Lakeside V Mildenhall - Friday 25th August.

[The Voice Of Reason 2,124]

So a speedway meeting starts 45 mins late and finishes after 14 races.

 

What a fkin JOKE!

[adz_mft 230]

Good job aswell. I'd had enough. We decided to come down early and do some shopping. Took me 30 mins longer to get from the shopping centre to the track than what it did for me to get from home to the shopping centre. Hour and 45 mins.

Was a poor meeting tbh. Majority of the races were done and dusted by bend 2.Thought we may have snuck a point but it wasn't meant to be. Too sharp away from the gates unfortunately for us.Well done on the win

[The Voice Of Reason 2,124]

Sorry, to amend my earlier post.

 

The meeting actually finished after Heat 13!

 

Jon Cook - do Speedway a favour.......and go get yourself a job stacking baked bean tins in Lidl.

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

Sorry, to amend my earlier post.

 

The meeting actually finished after Heat 13!

 

Jon Cook - do Speedway a favour.......and go get yourself a job stacking baked bean tins in Lidl.

 

I am wondering precisely what you want or expect.

 

According to traffic reports, there was a multi car pile up on the QE2 bridge yesterday afternoon that caused traffic chaos in the area. Jon Cook can be blamed for some things, but surely not that.

 

In the circumstances, a delayed start seems entirely sensible in that it gave everyone a chance to actually see the meeting. Not ideal, but better than starting on time or abandoning the match altogether (I can just imagine how I would have felt spending hours locked up in a car to arrive and find that the meeting had been postponed).

 

Given that the start was at 8.45, I would presume that it was pushing 10pm by the time that they ran heat 14. There was, by all accounts, a bad crash and extensive damage to the air fence. I suppose we could have had everyone standing around for however long it would have taken to fix it but it seems that there was a mutual agreement between both teams to end it there. Again, inherently sensible, particularly taking into account Adz comments above (and I doubt very much if he was the only one who thought that).

[Bryce 349]

Indeed, though I am no fan of Mr Cook on many issues, there was no way he could be held accountable for the events last night. It took my son and I almost 90 minutes to complete the last mile of our journey to the track, including 45 minutes stationary on the roundabout that goes under the M25 at the junction before the Dartford Crossing. We eventually got to the stadium just before 8 to find the place almost deserted. Even the ambulance and medics hadn't managed to get there at that stage. By delaying 45 minutes they allowed in the end a pretty decent crowd to arrive.

 

Obviously that meant it was getting quite late by the time the heat 14 crash occured. Given that the safety fence was severely damaged including the actual support fencing as well as the air bags, and would have taken a long time to fix, and that the match points were by then settled; nobody I spoke to was at all put out that the meeting was abandoned at that point.

 

It was just one of those nights. It wasn't ideal, but the problems were definitely not caused by anything Jon Cook did or didn't do.

[marko 956]

Erm I disagree strongly, nobody but Jon Cook made the decision to continue using Friday nights, the worst day of the week traffic wise and the more traffic there is the greater chance of things going wrong/accidents etc because people start taking risks to avoid being late to wherever they are trying to get too.

[cityrebel 2,960]

Staging a meeting on possibly the busiest friday of the year was always a risk. Last night was just another 'day in the office' for speedway. I'm off to Eastbourne tonight for hopefully an incident free match!

[waco 1,026]

Under the circumstances this was a very good result for Lakeside and keeps our play off hopes alive...Still a poor decision to run on this particular night and more thought needed when deciding the fixtures.....in the future

[Bryce 349]

I accept as a valid point the fact that it was Cook's choice to run on Friday, and all the inherent risks that entails. Even so, the traffic problems last night were worse than I've ever seen on a speedway night. He may not be entirely blameless, but I have to feel a little sympathy.

[liam 376]

I just hope the people involved in the bad accident are ok, some things are more important than when a speedway meeting starts and finishes.

[Prince Regent 16]

Only my third visit to Lakeside this year, as opposed to almost never missing a match in previous seasons, and I was rather miffed to arrive on time and find that the meeting had been delayed 45 minutes. But then I saw that the place was vitually deserted, and certainly, as has been said, the traffic in the area was far worse than usual Bank Holiday Friday traffic, presumably owing to the aforementioned accident.

As a result the delay was a perfectly acceptable decision. I'm just agreeing with Bryce and Halifaxtiger here, when I say that I for one was quite relieved when the meeting was curtailed at 13 heats, because there was clearly going to be a lengthy delay while the fence was repaired.

Edited August 26, 2017 by Prince Regent

[Loyal hammer 5]

Firstly I hope Drew Kemp is ok, it was a very nasty accident. I think Mildenhall will be disappointed not to have got a point from the meeting, especially after such a bright start from their reserves. It was nice to see Kemp win his first national league race, coincidently I think Bebee did the same for Mildenhall at Eastbourne last year. Shame we didnt see the quality of Jenkins last night but all in all it was a very important win for the Hammers. Boxall and Bacon did good jobs as guests. Alfie has really come on leaps and bounds and Locke picked up some very useful third places. Keeps us in the playoff picture for now anyway.

[JohnE 0]

It's all very well for the Voice of treason to mouth off from miles away. This is the first time there has been an issue with traffic on a Friday for about 2 years. If you live near Lakeside you know an accident on the bridge can cause problems any night of the week as has happened in the past.

 

In hindsight though running a meeting on a ba and the meeting should have been run then.

 

Also it hasn't been mentioned that after he demolished the air fence in a frightening crash, young Dan Kemp needed an ambulance ride which wold have tied up the paramedic for some time as well.

[KevtheRev 122]

It's all very well for the Voice of treason to mouth off from miles away. This is the first time there has been an issue with traffic on a Friday for about 2 years. If you live near Lakeside you know an accident on the bridge can cause problems any night of the week as has happened in the past.

 

 

If that was the case then why did John Cook state that was the reason Lakeside were dropping down to the National League?

[E I Addio 15,845]

If that was the case then why did John Cook state that was the reason Lakeside were dropping down to the National League?

He didn't state that was the reason. The initial press release stated that the club could not commit to EL /PL racing (as it was then) because the AGM had been brought forward to an earlier date and no agreement coukd bad reached with the stadium owners until the 2017 stock car fixtures were arranged when the 2016 stock car season finished in November. In fact it was not announced that the clubs future for 2017 had been secured until December 2016, shortly before the NL AGM which was held after the other two.mAt that stage Cook said it would allow the opportunity to address the problem of moving "some " fixtures to Sat/Sun, and "some " have been moved but people seem to forget stock car fixtures take priority.