Great Central

Chris, In a NL meeting, the host club only pays for the home riders but obviously has to pay for their away meeting costs out of the income.

The "regular guy" is now Graham Trollope and he prepared it yesterday.

From memory, Drew Kemp fell, and Jon Armstrong fell after being pushed to the limit by Mark Baseby. Alfie Bowtell fell in the run off. Unless I missed some falls this is hardly "Falls in most races".

The decision was taken by the club promotion only. Both Barry Bishop and I had been in regular communication about the weather from Sunday morning and following a review of 5 forecasts, decided at lunchtime today with Barry down there, that the prospect of being able to run was very remote as the showers predicted for tomorrow seemed to be more frequent and often thundery in nature adding to the problems caused by the heavy rain forecast for this afternoon and tonight. This was not a decision taken lightly since we do know of holiday makers who are on the island and were planning to attend what looked to be a tasty meeting. One of our supporters has since reported torrential rain and flooding of roads in the south of the island and with the early call off, it meant that we at least saved Kyle Bickley a wasted journey since he was planning to leave Cumbria tonight. Martin Widman Co-Promoter.

Sincere apologies to all those spectators and supporters who thought the meeting took too long to run last night. Yes there were incidents which caused us delays and of course the accident which Benji Compton had, proved to be more serious than at first thought creating a delay at the wrong time. Yes, Barry Bishop wasn't there which meant his normal duties had to be shared around the rest of the staff and whilst I personally monitor the time, it was one aspect that got away from me last night. We do pride ourselves on running slick meetings and sometimes without trying they are done and dusted in less than 90 minutes even with an interval, mascot rides and the Mini Warrior cycle rides so again apologies for any disappointment. Martin Widman CoPromoter.

I don't often post on here but I cannot understand why the referee was so lenient on some riders at the gate. We all know there is a tight curfew at CP and the meeting was not without incidents but one rider in particular seemed to exit the pits with 60 seconds or less of the 2 minute warning remaining and then proceeded to do his gardening, and only cap it off spending more time faffing with his machine and equipment. The rules state that Riders must be “ready to race” or be “under the control of the Start Marshal” in the correct Gate position within the permitted Time Allowance. It is about time the referees clamped own on these delaying tactics and 1st bend bunching shouldn't include incidents on bend 2!!

Thanks Mike for continuing with this labour of love but more importantly keeping us up to date with all the facts and figures in this league. Your efforts do not go unnoticed.

I can assure you that PL will not be considered unless it works at NL level and there is definitely nobody with deep pockets bankrolling this project. This has to run as a profitable business.

Currently the planning permission doesn't allow speedway to run on a weekend. Hopefully an application will be submitted to the IOW Council to extend the "opening hours".

Can't see a posting on this match but Stoke take a 3 point lead into the 2nd leg which starts at 3pm. Weather looks good and the main match is followed by an MDL fixture Stoke Spitfires v Long Eaton Invaders.. Luke Priest is out with injury so the Raiders bring in Brendan Johnson on a temporary loan to cover.

It also had something very special these days, which was a fine training track, well run and well placed to any riders in the south of England, the south west and the Midlands. Miss it tremendously and it must be sad to see the whole Smallmead site flattened.

And clearly not trimmed regularly enough. Leigh Adams, Gary Havelock, John Oliver to name three non riders.

Totally agree with your comments. The format is rubbish. Too much hanging around for the riders and those who didn't qualify only get two rides and travelling hundreds of miles in the process. Isn't it about time that the 4's was run as a full meeting for the top 4 clubs coming out of qualifying rounds or is that too difficult to organise? Next year with what looks like a bigger NL this format won't work.

Done. Nearly 27000 signatures now. Get signing and lets help get it above 100,000.

Well done Mike on organising what I hear was a very enjoyable meeting and thanks to the Stoke promotion as well. Nice sporting gesture by Shaun as well, forgoing his winners trophy. Good heat times from him showed he could do a good job for somebody in the NL

I wouldn't say that all 30 heats were quality racing but with dirt on the track, the PL boys were exciting to watch at times. I thought David Howe was brilliant in the races that I saw him ride. The NL racing was good but as the dirt went, it became increasingly difficult to pass but the Stags did well. I think Danno Verge scored his 1st win of his NL career so well done to him. Stoke struggled with Simon Lambert not being able to guest at No1 position and Armo blowing an engine, borrowing a spare bike from Ben Hopwood and that failed and then he rode on Rob Shuttleworths, neither of which suited Jon's small stature.

