Leicester V Rye House 29.05.17

[Mr Bump 254]

Maybe somebody in the management could throw out an olive branch to Szymon Wozniak and persuade him to return. We might actually win a few bloomin' home meetings then

[False dawn 2,294]

As a neutral...

The track at 1.45 p.m. was rideable. As a former competitor and a fan of nearly 50 years I reckon I can judge what's safe. And trust me, there were many fans that felt the same. The sight of riders digging their heels into the surface only means one thing in my experience and that's trouble. The ref and the clerk walked the track and then gave in. Timid in the extreme.

But hey, we all had plenty of time. Well no, the forecast was bad and rain was due anytime. In fact it was already spotting.

Still we waited and a brand new surface was prepared. Well done track staff. Still the riders insisted on another inspection. If a refund had been available, a significant percentage of the crowd would have already gone home.

But hey, we finally got on with this meeting. And what a meeting. Not too much overtaking, but a tight contest. A dry line after one race but hey, we needed the track rebuild didn't we. I was expecting a blue line and one Lions fan voiced (loudly) we might expect track watering.

But all is well. Well nearly. Heat 15 decided the result and I'm sorry, but your earlier decisions, Leicester, came home to roust. The late downpour, after heat 14, meant that the probably draw, or even a home win didn't happen. The sight of Danny King at the back, pulling off his goggles in lap 3 dismayed me in the extreme. I wanted Leicester to win, but do what we do as fans. Look at the weather forecast, tell your riders to get on with it and stand your ground. You had the capacity to win this meeting but you went home empty handed.

 

P.S. Heat 3 was 0.50 off the track record

Edited May 29, 2017 by False dawn

[Teromaafan 586]

Lions are supposed to roar, but this lot too frequently prefer to roll over and have their tummy tickled. The optimism associated with the new takeover is rapidly fading based on what I witness from spectators sitting near me. To put today's performance into perspective, Rye House haven't mustered a point to date on the road but hadn't of course been to good old 'Speedway Charity' Leicester had they? So what's the answer, more changes? I do appreciate that options are very limited. Last time Lasse Bjerre went through the revolving door he met himself coming in. As fragile as we may be, incoming double upper changes are not a good idea as we seem to be struggling to field our own seven on too many occasions as it is.

Whilst we have a had a couple of good spankings of late, we have also thrown away decent leads in matches home and away. When leads slip, we clearly do not have big enough guns to deliver and pull us back in heats 13 & 15.

Although I have not recently stayed to listen to the team manager's post match comments/excuses, I do recall Jim Lynch publicly saying early in the season that he just wanted riders to enjoy riding away without pressure, but should look to deliver the goods/entertainment at home. So when can we expect this home delivery, can it be tracked like with Amazon? At least 'subtle as a brick ' Norrie seemed to care.

Looking at the bigger picture, it yet again has the hallmark of a club (and its uncertain future) assembling a team from leftovers.

Regardless of what could have possibly been done in terms of pre-match track preparation today, hats off to all involved on the day for attaining a reasonable track surface.

[Tonga 53]

Lasse ain't your problem Garitty is!!!!

 

A fortune thrown at him but mechanically it's everyone else's fault,,,,,, and the tattooed idiot.

[Glennylion 89]

Think the whole thing was a shambles. I think with the forecast they were waiting for any pending rain to make the decision for them.

 

4 miles from the track we had no rain after 9am. Went to the shopping centre at 11 am and no rain. At 1.40 riders were on centre green no looking like getting ready. With lots of track work why was the first announcement at 1.53?

 

Then a false (not even remotely optimistic) 20-25 mins. Gets to 2.15 and with clearly another 30 mins minimum they 2.30 start.

 

Why start preparing the track so late?

 

The bald chap took shale to the outside of the home straight and made the outside 2 metres unrideable yet despite this being obvious and clear to everyone, it took a final track walk by the riders to tell him to sort it. Ridiculous.

 

Managed to get my 15 year old lad to go for the first time in 5 years. Said at 2.45 he wasn't going again and was asking if we could go home.

 

Nilson -top drawer

Riss - very good. Like him

Bjerre - very disappointing .... again. Sorry it's time Lasse

King- good today. 4 suits him it seems. But hit and miss

Garrity - problems there. His inability to make it through a meeting without a rolling start is wildly infuriating for me. I assume it must be for the riders as his rolling start cost Bates a superb first and second bend. Can't see him being anything other than a wildcard who will occasionally​ produce but more often won't.

Bates -another good performer.

Ayres - looks like he's improved a bit but not enough.

 

3 passengers one of which is largely expected as a number 7.

 

Not good enough. Changes needed.

 

Final point. I as a fan was only aware of the meeting due to various speedway social media links and looking at the website. A catchment area of a busy shopping centre on the doorstep carried not one reference to speedway generally or a bank holiday primetime meeting which was happening 500 metres away in a couple of hours. Shocking.

[False dawn 2,294]

.....hats off to all involved on the day for attaining a reasonable track surface.

Were you there? We waited for over an hour, with impeding rain, to go from a difficult track to a first class surface. I'm interested if you think that's justified? Especially considering heat 15 and the eventual result???

An interesting comment over the tannoy (spelling?) at about 14.00, "If you'd seen the track two hours ago, you wouldn't have thought there would be a meeting today. Well when we arrived 20 minutes before that, nothing was happening on track. So what had been done in those 2 hours? Either they had fixed the problems and had stopped work or what happened next was the truth i.e. the riders dictated what needed to be done, which could have been done two hours before. Sorry Leicester. You made mistakes which could have been avoided without a crystal ball. You prepared a tack that riders refused to ride on and then used up a significant chunk of the time before the rain came such that heat 15 cost you a chance of winning the meeting.

