Witches v Lynn May 6th 2.15pm

[Gavan]

40 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Amazing that even after being told some people still seem to think they could have started heat 1 earlier 

I'm amazed that such little rain caused the call off - not even any puddles and I wouldn't describe it as 'hard'. It spitted for a while and rained for 5-10 mins after they'd done extra track work, which took 15 minutes at least. 

Riders don't seem to like any wet track any more - Colin cook was in the crowd and I bet he couldn't believe it

Those with experience/skill handled it fine, Iversen, Doyle, Nicholls, MPT, Emil but others were woeful, such as Klindt, who looked like a novice! 

Sun came out about half an hour later, typical. 

Yes nothing wrong with the track at all…. The race times went up by 4 seconds 

The riders you mentioned Iversen Doyle and MPT all led their races … much easier in front but still up to 4 seconds slower than previous races … Nicholls sat behind his team mate….. and I’m assuming that you didn’t see Emil miraculously stay on when the track stopped him turning the bike and then he had absolutely no chance of getting by Toft as he couldn’t see just rode the inside ….. 

Dan Thompson struggled when the rain came and being filled in and Klindt got filled in and was removing tear offs on the back straight of the first lap 

I don’t think experience had anything to do with it more about who led 

And did you hear Scott say about the track and how difficult the bikes are to handle now then they were 25 years ago?

 

[Gavan]

And all this talk about the start time is hilarious 

Ive been going speedway for 40 years …. started at Hackney … make it a date Friday at 8…. Guess what …. The parade and intros started at 8.. racing about 8.15

Rye House I used to go to was 4 on a Sunday  …. Guess what parade at 4 and meeting about 4.15

Start time does not mean tapes up to me … it means the start of the evenings entertainment 

People moan that speedway doesn’t put on a show well those 15 minutes of parade and intros is about creating an atmosphere.

Its all well and good to say scrap that and start but then a lot of people miss the beginning 

If your cinema ticket says 8pm does the film start at 8pm? Some people get to the cinema about 10 minutes after the advertised time … imagine if they walked in and missed the first 10 minutes of the film!

Surely all speedway fans know start time doesn’t mean tapes up

 

[Najjer]

1 hour ago, Badge said:

 

There are many promotors with many faults in this country, but Chris Louis ranks up there with one of the best. Instead of getting the begging bowl out, sometimes it goes a long way when it hasn’t quite gone to plan to show your appreciation for those who have spent their hard earned dosh.

[hammer1969]

5 minutes ago, Gavan said:

And all this talk about the start time is hilarious 

Ive been going speedway for 40 years …. started at Hackney … make it a date Friday at 8…. Guess what …. The parade and intros started at 8.. racing about 8.15

Rye House I used to go to was 4 on a Sunday  …. Guess what parade at 4 and meeting about 4.15

Start time does not mean tapes up to me … it means the start of the evenings entertainment 

People moan that speedway doesn’t put on a show well those 15 minutes of parade and intros is about creating an atmosphere.

Its all well and good to say scrap that and start but then a lot of people miss the beginning 

If your cinema ticket says 8pm does the film start at 8pm? Some people get to the cinema about 10 minutes after the advertised time … imagine if they walked in and missed the first 10 minutes of the film!

Surely all speedway fans know start time doesn’t mean tapes up

 

That's one of the most sensible comments I've read on here about today's meeting, I've been really amused reading some of the other remarks. For goodness sake surely people should have better things to do than quibble over 15 minutes etc.  I wasn't there today unfortunately but I always arrive ahead of the advertised time, I won't say start time, then I may get a drink, read my programme, have a chat with people around me etc, I don't sit and clock watch I've gone for an evening or afternoon out rather than sitting at home looking at four walls.

 

[SPEEDY69]

50 minutes ago, Gavan said:

Yes nothing wrong with the track at all…. The race times went up by 4 seconds 

The riders you mentioned Iversen Doyle and MPT all led their races … much easier in front but still up to 4 seconds slower than previous races … Nicholls sat behind his team mate….. and I’m assuming that you didn’t see Emil miraculously stay on when the track stopped him turning the bike and then he had absolutely no chance of getting by Toft as he couldn’t see just rode the inside ….. 

Dan Thompson struggled when the rain came and being filled in and Klindt got filled in and was removing tear offs on the back straight of the first lap 

I don’t think experience had anything to do with it more about who led 

And did you hear Scott say about the track and how difficult the bikes are to handle now then they were 25 years ago?

