IainB

Afraid not... seen too many matches cancelled on incorrect forecasts and then watched too many matches at the end of the season, with too much at stake on atrocious tracks... Agree to disagree :-)

I well remember the summer of '76 as I got horribly sunburned as a young pup on Fistral beach in Cornwall, I still have the scars on my shoulders!! One can't help but wonder if the match would have been cancelled so far in advance if it had been in front of the cameras?

What a very sad state of affairs we've arrived at. One wonders if sponsors are even being approached for such opportunities

Yes, I get that, but the GP was postponed back in April... And Eastbourne are running a double header on Sunday directly against the Silverstone GP, a very brave move.

Mr Watson, I'm always happy to correct and apologise for any factual inaccuracies, what I will not apologise for are my opinions as that is all they are, my opinions, you may disagree with them that's fine they're worth absolutely nothing and are all part of the "discussion". What does not help discussion are incendiary posts telling me my post is peurile rubbish, so on this I accept your apology and offer mine for anything I said that has offended you. It is never my intention to offend anybody but if somebody attacks me, I'm afraid the gloves are off. Perhaps a reasoned post in response like the one above would have been a better way to go. If you'll permit me I will go through the considerations had you been the one to make the call. I do accept the postponement as there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Is the track under water - yes - was the track underwater at the time of cancellation, I'm not sure we know this Is more rain forecast - yes it is Can the track be pumped off and dry out evenly (bear in mind the huge grandstand at Peterborough and that when watering for a normal meeting they often don't water under the shade) - probably not - depends how wet it was at time of cancellation Even if there's no more rain can the tractors etc. get onto the track to prepare a racing surface - doubtful - again we don't know Is the rest of the stadium useable? The grass car-parks and the pits have been known to flood at the Showground - we don't know Will fans, riders and officials incur costs that will be wasted if there is a late call-off - what do we define as a late cancellation, I would say anything after 6pm on the day of the match Will other costs be incurred for a late call-off, rent, medical, staff etc - again, how late is late Maybe an extra consideration should be, what kind of knock on effect is this going to have on future fixtures, not just by the decision that Peterborough made but also other clubs that call fixtures off based on forecasts. You may not be a troll but chasing me down on another thread again calling me peurile and ignorant is pretty troll like behaviour. As for the Coventry , Mr Horton and by association you, situation, this is still a very emotive topic for many people so it may be best to let that particular sleeping dog lie. All the best. Iain

Mr Watson is correct in the fact the meeting was called off 24 hours in advance. I don't know where I came up with 36 hours from and apologise for my mistake... Still too early to call it off though imo, they should have left it until around noon on the day of the match like clubs always used to, and many still do, before fans, riders and officials start off with their journey's.

Who, me? I've not deleted anything. Watson is trolling me from another thread

My own local track, Leicester, cancelled a match at the beginning of 2018 based on a weather forecast, the forecast was wrong, no rained appeared, consequently as a knock on effect, with other clubs no doubt doing the same kind of thing the play off finals at the end of the season were constantly being cancelled due to actual real rain with the 2nd leg of the final being run on a dismal Tuesday evening in Glasgow (is there any other kind)... that's the showpiece event in the whole season, the big crowd puller. Take a look at this weekend, glorious weather is forecast and yet there is no meeting on anywhere in the country! I can possibly see the logic of cancelling a meeting if a weather front is heading across the country and there is a massively high probability that rain is going to hit... but in the current spate of showers we are having it's a lottery whether you'll get rain or not, especially if you're making that decision 36 hours out. So the fixture list goes out of the window because you may or may not get rain. Why have a fixture list at all? If the way of things is that meetings are to be called of as a matter of course due to weather forecasts, the "sport" in this country in it's current league structure is not viable. I'm not that desperate to know, I just asked the question and everybody piled on defending the decision to cancel based on an incorrect forecast.

1. Floppy 2. Shaggy I'm struggling now

Still nobody has told me how long it takes the track to dry in the summer and nobody has said whether the meeting would have gone ahead with a better forecast. All I got was the right decision was made... even though the forecast was wrong. Reasonable explanations lol, "my parents live near the track", I'm a promoter, I know what the track can take... don't make me laugh

Oh dear, somebody's had a sense of humour failure Always suspected you were a Poole fan deep down... explains a lot

Do a big poo at Poole for me, thanks

It's a pantomime... Ohhhh yes it is!

