old bob at herne bay

Red Flag ... the world ends for me once I cross the river ... the Thames that is

Si think the key point is REGULAR fixtures.

"I would say that the change of race night was a huge reason....... " Spot on Gavan. Same thing happened to Rye House. Think I said this about 30 posts earlier. Matt Ford lost interest before the end of last season (2018), club was up for sale , no one wanted in then , handed it over to his son to run. He just took fixed race nights on the chin.... probably knew his crowd would drop. MAybe all the Poole riders who dont fit in the CL will go to Kent "on loan" to Len

Kent running in the "Premier" ! Very surprised that Len has gone in that direction. With the reported additioanl costs of running a PL team stated by Matt Ford compared to even those in the Championship, the Kent Kings Promotion must have some gold plated sponsorship lined up. Mondays at 6.30pm start time will not see many ex Lakeside supporters make the trek from Essex though the "Dartford Crossing" and down the M" in the rush hour to make a 6.30pm start. How many working people from outside of the immediate Sittingbourne can get to the track by 6.30 ? They have good support in the National League and a fine stadium for the spectators ... but I just dont see the crowd growing with the current restrictions on start time. Nearest local derbies Ipswich or Peterborough (100 miles away) so few away supporters are going to make the trek other than on Bank Holidy Mondays , so reliant on "home " support. Berwick HO HO ... maybe they will be sponsored by an airline to fly all the riders and spectators to the track. Sheffield sounds sensible ... they have long aspired to join the PL and thier Thursday night racing fits with the curent fixed race nights.

Its been absolutely pouring down here in Herne Bay (20 miles from Sittingbourne) since 4 am this morning and its still pouring down at 9.20am. IF Sitingbourne has had half the amount of rain we have had here I will be amazed if tonights meeting goes ahead.

If MF is doing this as some sort of stunt as others have suggested, hardly likely to help him sell the club ! Surely it's CL or bust for Poole in 2020....no businessman is going to carry on taking the alleged losses without making major changes.

Speedway supporters are creatures of habit. Poole are a Wednesday speedway track. Ipswich Thursday, Wolves Monday, Swindon Thursday. Don't see the problem with supporters grumbling about moving into the CL .... most of the riders are in both leagues anyhow..... seem to remember Pool in the 2nd division with Steve Schofield being a pretty decent side back in the 80's with good support.

Steady on "screm" ... I am not sure that the Poole boys will be reaching as far north as Berwick unless you pay their bus fare

Seems like another club "tucked up" by the fixed race nights for the PL ? It completely finished Rye House and appears to have driven Poole out of the PL. As for saving money it remains to be seen how much riders who need to "double up" to make UK speedway viable will demand to race if there is only one league.

Track Covers ...... with no disrespect to the poster this oldchestnut is resurrected season after season after meetings are rained off. Where does the labour come from to lay the covers , weight them down to stop them blowing away , and then removing them and the weights? What do you do with all the water that runs off the track covers ? Can tracks leave their covers on when they have stadia that stage stock cars ? Having said that I believe Berwick use track covers so they must have cracked the problems. As for the BSPA owning 2 sets of covers .... ..... nice idea , but whne have the BSPA shown any interest in SUPPORTING the sport in the UK ?

Before blaming the riders, let’s remember WHY this is a “pointless” meeting .... the failure of the Poole promotion to run the meeting in a timely manner.

Didn’t look fit in Saturdays Toruń GP ....IMO

Are there really going to be hundreds of Poole supporters keen to visit monmer ( seems how the toffs say it) green to see the p.off ? If they are really Poole supporters I would think they would want to see their final meeting, hear all the end of season speeches from their riders, promotion team, and see the mechanics races, and the grand firework display? I could understand a few would want to go to Blunsdon to cheer the Wolves .. but that’s on the Thursday.

Met Office Forecast for Wolverhampton ......... Monday Time 01:00 04:00 07:00 10:00 13:00 16:00 19:00 22:00 Weather symbol Chance of precipitation 10% 10% 10% 60% 90% 90% 80% 50% Temperature (°C) 10° 9° 9° 10° 11° 12° 12° 12°

Well done Ipswich. I sincerely hope Holder isnt too badly hurt and makes a swift recovery.

2 tier speedway next season poses a huge problem for Kent ( a MONDAY only track in the NL) as thats a PL only reserved night? Any thoughts teaboy 279?

Bunce : Just had my 91 year old father on the phone saying the "speedway isn't on the BT schedule for Saturday" so he cannot put it on his record schedule !! I will give him a call tonight to put him striaght - if Natalie Quirk says its on it must be on !

Despite all the good intentions re fixture "planning" in 2019 , seems that collectivley the clubs and the BSPA cannot manage to complete the few league fixtures that are now run in the UK in a timely manner. We have the Suporters Cup final, Championship shields., KO CUp , p offs all taking place in the same month . Not to mention every league's "championship" , pairs etc etc EB failing to run their league fixtures before the cut off has contributed to the problem. No rain offs ... just lack of regular Saturday action with 2 or 3 meetings a month from April. No surprise Premiership p. off postponement causes such a headache. BT Sport will call the shots on scheduling .... the BSPA can say yes sir, yes sir, or not have any TV coverage next season ?

Eastbourne booking Craig Cook as a guest for Lawson apparently

MMmmm I did remember correctly. So the "89p" sandwich and the "17p" bottle of water that DSC67 purchased had to be consumed before entering ! I can understnad bags being checked but banning food and non alcoholic drinks still sounds to me nothing more than profiteering.

DSC67, Out of interest are you allowed to take your won food and drink into the stadium ? I did remember that you wer not allowed to take plastic bottles of water into the Cardiff rugby stadium? (forsecurity resons) a few years ago.

Sad state of affairs that the only Grand Prix allocated to the UK is held on an artificial track around a rugby pitch, when we have 3 divisions of league speedway operating regularly on proper speedway tracks. Nothing new of course, as the later Wembley World Finals were run on a track that was only used for the world final and had to modify the corners of the football pitch to accommodate it. Now we have a National Speedway Stadium - seems ironic that it isn’t deemed suitable to host a GP.

gazzac - Lakeside had one in the last few seasons of their existence - run originally by George Barclay, then taken over by Paul Hurry. Iwade near Sittingbourne is still running. Kingsl Lynn used to have a junior track inside thier existing circuit run by Olle Nygren. (don't think that's still there)

Of course I meant Eastbourne running a National League team alongside their Championship team in 2020 .....

Granted the NL 2020 looks very shaky. Maybe Eastbourne will run a CL team in 2020 alongside their PL team if the academy gets off the ground ? They certainly have enough CL standard riders they could use. Cannot see Len taking a club into the PL on Monday nights starting at 6.30pm with thier current planning constraints.Not sure I can see Len running a team in the PL ...period. He runs the speedway at Sittingbourne as regular weekly entertainment with a full fixture list throughout the season. Don't see how that is remotely possible in either the PL or the CL? Travelling support would be non existent outside of the local Kent area with a 6.30pm start. Championship is currently a no go on a Monday night .... maybe 2020 might be very different ??