old bob at herne bay

Ilisa-colette ........is that with a full face crash helmet and neck brace on ?

Apologies Grachan, my mistake. My opinions stand. Jon Cook - who ???.... did he used to be an employee of the promotoer Stuart Douglas at Lakeside Speedway before joining Eastbourne as a "co promoter" Anyway suggest you all reasd this weeks Speedway Star for the truth of the matter from Craig Cook.

Grachan said " 1. Presenter and Jon Cook try and get the crowd going on the mic (nothing wrong in that) " (my underline and bold) Completely disagree with you on that point Grachan. Given the situation prior to the presentation with complaints about the track, however they were intentioned, the comments were unprofessional and inflammatory, targeted at one rider in particular, and given events that followed were the prime cause of this whole sorry affair. Not the behaviour one would expect from a "co promoter" of a business. MAybe he was unhappy that the crowd preferred to watch the SpeedwayGP on TV ... which at Wroclaw was 100 times more exciting than any racing you will see at Arlington.

So my summary ... Craig was annoyed at the state ofthe track when he arrived at the stadium. After some work was done on the track, he got changed and reluctantly appeared on the parade. The "co promoter" then less that courteously anounced the Glasgow team, insultingly referring to the Glasgow number 1 rider. This caused Craig Cook and 2 others to piss off from the parade and head back to the pits ..... not in a very good mood I would imagine. Joker of a marshall gets in the way of a running motorcycle and sadly nearly kils himself in the process . Gets a right rollocking from Craig who is understandably very pissed off by the entire Arlington set up. Ugly scenes follow with nocredit to Craig, Exhaust pipe Eddie Kennett and another Eastbourne rider who seem intnent on having a punch up. Craig then quite rightly in my opinion does not take his place in heat 1 (riding against yes Exhaust pipe Eddie) in a race which woudl have probably tested the Arlington first bend airfence. This Eastbourne promotion do seem a bunch of "win at all costs" bullies intent on winding up the opposition AT Arlington. Interestingly they have pulled out of a visit to Kent in a NL challenge alledgedy as Ian Jordan (yet another co promoter ?) isn't happy with some of the social media comments about the Eastbourne team !

The Scotsman - interesting opinion....... I think if I stood in front of a motorcycle waving my arm the rider might be a little annoyed and suggest that I was being dangerous. Cook over reacted I can see .....but then the whole thing got out of control with Paul Dugard mouthing off in Cooks face to calm things down ?. and getting what he asked for. Then we have 2 Eastbourne riders legging it down the track to help the entertainment .... To be honest if I was the Glasgow team and so aggrieved about the track I would have lodged an official protest and not appeared on the parade at all....but just ridden the meeting and left.

Chunky posted “Okay, the marshal may have been better not stepping in front of him” LMAO

Well now I have seen the video - storm in a teacup. No idea what the flag marshall was playing at - does he no know that speedway bikes have no brakes ? Cook looked caught in two minds how to avoid the marshall but the marshall seemed intent on committing suicide. Needs further training. Then some silly so and so in black shirt and trousers with a beard comes running up to Craig Cook, a rider in helmet and full racegear and throws a punch. Lucky he didnt break his hand - crash helmets are very hard. I then see two Eastbourne riders numbers 1 and 7 I think come dashing down the track to join in - what was that all about ???? Wasn't as good I was expecting to be honest - better action when Wolves were visitors years ago.

Used to regularly visit Arlington when I was rich, young and foolish. Nothing has changed by the sound of things. The late Bob Dugard would prepare the track to perfection for the home team. He used to regularly "wind up" the opposition by nearly running them over with his tractor whilst they were still being attended to by the St Johns medical staff, and would blatantly stop any away riders taking a lap after winning a race by pulling out on the tractor in front of them. Seems that the family tradition of antagonising the opposition has been continued by son Martin and his go-fer Jon Cook (co- promoter ?) . If there is any action taken , I would suggest that :- 1) Jon Cook is reprimanded for allegedly goading the crowd with his petty remarks, clearly inflaming a delicate situation. 2) Craig Cook is reprimanded for allegedly ignoring clear flag signals from an marshall No professional racing motorcyclist can ignore ANY flag signal from a marshall. NO EXCUSES. Whatever action is taken , Eastbourne's promotion should be warned by the BSPA that they are treading on a very fine line with their overt partisan behaviour to whip up support and hostile reaction from their home crowd. Some of the earlier pre season statements in the press by the Jon Cook were IMO inflammatory towards any opposition team at Arlington. Speedway has always been a family sport free of the ugly scenes we so often see at football matches. Long may it continue.