I clicked your post "as a like" but really it should not be that. It is so disheartening to read these comments. The Storm started out really well last year presentation wise, and I remember going to one meeting and being back on the road about 9.30pm and all for £10 but it started to slide and hasn't stopped sliding. The NL is the breeding ground for new talent and spectators should be encouraged to attend this type of meeting and we should theretofore be reading about how good it was, and how quickly the teams rattled through 30 heats and why can't teh Elite riders do that!!

Since nobody else has posted about this meeting tonight, I thought that somebody should. Meeting starts at 7pm and there is no team news since neither team has published any. It is a must win for Stoke as they battle to make the play offs. I did hear that the M6 was closed J15 -16 which was affecting traffic in the area. Hopefully it will all be cleared soon.

Belle Vue Colts 26 Long Eaton Invaders 10 Colts David Holt 11+1 Conor Dwyer 7+2 Rob Shuttleworth 7+1 Andy Mellish 1 Invaders Layne Cupitt 5 Alex Wilson 3 Sam Darroch 1+1 Adam Portwood 1 Heat 1 Dwyer, Holt, Wilson , Darroch 5-1 Time 68.5 Heat 2 Cupitt, Shuttleworth (15m), Mellish, Portwood Ret'd 3-3 8-4 Time 70.0 Heat 3 Holt, Dwyer, Cupitt, Portwood 5-1 13-5 Time 87.5 Heat 4 Shuttleworth, Wilson, Darroch, Mellish (N/S) 3riders only 3-3 16-8 Time 67.9 Heat 5 Holt replaces Mellish(M/F), Dwyer, Cupitt, Wilson 5-1 21-9 Time 67.4 Heat 6 Holt, Shuttleworth, Portwood, Darroch 5-1 26-10 Time 67.5

According to BSPA website the meeting is OFF.

There is supposed to be a meeting today but no topic posted yet and no press releases issued on team line ups. After all this good weather that we have had, heavy rain has hit nearly everywhere so will it run or not?

You are not the 1st to suffer this damage so don't panic. Plenty of Swarfega or something similar round both beads and make sure you get the bead round down into the well. Work from the opposite side to the valve. If the tyre has been on a long time it may have hardened with age making it more difficult. Don't fall into the trap and using massive tyre levers since these are not necessary.

As I said when you are doing the mechanic role, you miss a lot of the action and I only saw Marc in action twice.. On our 1st visit this year it was vast improvement over last year but does seem to have been let go a bit lately. Although obviously not as pronounced as Rye House the adverse camber does nothing to improve racing. The bends are wide but large areas can't be used because of the camber.

An interesting question but I would be worried to see my fan base dwindling as it appears it is. Again I reiterate that I do not have access to actual figures so it is always a perception rather than statement of truth. Kent being the newcomers into the NL had the opportunity to do something really different in speedway presentation but seemed to have drifted. The track is the right shape and size to produce good racing but the surface isn't. I have ordered the DVD of Mondays meeting so if I come back on here on Friday or Saturday eating humble pie, it will be because I missed all the good racing on Monday whilst doing my duties as a mechanic!!

It was my 4th visit this season yesterday and although I have no access to actual spectator numbers, the numbers sitting outside of the bar/lounge area do seem to be dwindling. No excuse last with two mid table teams battling for points and good weather. Some people are saying the racing was superb last night but I must have missed those races but since I always buy the superb DVD's of the meeting filmed by ReRun Productions I will make my mind up fully after seeing that. Doing the mechanics role, you do miss a lot of the racing but the races that I saw were essentially follow the leader and with the track being "threadbare" after about 8 heats it was always going to be the case. The adverse cambers do nothing to aid passing on what could be a great little track due to its size and shape. True the match result last night was in doubt until the last heat but does that make the racing exciting? I think not. The only plus point is that the meetings are usually held in quick time due to the curfew. The stadium is very good, facility and viewing wise, and would be the envy of a number of clubs but the track needs sorting. I won't comment on the meeting presentation since the pits are so far divorced from the stand that it would be unfair to make any judgement.