WembleyLion

FIM fixture list now changed and the meetings originally scheduled for 12 October have been put back one week. No news yet of any other meetings on the Sunday after Torun.

No exclusions but at Peterborough this season a race was stopped because the lights went out - fortunately not the red lights!

A few strange exclusions I can remember:- I recall Kai Niemi was excluded for losing his crash helmet during a race. Also two Berwick riders once rode in the wrong race and were excluded at the end of the race they shouldn't have been in. I recall the two riders who missed the race were also excluded! I saw Carl Askew excluded at Peterborough for 'boring'

Agreed Ove. The problem is there is nobody organising anything and that is why we ended up in this mess to begin with and I guess it's not really surprising the lack of organisation continues.

I was there on Friday and Saturday and like you I agree there were heavy showers but nothing that should have prevented a meeting going ahead on a properly prepared track that had all the necessary equipment in place to do any remedial work. In fact there was a very heavy shower just before the meeting at Daugavpils which had no real impact at all. I feel BSI actually played up the Riga weather and were probably hoping it would be much worse than it was so to give them a convenient excuse. As you say if the track had been properly prepared we would have seen Speedway on Saturday evening or by Sunday at the latest.

I hope to attend this and the Valsnatta at Hagfors the following night, where there is a similar line up:- Alexander Liljeqvist Martin Liljeqvist Johan Jensen Natalie Thelenius Johannes Stark Rasmus Broberg Jonas Engdahl Joel Larsson Anders Mellgren Gustav Johansson Emil Gröndahl Adrian Bergqvist Ricky Törnqvist Kenny Persson Pontus Högberg Victor Flood Two more Swedish tracks off my list all being well!

According to the FIM fixture list there are two promotion/relegation race off meetings scheduled for that day http://www.fim-live.com/fileadmin/alfresco/2014_Amended_International_Speedway_League_Calendar_as_per_28.08.2014.pdf

Not that far from Trieste airport either.

Hans Nielsen?

Gelsenkirchen?

Thanks for the response Phil but I feel at the very least there could have been more help for those stranded in Riga even if it was just information. I am well used to getting myself around Europe for Speedway but I have to say that Saturday afternoon challenged me somewhat to come up with a solution for myself and six others travelling with me. Thanks to some help from our Hotel we did source a minibus which is not an easy thing to do at the best of times especially at a weekend and when there is a very short notice period. Unfortunately many were not as fortunate as me and there were many disappointed and upset fans I bumped into over the weekend and on Monday.

I agree to the above post and when I visited Saturday morning the Stadium had clearly been improved. The track preparation was a shambles but pretty much down to a failure to clear blocked drains earlier in the week. BSI were clearly trying to deflect blame onto the local promoter but in my view it was largely BSI's fault as they failed to properly oversee matters. It would seem BSI were also hoping they could blame the weather on Friday and Saturday. Well I was there both days and on Saturday they were watering the track in the morning. There is no way a few cloud bursts on Friday or Saturday should have had any impact at all. It doesn't at Malilla or Vojens and other GP circuits. I suspect BSI were really hoping Saturday's weather would be so atrocious they could then hide behind that as a reason for a call off. Well they came unstuck! I wonder when they decided to actually call the meeting off as it was certainly 'off'' well before it was officially announced. It would have been better to have known on Friday thus affording those in Riga more time to make plans to go to Daugavpils. Also it would have prevented many from needlessly flying out on Saturday morning. No thought at all given to the fans. As oleoleole says surely it would not have been too difficult to give some help or guidance to those fans in Riga in terms of laying on a few coaches or even just providing some information on the possible alternative ways of making the trip. I was fortunate enough to be able to sort out a way of getting to Daugavpils but speaking to many in Riga and at the airport on Monday it was clear a large number didn't even entertain attempting the journey. Finally, to make matters worse the Darcy Ward situation then deflects much of the heat from BSI and overshadows their incompetence. Now awaits post(s) in defence of BSI

The Darcy Ward story has also taken the organisational shambles out of the limelight!

Big downpour recently but now lovely and sunny. If it were Malilla or Vojens or Terenzano or ... it would be all systems go! Maybe if they had unblocked the drains earlier in the week it would have helped.

Lovely day today in Riga just as it was yesterday. The current weather has little to do with this being off. They were watering the track when I was there a few hours ago just before calling it off! Heads need to roll on account of this shambles !

Not a great forecast tomorrow so is Sunday an option I wonder?

Bob Dugard?

I'll watch them both, the Swedish match should be virtually finished by the time Berwick starts so not too much channel hopping I hope!

must have heard Peter York!

Lots of riders names are pronounced differently outside of the UK. The H bit in Thomas H Jonasson for instance is pronounced Ho in Swedish but I've never heard anyone in the UK pronounce it correctly!

When the World Cup final was at Reading in 2006 (with TeamGB in the final) Len ran a home meeting against Glasgow!

Yes and Mr Nimby was/is a fireman!

I don't actually disagree with most of what you say and there are certain tracks I avoid if there is any chance of a spit of rain. These promotions do a lot of damage to their businesses but I also believe Len doesn't help his own business either. He has certainly helped to convert me from a regular to an occasional visitor at a time when my attendance at Speedway overall has not declined (usually about 80 meetings a year). I just go tend to go to tracks where I feel some effort will be put into getting a meeting on.

If you make little effort to run Speedway then do not expect the fans to bother that much either - reaping what you sow.

I agree with many of the previous points. The crowd levels have gone down a bit in recent years and it's also worth remembering they run comparatively few meetings when compared to most UK tracks.