ouch

As it stand the Colts are due to race next Friday with the Aces taking to track the following Monday. If this happens we will be ok fitting in all the fixtures. There is a hope to stage practice next week and a meeting of some kind on Wednesday. I'm not banking on that but admire The Aces promotion for continually setting targets for the contractors. It's incredibly frustrating for fans but I'd imagine work would move at an (even) slower pace if announcements of fixture dates then postponements where not continually in the public domain. All I do is remain hopeful for the next deadline but to keep suffering the disappointment of a call off is hard to take.

It became pointless the more tracks and machines became gate and go unfortunately.

Fact alert! Belle Vue have taken extra staff on to sort the refunds and only the refunds. Imagine you lived in a bungalow called Bell View and you had a plasterer called Colin sort out your ceiling in readiness for a big house warming you were planning. Unfortunately due to the weather the ceiling falls in revealing a defect in the roof left there by ISG roofing. Who do you have a go at? A. Colin B. The nice people living at Bell View C. ISG Roofing If the forum is consistent I know which on I'd put my money on.

Not sure if this is true but we could have done with quality inside information like this over the last few years. Having only joined last week we can look forward to more of your knowledgeable posts.

So every time folk say a track has problems it means the match is defiantly off? What about Cardiff and all the other instances where the meeting went ahead despite rumours beforehand? Was there coach loads of riders etc hanging around the track in March, of course not, the speculation was sparked following the SCBs refusal at that time to issue the track cert, and Chinese wishers spread from there. I’ve spoken to the management and they thought the problem was with the shale, the top bit of the track – their bit. They didn’t think the construction company would have made the base and sub base in a different manner to the rest of the circuit and this only came out when the surface was removed. Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining. People now are mentioning Belle Vue to me and are looking forward to giving it a visit in the summer so as they say there is no bad publicity. Yes there has been a good few Craven refunds but the penalty clause cash will return that in spades. With the problems over the years and these initial cock ups from the construction company Belle Vue are well placed in offering expert advice on sorting a new track if anyone should need it.

The beginning did it for us, after that we pretty much matched them and considering we had to use EDR's to cover a rider currently third in our averages, I'll take that. I don't know if we just picked the wrong gates to begin with as that was unfortunately where the match was decided. As a sport we need to work on this to entice the newbies in who have no allegiance to a team and just want to be entertained.

22nd of June last season we rode our fifth home fixture. If we ride our first home EL fixture against Kings Lynn on May 2nd then we are due to ride our fifth fixture on the 17th of June - amazingly ahead of last year.

Yes your right actually. I'm just naturally assigning one of Joe's rides to Steve from the off. Joe will have to take all his rides so in a way it robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I think their must be. Don't forget even on opening night the stadium wasn't ready as the back straight terracing is temporary, there were porta loos instead of finished loos and the South stand car park was full of construction equipment. Trouble is it will take time to sort the penalty clauses and it will have to come via the council. Gutted for the promotion.

His away average 8.5 currently and at least one of his rides needs to be taken by Joe.

It's off!

It's on the website and has been since 11.30 today. It's only free to under 19's. Adults are £10 and concessions are £8. That's for anywhere including grandstand seating.

Colts meeting scheduled for Sunday ahead of next Wednesday's poole Sky match.

42 is almost the team building limit. Don't think much Deep Thought went into deciding on 40.50!

I mate of mine told me the common denominater between Belle Vue, Wembley and the Berlin airport - step forward David Gordon & Chris Morton. Christ I'm so angry!!!

The management were involved in the track insomuch as they designed it, specified the materials to be used then sourced and purchased the shale. After being happy with the construction of 60%-70% of the track and almost everything of the stadium surrounding it, they forgot to keep asking continually if the last bit of the track was being constructed in the same way as the rest of the circuit. Being the idiots they are they incredibly presumed the exact same method of construction would be used. With that level of stupidity its little wonder things failed in the worse way possible, probably the biggest construction cock up in the history of man. Rant over.

Plus travel expenses? It gets me every time you come on the forum there are people moaning about incompetent promoters who are conning people and not getting the new stadium up and running when promised. You even get some moaning about Belle Vue and the NSS.

If he did charge them before the rain came then once the problem was known, I'd hope he would offer a refund as is right and proper.

I could see the EDR scrapped in favour of a rule stating two Brits at 6 & 7 with all current EDR riders coming into the EL on converted PL averages.

Teams need to be ahead of the game such as when The Aces signed Jason Lyons on a low average after a year way from the club - oh wait a minute the rules were re written to stop that. There was a time when The Aces didn't break any rule but stretched the spirit somewhat when they had team members missing for a tough match. They postponed the fixture to give themselves the edge next time which showed some sharp thinking to put them ahead of the rest - oh actually don't use this one either as we ended up being fined and losing match points. It's not as easy as it looks being ahead of the game. For some anyway.

It shows them up as speedway promoters and that's why the sport is where it is. Great promoters who were speedway business men have gone and we are left with keen fans with a bit of cash or contacts behind them who suddenly think they can run a club. Until things pick up and we can get some good people in this is what we have to put up with but the problem we now have is its a chicken and egg scenario to attract good promoters.

I remember being gutted he wasn't riding for us. It was announced a few weeks after he'd smashed his shoulder up during the ill fainted KO Cup final. He didn't think he would be up to a full season in the UK and rode some meetings abroad instead before returning at the end of the season. He still gets gyp from his shoulder even now. What with that and the uproar when Mark missed out there has been plenty of lobbying from fans to have these riders included and after all that Tai says "no thanks". Not good.

Belle Vue do own the stadium in the same way you would own a mortgaged house. They are currently paying it back. Any takings from bar, food, car parking or when the venue is hired for other events goes to Belle Vue Speedway.

Sky Sports Speedway ‏@SkySpeedwayDue to Monday's forecast King's Lynn v Coventry on Sky Sports has been postponed. So frustrating for all concerned. How could Sky say postponed unless they knew the fixture wasn't to take place tonight but in fact happen at a later date? If Buster ran tonight then Sky wouldn't have anything to rearrange. If I've got the meaning of postpone correct.

Clubs should be taken to task about making event announcments promptly but to have third parties announcing things is not the way to go. It's fixing a wrong with another wrong. There should be agreed time limits on announcements that clubs abide by.