Why do all individual meetings end up with a stupid semi final and final ? It makes no sense... the most consistent rider over the evening after 5 rides should be the champion. All the individual meetings are now ruined by this daft idea. NB I do not support any of the finalists.

Who says any of these would want the Team GB managers job ?? Theere's no money in it thaats for sure ... just grief and moaning fans .(and riders) LEts face it we only have 3 riders who are good enough ... so team selection isnt hard (unless you have injuries!) NO..... I think that Kelvin and Nigel Pearson are the best choices - joint TM's and they will aready be at the meeting so no costs involved. Finals next year in Vladivostok so will take a week to get there and back.

Oh here we b****y well go ... like a load of sheep everyone jumps on the health and safety bandwagon. East End Fan in particular suggesting I leave injured riders " lie where they fall and continue with the meeting" I will treat that comment with the contempt it deserves. How about stopping all the fannying about at the starts digging holes, hanging back form the start until the start marshall has to drag the riders to the tapes before the green light goes on ..... only for some silly s*d to jump he start and we start all over again with a team of hangers on leaping out of the pits to refill with fuel , adjust the rear wheel , clean the wheel rims , cool he clutch and all sorts of unecessary c**p before another 2 minutes goes on and we start all over again. If I was a ref I would throw o nthe green light let the tapes up riders ready or not. I bet I ould only hve to do it once and the riders would be ready to start pronto in heat 2. WE are paying to watch speedway racing not fannying around at the start. It's out of control. How about having the gumption to kick a*s and get the riders to appear on the track in good time wihtout having to wait for the 2 minute warning. I have often wondered whether ANY meeting would actually start at all nowadays if the referee did not sound the 2 minute warnign for heat one ? We wold be waing for hours ith riders having a chat having an energy drink tiddling with their bikes and no one would bother to go to the start. The bottom line would be to compel promoters to refund spectators for races not raced due to a curfew. They save on points money paid so why should the spectators not recieve a refund ??? That would would keep the meetings moving :-) :-)

Well there we have it .... best and smoothest track according to Luke Harris. So it isn't the track. One thing is for sure ... it isn't the supporters fault either.... they are the mugs who pay to turn up and hang around and are short changed of action. So 2 hours to run 15 heats of 1 minute 4 lap races clearly isn't enough time. Not just at Kent but all over the country, meetings drag on, with repeated false starts , accidents, and numerous other delays for reasons that our railway companies would be proud of. Even televised league matches are cut short by BT sports for over running their 2 hour slot. The promotions are incapable of running a professional show. What is being done about it ... NOTHING. I blame BREXIT. Must be ?

Yes you are correct Halifaxtiger, criticism was aimed squarely at Morley and Wood and their NL riding. Mr Cook loves Alfie Bowtell who in his words has " fire in his belly". Bowtell made great strides at the big open spaces at the IoW last season at NL level , but IMHO was never really consistent on the tighter turns at Lakeside last season, and continues to struggle it seems at Arlington.

Once again the meeting took so long to complete BT sports coverage ended before heat 15. (they only allow 2 hours !!!!!!!!!! ) Too many restarts and unnecessary delays - riders faffing about after each restart how much longer will BT sports put up wit this amateursih presentation ?? Despite all their promises about sorting out the starting procedures nothing has changed. Compared to the professional presentation managed by Phil Morris in the SGP's the televised league matches show the organisational skills of a village fete.

