greyhoundp

The only reason that they would want to move the track and retain it onsite, would be to squeeze a few more houses on to the development, Osbourne and his henchmen have no interest in any kind of Sport, and once they have finished Swindon Stadium, note i said finished not finished with, they will move there grubby little fingers down Wimborne and Torquay way, heaven help both of them..

I cant for the life of me understand the logic of this refusal by the speedway hierarchy, what harm does a Team racing out of a near neighbours track do to the Sport ?. Is it because the management of the proposed Team are not part of the establishment ?, I ask this because i can honestly see no other reason for the refusal given that the people behind the application are/have been actively looking for there own Track. Indeed where is there a problem with Teams track sharing if thats what they want to do ?, Jeez Coventry FC are playing at Birminghams FC,s ground this season nowt wrong with that if it allows a Club to remain in existance. If a Team can be viable running from another Track why shouldnt it be allowed, in fact it has many advantages by allowing Teams to gauge if there is enough support for a club to return, it allows young riders to get experience, it allows promotions to learn the ropes, but NO the hierarchy and i use that word because i refuse to recognise the BSPA represents the name it has given itself, because the most important word in bsPa is the P and most of them wouldnt know what Promote meant if it looked them in the face. To summarise, we can have a Team named Swindon Sprockets with 1 man and his dog watching, but we cant have a Team named Reading Racers racing out of Swindon with a 100+ watching because the BSPA dont like the name despite actively looking/searching for there own Track. I think there is more to this than meets the eye, but we will never get to know the real reasons behind the hierarchys refusal.. In the interests of the sport could/should have been used to allow Reading to race, but NO not according to the little people at the bspa.. Good luck with your efforts to everyone down at Reading, hopefully something may come up soon, Im sure you have contacted every Rugby, Football, Sports Team in the area to see if they would consider hosting Speedway, just another way of meeting the little peoples rule apertaining to actively searching for a new Track..

The BSPA in there wisdom deny another Team from entering the NDL all because of a Name, well let me suggest British Speedway Pratts Association is far more apt..

Including ignoring people who asked for his views on turning Lion Farm Playing Fields https://lionfarmproposals.com/ into an Outlet Village, I predict here and now this will become a white elephant if these proposals go through, we have a new Outlet Village at an advanced stage just up the M5/M6 at Cannock, make no mistake Andy Street is looking for a peerage of some sort, so he wont want to upset his Tory party donor property developer Jeremy Knight Adams.

Tom Spencer would be a very good signing if they could persuade him to do the travelling..

Then you have the issue of the junior League teams will want minimum costs, which will probably mean a lower points average, then the issue will be where are the riders coming from, its a difficult balancing act between stand alones and Junior League Teams.. Leicester managed to get it right in 2019..

Some years ago i contacted Harlow Greyhound Stadium with regards staging Speedway, they were interested in having discussions, but due to the close proximity of Rye House it was deemed it was a no goer. I have never been to Harlow so dont know if there are any houses nearby, but it could be worth someone contacting them.. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harlow+Greyhound+Stadium/@51.7717896,0.0636601,30m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xfeddf3b1e7368a0a!8m2!3d51.7719597!4d0.0638351 Looking at there web page it looks like Monday, Tuesday, Thursday are available, and even Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings could be a possibility due to the early finishes of the Greyhound racing.. of course it would require a track to be put in, and with the current state of British Speedway would that be viable ?. http://www.harlowgreyhounds.co.uk/

Those plans were scuppered by Dudley MBC due to the fact that the site was earmarked for other things, or in my opinion anything other than Speedway..

