PE7Panther

You make a good point there. Panthers' failure to win on aggregate wasn't anything to do with Lakeside bringing in those 3 riders. It was their 'big three' that made the difference - as it was always likely to do. Anyway, bottom line is that Lakeside went through...... and deserved it.

Well yeah, but it shouldn't have taken so long. Sh*t happens and it'd be totally unreasonable to blame anybody at Panthers for an electric fault. But the whole thing was an utter farce. Given the fact that contingency floodlights were available on site - and that must have been known beforehand - it should never have taken so long to get them set up. Some of what we witnessed beggared belief. After ages watching Fred Karno's Army trying to fix the floodlights, and then fetching two sets of temporary floodlights, it was eventually announced that another (third) set were needed, and that they'd be put on the centre green to give more light to turn 3. But Fred K's truck tazzed around the outside of the track After a further comical delay, Fred K brought them onto the infield - but set up them much too far from the track. Everybody and his dog could see that most of the light was illuminating the grass and not the track. It was also obvious that it hadn't been set at the maximum height, which surely was needed. After several more wasted minutes, Fred K reappeared (I was half expecting the Keystone Cops to be following him!) and hastily raised it to the max. Eventually the beams were redirected to give more light to the track, enough for the racing to restart. But it could have been, AND should have been, all sorted out about an hour beforehand. Another thing: why didn't Panthers just concede and let the ref abandon it with the result to stand. If my arithmetic is correct, we needed three 5-1 heat wins on the bounce to even make it a last heat decider. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. Anyway, I reckon about 2/3 of the people had already gone home by then. Yet another case of the speedway shooting itself in the foot.

What turnstiles? It was a car-park issue; nothing to do with entrances ("turnstiles" or otherwise). And that, in turn, was a Showground thing and nothing to do with Panthers. Same old, same old.......grab any stick that floats by and give Panthers a little whack, eh?

Hmmm.............. it's all gone quiet from Neil/Panthers. I've done a bit of delving - no names, no pack-drill - and it does ultimately stem from the PCC h&s bods who issue the licence for the EoES. And the EoES management aren't predisposed to question it, let alone go into battle on behalf of Panthers and commonsense. That's polite-speak for they can't be ar5ed/couldn't give a flying one. The thing that really gets my goat is that we (council tax-payers) pay the wages of the d******ds who sit at comfy desks down at the PCC and issue licences. These paper-shuffling numpties always have a tendency to twists things to suit their own empire-building agendas, and commonsense can go to hell. It's the same with all bureaucrats, especially in local government; uppermost in their minds is creating something out of nothing to justify their oh-so-important jobs. Cunch 'o bunts, the lot of 'em! p.s. If you're reading this Neil - have you and/or Ged actually read, or even seen, the Green Guide. Just wondering, like.......

good point! If a car should happen to run over somebody's foot on the way out, he/she should sue the ar5es off the EoES management and the PCC......

Just out of curiosity Neil, where do you get that from? The reason I ask is because from what I remember of the Green Guide (Govt's official Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds) the relevant section that covered stewarding referred to a typical ratio of one per 250 of the anticipated attendance. That was merely 'guidance' though; not a legal requirement. So if Panthers are anticipating a crowd of, say, 1000 they'd need four stewards, i.e. the head-steward chap plus three who are either NVQ level 2 qualified or who are training for it. And so on. That does, of course, beg an interesting question: what sort of attendances are Panthers actually getting? But I guess that's opening a totally different can of worms - so probably best not to pursue that one The Green Guide also acknowledges that the stewarding plan will always vary according the the stadium layout, the sport involved, the profile of the spectators, etc etc. And it also talks about the need for a risk assessment. That will obviously take all those factors into consideration. The whole thing was, and is, geared up for sports events that have biggish crowds - primarily football. Speedway is way down the list in terms of numbers and 'risk' of incidents. And it leaves the door open for a degree of commonsense. So it leaves me wondering where this latest nonsense comes from. The Govt leaves the issuing of the requisite safety certificate to the Local Authority, so the finger points at the H&S bods at the PCC (and, to a lesser extent, at the EoES management). It was never an issue until those busy f*ckers spotted an opportunity to stick their self-serving oars into it. I suspect that they're choosing to interpret the Green Guide to suit their own agendas and bollox to commonsense. Anyway, I hope that Panthers management aren't simply rolling over without delving a bit deeper into the legislation/guidelines, and possibly challenging the PCC.

I don't mean to have a pop at you, Pantherssteward, or at anybody involved at Panthers, but it just goes to show what a load of bollox this H&S thing is...

perzactly.... but some people will seize upon any stick with which to beat Peterborough Panthers

re. "getting ahead of our selfs (sic)....." Not really.

