Brandonapolis Is Back

[Blazeaway]

Note to the riders tonight (mainly Nicki Pedersen and Troy Batchelor), a speedway race is 4 laps at all times, not just when you're in a point scoring position.

 

I'm sure the three times world champion will take your advice on board mate.

 

And in case anybody thinks Pedersen had two engine failures, he didn't. He just gave up twice whilst in fourth place. No fight at all from Nicki tonight, when he didn't gate he just drifted backwards and wasn't interested.

 

All the best

Rob

 

 

Who can blame him at the start of a long season on a less than perfect track.

[gypilgrim]

 

I had been to the Scunny-Stoke match, returned to Grimsby, had a cup of tea, submitted my thoughts on the match on the Forum, sorted out the air bed for my lads mate who was sleeping over, had a glass of wine, washed and got ready for bed............. and they had still not completed the Final at Cov !!!!!

[philfromcov]

actually the trck was very very good especially considering the weather, it always looked good.

 

the late running of meetings is becoming a pain and they need to sharpen up, last season league meeting would end at 10:30!

 

why cancell the parade and then mess around, "lets give the unkown pole more time to fix his bike" wrong wrong wrong!

 

POSITIVES

 

eddie looked impresive and nice to see roo boy showing a bit of balls giving crump a hard time

davy watt from apprently the 2010 elite league chumpions 3/4 a lap behined everyone else, no wonder holder stayed away!

 

NEGATIVES

 

well i wont list then apart from riders giving up to quickly the huge number of engine problems.... or where they faked too?

but as mentioned before presentation zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

yorkie go home please i cannie take it anymore captain!

 

oh and the back straight bar closed!

 

[Matt Davis]

Two things to say about last nights meeting..

 

 

1 - Well done to Mick and the track crew for getting the track in a decent condition considering the weather

 

2 - I dont get upset/annoyed about Speedway anymore but one thing did make me think "even this is stupid for Speedway". Why on earth in the Semi Final and Final did the helmet covers not corespond to the gate positions?

 

 

[G the Bee]

I agree with the general consensus here. It's not acceptable to keep the fans standing around for practically three hours in the cold to watch 22 heats of speedway. I don't know if it's the fault of the Coventry promotion, the referee or a combination of both but, in my opinion, there often seems to be a lack of urgency to get through a meeting at Coventry.

 

You would have thought the referee would have been instructed to get through the meeting as quickly as possible due to the constant threat of rain. The meeting should have been run on GP lines, with the riders in the next heat lined up in the pits on their bikes whilst the current heat took place. Then, as soon as all riders returned safely to the pits, the two minutes should have been put on straight away.

 

This meeting should have been done and dusted by around 10 -10:15pm. One heat every five minutes. It finished at five to eleven!

 

The slow pace of the meeting ruined what could have been a decent night.

 

 

[TheSmiler]

Boring, diabolical meeting. I won't even mention the final.

 

Why the hell this meeting was started at 8pm, I will never know. Especially with the excessive amount of kids there too. The threat of rain (which was on and off all night) all meeting, heats being run seemingly whenever the ref felt like it.

 

If I'm honest, I got bored after Heat 10.

If it was run quicker, I may have enjoyed it. By the way - how long was the wait between Heat 20 and The Semi Final and the Semi and the Final?!

[Gemini]

Blimey, that was a yawn fest... despite the announcer continually saying it was an exciting, entertaining meeting. Roll on next week!

 

Glad I made the decision not to go. I never have liked individual meetings and after getting cold and soaked while taking the dogs for a walk in the afternoon I just couldn't be bothered to make the effort. What was the attendance like?

As you say - roll on next week when the real action takes place.

[hagonshocker]

Around Brandon Adams strengthens the field, take off the Poole tinted glases. So thanks to Adams for stepping in, and of course its nice to have the current ELRC rding around the track on which he won the meeting.

Shovlar gets on my nerves at the best of times but its constant attacks on Leigh are getting boring and beyond a joke.....but then what do expect from someone like him

[spikethebike]

The other reason why they need to rattle through these 20+ heat meetings is because people tend to show up earlier owing to the likelihood of a big crowd, long queues etc. So, by the time the racing gets underway folk have been stood around for a while.

 

The cold damp weather at these early meets just exacerbates the situation and leaves many of those who are not die hard fans with an overwhelming feeling of "won't bother with this lark again".

 

 

 

 

[Najjer]

OMG. I thought I was going to die of boredom. And since when did the announcer go down the Sky route of telling us how great a rubbish meeting is?

 

Blimey, that was a yawn fest... despite the announcer continually saying it was an exciting, entertaining meeting. Roll on next week!

 

I agree with the comments. Boring, processional and needlessly dragged out until 11pm.

 

 

Utter rubbish.

 

Nearly 3 hours of just uninterested riders riding round on a far from perfect track.

 

Nice idea to bring back the Brandonapolis, but horrible execution.

 

Boring, diabolical meeting. I won't even mention the final.

 

What did I say the other day... let me think...

 

£20, what a rip off.

 

[Gemini]

The other reason why they need to rattle through these 20+ heat meetings is because people tend to show up earlier owing to the likelihood of a big crowd, long queues etc. So, by the time the racing gets underway folk have been stood around for a while.

 

The cold damp weather at these early meets just exacerbates the situation and leaves many of those who are not die hard fans with an overwhelming feeling of "won't bother with this lark again".

