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4 hours ago, East End Fan said:

Thanks for that info. Teaboy says little has changed. I'm curious to know if this is true. Who is/was Neil Nikko Day ?  What were the "modern ideas" that were

not possible and made him leave ?   Surely anyone would encourage any ideas that would improve a club ? Only idiots would not.  Who was team manager

before Chris Hunt. Did Silver do it himself ? He used to share the job years ago at Hackney as I remember. They never won anything, but the racing was great.

Team manager was John Sampford, then John and Chris shared the role. When the Raiders re entered the NL John went there which left Chris in sole charge. After Len sold rye house John returned and ran the mdl team. 

I wondered if the reference was about Nikko Day, I ve never actually dealt with him face to face but when you hear people describe him he  seems to polarise opinions.

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22 minutes ago, teaboy279 said:

Team manager was John Sampford, then John and Chris shared the role. When the Raiders re entered the NL John went there which left Chris in sole charge. After Len sold rye house John returned and ran the mdl team. 

I wondered if the reference was about Nikko Day, I ve never actually dealt with him face to face but when you hear people describe him he  seems to polarise opinions.

You obviously do not read previous posts ? :blink::unsure:

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22 hours ago, Richard Weston said:

Anyone know Len’s record in winning things? Eg: league titles, ko cups, shields etc ... as a promoter 

I think he won two Premier League titles with Rye House and while in charge of the England team years ago won the World Team Cup

and lots of other stuff at the time. Don't know the detail, but I remember talking about it with various people when I used to go to Hackney

after West Ham closed. I think he also did the track at Wembley for World Finals, but I may be wrong.

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I think Len takes as much pride in trying to help young brits make thier way in the sport as he does silverware. Which is great but when you support a team it's nice to have a plastic pot the cheer for every now and again. This year certainly has the potential.

Of course Kent riders have succeeded in the NLRC both Boxall and Morley taking that accolade, and Morley and Ayres are still reigning pairs champions. We would have won the fours in 2013 at stoke, bar a blinding last lap of the last race from Lewis Blackbird if I recall taking the win for the heathens.Then again in 2015 at Coventry when Rob Shuttleworth knocked of James Shane's and injured him when Kent were ahead. We ve also had a National trophy final and 4 play off semis, so it's fair to say Kent has been far from unsuccessful. We just need to add that elusive first team championship medal. Hopefully this year is the year.

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1 hour ago, East End Fan said:

I think he won two Premier League titles with Rye House and while in charge of the England team years ago won the World Team Cup

and lots of other stuff at the time. Don't know the detail, but I remember talking about it with various people when I used to go to Hackney

after West Ham closed. I think he also did the track at Wembley for World Finals, but I may be wrong.

Thank you.

Yes, he did do world final track at Wembley, I am pretty sure of that

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7 hours ago, teaboy279 said:

I think Len takes as much pride in trying to help young brits make thier way in the sport as he does silverware. Which is great but when you support a team it's nice to have a plastic pot the cheer for every now and again. This year certainly has the potential.

Of course Kent riders have succeeded in the NLRC both Boxall and Morley taking that accolade, and Morley and Ayres are still reigning pairs champions. We would have won the fours in 2013 at stoke, bar a blinding last lap of the last race from Lewis Blackbird if I recall taking the win for the heathens.Then again in 2015 at Coventry when Rob Shuttleworth knocked of James Shane's and injured him when Kent were ahead. We ve also had a National trophy final and 4 play off semis, so it's fair to say Kent has been far from unsuccessful. We just need to add that elusive first team championship medal. Hopefully this year is the year.

Far better chance of silverware this year with Eastie going up, been their nemesis over the last 4 seasons, even when Eastie didn't win it, normally put Kent out in the semis, also had Eastie stayed in the NL wouldn't have had Abblit either this season. 

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Question is: have Kent got a winning culture?

There is something about having a desire to win which make a difference: needs to be inculcated from top to bottom, riders, management the lot.

That's what brings success.

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I have never doubted Kents riders desire to win, but Lens decision to have r/r at No1 in the 1st away match of the season sends out all the wrong vibes to the riders/supporters & other NL teams for the year ahead. 

Hopefully this will change when we visit Stoke & Mildenhall in the next 2 away matches without Drew.

