Daytripper

I think Ivan Maugers passion for his club was always secondary to passion for his wallet.

I think we should not jump,to conclusions . It seems serious at face value but there are a number of things that do not add or are not known to those of us on the outside. One of the things that the team captain has to sign off for the referee at the start of each meeting is that all monies owed to the riders have been paid. I have known, for example a Team GB captain note that team GB members were not paid, I have known a Wolves captain note that one of his junior riders were not paid and I was once standing next to Hans Andersen in the pits when he refused to sign unless the Swindon TM phoned the bank and arraged an immediate bank transfer of outstanding wages before the meeting started. So these forms to the ref do carry a bit of weight. At the time Kim refers to Andreas Jonssonwas Lakeside captain, and I find it difficult to believe that AJ would sign the refs form if his friend, fellow country man and travelling companion was owed a lot of money . AJ is nobody’s lackey. Secondly it seems odd that Kim would not be paid if AJ and the rest of the team were, and apart from the fact that AJ would be the first to say something , nearly all Lakeside 2018 have ridden for the club before so why would they come back if they weren’t paid. It’s not as if none of them were wanted elsewhere. I am not saying Kim is making this up, far from it. I think he is a top bloke and one of the best in speedway but just that there are facts that maybe we are not aware of and shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. Maybe more will emerge with time.

My understanding is that the new Regulations were due to be published last week but they got themselves into some other tangle which now has to be sorted out. The Aide Memoires to the Clerks of the Course and Machine examiners are now online but the Regulations aren't . Draw your own conclusions.

So how does Scott get round Section 83 of the Equality Act ? Even if he gets his case off the ground the season will be over before it gets to a hearing.

There is no such law in this context.

As Will Shakespeare said.... Hell hath no fury like a team manager scorned

No.

No.

Yes

What employment laws have been broken exactly ? Who has supposedly broken the law ?The riders are self employed. Who are they going to have a case against ? Who are Peterboro going to sue, and for what? If there was a case (which there isn't ) the season would be over long before it reaches a hearing. Tough on Scott and Ed and a complete dogs breakfast by Chapman & Co who go from bad to worse, and total ineptitude by Rathbone but there is no legal case here. Suck it up and move on.

1. Just to point out and separate fact from fantasy for the umpteenth time that Cooks infamous "thick or biased" comment was not aimed at fans but at certain promoters who sat through an AGM where a "one 8 point rider" rule was discussed, voted in favour of it then said they didn't understand it when they fell foul of it. 2. No dispute about the fact that the SCB have authority over the rule book and can add or delete a rule, but that's not the point. The issue is that the AGM was in November 2017 and it has taken them until the end of January 2018 to start juggling around with it. Team building starts right after the AGM. The SCB are aware of that. How difficult can it be to go through the rule book the day after the AGM and say yes we agree or no we don't. It's entirely due to the dithering of the SCB that a team is not built as strong as it might and a young rider is out of a job. Lakeside didn't announce their team until towards the end of last year and none of this would have happened if Vatcher and Co were quicker off the blocks in rescinding the rule if that was their intention. No reason why they couldn't have sorted this within days of the AGM. Speaking of which, does anybody know if the 2018 rule book is published yet ?

Before you get carried away with name calling lets look at the sequence of events : 1. In November 2017 the BSPA decided in their wisdom at the AGM that Ben Morley and Zack Wachtnect could be assessed their 2016 averages. Any club could have signed them on those averages (even Ipswich) but Lakeside did. 2. Whatever one thinks of the rule the fact is that Lakeside according to their statement obtained written confirmation from the BSPA that the riders could be signed on those averages. 3. More than two months after written confirmation was given the SCB (a.k.a Neil Vatcher ) decide to delete the rule. Now why has it taken 10 weeks, almost to the eve of the season to get round to this ? What has Vatcher been doing in the mean time ? Who has been pulling his strings ? If the rule was wrong why did the SCB not overturn it straight away instead of waiting until until almost the eve of the season when a settled team was fully signed and Max Cleggs alternative job options were limited ? I would suggest that instead of calling people names it would be more productive to look towards the sports administrators who once again have shown they would have difficulty holding down the post of events organiser at the local brewery. This of course follows Lakeside first of all being told they can sign Nicholls and Kennet , then being told they cant.

On what basis should clubs whose normal race night is a Friday, (which several Championship clubs do) be moved to another day bearing in mind that crowd levels and therefore income are invariably higher on Good Friday than any other day in the Calendar ?

He is doing Poland this year, I think for the first time, as in the past he has tended to be content with the UK and Sweden. With Sweden Tuesdays and Thursdays it’s quite a brutal schedule to do Poland Sunday , UK Monday, Sweden Tuesday, , UK Wednesday, and Sweden Thursday, especially as Polish TV companies seem to be wanting more a Friday meetings.

....and you can never please an attention seeking chronic complainer.

Thanks for that . Very sorry to hear it. .

