old bob at herne bay

Edinburgh with R/R and a pointless gust at number 6 were always going to struggle. Poole full took full advantage of beating the team put out to race against. Even Kent managed a draw last week so Edinburgh clearly not in the greatest of home form. Poole should run through card now and take their chances in the p. offs. Maybe their Car park attendant will get to grips with track preparation for the p.offs or else the TV cameras will struggle to see what is going on

Needs an experienced man to fit in with top of the table club. Ed Kennett ?

The life of an airfence must also be related to the number of times it is "hit " by an opposition rider being shoved into the fence on bends 1 and 2 ? (and occasionally on bends 3 and 4 too)

Anyone with an interest in taking on promoting EB speedway under the auspices of the BSPL in the future has a few obstacles to overcome New airfence ( allegedly £35k) Agreeing a deal with the stadium owners - who will surely be apprehensive renting out to another speedway operation without some guarantee up front? Raising funds to lodge a bond with BSPL. Recruiting a team of riders who will trust the new owners for their wages. Setting out a business plan to just breakeven on that investment with a crowd of 600 will be a challenge. The more likely scenario is the stadium is sold and used to fund the Dugard’s pension fund .(and frankly who would blame them) For many years I always believed that Bob was the sole speedway supporter in the family that kept the club running through thick and thin.

light the blue and white touchpaper and off we go Surely in the interests of Speedway they will gift Poole the Championship KO Cup ? Wouldn't want old Neil Middlo to get upset.

So Lawson at Poole ...with Schlein taking time out to recover from a nagging injury.

Kent have done naff all against EB so will lose no points, but Leicester will lose 7. Sixth play off spot starting to look interesting ?

Who is the track curator at Poole ? One of the car park attendants ?

and for many of the older group of supporters , Covid was the final straw, and put them off returning to support speedway. Seems pretty obvious to me that was always going to be the case, and I would be very surprised if any tracks are seeing average attendances back to the "pre Covid" levels of 2019.

No prizes for guessing in which group I sit ;-)

Aha the word “entertainment” appears in a posting. No matter what league riders are racing , people go to be “entertained” Sadly in short supply at so many meetings nowadays….. mostly replaced by “delay”

Dream on … speedway finances being made public ….don’t make me laugh. No one will ever be told the truth…. Just that not enough fans turned up … it’s the fans fault . They have closed Eastbourne Speedway goodbye Mr Jordan Mr Fineing and goodnight.

That and over optimistic attendance breakeven numbers … due diligence on previous years attendances ?? Last time I went to Arlington several years ago would be amazed if they had 1000 there ( would have been a Lakeside away meeting

Oxford promoter… what’s their target crowd for breakeven ? 1000, 2000 . Guess they will bring Hans Nielsen out of retirement to captain the side

Very sad for the Eastbourne fans. The more I read the more baffled I am about this sorry mess. Tom Brennan quoted in Star today saying riders owed money for SEVERAL meetings. Alleged rent arrears to stadium owners. Then EB statement promising everyone refunds on tickets , merchandise for future events, donation to air fence fund etc etc So they must have some money in the bank ?? So with a ludicrous 1000 breakeven crowd target one wonders whether they ever got 1000 and every meeting in 2021 ran at a loss? Desperately sad that the late Charlie Dugard’s Speedway site didn’t quite make its 90th Anniversary It will be a brave man/woman to take on EB speedway again, stocks to continue this season then I wonder about the planning status of the Arlington site ? Like Rye House Swindon Coventry Oxford does anyone seriously really believe these tracks will ever be revived ??

Don't get this lack of water on tracks recently and the resulting dust bowls. ( Poole are not alone.) No one seems to get enough water into the base of the track early enough in the day. Addidng a sprinkle on top surface during the meeting - its toooooo late just makes the track slippery and un rideale.

Tractor Racing……. always what I enjoyed at Lakeside…… good to see Kent have continued this sport. :-)

I agree with you MD …. remember reading that Martin and Connor “stepped aside” when the successful NDL team was closed down afterJordan/ Fineing/Cook took the reins. Looking on the Companies House Website no sign of Martin Dugard as a director …. nor listed as a promoter . Must only be waiting for BSPL to approve the final statement from the club … with every other club cancelling their EB fixtures weeks in advance, and Tom Brennan unable to guest for Newcastle as not being registered in a teams 1-7? How the club has sunk so quickly from the start of 2021 with 2 teams lined up ….To such a position of debt …. We shall never know ……

Yes, on second looks there are a lot of provisional stock car fixtures at all the tracks….

Blimey Cityrebel, what was wrong at Kent last night …. Comfortable home victory according to speedway updates ? and 15 heats before curfew

Took a look at the Spedeworth stock car fixtures, http://www.spedeworth.co.uk/fixtures.php all Eastbourne fixtures after the end of August are marked “provisional”. I wonder what is going on down at Arlington ?

As the days go by and further anonymous “ holding statements” are put out the more tenuous EB speedway’s future under Jordan/Fineing becomes. The difficulty that BSPL have is the speedway club is owned by 2 directors outside the jurisdiction of BSPL. Neither they nor the 2 promoters appear to have the collateral to clear debt and to sustain the speedway operation. The limited liability of Eastbourne Eagles Ltd. Is £100. Sadly, I would suggest that unless the next home meeting on Sept 4th takes place, they will cease operations. The fixture disruption being caused seems almost irrecoverable before the play off date, and they have a KO cup fixture to complete. The late Jon Cook was another director, and would have similarly been outside the membership of the BSPL. I suspect that his previous promotion at Lakeside with Stuart Douglas , which ended unceremoniously allegedly owing money to riders prevented either taking up another promoters licence? Not for nothing the Dugard family have let out the speedway and stocks operations to others since the passing of Bob Dugard. I am sure they have decided they wanted no more direct involvement , but they expect a reasonable rental for use of their asset.

Apologies my mistake ….. Eastbourne Eagles Limited. Company number 11727388.

"cityrebel" well, as you asked the question, yes it is possible ...... maybe more then 2 riders haven't been paid ? (allegedly it is only Kennett and Lawson) maybe the stadium owners have refused them permission to race on the track ?. (allegedly owed back rent) tbh the longer this drags on, the more I fear that this might be the end of the Jordan/Fineing/Kilby/Gear era of Eastbourne Speedway Limited. Both Birmingham and Newcastle are clearly struggling this season, but both appear to have access to a track and a team of 7 riders who are willing to race for them in any of the 15 heats.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. The margins of profit and loss are so tight nowadays that even running with the threat of rain nearby can affect attendances to show a loss , even though the track might be bathed in sunshine. Aside from the ludicrous non weather related calloffs 4 days in advance (usually a sign of financial difficulties) it seems reasonable to at least wait until the morning of meeting before even giving any indication of the meeting postponement. Seems the far travelling supporters book accommodation way in advance so any call off will not prevent them losing their accommodation costs. The other side of the coin is that sticking it out and trying to run a meeting on anything but a perfect surface runs the risk of the fickle riders calling it "unsafe" and the entire crowd going home unhappy and some never likely to return. (see Kings Lynn earlier this week) Must have travelled many hundreds of wasted miles to rain offs......... sometimes I have been lucky and seen a meeting I never dreamt would go ahead, and been entertained by the numerous incidents that a wet track shows up .......