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20 minutes ago, flipper11 said:

I have never doubted Kents riders desire to win, but Lens decision to have r/r at No1 in the 1st away match of the season sends out all the wrong vibes to the riders/supporters & other NL teams for the year ahead. 

Hopefully this will change when we visit Stoke & Mildenhall in the next 2 away matches without Drew.

playing devils advocate here "was having drew a vanity move" when he has to miss every Sunday Fixture as Sheffield will be riding and also a number of Friday and Saturday's when Kent ride away as so many Championship matches on a weekend (Friday - Saturday - Sunday)?? 

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4 minutes ago, HGould said:

playing devils advocate here "was having drew a vanity move" when he has to miss every Sunday Fixture as Sheffield will be riding and also a number of Friday and Saturday's when Kent ride away as so many Championship matches on a weekend (Friday - Saturday - Sunday)?? 

He misses Stoke & both trips to Mildenhall but as far as i can see that is all the away matches he misses & he will make all the home matches, so it not to bad.  He also misses the NL pairs & 4s.

Of course the main problem will be in the play offs.

I just hope Ben Morley is available.

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On 30 April 2019 at 9:35 PM, HGould said:

playing devils advocate here "was having drew a vanity move" when he has to miss every Sunday Fixture as Sheffield will be riding and also a number of Friday and Saturday's when Kent ride away as so many Championship matches on a weekend (Friday - Saturday - Sunday)?? 

Also what would happen if someone like Ipswich came along offered him a chance in the Premier league this season later in the season. Would his loyalty still lie with Kent.

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12 minutes ago, iand said:

Also what would happen if someone like Ipswich came along offered him a chance in the Premier league this season later in the season. Would his loyalty still lie with Kent.

I have also considered that he will probably get an Ipswich spot at some stage this year. Which will add more clashes inevitably and I believe rules will give Ipswich priority over both Kent and Sheffield. But what you can never question with Drew is commitment. The sort of lad that will thrive off 4 or 5 meetings a week, where some others just would have the equipment or support to do so. As a rule I dont like doubling up and want to see it gone, that being said Drew is the sort of lad the doubling up rule was brought into help. Rather then just throw him to the wolves it allows young brits to continue the winning mentality at the lower level, whilst honing thier skills chasing better riders in the higher league.

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2 hours ago, teaboy279 said:

I have also considered that he will probably get an Ipswich spot at some stage this year. Which will add more clashes inevitably and I believe rules will give Ipswich priority over both Kent and Sheffield. But what you can never question with Drew is commitment. The sort of lad that will thrive off 4 or 5 meetings a week, where some others just would have the equipment or support to do so. As a rule I dont like doubling up and want to see it gone, that being said Drew is the sort of lad the doubling up rule was brought into help. Rather then just throw him to the wolves it allows young brits to continue the winning mentality at the lower level, whilst honing thier skills chasing better riders in the higher league.

I too thought Ipswich would have a preseason plan to bring Kemp in sooner rather than later. But they’re picking up decent scores lately almost solely down to 2 excellent reserves so I don’t think they would want to change that now. 

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6 hours ago, teaboy279 said:

I have also considered that he will probably get an Ipswich spot at some stage this year. Which will add more clashes inevitably and I believe rules will give Ipswich priority over both Kent and Sheffield. But what you can never question with Drew is commitment. The sort of lad that will thrive off 4 or 5 meetings a week, where some others just would have the equipment or support to do so. As a rule I dont like doubling up and want to see it gone, that being said Drew is the sort of lad the doubling up rule was brought into help. Rather then just throw him to the wolves it allows young brits to continue the winning mentality at the lower level, whilst honing thier skills chasing better riders in the higher league.

my interpretation of rule changes in winter were that a rider can double up (one level) or down (one level) but can't double up/down (2 levels) and can't ride in all 3 levels. So if Ipswich did come calling he could not ride in NL. Besides every time Ipswich rode on a Monday (most of their away fixtures) he would miss Kent matches. So as an example with my own Club - Zach and James have doubled up, so can't double down.

Edited by HGould
added zach/james sentence
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I would have thought Kemp would be best advised to settle and learn a bit more in the Championship, while building confidence with plenty of heat wins with Kent. 

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