Message To The Leicester Promotor

[The White Knight]

Very sad some of the comments on here. At Sunderland this is the FORTIETH year without Speedway. We have had no Promoter to rave at. I am not saying that you should accept poor Racing but surely if a big enough Group of you got together and approached the Promoter he would have to listen to your concerns.

 

I was delighted when Leicester got it's own Track and all this talk of folk walking away is very depressing. I have never been to Leicester so please forgive my interjection but, as you know, you can be a very long time without Speedway.

 

I wish Leicester Speedway well in the future.

 

:sad: :sad:

Edited April 24, 2013 by The White Knight

[robert72]

Very sad some of the comments on here. At Sunderland this is the FORTIETH year without Speedway. We have had no Promoter to rave at. I am not saying that you should accept poor Racing but surely if a big enough Group of you got together and approached the Promoter he would have to listen to your concerns.

 

I was delighted when Leicester got it's own Track and all this talk of folk walking away is very depressing. I have never been to Leicester so please forgive my interjection but, as you know, you can be a very long time without Speedway.

 

I wish Leicester Speedway well in the future.

 

:sad: :sad:

 

David hemsley will NOT listen to anyone FACT, fans have complained about the track from day one and now we are into the third season and its still the same and the racing is really dire,But having spent alot of money there to witness what i have seen i feel robbed as do others.

 

Speedway wont last in leicester unless changes are made to the track,fans are fed up.

 

Like i said,hemsley needs to listen to the paying public and not attack them in his programme notes

[wandersome]

It's disappointing but the absolute fact is we are now in our third year of speedway and i can recall one genuine pass around bend 1 and 2 since it opened. If i remember rightly that was Ritchie Hawkins taking Simon Lambert. Taking into account of the riders involved even that I have a feeling may have been an illusion of my viewpoint when i saw it. I'm often tempted to buy the DVD to make sure it was genuine pass but i can't bring myself to pay a second time to watch something that was a chore the first time round. If you don't go regularly then i guess you may think i'm exagerating for effect or even joking but i'm not. Genuinely there has been, as far as i can remember, 1 pass at BP around bend 1/2 since it opened. That's a level up from poor racing i think most would agree.

[BlitzkriegBop]

I've plagiarised this from a posting on Redcar Bears Forum by doctorclitterhouse, which I think sums up nicely the problem with some of our tracks.

 

'If this were any normal industry a trades union would be insisting on improvements or recommending employees stage a walk-out (before the fans do!). In actual fact, I am baffled as to how speedway seems to retain some sort of divine right to operate without the need to meet any sort of standard. It seems to me that any individual can lay down a race track, open the gates and get on with it without anyone seemingly raising an eyebrow.

 

Yes, there are clerks of the course and referees with the authority to decide whether or not a track is safe to race on, but precisely what are the roles of the Speedway Control Board’s track inspectors Colin Meredith and Alan Bridgett? Do they, for example, periodically visit every track unannounced to ensure that each venue and selected meetings achieve a minimum standard? If so they are clearly selling us all short (if the comments I read on various websites across the country are anything to go by) and if not then perhaps they should to put a stop the sort of nonsense we witnessed on Thursday [bears v Berwick, where there were 7 falls due to the state of the track].

 

An absolute must-have standard should be that all track curators are fully trained by some suitably accredited authority on the subject of track preparation, made to sit and pass a stringent exam and then licensed with the SCB. At the moment it appears that the only essential attributes required on a job application to prepare some of our speedway tracks are the ability to hold a shovel; that the candidate knows what a tractor is, even if that means he or she only previously saw one up close at their local agricultural show; and one feels comfortable in wellies or hob nail boots'.

 

It is within the power of every promoter/consortium to influence their crowd levels. Treat spectators well and keep them entertained and the turnstiles will click along nicely. However, serve up processional racing week in and week out at venues lacking atmosphere, and even worse, dismissing fans' concerns, will drive them away in their droves (as evidenced at South Tees Motorsports Park and no doubt other UK venues).

 

Speedway is fast-becoming an entertainment industry without the entertainment. And unless promoters understand that they have an obligation to the paying public they will continue to hemorrhage money when they don't really need to.

