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What a jolly good idea.

 

They do this in Cricket for a slow Over Rate - so why can they not do something similar in Speedway. Something like that would cut out this constant returning to the Pits following a false Start. It would also punish Promoters who deliberately over run Meetings to increase their take at the Bar. It would encourage Promoters to get the Meetings started ON TIME.

 

Obviously time would have to be added on if someone is injured - that should go without saying - but the length of the Stoppage could be timed and added on at the end so that no Fines are issued because of injury. I would add that, time for attending to injuries MUST NOT put Paramedics or Medical Staff under any pressure to clear the Track. The injured Rider MUST come first - no matter how long it takes.

Isn't the flow of the meeting dependent on the referee? Too many of them take far too long to stick the 2 minutes on.

managed to get through last night in less than 80 mins

With a 10 minute break.

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Kent v Mildenhall on Bank Holiday Monday. 3 hours to run one 15 heat meeting.

You are being extremely tedious over this. How about changing the record?

There have most certainly been longer meetings at Mildenhall and at many other venues too, yet for some reason you (and some other Fen Tigers' posters on here) bang on and on and on about this year's May Day Bank Holiday meeting.

For your info. as we run meetings to an 8.30pm curfew every week, I doubt there's ANY club which consistently runs meetings more efficiently and quicker than at Central Park.

On a Bank Holiday there's less need for such rigid discipline and I've only known - for some reason - Mildenhall fans complaining about this.

With several more local sides available for 'derby' clashes on holiday Mondays in 2015, I think we can be confident that Mildenhall won't be filling a Bank Holiday afternoon slot then - so that should, I imagine, make you happy.

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think you hit a nerve there HT :P

 

 

I wonder why ? :D

 

You are being extremely tedious over this. How about changing the record?

There have most certainly been longer meetings at Mildenhall and at many other venues too, yet for some reason you (and some other Fen Tigers' posters on here) bang on and on and on about this year's May Day Bank Holiday meeting.

For your info. as we run meetings to an 8.30pm curfew every week, I doubt there's ANY club which consistently runs meetings more efficiently and quicker than at Central Park.

On a Bank Holiday there's less need for such rigid discipline and I've only known - for some reason - Mildenhall fans complaining about this.

With several more local sides available for 'derby' clashes on holiday Mondays in 2015, I think we can be confident that Mildenhall won't be filling a Bank Holiday afternoon slot then - so that should, I imagine, make you happy.

 

First things first. I am not Mildenhall fan, I'm a neutral (as anyone who knows me would confirm). I am also pleased to say that I am entirely objective in my comments and therefore completely unbiased. Unlike you, that is.

 

I think that I have mentioned the meeting three times. That day, and when threads about 'longest meetings' and 'everything that is wrong with speedway' came up recently it seemed most appropriate to do so again.

 

I have seen 79 matches this season and been to every track bar 4. No 15 heat match I have been to took anywhere near as long to run as that one.

 

I know Kent are good at hitting curfews. If you'd been there you would have noted how fast the last few heats were run so they could hit it.

 

Are you seriously suggesting that Kent fans or other neutrals were perfectly happy with that meeting ? That's positively :rofl:

 

As you are fully aware, the delays that day were just one part of a truly awful meeting run on a dreadful racing surface and with the simply appalling sight of an injured rider being forced to walk the length of a straight because the ambulance could not be brought on to the track. That, too, is unique in my experience and I doubt if there are many who do not realise the implications of an inability to be able to bring an ambulance trackside.

 

That's why mentioning that meeting in the 'everything that is wrong with speedway' thread seemed most appropriate.

 

I daresay your promise that Mildenhall will not be there on bank holiday Monday will make their fans very happy indeed. Based upon last years experience, I suspect there will be one clubs fans who will not be so happy. It won't make any difference to me as Kent are joining two other teams that I boycott until they do something about the track..

 

As for changing the record, that is for you to do, not I. You should be publicly apologising to all present for what happened that day, yet I have seen nothing of the kind - just an arrogant refusal to do so. I have said elsewhere that when fans make genuine and fully justifiable complaint all they receive is appalling responses from official mouth pieces and what you have said above is both typical and very aptly proves my point.

Edited by Halifaxtiger
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You are being extremely tedious over this. How about changing the record?

There have most certainly been longer meetings at Mildenhall and at many other venues too, yet for some reason you (and some other Fen Tigers' posters on here) bang on and on and on about this year's May Day Bank Holiday meeting.

