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Oxford v Witches 13th June


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What a shambles. SCB inquiry is needed into how this was allowed to happen. On the face of it, a two-point deduction for Spires would be in order. Teams docked for calling off. Other side of coin should see similar punishment. SCB needs to protect fans.

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After the 3 Hour Drive, I was stunned to get to Oxford and it was Dry.

Drizzle did start after Heat 1,and got gradually worse upto end of Heat 6.

On the Situation in Heat 6, Tungate knew what he was doing,but for me the track on Bend 3 and 4 didn't look safe.

I didn't look at this Dry Window you guys are suggesting, so can't comment on that, but it did come down heavy and it wasn't raceable whilst heavy rain was coming down.

Not sure what to say if Oxford were winning by 10, would they wanted to carry on, I think getting to Heat 10 would of been an effort.

Long way to go, but that's the Sport I'm afraid, but we were flying, especially Adam Ellis, but time to move onto Leicester next Thursday and possibly Danny King's return.

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1 hour ago, iainb said:

Obviously I'm not there but considering they were watering the track before the start it didn't take for much rain to get this one called off. There didn't appear to be any torrential downpour

I was there, and the weather was pretty bad to be fair. It was actually quite bright before the meeting and the track looked dry (hence why it was watered - would have been a dust bowl in heat one otherwise). The fact Erik Riss was racing it and made a pass in heat two shows it was pretty good. BUT then it started to rain and got heavier and heavier. It was pretty torrential from heat four onwards. It stopped for a bit just before it was called off, but then returned again. I know the Ipswich fans are a bit upset, but there's no way the meeting would have got to heat 10. And put it this way, I was stood on the third bend and got completely soaked and the covers on the greyhound track were flooded - that shows much rain there was. I doubt the full extent of it was picked up on BSN,

Edited by Bojangles
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3 minutes ago, Bojangles said:

I was there, and the weather was pretty bad to be fair. It was actually quite bright before the meeting and the track looked dry (hence why it was watered - would have been a dust bowl in heat one otherwise). The fact Erik Riss was racing it and made a pass in heat two shows it was pretty good. BUT then it started to rain and got heavier and heavier. It was pretty torrential from heat four onwards. It stopped for a bit just before it was called off, but then returned again. I know the Ipswich fans are a bit upset, but there's no way the meeting would have got to heat 10. And put it this way, I was stood on the third bend and got completely soaked and the covers on the greyhound track were completely flooded - that shows much rain there was. I doubt the full extent of it was picked up on BSN,

Yes, thanks for the explanation, it sounds like BSN were under playing it a bit then, they kept saying it was just drizzle.

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2 minutes ago, iainb said:

Yes, thanks for the explanation, it sounds like BSN were under playing it a bit then, they kept saying it was just drizzle.

It was never flash flood-type rain, but more than enough for a good soaking.

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1 hour ago, FromBendThree said:

What a shambles. SCB inquiry is needed into how this was allowed to happen. On the face of it, a two-point deduction for Spires would be in order. Teams docked for calling off. Other side of coin should see similar punishment. SCB needs to protect fans.

You've got to be on wind up! Haha

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1 hour ago, chun said:

both tungate and wright had avoidable falls.  boughton made a schoolboy error and kerr was badly off form.  as such oxford didn’t fancy it so no effort was made to remedy the track.  it was still early in the evening and a clear weather window was approaching.  maybe the sparse crowd had something to do with it.

1. There was plenty of effort to remedy the track. The tractor did almost as many laps as the riders tonight.

2. Where was this clear weather window exactly? It's still raining now.

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5 minutes ago, BackInTheDHSS said:

1. There was plenty of effort to remedy the track. The tractor did almost as many laps as the riders tonight.

2. Where was this clear weather window exactly? It's still raining now.

At 8:15 the weather radar was showing it clearing by 8:30 and not returning until after 9:15

If that didn't happen then it was the right call - if it did there was time to sort it it and get it done

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10 minutes ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

At 8:15 the weather radar was showing it clearing by 8:30 and not returning until after 9:15

If that didn't happen then it was the right call - if it did there was time to sort it it and get it done

I don’t think the rain ever stopped. It certainly eased up a bit at one point and then returned again. Almost like the expected rain at 3pm arrived five hours late! It could be argued the meeting could have continued before it was called off, but the track was only getting worse. Heat 10 seemed a long way away unfortunately.

Edited by BackInTheDHSS
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2 hours ago, Gavan said:

Either the track is dangerous or it isn’t 

I’ve seen GP’s (Berlin 2001) … play off matches (Poole v Belle Vue) as examples where the meeting carried on and was far far worse than tonight 

I remember England v Australia at Foxhall (1989?) torrential rain and we stopped for an hour and got the track rideable … this doesnt happen these days 

Probably because if they stopped for an hour now they wouldn't be able to get to the end of the match due to noise restrictions. I would imagine most tracks now have a curfew included in their planning permission.