[neb]

robert some 700 posts later you still go on and on and on about the same old thing it seems to me this issue you have with mr hemsley and the track is almost taking over your life and your Constant attacks are almost becoming personal, have you made this your life long mission? you seem to be the main objector to anything and everything to do with leicester speedway and mr hemsley so is it not time you came out of hiding from behind the keyboard and had a one on one with him to express your disappointments. i am sure a meeting can be arranged surely this has got to be a better way to get your point across than posting on here and all you are doing is annoying folk and starting to make yourself look silly with your constant rants.lets arrange a meeting with you,your supporters and david i for one would be interested to listen to your questions and his answers and i dont think i will be on my own in that one.what do you say? are you going to come out of hiding or are you going to stick behind the keyboard posting the same old boring crap about ...........damm i have forgot what's the problem you have again robert remind me.

if you cant do any of the above then just put up or shut up or better still watch your speedway at a track where they have more toilets and more passing.

[Long Eye]

It's disappointing but the absolute fact is we are now in our third year of speedway and i can recall one genuine pass around bend 1 and 2 since it opened. If i remember rightly that was Ritchie Hawkins taking Simon Lambert. Taking into account of the riders involved even that I have a feeling may have been an illusion of my viewpoint when i saw it. I'm often tempted to buy the DVD to make sure it was genuine pass but i can't bring myself to pay a second time to watch something that was a chore the first time round. If you don't go regularly then i guess you may think i'm exagerating for effect or even joking but i'm not. Genuinely there has been, as far as i can remember, 1 pass at BP around bend 1/2 since it opened. That's a level up from poor racing i think most would agree.

 

Well open your feckin eyes next time you go then. Another example even with my poor memory was Makinen passing an opposing rider in a nice move on the 1st and 2nd bend. Seen a fair few others as well.

[Halifaxtiger]

Good advice, we had the same predicament when the bears closed in the 90s, so i know what its like to not have a team to follow.

Our track was great when it first opened with plenty of racing lines and passing where as now its nearing one if the worst tracks in the league.

Your stadium has come along way in a few short years where as ours will never be as good.

I think it doesn't make much difference if you complain or not the promotors don't listen it has to come from the riders and speaking of which Matty kus put on his Facebook last week "sack me or the track man" so it will be interesting if we do see any changes this week at Redcar.

 

I'd say you have more to complain about than any Lions fan.

 

While the poor quality of racing at Leicester is blamed on the shape of the track (and I am not sure I totally agree) there's nothing wrong with Redcar where that is concerned at all.

 

When Glyn was on the tractor, STMP was one of my favourite tracks and definitely one of the best in the country but it went massively down hill when he left, and its now a pale shadow of its former self.

 

The thing is it could be as good as it once was - the same cannot be entirely said of Leicester.

[wandersome]

Well open your feckin eyes next time you go then. Another example even with my poor memory was Makinen passing an opposing rider in a nice move on the 1st and 2nd bend. Seen a fair few others as well.

 

I have to say, i'm reading this response, it making me think of what Leicester Lion (i think it was Leicester Lion) was saying on the last thread and I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think without you bringing Makininen in to it i would have gone with laugh but i'm afraid with Makinen used as an example it's cry all the way. I thought me thinking Hawkins being the only rider capable of genuinely passing another rider was far fetched enough and between us the the leading examples of it appear to be Ritchie Hawkins and Jari Makinen. For fear of a trip to the hospital, I'm gonna have to leave my Rice Crispies this morning .

Edited April 25, 2013 by volty

[Deanmur]

All the people complaining about the track perhaps have a valid grievance. Ultimately David Hemsley will have to do something if crowds dwindle or the operation will go bankrupt. Another way to look at it however is that you should keep supporting Leicester until the promoter has the funds to undertake more extensive work? I doubt the changes that people want only cost UKP 6-8k as if that was the case I think he would have "bitten the bullet" already. Remember Hemsley has taken a big personal financial risk in bringing the sport back to Leicester and probably has large loans that need to be serviced. You cannot expect everything to be ideal from the "get-go" and I for one would at least be somewhat appreciative of having the sport back rather than have nothing at all. Hemsley isn't perfect but then neither is anybody else. Robert and a few others should be more pragmatic and considered in their postings rather than just voicing the same old opinions.

[Cue Ball]

Was a separate thread on Leicester fans moaning really necessary? Every match report thread says exactly the same things. "The track is crap, we've waited 28 years for speedway to return, we hate Helmsley, Helmsley doesn't listen, you're not a Leicester supporter so you can't comment etc etc etc".

