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bigcatdiary

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Posts posted by bigcatdiary


  1. Belle Vue - Good top 4 but will need regular points from Blodorn to improve their chances, Reserves are suspect.

    Birmingham - Not enough top end strength and they will struggle on the road, battling out with Lynn for the Wooden Spoon I fear.

    Ipswich - Quality top 2 and good middle order, Jenkins and Rew are the keys and I expect them to shine.

    Kings Lynn - Solid enough on paper but a lot of question marks as Saddlebox is chalk and cheese to Alwalton.

    Leicester - Good no 1 and a very solid top 5 but have paid the price at reserve.

    Oxford - Another solid 1-5 on paper but big question marks for some of them, especially Tungate & Klindt.

    Sheffield - Heat leaders are good and reasonable back up but reserves are suspect, a lot depends on how Chris Holder and Pickering go.

    I think Ipswich look the best based on top end strength and potential closely followed by Belle Vue, Leicester and Sheffield with Oxford, Lynn and Birmingham fighting it out at the other end.


  2. 4 hours ago, Flappy said:

    Hard not to feel that Panthers won't ever ride at the showground again and the fight must be to force AEPG and he council to find some lad and build a new stadium as per the local plan.

    I am sure that’s Butterfield's plan to convince all supporters their is no chance of speedway ever returning to the Showground, what I did find interesting is the EOE Agricultural Society’s decision to open the Showground up for the local hunt brigade for a dog show, that surely weakens their argument that they had shut the Showground down to everything to enable the planning application to get approved.

    What he clearly hasn't taken into consideration is the supporters plan to stop the planning application from ever getting approved, at the moment we are still awaiting what the Environmental Agency findings will be in relation to the recent poisoning of thousands of fish at Ferry Meadows, it’s likely the local water courses have been contaminated by something, I do wonder what could have possibly caused this, local farmers or local businesses that work near Ferry Meadows.


  3. 9 hours ago, Marky_Mark said:

    As it’s a slow work day, I decided to sit and do the maths on this.

    So a third of that is about £650 a point, let’s just say Artem scores 10 points then £6500 plus extras (flights, mechanics etc) comes to £7500 a meeting 

    £7500 divided by £25 entry fee = 300 people through the gate just to pay for Artem and that’s before all other costs, the other 6 riders plus stadium hire etc.

    But that then got me thinking there is no entry fees when riding away so that’s another £7500 on the above assumptions so you’d need 600 people per home meeting to cover home and away costs for a number 1.

    Now I have no idea how accurate the above figure is, nor am I saying anything against the riders as they have big expenses but it just made me realise how difficult it really is for these promoters. 

     

     

    I should think a lot of people will now see why Laguta mostly only rode home matches for Lynn and Peterborough.


  4. On 1/4/2024 at 9:19 PM, mikebv said:

    Get mine at local Tesco's..

    Thursday morning every week..

    The Royal Mail are not very good are they? 

    No they are bloody not, my postman told me years ago when my star was late more weeks than on time that the problem was local sorting offices holding back mail that was clearly catalogues and magazines as they were not important, funnily enough I complained to my local RM manager and funnily enough the problem dramatically disappeared for a while.

    But it always returns on a regular basis.


  5. On 1/1/2024 at 1:58 PM, Bald Bloke said:

    All i can say is i was told AL had signed for all the meetings under Alex, but as we know shortly afterwards Alex departed. I suspect Buster re negotiated the deal, as he said himself that money was a problem after he took over from Alex.

    If you look at the gates Lynn were getting last year it must have been obvious Brady was subsidising Laguta’s deal in sponsorship, once Brady effectively jumped ship Buster was picking up the shortfall, I never saw more than 400-600 at Lynn last whatever meeting I was at or watched online/Eurosport etc, Peterborough were getting well over twice what Lynn were getting which is why Laguta was switched to us and then only did some home meetings.


  6. 10 minutes ago, iainb said:

    Yes, 100% It's an absolute scandal really. You have to question who the GB Speedway team is run for? The riders? The Sponsors? Certainly not the fans! Whenever GB have ridden in the UK they have attracted a decent crowd. It's all well and good subbing out the national team to a private company but we hardly ever get to see them in the UK, riders are generally representing GB most weekends throughout the year and all the fan gets to see is a Twitter post, usually giving more exposure to the sponsor than the actual results and scorers. They seem to be more interested in running lottery's than putting on Speedway matches.