At the risk of sounding like a repeating record (remember those!). You'd do well to know Speedway existed in Leicester and you'd actually have to go out of your way to find out we are the defending League and Shield holders. The "promotion" have done nothing with the titles they spend the whole year trying to secure... so what's the point in it all? but all of the participants are the right side of 60... I don't know why there's such a disparity between those that watch and those that compete. The rest button needs pressing with Speedway in this country, the sooner we realise we are not Poland and we are not Sweden the quicker the recovery of the sport will be. The people that currently go may like to stand around on wind swept terraces for 2 and a half hours in some cases watching 15 minutes of action. People's attention span these days just isn't there. Cricket has gone T20, they're going even less now with The 100, F1 are introducing sprint races, we need a 90 minute show with 30 races on standardised machinery for starters

You're right we will probably never know the ins and outs of what happened at Coventry so until we do all I can do is base my opinions on what I hear about people and I've never heard a bad word said about Sandhu from anybody that has ever worked or ridden for him... Horton on the other hand... And Watson never gets a mention, but was joint helmsmen of the club at the point of closure. The club knew they had to find a new home for 5 years, yet did nothing to secure a new venue just milking the golden t1t in the hope that Sandhu would change his mind. Just because you've put money into a club or are involved with a club certainly doesn't qualify you and perhaps if the people that risk their money every week (the paying fan) were listened to a bit more then the sport wouldn't be in the state it is... these "promoters" have overseen the ruin of the sport. I can't ever recall a meeting being called off on the basis of a weather forecast until recently it just wasn't a thing. If it now is a thing because those in charge have run the sport into the ground then that's obviously now the way of the world. I hope you're using the word "promoted" very loosely, after your 3 terms at the club crowds are at an all time low. You know the track and what is possible to do with it, you've probably done as many laps around it as I have and you have as much knowledge of the weather around the track as Mystic Meg. It's good that you have such a high opinion of yourself. As for your words about Mick Horton... I'm reaching for the sick bucket "let him who is without sin cast the first stone", I thought I was quite reasonably asking why the match was called off so far in advance based, how long it would take the track to dry out in the summer and would it have gone ahead with a better forecast... that's all and then I got told it was "puerile rubbish", I thought Neil was better than that... obviously he's no better than the rest of us.

He's probably just a paying fan... absolutely of no importance at all

Being co-promoter and part custodian of the Coventry name at the point the club closed you have arguably done more to ruin Speedway in this country than any other man with the exception of Mick Horton... so I'll take no lessons on how a club should be run from you. In case you need your memory jogging: https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/speedway/coventry-bees-speedway-team-sale-12666571? Just search for "Watson" you actually get a couple of mentions

See you at Brandon on Friday then... oh hang on a minute...

Well, that's the chance you take when basing decisions on forecasts instead of what is actually happening. And your track record as a "promoter" isn't exactly brilliant. Number of clubs I have closed down? Nil

I was absolutely not inconvenienced in the slightest, all I was doing was questioning the wisdom in postponing a meeting based on a weather forecast that was 36 in advance of the event. People seem to be reading a lot more into it that is actually the case. I hope you don't seed based on the weather forecasts or we'd be in a state of famine in this country Have you seen the Clarkson series on his farm... an excellent piece of TV and a real eye opener for the uneducated like myself

Good day... you've seen the forecast

I don't doubt there was rain Friday/Saturday. All I'm asking is if the forecast was for what the weather turned out to be would they have not postponed it? Why bring forecasts into it? I went out for a walk this morning, the forecast told me the sun was shining... I had to return home after 5 minutes to get my coat as it started to rain... I made the wrong decision leaving the home without a coat. It looks like it's going to be a successful season for Peterborough, so I hope they don't run out of dates at the end of the year when they could have possibly been running on sunny summer nights

Hmm... I'm glad you brought that up because it reminds me that in the last Sheffield match they posted on twitter that the match was on, a number of people were asking what the weather was like and whoever does the Twitter just ignored what the fans were asking. That's why I was so shocked when I got there to see the meeting in serious danger of being cancelled because of "visibility" issues. Nobody likes wasted journey's but I prefer to watch my speedway on a sunny summer's evening rather than a cold wet October one. We all know in this country the weather forecast is only good for the upcoming few hours. Like you say dates are limited at the EoEA which makes the decision to cancel that early all the more puzzling.

So, it was the correct decision... but the wrong decision, OK. You run, until you can't. First rule of show business, the show MUST go on. If they were going to call it off based on Friday nights rain... just say so, don't bring the forecast into it or in future you get the fans second guessing what the forecast is going to be... which can quite often differ depending on which website/app you're looking at.

Would it have been called off if the weather forecast had predicted the weather that actually arrived? If yes, then fair enough... but why bring the forecast into it?