Daytripper

I don't think he can keep them on the bike if they have a propensity to fall off but where I think he will help is on racing lines and getting them to analyse why a race went well or why it went badly so they can understand how the track should be ridden. He seems to be looking forward too it.

Yes, one of the things mentioned was that if anyone in the academy shows promise they can get straight in and sign him. I don't know anyone who is happy about signing the particular 40 year old you mention, but the fact that many riders want to ride for us was in the context that there are a lot of riders that want to fill the remaining team place. Jon and Kelvin want to take a look at them in practice before deciding who is the best bet.

I presume you mean why not Championship League ? Probably because there is not much difference between the cost (and admission fees ) of the two leagues, especially when you take the sky money into account. One piece of good news I forgot to mention was that both main sponsors are back onboard. Fixture list to be published shortly

Not exactly. It's more complicated than that. The roadworks causing the trouble seem to be finishing, but Jon said that in the 5 meetings when crowds were seriously affected by roadworks they were losing up to £8,000 per meeting, and could not sustain those losses . It costs £22,000 to run an Elite (now Premier ) League meeting but only £8000 max. to run an NL meeting so any losses would be proportionately much smaller at the lower level. There seem to be other reasons swirling beneath the surface. He has doubts about the top leagues ability to survive in its present form and is being destroyed, amongst other things by riders pay demands which are getting beyond the pale. He said when Lakeside announced they were dropping to NL four riders phoned up to say they were devasted and asked if there was anything they coukd do. The four were Lewi Kerr, Richard Lawson, Kim Nilsson and Dave Watt. The rest, in Cooks words "ran for the hills" and didn't care about the fans or the club. Both Jon and Kelvin want to return to the club atmosphere that speedway had 25 years ago. The riders will now be encouraged to interact with fans more, now they don't have to dash off and catch flights to their next pay day. Kelvin also said we will have to get used to a new type of Speedwáy but he is very enthusiastic about it BREAKING NEWS JUST IN : The Sneering Voice of (Un )Reason, who couldn't be bothered to turn up, didn't hear the full context of what was said, doesn't have the guts to confront Cook and Tatum face to face, and doesn't get hit in the pocket when the club sustains losses, gets it wrong and makes a fool of himself yet again. Not funny, not clever, just stupid

I am beginning to understand why so many posters find you so irritating. I didn't answer the query because it is so stupid. You know as well as everyone else that statistics in Speedwáy are based onraces ridden and points scored. Names of who beat who are not recorded for GSA'. Even you must know that. What can be said is that Mason averaged just over one bonus point per match which is nothing special. He won on average, one race in every six, so for the majority of races he was beaten by either beaten by an opposing rider or failed to record a heat advantage. Not good enough for a heatleader.

It is the heatleaders job to win races, not finish third in a 4-2 or 3-3, Whichever way you break it down he is not a great signing as a heat leader .

It isn't just Heat 15 decider rs though is it. Mason finished third in almost half his races for Kent last season. He finished first in less than one out of every five races he started. That might be acceptable for a 20 year old second string on the way up but it doesn't inspire confidence on a 40 year old heatleader on the way down.

An essential part ? A rider whose recent record shows he finishes in third place three times as often as he wins is not essential for anything except coming cheap, making the numbers up, and failing to provide the entertainment that would otherwise entice more fans to come. A complete waste of space in a heatleader role.

Completely underwhelmed. Jon Cook seems to have list it completely. No idea what bizarre line of thinking led him to these two signings especially Mason. As others have said, he just won't get the crowd going. A 40 year old , on the way down, never been any higher than bottom league standard . Unbelievable.

One final thing that is not generally known about Bryn but whicth needs to be included in the tributes is his financial help to young riders. Bryn had not worked for years due to ill health and consequently not had a full wage to rely on but he somehow managed to find money to help out young riders who had financial blows that might have put them out of the sport, and we are not talking small change but sometimes quite sudstantial sums that must have taken him a long time to save. Most people wouldn't know about this because Bryn was far too modest to blow this own trumpet and I only discovered it when it cropped up in conversation , but it really rounds off all the other tributes that have come in. Speedwáy is going to seem very strange without him.

Terribly sad news. Bryn had fought against ill health for years but things had deteriorated a lot in the last year or two especially the last few moths. For the last three or four years he was unable to make his winter trips to Australia, and for the last couple of months of the season he was unable to climb up to the referees box at Lakeside to fulfill his role as timekeeper/incident recorder. The sad fact is the for Bryn, The Great Enthusiast, life without Speedwáy was no life at all, one can only echo his daughters words that perhaps it was for the best but we shall all miss him terribly. Happily he was, by sheer will power alone able to get himself out of hospital a while ago to walk his daughter down the aisle. RIP Bryn. Speedwáy has lost one of its best.

