Daytripper

If the BSPA have unpaid debts they should be cleared before they are allowed to administer another season, but they won’t be. Makes a mockery to the club or clubs that are owed money. Then Lakeside , and possibly others could clear their debts.

Whether they should or should not have been allowed is not the point. The fact is they WERE allowed and approved by the same Mr Godfrey who later pulled the plug. Once the figures were approved and published season tickets were bought on the strength of it, holidays and other arrangements were booked around it, clubs and more inportantly some members of the paying public were out of pocket or inconvenienced because of it. When Speedwáy Star published the interview with Godfrey, spread over two pages there was not a single word, not even a hint of apology to the fans whose money keeps the sport alive, just columns of self justification and banging on about protocols . As ever the BSPA behave as if the customers are just an inconvenience they could do without.

I don't know whether you are just trolling and trouble making in your usual way or whether you are just dim but rather than make such unhelpful comments, why not leave the matter to those who are working with, and to some extent being guided by Thurrock Council on what the petition should or should not include. The fact that the petition includes the signature of a former World Champion is one of the things that adds weight , for example. Speedway might be a minority sport nationwide but it attracts the biggest crowds in Thurrock.

It's rather more complicated than that. As I said we were given a lot of background to a lot of matters, which I am not going splash out all over the forum. You can either believe it or not believe it , but take it from me the BSPA have treated Stuart. Douglas apallingly, and although I dont have all the facts about Rye House, it does seem they have had a rough deal as well. Ask yourself this :. With the state of speedway in this country why have we lost two promotions and an existing track without the BSPA bending over backwards to keep everyone on board? Last season three clubs, Lakeside , Peterborough, and Workington had serious financial problems and the sport was made a laughing stock because Rob Godfrey pulled the plug on fixtures that had previously been approved . When Godfrey was asked about it in Speedwáy Star he just kept on about his protocols. That's the mentality of these people. Never mind the fans, never mind the riders let's stick to the protocols. In any other business the customers are paramount. If you start losing customers you make changes to accommodate them. In BSPA world you stick to the protocols and if the paying public don't like it they can lump it. Crowds at almost every club are down. How many fans have been lost to the sport in the last 5 years alone. They call themselves an "Association" but some of those at the helm don't even know the meaning of the word.

2500 signatures on the petition so far, which as these things go, is said to be quite impressive . A number of riders have given their support, including Jason Doyle. The target is 3000 signatures. If you haven't signed it yet , pleas e do so , and if Auntie Lil and Uncle Bert haven't signed it see if you can get them to support it, to help the club get it over the line. Thanks..

2500 signatures on the petition so far, which as these things go, is said to be quite impressive . A number of riders have given their support, including Jason Doyle. The target is 3000 signatures. If you haven't signed it yet , pleas e do so , and if Auntie Lil and Uncle Bert haven't signed it see if you can get them to support it, to help the club get it over the line. Thanks..

Just back from the Lakeside fans forum. Well attended. Someone said around 200 there but I didn't count them myself. The meeting lasted about 1hr 45 min and a lot of detail was given which I am not going to repeat on here. Suffice to say there is hope . Lots still to be done but there was an hour long meeting with the developers a week of two back, and the Thurtock Council are tangibly supportive . There are sponsors interested in giving support if things come to fruition and at the moment at least there seem to be funds available to build a basic Leicester style track. The council are doing their assessment/planning of sports facilities in a few months and Speedwáy seems to be on the agenda. The behaviour of the BSPA towards Stuart Douglas has been atrocious, and wrangling are still going on. No criticism was made of Rye House who did there best to help but reading between the lines it seems the BSPA's treatment of them has been abysmal as well. It just seems incredible to me that given the present state of speedway the BSPA are not bending over backwards to keep Speedwáy at that facility instead of obstructing it . All the riders will be paid by Stuart but it is the BSPA that are preventing it at the moment. It seems to me that that, the BSPA continue to believe that it is they , not they riders, nor the fans, that are the most important people in Speedwáy.

Everybody has to sign in for the referee, ie track curator , track doctor, team managers, machine examiners and team captains. The team captains don't specifically have to confirm the team has been paid but a lot make a comment on the form that there is money otstanding. I have know several team captains to say on the form that monies are outstanding but I have never heard of the BSPA doing anything about it. However, since the BSPA themselves are often horrendously late paying Team GB riders they are not really in a strong position to take action against anybody else. I personally knew a former Team GB rider who said it cost him £1500 last time he road for his country.

