old bob at herne bay

So co promoter Dan does look at his crowd and knows that they all atend in groups of 6? ? Beggars belief that you can defend the co promoter of the speedway on this ?

As was almost inevitable, little planning for re opening the speedway has taken place. NHS covid testing in the grandstand ( been there for a while ?) some half baked ideas about groups of 6 only due to crowd limits (no surprise crowd limits ?) In fact no planning at all for the possible scenarios has taken place. Trust to luck seems the order of the day. Guess they will be OK if they miss the p. Offs and get KOd from the KO cup in round one. Dan Ford clearly hasn’t ever looked at his crowd and spotted the number of solo supporters that attend, and meet up socially at the stadium . Poor promoting. Matt wouldn’t be impressed .... guess he has his own problems with his Chateau now in deepest France . Sad to see what was once the UK’s best run club in such a mess.

Prompt call of by Len....... he’s been in the business long enough to know when he can/cannot get a meeting on. Currently absolutely torrential rain here.... been coming down hard for the past 15 minutes. Track must be under water I should think. Looking at the sky very grey.

Very concerned about the alleged contravention covid 19 crowd limits at KingsLynn. Were tickets available for purchase at the gate? Were track and trace details taken? What is the crowd limit at Kings Lynn ? How is the attendance verified ? Sounds like a lack of marshalling to maintain social distancing. None of which encourages me to attend ANY speedway meeting just yet. ☹️

Saddled with a "rising star" rabbit the Championship clubs have been made deliberately weaker, otherwise no differnece in reserves abilitiy. Not sure too many PL riders who also ride in the championship would agree that there is "a mile" difference nowadays in the standard of rider. The PL "second strings " are all much the same and double up anyhow ..... £2 per person extra to watch them is probably about right given they are saving money on wages of GP sooperstars left (replaced by Batchelor and Kurtz in the above example !!! ) and he tracks have to spend extra money on hand sanitiser this season. Still, with the lower standard of rider comes more mistakes, more incidents and more excitement.

The secret world of speedway attendances......... not even MI5 know how many people attend speedway meetings in the UK

Marko, we are definitely on the same page on this re length of meetings. The only plus point of a televised meeting is that the TV company do have a schedule to follow, and barring a disaster will not tolerate all the incessant time wasting that goes on in the sport . It might take 2 hours , but it will be 2 hours. I agree though 15 heats in 90 minutes is the right answer , that now seems impossible to achieve. When I first went to speedway you could watch a league match (typically 13 heats), an interval and half a dozen heats of second half racing and see some novices practicing afterwards and still leave the stadium by 10 pm after a 7.45 pm start. The 2 minute warning was only sounded when a rider clearly was having problems getting to the start ..... I suggest now that a meeting would never START, UNLESS the ref sounded the 2 minute warning ! The riders would just sit at the pit gates posing. C'est speedway in the 21st century. :-( : -(

Funny how people's expectations have been lowered in the "premiership" 2 "half decent" teams which would be competitive in the championship.

Probably hawks 1975. There are more seagulls in the Eastbourne "squad" than we have s*****g all over the seafront here at Herne Bay.

not so simples skidder1 though is it ....... as mikebv states , same riders , same bikes, same costs and yet the promoters pay them more money???

Nothing changes it seems in British Speedway.......... same old same old ......... the only thing that changes is the cost of admission and programme. Remarkable that the "premiership" still lumbers on with the appallingly low standard of racers now being paraded ....... guess it just allows the promoters to charge higher admission fees compared to the championship. No idea why it now costs more to stage 15 heats in the premiership than the championship ........

That’s a plausible explanation. At least gives some hope that the stadium will reopen this season for speedway. For a company whose main interest is in “the catering side” according to Dan Ford, hope the poole fans like their burgers.

We have been locked down since before Christmas. Government announced roadmap out of lockdown over 6 weeks ago. Still Poole speedway and their new landlords haven’t agreed how to reopen the stadium

Anyone but Eastbourne to be champions would please me. They are so "cocky" about their fantastic team of young British riders, most of whom seem to feature every week in Speedway Star .

