East End Fan

Previous post git cut short...sorry....My own observations about the incident at Kent are that Plymouth should have wiped the floor with the home team who also had Stoneman out. Instead it was an astonishing result with a big home win, and no Number One rider in 4 races.

GWC seems to have a very distorted view of our sport. Unless the promoter ( in this case Silver) is complicit with the rider using drugs, how on earth can he be blamed if a rider is caught ? But I note that GWC is a Rye House fan, so maybe he knows more about Silver than the rest of us ? My own observ

If you were NOT implying that Somerset was better...the why did you post about it in the 1st place on this particular thread daling with curfews ? Your visit to Somerset is irrelevant..

Well, Cityrebel, great that you had a good meeting at Somerset. It IS an exciting track. Without actually saying so, you imply that this does not happen at Eastbourne or Kent. That is unfair. I visit both tracks and by far the vast majority of meetings are run within an hour and a half, or near enough so. Even Somerset could not handle an hours hold up because of a serious accident. In the previous match against Birmingham there was the most alarming crash in heat 13 as Shanes caught Bowen as he passed him in the home straight to send Bowen hurtling into the fence at about 60mph.. Result was that the curfew was exceeded. Such things happen everywhere, so to criticise any one track when it happens is purely ridiculous.

I love all the comments about the Kent/Eastbourne match from people who were not there ...How are they entitled to comment ? I WAS there as a neutral, not supporting either Kent or Eastbourne. I attend at both venues on a regular basis as I can watch while seated at both stadiums which is more than I can do at the track I actually support. 3 separate incidents caused this meeting not to be completed. The worst was when Brennan speared Stoneman and sent him headlong into the fence where he stayed for quite a while as medical and track staff tried to sort him ( and the fence) out. I'm sure Brennan did not set out to damage Stoneman, but it did look reckless. It is a shame that Kent suffer from an 8.30pm curfew....but we must ask the question ( considering remarks by other on this forum). Do we want Kent or not ? And that applies to several other tracks that have curfews....do we shut them all down ? The times that Kent fail to complete 15 races is not as often as has been alleged on this forum. 2 this year. When I attend, I know that the curfew exists and I'm sure all the fans are just as aware as i

Very well explained, Flipper11. Our friend Blueherb777 clearly is either not conversant with what is going on, or cannot make simple deductions. I am told that both Stoneman and Rowe had family holidays booked for this date, so Kent did not log an official fixture. While it seems bizarre to take holidays in mid-season, the Kent management handled the absences in the best possible way. Such a shame that it ended with Bowen suffering.

I see that Blueharb 777 reckons that "Speedway is going to the dogs" because the Kent v Brummies match was the 2nd leg of the original Easter Cup. Has he forgotten the torrential rain we suffered at Easter time ? Where is this guy's brain ? Personally, I think it was highly commendable that this fixture was staged to keep faith. Very sorry to learn of Bowen's injury. The boy must be gutted as he was riding so well. Kent will miss him for sure. Will they use guest riders for the rest of the season ?

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Kent management AND Clouting's father all agreed that he was not yet ready for NL racing. Cannot disagree because he fell off far too many times IMO. O'Keefe is certainly a better bet although not a World Beater for sure. People I've spoken to about him reckon he's got plenty of guts....hope this shows itself in some good scores so that he keeps his place. This is the aspect of NL racing that really appeals to me, a new youngster trying to make his way. Fascinating.

Don't know if the situation has changed, but the freehold of the land at Rye House used to be ( and may still be) owned by the Lea Valley Park. Can't see them allowing houses to be built...but who knows ? If the Car Racing people who own Rye House Speedway offered a plan to BSPA to keep running, it must have involved paying off the debts. So we need to know...why did the BSPA refuse ? More to this than meets the eye. Given all the grand promises that have been made about the stadium in the past couple of years, I would tend to doubt the promoters' words.

Think this is a good signing by Kent, especially at a time when all the top youngsters have been snapped up and not too many choices left. Must be an improvement on their original choice.

I used to know Mc Caffery many years ago. He always struck me as a person full of his own importance who always acted as if he was an expert on all matters Speedway when in fact the reverse was true. When I knew him he dreamed of being the promoter at Rye House ( which was an impossibility then) si it does not surprise me that he had his nose put out of joint when Len Silver took over 2000 and resurrected the club. He talks utter rubbish.

How on earth anyone can think that Speedway in this day and age at ANY level could be offered at only a £12 admission. Get real.

Did not see this meeting, the trip across the Solent is off-putting for me. Being described as an easy win for Kent, but the final scoreline suggests otherwise. Looked to me, score-wise, as a good performance by the Warriors considering that over 50% of their team are riders with very low averages. Against tis opposition, Kent should have topped 50 points IMO.