[robert72 845]

Final point. I as a fan was only aware of the meeting due to various speedway social media links and looking at the website. A catchment area of a busy shopping centre on the doorstep carried not one reference to speedway generally or a bank holiday primetime meeting which was happening 500 metres away in a couple of hours. Shocking.

The shopping center was packed today and no posters up, I guess there are a lot of people in Leicester still unaware speedway has returned to Leicester.

 

Promotion relying on hardcore fans to bring a friend or neighbour is not good enough.

[False dawn 2,294]

Bjerre - very disappointing .... again. Sorry it's time Lasse

Big mystery. He didn't look interested in his first ride which I put down to the conditions. Not a happy conclusion but kind of acceptable. Then he surprised me in his second ride. And then nothing. I saw him several times early season and he was impressive. What's happened?

[Honey Monster 47]

Big mystery. He didn't look interested in his first ride which I put down to the conditions. Not a happy conclusion but kind of acceptable. Then he surprised me in his second ride. And then nothing. I saw him several times early season and he was impressive. What's happened?

He signed for Leicester!

[flagrag 704]

False dawn- If you had arrived at the stadium earlier you would have seen a huge amount of track work taking place and when you would have got into the stadium the track was being allowed to dry as had been bladed and ripped up to try and get some air into it.

 

All in I think with the conditions the racing wasn't too bad and at least the meeting got completed without any major incidents.

 

I do wonder if the Leicester track should be prepared a bit more grippy and rough as King and Bates seemed to ride it better and Garrity likes it the same I believe

[robert72 845]

False dawn- If you had arrived at the stadium earlier you would have seen a huge amount of track work taking place and when you would have got into the stadium the track was being allowed to dry as had been bladed and ripped up to try and get some air into it.

All in I think with the conditions the racing wasn't too bad and at least the meeting got completed without any major incidents.

I do wonder if the Leicester track should be prepared a bit more grippy and rough as King and Bates seemed to ride it better and Garrity likes it the same I believe

More grip on the track would make for better racing and would suit the lions team except bjerre who must be sacked along with the manager.

[Teromaafan 586]

Were you there? We waited for over an hour, with impeding rain, to go from a difficult track to a first class surface. I'm interested if you think that's justified? Especially considering heat 15 and the eventual result???

An interesting comment over the tannoy (spelling?) at about 14.00, "If you'd seen the track two hours ago, you wouldn't have thought there would be a meeting today. Well when we arrived 20 minutes before that, nothing was happening on track. So what had been done in those 2 hours? Either they had fixed the problems and had stopped work or what happened next was the truth i.e. the riders dictated what needed to be done, which could have been done two hours before. Sorry Leicester. You made mistakes which could have been avoided without a crystal ball. You prepared a tack that riders refused to ride on and then used up a significant chunk of the time before the rain came such that heat 15 cost you a chance of winning the meeting.

Yes I was at the meeting. My comments regarding track preparation were based on what I saw upon arrival (about 1.30pm) from hands on grafters/volunteers, not decision makers who would have over all responsibility for track work prior to that time and I agree that an hour delay is poor. You make reference to a first class surface, were you there! Rain did not really come in to the equation until heat 15 and up to that point the track was as good as it had been all afternoon. Rain fell heavily for the last race which was unfortunately decisive but I don't see how inadequate track preparation relates to a last heat decider outcome?

[False dawn 2,294]

Yes I was at the meeting. My comments regarding track preparation were based on what I saw upon arrival (about 1.30pm) from hands on grafters/volunteers, not decision makers who would have over all responsibility for track work prior to that time and I agree that an hour delay is poor. You make reference to a first class surface, were you there! Rain did not really come in to the equation until heat 15 and up to that point the track was as good as it had been all afternoon. Rain fell heavily for the last race which was unfortunately decisive but I don't see how inadequate track preparation relates to a last heat decider outcome?

I think we got at cross purposes.

The track at 2.00 looked adequate. No more, just adequate.

If there had been plenty of time, weather forecast wise and no one cared about the fans, spending an hour on further preparation might have been justified.

Rain, heavy rain, was forecast sometime during the afternoon.

The track the rider's raced on was as good as it could be. To get within a half a second of the track record proves that. Assuming you want to see that sort of track?

The issue with heat 15 is that if the promotion / ref had told the riders to get on with it at 2.00, the rain would not have been an issue.

My argument is with the riders in the first instance. The track was heavy at 1.45, but not unsafe. It was well prepared, even and would have dried out with a few races. The riders thought otherwise and the rest is history. An extra bit of grading is okay. Take the top 3 inches off the track, starting ten minutes before the advertised start time is not acceptable unless the track is sodden. Which is wasn't.

The track staff did a great job. Just twice, unfortunately.

[Shadders 4,134]

The shopping center was packed today and no posters up, I guess there are a lot of people in Leicester still unaware speedway has returned to Leicester.

 

Promotion relying on hardcore fans to bring a friend or neighbour is not good enough.

One of my Rye House supporting FB friends travelled up by train and asked directions from several people as to the wherabouts of the track. Very few of them knew there was a speedway track in Leicester. Edited May 30, 2017 by Shads

[40-38 307]

David Howe? Im struggling to think of anybody else we could get in.