Best Wishes Bryn, Get well soon. Lakeside and the Speedwáy Family need you fighting fit .

They weren't paying visiting clubs fiorvtheir points scored at BV either.

That's correct. Its also the case that on the monthly Ride n' Slide speedway training days, Gerald doesn't get on the track until around 4pm . Of course for NL racing much less track prep will be needed.. It will no longer be a case of having grip where the EL riders want it and what suits their set ups. All that will be needed is a steady smooth surface that the riders a re able to turn the bikes properly on. At NL standard they wont be fickle about set ups and racing lines in the same way the top riders are. I can see a number of problems to be overcome, but finding slots in the calendar and getting the track ready isn't one of them.

My understanding is they have to cope with one of the highest stadium rents in the country. Attendances for the stock cars have been falling for sometime and it seems that there are now only a handful of stock car meetings that make enough profit to keep the place in the black, so any shortfall has to come from somewhere and it is from rents, not just Speedwáy rents but the rents the site shops have to pay is eye watering , according to what the people. that run the shops tell me. Then unlike some clubs Lakeside get nothing from the profits taken in the shops and food outlets. Lakeside are not the only club in this situation but it is one of the things that is driving the search for a new stadium. The reality of the modern world is that the days of reasonable rents are gone. It's not just housing rents that have gone through the roof,Clubs that don't have their own tracks or council owned tracks at bargain rents will always struggle to balance the books, especially those that don't get the profits of the food outlets. This doesn't excuse the serious mistakes and in fighting that had led the sport into this situation, and the watering down of the league but there is much more to admission pricing than promoters just plucking a figure out of the air and doubling it. Speedwáy has to face some massive financial problems, quite apart from the self inflicted ones.

The are several clubs owed a lot more than that for payments from Belle Vue owed for visits there. But then again there are three other clubs that haven't been paying away points which sets up cash flow problems for the others. The sport is awash with debt. I feel terribly sorry for Chris Morton. He is a good genuine bloke and doesn't deserve what's happened to him. Reading between the lines of his comments in SS it seems he has not been happy with Dave Gordon for some time, and Gordon's management of the clubs finances seems to be under a cloud. Some of the debts and problems were outside his control but some of the silly money he offered to one rider to sign as No1 for 2017 borders on reckless with the other debts that were piling up. As someone else has said, he can take credit for getting the NSS project off the ground but seems to have displayed some terrible finanancial judgment. I suppose with hindsight we may be able to say that the incident a couple of years ago with the imaginary burst water pipe may have been an indicator of what was to come later. There is probably a lot that will never come out though.

I can't believe you made such a naive comment. You must be unaware that the sport exists almost entirely on unpaid volunteers, even in quite responsible positions like clerks of the course. VOR is not the only person ever to volunteer at a Speedwáy meeting. A lot volunteer at more than one track, and put in hell of a good shift, far more than the general public realise. None of them expect a medal and only one former track staff member seems to want to go forums fault finding.The others know there is usually more going on behind the scenes that cannot yet be brought into to public domain but will come out in time. Sometimes business negotiations work like that. A fair number of track staff were at the D&D last night and none of them had a good word for VOR's attitude problem. He could of course have come to the D&D himself and got it first hand. As Red Flag said, why would anyone want to vote 200 times to try to mess the voting system up ?

Since you have previously said you don't belive the reasons given so far no reason why you should believe anything else that's said, so not much point in you bother about any more information if you are not going to believe anything, which according to you is, in your words "utter BS anyway". However, apart from Cooks interview with the update there were some interesting interviews with others:- Peter Thorogood (former promoter) was asked which rider he liked having in his team the best. Answer " I liked them all, we all got on very well in those days but if I had to pick one it would be Neil Middleditch, and if you asked Neil he would say his time at Arena was amongst his happiest times as a rider. Various riders and ex- riders were asked who was the best rider they rode with Answers:- Paul Hurry :- Mark Loram Colin White :- Sam Ermolenko Troy Pratt: Greg Hancock Lewis Bridger:- Nicki Pedersn Lewi Kerr:-Nils Kristian Iveson Rob Mear :- " The Late Great Lee Richardson." ( Robs words) Kelvin was asked who he considered to be the toughest opponents to beat .Answer :- "Hans Neilson , who left very little racing room and Nicki Pedersen."

What exactly was in SS that wasn't already in the public domain any way? Ed is of course a Rye House asset. He told me before the season ended that he expected to be st another club next year and back in August I was hearing from a very informed source that there could be local derbies with Rye House in 2017. It was known well before the season ended that Rye House wanted to come up, but not that Lakeside would not be running in the EL. You don't know why Edward is not attending the D&D . Richard Lawson who normally comes will not be attending either. He is due to be out if the country. Maybe Ed is on holiday or otherwise engaged. What do you mean by part of the establishment ? He is an SCB licensed incident recorder, and has acted as announcer at various tracks. Is that part of the establishment? Getting around a lot and seeing a lot of Speedwáy at all levels gives him a lot of insight. Sometimes he has attracted criticism on the old Lakeside Forum for telling things as they are. Certain people didn't seem to appreciate their gossip being corrected with a few facts.

