Ben Fund Meeting

[Sandie]

Hi Sandie, nope I didn't supply details of what happened in the case of riders finishing on the same points - I think in a meeting like this, a bit of fluidity and common sense is the better solution. Putting Crump & Kasprzak both into the final seems like a fair solution.

 

As for not having collection buckets, everybody attending yesterday was already contributing to the Ben Fund. Therefore it would have something of a cheek to also have a collection at the same meeting. Don't worry, we will be bugging you with a bucket later in the season (notes are easier, they are less heavy)

 

All the best

Rob

Haha Rob.

Okay no problem I'll have a written IOU ready for you

x

[spikethebike]

Overall a decent enough meeting, many of the races were competitive and only a handful were processsions. Thoroughly impressed and a little surprised by the performances of Neath and Johnno.

 

I agree with those that thought the presentation fell short of the mark - pathetic sound system and a somewhat amateurish feel to certain parts of the proceedings. Anyone could see the track was a dry as a bone at the start and a pre meeting sprinkling of water would not have jeopardised the meeting even if heavy showers had hit during the afternoon.

 

In terms of the racing - heat 1 was a cracker but the spill seemed to knock Leigh Adam's confidence way more than Nicki's and Leigh looked a little tentative and disinterested in getting in the thick of his more competitive rides after that - possibly a sign of things to come this season but the jury is out until we have seen more racing.

 

Crump looked scarily quick early on but seemed to tire as the meeting went on - not surprising given his fitness, and its likely he is a few weeks behind schedule compared to Nicky.

 

Nicky's gating was the key to his unbeaten tally. He always seemed to have the better reflexes from the gate and real drive into bend one. Looked very similar to the tenacious and well prepared Nicky of 2008, though I felt Crump had marginally better straightline speed for a couple of laps in their first heat match up.

 

Lindgren looked quick at times and slow at others. Did OK without impressing and will need to find major improvement again to become a top 5 GP rider.

 

KK looked sharp and I suspect this could be a breakthrough year for him consistency wise. The 20/1 on offer a BetFred for Highest GS seems to offer more value than many of the others at shorter prices, especially as he will be dominant at Lakeside.

 

Of the others Woffinden was woeful, as was Shields. NKI and Nicholls showed the odd glimpse of quality but generally poor. Eddie Kennett seemed at home on the small track and it will be interesting to see if he takes this form to the bigger tracks.

 

Of course the riders are experimenting with bikes and set ups, but these early meetings often show who is likely to start the season in decent fettle and whether any material improvement from 2009 is coming.

[Bryn]

But you didnt come up with a formula to decide who goes through in the event of equal scores!! DOH.

Three to final was my call as well. Seemed the right thing to do. BUt poor old Johno would have loved the chance of a semi. Did anyone check that Ben didnt supply a two headed coin for the toss up!

 

Good fun meeting though and I am sure LOTS was raised.

 

But as someone has just mentioned - why no collection buckets. Would have made a fortune.

The little lady with the raffle tickets tried -but bless her heart, she wasnt assertive - it was a case of "Raffle tickets anyone, or maybe not! Okay"

She was sweet, a lovely volunteer but not a goer!

 

Please do not take the above as critism as it most definately isnt. Lots of people doing lots of work yesterday for the cause - excellent work and thanks to all of them.

Just thoughts for future years.

 

And constructive thoughts Sandie which I would hope, in fact feel sure, will be noted and worked upon by the SRBF for next year's meeting.

 

No one involved 'behind the scenes' as it were in this great sport of ours, least of all myself I would hope, is above what I term as 'constructive criticism' - in fact I most certainly welcome it as indeed I'm sure others do, and am more than willing to discuss such matters face to face, by email phone or via the private message facility on this forum with those offering same and I'm sure most others would too.

 

But am I alone in thinking that it's all too easy, and increasingly prevalent, for some to post on this and other forums that 'such and such or so and so' was/were crap whilst hiding behind the comfort of some made up nickname to avoid identification?

Edited March 15, 2010 by Bryn

[zonkers]

But as someone has just mentioned - why no collection buckets. Would have made a fortune.

 

There was !! Ben was wandering around with a bucket !

