KENT 2019

[liam]

Anyone off to the meeting today? Good to see the Thurrock Hammers have a meeting, fingers crossed it’s just the start.

[ProudtobeaBrummie]

4 hours ago, liam said:

Anyone off to the meeting today? Good to see the Thurrock Hammers have a meeting, fingers crossed it’s just the start.

Meeting abandoned due to curfew . 

[old bob at herne bay]

Reading on the speedway updates site suggests that Kent have 2 hours track time per week from the start of heat one on a Monday regardless of the start time. 

Unless Kent can manage to race 15 heats in under hours the sport surely has a limited future at the venue? Delays in completing meetings in a timely manner threatens the continuing existence of the sport at Kent IMO. 

At National League level seems 2 hours isn’t enough time for 15 heats at Kent. 

Whilst I would share Richard Weston’s thoughts about the track being to blame.....seems most of the fallers were home riders who should know how to ride their own track ? 

With the charges for admission rivalling those of the PL maybe Kent should invest in greater depth of medical cover to reduce the frequent delays  for rider medical  treatment? 

 

 

 

[old bob at herne bay]

Oh yes Richard on a related point “wasn’t all bad news” on Sunday at the  Arlington bowl either I gather ? 

 

[cityrebel]

The bank holiday afternoon curfew is a new one on me. It has never been enforced prior to this season. The farcical events of two weeks ago stopped me going today, i took up Swindon's offer of £9 admission instead. Far too many meetings at Kent don't go the full distance and fans should be compensated when they don't.

[teaboy279]

7 hours ago, Richard Weston said:

Curfew...crikey it's not dark yet. How soon to the children of Sittingbourne go to bed? 

This is just plain silly.

Lots of fallers today which must put question marks against the Kent track, which already has come in for criticism this year.

I hoe those bruised and battered are OK.

However, not all bad news: Kent lost.

The question was asked mainly bend 2 in the post meeting press conference by a member of the audience. I firstly put it to Ben Morley as he has done the most laps of central park and he said he saw no problems out there and the track was as good as ever, and he still loved the place. I then put it to Nathan Ablitt who has gone through the fence a couple of times already. And he basically said the track is fine, and consistent and it's just a case of learning how to ride the deep dirt that's out there. 

But for sure having to abandon a busy bank holiday fixture will do nothing positive for the club, although today despite the delays, actually the county ambulance arrived pretty swiftly, and the transfer seemed to take far less time this week. So actually a potential abandonment after only half a meeting being staged was avoided, mainly due to the riders of both teams getting on with it after the enforced break.

[HGould]

19 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

Len always runs speedway at a profit. Every little helps

Looking at the start line pictures looked a very sparse crowd when you consider vast majority of the crowd are on home straight there. I do think that when Len is charging more that any PL/CL track within 200 miles he has got his pricing horribly wrong.

The curfew issues dogged Kent last few seasons and doing so again. No one wants to see riders hurt and there does seem to be an issue there. I suspect older more experienced riders (a) know when to ease off and (b) know how to be diplomatic but even home fans own blog is saying something has to be done b4 someone is killed.

 

Its a great shame as some decent people down there and could be a decent CL team if they could get a few hundred more in but that curfew will deter anyone travelling from too far away.

[Old Crusader]

27 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

Len always runs speedway at a profit. Every little helps

Well after yesterday he won't be getting my little help as often. If you're going to charge top dollar you need to at least give the customer all 15 heats!

[blueherb777]

8 hours ago, cityrebel said:

The bank holiday afternoon curfew is a new one on me. It has never been enforced prior to this season. The farcical events of two weeks ago stopped me going today, i took up Swindon's offer of £9 admission instead. Far too many meetings at Kent don't go the full distance and fans should be compensated when they don't.

Central Park has far too many meetings that are curtailed.This is one of the reasons I do not like NL....young riders making mistakes,maybe track not too good etc etc.It all adds up to delay after delay.And the fact that Kent increased admission prices for people just to stand around with nothing happening is just wrong.There was a lot of delays last season and this hardly encourages people to go.

[adonis]

6 hours ago, teaboy279 said:

The question was asked mainly bend 2 in the post meeting press conference by a member of the audience. I firstly put it to Ben Morley as he has done the most laps of central park and he said he saw no problems out there and the track was as good as ever, and he still loved the place. I then put it to Nathan Ablitt who has gone through the fence a couple of times already. And he basically said the track is fine, and consistent and it's just a case of learning how to ride the deep dirt that's out there. 

