marko

Panthers in the driving seat and its theirs to lose, even at Arena this would be a tough ask to pull back but at Rye it will be hard enough to win the leg, never the mind the tie. If indeed BWD does not ride and can only be replaced by a NL rider it will be a leveller but I don't want to see that, I want to see two teams at full strength or as close as possible to it, it was a massive blow not having Kyle, Nick and Zach for the first leg, I think we could have been looking at a seriously tasty second leg had that been the case.

After all the rain we have had today, I doubt it will take much Sunday to put paid to events.

No one deserves to win, wins have to be earnt, same in any sport.

I will be doing a rain dance tomorrow, its hard enough without Kyle but to have Zach and Nick out too is to big an ask.

I would guess a doubler header the following Saturday taking on Panthers twice in different competitions, at least this time the Hammers will be no more tired in the second match than the Panthers.

To a degree though when two clubs are successful in several competitions at the same time, the likelihood is they will meet a few times too, the shield I think was drawn out of a hat, the koc the same and although Panthers choose to race us again in the play offs, aside from the repetitive nature, it makes sense travel wise and they know they can do well at Rye. The play offs the biggies and so you could say the shield and koc could be used a practice sessions but with something on the line.

Facing the same club four times in a row has got to be a record that will never be broken.

There is actually a weather warning now issued for Sunday, it’s more about strong winds than anything else, another event happening Sunday is an air show at Duxford, that’s likely to be serverly affected by the weather, unlike speedway though you have to buy tickets in advance and there is no refund. what is the situation at Rye regards available dates?

We have no choice but to use R/R for Newman. As for Zach I have looked at the green sheet averages and there isn't much choice out there, the best pick for the home leg could be Broc Nicol, Theo Pijper would also fit and is a very experienced rider and would be a good pick for Peterborough, I have no idea on his history at Rye.

Does Rye still have a tarmac base?

I started going at the end of 1988, introduced by a pal at school and until I passed my driving test I had to rely on parents to take us there, most of those early years you had the strange thing of paying on entry before you parked the car, this caused a real problem at one stage as I had very unreliable drivers electric window on my old Renault 21, we always used to joke about the state of the road leading up to the car park which was really bad until they resurfaced it many years later. Never counted how many times I went to Arena Essex but some rough maths would suggest it would be around about 450 times I reckon over the 30 years. Most enjoyable years were 1991, 1993 and 2003, the worst years were 1996, 2005 and 2006

Horrible crash, that split second where you see he was going to clip the back wheel AJ but could do nothing about it.

It was a race at Arena Essex in 1993 involving Brian Karger, Josh Larsen and Belle Vue's Jason Lyons, Jason went between both Hammers to go from third to first then Brian took back first place and Josh pipped Jason to the line to regain the 5-1 for the Hammers

I know it looks a straight run of A10 and A1M but still probably best part of a 2 hour drive if you stick to the speed limit?

Yes, nothing was cut and even though it was a very late finish there was no shortage of patrons who took the opportunity of doing the track walk afterwards, it was a real eye opener to see the track close up and how different it looks when your actually on it, and also the feel of the track under foot and how in some places it was like a very hard slightly sandy base but out towards the fence there was a lot of loose shale which I personally I wouldn't want to put a back wheel in knowing how these modern bikes can take off when they hook up.

I can't go as I will be working tonight but I cannot imagine this meeting being allowed to go beyond 11pm with so many houses near by, I know there is no curfew as such but I wouldn't be surprised if the second meeting is called after ten heats.

It was a really good crowd, I hope a few influential people were there last night to witness the fact there is still very much support there for a speedway track in Essex. As soon as I got in the car park you could see this was going to be a big crowd, I was really worried that they were going to run out of programs but I got lucky and still managed to get one, I would have been well and truly gutted if I had not because this was a lasting souvenir to our time at this venue, the meeting ended up dragging but to be honest I wasn't even aware of the time until later because it was just so nice to catch up with those who have not been for some time. It was what should have been a sad night but to me felt more like a celebration of the venues existence for all these years despite the many times that the stadium or the club itself has been up in the air as to whether it would see another season. The biggest thing was that it wasn't the end of the club full stop, we keep going at another venue for the time being and I do intend to support that now where I can because although my head says we will never have a track in Essex again, my heart says otherwise. So we still have a team, we have somewhere to race, now we just need an organisation who can run British Speedway properly and orderly.

