Your Worst Rain-off Experiences

[steve roberts]

19 hours ago, iainb said:

it's like a drug isn't it... my most recent one was travelling up to Glasgow for the play off final in 2019, left home around 10:30 had a nice drive up north in nice weather, stopped at Gretna Green for a coffee, decided to look on Twitter only to discover it had been cancelled about half an hour after I left home, another 400+ mile trip and a horrendous journey back in the rain through the Friday rush

...yes I did 32 years of it (I'll leave that for "toady" to work out as he obviously has a fixation?)

Edited April 1, 2023 by steve roberts

[LisaColette]

3 hours ago, TonyMac said:

What was the 'official' reason given by Poole for the cancellation?

Be interesting to see Salty's answer to this as I remember it being called off not not why! I would assume officially it would have been a dodgy forecast? I think Poole had to get Lakeside's permission though.

Furthest for me was Birmingham but was only a riders champ meeting so not the end of the world.

Been quite lucky as been to a fair few meetings that prob should have been called off lol. Would never go ahead now. The one I most remember would have been at Coventry for 2003 KOC Final. Was prob wetter than the sea! 

Edited March 31, 2023 by lisa-colette

[Tsunami]

In the mid 60's we travelled down from Newcastle to an International meeting at West Ham stadium on a Tuesday. Never thought it would be raining, but when we got there it had been called off late. Not a lot to do near West Ham, so we just turned around and drove home. Got home early next day after a wasted 500 mile drive. Still went to work of course on the Wednesday. 

[Speedway fan]

furthest rain off was at Gosford, Australia. Was staying with the Herne family who couldn't go that day and was due to get a lift off Chris Holder ... only to get the call when getting ready that it was off!!

 

[IainB]

9 hours ago, iainb said:

Late 80's or early 90's can't remember exactly when... it was Good Friday though, travelled over from Leicester for the 11am King's Lynn meeting, was rained off when we got there so decided to head off to Ippo for their 4 o'clocker, rolled into the car park, the heavens opened and it was cancelled... off to Arena for their 6 o'clock (?) kick off, arrived, rained off... back home up the A1 in the hope of pulling in the 7:30 Peterborough fixture only for it to be called off just before we got there, so back home, a round trip of around 400 miles, over 8 hours in the car and not 1 lap of Speedway seen... madness 

9th of April 1993

King's Lynn v Ippo

Ippo v King's Lynn

Arena v Cradley 

Peterborough v Oxford

Other matches washed out that day:

Oxford v Peterborough

Belle Vue v Wolverhampton

Glasgow v Rye House

Sheffield v Middlesborough

Poole v Swindon

Swindon v Poole

The only match that started was Edinburgh v Middlesbrough and that was abandoned after heat 8.

I wonder if this was the most weather affected day in Speedway history? And why didn't they call them off a couple of days before based on the weather forecast 

These were the days of course that you had to stop and find a phone box to phone the track if you wanted to know if it was still on or not, maybe give clubcall a ring if you were rockerfeller... no websites or weather apps to check and no BSF!

Edited March 31, 2023 by iainb

[40-38]

Premier League Fours at Leicester, 7th August 2011. Lions first season back, generally terrible results which culminated in the drubbing 28-62 at home to Glasgow. However on this day we were actually winning overall and Ilya "Bonky" Bondarenko was unbeaten for the Lions; it truly was a day of miracles.

It had been a bit on off rain wise all day and even periods during the meeting but about 2/3rds of the way through it hammered it down, stair rods, causing them to stop racing and see if it "passed over". I think we were stood in the open for nearly an hour in unrelenting torrents of rain waiting for it to "pass over" with nary a word from anybody. 

The presentation staff, riders and management were nowhere to be seen, a few thousand people had taken on enough water to sink a battleship and eventually they called it off. I've never been so wet and miserable, and come the re-run in October we came second to Ipswich and Bonky never had another meeting like it. 

[salty]

3 hours ago, lisa-colette said:

Be interesting to see Salty's answer to this as I remember it being called off not not why! I would assume officially it would have been a dodgy forecast? I think Poole had to get Lakeside's permission though.

Furthest for me was Birmingham but was only a riders champ meeting so not the end of the world.

Been quite lucky as been to a fair few meetings that prob should have been called off lol. Would never go ahead now. The one I most remember would have been at Coventry for 2003 KOC Final. Was prob wetter than the sea! 