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3 hours ago, Gavan said:

Either the track is dangerous or it isn’t 

I’ve seen GP’s (Berlin 2001) … play off matches (Poole v Belle Vue) as examples where the meeting carried on and was far far worse than tonight 

I remember England v Australia at Foxhall (1989?) torrential rain and we stopped for an hour and got the track rideable … this doesnt happen these days 

Most of us have seen much worse conditions in the past but with modern machinery it seems more difficult. 

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8 hours ago, foreverblue said:

Most of us have seen much worse conditions in the past but with modern machinery it seems more difficult. 

In the past they actually had some shale on the track most of the time and the bikes pre lay down were a lot easier to control.

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Another wasted trip to Oxford. When will I learn, What with the train ticket and taxi over £100 wasted tonight. When will I learn that the Oxford promoter will not make tough decisions regarding postponing meetings. Some times us fans do not help. I noticed the Leicester promotion who called off their meeting yesterday getting slated by some of their fans yesterday for calling off the meeting in the morning.  The Leicester promotion should be applauded for making an early call.

The outcome of yesterday is that I will only return to Oxford when its a dry forecast but I'm likely to give the Leicester promotion the benefit of the doubt based on their forecasting skills over the last two seasons.

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5 minutes ago, SJA said:

Another wasted trip to Oxford. When will I learn, What with the train ticket and taxi over £100 wasted tonight. When will I learn that the Oxford promoter will not make tough decisions regarding postponing meetings. Some times us fans do not help. I noticed the Leicester promotion who called off their meeting yesterday getting slated by some of their fans yesterday for calling off the meeting in the morning.  The Leicester promotion should be applauded for making an early call.

The outcome of yesterday is that I will only return to Oxford when its a dry forecast but I'm likely to give the Leicester promotion the benefit of the doubt based on their forecasting skills over the last two seasons.

The difference is if you call off on a forecast and it doesn't rain, you just look a bit silly, if you don't postpone on a forecast and what happens like what happened at Oxford last night, not only do you look at bit silly but you've also really really p155ed a load of fans off!

There really does need to be some sanction on clubs who can't finish their matches off once started. In F1 for example a track is declared wet or dry and different rules kick in once that decision is made, you could do something similar whereby the SCB declares a day wet or dry based on the weather forecast, if a day is declared wet, then a club can still run but if they don't complete their match they are sanctioned (points deduction or match forfeit).

FWIW, I thought Leicester made the right decision yesterday based on the forecast... but I also thought Oxford did an excellent job in getting the meeting on... until it rained of course! But if you are intending to run in those potential conditions you really need the track equipment and make-up to ensure you finish.

I'm feeling your pain! Ouch! :angry:

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It may have looked rideable but I was told it was really badly cut up by the end ( it looked f**ked were the exact words used)  so carrying on probably wasn’t an option.  

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24 minutes ago, iainb said:

The difference is if you call off on a forecast and it doesn't rain, you just look a bit silly, if you don't postpone on a forecast and what happens like what happened at Oxford last night, not only do you look at bit silly but you've also really really p155ed a load of fans off!

There really does need to be some sanction on clubs who can't finish their matches off once started. In F1 for example a track is declared wet or dry and different rules kick in once that decision is made, you could do something similar whereby the SCB declares a day wet or dry based on the weather forecast, if a day is declared wet, then a club can still run but if they don't complete their match they are sanctioned (points deduction or match forfeit).

FWIW, I thought Leicester made the right decision yesterday based on the forecast... but I also thought Oxford did an excellent job in getting the meeting on... until it rained of course! But if you are intending to run in those potential conditions you really need the track equipment and make-up to ensure you finish.

I'm feeling your pain! Ouch! :angry:

Long said speedway needs full wets in the tyres selection box. Trouble is no one has even tried this solution. In such conditions skilled riders will win out over the throttle jockeys. And stop calling the result after ten heats. Makes me wild.

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46 minutes ago, SJA said:

Another wasted trip to Oxford. When will I learn, What with the train ticket and taxi over £100 wasted tonight. When will I learn that the Oxford promoter will not make tough decisions regarding postponing meetings. Some times us fans do not help. I noticed the Leicester promotion who called off their meeting yesterday getting slated by some of their fans yesterday for calling off the meeting in the morning.  The Leicester promotion should be applauded for making an early call.

The outcome of yesterday is that I will only return to Oxford when its a dry forecast but I'm likely to give the Leicester promotion the benefit of the doubt based on their forecasting skills over the last two seasons.

Well to be fair the information and evidence was in the public domain, the sensible choice was surely BSN.

As for the new trend to call it off early based on forecasts, I applaud clubs for this, it surely saves a lot of time and expense all round.

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fewer tracks now mean supporters need to travel further to get their fix of live speedway.  its far less investment time and money wise if you are lucky enough to live close to a track.  unfortunately most travelling fans will err on the side of caution and stay home if the forecast looks dodgy.  

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