Looks like Kelvin will continue to gave some association with the club though, which is a good thing. The new TM sounds like someone with experience of the job, but there are plenty of those that won't fit. Hope it's not someone like Jim Lynch or Rob Lyon. John Sampford was hanging round the pits a lot last season. Nice bloke but I don't know if he has the personality for TM. What's Trevor Geer doing these days ? Not my ideal personality but he is on the ball. After Kelvin, it's going to be hard to find anyone with the same sort of Ooomph, but can only wait and see.

That's true, he has always been hit and miss riding there twice a year, but if he is riding there regularly and had time to get his engines and set ups right the should be producing his best most of the time. Can only improve throughout the season. I doubt if there is a single Lakeside fan anywhere that is not happy with Awesome Lawson coming back. He wasn't the fans Rider of the Year 3 times for no reason, and he is a super team man. Lawson for Captain IMO.

Len Silvers book describes the hand to mouth existence they had even in the seventies. For a lot of promoters it was like being a one man band. Lens book for example describes how he woukd travel up to Sunderland on race day with George Barclay ( then the Sunderland captain ) open up the Stadium, get the tractor out and prepare the track himself, run the meeting, collect the takings, do the accounts and the following weeks programme notes in the car coming back home while George Baclay drove, then at the half way point swap seats and George would write his captains programme notes while Len drove and th whole operation was basically done in one long day. In later years when Len returned to the sport after a break he put in a tremendous amount of work to get his Sliver Ski business going which proved to be very profitable but most of the profits went into buying and running Rye House. Len Sliver the man is a very single minded and difficult man to get on with but Len Silver the promoter has ploughed a fortune into the sport for very little return and could probably have been a multi millionaire with his involvement in Speedwáy . All that is of course light years away from Swindon who seem to have wasted money on expensive riders that couldn't afford for years, and have a terrible reputation for not paying riders or keeping them waiting a long time for their money.

I guess the superb 15 point maximum that Ben scored in the last home meeting of the season against Belle Vue really sealed the deal. Ben looked superb that night, and has come a long way this season. I understand for next year he wants to invest a lot more into his set up and get a full time mechanic and a better van, so I would say the only way is up now for Ben .

I don't know about being sick, but my understanding is that he had a cold which sounds about right to me as he looked rough and his voice was creaking. I don't think there is a major problem Kennet can do the same job and be more of a team man off track. Lewis has had some really good people around him but never really kicked on. Out of Bridger, Kennet and Lawson,only Lawson has captaincy qualities, but you also need riders that are going to get behind the captain. Kennet is very professional but up and down a bit on confidence. Maybe Lakeside will be good for him at a CL level. Lawson is the only one that is 100% reliable, Kennet at his best is the best of the three round Lakeside. By guess is that Kelvin Tatum will have a big say in who comes. According to Jon Cook there have been enquiries from riders who have not previously ridden for Lakeside but we don't know who they are or what standard. If Newcastle don't run some decent riders will be looking for jobs, and if Ipswich go up Danny King and Rory Schlein will be looking for CL places both of whom sure play a mean pin ball at Lakeside.

Lakeside have an EL /Premier licence held open for a year and presumably it wouldn't be too difficult to swap licences with a CL club that wants to go up. Ipswich seem to be in the frame to go up. They already have a Thursday Race night, and are getting decent sized crowds these days . I would suggest that you might find a Rye House asset or two in the mix for Lakeside. A certain Kings Lynn asset and former Hammerhas tweeted that he has two teams fixed already for 2018. It wouldn't surprise me if those teams were KL Premier and Lakeside Championship especially as he has tweeted that he likes the track and the promotion at Lakeside

Jon also said that since the news went out on the grapevine last Tuesday he had had quite a lot of interest from riders that were interested in riding for the club at Championship level including a former Hammer of the Year, and he seemed confident of putting a decent team out rather than having to fill some of the team spaces with whoever was available, as we had to do this year. Ultimately though, averages and points limit will have some influence on the final choices. He said some riders that had previously ridden for the Hammers were interested in returning, and there were enquiries from some who had never ridden for us before. He praised and thanked the track staff for their efforts especially Ken Driscoll who took over as track curator at short notice after the previous track curator had left on the eve of the season, and said this season we had the highest marks ever from referees for the condition of the track.

I don't think anyone who saw Ed Kennett beating Jason Doyle at Arena in 2016 would say he is anything other than a true racer. That was probably the race of the season. Bridger I think is more less retired again. I wouldn't say no to Paul Starke but he us not really more than a fairly low second string. I'd pick Lewi Kerr above him though, not quite as good as Starke at the moment bug more potential. I think we are kidding ourselves with a return of AJ though. His converted average would probably be 12 or 13 which would take up too much of the team building total. I doubt if we will see many (or any ) big names in the top league nect year, with the possible exception of Kim.

That is all true but remember also that Rick Frost invested a fortune in facilities at Peterborough and it still made very little difference to crowd numbers. Ultimately it is what happens on the track that will be the most important factor.