Can't do a link, but if you look on Poole-speedway.com/club history you will see the incident mentioned in the review of 2013. Too detailed to relate the full details here, but it is much as I said earlier and was to protect their ability to make team changes.

[False dawn]

How about this one.
I was scheduled to ride in a (sidecar) speedway meeting at Mildura in 2007 (you know, north-west Victoria, Australia, where Leigh Adams came from). And that was rained out (Oz for rained off).
You won't (can't, actually) travel further than that from my then Coventry base for a rain off!

[JC71]

Early to mid 80's, driving from Stamford to EOES (?12 miles), Hereward Radio on, unsure of the opponents, heard that the meeting was off because (?) a tornado had hit the pits and took the roof off........ turned round at the A47 ha.........

[Biffa]

Craziest rain off/ not a rain off was a home meeting at Redcar, versus Plymouth. Turned up at 7 only to be told the meeting was off by car park staff. Meeting went ahead about 8-8.30 that evening. Never found out until a notification came up on phone to say The score was ? After so many heats. Loads must have missed that meeting that night. 

[proud panther]

On 3/31/2023 at 2:05 PM, Diamonds85 said:

The last couple of weeks... I really wanted to see Emil's first meeting back in this country so I booked Ipswich vs Peterborough last week (hotel booked, traveled down just for it to be called off as I was reaching Ipswich and about 10 minutes too late to cancel my premier inn... It was only being advertised that morning, surely the track must have been waterlogged all day as it wasn't really raining that much?)

I was gutted by this so I stupidly decided to book this week up as a little speedway tour (I've been missing it greatly since mid last season when the Diamonds folded )

So I planned this week...

Monday - Peterborough (on but a very delayed start with Nicki's crash, stadium issues, track issues, but was an ok meeting in the end)

Tuesday - Day in Cornwall (p!ssed it down the whole time, expected)

Wednesday - Poole (Off)/Thought about popping up to Oxford (Off)

Thursday - Leicester (Off)/King's Lynn perhaps? (Off)

Friday - Back home, across to Redcar (Off)

Can't tell that the season's just started can you? Who's betting that Berwick will be off tomorrow also 

I will point out though because I know people will have a go at me, that I know all of these meetings were cancelled for rider safety, and I completely understand that, it's the most important part of speedway... Just typical though ain't it, driest winter on record followed by the wettest March 

Is your nickname lucky by any chance lol.

[Shadders]

Rockets northern tour around 10 years ago

. 
Friday: Edinburgh, 2 heats, then rained off.

Saturday: Berwick rained off mid afternoon. 

Sunday: Glasgow. Rained off while we were en route from our base at Berwick, so we turned round and headed for Newcastle where the Bandits were racing. That was called off before we’d even got as far as Berwick.  

Edited April 5, 2023 by Shadders

[briggo]

World Championship Qualifying Round 1974, Swindon

I was 14 at the time, and a fanatical fan, so much so, that I used to walk from the centre of Swindon (not far from the Magic Roundabout, and the hallowed turf that is the County Ground) all the way to the Abbey and back again. A round trip of about 9 miles according to Mr Google. My morning paper round (up at 5:30 every morning) didn’t give me enough cash to get the bus and get into the Abbey stadium, so something had to give.

I seem to recall it was only drizzling when I set off, but by the time I got there it was hammering it down. Everybody, bar one fanatical fan, was under cover. I was up by the pits (on the cheap side of the Stadium, they opened a gate at half time so you could stand by the main stand), watching all the riders, warming their bikes up discussing the torrent that was submerging the track. The powers that be wanted to wait to see if the rain relented, it didn’t, and after about 30 minutes stood in isolation by the pits , it was off.
 

My thinking was that I couldn’t get any wetter than I was, so I trudged off home, with my faithful programme clipboard with me. It was homemade chip board type of thing with a big bulldog clip. All it needed was a few stickers to brighten it up I thought. So, on my way home I must have passed countless shops and off licences. As the incessant rain kept everyone indoors, I thought I would “borrow” a few stickers that these shops displayed on their outside windows. After peeling off three I thought that would justify my completely sodden attire. My clipboard looked resplendent in these new colours, although I did have to sellotape them on, as they had lost their “sticky ness”.

The other thing I got from this evening out was a severe case of man flu. Didn’t make the morning paper round all the next week and missed two days off school. So it was worth in the end……..