Lakeside Annual Dinner and Dance this weekend and once again all 2oo tickets sold http://www.lakesidehammers.co/countdown-dinner-dance/ Youngsters from the Academy will be coming, various "club legends " of the past will be coming, some of the 2016 team will be coming but will "Voice of Reason " be coming ? No. Kim Nilsson can be bothered to fly in from Sweden but V.O.R, cant be bothered to come. Jon Cook and Kelvin Tatum will be outlining where the club is at the moment and plans for the future but VOR who constantly complains that he is never told what is happening wont be there to hear it. He will just carry on with his constant complaining, not bothering to find out the facts and calling Jon Cook, Kelvin and one or two others names on forums he wont call them to their face.. Says it all really. There is no doubt that the future is uncertain, and the club has a fight to survive but there is clearly a loyal fan base at the moment. despite what some would like us to belive

Its easy to call a decision utterly ludicrous when you are not the one footing the bill. If you ever attended Arena (and we all know you don't ) you would be aware of the big drop in crowds since the road works on the A!3 started . causing huge delays through Dartford Tunnel that are keeping large numbers of fans from Kent away. At the Poole A fixture for example we know it took Kelvin Tatum 5hours to do 20 miles . He had to because its his job but the average fan is just going to turn round and go home rather than put up with that after a days works. . The Saturday meetings against Coventry were much better supported . The unfortunate fact is that Tilbury Docks are being expanded to become the biggest container port in Europe and roadworks in connection with it are going to go on for some time yet. We all know in your dream world .its all Cook and Duggo's fault for not having 7 GP riders in the team to bring the crowds flocking back but the real world doesn't work like that.

Yes, seen a fair bit of him, probably a lot more than you, as I don't go round selling comics. Not in the same bracket as Phil Morris, Kelvin and Mark Lemon. Just my opinion, you don't have to accept it, but the younger guys are much more on the ball than the old school, from what I have seen.

I didn't say I see him every week. Read it again.

The world has moved on from the 1980's and before. Of those I have seen at close quarters in the last few seasons I would put Phil Morris best closely followed by Kelvin Tatum. Those two are on the ball as riders come in getting information from them discussing the race and talking to riders before they go out, also keeping an eye on whats happening between riders so if there are any issues such as riders getting in each others way and tempers might get inflamed they have sorted straightaway. Both bright guys who seem to have all the bases covered. They are the two best IMO. Behind Phil and Kelvin I would say Mark Lemon, another switched on guy on, of similar ilk, not quite up to Phil and Kelvins standard but very good. Chris Morton and Jon Cook were very good with the riders before they took on other responsibilities. Both seem to have too many stresses and strains running their clubs these days. Pete Adams is pretty good I would say but getting a bit past his sell by date. Seems to get stick from his own supporters a lot though, who see him a lot more than I do .Rosco is kind of OK , he does at least get the riders together and build them up but he is a bit of a plonker in some ways and getting a bit past it. Too emotional. Muddlo would be hopeless away from Poole . Too old school. always moaning, on the phone to the ref almost every race about something or other. Holder seems to have stamped his personality on the Poole side. He seems to lead from the front and the riders follow his example. I don't think they pay a lot of attention to anything Muddlo says. He really is like an old woman these days'. Rob Lyon and Norrie Allan are just too miserable. Both moaners, and Lyon seems frightened of the Lamberts instead of telling Robert who is boss when he has his tantrums. Not as good as any of the others. Cant understand anything Gary Havelock is talking about. Just my opinion but I have seen most of them at work at close quarters.

More from Jon Cook on Essex Radio just now. The problem Lakeside need to run more meetings on Saturdays because the ongoing road works cause too many fans no to come because of delays and congestion, especially those coming up from Kent but they won't know what Saturday's they can have until the stock car club finish their programme in two weeks time and that will be too late for the AGM. Jon cited the Poole meeting as an example. They would ordinarily expect a crowd of at least 16-1800 for Poole but in the event Iy plummeted to 700 due to traffic congestion. The highest attendances are always Good Friday and the two Saturday's that Coventry come down. I have to add that I came through Dartford Tunnel last Friday and it took me 90 minutes to get through, and that's without the additional traffic of a Speedwáy night. Everyday we hear on the radio delays coming from Kent to Essx through the tunnel. Pretty disgusting when you consider the Bridge/tunnel is £2-50 each way.