For your info. as we run meetings to an 8.30pm curfew every week, I doubt there's ANY club which consistently runs meetings more efficiently and quicker than at Central Park.

On a Bank Holiday there's less need for such rigid discipline and I've only known - for some reason - Mildenhall fans complaining about this.

With several more local sides available for 'derby' clashes on holiday Mondays in 2015, I think we can be confident that Mildenhall won't be filling a Bank Holiday afternoon slot then - so that should, I imagine, make you happy.

Did it take 3 hours or not ?

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Well I WAS at that meeting and I guess it did last about three hours ( wasn't actually checking my watch) - but there were many crashes and injury-related delays. Similar in fact to a meeting I went to at Glasgow earlier this season. If people think three hours when there are injury delays is so exceptional as to appear on a thread entitled 'longest meeting' then I'd suggest they don't get out to many Speedway meetings at all.

 

Some of the double headers at the previous league side called Sittingbourne were the longest I can remember. Starting at midday and often struggling to meet the curfew of 5pm!

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I have said elsewhere that when fans make genuine and fully justifiable complaint all they receive is appalling responses from official mouth pieces and what you have said above is both typical and very aptly proves my point.

Everyone who emailed the club about this or any other meeting this season with any concern or complaint received a comprehensive personal response by return email dealing with the issues. This included a couple of customers who did the correct thing and emailed the club to enquire about the incorrect accusation made about the ambulance.

That is the correct channel of communication, not on here. Those customers were all pleased and reassured to get the responses they did.

The only reason I posted before on this thread is that your continual harping on about this (and I wasn't even aware of you mentioning this on your 'all that's wrong' thread) smacks of a vendetta and I think it's only right to point that out.

'All that's wrong with the sport..'? You cite Kent in that category..? I'd respectfully suggest that all the hundreds of fans who attend Central Park every week (including to a end of season challenge match in celebration of a great season: don't see too many other clubs doing that for their fans?) would disagree.

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What a jolly good idea.

 

They do this in Cricket for a slow Over Rate - so why can they not do something similar in Speedway. Something like that would cut out this constant returning to the Pits following a false Start. It would also punish Promoters who deliberately over run Meetings to increase their take at the Bar. It would encourage Promoters to get the Meetings started ON TIME.

 

Obviously time would have to be added on if someone is injured - that should go without saying - but the length of the Stoppage could be timed and added on at the end so that no Fines are issued because of injury. I would add that, time for attending to injuries MUST NOT put Paramedics or Medical Staff under any pressure to clear the Track. The injured Rider MUST come first - no matter how long it takes.

In fairness, the promoters don't tend to receive bar takings as they are not the landlords.

 

Referees need to take some responsibility on this though. Frank Eldon - for all his faults - at least knew hoe to keep a meeting moving.

 

Some if the meeting I go to are more of an ordeal with how they drag on. Tony Steele is one of the worst culprits for it.

Edited by mb1990
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Intercontinental final, vojens denmark 1981, first trip abroad. Started the usual time of 7.30 and then had some rain about half way through and stopped the meeting for a while and re-started it again after some track work and we left the meeting just after mid-night. We always joke it was our first two day meeting.

Does anybody remember the grand slam meeting at Peterborough in the 80s I think, started in the morning and went on forever, I love my speedway but I was sick of sitting there by the end and couldent wait for it to end.

Happy days.

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PL Riders championship 14/10/12. 2 hours to run 20 heats than another 2 hours to run the semi-final and final...and then a mad dash to Newcastle to see tapes up at Brough Park. Had lunch with John Sampford who gave Anders Mellgren a lift but gave him no chance pre-meeting...erm, he set the fastest time and reached the final!

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Well I WAS at that meeting and I guess it did last about three hours ( wasn't actually checking my watch) - but there were many crashes and injury-related delays. Similar in fact to a meeting I went to at Glasgow earlier this season. If people think three hours when there are injury delays is so exceptional as to appear on a thread entitled 'longest meeting' then I'd suggest they don't get out to many Speedway meetings at all.

 

Some of the double headers at the previous league side called Sittingbourne were the longest I can remember. Starting at midday and often struggling to meet the curfew of 5pm!

 

Went to 79 meetings last season at 24 different tracks. That's the longest 15 heat meeting I have been to, and I struggling to think of one that has been longer in the past.

 

Everyone who emailed the club about this or any other meeting this season with any concern or complaint received a comprehensive personal response by return email dealing with the issues. This included a couple of customers who did the correct thing and emailed the club to enquire about the incorrect accusation made about the ambulance.