 

Simple answer, if you dislike it that much, don't go. As far as I know there is no law that says you have to. You could always do what myself and my family did 30 odd years ago and started going elsewhere for your weekly fix.

 

I agree that it's a crying shame that the track isn't a Sheffield or Scunthorpe or Somerset or king's Lynn, but it isn't, I'm not saying you should put up with it, but crappy threads on here won't make a difference, voting with your feet probably will though.

[robert72]

robert some 700 posts later you still go on and on and on about the same old thing it seems to me this issue you have with mr hemsley and the track is almost taking over your life and your Constant attacks are almost becoming personal, have you made this your life long mission? you seem to be the main objector to anything and everything to do with leicester speedway and mr hemsley so is it not time you came out of hiding from behind the keyboard and had a one on one with him to express your disappointments. i am sure a meeting can be arranged surely this has got to be a better way to get your point across than posting on here and all you are doing is annoying folk and starting to make yourself look silly with your constant rants.lets arrange a meeting with you,your supporters and david i for one would be interested to listen to your questions and his answers and i dont think i will be on my own in that one.what do you say? are you going to come out of hiding or are you going to stick behind the keyboard posting the same old boring crap about ...........damm i have forgot what's the problem you have again robert remind me.

if you cant do any of the above then just put up or shut up or better still watch your speedway at a track where they have more toilets and more passing.

 

nob, you keep on with your threats of meeting up? are you that dumb as to think i would meet you and like others we have spoken to hemsley,we have filled out the questionaire,nothing has been done.

 

so far you havnt shown that you have a clue on business or speedway so i guess you should not try and make silly comments at those who do.

 

yes fans will vote with there feet, sadly those who have spent alot of money on season tickets are stuck to watch that every week,those people i feel sorry for as they were led to believe big changes were to be made to the track during the winter.

 

nob, do you not fear for the future of leicester speedway if you are happy people like myself are walking away?

[neb]

nob, you keep on with your threats of meeting up? are you that dumb as to think i would meet you and like others we have spoken to hemsley,we have filled out the questionaire,nothing has been done.

 

so far you havnt shown that you have a clue on business or speedway so i guess you should not try and make silly comments at those who do.

 

yes fans will vote with there feet, sadly those who have spent alot of money on season tickets are stuck to watch that every week,those people i feel sorry for as they were led to believe big changes were to be made to the track during the winter.

 

nob, do you not fear for the future of leicester speedway if you are happy people like myself are walking away?

never once said anything about meeting up and i am not asking you to meet me so you got that one wrong you keep telling us you have met with david how do we know that? if your as concerned about leicester like you make out then all i am asking you to do is have a public meeting with david put your points to him and lets all listen to his reponce whats the problem with that? by posting a message to the leicester promoter on here did you really expect him to answer and further more which promoter dont forget there are three.if i have a problem with someone or something then i would confront it personally not leave silly messages instead of trying trying to stir up trouble and further damage leicester speedway which you seem intent on doing why not go direct to the root of the problem and try and offer any advice and idears you might have i am sure you would get a far better reponce and you never know david might even listen to you.so quit with the trouble causing crap you post on here and do something positive for once and by the way my user name is neb not nob but call me nob if that makes you happy.

[Long Eye]

I have to say, i'm reading this response, it making me think of what Leicester Lion (i think it was Leicester Lion) was saying on the last thread and I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think without you bringing Makininen in to it i would have gone with laugh but i'm afraid with Makinen used as an example it's cry all the way. I thought me thinking Hawkins being the only rider capable of genuinely passing another rider was far fetched enough and between us the the leading examples of it appear to be Ritchie Hawkins and Jari Makinen. For fear of a trip to the hospital, I'm gonna have to leave my Rice Crispies this morning .

 

Well it's not 'far fetched' if it actually happened is it? When/if you go again, try facing the noisy area of the stadium. That is the bit with the motorbikes racing round.

[wandersome]

Was a separate thread on Leicester fans moaning really necessary? Every match report thread says exactly the same things. "The track is crap, we've waited 28 years for speedway to return, we hate Helmsley, Helmsley doesn't listen, you're not a Leicester supporter so you can't comment etc etc etc".