 

 

[i_support_no_team]

I hadn't been speedway since I was a kid (mid thirties now) at hackney but I watch all the televised meetings throughout the year and decided to go to Rye House as it's quite local, there was a quality line up and it was for a good cause.

 

I was almost put off going by some of the posters on here talking about drunken behaviour however Im glad I wasnt. I hardly saw anyone drinking let alone bad behaviour so i cant understand why people feel they have to be negative all the time.

 

I found the racing enjoyable, the people friendly and if I could make a recommendation it would be to put in a play area for the kids as my were bored quite quickly, and maybe turn up the volume on the sound system a tiny bit.

 

I came away thinking, I will definitely be coming back to watch the speedway

[Glenn]

What were people expecting - A GP Meeting !

Scott Nicholls sumed it up with his comments -'I'm here to support the fund

and have a good time.

 

And the fund will benefit greatly from having it at Rye as opposed to a track where a rental

for the meeting would have taken a large slice of the profit.

 

[srbramble]

It seems that a lot of folk attended yesterdays meeting didn't expect to be entertained, and are quite happy with a couple of passes out of 22 heats of racing. Not me. I would quite happily put my £15 quid in an envelope and sent it to the fund managers, if I'd known what we were going to get. I must have imagined the adverts in the Star that got our juices flowing about the class field. What they should have said was; " first meeting of the year teething problems, riders a bit rusty and still to dial their bikes in after a long winter, track my be a little devoid of dirt, but come along anyway, give us your £15 quid, it is for a good cause after all, but don't expect anything special".

No, the fans were properly mugged yesterday, and if they wheel out the same excuses each year, then hold it in the middle of the season, so we get the best entertainment possible.

[Bryn]

It seems that a lot of folk attended yesterdays meeting didn't expect to be entertained, and are quite happy with a couple of passes out of 22 heats of racing. Not me. I would quite happily put my £15 quid in an envelope and sent it to the fund managers, if I'd known what we were going to get. I must have imagined the adverts in the Star that got our juices flowing about the class field. What they should have said was; " first meeting of the year teething problems, riders a bit rusty and still to dial their bikes in after a long winter, track my be a little devoid of dirt, but come along anyway, give us your £15 quid, it is for a good cause after all, but don't expect anything special".

No, the fans were properly mugged yesterday, and if they wheel out the same excuses each year, then hold it in the middle of the season, so we get the best entertainment possible.

 

And how exactly would you expect them, i.e. the SRBF, to be able to attract a huge turn out of fans from all parts of the country such as we witnessed yesterday at whatever track such a mid-season meeting was held, let alone put together a star studded line up with matches taking place up and down this country on the same day and given riders foreign league, Grand Prix, World Team Cup etc etc commitments?

 

[Sandie]

There was !! Ben was wandering around with a bucket !

oh confuzzled!

Im sure the commentator guy said, as Ben walked passed him with an empty bucket, that he had run out of sweets and was going back to fill it up!!! And I believed that, although he never came near us with the refill.

In fact, if it was a bucket he never came to the first bend side of the pits all meeting!

 

Seriously, although I paid to get in, paid for my programme etc I was still ready to add a few quid to a bucket.

WIll do it on the next venture to a stadium.

[orion]

And constructive thoughts Sandie which I would hope, in fact feel sure, will be noted and worked upon by the SRBF for next year's meeting.

 

No one involved 'behind the scenes' as it were in this great sport of ours, least of all myself I would hope, is above what I term as 'constructive criticism' - in fact I most certainly welcome it as indeed I'm sure others do, and am more than willing to discuss such matters face to face, by email phone or via the private message facility on this forum with those offering same and I'm sure most others would too.

 

But am I alone in thinking that it's all too easy, and increasingly prevalent, for some to post on this and other forums that 'such and such or so and so' was/were crap whilst hiding behind the comfort of some made up nickname to avoid identification?

 

 

ZZZZZZZZZZZ change the record if had a pound for every time you posted the same thing ....as you be told before if you don't like people who voice there criticism behind a screen names then don't go on forums ...then you won't have to worry about it will you ?

[Dietbowers]

Just got back from the meeting,we decided we`d make an overnight stop,so there was plenty of liquids consumed

Must admit that we all enjoyed the meeting and the day.

