East End Fan

Surprised that Eastbourne haven't cried off !!!

If I read the situation correctly, Eastbourne cancelled the meeting without seeking to borrow any other track's blowers, so the cancellation seems to be entirely their own responsibility. Heard on the grapevine that our own promoter, Jon Cook, would also have loaned air blowers had he been asked.

Looks like everything happens at Arlington...1st no ambulance causes a cancellation, now vandalism. They'll struggle to fit in all their fixtures at this rate. Vandalism has been a problem at various tracks and it's hard to swallow with the sport hard enough when things are going well.

Adam Roynon will turn out to be the signing of the year. Considering some of the serious injuries he has suffered during his career, his performances are gutsy and quite phenominal. Will make the Devils very attractive opponents, so well done to Laurence Rogers

I don't like to think that our promoter considers all the other promoters to be "idiots" just because they objected to Paul's new average. If you look at it from their point of view, whatever method was used for the calculation, it was clearly inadequate as his early scores already demonstrate that he is a class act worth 10 point minimum in any meeting. Great for us if all we want is to beat all the opposition in to the ground. The league race will now be to see which "idiot" comes second !

Seems to me that Spooner is being taken advantage of and used as a pawn in the rider changing game, 1st Hurry at Lakeside and now Knight at Eastbourne. Kent claim he is their rider, but they can only fit 7 men into their team.

Can only see the Hammers being in the top 3 all season long with their new heat leader trio plus the fast improving Bowtell.

Seems to me that all we read about on this forum, no matter what team is being discussed, that promoters are constantly looking to change their riders. It causes some undesirable problems such as the fact that no riders today have any loyalty to their team simply because their management have no loyalty to them. It is the "Win at all costs" syndrome rather than to enjoy the racing and HOPE your team win rather than condemning them if they don't.

Connor LOcke is a Grass Tracker of some ability in that area. So far his Speedway activities have not matched his Grass exploits, but he's young and keen so could well turn oit to be a good signing if Kelvin takes care of him.

Interesting that Jayne says that the pay in the 3rd tier is listed at £10pp. To be frank, if riders are expected to travel all over the country, maintain their machinery and vans, they can not possibly do it at £10 per point unless they have wealthy parents. So she should not criticise those that pay more, they are simply living in the real world. My club, Lakeside, have just employed Paul Hurry and I cannot see him riding for £10 a point. Does not make Cook and Tatum villains. The league has moved onwards and upwards and is now a semi-professional league that provides excellent entertainment to all of us. Don't expect that for nothing. Also, the standard of riders moving upward into the more senior leagues is better than ever.

track watering is always a big problem for daytime meetings, but if there is not too much wind and a humid atmosphere, we might just get away with it. Got to be one of our most important fixtures of the season and a test to see iff the inclusion of Paul Hurry has the dsired effect crowd-wise.

I note today that Kent are claiming that Spooner has not been released and is only on loan to Lakeside for this week-end. But he has been named as a full member of the Lakeside team alongside Paul Hurry.

Got to be the best meeting Laurence has ever had..

Bottom line is that we have Paul Hurry in our side even though most of us wonder how his average was calculated to achieve it. We now have the 3 best heat leaders in the league and other clubs will struggle to contain us...see Stoke last night...Hope it has the desired effect of bringing in more paying customers.

You have to admire Jayne Moss at Buxton for managing to keep the club going with very little money for so many years, but no one can blame other clubs like Birmingham for having a different agenda. When all is said and done, every club must be profitable or go under. Jayne's obvious way is to keep her costs down while others try to attract more people by having winning teams. Both have merit and natural progression has seen that riders in the National League have improved significantly as the years have gone by. Many of them see themselves as future full professionals and invest all their earnings into their equipment, so they are reluctant to ride for low pay and that is understandable. Very sad that Kings Lynn have dropped out as they have produced a large number of quality riders in the past in spite of being a low pay club ( so we are told). Let's hope they decide to come back next season but I wouldn't hold my breath !

What team did Kent announce before the points limit was agreed ?

Kent look like being in trouble against Eastbourne in their KO Cup fixtures this week-end. With Brennan still able to do 7 rides and Kent without Hopwood and Clifton and the rule book not allowing adequate replacements for either. I'll bet they're cursing Newcastle for signing Hopwood and getting priority of use.

Including Paul Hurry so early in the season is a major coup for Jon Cook and Kelvin Tatum...still don't understand how they managed to get his average low enough to do it, but good luck to them. Can only see the Hammers at the top of the table now.

Kings Lynn Young Stars are owned and run by the chairman of the BSPA, but it is turning out to be a bit of a disaster this year. Shame, because there is always plenty of local talent in Norfolk. Maybe Mr Chapman should be a bit more "Hands On" ?

If Lakeside have pulled off this change within the rules ( Hurry for Mason), then I do not understand the rules. Good luck to Hurry for a late surge in his career. On the grass he has shown no loss of his ability in the meetings he has ridden so far. I thought his assessed average from his earlier Speedway career was in excess of 10.5, so how did that figure get reduced sufficiently to allow this change ? Will make the Hammers an almost unbeatable side I reckon.

So what average does Hurry come in at.?..He is clearly a better rider than Mason and I'd be surprised if his official average at N.L. level is below Mason's. Without a doubt it make the Hammers a real force in the league.

Yes JJ, is this not the result of the selfish BSPA rule that does not allow N.L. sides to own contracts ? It is time that supporters of the N.L. teams made their objections to this rule known. The senior promoters must be ashamed of themselves for introducing such an unfair rule...and it WILL backfire as less and less N.L. teams bother to search for kids, so the life blood of the sport will dry up..well done BSPA.

This issue of riders' contract ownership by N.L. clubs is beginning to be noticed and objected to by more and more N.L. fans. I am certainly one of them. Surely this cannot be right or fair ? What can the N.L. clubs do about it ? They don't seem to be very actively objecting unless there is something going on which we do not know about. As I see it the rule is a self destruct button as the N.L. clubs will slow down their efforts to find new young riders and will use older riders on an ever increasing basis...Thin end of the wedge, look at Stoke.

So it seems there is a basis of some truth in the story of NL racing at Brandon. Astonishing to say the least but good news for the sport if the stadium continues racing at any level

I noted Tonga's remarks about the Rye House track, "dusty and narrow". I thought that the new promotion had made big track improvements. Is this not the case ? It's said that the adverse camber on the 1st bend has gone which I believe has been achieved by bringing in the air fence to the top of the banking, so maybe that is what Tonga means by "narrow". Must make a visit soon and see for myself...