marko

If it wasn’t for this COVID stuff hanging around, I would have liked to have visited the IOW this year for a holiday (not been there for over 30 years) I seem to recall it’s nice place with so much character and it has probably one of the best run speedway clubs too.

Hash to punish the riders as they believed they were using a legal product, had they been tampered with by a rider that would have been different. But I can’t understand how they passed a test for their use, and then failed a test unless it was a dodgy batch or the originals were prototypes and not the true finished article.

I still can remember the farce at Coventry with the solid block tyres they tried to bring in, and I wasn’t even there.

Only go out to either work or get some food shopping, the odd visit to family every few weeks, Not planning on that changing anytime soon, I watch non league football but until you can go properly and watch without a mask etc, not interested, it’s not that I am against masks, but it won’t be the same, as for speedway, when I read in the star that Ipswich have been selected to run a meeting, I thought cool, but then it dawned on me the place will be rammed, then it dawned on me after that, no, it won’t be rammed because the gate will be heavily restricted for social distancing, so that means only the lucky few will get in and even then you will need a mask which means you won’t be able to smell the methanol like you normally can, sport is going to be so sanitised, better than nothing, but like I say, not for me.

No idea but most clubs lose money to some degree, Stuart Douglas effectively went bankrupt, but that was mainly because the club were forced to finish the 2018 season at Rye House and it was a bigger disaster than when the London Lions attempted to run in 1996.

Annoys the hell out of me that Arena has stood still all this time, we could have continued for another season or two whilst fighting for a new venue, kept the name alive etc Although 2020 would have been a write off with the pandemic. I don’t blame the Woodrolf family for selling though, they were likely asset rich but cash poor, all their money was tied up in the land and the only way to release that was to sell it.

12 rider individuals is pathetic and I have cursed every promoter whoever has done this, always flatly refusing to support such a meeting like many others and then they the promoters wonder why the fans won’t come to anything but league meetings.

I started watching in 88 and I would say it wasn’t exactly thriving then so the fall probably started before then, Arena did have some cracking seasons in the early 90s but it wasn’t the same elsewhere where clubs didn’t have very good teams. we have seen tracks close but also new tracks open or resurrected after years away (Leicester, Redcar, Scunthorpe etc) so it’s never been all doom or all great, just going through the motions as best as it can.

What ever the model the Isle of Wight use, then copy that! They run tons of meetings outside league ones and despite on the face of it getting very few fans, still seem to be financially solvent. Amateur doesn’t mean it has to be a complete mess, non league football is amateur but still run in a professional way, speedway should be classed as an amateur sport apart from the Grand Prix system. Been saying it for years, costs are out of hand, need standard bikes, cheap to maintain, get it home, give it a clean, change the oil every few meetings, job done. spectator pricing should be no more than an average National League North/South Football club, £10-13 and kids for free.

Hackney 96! Yes what a disaster that was from the word go, countless issues with the stadium, the back straight stand never once opened, we started standing by the pits area but then suddenly after a few weeks got told we can’t stand there anymore, the general viewing was rubbish, one evening there was a power failure and even though there was a enough light to race they had to abandon because the main stand was air conditioned as it’s only source of proper ventilation. Over the years I have often grown tired of dry under watered slick tracks, poor presentation and sloppy time keeping and a hugely irregular fixture list, but even then I still kept going because so much of my life had revolved around the sport, I was at Arena Essex every season (not every meeting but 90% of them) from 1988-2018 the only season I didn’t go was when they went into the NL because I remembered the disaster of trying to run a Hackney side a few years previous along side the main Lakeside team, and if Arena was still running I would go, even if it was NL because for all it’s ills I miss the good things, the noise, the smell the sheer sight of bikes being thrown into corners sideways at speed.

Flying Shale is quite good, you can input gating and passing values as well as home and away averages, play it yourself or let the CPU play it through for you.

Many years ago I ran a speedway sim, sadly I no longer have the spreadsheets for that to reference, all lost, however from what I can recall each stat has a multiply factor, gating was times 5, passing was times 4, team riding was times 1.5 or 2, I think the rest was straight numeric value, I can’t recall the calculation though of how I used to get the number down to a base figure that could then be used as a final result, I used excel and used complicated formulas which took a long time to refine and there was a percentage chance built in to allow for some leeway in results, I also used formulas to determined chance of falls, speedway scene was a big help in this as I used a lot of how that worked to determine percentages. its a complicated as you want to make it, spreadsheets can do calculations in milliseconds, you just have to know what you want it to do to give you the set of outcomes that best simulates what you are after.

I think it might be Ricky Sanford? It’s a long while ago but I am fairly sure Roland Pollard used to have dark coloured leathers so I ruled him out, both rode as junior for Arena but I can’t say I ever saw what they looked like facially.

Seating? I attended speedway for 30 years before Arena closed, did go to other tracks, seating was the last thing on my mind, as was covered areas but I get that older folk would required that, be it speedway or football I can't watch it live in person sitting down, just don't feel right.

I would take speedway in that guise if needed but I must say there were it feels, many occasions at Arena where the track was not up to normal standards when a match followed an afternoon of practice, it was smooth and safe, just really slick and it did affect the quality of racing on those evenings, especially in the warm summer months, but Rye is a different track and will hopefully more workable as regards proving a track that is not too heavy for practice but can still be tailored to provide plenty of grip for the evening.

RE Sunday, absolutely, the A414 you have the North Weald market traffic as well as the horse boxes to deal with, like Arena Essex, it really comes down to one true option, Saturday evenings.

Absolutely westhamboy, I wouldn’t likely attempt travelling on a Friday night for the reasons you give.

It was great to see some positive news in the star around Rye, fingers crossed this will happen, if not this season, at least 2021

Back in the original NL days they were a Sunday afternoon track, I think it might have been something to do with lack of lighting at the time? But I certainly recall visiting Rye many years later for evening meetings on a Sunday ie 6pm

Well I did hear some time ago a rumour that Pete Sampson and Martin Hagon wanted to run Rye House in the NL, but alas the AGM came and went and nothing was said, I hope either those two or someone else who is passionate about getting a club back will take on the challenge, for me living in Chelmsford a weekend (Saturday night) would be much better than a week night, especially Friday, traffic is just crazy and I am not even talking about the M25, the M11 and A414 is more than capable of causing enough mayhem on their own. I would certainly support Second division racing at Rye even though Arena Essex is technically my team.

Gutted for the second year on the trot there will be no speedway in either Hertfordshire or Essex

Race night made a big difference to Rye House, for me going there on a weekend is not too much trouble, but during the week I wouldn't want to go anywhere near the A414, M11 or Harlow.

The experiment at Rye didn’t work because for many Hammers fans, the club died the last night we raced at Arena Essex, and the Rye fans had no interest in supporting another team at their old home. I don’t think it cost Rye the chance of a comeback but it did cost the Hammers because the record will show that they went bankrupt regardless of wether they had a track to race on or not, if Arena Essex had a late reprieve and been able stage racing in 2019 after all would we have seen speedway? I doubt it, with Stuart Douglas out of the equation, it would have required a new promotion to step in and probably pay the outstanding fees.

Its a bit of a double edged sword though, if you make signing a Brit a big advantage then some of those riders might raise their wage requirements on the basis of demand, but if your a two pointer you will naturally want to be reasonably compensated as your points potential might be limited to beating fellow reserves.

Surely someone must know what clubs have declared an intent to run? And was one of them Rye House?