2016, Rain-offs, Postponements, Abandonedments, Are There Other Reasons, Not The Weather?

[Woz01]

Today Coventry postponed their meeting just before 4pm after it started raining at 3.15ish, 3and a half hours before start time. Robert Lambert wasn't happy it wasn't called off earlier but track was fit to ride until the rain came. What if they cancelled it at lunchtime and the rain didn't come? A no win situation for the promotion.

[cityrebel]

Rye house held their nerve on Saturday when every forecast said heavy rain near to start time. The fact that the rain moved into the midlands instead of going east was a reward for their efforts. I doubt if Len silver would have been so brave.

[Shale Searcher]

Rye house held their nerve on Saturday when every forecast said heavy rain near to start time. The fact that the rain moved into the midlands instead of going east was a reward for their efforts. I doubt if Len silver would have been so brave.

 

 

And that is the problem, Doyley let rip when Wolverhampton called off late, dry day, threat of rain, that did arrive, but surely, as a professional rider, you get your kit ready, and travel to a meeting and if it is called off, well, you made the effort to go to work....

Obviously, there are occasions when a weather forecast is absolutely set in stone, and a club calls it off at lunchtime on the day, but it should NEVER be called off 24/48/72 hours before start time based on a forecast that at best, that far ahead is only ever going to be 10, maybe 15% accurate..

 

Speedway has turned into oval road racing, no dirt, no bumps, and heaven forbid no wet shale!!

[cityrebel]

And that is the problem, Doyley let rip when Wolverhampton called off late, dry day, threat of rain, that did arrive, but surely, as a professional rider, you get your kit ready, and travel to a meeting and if it is called off, well, you made the effort to go to work....

Obviously, there are occasions when a weather forecast is absolutely set in stone, and a club calls it off at lunchtime on the day, but it should NEVER be called off 24/48/72 hours before start time based on a forecast that at best, that far ahead is only ever going to be 10, maybe 15% accurate..

Speedway has turned into oval road racing, no dirt, no bumps, and heaven forbid no wet shale!!

japanese speedway used to be raced on Tarmac, surely this has to be the way forward if the sport is to survive in this country!

[Shale Searcher]

Today Coventry postponed their meeting just before 4pm after it started raining at 3.15ish, 3and a half hours before start time. Robert Lambert wasn't happy it wasn't called off earlier but track was fit to ride until the rain came. What if they cancelled it at lunchtime and the rain didn't come? A no win situation for the promotion.

That was a good example of why it should not of been cancelled earlier. The band of rain could easily have stayed exactly where it was a 3pm, it was touch and go wether or not it moved north.... And in the end it did nudge north and caused Coventry to be rained off, but it was a knife edge forecast... And it just, and I do mean only just went against Coventry..

[hrhbig]

It seems today's riders will only ride on wet tracks if the cameras are there.

 

I am not sure how the sport can recover from all these issues of the past months.

 

It could take 10 years to rebuild the sport with the mess it's in now.

I remember going from Poole to Hyde Road for the British League riders Championship, it was raining very hard when we arrived and when we left, but the full programme was competitively run that night, with no withdrawals by riders .

[dave69]

True about time stone era, one of the wettest meetings I ever seen was wasps v a Russia team on a good Friday I think

 

A boat would have been of more use

The LUK Oil team.It was torrential and they all had a go though the Russians did get a thumping.

[WembleyLion]

This is part of what a former top rider of the 70's said earlier on Facebook.

 

"With the old 2-valve and 4-vale upright bikes, you could still race on wet or bumpy tracks (bring out the sawdust!) but these laydown missiles are easier to ride on a slick track but just take off when they hit a bit of dirt"

 

I think this summarises much of the problem as the super tuned 'missiles' are best suited to dry billiard table type tracks and many modern riders are just unable to cope with bumps, ruts, patchy surfaces and the wet.

 

Tarmac it is then cityrebel!

[cityrebel]

This is part of what a former top rider of the 70's said earlier on Facebook.

"With the old 2-valve and 4-vale upright bikes, you could still race on wet or bumpy tracks (bring out the sawdust!) but these laydown missiles are easier to ride on a slick track but just take off when they hit a bit of dirt"

I think this summarises much of the problem as the super tuned 'missiles' are best suited to dry billiard table type tracks and many modern riders are just unable to cope with bumps, ruts, patchy surfaces and the wet.