 

You do realise 4 seconds is 1 second per lap? (And that was for the slowest time). As for making excuses for Klindt, he was worse than hopeless, nothing to do with being filled in, he just couldn't do it or didn't want to. 

I'm not worried at all, I expected it to be called off after heat 10, funny that, just amazed how little water was enough for them to bail. 

[Gavan]

14 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

You do realise 4 seconds is 1 second per lap? (And that was for the slowest time). As for making excuses for Klindt, he was worse than hopeless, nothing to do with being filled in, he just couldn't do it or didn't want to. 

I'm not worried at all, I expected it to be called off after heat 10, funny that, just amazed how little water was enough for them to bail. 

Yes but the times would had got much worse and racing appalling 

I thought maybe they would have stopped after heat 8 but the desire to get to 10 heats is always there 

Im an Ipswich fan but Klindt did get filled in … and yes he was poor even before the track got worse 

Edited May 6 by Gavan

[cowboy cookie returns?]

I’ve been attending Foxhall since the 80s and I have also gone to various other tracks over the years. The advertised start time has always been the parade time with tapes up typically 15 mins later.

All this fuss over start times get a grip.

[kevin bass]

30 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

I’ve been attending Foxhall since the 80s and I have also gone to various other tracks over the years. The advertised start time has always been the parade time with tapes up typically 15 mins later.

All this fuss over start times get a grip.

Any regular spectators knows the meeting starts at 2.15 for 2.30 first race, same as 7.30 and first race at 7.45 for an evening fixture, i suppose the confusing part is for any newbie/none regular or some away fans is if they check the British Speedway website and it states a tapes up time, yesterday it stated 2.15, the Witches next home match Thurs wk states tapes up at 7.30

[GeneralMelchett]

34 minutes ago, kevin bass said:

Any regular spectators knows the meeting starts at 2.15 for 2.30 first race, same as 7.30 and first race at 7.45 for an evening fixture, i suppose the confusing part is for any newbie/none regular or some away fans is if they check the British Speedway website and it states a tapes up time, yesterday it stated 2.15, the Witches next home match Thurs wk states tapes up at 7.30

It states 'tapes up' as what I would call the parade or meeting time for all meetings on the BSPA website!

[kevin bass]

2 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

It states 'tapes up' as what I would call the parade or meeting time for all meetings on the BSPA website!

I know that and most others do, but it may confuse some people is what i was getting at, they see a tapes up time and assume it's tapes up for first race 

[GeneralMelchett]

1 minute ago, kevin bass said:

I know that and most others do, but it may confuse some people is what i was getting at, they see a tapes up time and assume it's tapes up for first race 

yes it could and clearly did confuse some non regulars

[IainB]

10 hours ago, Gavan said:

And all this talk about the start time is hilarious 

Ive been going speedway for 40 years …. started at Hackney … make it a date Friday at 8…. Guess what …. The parade and intros started at 8.. racing about 8.15

Rye House I used to go to was 4 on a Sunday  …. Guess what parade at 4 and meeting about 4.15

Start time does not mean tapes up to me … it means the start of the evenings entertainment 

People moan that speedway doesn’t put on a show well those 15 minutes of parade and intros is about creating an atmosphere.

Its all well and good to say scrap that and start but then a lot of people miss the beginning 

If your cinema ticket says 8pm does the film start at 8pm? Some people get to the cinema about 10 minutes after the advertised time … imagine if they walked in and missed the first 10 minutes of the film!

Surely all speedway fans know start time doesn’t mean tapes up

 

Yes, but we've all been to tracks where they "usually" have a parade but have said they're dispensing with it to get on with the racing due to the forecast. Maybe this is another thing for Mr Morris to look at to bring in some uniform standard for advertised race start times... then everybody knows where they stand

[Arch Stanton]

50 minutes ago, iainb said:

Yes, but we've all been to tracks where they "usually" have a parade but have said they're dispensing with it to get on with the racing due to the forecast. Maybe this is another thing for Mr Morris to look at to bring in some uniform standard for advertised race start times... then everybody knows where they stand

You can’t dispense with the parade and start dead on 2.15 with the first race instead because of the forecast! Every Ipswich supporter knew it was 2.15 parade and 2.30 first race. If some people got there at 2.28pm expecting to be in the stadium just in time for the first heat, only to find out they’d missed a couple of heats because they’d decided to bring the first race forward, they’d quite rightly be fuming!

