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2 hours ago, Old Crusader said:

Well after yesterday he won't be getting my little help as often. If you're going to charge top dollar you need to at least give the customer all 15 heats!

Absolutely. I've been a regular at Central Park since the track opened, but the crashes and delays are wearing me down. As i get older, i get less tolerant to all this nonsense.

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5 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

Absolutely. I've been a regular at Central Park since the track opened, but the crashes and delays are wearing me down. As i get older, i get less tolerant to all this nonsense.

I was at Monday's meeting in what might be a final support for a Hammers team. It was a real shame that the curfew imposed by the Council caused the meeting to end

when it was such a close encounter....but this is not the fault of the management.  In fact all the delays were because of the obvious inexperience of the home riders,

all young teenagers except one. "My" team had no problems with the grip that was in evidence on bend 2 and in fact it aided the quality of the racing so hardly

something to criticise.  After the meeting I went down to look at the track, but by the time I had walked down the steps and round to the pit gate, they had already started to 

rip it up with the tractor driver going backwards around the track with a spiker digging things up.  Quite impressive actually and somewhat alarming too.  As I was near

the Pits, I went in and actually spoke to 3 of the riders.  All 3 were, it seemed, happy with the track and one of them said it was his favourite ( he was riding for the

Hammers).  Last season I went to Kent several times and always saw 15 races, sometimes on my way home  before the 8.30 curfew.  But I am aware that

a couple of meetings didn't get to heat 15.  Shame.

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2 hours is not enough for young riders to learn their trade. There are always going to be crashes and mishaps. I can't relax and enjoy the meeting with the curfew hanging over me. A second ambulance would reduce some of the delays and should be looked at by the management. You have to give the punters what they have paid for. You wouldn't go for a three course meal and miss out on the dessert!

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i agree 100%, its getting too much, dearest price in the league and your odds on to miss part of the meeting 2 times in 5

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Riders do not critasize those that pay the wages in case they get quoted publicly .But the track needs sorting to assist some younger riders to avoid injury and to prevent delays affecting the dreaded curfew

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Silver’s Rye house track was always very slick for NL meetings so I’m guessing he is pandering to a rider who wants it deep in a place where he can blast round the outside.

It might be prudent to bombard Mr Silvers email to let him know that people want to see 15 heats if they pay top prices.

What other sport (cricket apart) gets so much interruption.

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14 minutes ago, GWC said:

Silver’s Rye house track was always very slick for NL meetings so I’m guessing he is pandering to a rider who wants it deep in a place where he can blast round the outside.

It might be prudent to bombard Mr Silvers email to let him know that people want to see 15 heats if they pay top prices.

What other sport (cricket apart) gets so much interruption.

Old Lennie don't listen to anyone. They are still using carrier pigeons down his neck of the woods.

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I wonder why it seems most of the criticism is coming from people that either never go to Kent or weren't there yesterday. Why would things at Kent bother people who don't intend to go?  They actually missed for the most part an excellent meeting with some good racing. In front of a surprisingly healthy crowd for a meaningless meeting.

With 5 members of the Kent team having very little experience of the Kent track & with an average age of 16 (Ledwith apart) & no possibility of any practise falls are inevitable until they work out the track & set up.    Gilkes winning time in heat 2 was .9 of a second faster than (the excellent) Bowtells winning time in heat 1 & that sums up the total commitment of all the young Kent team.

 Its not the managements fault there is a 2 hour curfew & when there is a serious accident as with Alex yesterday time will always be against them.  The main hold up yesterday was the length of time it took to get Alex comfortable & packaged up on track ready to go to hospital, it would have made little or no difference if there had been another ambulance, so again not the the managements fault.  

I understand there are people who are not willing to pay to go to kent knowing the meeting may not go the distance but as Tai said "it is what it is" & unless the curfew is changed that will always be the case. But why go on as if its the managements fault just don't go there are plenty of other people who are very happy with the racing & the team/management at Kent that do go. 

Edited by flipper11

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I could agree with flipper11, and there were some good races, mostly involving Alfie Bowtell. But there were too many frustrating delays yesterday and while I accept that young riders have to learn their trade, and no fault is placed on them for the hold-ups, I do object to paying £15 for the dubious privelege of watching them learn. In fact, I object to paying very much at all. So I won't, not often anyway.

