SFTGNigel

Apologies if this question has been asked before on this thread but I'm returning to the forum after about year's absence given the shutdown of the sport in the UK. Have Kent given any information on season tickets or admission policies and limits (specifically for the likely reduced capacity meetings in early season - at least)? I can't see anything on their site about such issues and given the news about Silver Ski upthread perhaps that's not surprising. As an Rye House refugee I'm hoping to make Central Park my regular fix alongside while continuing to visit as many tracks as possible once the sport is back. I managed to see a couple of Ekstraliga meetings last year along with the climactic Toruń legs of the SGP season but no more.

Still with a 6:30pm start, I presume?

As someone who actually watched Rye House and Harris week in, week out I can assure you it wasn't the rider who caused the club to close down but the shambolic amateurs who ran the club.

What on earth is that comment meant to mean with regard to a rider who wasn't paid for many, many meetings where he was risking his welfare and livelihood?

“so with having someone owning more tracks knowing full well he doesn't pay over the odds isn't a start?” You think Chapman taking over Ipswich in any way addresses the fundamental problems in the sport right now?! I’ll have whatever drugs you’re taking.

Maybe taking one significant step to address the major problem would have been a start. All that has come from this AGM, one that was crucial and needed to be pivotal, is the merest of tinkering and a huge amount of flannel.

So you’re impressed about what’s come out of the AGM and happy with the state of the sport in Britain right now?

Well, one of the “two newest” went bust midway through last season.

So the news from the AGM would seem to confirm that the Rockets are dead...unless someone is working on a National League place for them?

Rye House have a track, just not a current club/team/promoter!

Nope.

Come on, Pollyanna - they're rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Anyway, I can't give the SGB divisions a chance - I live in a city of 8 million people with no speedway team nearby!

As it stands, the top two tiers of British Speedway will run next year with no club competing within 60 miles of London. What a shambles.

Oh come on, in a time of absolute crisis for the sport the message from the AGM is "Everything's rosy" and the sport will largely carry on as it is...over the edge of a cliff.

Funnily enough, I already checked this morning if the London Hammers domain names had been registered! It hadn’t yet, btw.

I presume we all see this as a nail in the coffin for the Rockets for the foreseeable future then?

I saw Stoneman race against the only other active Welsh rider I am aware of a few weeks ago - 52 year old Stoke Potter Tony Atkin. Up in Glasgow this weekend anyway for the European Track Cycling Championships and some football so this fixture has made the trip for me.

I was up in Glasgow anyway to see the (now postponed) Glasgow v Newcastle meeting on Friday night along with some Track Cycling and Football. Very excited about this and already bought my ticket. Was just thinking at the GP on Saturday that a proper Test Match was long overdue.

Only just seen this, if you think Chris Harris wasn’t trying then you weren’t watching him ride. Amy news at all in what is going on now at Rye? Total silence from all involved for a few weeks now.

Christ, is he a Lakeside fan? I like the track but it suffers the same negative attributes you could throw at Rye House (and maybe more given that Rye House has a far superior view of the racing - at least prior to the mudheap in the middle) and it's the racing that matters.

Rye House was the first place I ever watched Speedway and, with the exception of Torun and Glasgow, still my favourite place to watch the sport. It may be run down but it's a great track and I go for the racing not the creature comforts. There were substantial four figure crowds there for much of last season but the fixed race nights and a peculiar distance and lack of promotion from BMR (probably linked to the cashflow crisis we're currently seeing) as well as the gawdawful MotoX track have combined to kill the crowds and atmosphere there. It can be revived, probably with Saturday racing and the switch to the second tier racing that might entail but talk of "put it out of its misery...flogging a dead horse" is ignorant BS which fails to ackowledge how precious *any* currently operating track is in the precarious times for this great sport.

Yes, I agree with all of that but none of it really contradicts my points - other than pointing out the obvious fact that a cold, windy night may be better than torrential rain which means the cancellation of a meeting but doesn't address the fact that yesterday was hardly a balmy summer's evening. That's a side issue really, the Lakeside issue is clear but that means the promotion should be doing more than last season to counteract it, they seem to be doing a lot less.

Somerset was certainly better in terms of the amount of passes (different conditions in daytime, obviously) but I recall it still being more start-orientated than I'm used to at Rye House. Looking back at 'Speedway Updates' it has a high number of 'From the gate' reports for both that and the Wolves match.

You're right overall but last night wasn't "good weather", it was freezing by the time the meeting got going and I regretted not bringing a hat, coat and gloves. Being on a platform twenty feet in the air (the only place you can guarantee a good view with that monstrosity on the centre green) in wind like last night's isn't ideal. As for the crowds, I just don't see any real promotion going on to try and offset the inconvenience of the fixed race nights (I'm in a minority that find weeknights are better but ackowledge that's not the case for the majority) . Last season's top flight debut seemed to see an attempt to reach out to potential audiences and local people but since then it's been desultory, even free outlets like social media are hardly used.

I was right next to the ref's box on the rickety deathrap "stand" and NBJ did just hold on in heat 12 though your overall point about his switching off in that race and heat 7 is accurate. More important that he's OK after the crash and the fact that he was sat up in the ambulance is very encouraging. I had been giving Eddie some leeway against Somerset due to the knee injury but I'm not sure how long that can be extended for and he isn't the Kennett at Rye of previous seasons. Anyone any idea why the track has been such a gater's paradise so far this season? I can't remember a meeting so dominated by starts as last night's.