 

Couldn't agree more. I'd have always classed myself as a 'die hard fan' but I just couldn't be bothered with all the hassle of getting there early, standing around in the cold for hours and then being stuck in the car park after the meeting trying to get out again. My husband can't believe I chose to miss the first meeting of the season as I'm usually ultra keen but the horrible weather, plus the fact it wasn't an E.L. match, didn't fill me with enthusiasm. Judging by the comments of people who went I made the right decision.

 

[Druid]

Shovlar gets on my nerves at the best of times but its constant attacks on Leigh are getting boring and beyond a joke.....but then what do expect from someone like him

 

 

Sounds like you are going to cry do you want a tissue?

[colincooke]

The general concensus here seems to be that this was a long drawn meeting & for someone who had to be up at 4am to get to work i have to agree, Swindon didn't take 3 hours to run 23 heats on sunday did they.

The track was very tricky in the wet but i take my hat off to Mick just to get this meeting on.

Later on there we're some good races & Hans & Bomber looked very comfortable going into the final.

Matej Zagar was my tip for the win, he just didn't look interested.Nicki didn't have any e/fs at all, they we're just pull up's when last a la Gollob.

The tangle in the final between Roo & Jason was just an unfortunate incident caused by deterioriating conditions at that time, as was Bomber's slide off.

I have to mention Eddie cos he was looking fantastic, particularly that sweep round Crumpy, so unlucky.

 

To conclude, a shame a meeting i was very much looking forward to was determined by the the weather & a lack of need for urgency at Brandon that has become all to common these last few seasons.

 

BTW. The right man won.

Edited March 27, 2010 by colincooke

[lucifer sam]

The track was very tricky in the wet but i take my hat off to Mick just to get this meeting on.

 

CC - Yes, FTM did a good job with the track. Shame that wasn't matched by a commitment by the Coventry promotion to get on with the meeting, instead of dilly-dallying about.

 

 

And Najjer, you've missed the point. It's not the £20 admission people had a problem with (otherwise the bumper crowd of last night wouldn't turned up). But rather, it was the complete lack of any urgency to get on with the meeting on a cold, damp night.

 

EDIT: One or two funny moments last night, standing with "Team Deadlock" (well, everyone seemed to wearing the gear, so it seems an appropriate name). There was Silver Bee's disbelief and horror when Davey Watt went racing around Matej Zagar, and Sandie signing Matt's Speedway Star.

 

FURTHER EDIT: And I've just read SB's comments on the updates thread, and how could I forget: Sandie has just called the ref a naughty word...SilverBee says we have to stamp this yobbish behaviour out!

 

All the best

Rob

Edited March 27, 2010 by lucifer sam

[Stiltonpanther]

Have to agree with everyone else on here in that it was a boring meeting. I was pleased with Niels K Iversen as that is the best I have ever seen him at Brandon. Let's hope he does the same next week when the real action starts. Agree with everyone else about the amount of riders who packed up if not in a winning position.

[Najjer]

And Najjer, you've missed the point. It's not the £20 admission people had a problem with (otherwise the bumper crowd of last night wouldn't turned up). But rather, it was the complete lack of any urgency to get on with the meeting on a cold, damp night.

 

Well there you go then - hardly makes it worth £20 then does it?

[Silver Bee]

Mate if I'd paid a tenner I'd still be walking away feeling robbed

[lucifer sam]

Well there you go then - hardly makes it worth £20 then does it?

 

Nope but it wouldn't have been worth £13/£15/£16 either. You've missed the point. The admission price only effects the number of people who go in the first place - it's the entertainment / slickness of the meeting which then determines if people enjoy it.

 

All the best

Rob

 

[Najjer]

Nope but it wouldn't have been worth £13/£15/£16 either. You've missed the point. The admission price only effects the number of people who go in the first place - it's the entertainment / slickness of the meeting which then determines if people enjoy it.

 

All the best

Rob

 

I pay my entrance money to be entertained and have a good time - If I leave bored and not entertained, it's a rip off.

[Mr_M]

Setting aside (almost) all the negative comments which I think have been well documented above.....

 

As others have said, hats off to Mick and Co for getting the track into any kind of condition for racing given the weather conditions - bl**dy well done! Shame that the conditions for much of the night favoured gate & go, but then that's just the way it is some times.

 

Personally I was encouraged by the performace of all the current Bees. Chris seems to be on very good form, Rory was just getting better and better through the meeting and if Ed hadn't had so many mechanicals who knows what would have happened, (oh - and Ben was just..... Ben!). All bodes well for the new season.

 

Revelation of the night for me was Grzegorz Zengota. After his tangle with Zagar in his first heat he looked distinctly uncomfortable in his next two rides (OK - understatement - watchting him I was permenantly cringing in anticipation of the seemingly inevitable crash!) but he looked to have settled nicely by his fourth ride. And then there was his fifth ride where he went right past everyone (Adams, Andersen & NKI). Like I think a lot of the audience I had to double check my programme to be sure which rider it was - it really was (imho) one of the outstanding rides of the night. He was very unlucky to be brought down by NKI - and even more unlucky that he was excluded when (from where I was sitting) it was fairly clearly NKI's fault. Anyway, looking forward to when he visits Brandon again with the Robins - if he can reproduce that form in the EL then Swindon have one the signings of the season.

 

Oh - and my one negative comment...... "THAT" song! - I don't know about paying to download it - I'd happily pay to have it NEVER played again - it really is absolutely awful