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I've attended well over 70 meetings at kent,  so I'm a paying customer and entitled to an opinion. Why during the enforced breaks isn't the track graded and watered. Surely this would benefit the younger riders to have a consistant surface to race on. You only have to listen to the sarcastic cheers in the main stand every time the tractor makes a rare appearance. With so few venues in the South East, it's not so easy to take it or leave it.

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Some young riders having problems turning into the straight on the 2nd bend,deep shale at that point on the outside and a narrow track at that point with little banking,,probably the problem..it needs working on for sure..A number of crashes at that point responsible for another failure to beat the ridiculous curfew which can only drive away fans,,,Some good races though involving Alfie Bowtell,,the best I have seen him ride,,track definitely suits his style and as yet he does not have a national league place.He would do a great job here,that's for sure...A much slicker presentation is needed here to beat the dreaded curfew or the excellent support here paying top whack to get In May start to deminish

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17 hours ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Oh yes Richard on a related point “wasn’t all bad news” on Sunday at the  Arlington bowl either I gather ? 

 

at least I got 15 heats for my  money £14. 

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2 hours ago, cityrebel said:

I've attended well over 70 meetings at kent,  so I'm a paying customer and entitled to an opinion. Why during the enforced breaks isn't the track graded and watered. Surely this would benefit the younger riders to have a consistant surface to race on. You only have to listen to the sarcastic cheers in the main stand every time the tractor makes a rare appearance. With so few venues in the South East, it's not so easy to take it or leave it.

It seems a shame that as a fairly regular visitor to Kent you now have such a negative view of Kent & seem to have stopped going. However, i do understand that to travel from London to Kent not knowing if there will be a complete meeting would put you off. The damn curfew is a pain in the rear! Hopefully when the Kent riders have found their feet & there is more chance of a complete meeting you may take it a bit more than leaving it. 

On the subject of track grading. Its damned if you do & damned if you don't. If there is a track grade regularly & a hold up later on as per yesterday everyone would say why grade & not push on with the meeting. If there is a grade while riders are laying on track people would say the noise could hinder the paramedics, if you grade 1 end & not the other that would be viewed as wrong. All the hold ups yesterday bar Alex would not have allowed enough time to grade before the restart. As i said damn curfew.

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2 hours ago, waco said:

Some young riders having problems turning into the straight on the 2nd bend,deep shale at that point on the outside and a narrow track at that point with little banking,,probably the problem..it needs working on for sure..A number of crashes at that point responsible for another failure to beat the ridiculous curfew which can only drive away fans,,,Some good races though involving Alfie Bowtell,,the best I have seen him ride,,track definitely suits his style and as yet he does not have a national league place.He would do a great job here,that's for sure...A much slicker presentation is needed here to beat the dreaded curfew or the excellent support here paying top whack to get In May start to deminish

 

2 hours ago, waco said:

Some young riders having problems turning into the straight on the 2nd bend,deep shale at that point on the outside and a narrow track at that point with little banking,,probably the problem..it needs working on for sure..A number of crashes at that point responsible for another failure to beat the ridiculous curfew which can only drive away fans,,,Some good races though involving Alfie Bowtell,,the best I have seen him ride,,track definitely suits his style and as yet he does not have a national league place.He would do a great job here,that's for sure...A much slicker presentation is needed here to beat the dreaded curfew or the excellent support here paying top whack to get In May start to deminish

When you have only  2 hours to complete the meeting every minute counts and you need to keep on top of this from the start to the finish. Yesterday the riders had been introduced and paraded and the first race could have started bang on 4pm. Instead someone sent out 3 juniors to trundle around the track waisting valuable racing time. Keep this for during the interval of after the meeting if you find you have the time, it's just a little bonus If you can afford to include it.

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Well I'm back on the track Staff now and am not at all impressed by having to re build the back straight fence every other heat. Almost entirely due to the track cambers which take the riders into the fence, totally wrong. If this is not rectified many more meetings will be cut short without a doubt and paying the extra pound this season to spectate is asking too much, thank god the club never moved up to the Championship, laughing stock would be an understatement.    

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