    When Team GB was first subbed out, I thought what a great idea, yes it has brought results at the top tier of the sport, but the younger riders results are pretty woeful. These 2nd and 3rd tier GB riders really need to be riding with their tier 1 colleagues in test matches to help bring them on internationally. It's doing no good them riding separately imo

    That's the big question in UK, who is Speedway run for? And until the promoters answer "the fans" Speedway in the UK will probably continue to decline

    Since when has British Speedway ever been run for the fans.

    • Like 1

  7. 1 hour ago, FishersGate said:

    Dave Helmsley wanted him at Leicester a while back. He asked for 50k a year so God knows what tolley is paying him 

    That doesn’t surprise me and says nothing for Hemsley whose claim to fame was building a lovely stadium and a complete crap racetrack.


  8. 1 hour ago, Najjer said:

    Promotors just can’t help themselves, can they? Almost bragging and wanting a pat on the back to say well done about how much you’ve spent - yet all this does is just show utter incompetence of how he’s spent that money. Poor sides assembled, poor results attained, poor management and worst of all, so far absolutely nothing to entice large numbers of fans (new and old) through the turnstiles - that is the biggest mistake of all.

    I really hope 2024 and beyond is successful for Birmingham as it could (and should) have the makings of being a very successful speedway team with a decent stadium and facility and big numbers of surrounding areas to tap into for speedway fans but you can’t help but feel it’s got a common theme to it with other previous owners and clubs dotted round the country.

    And then signs Sam Ermolenko as team manager, who has shown in his tv summaries that his only qualification is a degree in talking complete bollox.

    • Like 2
    • Haha 2

  9. 6 hours ago, FromBendThree said:

    The planning process only helps up to a point. AEPG can keep Panthers out of Showground even if their applications fail. Same could happen at Coventry. Speedway needs land owner to want speedway. Eastbourne stadium still there but owners have said no to  speedway and just let Stox in.. As is their right.

    If the application fails then AEPG lose out as well as their plans don’t get approved and their debts keep getting bigger, at some point concessions are likely to have to be made to get the planning applications passed.

    AEPG and the speedway club need to sit round a table and sort it out to the benefit of both, at the moment AEPG seem unwilling to talk or compromise but that could change of course.

    • Like 1

  10. 9 hours ago, Col said:

    There never is & never will be a "4th heat leader".  Three heat leaders, two seconds strings & two reserves.... is a speedway team.

    Team is Ok, don't see it being able to challenge, may scrape the Play Offs.  Other than possibly Blodorn & Bewley I don't see any improvement.

    Don’t underestimate Ben Cook, he was very impressive last year after settling down


  11. The track and fence isn’t really a great problem, the grandstand and lights are the most important and with the recent council planning noting that LP 30 applies to speedway , the removal of the fence and track on AEPG orders hasn’t gone down to well with anyone least of all the council planners or Sports England.

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

  12. On 11/22/2023 at 12:09 PM, Sir Sidney said:

    I'm a bit disappointed that the Council has allowed the DHL operation to continue whilst they discuss with AEPG / DHL variations to the planning application ( changing the entrance for transporters).

    My understanding is that a revised retrospective application is going back to the Planning Committee in January, and that the public will have a chance to have another say before then. 

    We will have to keep a regular check on the planning site, but I'm sure there will be as many resident objections as before, although maybe from a different set of residents. 

    You are free to put a complaint in about this ( I have) the PCC need to grow a pair and take this company to task.


  13. 15 hours ago, foreverblue said:

    Well I would think most Panther fanswiil go to the NA to see speedway , a boycott wont affect buster much 

    I dare say a few will go but most of the Panthers supporters only go to the Norfolk Arena when the Panthers are racing at Kings Lynn and I rather suspect that will stay the same despite the stars signing up a lot of last years Peterborough team.

     

     


  14. On 11/18/2023 at 10:29 PM, GWC said:

    Len Silver ran second half racing consistently for years. It gave track time to the NL side Rye House ran alongside the rockets.

    It was professional but I’m told it didn’t come cheap but then Len was totally committed to young GB riders.

    Just a shame he wasn’t committed to shale on a track and watering it to prevent dust.


  15. On 11/17/2023 at 9:13 PM, mikebv said:

    How very dare you...

    Maybe they could stream it in action and let us watch it on our smart phones during the meeting?

    We could also maybe have a competition called "Guess the start time" measured from the Green light to tapes up...

    And also publish the mean start time averages of the 15 heats in the Speedway Star each week...

    I also presume the refs now get paid less as they no longer risk their lives pressing a start button for our entertainment a minimum 15 times a night..? 

    If refs get paid less they wouldn’t get anything.

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