No good having discounted admission if the product is no good. Ironically Lakeside had an attractive and successful team in 2018 but we still had the usual clowns running the sport, with great gaps in the fixture list even before Godfrey started tampering with it and making it worse, and that's without all the other cheating and manipulation that goes on. I loved it at Arena but when it moved to Rye House it was like watching paint dry. Now that I don't have a team to support , I find the sport has very little to commend itself to me as a neutral .

Alfie's trump card is that he is a pretty good gater, and as he gained experience over the season, a lot ofsecond strings found him very difficult to pass . I think he will,increase hi s average over the season but his ragged style will limit how far he improves. A good bloke and good team man though, is Alfie. Worth a place at reserve in any Championship side.

I think was more to do with the food outlets and shops. The rent they paid the stadium owners was absolutely exhorbitant. With falling crowds overall in both Speedwáy and stock car the shops weren't making so much money which meant the stadium owners couldnt screw so much rent out of them. I noticed towards the end of the season that two or three of the shops weren't even bothering to open.

If goes to hell right now it would be even better.

Perhaps not formally , possibly because development is at a preliminary stage but my firm understanding is tha planning permission is/will be linked to provision of motor sport facilities ( for now at least, but whether that changes in the future remains to be seen). All I can add is that Jon Cook told the fans that the promotion have done all they can and the matter is now in the hands of the developers and the politicians, both of whom have given a commitment to wanting Speedwáy to return to Thurrock. Of course that doesn't imply certainty and who knows what the future holds, but at least the intention is there.

The approximate scenario that I have gathered from various sources including people who rent the shops on the site is this : 1. The stock car crowds have been falling for years and it's has taken a handfull of big meetings per year to balance the books.There are 5 members of the Woodroffe family that inherited the site from its founder , the late Chick Woodfoffe, so profits all have to be cut 5 ways. None of them are particularly stock car enthusiasts and the place is just a cash cow to them . For several years they have been apparently screwing the Speedwáy club and the shops foe every penny they could get before bailing out. One of the shop tennents told me the rent the has to pay. I forget the actual figure but it is absolutely eye watering. The rent for the Speedwáy track is said to be the highest of ant Speedwáy track in the country, despite the poor facilities. basically it seems the owners have just been trying to fill their pension funds for sometime and sell the stadium before things start falling down. 2. Representations by the Hammers have been going on by the Hammers promotion to Thurrock Council and the local MP for several years now. A mere Speedwáy club it may be but it still draws the biggest crowds in Thurrock. There was talk at one time of the name being changed to Thurrock Hammers at the councils request . So planning permission has been given for developing the site subject to the developers allowing some facility for "Motor Sport". 3. Apparently there was buyer for the site when the club nearly closed in 2016, but he pulled out. 4.As I understand the present position, there is a buyer interested but he would like to buy off the provision for motor sport and help facilitate it being transferred to another site. To that end Thurrock Council have two possible sites under consideration, within the Thurrock boundaries . I.e.not Southend, Chelmsford, Colchester or these other places people have speculated on here. 5. It may well be some time before the present site is built on, because being a former gravel pit there are things like risk assessments for pollution to be carried out and a range of other things to be done before anything can start. As far as I know Speedwáy could possibly have squeezed another season or two out of Arena but of course once the owners decided to cut and run it meant it would be financially impossible for the Hammers promotion to run the place on their own. Jon Cook did say to the crowd just before the move that he was speaking to all parties interested in continuing motor sport of all kinds and if there was a deal to be done they would do but it seems with all the ifs and buts and uncertainties of the situation that was not to be. The above comments are what I think is a fairly full picture. It may not be 100% accurate all the way through but I I pretty sure it is about 90% of it.

I think the financial implications at Rye House are/ were preferable to dealing with Dick Turpin &Co at Aena.

A decision will have to be made by the AGM in mid November so instead of potentially harmful speculation, for the sake of waiting 3 weeks or so why not watch this space. You might find a few surprises. Jon has already dropped a heavy hint that next season has already been discussed with the riders and all would be interested in returning, although of course the points limit means they can't all have places. As I understand it, nothing has yet been ruled in or out, but IF Lakeside return we might well expect a different shape and differently prepared track to the one we inherited. Its a shame the season was tarnished by Rob Gofreys influence and the necessary move to Rye but up til the time we left Arena I thought it was the best and most entertaining team for several years.