Statement from Heathens Speedway Supporters Trust. As you now know, Cradley Heathens will not be running next year. This is very disappointing for everyone but as a Trust Board we understand the reasoning behind the decision. We have been contacted and asked why the Trust haven’t stepped in so that Cradley can ride again next year. If only life was as simple as some people believe. As we said in our last statement, we haven’t been sitting idle; we have in fact been busy collecting facts. That’s facts with evidence that we’ve seen with our own eyes and not just gossip or theories. ▶ Don’t Ladbrokes want the extra revenue? Monmore Green can only be used logistically once a week for speedway. The truth is that Ladbrokes can make substantial staging payments by running dog racing in an almost empty stadium because of streaming it by satellite to different countries and the money they can make from betting. They don’t need the extra revenue from running speedway on an extra night. This is a fact as much as people don’t agree with it. Depending on how the National League (or whatever format it will take in the future) runs and how many teams are in the league we would need enough race nights to complete the season. With Wolves meetings, cup competitions and play offs there wouldn’t potentially be enough dates at Monmore and we would therefore be in the position of either riding at Perry Barr (depending on how many dates they have available) or forfeiting any remaining meetings near the end of the season. You wouldn’t book a holiday for 21 days if you could only get accommodation for 14 days! ▶ Why can’t we run at Perry Barr? The income decreases by around 40% riding at Perry Barr because it’s harder to get to for most people. The sad fact is that fans just don’t turn up at Perry Barr. Also, we’re not guaranteed that there would be dates available there for us to race. ▶ Have you ever wondered how much it actually costs to run a speedway meeting? Monmore Green has the highest rent in the league and that rent is the same whether it’s a Cradley meeting or Wolves. Medics and referees don’t just turn up to meetings, they have to be paid. A payment has to go to the BSPA for every meeting plus insurance, riders wages, programme production, track preparation and the list goes on. ▶ Why aren’t the Trust stepping in so that we can ride next year? The answer to this is twofold. Firstly, whilst the definition of a supporters trust is a democratic, not for profit organisation of supporters who is committed to strengthening the voice of supporters in the decision making process at a club and strengthening the links between the club and the community it serves it doesn’t say that we need to hand money over to achieve this. Secondly, when the Trust was set up the objectives were set then (and they are the same objectives we use now) and that is to, in the long term, find land so that the Heathens have a home of their own and short term objectives are to continue to raise funds, have good community links and keep members informed. When HSST announced that we would be one of the sponsors for The Heathens in 2019 we came under criticism for spending the Trust money. None of the Trust money was used. The 200 Club was set up for this reason and this is the only money that has been used (as the accounts at the AGM will show). So why now would we spend the Trust money (where the majority came from the work done by HSSC) and have none left if land were to be found. Two representative from the Board sat down with Chris Van Straaten and Nigel Pearson and had a very open conversation. We talked through the pros and cons of what was involved in running a team next year including all the hidden costs that no one thinks about. For example, did you know that it can cost anything from £250 - £1500 for a rained off meeting? If a meeting is rained off there are still certain outgoings that still have to be paid. At the end of day it didn’t come down to money, it came down to logistics. How many dates were available, how many meetings would we have, what would we do if we couldn’t ride all our meetings at Monmore and what riders would be available to make up a team for next year. Teams who have their own tracks can be way ahead of the game because they can dictate when they ride and how many times they can ride in a week. Sharing a track means that we have to wait and are constantly struggling to find riders to make up a reasonable team. Contrary to what some people have said, there is nothing up for sale because there is nothing to sell! We can have the Cradley name whenever we want it - we don’t have to pay for it so there is nothing for the Trust to buy. We will have the draw for the December 200 Club and then we will have a meeting with all 200 Club members sometime in Januay. HSST Board

Brian I suggest you go ahead after all what have we got to lose ?, at this moment in time we have nothing, so there is nothing to lose, and thank you..

The problem is Brian, immediately above the National League is a bottleneck, Championship Clubs on the whole prefer to have none UK riders in there Teams, so therefore the 9/10 point have nowhere to go except to drift out of the sport, as an example let me give you a couple of riders who you are familiar with, Tom Perry he is a British rider that can be exciting to watch but he is a classic example of nowhere to go, because of Championship clubs preferences for Imports, then the even younger and more recent Zak Attack, he has seen the light, he attempted the move up struggled early doors and may or may not be lost to the sport, he is a classic example of whats wrong with the Sport in the UK, but the BSPA in there wisdom do nothing to halt that drift away by young riders. There needs to be a clear path to encourage these young riders to stay and progress in the Sport, its not only a National League problem its a BSPa problem and by weakening the NL it is not going to solve this issue in fact it may worsen the problem by forcing a Club to close, and then that becomes an even bigger problem.. However the Chairman of the BSPA believes everything for the most part is fine, nowt wrong when people cant see whats in front of them.... except for a Blind man..

The perfect site for Cradley would be around the area of the old freightliner depot in between Dudley Zoo and The Black Country Museum https://www.google.com/maps/place/Black+Country+Living+Museum/@52.5189036,-2.0770964,238m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x80fb90ace73738fb!8m2!3d52.5200852!4d-2.0752618 However the leader of Dudley Council says the site is earmarked for other uses, and the Chairman of the Black Country Museum in his wisdom doesnt want to help, in my opinion they are very short sighted views which could boost visitor numbers at both of those sites by fans going to the Speedway making a day of it..