Two other things at play here. The bus parade for the football team in the town centre wasn’t scheduled to end until 1.30pm and these things normally overrun. The traffic around the town was mayhem yesterday, so you have to allow them the time to get from the town Centre to Foxhall for the scheduled start time. Another reason bringing the start time forward wouldn’t be an option. Secondly, all the different weather forecasts seemed to be saying different things so nobody actually knew if and when the rain was coming! The Met Office and the BBC had rain forecast from midday which didn’t happen and AccuWeather forecast a completely dry afternoon for Ipswich so again, why would you bring the start time forward to rush the meeting through? They did everything correctly yesterday regards to the start time of the meeting. 
 

As I said last night though, the only possible criticism that could be aimed at them was running a couple of heats before the rain break to get to the 10 heats in case they needed to call the meeting and get a result. A couple of those last heats were farcical. They also really have to come up with a better system for meetings called off early. Taking full payment from supporters who only get to see two thirds of a meeting is a complete con. Why not issue tickets at the entrance gate that states in the even of an early call off even if a result stands, your ticket will get you a discount to a future meeting? That seriously needs looking in to. 

Edited May 7 by Arch Stanton

[DazS]

11 hours ago, Gavan said:

And did you hear Scott say about the track and how difficult the bikes are to handle now then they were 25 years ago?

thats how fast speedway has progressed, actually sounds like its going backwards. 

[IainB]

29 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

You can’t dispense with the parade and start dead on 2.15 with the first race instead because of the forecast! Every Ipswich supporter knew it was 2.15 parade and 2.30 first race. If some people got there at 2.28pm expecting to be in the stadium just in time for the first heat, only to find out they’d missed a couple of heats because they’d decided to bring the first race forward, they’d quite rightly be fuming!

Two other things at play here. The bus parade for the football team in the town centre wasn’t scheduled to end until 1.30pm and these things normally overrun. The traffic around the town was mayhem yesterday, so you have to allow them the time to get from the town Centre to Foxhall for the scheduled start time. Another reason bringing the start time forward wouldn’t be an option. Secondly, all the different weather forecasts seemed to be saying different things so nobody actually knew if and when the rain was coming! The Met Office and the BBC had rain forecast from midday which didn’t happen and AccuWeather forecast a completely dry afternoon for Ipswich so again, why would you bring the start time forward to rush the meeting through? They did everything correctly yesterday regards to the start time of the meeting. 
 

As I said last night though, the only possible criticism that could be aimed at them was running a couple of heats before the rain break to get to the 10 heats in case they needed to call the meeting and get a result. A couple of those last heats were farcical. They also really have to come up with a better system for meetings called off early. Taking full payment from supporters who only get to see two thirds of a meeting is a complete con. Why not issue tickets at the entrance gate that states in the even of an early call off even if a result stands, your ticket will get you a discount to a future meeting? That seriously needs looking in to. 

It's not all about the home fans though, like I said, 1 team does one thing another does a different thing, Morris said he was going to make the experience the same across the board no matter what track you were attending, so this needs looking at imo.

[glenantony]

I feel that there are a few things to address here still. I am bemused by the Ipswich fans on here so defensive about their parade times - I too have attended speedway around the country and Europe but frankly I couldn't care less about riders saying hello to the crowd over real racing! We all know that the package is only 15 minutes so needs some filler but there are times when this doesn't make sense and I'm sure most of us have been to meetings when the parade is sacrificed or the interval delayed.

Now if the council have a ruling, that I fully understand, but it's a matter of communication to everyone, not just home fans, to say Tapes up at 2:30pm. If I turn up to se a 3:00pm kick off at Football I don't expect to see the team coming out to play at 3:15. Equally if labour laws insist there is a certain interval for track staff,  just let us know when the interval is called - at least we can moan at other factors then.

My real gripe/concern is that yesterday was another one of those chances to boost the sport - good crowd expected for a bank holiday derby and some first-timers were even acknowledged by the announcer. But what would the opinion be of those casual fans? How tempted would a family be to spend good money on a sport that pays so much heed to the weather, and ends up in everyone traipsing out feeling short-changed by only seeing two thirds of the races.  Maybe results shouldn't be called after 10 heats? Maybe refunds should be given up to Heat 15? Would promotors attitudes be different then?