Tarmac it is then cityrebel!

we certainly saw a few 'take offs' at mildenhall yesterday Eddie!

[StevePark]

Forgive me, but what mess and why does the sport need rebuilt? Simply because a few meetings have been postponed?

 

I haven't been a regular at the speedway for five years, so may be missing something, but meetings have been getting postponed since time began.

 

Perhaps, therein, lies the answer to your question.

 

There are many, many more, like yourself, who have been lost to the sport, for whatever reason.

[SCB]

True about time stone era, one of the wettest meetings I ever seen was wasps v a Russia team on a good Friday I think

 

A boat would have been of more use

12 year old me was far to sane to go out in the rain that day But dad still mentions is peeing down and Roman Povazhny scraping the fence in all 7 of his rides.

[Shale Searcher]

So it's race day, you wake at 06:00, you can hear the rain on the window, do you think, could be a tricky track for the boys tonight.. Wonder if they'll start on time, think it's a big coat tonight, but still excited..

 

Or

 

So its race day, you wake up to the sound of rain on the window, do you think, it'll be off, hope they do an early call off, I can then go down pub with mates, think I'll go to the pictures, I'll ring my mates now and organise where to meet.

[Gresham]

So it's race day, you wake at 06:00, you can hear the rain on the window, do you think, could be a tricky track for the boys tonight.. Wonder if they'll start on time, think it's a big coat tonight, but still excited..

 

Or

 

So its race day, you wake up to the sound of rain on the window, do you think, it'll be off, hope they do an early call off, I can then go down pub with mates, think I'll go to the pictures, I'll ring my mates now and organise where to meet.

Or...It's race day, you wake up to the sound of rain on the window, and think, it's 2016...the sport has been running nearly 100years and they still haven't found a way of protecting the track from being waterlogged...then shrug...sigh...complain about it on a forum...then bugger off down the pub :-)

[daveallan81]

The depressing news is that where postponements are concerned, 2016 is officially the worst start to a season since 1965.

 

43 matches out of 151 (28.48%) have been lost up to 30th April, nearly double those lost for the same period last season. 1979 had more actual matches postponed (44) but that came from 220 meetings. Best start to a season was 1969 when only 1 match was lost from 125.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uyg2iij8j4c55br/PostAbandendApril.pdf?dl=0

[arnieg]

Yes, I was looking at those figures yesterday, although I think we should probably remove six of the seven Belle Vue fixtures as they weren't really weather related.

[daveallan81]

arnieg, on 01 May 2016 - 08:51 AM, said:

Yes, I was looking at those figures yesterday, although I think we should probably remove six of the seven Belle Vue fixtures as they weren't really weather related.

 

Weather wasn't a factor. The only criteria was if a match was scheduled but wasn't staged.

[arnieg]

Which would appear to answer the question in the topic heading in the affirmative. 14% of meetings called off were due to track problems at Belle Vue.

[daveallan81]

Slight correction - I'm saying weather wasn't a factor - what I meant of course was it was only one of the factors considered.

 

Belle Vue are a slightly grey area - clearly there was no chance of some of the fixtures going ahead. If you remove them from the equation completely the percentage is still a tasty 24.48% but realistically they must be charged with at least 4 cancellations which still returns the highest ever percentage at 26.53%.

[Shale Searcher]

Slight correction - I'm saying weather wasn't a factor - what I meant of course was it was only one of the factors considered.

 

Belle Vue are a slightly grey area - clearly there was no chance of some of the fixtures going ahead. If you remove them from the equation completely the percentage is still a tasty 24.48% but realistically they must be charged with at least 4 cancellations which still returns the highest ever percentage at 26.53%.

 

And Belle Vue have bottled it for tomorrow as well now, this is just insanity! A band of rain will sweep through the spine of the UK tomorrow late morning, weakening as it goes.. it's an early afternoon meeting, once what little lying rain has drained off the surface, there's no further rain threat, no wonder speedway is bleeding fans like no other sport, it's never on!! Fans get out the habit of going, find something else to do and if they like it, they stay with it...

 

These rain offs have got to stop.

Edited May 1, 2016 by Shale Searcher

[colin wood]

Belle Vue had no chance of being on it absolutely pi$$ed down for 2hrs prior to lunch time start.