 

 

[TINYS]

18 hours ago, briggo said:

World Championship Qualifying Round 1974, Swindon

I was 14 at the time, and a fanatical fan, so much so, that I used to walk from the centre of Swindon (not far from the Magic Roundabout, and the hallowed turf that is the County Ground) all the way to the Abbey and back again. A round trip of about 9 miles according to Mr Google. My morning paper round (up at 5:30 every morning) didn’t give me enough cash to get the bus and get into the Abbey stadium, so something had to give.

I seem to recall it was only drizzling when I set off, but by the time I got there it was hammering it down. Everybody, bar one fanatical fan, was under cover. I was up by the pits (on the cheap side of the Stadium, they opened a gate at half time so you could stand by the main stand), watching all the riders, warming their bikes up discussing the torrent that was submerging the track. The powers that be wanted to wait to see if the rain relented, it didn’t, and after about 30 minutes stood in isolation by the pits , it was off.
 

My thinking was that I couldn’t get any wetter than I was, so I trudged off home, with my faithful programme clipboard with me. It was homemade chip board type of thing with a big bulldog clip. All it needed was a few stickers to brighten it up I thought. So, on my way home I must have passed countless shops and off licences. As the incessant rain kept everyone indoors, I thought I would “borrow” a few stickers that these shops displayed on their outside windows. After peeling off three I thought that would justify my completely sodden attire. My clipboard looked resplendent in these new colours, although I did have to sellotape them on, as they had lost their “sticky ness”.

The other thing I got from this evening out was a severe case of man flu. Didn’t make the morning paper round all the next week and missed two days off school. So it was worth in the end……..

 

 

Man flu, it don't get any worse than that.

[Shockster]

1986 and the first season of Bradford after the move from Halifax.   It was April as Kenny Carter was still with us and started with a Saturday night defeat at Cradley Heath 41-37 which was actually better than normal for the time.  We'd gone on the supporters coach and it arrived back in Bradford after 1am.  The next morning we had to be back I think for 8am as we were away at SWINDON.  It's a fair trek to Blunsdon from Bradford and was an afternoon match. If I recall correctly it started to rain as we went past birmingham and never stopped.  The coach got to SWINDON and it was off.  TBF Swindon let us in the stadium and we got a tea/cofffee from them before we set off back on the long haul back to Bradford.  A long 2 days, but we got 1 match. 

[gmarsbar2]

Way back before smart phones set off from just north of Glasgow at 8am to go to King's Lynn. Arrived mid afternoon, beautiful summers day, only to find out the meeting had been called off at 10am as monster trucks had wrecked the track the night before.

Thursday Swindon rained off 30 minutes before start time.

Friday Oxford rained off early.

Sunday headed home, broke down near Penrith and missed Glasgow's home meeting.

[Pinny]

Premier league fours at Peterborougn 1999. 
 

Travelled up in a minibus with a leak in the roof, was a nightmare. Didnt get rained off until we got there either. 

[Skodaman]

Not Rain but snow at Blackbird Road stadium: June 1976. It started to snow prior to the meeting starting and the match was abandoned.

[steve roberts]

32 minutes ago, Skodaman said:

Not Rain but snow at Blackbird Road stadium: June 1976. It started to snow prior to the meeting starting and the match was abandoned.

...okay the meeting had started at Cowley (1975) when a snow storm caused the Cradley team to walk out handing Oxford a whitewash win. John Boulger was given the name by the Oxford faithfull as "Snowflake!"

[Jonny the spud]

Ok grasstrack not speedway but …. 1994 I was racing sidecars at a meeting in a certain club in  northern Germany, (1,500 kms from my home near Bordeaux). We arrived after a near on 24 hour drive.. not a very fast van and avoiding most autoroutes to save on tolls, set up van & awning in the pits, got bike out and ready for scrutineering - set  for 6:30 pm. It was raining so the organisers delayed it an hour, then another hour, then till the next morning. ( more about that later) 

The following morning the rain had let up a little but was still coming down. Scrutineering was further delayed and we had an ominous feeling. Around 10:30 they cancelled the meeting. Bins were opened and the caterers threw away lots of food, piles of programs were dumped  and we started to pack up. 
 

I went to race control to pick up our start money. (About £600 back in the day.. it covered diesel tolls etc) and was told that as the bikes hadn’t been scrutineered the meeting hadn’t officially started, therefore no start money was paid out. 20 minutes later the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. 
 

i had to hang around for a couple of hours as Mark Loram was bringing me two new race suits from the UK, over 10,000 spectators were turned away and Loram couldn’t believe that it had been cancelled. ( I bet he got his money though!)

Another 24 hour drive home, hugely out of pocket and never raced at that club again.