 

Again, i'm not sure i totally agree with the way the opening post of this thread was executed. i don't, however, disagree with 1) the principal of the points that were made and 2) that David Hemsleys programme notes probably do deserve a thread all of their own. It's also unfortunately true that these topics you mention do appear to be important issues to a number of Lions fans who post on here. Surely a promoter writing programme notes berating armchair fans for not turning up in large enough numbers when the weathers not ideal and threatening to close if we carry on not turning up in future, publicly threatening to sack riders, telling us we are purposely trying to harm his business by talking about it on the internet and then apprearing to tie these on-line complainents into abusive text messages he is recieving, saying he has addressed every issue fans had over the close season and finally, pointing out he's up for offers only no one is offering. Surely that's good enough reason for it's own thread.

Too much time on my hands so i can point out the last Lions Redcar thread had 36 different people posting over 8 pages so there is clearly a level of interest in these topics that we're all moaning about even if they do appear to annoy you.

 

Well it's not 'far fetched' if it actually happened is it? .

 

that's the issue Long Eye. Did it actually happen? and what makes it stick in your mind if it did indeed happen and i missed it. Rarity? It says it all that you haven't come up an example from this year, four meetings in and all.

We used to get told of ridiculously large numbers of passes that happened at BP on a weekly basis by Wie-Ja. I'm afraid it didn't make it any truer just because he had said it.

Edited April 25, 2013 by volty

[Glennylion]

David Hemsleys programme notes probably do deserve a thread all of their own. It's also unfortunately true that these topics you mention do appear to be important issues to a number of Lions fans who post on here. Surely a promoter writing programme notes berating armchair fans for not turning up in large enough numbers when the weathers not ideal and threatening to close if we carry on not turning up in future, publicly threatening to sack riders, telling us we are purposely trying to harm his business by talking about it on the internet

 

 

Column inches had to be filled to justify the £3.

[Elephantman]

Can anyone leave a message to the Leicester Promotor? good; here goes:

 

Dear David,

 

You are truly one of the all time great cycle speedway riders and deserve your place in British Cycling's hall of fame.

 

The attributes that brought you sporting success must have been displayed in achieving the dream, for many speedway supporters, of bringing the sport back to Leicester:

• Drive
  
• Determination
  
• Focus
  
• Willingness to take risks
  
• Embracing the positives and learning from the negatives.
  

Yet many cannot see that the attributes needed to achieve this great success, are the same attributes that mean anyone who wishes to influence or persuade you, must have all their ducks in a row; if they haven't it's going to be a very short conversation.

 

I salute you,

 

Yours

 

Nellie Elephantman

[robert72]

Can anyone leave a message to the Leicester Promotor? good; here goes:

 

Dear David,

 

You are truly one of the all time great cycle speedway riders and deserve your place in British Cycling's hall of fame.

 

The attributes that brought you sporting success must have been displayed in achieving the dream, for many speedway supporters, of bringing the sport back to Leicester:

• Drive
  
• Determination
  
• Focus
  
• Willingness to take risks
  
• Embracing the positives and learning from the negatives.
  

Yet many cannot see that the attributes needed to achieve this great success, are the same attributes that mean anyone who wishes to influence or persuade you, must have all their ducks in a row; if they haven't it's going to be a very short conversation.

 

I salute you,

 

Yours

 

Nellie Elephantman

 

Yes and he built a large cycle speedway track and ruined the dreams of many leicester fans who wanted to see real speedway racing on a track fit to produce overtaking, how could one person mess up from a blank sheet and still refuse to change things. It would take a real man to put there hands up and say i got it wrong and change it.

[semion]

Maybe the track would come to the riders if you were in the Elite league, which I understood to be the plan.

[jenga]

give up ,you are not going to get what you want.

Edited April 25, 2013 by jenga

[justathought]

Along with other people I agree that the Leicester track is pretty bad in terms of producing anything near decent racing.

 

The problem is that the promotion obviously don’t want to make the necessary changes to improve things or they believe that nothing is wrong with the way things are at present. The other reason could be that perhaps they simply don’t have the funds available to make any changes.

 

I’m not sure what the percentage of dissatisfaction is amongst the paying public. But, I have to say that the gates continue to be very healthy at Leicester. A lot of people continue to turn up week in, week out, regardless.

 

I think Leicester could probably be kept as it is for sometime and it would still attract bigger crowds than some other clubs.

It would be a very interesting exercise to try and find out the true feeling from the regular support and I mean not just the ones who post on here. Maybe some kind of tick box survey could be arranged.

 

If the majority do feel that the track needs changing then something could be organized to raise the funds needed.

 

Just a thought.