Let’s not overlook the the culpability of the BSPA Chairman and especially the Vice Chairman in all this. It’s thanks to Godfrey interfering with the fixture list to suit his own club that meant that Lakeside, Peterborough, and Workington had difficulty completing their fixtures, and thanks to the pair of them that Lakeside couldn’t use both Arena and Rye House get the Remain gin fixtures . Thats Chapman and Godfrey for you, bleating about protocols and to hell with the fans. Even by BSPA standards the sport has sunk to a new low, made even worse by Chapmans boasts that he was going to do this and do that but he has done nothing. Words cannot e,xpress my contempt for the pair of them, especially Godfrey. Look at the mess the sport was in when these two clowns took over, and look at it now - even worse. Unbelievable . And they both think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. As for Peterborough, Lakeside and Rye House Stadium, it wouldn’t surprise me if they are all history by next year. Sadly. What a bunch of clowns run this sport from to bottom.

Except that it’s not a Leicester meeting it’s a BSPA meeting. They have supervision of it. It tells you all you need to know about the Chapman/Godfrey circus when the body with day to day conduct of the sport can’t organise a meeting worthy of being called a Championship.

It’s not cheating if it’s within the rules, and whether it’s in the rules is, at this stage, a matter for the meeting referee. The Lakeside line up would have to have been declared to the Peterbough management 3 days ago and they are entitled to lodge a protest to the meeting referee if they are unhappy with the situation. As for the more general point of the BSPA standing by let’s not forget that the BSPA Management Committee includes the biggest cheat in the CL so I don’t suppose he could care less what happens now his own club are out of the play offs, despite his best efforts to manipulate the fixture list.

That’s true. Lukas always turned up when he was with Eastbourne, and always tried hard on a track that didn’t suit his style. Lukas told me himself in his Eastbourne days that he was always prepared to come with Peterborough but was told not to come.

I agree with most of that, but not all. Public relations has never been Lakesides strong point. The fact that most clubs are the same doesn’t excuse poor communication. There is not a lot that can be done about track prep in a short space of time, especially at this late stage of the season. Hopefully we will see some improvement by next season but by the nature of the track it is never going to be among the best. It is basically a stock car track converted to speedway by Len Silver. The amount of money Len ploughed in to buying the stadium and converting it to speedway would be close on a million quid in today’s money and there is obviously a limit to how much can be put into a stadium, so unfortunately it is either Rye House or no Speedway in the area. If Rye House is lost that is yet another nail in the coffin of the sport. That’s not an attempt to justify the racing it is just the reality of the sport today. As for track staff there are a number that worked for both Lakeside and Rye House, but in the last meeting there was something of a breakdown in getting information on rider changes to the referee , and one Rye House official in particular was criticised by the ref, so there are likely to be certain changes by next term.

You have just caused me to have this mental image of a BSPA Management Committee meeting like the Mad Hatters tea party, with Rob Godfrey as the Mad Hatter and Buster Chapman with his tie undone as he always seems to have it, as the doremouse dozing of with a few empty beer glasses in front of him, and Mad Hatter Godfrey yelling “Absurd of course it’s not absurd, let’s scrap the league and make every match a cup final then make Scunthorpe the winner “

I notice at Rye on Saturday that the track had been ripped up for the first 5-10 metres off the start , just as it always is at Lakeside, but of course it is an entirely different surface at Rye which messed set ups up a bit. . Also Adam was carrying a shoulder injury so he could barely hang on to his bike as the evening wore and Ben was knocked around in the crash involving Ludwig Lindgren and Jack Thomas in the Newcastle match. I spoke to Ben after his last ride (I think had 10 races altogether including covering the R/R position) and he said he was "Knackered, battered and shattered". Both Adam and Ben were well below par in that match. I don't think you can judge either of them by that performance I just hope they are fit by Sunday. I think also he announcement before the Peterborough match that Lakeside were through to the play offs meant some of the riders relaxed a bit now the pressure was off in that sense.

I presume he will be on the sex offenders register for life, or does that not apply if he was "only" viewing material as opposed to committing an offence against a person ? He'll probably never get a decent job again , certainly not one that involves a CRB check.

There is a Farewell To Arena video on YouTube which shows the crash in normal time and in slow motion at about 10.25.The camera has an unrestricted view. Craig definitely went down on his own, nobody touching him and his bike took Nick out.Bad referring decision, but all’s well that ends well. Nick not seriously hurt, Lakeside won the match by 10, and the ever popular Richard Lawson fittingly won the las ever race.