East End Fan

As usual, Sings ignores inconvenient facts. He forgets that the Kings are still without the best reserve in the league, bar none, Danny Gilkes. When he is back ( does anybody know when ?), the Kings will look unbeatable again. But in the meantime it looks as if the Leicester Thomsons are coming good. They had a surprisingly big win at Cradley. But Sings is right in that the Kings do themselves no good with lots of falls and other points sapping incidents. Makes for closer scores though !

I don't often agree with Sings, but on this subject he is 100% right. Jon Cook should be ashamed of himself for this insult.

That is something that occurred to me. A very expensive banner by the look of it. But I must admit, it did look good on the night when the trophy was presented. Big gamble by the club. What would have happened if Island had won ????

Really pleased to see Kent Speedway featured on BBC television news. So the rumours were true. Was not impressed with the racing clips that were shown particularly when there were a few very very good races on the night, but otherwise good cover. Maybe the BBC are now taking an interest that has not been in evidence for many many years ?

I see this as a real banana skin for the Kings. The IOW top two could easily go through the card, so would not need too much back-up to spring a surprise. I heard a rumour tht BBC Television cameras will be there...does anyone know anything about it ? Probably a pipe dream.

Thanks for that. I'd picked up that news as well. Kent are still a lot weaker without Gilkes but r/r for Sponer isn't too bad. Clouting still has to prove himself for me. Occasionally looks classy, but very slow from the start. Looks like a big confidence issue watching from the grandstand.

Does anyone know if any one or all of the 3 injured riders in the Kent side will be riding on Bank Holiday Monday ? If all of them are absent it would present Mildenhall with a great chance of an away win. Big blow for Kent to suffer injuries so early in the season and it could upset their expectations.

Crikey...you're looking for something to moan about. I am old fashioned...because I AM old...and to me, Speedway should run every week of the season. Challenge matches can be just as exciting as official fixtures and, obviously there must be a few of those. True supporters will attend all events...the thought being that non attendance harms the club's finances. And we all have seen what that leads to.. £10 admission for unofficial fixtures, as advocated by Sings sounds attractive, but is hardly practical. Costs are the same, whatever the event I would presume.

Sounds like you did not attend. I did go and enjoyed the evening. Very close score line all night and several excellent races in spite a what looked like a lack of shale. Reasonable size crowd from where I was sitting. How Sings4speeday can judge what Jamie Couzins and William O'Keefe did when he was not there is slightly bewildering, but typical of lots of commentators on this forum. Personally I was impressed with Drew Kemp who looked in a class of his own. I was on my way home by ten past 8,

All the doom and gloom does not seem to stop the Kings from winning and I'm slowly changing from my life-long Hammers loyalty (only because they are gone) and getting to follow the Kings. Good fighting team IMO

Personally I am very happy that Kent run something each and every week even though some are challenge matches. At least, if I need a Speedway "fix", I can always get it. And some of the challenges are good Speedway anyway. Like Bowen is always worth the price of admission, so I will not miss tonight's Wimbledon match..

Many thanks. What are his actual injuries ?

So what do YOU think will happen there ? Getting back to Kent matters. I have missed reports about young Alec Spooner. Obviously out inhured, but does anyone know the extent and how long he will be out. I like this youngster, his enthusiasm shows in his s.... or bust style.

If the fan base was "shrinking", how was it that there were reports of huge numbers when the team moved into the top section. They raced then on Saturdays and only lost their people when it was moved to mid week. I made many visits to Rye over the years and always saw lots of people there and good viewing. I could sit in the grandstand in comfort which was more than I could do at my own track at Lakeside. Racing was always very good although dust was often a problem on windy days. A real shame that it is not running and I hope that it will come back into a league in the near future.

Every meeting I have ever attended at Kent I have seen loads of good overtaking round the outside of bends one and two including last Monday. Alfie Bowtell in particular making it look easy.

I was at Monday's meeting in what might be a final support for a Hammers team. It was a real shame that the curfew imposed by the Council caused the meeting to end when it was such a close encounter....but this is not the fault of the management. In fact all the delays were because of the obvious inexperience of the home riders, all young teenagers except one. "My" team had no problems with the grip that was in evidence on bend 2 and in fact it aided the quality of the racing so hardly something to criticise. After the meeting I went down to look at the track, but by the time I had walked down the steps and round to the pit gate, they had already started to rip it up with the tractor driver going backwards around the track with a spiker digging things up. Quite impressive actually and somewhat alarming too. As I was near the Pits, I went in and actually spoke to 3 of the riders. All 3 were, it seemed, happy with the track and one of them said it was his favourite ( he was riding for the Hammers). Last season I went to Kent several times and always saw 15 races, sometimes on my way home before the 8.30 curfew. But I am aware that a couple of meetings didn't get to heat 15. Shame.

I think he won two Premier League titles with Rye House and while in charge of the England team years ago won the World Team Cup and lots of other stuff at the time. Don't know the detail, but I remember talking about it with various people when I used to go to Hackney after West Ham closed. I think he also did the track at Wembley for World Finals, but I may be wrong.

Thanks for that info. Teaboy says little has changed. I'm curious to know if this is true. Who is/was Neil Nikko Day ? What were the "modern ideas" that were not possible and made him leave ? Surely anyone would encourage any ideas that would improve a club ? Only idiots would not. Who was team manager before Chris Hunt. Did Silver do it himself ? He used to share the job years ago at Hackney as I remember. They never won anything, but the racing was great.

During one of my visits last year, the guy sitting next to me told me that Len Silver had built the track and had run it from the very beginning. Is that true ? Why did the good people that blueherb777 mention leave ? What did they do that gets your admiration ? I am changing ( due to Lakeside closure) from an occasional visitor to a regular and I'd like to know more about the true history of the club. At present I'd say it looks to be in a pretty healthy state, but Id like to know about the past.

Having read so many adverse comments about the track at Kent on this forum, I am proposing to go onto the track after Bank Holiday Monday's meeting if I can get permission to do it. I have not observed "ruts" on bend 3 but have seen a lot of grip on bend 2 which many riders use when passing opponents...for me that is a good thing, not bad...But I will ( hopefully) have a look at close quarters if I am allowed..

I am an ex-Hammers fan going back to the days when West Ham raced at Custom House and I now have no Hammers to support ( except for this coming Bank Holiday at Kent). Mostly because of the comfortable facilities at Kent, which at my age is very important, I am becoming a regular there. Like most onlookers, I am not a track expert.....but I do watch when riders are in action. At Kent I see the vast majority of riders able to ride for 4 laps at full throttle and I'm pretty sure this would not be possible if the track was as bad as I read about on this forum. Maybe Victor Meldrew had a good idea when he suggested that a meeting with Len Silver to discuss the track failings by the experts on here would be a good idea.

From such comments, you would think that earning a profit is something to be avoided. Profits keep the sport going, we've lost far too many clubs because of a lack of profit.

I was at Sittingbourne yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the meeting apart from the long delay caused by the accident to Ablitt ( I hope he isn't too badly hurt). Some of the racing was top drawer stuff with some great passing moves, so I just don't understand the gripes on here about the track. It looked good to me and as the Belle Vue lads got used to it, they put up a great fight and did not deserve to lose so heavily. Top man for me was Ledwith who made some gutsy passes. Worth the price of admission on his own.

Thanks, BobC. Good to hear from a person who was actually in the stadium. Has put an entirely different aspect on it to me.

Kings' management have egg on their face for their decision to use r/r for Kemp at Plymouth. Not a single point from his rides. No wonder they lost.