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Lakeside V Buxton Frid 14th July 8pms


waco

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Should be an easy home win ,,But no Zack,,good guest in Roynan,...more importantly no Alfie Bowtel,l and no guest ! ..which means extra rides for the tail end.,,good for them,.. but not i feel for the quality of the racing,,,Jake Knight guests for Buxton,,Max Clegg on higher league duty,,Lets hope they can put on a good show and stay safe......

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Track was patchy tonight ,,Hurry,, Roynon,,Knight all had dodgy moments on it.....Williamson rode well for the Hitmen but had no answer to skipper Ben Morley who looked a class apart with an 18 point max ..The bottom 3 Lawrence ,Locke and Couzins all put in improved performances as the Hammers ran out winners by 50 --38 ,,could have been al lot more but for off nights from guest Roynon and Paul Hurry who i was told was trying out a Gerhard engine,.. and it did not look quick,,.The M25 was closed near the stadium which may have a bearing of the lower than normal attendance ,,The traffic jams were horrendous for those attending,, but to their credit all the riders made it on time ,

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Not the most memorable of matches but it was a nice evening to be out so on balance glad I went. Morely was so far in front in most races he was almost in a different post code. Even when he didn't make the gate he had the race in the bag by the end of lap one..

 

I can't remember the last time anyone scored an 18 point maximum at Lakeside. It must be a good few years ago, so we'll done Ben.

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Track was patchy tonight ,,Hurry,, Roynon,,Knight all had dodgy moments on it.....Williamson rode well for the Hitmen but had no answer to skipper Ben Morley who looked a class apart with an 18 point max ..The bottom 3 Lawrence ,Locke and Couzins all put in improved performances as the Hammers ran out winners by 50 --38 ,,could have been al lot more but for off nights from guest Roynon and Paul Hurry who i was told was trying out a Gerhard engine,.. and it did not look quick,,.The M25 was closed near the stadium which may have a bearing of the lower than normal attendance ,,The traffic jams were horrendous for those attending,, but to their credit all the riders made it on time ,

 

Definitely had an effect. One of my pals was stranded in it and eventually gave up and went home. I went down through Ongar, Brentwood and Ockenden (thanks again to E I Addio) and it was amazingly clear.

 

I didn't think it was a bad match at all, Lakeside using their home advantage to full effect by continually scooting up the inside on bend 2. The highlight was heat 8 with Locke's brawn just about seeing off Woodhull's brain. Impressed by both these lads - Woodhull hadn't been good on the Island the night before but he rode with some skill, while Locke has improved massively from 12 months ago.

 

Morley was imperious and hard as Williamson and Knight tried they never looked beating him.

 

Overall, not quite the beating some might have predicted - Andy Young's description of Buxton being 'dogged' was spot on.

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Worst crowd I have seen in years and I decided to go to see if this fixture had anything it was just lifeless don't think I'll be returning to the hammers this year and hurry has been on a gerhard engine all year Waco

 

It was better than that, Buxton are hardly crowd pullers and Lakeside's gates have always been affected by traffic on the M25.

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Yep, admirable club though Buxton are, they don't bring many/any away supporters down South and aren't exactly box office/local derby material. Couple that with the Friday evening joy that is the M25 then the attendance will suffer.

 

Good to see they're not getting thrashed though.

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Probably not possible but the only way forward is Saturday night racing, the M25 is a no go most week day nights, Friday being often exceptional with people going away for the weekend, even Sunday on some stretches can be a bit dodgy with people coming home from a day or weekend away.

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Going up against rye and Eastbourne on most Saturdays wouldn't do the club any good. I'm a regular at all three venues. If I had a choice I'd go for alternate Sunday afternoons.

Afternoon meetings are usually terrible, has to be an evening in my opinion.
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Surely change the race night then? If you had a crowd like that last season then it would have been financial suicide

The M25 had been shut from 11.30 am due to an accident and I understand was shut for quite sometime which caused the massive traffic jam. That sort of thing can happen any day of the week.

 

Although the crowd was exceptionally poor last night, they have not been too bad in general for this level of racing, with some fair size crowds for the local derbies against Kent and Eastlie. Overall they are probably ahead of the game financially and able to cope with poor crowds sometimes, especially as they haven't lost anything due to rain offs.

 

Brum should bring in a bigger crowd in two weeks time.

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Although the change of leagues is partly due to the movement of crowds from Lakeside to Rye House, another reason IMO is that

both clubs run spasmodically and have lost people as a result. Rye are in the "Honeymoon" period of top league racing so are getting

away with murder at present, but that will not last. If Lakeside were able to run consecutive weeks on the same day each week, I am

certain that their attendance figures would improve, especially if they were seen to be giving opportunities to local born riders. Most

fans like to associate closely with their "Own" riders and in days gone by this local theme was in evidence at most tracks as was a

weekly meeting. Not enough clubs pay attention to running every week and I think that the few who do, benefit from it.

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There is so much doubling up/down that "own" riders no longer exist for the most part.

I agree though, that it would attract more fans if teams were made up of riders who only rode for someone else via a rare guest appearance than all and sundry.

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One man and his dog at lakeside on Friday, heaving at rye last night. The impact of these two clubs changing leagues has been a killer for the hammers.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We'll have to see how it pans out in the long run. Rye House are getting big crowds but have an expensive team to pay for. Lakeside have smaller crowds but their meetings are much cheaper to put on. Only those who see the accounts know how things are going financially.

 

Lakeside have still have their EL / Premier licence for the time being which means they can keep their assets for now. This means that if we move towards one larger league next year ( which seems to be the way things are going) it would be very easy for Lakeside to slip back into the new league.

 

If, as seems to be the case we are looking at a bigger league next without the really top (I.e expensive ) stars Lakeside could quite easily slip back with a team based around assets like Kim Nilsson, Zach Wajnecht, Adam Ellis and Stuart Robson. Lewis Bridger and Ed Kennett and Lewi Kerr would very likely want to come back ( these are just examples ), so a team could easily be put together.

 

We don't know of course, and this is a very unpredictable sport but I don't think the crowd level overall are going to spell the end of the club even though the Hitmen didn't pull many in. One big league with local derbies against Rye, Ipswich, and possibly Eastbourne and /or Kent would certainly be good financially for all of those clubs, so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

 

I can't say I am enamoured with NL racing though and I think a lot of fans will be lost next year if their are not changes to the set up

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