2nd bend beer hut has hit the nail on the head. Expect intial surge of interest for the opening meeintgs. Once everybody has seen whats on offer again , crowds will drop off. Still not long to wait for the P. offs this season.

"Anyone for F1 at £300 a pop" That's nearly as expensive as a weekend in Cardiff for 2 hours of ear deafening air horns at the SGP

Whatever the price of imported furniture has to do with speedway admisson prices is lost on me stu19. The clubs all made no losses in 2020, which must have been the first time for a long time , that is if we believe that they all run at a loss as they always claim ? Once again the speedway public have been taken for mugs, cost cutting by signing lower standard riders, (in the case of Kings Lynn no Rob Lambert) Once upon a time I was told that riders wages made up 80% of the costs of runnign a speedway team. Depsite the huge savings that clearly have been made the PL teams have taken the P and increased admission. If this were a temporary surcharge for PPE and other Covid 19 related precautions, then it would be understandable, and be removed once we have got past June . Chances are that there will be no hand soap or sanitiser in the toilets , which will be as filthy as ever. Yes the answer will be don't go if you dont want to shell out £20 per person plus £3 programme plus a £2 seat . Wise advice, stu 19.

Buy a £20 lottery advance ticket online and hope that the weather is good, the teams turn up as advertised and not full of R/R , guests. Speedway will have a big problem with advance online ticketing in the fickle British climate. Understand those are the rules imposed .... but upping admission charges for cut price riders and advance ticketing only is a hard sell.

I think most of the internet bandwidth in Scotland has been taken up by Nicola tonight

Maybe a letter to Justin Tomlinson (MP) Minister of State (Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work) Organisations: Department for Work and Pensions and Equality Hub would be more useful asking them to review the legality of the decisions made at the Peterborough Showground.

Well, once again despite all the hype about reducing costs by cutting points limits , one by one the "premiership" clubs are upping their admission prices. The ever ageing dwindling band of "diehards" will surely turn up, but if the aim is to attract new supporters to the sport , they are going a funny way about it. six green bottles sitting on the wall, six green bottles sitting on the wall....... How many green bottles will be sitting on the wall in 2022?

Pretty careless of the promotion to leave uninsured vehicles and equipment on a site with little security and in a high risk area during the winter. Lets hope they get in touch with Adrian Flux insurance at Kings Lynn and sort out some cover, or arrange secure storage for their machinery.

Don’t the club carry insurance for theft and damage to buildings?

Comparisons with a F1 meeting to a league speedway meeting are irrelevant. Maybe a speedway GP meeting is a more reasonable comparison. Even then they are entirely different sports that attract a different crowd. The F1 boys complain that speedway riders just go round and round in circles and follow the leader ! Bottom line is that the crowds turn up for F1 worldwide in far greater numbers than speedway GPs. In my “career “ of supporting speedway, I have felt short changed on several occasions. Endless delays to meetings due to so many excuses too numerous to mention...standing on a grass/mud bank in spartan conditions which often result in......... matches finished early due to “curfews” usually due to incompetent refereeing and/or meeting presentation. Declared result with 12 heats and no refunds. Arriving at stadiums to discover teams missing top riders and using R/R . ( pre internet days) now check online before travelling. Teams of 6 or even 5 riders ........infamous match England vs USA at Ipswich cancelled at short notice due to lack of a USA team! Wasted journey of 200 miles on a sunny evening. My £20 now pays for 15 heats, maybe only 12 with a declared result, as against my 2 bob paying for 19 or 20 heats . Oh yes 3d. for a programme, now laughingly priced at £3. Delays and more delays don’t deliver value for money for me and maybe have attended my last speedway meeting. I do however have to defend the Kent Kings stadium, who possibly have the best appointed spectator facilities in British Speedway.

Well Scott Nicholls was definitely at KingsLynn .... looked very quick.trying out a new Godden Engine.