That is the correct channel of communication, not on here. Those customers were all pleased and reassured to get the responses they did.

The only reason I posted before on this thread is that your continual harping on about this (and I wasn't even aware of you mentioning this on your 'all that's wrong' thread) smacks of a vendetta and I think it's only right to point that out.

'All that's wrong with the sport..'? You cite Kent in that category..? I'd respectfully suggest that all the hundreds of fans who attend Central Park every week (including to a end of season challenge match in celebration of a great season: don't see too many other clubs doing that for their fans?) would disagree.

 

Personally, I would say that if an individual has a concern (toilets, car parking, officials etc) that is particular to them then an E mail is appropriate. When it is something that concerns every single person in attendance at a meeting and is in respect of an issue that every speedway fan would put at the top of their list (rider safety) then a public statement should be made on the clubs website at least. Indeed, in my experience that is precisely the practice that speedway teams follow. After all, if the club has nothing to hide, where's the problem and why should it be necessary to E mail in ? I'd say the refusal to answer justifiable questions over safety standards publicly suggests that something is amiss and asking people to E mail in is both a sop and a damage limitation exercise.

 

As I didn't E mail in, I can only go on what I saw that day and hearsay afterwards. As Blackbird has pointed out, there were a number of crashes and not once did the ambulance go onto the track. We then had the dreadful sight of a rider, clearly in considerable pain, being forced to walk the entire length of the back straight to the pits. That is both appalling and, in my experience, unique. I was then told that the ambulance didn't come on because it had been damaged going on to the track through the pits entrance in the past and the medical cover provider refused to allow that to happen again.

 

The bit I am unaware of is whether the Kent promotion knew that was the case, failed to make alternative arrangements and went ahead with the meeting anyway.

 

I'd say now is an excellent opportunity for you to give your side of the story on the pages of this forum - and as I have said, I see no reason why that cannot be the case - but given your apparent determination not to make the details public I doubt that will happen. I suspect most will draw their own conclusions from that.

 

I suppose that with a deal of imagination, paranoia and bias 3 posts in 6 months might be termed as 'continual harping' and a 'vendetta', especially if there is a desire to discredit the poster because you really don't like what he is saying and, worse, because he has a point. I might suggest that the first post was a response to the events of that day on the day that was entirely consistent with and reflective of other views and the second was an honest response to 'longest meeting'.

 

Many posters have stated that two reasons why the sport is on its knees are crap tracks and ridiculous delays. I daresay every fan would say that inadequate safety cover would be worse, albeit for different reasons. I'd say that highlighting a meeting in which the track surface was truly awful (which might be a reason why there were so many crashes), took 3 hours to run and there were concerns over medical cover in a thread marked 'all that is wrong with the sport' is entirely appropriate.

 

You still haven't changed the record, have you ? To be fair, you are not the only club official who when confronted with criticism (no matter how genuine or reasonable) either ignores it (and you haven't answered Orion's question) or slags off the person being critical insead of giving a fair and full explanation in respect of the matters raised.

 

Ask yourself this - is that sort of attitude towards paying customers more or less likely to make them return to Kent Speedway ?

 

There might be hundreds who attend Central Park each week. From what I have heard, it is hundreds less than it was.

Edited by Halifaxtiger
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What you have heard is incorrect. I go every week and crowds have not reduced at all this year from last season. Who told you that they had?

 

Is it ?

 

Posted 24 September 2014 - 02:17 PM

I see on Kent OnLine that Mr Cearns has said he will review the situation before deciding whether to appeal or not and that he needs 1000 people every week to progress.

I find the 1000 interesting, if you read the Speedway Updates the guy who texts every week always says its over that so should not be a problem !!! (although I have heard from people who go reguarly that they estimate its closer to 500-600, and sometimes less than that).

Posted 14 May 2013 - 09:45 AM

Crowd last night we thought was around 1,000,so not bad at all. Also have to say listening to fans they seem to know it will take time for the team to get going.

How are the crowds this year compared to last ?

Although in the report in the SS it says there was a "bumper" crowd v K.Lynn,I thought the crowd was disappointing, as v Mildenhall.

Just my opinion.

One final quote about that day from a Kent fan:

'The Co Promoters, Referee and Paramedic should all hang their heads in shame yesterday and thank their lucky stars that no riders were seriously injured'.

Edited by Halifaxtiger
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