But for sure having to abandon a busy bank holiday fixture will do nothing positive for the club, although today despite the delays, actually the county ambulance arrived pretty swiftly, and the transfer seemed to take far less time this week. So actually a potential abandonment after only half a meeting being staged was avoided, mainly due to the riders of both teams getting on with it after the enforced break.

speedway  riders are like politicians . what they say  in a press conference .where potential employers are onlooking , will be an entirely different thing to what they will say in the changing rooms or between themselves . very few have the minerals to say it like it is ,

[waco]

The build up of deep shale on the second bend exit coupled to the narrow straight is a problem to mainly the inexsperienced young riders,of which there are several at kent ,,this needs to be addressed now before there is a considerable exit of fans due to the crazy short curfew ,,15 pound  as well ,,,is too much for national league speedway with no senior citizen consessions...You can hardly understand the announcer in the stand,,the presentation should be much slicker ...The ref Cris Gay holds the tapes to long and always causes lots of starting problems that also eat up the time.....It all needs sorting,,this is of course only my opinion.......

[Old Crusader]

7 minutes ago, waco said:

The build up of deep shale on the second bend exit coupled to the narrow straight is a problem to mainly the inexsperienced young riders,of which there are several at kent ,,this needs to be addressed now before there is a considerable exit of fans due to the crazy short curfew ,,15 pound  as well ,,,is too much for national league speedway with no senior citizen consessions...You can hardly understand the announcer in the stand,,the presentation should be much slicker ...The ref Cris Gay holds the tapes to long and always causes lots of starting problems that also eat up the time.....It all needs sorting,,this is of course only my opinion.......

Absolutely spot on

[old bob at herne bay]

City Rebel,

relieved to hear it’s not “just me” who has lost his interest in attending at Kent. I tried a few meetings last year and never saw 15 heats due to “curfew” The last meeting I watched I actually walked out before the meeting was abandoned. It was against Eastbourne, where I witnessed the most disgraceful display of time wasting by the Eastbourne “promotion” to ensure the match would be  “ curfewed  off “

Neither of the 2 accounts of the 2 meetings in 2019 inspire me to try again .......

Sad really as this is my only speedway track left within 60 miles. 

[cityrebel]

2 hours ago, Old Crusader said:

Well after yesterday he won't be getting my little help as often. If you're going to charge top dollar you need to at least give the customer all 15 heats!

Absolutely. I've been a regular at Central Park since the track opened, but the crashes and delays are wearing me down. As i get older, i get less tolerant to all this nonsense.

[East End Fan]

5 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

Absolutely. I've been a regular at Central Park since the track opened, but the crashes and delays are wearing me down. As i get older, i get less tolerant to all this nonsense.

I was at Monday's meeting in what might be a final support for a Hammers team. It was a real shame that the curfew imposed by the Council caused the meeting to end

when it was such a close encounter....but this is not the fault of the management.  In fact all the delays were because of the obvious inexperience of the home riders,

all young teenagers except one. "My" team had no problems with the grip that was in evidence on bend 2 and in fact it aided the quality of the racing so hardly

something to criticise.  After the meeting I went down to look at the track, but by the time I had walked down the steps and round to the pit gate, they had already started to 

rip it up with the tractor driver going backwards around the track with a spiker digging things up.  Quite impressive actually and somewhat alarming too.  As I was near

the Pits, I went in and actually spoke to 3 of the riders.  All 3 were, it seemed, happy with the track and one of them said it was his favourite ( he was riding for the

Hammers).  Last season I went to Kent several times and always saw 15 races, sometimes on my way home  before the 8.30 curfew.  But I am aware that

a couple of meetings didn't get to heat 15.  Shame.

[cityrebel]

2 hours is not enough for young riders to learn their trade. There are always going to be crashes and mishaps. I can't relax and enjoy the meeting with the curfew hanging over me. A second ambulance would reduce some of the delays and should be looked at by the management. You have to give the punters what they have paid for. You wouldn't go for a three course meal and miss out on the dessert!

[ruckerroo]

i agree 100%, its getting too much, dearest price in the league and your odds on to miss part of the meeting 2 times in 5

[waco]

Riders do not critasize those that pay the wages in case they get quoted publicly .But the track needs sorting to assist some younger riders to avoid injury and to prevent delays affecting the dreaded curfew

[GWC]

Silver’s Rye house track was always very slick for NL meetings so I’m guessing he is pandering to a rider who wants it deep in a place where he can blast round the outside.

It might be prudent to bombard Mr Silvers email to let him know that people want to see 15 heats if they pay top prices.

What other sport (cricket apart) gets so much interruption.

[cityrebel]

14 minutes ago, GWC said:

Silver’s Rye house track was always very slick for NL meetings so I’m guessing he is pandering to a rider who wants it deep in a place where he can blast round the outside.

It might be prudent to bombard Mr Silvers email to let him know that people want to see 15 heats if they pay top prices.

What other sport (cricket apart) gets so much interruption.

Old Lennie don't listen to anyone. They are still using carrier pigeons down his neck of the woods.