Richard Weston, You support "Eastie" ??? Is that near "Lester" :-) -) Richard Weston Members 669 1,452 posts Gender:Male Team:Eastie

Well well HGould , old I maybe, but I have been watching the sport long enough to have put away the rose tinted spectacles. Getting youngsters into the sport is to be applauded but the “product” needs a lot of work. A half completed match last night at Leicester after an hours delay for the county ambulance A solution needs to be found. The side put out by Leicester was under strength and on a warm Sunday afternoon produced exactly what I expected. I didn’t need to be there - I have seen so many daytime meetings in England and everyone has been the same. DUSTY. A solution needs to be found. How promoters of British speedway today can expect to make a living I don’t know No blame can be attached to Leicester - injuries happen, but entertainment ??? All down the car wash tomorrow to get the cars cleaned ? enjoy your sport HGould

Tough luck on Leicester :-( Lack of gusts will be a problem, maybe R/R will be the only option. Assume Kennett will be riding as he pulled out last night at Scunthorpe ? Eastbourne will prepare a vastly different track surface to the one when Leicester beat them earlier in the season . Expect a thrashing at Arlignton and an even bigger thrashing for Eastbourne at Leicester for an aggregate win for Leicester. Hope there is a big crowd of families and young kids watching the "racing" in the afternoon sunshine at Arlington. Park your cars well clear of the track at the back of the car park. ;-)

Hasn't taken long for the sugar to come off the acid drop down at Eastbourne...... Jon Cook is no lover of anything but "top divison racing" a point he made many times until suddenly Lakeside dropped down into the National League !!!! when it was suddenly the best thing since sliced bread and all his fellow NL promotoers were great friends ! That was pretty much was the end of Lakeside Speedway. They soldiered on... hood winking the fans with tales of a new stadium for a couple of seasons...... all very unsatisfactory. Very surprised to read that Cook allegedly is no longer a promoter or shareholder at Eastbourne ... I thought all the fuss over the close season was about Cook settling outstanding payments incurred whilst part of Lakeside Speedway and regaining his promoters licence ? I assume he was part of team selection for 2019 ????? He should know the capabilities of Morley and Bowtell very well. Cook loves Bowtell so he wont be going anywhere. Both have been riding a fair few years. I havent seen any improvement at Championship level up until last season. I am sure some clever statistician will tell me otherwise. As for Wood don't know the lad. National league hopeful thrown in at the deep end in the CL 2019 and Cook wants to out him after 2 months.

H Gould thanks for stating the reason for the staging of Eastbourne's Leicester fixture on their alternate race time. My opinion stands regarding daytime fixures in the UK. Never seen a good meeting in the daytime in the UK. No one seems to be able to get enough moisture into the track material and the atmosphere is never the same in the daytime. Leicester's Friday night sounds a better deal. Why Eastbourne didnt go for a Sunday Evening ?

Oh dear Wooffers thanks for the heads up on the Sunday Afternoon staging Shame . Wont go to that then - be a dustbowl. Still I expect they will get a good crowd of youngsters along ......

Mmm H Gould you might have tempted me to donate some hard earned cash into JCooks retirement fund and visit Arlington again . Needs to be some decent opposition to interest me - as I will support the away team . Leicester Lions seem to be able to ride the track reasonably well maybe the end of the month fixture.

Seriously.......how many Sheffield fans were planning to travel to Eastbourne to see their team flounder around the tight confines of Arlington ?. 1, 2, 10? I doubt Eastbourne’s planning of gate receipts for 2019 factored in any travelling fans in a league with no clubs within 200 miles ?? The statement on the Eastbourne website really shows the perilous state speedway finds itself in England and Scotland nowadays.

Interesting comments IAN2 re Canterbury. Maybe some hints for young Leaping Len? “Going back to Canterbury days we used to have a 2 hour curfew, 18/20 heats of racing, nothing cut short, a 15 minute extension for an ambulance coming on track and 2 Ambulances always in attendance”

City Rebel, relieved to hear it’s not “just me” who has lost his interest in attending at Kent. I tried a few meetings last year and never saw 15 heats due to “curfew” The last meeting I watched I actually walked out before the meeting was abandoned. It was against Eastbourne, where I witnessed the most disgraceful display of time wasting by the Eastbourne “promotion” to ensure the match would be “ curfewed off “ Neither of the 2 accounts of the 2 meetings in 2019 inspire me to try again ....... Sad really as this is my only speedway track left within 60 miles.

Oh yes Richard on a related point “wasn’t all bad news” on Sunday at the Arlington bowl either I gather ?