS ride, went on and took the tie. Could be close is our 3 heatleaders are on form with Max throwing in a good contribution. Here's hoping. Don't forget to stay behind and see a cracking mini meeting between the Gems and the Dales Devils in a NJL meeting.

It's easy for folks on here to criticise Rob for his decision, but if he didn't the same folks would be on his back if the team were losing due to carrying a rider after last year. He has to do what's right for his business, whilst keeping the majority of his fans on side. Given what some on here have hinted at, I wouldn't be surprised if Rob looks after him giving him track time or trying to get Jedd a ride somewhere else.

As others have said he looked quite good. He attacked the track, gated well but liked to go a bit near the kerb on the first bend, but changed it in his second ride. A good trier for someone to give him a chance.

How could I have forgotten Brent. A Brown Ale specialist, we acquired him from the defunct Long Eaton to give us the potent heat leaders of Jesper Olsen , a guy called Nicki, and Brent in 1998. Colourful character who always had a smile on his face.

I think we have never had a contact in the USA, and that's how you get recommendations of up and coming riders. I think being 'foreign' brings different problems, than from our usual source from the EU, especially our contacts and liking of Danish riders. They usually have good temperaments(NIcki ?) and are very `English' in their own way. BTW every Dane is taught English especially for Universities and that is a big help to them in UK speedway. They then have to learn Geordie, but usually only takes a couple years. We have a Danish flag in our bay window at home, and have for some 17 years, something which Jesper notes when him and Carol come visiting. NB WE did have one American many years ago Eddie Ingalls, and he was married at Brough Park.

Thanks LC. Signed Jesper, Nicki, Bjarne and KB, and ran my free training school for 10 years now that has produced all the Gems team, including Archie Freeman 150cc British Champion and both 125 and 500 NJL champions last year. Brought Newcastle back in 1997, and some unpopular cretin says "I destroyed Newcastle Speedway." NURSE NURSE

Quite agree. Pity we can't switch with the dogs and we got the outside track.

it was like that a few years ago when we were there and the Denholms on the tractors made it worse. Richie Worral rode for us and couldn't get used to it. The track was shiny and more suited to an ice bike.

Says the guy who is the biggest BSF a##hole.

Being on the top bank of the 1st bend at Worky, in front of previous food van, must rival it for the coldest place. Your right, there was a few of them.

He had a down period I think with Edinburgh, after showing good form previous to that. He regained some form but was then released. I think he will do well as he is very impressive when winning, but can't always get past an opponent sometimes. A decent signing.

Of course we have the ability to order cold weather just for you. A really good competitive meeting, with the end result that we wanted and needed. As I said about our meeting last week, the defeats have not really been about the lower order but down to the three heatleaders. The good thing is a HL is much more likely to return to form than a second string, and they all proved that in meetings riding for their Premier League teams last week. The track was odd with dirt moving off the normal lines, and us having to cover the bald patches especially on the 4th bend. Usually the right lines are where the dirt is, and that is usually around the outside, but Danny King in the 5th heat cut back to a tight inside line and was about 5 yards clear in one corner from former leader Lasse. Some really good riding and passes, and Sheffield put up a good show, especially Danny K and Broc Nicol. Was getting rather tight nearing the end, but that all changed with the DIamonds getting 4 5-1's to Sheffields one 5-1. As expected the riders that lost it for Sheffield were the enigmas Proctor and Howarth. Proctor even shut off before the line in heat 14, meaning Matty, pushing him hard, pipped him on the line. Howarth gave it a go early one, but 2 lasts in his final races says something. He used his head last night and was a better rider for it, but. Obviously it was cold again, but I would say to those that gave this meeting a miss, they missed a treat. It's a great sport in any weather, and with warmer weather forecast for the near future, why would you want to miss out on meetings like last night, with some great races and sterling performance epitomised by the efforts and results of Max Clegg. He's looking like a very good replacement for Ash, who I personally would have had back. The heatleaders are back, we are winning and we are top of the League. What more do you want.

And there we have the problem.