Premier League Fours - Peterborough 14/07/2013

[Phil The Ace]

Just got back to Manchester very sun burnt. Ouch

 

To many delays yes and a very long meeting but I thought the racing once again was too notch. Especially the final

 

Cook I thought was to blame for the crash

 

Glad tungate and bellego are ok. As shaders said I was next to his girlfriend. Very emotional and horrible to watch. Shows what the family of the riders must go through. That was an horrible crash

 

BTW I left early as well for the 1st time ever

 

And last but not least congratulations to Edinburgh

[Mike.Butler]

i was standing with the edinburgh supporters and they seemed to think Cook was blameless

Edited July 14, 2013 by Mike.Butler

[Irk Deflector]

I certainly won't rush back to this event in 2014 if its at Pboro that's for sure

apart from the track staff, what have any of you grumbles got to do with them?

 

[bamber]

If anyone in the Peterborough area has some up to date music...anything from about 1986 onwards will do, can you bring it to the Showground. It will probably have to be on a cassette though...

 

Whilst I'm on, 531-535 on the green ticket is the lucky winner of today's meat raffle.

Anyone hear the 50/50 draw ive got £3 worth of tickets but never heard anything over the tannoy about it being drawn..

[Arson fire]

Going on the scores today yup

well I wouldn't swap you put it that way Bellego was good today mind I agree.

[jenga]

good to see home track advantage taking place, well done embra. hope all the fallers are ok. long day at the computer screen.

[WembleyLion]

Firstly I hope the Kyle Howarth, David Bellego and Rohan Tungate will be ok.

 

I agree with many of the above comments about the shambolic running of the meeting. There were various reasons for delays but two seemingly avoidable factors were the malfunctioning starting gate (last time I was at Alwalton it caused a 45 minute delay - seems things have not improved much) and Barbara Horley who like Chris Gay (undisputed champion of reruns!) causes false starts by holding the tapes too long. Mrs Horley also has no urgency over the running of a meeting and when I saw her name in the programme, when I arrived, I knew it would be a long day!

 

All the same I enjoyed the racing, even if the track was not at its usual very high standard and well done to Edinburgh on their victory!

[Crump99]

I agree 100% we left early as well first time in 40 odd years of following the sport the Ref was a joke the track staff was clueless on what to do with the track we was all conned to have to pay £2 to park when 48 hours earlier it was a £1 for panthers v stars league meeting . In the end like you didnt care who won only cared that Tungate and Bellego was ok we left just after the crash .

I certainly won't rush back to this event in 2014 if its at Pboro that's for sure

 

It's a BSPA event not Peterboroughs. It's unlike you to whinge but you may be better off raising your concerns with them.

[toontrader]

Well , just got home to Ipswich at least 2 1/2 hrs later than expected and what a marathon that was !

 

I know there were plenty of incidents and accidents but 5 1/2hrs was a rediculous time to take to complete this meeting .

 

Putting the tapes up 10 mins before the start and not even testing them properly was where the problems began and it went downhill from then on .

 

Delays with paramedics when the meeting should have had better cover .

 

I will certainly think twice before going back there for a 4tt .

 

On the subject of the overall result I would like to congratulate the Monarchs on their win but I'm afraid I can't .

 

Cook was without doubt 100% the cause of the heat 11 crash and should have been excluded from the rerun !

 

Not his fault he was in the rerun but that stupid woman Horley , god she's useless ! Without fail , every meeting she referees she makes a howler and it always seems to effect results !

 

This time Ipswich coming out the losers but I suppose what comes around goes around and at some point in the next millennia she might get a decision right .

 

Ah well , at least it was nice weather .

 

Glad Tungates got nothing broken let's hope Bellego is OK as well !

 

Hope all of the riders are ok

Congratulations to Edinburgh

We also left early for the first time in 37 years

Sat in the main stand.

They didn't put up the starting gate and tapes up until 10mins before the start and didn't test them.

When they failed the track staff where banging them with a hammer between races until they failed altogether.,

Only one paramedic for 40 riders and a crowd of 2,500.

Newcastle have three doctors for 14 riders and a crowd of 500.

Surely BSPA must have minimum standards of cover for these meetings.

Not enough track staff -there were more people checking and double checking admission tickets.

The red lights were impossible for the riders to see in the sun and it was vital that track staff used the red flags when races were stopped but they regularly got the flags out too late causing at least one fall on the third bend even though the lights had gone on at the first bend.

Track staff seemed to be watching the racing instead of checking for the red lights. I know they are used to night meetings and the red lights are easier to spot in the dark but they were there to do a job.

No excuse for not giving out the line ups for heats 9-12 while the tyre debate was going on.

Most of the delays with the exception of the injuries could and should have been avoided.

And the program was poor.Nigel Pearson telling us about Edward Kennet riding for Berwick today and only three spaces for riders

individual scores in the final when reserves were allowed four rides

There were loads of people leaving when we came out and the ambulance was just arriving. Why couldn't the track ambulance have gone to the hospital. It would have been back by the time the county ambulance arrived.

That it for us and speedway, this was a total shambles and no wonder crowds are dropping. Over £200 for us today for admission, travel and food abnd then we miss the last two races

I feel sorry for the riders who all did their best and the teams were all really equal. Anyone of the eight teams could have won.

Regretably those charged with organising the sport have killed it

[Albert]

I didn't go today and by the sound of it, I made the correct decision. Surely now its time to bring back the 4tt qualifiers.... Rob Godfrey wanted supporters views, well theres mine. Congrats to Edinburgh....and all the supporters that stayed to the very end.