Yes that is not fair on anyone, they should have had the option of using the rained off program as part admission for the double header, how much extra surplus is fair for a double header? well £10-12 probably.

I am just not convinced its being done for the reasons they say, one week we are being told they want to stay at Arena either as sole tenants or with another motorsport promotion and then the next we are told not motorsports can take place at Arena Essex after this year, time will tell I guess but I wouldn't be surprised if this time next season the site looks exactly as it does today albeit with a few extra weeds growing around the place. At the end of the day its about what is in here (the heart) and that for me is the place, not the name of the team who races there as such, being old school I will always be an Arena Essex Hammer, the whole Lakeside thing has never sat well with me (its like they tried to bury the past because Arena Essex was always seen as a cinderella club but they still won more than Lakeside have) but its still Arena Essex, take away the Arena and I have very little left to be emotionally invested in, so sure you can move to another track, call it Lakeside (even though its 40 miles away) but that's not my past, Arena Essex is my past.

OK, well if its going to be exactly the same at Rye House then I would like to offer some constructive advise if I may, please announce the starting line ups in the proper order White - Yellow - Red - Blue, I understand you have been going to speedway long enough to know this is how its done, Re the music, I don't really care what you play so long as it is different on week by week basis and not just the exact same song recycled from the previous, I mean I like R.E.M but every meeting I have been too this season (and only missed 2 or 3) I am sure you have played "losing my religion" now its a good song but its not that good! We were promised before the season starting that presentation and the show in general was going to be made better, it hasn't, suddenly moving tracks isn't going to fix that, its part of the overall package and should not be ignored no matter how good the racing is on the track itself.

This reminds me of 1996 when Terry Russell took his licence and assets and moved it to Hackney, new club, new name, the London Lions neither carried on the history of Arena Essex or the Hackney Kestrels, it started a fresh, but it was a disaster of a season and whilst I went to all the meetings at Hackney it never felt like home, Fortunately Arena Essex carried on in the development league, it wasn’t great but it allowed the club to transition back to lower league racing which was always its natural place. Stuart and Jon are entitled to take their promoting licence whoever they choose but it won’t be Arena Essex, they decided not to try seek a future their, what they have done is no different to Terry Russell, he moved when he saw an opportunity to go to a better stadium, Stuart and Jon are doing exactly the same except Terry never pretended to be Arena Essex, he targeted a London based fan base and any others hoping on board would be a bonus.

For me I will go on Friday for one last time, not for the benefit of the current promotion but for old time sake, it’s like I have always said, the owners and riders will come and go but the fans always remain, it’s our club and that club is closing this Friday, it might continue at Rye for the remainder of the season but after that, it is the end, there will be no track, no Arena Essex, no Lakeside, the current promotion can move to Rye full time if they like but it won’t be our club, it will be theirs.

Potential disaster running two meetings on the trot with only six riders, that's a lot of wear and tear on the other six, our reserves could easily end up having 12 rides each over the course of the night if there are any further problems, rider replacement always means bigger gaps between heats with riders having two on the trot, we only have one man who can drive the tractors so grading breaks take longer, will Rye track staff be allowed to help or will Ken insist on doing everything himself as normal? grading and watering takes longer if there is only one man doing it. We need to get these meeting on, I understand that, but a 7pm is really just not a sensible idea.

I agree 6pm would have been more sensible, does Rye House have a curfew at all being so close to housing? If I choose to go it could be very touch and go as to whether I would be able to stay for all of the second meeting as I will be on night shift and then I have to worry about whether I will be able to get out of the car park as I could be boxed in, too many ifs and buts for me to risk it. Also no mention of what the price will be for the double header, with a meeting on the Friday too, pricing will have to be kept sensible otherwise for two adults you could be looking at the best part of £100-£120 if you include programs over two days.

Its always been a pet peev of mine when people say a track is ridable, fans do not pay money to come and watch "riding", they pay to come and watch "racing".