Cradley vs Stoke 29th July

[MattJ81 51]

Eventful enough meeting last night with many restarts.  Firstly best wishes to the riders who took knocks; I can't remember the last time I saw a rider knocked out cold but thankfully Sheldon was up and walking back to the pits not too long after.  Harry McGurk had a busy night with 7 rides and several restarts, he was struggling to slide the bike by heat 14 but I'm sure it will do him good in the longer term

We seemed to throw a few points away early on with Max missing the 2 minutes for Heat 1 and Danny going through the tapes after reacting to a slight movement from Joe Lawlor (who looked really impressive).  Hats off to Danny for a great ride in Heat 9 to beat Connor Coles and for picking himself up after an awful looking first bend pile up in Heat 14 to win the re-run

Good to see Jack Smith teaming up with Clegg for a crucial 5-1 over Edwards and Coles in Heat 13, a solid night all round for him

The win moves Cradley up to 3rd with more meetings completed than all of the others bar the Potters; Belle Vue in particular will surely be a threat to that play off place

 

[MattJ81 51]

Something else I meant to mention as an aside, again in the promoters notes for this meeting there was space dedicated to highlighting how much more difficult it is for the management to keep the club going at present with outside interests etc and along with the continued online abuse this leaves questions to be asked over the winter.  Questions over the winter occur annually, with perfectly understandable reason considering the general outlook in the sport and specifically the situation at Cradley with no new home on the horizon (co-incidentally the same promoters notes mention Dudley Council who have stated recently there is no chance of finding anywhere, or words to that effect).  It does strike me that the same message has been in every programme this season; I don't know what has been said against the club as I left the Facebook groups where I believe a lot of the vitriol is being posted but the ground seems to be being laid for bad news over the winter.  I appreciate the promoters only really have this avenue as a right of reply but that first page of the programme has been a consistent message all season.

One other thing worth mentioning, a little bit of beef between Len Silver and Will Pottinger after the Kent match with Len allegedly using some unsavoury language - mentioned a couple of times in the programme how disappointed it left Cradley officials.   With Will being Cradley and Eastbourne manager I'm sure he isn't the most popular bloke around Central Park!

[HGould 2,213]

2 minutes ago, MattJ81 said:

Something else I meant to mention as an aside, again in the promoters notes for this meeting there was space dedicated to highlighting how much more difficult it is for the management to keep the club going at present with outside interests etc and along with the continued online abuse this leaves questions to be asked over the winter.  Questions over the winter occur annually, with perfectly understandable reason considering the general outlook in the sport and specifically the situation at Cradley with no new home on the horizon (co-incidentally the same promoters notes mention Dudley Council who have stated recently there is no chance of finding anywhere, or words to that effect).  It does strike me that the same message has been in every programme this season; I don't know what has been said against the club as I left the Facebook groups where I believe a lot of the vitriol is being posted but the ground seems to be being laid for bad news over the winter.  I appreciate the promoters only really have this avenue as a right of reply but that first page of the programme has been a consistent message all season.

One other thing worth mentioning, a little bit of beef between Len Silver and Will Pottinger after the Kent match with Len allegedly using some unsavoury language - mentioned a couple of times in the programme how disappointed it left Cradley officials.   With Will being Cradley and Eastbourne manager I'm sure he isn't the most popular bloke around Central Park!

I went to Central Park with Brummies on 2 occasions with Curfew issues and both times Len and the faithful blames us for delays and problems.curfew is problem there, and number of crashes. If any Team delays near curfew to get a point who can blame them. The curfew not the opposition is root of the problem

[greyhoundp 990]

3 hours ago, MattJ81 said:

Something else I meant to mention as an aside, again in the promoters notes for this meeting there was space dedicated to highlighting how much more difficult it is for the management to keep the club going at present with outside interests etc and along with the continued online abuse this leaves questions to be asked over the winter.  Questions over the winter occur annually, with perfectly understandable reason considering the general outlook in the sport and specifically the situation at Cradley with no new home on the horizon (co-incidentally the same promoters notes mention Dudley Council who have stated recently there is no chance of finding anywhere, or words to that effect).  It does strike me that the same message has been in every programme this season.  I appreciate the promoters only really have this avenue as a right of reply but that first page of the programme has been a consistent message all season.

One other thing worth mentioning, a little bit of beef between Len Silver and Will Pottinger after the Kent match with Len allegedly using some unsavoury language - mentioned a couple of times in the programme how disappointed it left Cradley officials.   With Will being Cradley and Eastbourne manager I'm sure he isn't the most popular bloke around Central Park!

 The promotion have the option of putting the club up for sale the same as they did a few years ago, however it would IMO be best for everyone if they agreed a sale this time, rather than just invite expressions of interest then announce that they have decided to remain as promoters but with an additional partner, since that time their has been a big drop of in support through the gate, and the teams assembled have not really threatened to win anything worthwhile winning, added to which there seems to be less interest by the Promotion for various reasons, which in itself spreads to the riders and fans alike..

[pete cc 322]

Have to say I was not very impressed with the Monmore track on Monday. It rutted in places & totally bald in others & dusty. Not what it was. Let's hope the injured riders ain't out for to long. Never seen a rider (joe alcock) fly through the air that high before.

[Sings4Speedway 3,247]

11 hours ago, pete cc said:

Have to say I was not very impressed with the Monmore track on Monday. It rutted in places & totally bald in others & dusty. Not what it was. Let's hope the injured riders ain't out for to long. Never seen a rider (joe alcock) fly through the air that high before.

Monmore whilst technical isn't the most difficult track to ride and yet the number of fallers during the Cradley matches must be up there with the highest in the league? Surely this cannot be helping the reputation of NL standard or is the track being prepared below par as its only NL meetings?

[MattJ81 51]

There was a threat of rain on Monday which I assumed was the reason for the track being left a little drier than usual.  There was a slight shower around heat 13 so you can understand the reasoning, especially as usually they are pretty good with the watering when required.

I don't see too many NL meetings away from Monmore so I couldn't compare the amount of fallers, there have been meetings this season where falls have been rare but there are a lot more inexperienced riders around this season it seems.  Having said that Dan Halsey has struggled at times with the track and he is one of the most experienced around.