While the drop to the NL is quite big, it has been done very successfully at Eastbourne ( for example). I believe that if the promoter who is making the drop truly believes in the product, presents it properly and with integrity, enough fans would arrive to support it. But it MUST be persevered with. My own club, Lakeside, gave out all the signals that they really did not feel happy in the lower league, and that transferred to the fans. I was one of the few who actually preferred the National League because, for me, it has more credibility added to the pleasure of seeing new young kids learn their trade. So far as Rye House is concerned, this is the 2nd time in it's history that it has closed down. Maybe it will come back, as it did before, after an absence of a few years. If it does, I hope the owners are more Speedway oriented than the current bunch.

The current situation at Ryer House has been seen before in the early 90's when Ronnie Russell shut it down several years after he acquired it from Len Silver. It went to Stock Cars with a tarmac track but returned to Speedway once again under the control of Len Silver. The present owners seem to be involved in Car Racing but do not appear to be Speedway "Savvy". I cannot see a future as things currently stand, but owners change and new people appear, so in the long term, our sport MAY not be entirely lost to Speedway. I certainly hope not as it is one of the tracks that I visit from time to time.

With severe weather causing cancellations in early season, one caused by traffic congestion on what was otherwise a perfect Speedway day is bound to cause headaches. With the country's road system at breaking point I would expect such closures to become a feature of our sport in the not-too-distant future.

The simple arithmetic makes £22 agreeable as it gives each meeting an £11 cost ie reasonable. HOWEVER, the unfairness comes for visiting fans who only want to see one match. THEY are being ripped off big time. Can the Mildenhall management not find a fair solution to this big problem ?

Why is it that, when I speak to riders on this subject, they ALL tell me that the lay-downs are easier to ride than uprights ever were. I watch a lot of Speedway and have done for more years than I care to remember. I see racing today that is at least as good, and quite often better than, say, 30 years ago. It certainly has not in general deteriorated although, as in all previous times, there is still the occasional boring meeting. That has always been the case. My only personal criticism is that the faster speeds have not, in themselves, made any improvement. They have just made life more difficult for young kids unless they have special talent. When I saw Woffy as a 16 year old at Rye House, he never had a problem handling the power.

Don't know where all this doom and gloom is coming from. At last season's final meeting Len Silver publicly announced that Kent had earned good profits and that it was his task to continue in the same manner. We took that to mean that he was not intending to move up a league and jeopardise the future of Kent Speedway. I was at last night's meeting ( great stuff!) and saw some brilliant Speedway with a last heat decider. While I have seen more people there, none the less it looked quite healthy to me and it took a long time to get out of the car park ( usually an indication at any track that plenty of fans are there). I do NOT agree with blueherb777. By the way, even with some hold ups for various things and plenty of inter-race watering to slow the meeting down, it was still all over by about 8.15 well before the curfew, so don't know what cityrebel is moaning about. A 9 year old who had a ride before the racing started was so good he got the best applause of the night ! Don't know his name.

As is so often the case on this column, Sings4Speedway claims to have knowledge which is, IMO, utter rubbish. I attend a lot of Speedway and have many chats with both riders and various officials, even including an occasional promoter. At no time in recent years has a rider been accused of running a big engine, or using Nitro ( which was banned donkeys years ago) and an engine cannot be bored out to 600cc. It can legally be bored out to 510cc although I doubt that many do it. There'd be no walls to the cylinder if you tried to bore out to 600cc There is no excuse for poorly prepared tracks. If some tracks, like Eastbourne, can regularly put down very acceptable surfaces, then so can every other track. Clearly, rough tracks are far less safe whether the engines are different or not.

I understand the views about the vulnerability of the new young riders, but it is my opinion that most of the fault lies with the BSPA who this year ( and probably in the past too) engineered a silly low team building average making it certain that some teams would have to employ young riders who are not ready. Not all promoters discard riders easily. But they are few and far between.. If this year the points average would have been a healthy 42.5 then all the capable riders now without team places would have a job while some of the no hopers at 6 & 7 would still be attending training schools where they belong.

Thanks...Yes I saw the news in S/S and I hope it has some truth in it. Many hoped for new tracks in the past failed to come true. I wish the would-be promoters all the very best in their efforts.

Flipper11 is quite right. Kent's top end has been as good as any in the league for the most part. So they are unlikely to want to change any of them. Spooner is steadily improving and well worth his team place. But the problem riders are hard to replace simply because there are no riders at that level available. This has been at least partially brought about because of the low points limit from the start of the season ( 39 ?) which left several talented riders out of work while no-hopers got team places.

Question gee jay...Are you suggesting that Halifax are to make a return to the sport...If so, tell us more.

For many decades the lower leagues of the sport have been training riders who move up as they progress. This is nothing new and personally I see nothing wrong with it. At the lower level we have the pleasure of watching new young riders learn their trade and steadily improve. I do not think the fans expect riders with ambition to stay in the lower leagues longer than necessary for their learning process. The present BSPA rule which gives a senior club priority when a rider is doubling up is totally wrong. For Donkey's Years it was the opposite way round which, of course, made much more sense. But that was in the days when ALL league members at every level were treated with proper respect. Sadly that is not the case today and the NL is treated shabbily.