marko

Easy to say after the event, when I made my post your track was likely bone dry. FWIW I hope you can fit your fixtures in and make the play offs, as I like the Plymouth team and especially the track. Just a shame about Dan Gilkes.

50% chance of light rain 24 hours ahead of the meeting and they call it off? Sorry but that’s pathetic, might as well end the season now if this is the yard stick.

No one can argue with that, it’s a proper rain off, unlike the fake offs that some promoters mentioning no names (cough Godfrey) always con the paying public with.

I am please however to see Jason Edwards going so well, had Arena Essex not gone, I am sure he would be riding for us still.

Andy Smith always used to struggle on small tracks, his son looks even worse at this stage. This Newcastle team is even worse than some of the Milton Keynes sides I recall seeing in the late 80s

Unless the forecast is so bad as it accompanies a weather warning or very close to, then it should not be called off in advance. Its hard on everyone when you have a dry day then it decides to rain at start time but that is life.

Yep and what’s worse is in its latter days Lakeside would often only have two or three fixtures in the school summer holidays, I am sure other tracks saw a similar story.

Individuals stopped being attended when the promoters decided to dilute the product by only using 12 riders and often that was 7 home riders and a few second strings/reserves from other clubs. The super national marathon at Arena Essex was once a highlight of the season, seven hammers plus nine others often made up of NL heat leaders from teams like Rye House, Hackney, Ipswich, Wimbledon, Eastbourne etc, only half the field would qualify for the 8 man final and only the top four would get to start off the front in said final. it was very competitive, it meant something and so the fans brought into it and this was second division. Oh and those 16 riders, you could bet everyone of them had jobs outside of speedway and they worked those around their racing commitments.

Birmingham has often been referred to the Mecca of the Midlands, a large percentage but not a majority of it is Asian, I have never seen anyone at a speedway track who isn’t white. Unless you count Antonio Lindback. So nearly half the population of Birmingham you can rule out for a start, it’s a big City with lots to do probably? So competing with other events and business is going to be extremely hard, and that’s assuming it’s even on the radar in the first place which it probably isn’t.

Loads of reasons why a club could be disliked. 1. The track - a lot of people hated on Lakeside because they did not like the size and shape of the track 2. The stadium - if it was hard to get to, parking a pain, or the viewing not very good. 3. The owner/promoter - if there was a feeling that said owner/promoter had abused the rules or taken advantage in an unsportsmanlike like manner. 4. The riders - if a team started to get a reputation for being a little over the top with their racing tactics. 5. The price of success - everyone loves an underdog, seldom do neutrals wants to see the same team always win everything. 6. Social media - Every club will have a minority supporters who’s only aim in life is to wind others up, but that can reflect badly on the club they choose to claim to represent. Any three or more of those six and the chances are your club is not going to be very well liked.

And then they wonder when it’s raining but they really do want to get the meeting on, why no one turns up. And it has to said, for all the shouting that Mr Dickson does about this being the best track, it doesn’t say much if your not confident it can take a little bit of watering.

Can’t recall it’s name but that dog at the show ground was quite well known and often referenced on this forum. I used to see dogs at Arena Essex, there was one on the home straight who used to get very excited wagging its tail seemingly when the Hammers done well.

You can’t take a greyhound into a greyhound stadium, I know it’s not funny but I can’t help but laugh at the irony of that.

If this is now standard fair from Leicester, more meetings from this track please

Chalk and cheese from the Leicester track that first was seen at that location to the one they have now, not seen a meeting from here for ages maybe a few seasons, this meeting is very good.

The tweet said rained off, that’s a lie, the track was fine when they made the decision. The meeting was cancelled because the promoter took it upon himself to pull the plug rather than wait and see. Either way its cost him money and a certain amount of credibility, not that he has much anyway, at least with fans of other tracks.

You can have the best information system there is but you still need people to want to access it. You can bet the people who turned up for this meeting, left home in the dry and drove in the dry, why would they need to check? The only person who should be able to call a meeting off is the booked ref or a local ref who would turn up and declare the track unfit based on its condition at that point i time, not what it might look like later.

People will only check when they perceive a need to, if it’s a dry day you can’t blame people for assuming a meeting will be on. If every track postponed a meeting because it might rain in the evening, we might as well not bother.

Sport making a rock for its back as usual, the more they keep calling meetings off because of a "what if" means when it really is raining and they are wanting to get the meeting on, no one turns up because they will not believe it. Its like the boy who cried Wolf

So will this be over a number of meetings and then all of that rendered pointless by a flip of the coin in the final round so a pair dominating the competition by a country mile still loses.

I had Oxford down at top four contenders but from what I have seen so far they are nowhere near that. Feel so sorry for Dan Gilles and Plymouth, the boy was flying and would have meant Bowtell probably dropping to reserve at some point. As an ex Arena fan, I love (Southends finest) Ben Morley and whilst he will do well at Plymouth, he won’t be able to match what Dan would have scored on the road.

Blimey that is a really narrow track, bet it’s a nightmare to try and team ride on well.

I just want to say how wonderful it is to have this track back. Best of luck to both teams

Feel sorry for any Hammers fans who went. Staved of speedway for 4 years and you get a long drawn out meeting with six riders and rider replacement. All the things that we used to detest about the sport.

Plymouth fully deserved that point Good track Crap ref