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Steve Shovlar

Leicester v Poole. Prem. 9/7/18. BT sports.

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37 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

I'm sure there are contractual obligations to show every PL track at least once!!

Then rip it up and start again.  Or next year change it

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Who takes charge of the track prep for BT matches now? Back in the Sky days it was Mr Russell who took temporary responsibility and supervised it but from what I've seen it has been put back into the hands of the local curators now.

Having now seen the TV coverage, Kelvin Tatum spotted that gate 4 was going to present problems for riders, and that was well before the start of the meeting. What actually happened was that apart from two heats, the majority were effectively 3-man races with the poor s+d off 4 effectively having a 15 metre handicap. So the entertainment possibilities were clobbered even further. Surely this is highly unsatisfactory for BT and their subscribers, and of course those who paid to attend.

Not having any experience of track prep, I don't know about the feasibility of this - but would it have been possible for Tatum's concerns to be followed up and acted on, such as ripping up the start area before the meeting began? He is after all a hugely experienced person, so why not put that to good use?

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6 minutes ago, Big Al said:

Who takes charge of the track prep for BT matches now? Back in the Sky days it was Mr Russell who took temporary responsibility and supervised it but from what I've seen it has been put back into the hands of the local curators now.

Having now seen the TV coverage, Kelvin Tatum spotted that gate 4 was going to present problems for riders, and that was well before the start of the meeting. What actually happened was that apart from two heats, the majority were effectively 3-man races with the poor s+d off 4 effectively having a 15 metre handicap. So the entertainment possibilities were clobbered even further. Surely this is highly unsatisfactory for BT and their subscribers, and of course those who paid to attend.

Not having any experience of track prep, I don't know about the feasibility of this - but would it have been possible for Tatum's concerns to be followed up and acted on, such as ripping up the start area before the meeting began? He is after all a hugely experienced person, so why not put that to good use?

Have to agree gate 4 was hopeless. I'm a major critic of the track and hardly ever bother going, but i did go last night and the first part of the meeting was totally dire, however it did get better and I counted 6 races with passing after bends 1 and 2, which seems about the right number looking at speedway updates. Not great racing but I've certainly seen worse. I'm not sure what length the track is now (after aletrations) but the straights still look a bit long, Colin Merideth told me 280m is the max he would fit in the space - advice not taken at the time of course.

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2 hours ago, Happy Hunter said:

I am afraid that, over the years, a good meeting at Leicester is defined as one where the home team win by a narrow margin. The excitement level depends on how often the overall points lead changes over the 15 heats! 

Well it was a close meeting and very up and down but that was largely due to which gate you were on.  I think there were only a couple of occasions when gate 4 won and there was no passing until a couple at the end. When Hans or Bjerre can't get close to Klindt after the second bend says it all but I have seen some decent battles at Leicester, I seem to remember Janowski and Doyle having good races.

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1 hour ago, Baldyman said:

I

Even on a Facebook speedway site a few people were saying what a great meeting it was with great racing, they have obviously never seen a decent meeting in their lives if they thought that was good.

Bt really should pick and choose which tracks they show speedway from, and that track shouldn't be one of them.  

The whole problem is that the sport suffers, we have a chance to show people on tv what an amazing and thrilling sport we have and we get the main reason why many don't go and the reason those that don't know much about the sport think it is just boring gate and go.

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It was Gate & Go and so strung out that mostly the others not first or second had clearly no intention of trying to keep up or even give an impression of doing so. 70% from the tapes to the flag. Even Tatum said, "passing is at a premium here". And it was.

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One thing that has puzzled me for a while, and not just referring to last night (but just using Klindt's performance in Heat 12 as an example), why is it that a rider off the worst gate or makes the worst start will often finish a long way behind the leader and not just be the couple of bike lengths behind that he lost at the start? 

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Speedway can't complain about the amount of TV money off BT when that sort of racing is served up.It was embarrassing to watch at times.We are lucky that a major tv company still shows speedway if that the norm.Expect much better next week on a proper track at BV.

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4 hours ago, waytogo28 said:

It was Gate & Go and so strung out that mostly the others not first or second had clearly no intention of trying to keep up or even give an impression of doing so. 70% from the tapes to the flag. Even Tatum said, "passing is at a premium here". And it was.

Truth of the matter is the damage is done at leicester very poor track shape little funds to address. Agree with other posters either improve the surface or let it die of a painful death which has started. As a stadium it's not a bad little set up close to the action etc. how about a campaign for tradesman and plant to support mass changes in the winter more than happy to support if clear from the start of the end goal.

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A work m8 of mine went along last night, his first ever speedway meeting. He took his step lad. His verdict ... he loved it! So much so he was looking at upcoming meetings. I attended the bees select last year and also enjoyed it. My unexpert opinion is that the track would benefit from more banking to create more lines. 

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The starts are ripped up every week at Leicester before the meeting and riders like it as gives them extra drive.

Unsure why but meeting referee Mick Bates informed the track curator that he didn’t want to starts to be ripped up or any more water adding.

Sometimes in these TV meetings they run the track and starts slicker than normal so less chance of incidents and meeting delays.

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19 hours ago, nobrakeshere1 said:

Have to agree gate 4 was hopeless. I'm a major critic of the track and hardly ever bother going, but i did go last night and the first part of the meeting was totally dire, however it did get better and I counted 6 races with passing after bends 1 and 2, which seems about the right number looking at speedway updates. Not great racing but I've certainly seen worse. I'm not sure what length the track is now (after aletrations) but the straights still look a bit long, Colin Merideth told me 280m is the max he would fit in the space - advice not taken at the time of course.

Yeh, somebody else did mention this but i also feel Leicesters  track would benifit from a bit more banking especially coming out of the turns, it is rather flat and doesnt help the cause of riders that want to go high. some agree with banking some dont. Otherwise its definately gives riders home advantage .

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Have you seen the banking on turn 2? add any more and it'll be like a wall of death!

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18 hours ago, flagrag said:

The starts are ripped up every week at Leicester before the meeting and riders like it as gives them extra drive.

Unsure why but meeting referee Mick Bates informed the track curator that he didn’t want to starts to be ripped up or any more water adding.

Sometimes in these TV meetings they run the track and starts slicker than normal so less chance of incidents and meeting delays.

BT matches seem to be over more quickly than the Sky ones. Or is that just a general trend? Certainly looks like they scored a bad own goal by not ripping up the start area on this one, no matter whoever's decision it was.

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