East End Fan

As it happens, I disagree with you fundametally. I am not a fan of 5 minutes. I have been a staunch supporter since just after the War. At one time I was privileged to have as my personal friend, the manager/promoter of West Ham. The result of that friendship, has been my sympathy with managements and the problems they face that the fans on the terraces have no idea about. Not that I think all of them are perfect, with only the sport at heart. In fact, over the years, many of them have proved to be selfish snd short sighted. However, it is a FACT that the racing I witness week after week is out of the top drawer and that is what I pay to see. Of course there are from time to time things easy to criticise, but we still see riders genuinely risking their lives in race after race to entertain us. So for me, facts like poor signposting, or duff programmes, gardening at the gate and poor refereeing are insignificant. And seeing what has just happened at Eastbourne ( sad day), I will continue to pay my money quite happily to help keep Kent Speedway in a prosperous state.

There was something screwy about this meeting and the track prep. From my seat in the grandstand the track looked fine and not unusual. Then all of a sudden there were groups of riders standing on the track, then two tractors whizzing round on the banked part of the track and one of them had a grader on the back. From my seat it was far from obvious what was being done as it looked the same when they finished as it had before they started. And why didn't the water cart go round ? On every other meeting, and I have been to them all, the water cart goes round at about 6.15-sh and does 2/3 laps. I said in an earlier post that maybe Len was not there, but another poster says he was....like I said. Something screwy here.

I love the fact that Hackney Hawk brought a tick list with him to Central Park in order to give marks out of 10. He clearly didn't notice, bur Central Park is actually signposted form various points including at the roundabout outside the stadium. True that this particular meeting was not the best Speedway I have ever seen. Still a few good races, though. I cannot understand why no water went onto the track at any time when normally it is a regular feature. I watched tractors whizzing round the track for no apparent reason for at least half an hour before the start, causing the 1st race over 30 minutes late. Can anyone tell me what the tractors were doing ?

A long hold up as there seemed to be something wrong with the track although, to be fair, from my seat in the grandstand it looked fine to me. When racing finally started over half an hour late, the track looked very smooth and much slicker than usual, also very dusty which is far from normal. It was not watered all night which I have never seen before. Maybe Len was not there ? Something was far from normal.

When I sit in the grandstand, I look around me and see lots of people at Central Park. Atmosphere is good and I never hear rumours of trouble. As you say, Royals need a rider with Dugard retiring, but he is no great loss and I am sure that his place will be filled quickly. The fixture list for the Royals is not perfect, but this is and has been a strange season with 5 rain-offs, so no one is to blame for that. I was not "scoffing" at the Eastbourne situation, simply pointing out that their policy of cheap admission MAY be a partial cause of their problems.

I don't think Batchelor is finding it easy money in the Championship. He has been beaten many times and even had the occasional last place.

FACT is..if you want Speedway, then be prepared to pay for it. Expecting your promoter to put his hand in his back pocket so that you can have a cheap night out is NOT REALISTIC.......When you go to the Pub, do you ask the Landlord to cut the price of the beer because you'd like to pay less ?

It is probably nothing to do with what the rider wants but the FIM priorities. Jake is in CZ I think in a World FIM Long Track event representing England, A great honour for a teenager. And Gilkes is at Mildenhall for the under 19 Final. It is not his fault that the fixtures clash. I would think that in a normal 30 week season it would have been easy to avoid such a clash. Old Bob needs to be more understanding and less critical, but if he was, then he wouldn't be the grumpy old dissatisfied half fan that we all know and love ???

Eastbourne now seem to be in trouble for money, cancelling meetings and having riders missing for no apparent reason. Meanwhile we get no such vibe's from Kent. Riders appear to be happy. So what do you want ? Cheap and shaky or a decent price but going strong ? A no brainer for me.

Personally, I would always prefer an early call off so that I do not start my journey. These days, my guess is that promoters cannot afford to chance it and maybe run in front of a low crowd and I'm sure that this is a major reason for early call offs.

So I'm not the only one to consider this situation as ludicrous. I just hope that some of the promoters who make these damned rules read this Forum.

This is one of the most heart warming posts I have ever read on this forum. Surely it is this that sets Speedway apart from all other sports. Can you imagine this happening at a Soccer match ? I wish I could have been with Teaboy and the other Kent fans up at Armadale, I feel as if I have missed a most important meeting of fans. Thanks to Teaboy and Endeavour for sharing it with the rest of us.

I never did come to grips with the Star Rider system. It is simply not logical in any way. Here we see Newcastle bringing in a rider far superior to their own team member. Surely that is never what was intended ? Or was it ?

Bowtell in for Freeman ??? Is somebody kidding ??? That cannot be right....and if it is, the rule that allows it is stupid. Maybe someone can explain it to me ?

Having only just beaten this Edinburgh team at Central Park by just 3 points, I had expected to go down by anything up to 10 points. A Draw was not in my imagination. So Well Done Kings. Wish I could have been there to see it.

I fail to see why Rob McCaffery objects to comments on this forum. I presume the Town Planning Department is not privy to them ? Good luck to Rob In his efforts to save the club. I presume that if he is successful, he will be part of whatever promoting team is set up. Will need more than a few quid to get it going again.

Well, it was a magic 57 points. Astonishing result that no one expected.

Nothing is for sure in Speedway and both Troy and Scott can be beaten at Central Park as we have seen. Looks to be a very good match IMO. Could go either way. I'm hoping that Dan is back to his best and not suffering after his crash last week.

Jake won his first race at Championship level on Tuesday, winning heat two from the back. Won the match for the Kings.

This Kent v Edinburgh column has turned out to be Edinburgh Nostalgia. Any input from Kent fans ? Maybe our history is too short ?

He could probably intervene if he wanted to if he thought it was important.

I always thought he did have. What does he not control ?

Waco seems to agree my guess about the track needing to be watered. I didn't particularly notice that the ref' was slow, but he may well have been. Surely all the refs know that Kent has an 8.30 curfew and that they need to keep things going at a fast pace ? Slow or fast, I went home having enjoyed a good meeting with good racing and Kent, for a change, just edging it.

Not being a track man, I cannot actually answer the question, BUT my common sense tells me that it may well have something to do with keeping dust from appearing. Ir was a very warm evening with a decent breeze, so conditions to dry the track quickly. Checking my programme, the races immediately after the main track work were won by a visiting rider. Is that the reason for slower race times ? Who cares anyway ?

I do not think that strange is a correct description. It was full of incidents with Dan Gilkes ruled out after that heat two crash which gave our new kid, Jake Mulford 7 rides. And to his credit he rose to the occasion with some fighting displays and winning heat 2, his first ever at this level. Touch and go at the end with the curfew almost curtailing the match. I timed the heat 15 finale as starting dead on 8.30. You can't get much closer than that. Some really good races including one where Scott almost rode up onto the air fence as he tried to overtake, but it was a bit too wide and he lost out.