I don't think the two minutes was put on immediately after every race, no matter what the local fans say, and I just didn't feel that enough urgency was shown - sorry Chris Louis! As I said I compared it to the Oxford match I attended earlier in the season where the meeting reached a full conclusion when the track was far from ideal and all parties were trying hard to get through as soon as they could due to the threat of another downpour. 

In the end I guess I would only have to endure another 5 heats of Ipswich putting my beloved Stars to the sword - and in the meantime I realise I've turned into my dad!

[Aries]

1 hour ago, glenantony said:

I feel that there are a few things to address here still. I am bemused by the Ipswich fans on here so defensive about their parade times - I too have attended speedway around the country and Europe but frankly I couldn't care less about riders saying hello to the crowd over real racing! We all know that the package is only 15 minutes so needs some filler but there are times when this doesn't make sense and I'm sure most of us have been to meetings when the parade is sacrificed or the interval delayed.

Now if the council have a ruling, that I fully understand, but it's a matter of communication to everyone, not just home fans, to say Tapes up at 2:30pm. If I turn up to se a 3:00pm kick off at Football I don't expect to see the team coming out to play at 3:15. Equally if labour laws insist there is a certain interval for track staff,  just let us know when the interval is called - at least we can moan at other factors then.

My real gripe/concern is that yesterday was another one of those chances to boost the sport - good crowd expected for a bank holiday derby and some first-timers were even acknowledged by the announcer. But what would the opinion be of those casual fans? How tempted would a family be to spend good money on a sport that pays so much heed to the weather, and ends up in everyone traipsing out feeling short-changed by only seeing two thirds of the races.  Maybe results shouldn't be called after 10 heats? Maybe refunds should be given up to Heat 15? Would promotors attitudes be different then?

I don't think the two minutes was put on immediately after every race, no matter what the local fans say, and I just didn't feel that enough urgency was shown - sorry Chris Louis! As I said I compared it to the Oxford match I attended earlier in the season where the meeting reached a full conclusion when the track was far from ideal and all parties were trying hard to get through as soon as they could due to the threat of another downpour. 

In the end I guess I would only have to endure another 5 heats of Ipswich putting my beloved Stars to the sword - and in the meantime I realise I've turned into my dad!

It’s completely irrelevant what YOU would prefer. You’re talking utter b0llocks here and you’re just coming across as a bitter fan of a local rival with an axe to grind. I’ve seen nobody get “defensive’ on here, just people stating facts that the meeting started bang ON TIME, which it did. You’re whinging for whinging’s sake. Honestly it’s a bit rich coming from a fan of a club that calls off bloody meetings due to non existent “poor” forecast! I’d concentrate on your own clubs massive failings if I were you. Enjoy the meeting on Thursday. Oh that’s off as well is it? 

Edited May 7 by Aries

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

It's not all about the home fans though, like I said, 1 team does one thing another does a different thing, Morris said he was going to make the experience the same across the board no matter what track you were attending, so this needs looking at imo.

In this instance one third of the admission should be refunded..

If a waiter took your 25 quid meal off you, two thirds in, and said "we are closing early" you wouldn't be too impressed would you?

The BSP should work as a collective (which they say they do),  and, in this instance, KL should let their fans, who attended the match, in at their next home match for a reduced pro rrata price, and then get the money from Ipswich..

In a utopian world it would be a pro rata refund direct in cash or bank account, but doing it this way means attending the next meeting which will also help the clubs, especially as BHM draw  the largest crowds, some their only visits  so getting many of them to return has to be a positive..

 

 

 

Edited May 7 by mikebv

[Arch Stanton]

Just now, mikebv said:

In this instance one third of the admission should be refunded..

If a waiter took your 25 quid meal off your,, two thirds in, and said "we are closing early" you wouldn't be too impressed would you?

The BSP should work as a collective (which they say they do),  and, in this instance, KL should let their fans, who attended the match, in at their next home match for a reduced pro rrata price, and then get the money from Ipswich..

In a utopian world it would be a pro rata refund direct in cash or bank account, but doing it this way means attending the next meeting which will also help the club.. 

 

I’ve never understood how they’ve got away with this strategy for so long. You can pay 22 quid one week and watch 15 heats, then the following week you can pay 22 quid and only watch 10 and get nothing back? That’s so wrong. 

[SPEEDY69]

When I first started going you only got free re-admission if it was called off before the start of the 6th race!  So now it's heat 10 is a vast improvement.  Some sort of discount would be good - could be something simple like a free programme or £3 off (making it £20 and not £23. I'd be happy with that and sometimes it's the gesture that's important.