I think most Panthers fans already know that. What I'd like to ask you (Neil) is what about if England make the WC final..... The Panthers website says that the club will "monitor the progression of the tournament and will be prepared to adjust the start time (currently 5pm) should England be involved in the Final". So how's that going to work? The WC Final kicks off at 4pm, so even if it doesn't go to extra-time it'd be 6pm before anybody got into their cars to head to the EoES. So the speedway couldn't start until 7pm - which leaves just 3 hours to fit in TWO meetings. Jeezus H.... sometimes ONE meeting takes nearly that long! And what if the WC Final does go to extra-time, or even penalties? Or is Ged thinking to start the meetings BEFORE the WC final? In which case it'd need to start at midday at the latest. Even that might not give people much time to get home (or wherever) to watch the football. Everybody understands that the Sheffield meeting has to be slotted in on that date - due to a combination of factors that have been mentioned: Showground availability, the league cut-off date, Sheffield's ability/willingness to rearrange it for another date, etc etc. But do we really need to have the Cup fixture on that day as well? If that could be rearranged, the Sheffield meeting could comfortably slotted either before or after the WC final. I rarely miss a Panthers home meeting, but if England do make it to the Final then - unless Ged pulls a rabbit out of the hat - it looks very likely I'll be giving this double-header a miss. And I don't think I'll be the only one. By the way, has anybody at Panthers thought about having a big screen on the centre green?

Despite what Ged is quoted as saying now, it was made quite clear at the pre-season fans forum what had happened .

in a hole and still digging......

Spot on.

Yawn. I honestly couldn't give a stuff if he's banned from Workington Speedway or not...... oh but I really wish somebody would ban the irksome numpty from this forum.

re. catering at the EoES I suspect that it's not really profitable for catering vans. Otherwise one of them would jump at the chance to stay on. And past experience tells us that the EoES bods wouldn't allow Ged to arrange catering; doubt if he'd want the hassle anyway. But surely it's bottom of the list of priorities - for Panthers and for fans. The food on offer is pi55por quality anyway, and has been ever since the Grasmere Farms van (v. tasty sausages & burgers) disappeared from the scene. Mind you, their dopey staff were so sloooow at serving that I stopped bothering long before that. And surely every Panthers fan knows it's wise to just pop a drink/flask, plus a sarnie (or whatever) into a bag. As for visiting fans, nobody in their right minds would travel and rely on catering being available - or any good - at an away track! Getting back to the important stuff: should be a cracker, and close win for Panthers.......

Maybe the final s/f spot should've been decided in alphabetical order....... "Ooooh yesss! But REVERSE alphapetical order..." comes the cry from South Yorkshire

Likewise.

Yep, it was a terrific performance by your boys. They blew Panthers away, especially from the gate. You're entitled to be chuffed, and even to gloat a bit. But it's a shame you added that little barb about Scotty. He's been on top form for Panthers, and even tonight he was the best of the (admittedly pi55poor) bunch tonight. If Panthers can't finish top - which, at the mo, looks highly unlikely - I'll be rooting for the Comets based on that performance.

Yep, the way speedway is run totally stinks. And it's not surprising that so many people have walked away from the sport. I'd have joined them long ago if it wasn't for the fact(s) that (i) the EoES is such an excellent venue for speedway, (ii) it's an easy, less than 10 mins, drive from my home, (iii) Panthers home meetings are usually very entertaining, (iv) I'm long retired, so have plenty of time on my hands, (v) I can (fortunately) easily afford it. But even so, I'm not as enthused as I used to be and I can foresee the day when I stop going.

yeah yeah... whatever. (Try reading up on the use of punctuation and I might start to take you more seriously )

I think most people thought that BW-D would be a key rider in this meeting - and so it proved. All teams have the occasional 'mare at home, but an utterly abject performance like this does increase the doubts that many Panthers fans had about this line-up. We can only hope that it was a one-off, and that they make amends in the next meeting. Big 'well done' to Workington Comets; very impressive performance. I reckon Panthers would have been hard pressed to beat them even if Nicholls & co had been on top form.

see above

That's incorrect. What I actually said was: "There can be little doubt that Bomber is getting more money than he'd have got at Panthers" I didn't, as as you infer, make an unequivocal statement that Bomber IS getting more money. I did not state that it is a 'fact'. So, no double standards. And no retraction will be forthcoming; I stand by what I said. I could ask you for an apology for misquoting me and thereby impugning my good name... but tbh I can't be ar5ed