[Lord Lucan]

Quite a few teams being short changed here through one thing and another? Would like to think that this would open the door for more Comets success in this event and we do at least have a full squad available to do it, E,boro/Ipswich tobe in there as well for my money but certainly wouldn't rule out any of the others, adversity has a "galvanising" effect!! Hope it's a good meeting for everyone, nice day for it!!

Disappointing for me as a Comets fan to see us miss out on the final, really didn't expect that, but two out of three aint bad!! Well done to the Monarchs on the win, although it does read like you got the rub of the green late on you've still gotta go out and do it? Hope all the lads involved in the crashes are OK, didn't read as being particularly innocuous for them in the reports. Think if I'd gone to this meeting I too would have headed home early, 5hrs+ is an horrendous time to take even if circumstance does dictate some additional, don't remember this event taking so long when it was run up here, (had to get that in) . Worst thing about motorsports events are the breaks in momentum, one or two quickly remedied you can generally get away with but constant restarts/track work/ unreasonable delays for next to nothing reasons does nothing to help the spectacle nor stop people getting bored, then, once serious accidents are thrown in the attention quickly turns to rider health and racing becomes secondary still further, once that happens the outcome of the event is generally irrelevant too many which appears to have been the case here, you cant stop it it's just human nature? Find it strange tho reading the posts on here that the medical cover was so poor for this type of event and at an Elite Lg track to boot, that doesn't look good for speedway at all, so many riders and only the one doctor/ambulance in attendance, (is that correct)? if so it definitely needs to be addressed for the future as does the speed of the event itself, PL speedway is struggling for support at the moment so a bad press like this wont do anything to attract any new customers "nor retain" the existing ones, must do better!!

[MiddleRubberBruver]

Can't believe Cook didn't get excluded, everyone watching ( apart from the ref and maybe a handful of Monarchs fans) could see that Cook ran in too fast and shunted Bellego. I thought Leicester v Newcastle was a long meeting but didn't even come close to this. Can't understand why some of the starts were pulled back when the riders who were moving seemed to come out of the gates last. Just wastes people's time. 5 1/2 hours is way too long for people to be standing around.

[Goodiepatchie]

A long long day hope everyone's ok shame we got lumbered with a totally useless ref today who didn't seem able to let any race go without pulling it back but then she is the world champ at dragging a meeting out

[xmas]

But they don't set the car park charge do they

 

 

 

It's a BSPA event not Peterboroughs. It's unlike you to whinge but you may be better off raising your concerns with them.

[Shadders]

News on David Bellago is promising. Last I heard was he took a bang to the head, possible concussion. If confirmed that's remarkable!

[Roland]

think you watched the meeting with your rose tinted glasses on yet again . Or maybe you wasn't even there today ??

I wasn't wearing my rose tinted glasses..........it was a 50/50 call Bellego probably was unsettled by Cook (who I thought looked fairly average all afternoon apart from one heat) but Bellego was back wheel chasing, he's not that good and was over riding. So fair play to Babs, she had to lose somebody and she's only doing her job, not very well some of the time and painfully slowly. Thankfully Rohan was OK, well no worse than when he started! Over and out!!

[Halifaxtiger]

A few observations.

 

There must be at least a possibility that the car park charge is set by the Showground, not by the BSPA or Peterborough Speedway (if it is either of the latter, they should think again because that's a rip off).

 

This meeting (given that it has twice as many heats as a normal league match) would probably have taken 3 and a half hours anyway with the need for an interval between the semi finals and final. Of the additional two hours, an hour and a half at least was taken up by the crashes involving Howarth, Tungate & Bellego.

 

Amazing (and brilliant) that none of those riders aren't seriously injured.

 

Some absolutely cracking racing, especially an astonishing last to first in one bend by Grajczonek. The track could still have been better but on a blazing hot day with the occasional breeze I don't think anyone can really complain about that (or the dust).

 

I didn't have a good view, but I thought Cook was responsible for the crash and should have been excluded.

 

I can understand anyone leaving before the end and but for texting duties I would probably have done so myself. 5 and a half hours is simply too long and while it can be argued that that is not the fault of the BSPA if measures can be put in place to avoid such delays they should be. Having endured a 2 hour wait at Rye House recently and another near hour one at Leicester the night before, its little wonder that people's patience is being tried.

 

The delays certainly wouldn't put me off coming again.

[cityrebel]

unwanted speedway records keep tumbling for me this season. after the 2.5 hour ambulance delay at rye house last month, yesterdays fours event was the longest meeting i have ever attended in over 40 years of watching speedway. crash delays can't be helped but power failures, faulty starting gates and tyre disputes can. on the plus side there was some excellent racing and i thought the track staff did a decent job in keeping the dust down on a very hot day.

[gary moore]

I took a friend to this shambles yesterday,dont think she`ll be back!!

 

Cant believe the starting gate was put up 10 mins before the start?

Mind you, watching them `repair` it was worth the admission alone,belting it with a mallet.priceless lol!!! and where did they keep the spare? outside the arena so we had to wait even more while somone had to go and get it?

. Glad the riders are ok tho. like many others we left early, and thats the first time I have ever left a speedway meeting before its over!!!

 

The ref was crap too,but thats another story.

Edited July 15, 2013 by gary moore

[Crump99]

But they don't set the car park charge do they

 

No idea. The car parking charge was brought in by Colin Horton (if my memory serves me right) under the guise of contribution to the SRBF but not sure how long that lasted because I seem to remember Rick making up a significant shortfall, amongst clearing other debts, when he arrived. The car park charge was doubled once before for a similar event so they probably just went with that model? Only the BSPA and Peterborough can answer what each other's responsibilities are for the event but the bottom line is that the meeting is held under the BSPA banner and the buck stops with them.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Crump99