Star Lady

Well I went to support the stance Buster had taken and believe it or not was looking forward to it. There were some good points and some bad. Think it's fair to say I was not impressed with the overall value for money, in that respect nothing has changed. It's two years since my last visit and it will probably be at least two more before my next. On arrival was nice to be welcomed back personally by Cheryl (sorry for name dropping ) on into the stadium and as it was before just a massive expanse of grey. Whichever way you look it's grey - terraces, centre, stands etc. Apart from the advertising hoardings and I found it rather depressing to start the evening off. There was some music playing on the pa, think it was reasonably old cos I recognised the tunes and I don't do modern stuff. That was the sum total of entertainment. Buster was still going round on his tractor at 7-20 if that counts for others I read the programme, grossly overpriced at £2.50 for what it was as I wanted to read Busters thoughts. Should have saved my cash cos I'd read it all before and the rest of the prog could have been copied and pasted from just about any programme of the last 10 years with just the names substituted. There was absolutely zero atmosphere all night. The parade truck before the meeting the riders held one arm in the air as a gesture of waving. Now I know I was on the third bend and it was not densely populated but the folk on there had paid the same as folk in the stand etc and deserve some kind of acknowledgement. To be fair THJ did a proper wave as he went by. That should never happen anywhere, riders should be made aware that the fans, especially kids and there were several near us, need to feel appreciated. Yep that is a pet obsession of mine! Parade on the dot of 7.30 and by my watch heat 1 started just before 7.45 so no complaints there. Heat 1 and an awkward crash for Doyley so a long delay (no complaints there) and pretty obvious sadly that would be the last we would see of him this evening. Prior top the crash the first lap had looked promising racing wise but it was not to be. What followed for the next 13 heats was basically follow my leader except for one pretty good overtake by THJ about heat 4 or 5 (you can tell my attention was wandering ). The Lynn riders did come right round if they won a heat but as for acknowledging the fans....zilch I will give the newcomers credit, they certainly put the effort in, they never gave up trying nor did Kai. Auty tried to add to our entertainment with a perfectly performed somersault complete with bike at the start of a heat. Thankfully he seemed OK. They weren't helped it seemed to me by the track. When heat leaders who have won previous heats cannot pass reserves there is something wrong. Buster had curtailed his tractor demos tho, thankfully with only one 4 or 5 lap stint. Seemed to me that he only graded the outside of the track tho, and the riders didn't ride the outside all night, certainly not on the 3/4 bends. A big plus was no interval so well done on that. We surrendered after heat 13 and as we went out we heard there had been a crash on lap 1 heat 14 hopefully all riders were OK. They have a nice new big screen, why the hell don't they put the riders names on it before a heat? They did seem to go thro the meeting fairly efficiently given the IRR being in operation and 2 races on the trot etc so that's a good point Was it value for money.......NO Was it good racing..............NO Were the new riders trying....YES can't fault their effort. Were the riders as skilful as in the past....Probably Do the new super silencer/overtuned engines improve the racing NO Will I go back to Lynn in the near future......not a hope Sorry if my views don't please some people but they are honest. I paid my money and am entitled to my views., I've been told on twitter that the racing tonight was better than normal. If that truly is the case god help any Lynn supporters.

Don't want to tempt fate....still dry

I'm going to whisper this but it's stopped raining and it's brightening up .

Rain has arrived dead on time, let's hope it departs on time too! Not too heavy at the moment

Grachan - it's still dry, increasingly breezy so somethings on it's way. How much and when depends on which forecast you read. BBC says rain between 4 and 7 then thick cloud who knows how accurate that will be. I agree I think if it goes ahead, it could be good. As for atmosphere ......that would be a bonus As I said earlier he's damned if he does and damned if he don't. I'm gonna give it a go, admittedly only a two mile journey so I can understand anyone not wanting to travel far. There does seem to be slightly more information coming from the club for this one. THJ has arrived at stadium apparently. Whether that's damage limitation or someone actually listening to complaints is open to question but fair does it's an improvement.

The problem with that argument is the Lynn fans went to watch their 1-7 team and ended up watching 5 of them

Regarding their rants, Lewis Bridger was fined for something he said, I'm assuming as those two don't ride on British licences the SGB cannot do the same to them. Anyone know the answer?

The forecast has changed for the better slightly so have had a rethink and decided to give it a go (women's prerogative to change her mind and all that) but we will sit in the car till the last minute as one of our pet hates is watching tractor racing plus not sure when we would use any rain off tickets. For anyone interested in the weather...it's cloudy, breezy and no rain since the 10 minute shower earlier.

Still not a word of condemnation or even disapproval from other promoters/team managers. Strange given that one of them is also the Aussie team manager Looks very much like a united front to me.

Plus how could Poole sign Holder given the rules that prevent a club signing a last season rider (or something along those lines). That apart the explanation of the rest seems credible.

Just had a light shower lasting about 10 mins. The forecast is not good for tonight. Think it's a case of Buster being damned if he calls it off early and damned if he don't. Looks as if it goes ahead, it will be shower dodging at best so reluctantly the family have decided to give it a miss.

I've run out of likes for today so had to quote. The above is just about the best post I've seen on the situation. As often you miss the point. Whichever club signed either Holder or Batchelor another rider would have been left without the ability to "earn a living" as you put it.

In what respect? Average wise possibly not but attitude wise it's 200% better. I don't give a tinkers cuss about averages and reputations, winning doesn't bother me in the slightest. All I want is to see four committed riders in a race, the result is immaterial. I concede that some people are just glory hunters and want to win, that's their perogative.

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. and had they done it again after the cut off, Lynn would have been up the creek without the proverbial paddle. At the end of the day the club, any club even Poole, comes before the egos of any individual rider.

Well they'll have more time to play on their jet skis and trials bikes then won't they

Baffles the heck out of me as well, Well no it doesn't actually speedway riders in the main are a selfish lot, if it doesn't affect them personally or in the pocket they don't want to know that's why several attempts have been made to set up an effective Riders Association and have all failed. IF tracks are as dangerous as some riders claim, silencers are as dangerous as some claim it would seem the sensible thing for all the riders to get together and try to thrash out solutions with the authorities (whoever they may be). Any statement from Chris Holder yet? Any big howls of protest from other promoters about Chapman's actions yet?

Any screams of protests from the other promoters yet?

I await the screams of protest from all the other promoters in the morning then

That's a possibility but personally I think they have become persona non grata at present as a bit of an example. Now whether that's fair is up for debate. Be interesting to see what happens if an injury replacement (heaven forbid) is needed anywhere.

The riders may only have been told today but other promoters will have known since Friday when the team was redeclared. Pretty obvious none of the other promoters wanted to sign them. So them going round begging would have made no difference so it's incorrect to say they were prevented from signing elsewhere.

Holder just blocked me too.... only told him Christmas was coming. Still I guess he hasn't much else to do nowadays

I can't hear him whinge when he's riding lol

You guess right, provided the weather forecast is not for torrential rain. I doubt that a lot of the things that annoy me will have been sorted out but it's my opinion that what Buster has done over this is good for the sport in the long run. So he will get my support on Wednesday, plus I like watching Doyley. Expect a totally honest report afterwards tho

If Holder and Batchelor had got away with their actions almost scot free I doubt any fan could go to a meeting in future in slightly inclement weather and be confident that it would go ahead. A stand had to be made and Buster has made it, and probably with the tacit agreement of the rest of the promoters. If the riders feel that agrieved, maybe they should form a Riders Association....oh hang on several have tried but the riders didn't want to know.

I wonder if Buster reads BSF? See my post on this thread #3368 And you said it wouldn't happen lol.