Glad I`m off this week though,I`ll have a drying out day today,but back on the fluids the rest of the week

[srbramble]

And how exactly would you expect them, i.e. the SRBF, to be able to attract a huge turn out of fans from all parts of the country such as we witnessed yesterday at whatever track such a mid-season meeting was held, let alone put together a star studded line up with matches taking place up and down this country on the same day and given riders foreign league, Grand Prix, World Team Cup etc etc commitments?

 

Well, that's exactly my point. The fans are wheeling out the excuses yet again, as to why we had to suffer another poor meeting. I would imagine that the insiders know exactly what we are going to get, yet, once again, they hold a meeting at the wrong time of the year, advertise it like it's the second coming, and that is the result. Yeah, sure it's for a good cause blah blah blah, but I'm sick of the excuses as to why a meeting was poor, as opposed to actually giving the punters what they pay for, and put right all the things that are humanly possible that make for a good meeting. Jeez, it's not like they haven't done it before.

faux pas of the meeting? You calling Tai, Rob Woffinden. Give it up, old fella.

Edited March 15, 2010 by srbramble

[colincooke]

I don't care if anyone thought this was a poor meeting, it was a enjoyable day out with lovely people to meet & freinds to enjoy it with.

The cause was far more important than anything anyone thinks & some of you here don't even care to mention it.

That unbecoming British trait of moaning for the sake of moaning looms large once again, sad people

Sunday 14th March 2010: A lovely day @ Rye House, Thank you all.

[Dietbowers]

I don't care if anyone thought this was a poor meeting, it was a enjoyable day out with lovely people to meet & freinds to enjoy it with.

The cause was far more important than anything anyone thinks & some of you here don't even care to mention it.

That unbecoming British trait of moaning for the sake of moaning looms large once again, sad people

Sunday 14th March 2010: A lovely day @ Rye House, Thank you all.

Oi,you didn`t want to talk to me

 

[colincooke]

Oi,you didn`t want to talk to me

cripes i didn't realise it we're you even.

RM management ignorance must be getting to me, slightly

Edited March 15, 2010 by colincooke

[Dietbowers]

cripes i didn't realise it we're you even.

RM management ignorance must be getting to me, slightly

No worries,besides,if you had of stopped and talked,it would have been your round

It wasn`t just on track that a furious pace was set

 

[RobMcCaffery]

ZZZZZZZZZZZ change the record if had a pound for every time you posted the same thing ....as you be told before if you don't like people who voice there criticism behind a screen names then don't go on forums ...then you won't have to worry about it will you ?

 

Well I'm not surprised you have to hide behind a fake name given the utter garbage that you post to this forum. I'd be ashamed to put my name to it too.

 

So the choice for the likes of Bryn is just to take it or quit the forum?

 

Anyway this is about the Ben Fund meeting not your right to anonymous, pathetic wind-ups.

 

Rob McCaffery.

[Pinny]

Had a great day out. Thought it was a good meeting tbh.

 

Pedersen head and shoulders above the rest. Horrible crash in heat 1 in the dust with Pedersen and Adams. Adams didn't look interested after that.

 

Glad Wato came through OK... a poor decision by the ref not to stop heat 5 when Sitera got totally out of shape in front of him and Wato laid it down. Rode a cracker to hold off Scheiln in his last ride.

 

All in all, a great day out, enjoyed the lager and enjoyed being the last ones to leave the Rye House pub next to the stadium

[orion]

Well I'm not surprised you have to hide behind a fake name given the utter garbage that you post to this forum. I'd be ashamed to put my name to it too.

 

So the choice for the likes of Bryn is just to take it or quit the forum?

 

Anyway this is about the Ben Fund meeting not your right to anonymous, pathetic wind-ups.

 

Rob McCaffery.

 

 

??? how can read my posts if i am on your ignore list ? most people on here think you post utter garbage but we still have to read it but seeing you put it in your own name i guess it's ok ?

Edited March 15, 2010 by orion

[Daniel Smith]

Just out of interest, does anyone know why Topinka had such a shocker. He's usually pretty sharp round Rye. Was it just a case of first meeting Gremlins???????