The quote from CVS in the Cradley Heathens statement "The aim is to ultimately return the third tier to a junior development league" must be a concern to stand alone Clubs, Yes its all very well for Senior Teams/Clubs who want to produce/find riders at little or no cost to themselves by running in the NL, however racing needs to be competitive otherwise fans simply wont go to watch Junior riders, I suggest the best format is what we have now, with junior leagues at a level below the NL, however the catch 22 situation arises when there are not enough Teams to form a National League without some Senior Teams tracking a Development Team. There is a big difference in standard between NL racing and Junior racing as we know it..

Sad but inevitable without a home of our own..

Just read this interesting topic on the Greyhoundscene website, picture from the Racing Post.. http://greyhoundscene.proboards.com/thread/73652/bring-back-oxford-stadium

Well i have sent an email to Steven.Sensecall@carterjonas.co.uk as others say "every little helps" got to be worth supporting at this time.

Cradley Heath disappeared because the Stadium was sold to developers, we didnt have any option to buy the Stadium it was all signed and sealed before anyone knew anything about it, unfortunately this is the way most developers work. The most recent attempt to get there own Track was halted because Developers had done a secret deal years before to obtain an option on the land, and it was secret because many Councillors did not know the option even existed.

RCP, GRA, and Galliards have all been in bed together since the takeover by RCP venture capitalists of the GRA, RCP simply assett stripped the portfolio of GRA Tracks by selling them off, Oxford Stadium is still owned by one of those three, and it hasnt been developed simply because i think Oxford city council have rejected plans to develop the Stadium, however i would be amazed if the Stadium wasnt developed in the not to distant future. Clive Feltham as MD of the GRA has to carry the can for whats been carried out on his watch as an example why hasnt Oxford Stadium continued to run Greyhound racing and Speedway ? it simply doesnt hold water with me that its not his decision, as the man at the top the buck stops with him, I tell you this were Perry Barr not owned by the Council it to would have been gone long before now..

And just who are the organisers, as its a BSPA event i would have thought that its them under the guideance of NL Co-ordinator Jason Pipe.

One, is a copy of Gary Patchetts statement except for the Hide or report right at the end which i mistakenly copied. Two, is Richard Westons comment. Three, is my explanation of why the Hide or Report appeared at the end, plus my take on why the rumours have been rife for a few years now.. Four, I have now edited my original post and removed the mistaken comment at the end, thereby removing any missunderstanding.

The hide or report was mistakenly copied and pasted, and is irrelevant to what i posted which was copied word for word from a Fb post, as you say there have been rumours for a while now about the future of the Club, but thats no different to what its been for the last few years, more or less from the time the Heathens were put up for sale then withdrawn from being for sale, thats always going to remain so whilst we dont have our own Track.

I to no longer take the Speedway Star, but i was told about the article, but not much else seems to be forthcoming, However here is a statement from Gary Patchett club Partner/Promoter.. There seems to be mounting speculation about the future of the Heathens after articles that have appeared in the Express & Star and Speedway Star. I can only make comment from my own perspective. I advised Chris and Nigel this time last year that they couldn't rely on my involvement in 2019. I've found my enthusiasm for speedway increasingly challenged and I was completely uninspired by the truncated 2018 Trophy campaign and I honestly thought we'd probably reached the end then. Nobody was more surprised than me when Chris announced to us that he'd entered a team in the National League for this season and I found my enthusiasm recharged a little. I really didn't feel like I was ready to let go but truth be known I should have walked away then. This season has been a struggle on and off the track. We were late to the party and putting a competitive team together wasn't easy but we did our best and everyone who rode for us did so with huge commitment. Tom Brennan getting injured so early was a massive kick in the nuts for everyone and this year again was a case of, what if. I've got my own reasons for standing down and I'm sure some of those are in common with the other two if they intend to do likewise. Ultimately though, I just want away from the sport. It will be for others to decide where the club goes from here. If there are enough people willing to put in enough effort then there will be a future. I hope that can happen and you won't find any barriers to that happening from my side. It's been a privilege being part of this club for the last decade and while things were going wrong elsewhere it helped to keep me sane. But you know when it's time and the time is now, for me anyway. Thanks to everyone who's been a part of it.

Are the riders being paid according to where they finish in the Final ie or are they receiving points money ?, I have also heard they wont be getting Travel money nor a Tyre.

Seems according to the SS Cradley wont be running in 2020.

Klindt over Masters/Thorssell anyone ?, certainly Nicolai seems to have refound his mojo over the last 2 seasons.