idanthyrsus

Yes, I have read it. The problems were of robs own making.

Thanks for that. The links don't work - but I found them from companies house. I'm surprised that Rob was allowed to be a company director after the NewSpeed company was effectively declared bankrupt and was unable to fulfill it's creditors. Obviously passed the directors check, which I'm surprised about.

Something looks wrong here. Ordinary Share Capital is simply the value of the shares that an individual holds - but if the company isn't making any profit, any dividends would be zero in any case - unless that money was used for something other than dividends? Was this money from the company used to pay George for the sale of the club? In essence using the club to pay for the purchase, which I personally believe shouldn't be allowed - ask Manchester United or Burnely FC fans about this.... I'd be somewhat surprised if a business account the size of Newcastle Speedway was allowed a bank overdraft of this amount, especially since HMRC are very twitchy about unpaid VAT bills as they are no longer front of the queue with the liquidator. I haven't seen the liquidators reports - have you got a link please? So, if VAT had been incorrectly calculated for five years resulting in a £158k short fall, this could have been largely paid by the £100k that was taken out of the club. Having said that, I don't know who was the recipient of this £100k, but it still stands out like a sore thumb in the company accounts. Definition of Ordinary Share Capital: "Ordinary share capital, in relation to a company, means all the company’s issued share capital (however described), other than capital the holders of which have a right to a dividend at a fixed rate but have no other right to share in the company’s profits"

Except there was enough funds in the club to pay the vat until rob spent it on something else. You can see 100k going out after Rob took control. Vat is always paid in arrears

Sadly predictable. Doesn't help anybody. The current promotion has lurched from one disaster to the next. Be it lack of due diligence prior to the purchase, regularly putting together sub-standard teams, lack of engagement with the supporter base and frequent threats of closure. When people have offered help, it would appear their offers have been ignored. So when the real crunch comes then the promotion were on their own. Sounds to me like they are cutting their losses now, so that the money in the club is not lost. They aren't going bankrupt, they are liquidating the company in essence. Which means they will get some of their money back once the liquidators have done their work. Given some of the appalling decisions made by the BSPA in the last ten years I can't really see speedway generating enough interest in this country for Newcastle Speedway to make a comeback in the near future. Given that the SGP series is popular and with Eurosport having league racing on the TV, the conditions for success are better than they have ever been, yet the controlling body still can't get the setup correct. This sorry debacle is a sad reflection on the sport in this country.

This is painful to watch. The team is simply not upto standard. The only thing we (i.e. Newcastle Supporters) have to look forward to is long, wooden and spoon shaped.

Take my advice. Ditch the Pits Marshal job and take the comms office role

Why? It's what you do anyway, so presumably you could get some cash (I'm assuming it's not for free!) for doing what you do naturally? I can't think of a better candidate for the position. Who do I need to hire to press gang Steve into that role

The third and fourth bend looked absolutely fine. The first and second bend didn't look too bad on the inside. Obviously where the deep stuff was it didn't look to clever, but that's where rider options come into play. That track could have been sorted in 30 minutes.

Whoa feller. I think Steve Park should be the mouthpiece for the club, because he always posts factual information. He normally does it quickly and in a concise and friendly manner. BTW, if you read this Steve - I will collect my £20 for the job endorsement in due course. But, you did often sat things along the lines of "I know what's about to happen but I can't tell you". Which with better comms from the "official" channels, wouldn't be necessary. And by the way, I have never made anything up or put anything on this forum that hasn't related to an actual past event, so you may be mistaking me for somebody else.

Cheap skate. Shale is better

Well... I completely agree with the statements made above. However.... Aren't you the person who deals in rumours, whispers and insinuation as a normal method of communication Nearly Honest John

Getting to the heart of the matter, around 90% of fans are red and blue supporters. If you don't win at home, then they are going to lose interest and not come back. If you have a big number one who is exciting to watch, that can mitigate a poor team. For the last few years, Newcastle have had a poor team with a poor number 1. Hence the drop in crowds is depressingly predictable.

Thanks for that. I think you raise some valid points in the post above. Obviously there is no one point that causes people to walk out. A poor team is the first one though - with a good team would the communication matter? It's impossible to control communication in the modern age. So, it's a different world than it was back up until about 2015 I think. BUT even when Newcastle had a poor team, we normally had a good number 1 - I think that's one of the points I'm trying to make I take the point that in the modern world, zero communication is absolutely unforgiveable. Obviously I don't get to Brough any more, so it's worrying that the die hards are walking out

I completely disagree with this statement. I started watching Speedway in 1991 at Brough Park. The promoters at the time were proper penny pinchers, up to the point we were siphoning diesel out of the dogs tractors into the speedway tractors on a sunday morning.... George came along and with help re-instated Newcastle Speedway. The administration under George has it's detractors, but there was always a competative team put on track. There was normally a very good rider (if not several), so even if the team didn't do particularly well, we would win the vast majority of our home matches and even if finishing mid-table there was some top class riders to look forward to watching. Think of the following: Mark Thorpe, Dave Bargh, Paul Thorp, Nikki Pederson, Kenny Larsen, Paul Bentley, Jesper Olsen, Bjarne Pederson and then more recently, Richie and Steve Worrall, Rob Lambert and probably many more I've missed. As Rob has consistently assembled a very poor team, I think that people have voted with their feet. Losing by more than 30 points to Redcar was unforgiveable and should never happen again. For a team to be that poor at home beggars belief. I can't get to home matches anymore because I no longer live in Newcastle, but I make every effort to get to away matches that are close to me. But it takes a lot of effort to travel 120 miles to watch your team not even be competative and get smashed every match. This is why the crowds are down. Nothing to do with communication. Remember, back when the previous promotion was putting together strong teams, there was no social media. The only reall method of communication was via the match program. The current administration have a lot of opportunities to improve. Of course, it's more difficult now with the amount of riders that are available, but doing business early is key in this regard. Hopefully lessons can be learned.