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Lions v Glasgow 17th August

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1 minute ago, justathought said:

They were never going to get 2 meeting in. Not the way they mess about at Leicester. ..that's why I ,and many others, left after the Glasgow match. 

why on earth it took them nearly 45 minutes to get the 2nd match on is beyond belief

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18 minutes ago, justathought said:

They were never going to get 2 meeting in. Not the way they mess about at Leicester. ..that's why I ,and many others, left after the Glasgow match. 

Glad I left after the Lions match too as it takes me ages to walk back to the car park and I would only have been able to watch a few NL heats before my 4 hours was up.   My first visit back since the long delay during the Redcar match and sadly I can't say I really enjoyed it enough for it to be worth the pain and effort it takes me to get there these days.  Pretty much follow the leader racing apart from the last couple of heats, although the score line kept it interesting.  

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I hope that it’s now obvious to the promoters that double header meetings are not feasible at Beaumont Park as the maths don’t add up.

Like many fans I park on the Shopping centre car park where there is 4 hours free parking.

It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to the track and queue to get in. It’s about the same to get back to the car after the meeting and queue to get out of the car park so that’s 30 minutes gone already. There are then 30 races at say 6 minutes per race or another 180 minutes so that’s 3 ½ hours gone out of the 4. Then we need to add on re-starts and re-runs say 3 per meeting at 5 minutes – another 30 minutes so my 4 hours are up. Then of course there is the tractor racing say 4 times per meeting at 5 minutes – another 40 minutes gone and 5 minutes gaps between heats 14 and 15 – another 10. So even without any intervals during or between meetings it must be obvious that even without any lengthy delay due to bad accidents there is no way I and many others can stay and watch all of a double header meeting.

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The worrying thing is, the promoters never learn from their previous mistakes. The sport is crying out for some professional people to run it.

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49 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

The worrying thing is, the promoters never learn from their previous mistakes. The sport is crying out for some professional people to run it.

Therein lies part of the problem, promoters are not professional people. In the vast majority of cases, they are local businessmen who happen to be speedway fans. They don't have the time or money to invest in speedway full time.

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46 minutes ago, topsoil said:

Therein lies part of the problem, promoters are not professional people. In the vast majority of cases, they are local businessmen who happen to be speedway fans. They don't have the time or money to invest in speedway full time.

I've seen a number of promoters at various tracks and a lot of the time they don't even seem to be interested in the actual racing. I've seen Bates and DH wandering around the terraces at Leicester and not even stop to watch the racing... you've got to wonder why they do it

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16 minutes ago, iainb said:

I've seen a number of promoters at various tracks and a lot of the time they don't even seem to be interested in the actual racing. I've seen Bates and DH wandering around the terraces at Leicester and not even stop to watch the racing... you've got to wonder why they do it

It can't be for the money!

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IainB-To answer a couple of your questions the NL riders are not allowed to warm up in the car park due to council regulations about noise and environmental controls. There was two distinct similarities between last night and the Redcar meeting both involved medical incidents where riders were unconscious for a long period of time which automatically required a hospital trip for X ray and CT scans due to the length they were unconscious for and also had other symptoms.

Last night the the county ambulance turned up very quickly but still took a long amount of time to get the rider off to hospital. Even if there had been two ambulances and paramedics  there would still have been a lengthy delay until Spencer was stable, so yes racing could have started again but would not have been completed. 

There is also the extra cost of having 2 paramedics on duty does any Lions fans know any registered Paramedics or DRs that they would want to help out ? In these situations the question was asked before but no response 

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7 hours ago, iainb said:

I've seen a number of promoters at various tracks and a lot of the time they don't even seem to be interested in the actual racing. I've seen Bates and DH wandering around the terraces at Leicester and not even stop to watch the racing... you've got to wonder why they do it

Busy doing other duties? Maybe don't have time to watch the racing?

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I understand what you have pointed out. But, this is supposed to be a professional sport that is run for profit. Not a bunch of keen enthusiasts who make do. There must be away to prevent this sort of thing happening because it is basically making a lot of regular spectators think twice about attending .

Regarding getting the national league teams in for the 2nd match. What about when we staged the fours meeting. Far more riders and bikes and that worked. 

 

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13 hours ago, flagrag said:

IainB-To answer a couple of your questions the NL riders are not allowed to warm up in the car park due to council regulations about noise and environmental controls. There was two distinct similarities between last night and the Redcar meeting both involved medical incidents where riders were unconscious for a long period of time which automatically required a hospital trip for X ray and CT scans due to the length they were unconscious for and also had other symptoms.

Last night the the county ambulance turned up very quickly but still took a long amount of time to get the rider off to hospital. Even if there had been two ambulances and paramedics  there would still have been a lengthy delay until Spencer was stable, so yes racing could have started again but would not have been completed. 

There is also the extra cost of having 2 paramedics on duty does any Lions fans know any registered Paramedics or DRs that they would want to help out ? In these situations the question was asked before but no response 

flagrag- Thanks for the info, you're a lot more informative than the club sometimes. If that is the case about clearing the pits and warming the bikes up, why did it still take nigh on 45 minutes? There should have only been 8 riders in the pits by heat 15 anyway, the 4 that were in it and 2 reserves for each team. This means that for Leicester to run a double header, at the pace they run meetings, it's going to take around 4 and a quarter hours, as I've already said a lot of fans only have a 3 and a half hour window with the parking. At least I now know that a double header is not feasible for me to attend.

As for the inadequate medical cover, again, treatment for a fallen rider on the track is of course acceptable and expected, what is not acceptable is for there to be inadequate medical cover once the rider has been removed from the track for the meeting to continue.

Anyway, do we know how the lad is? I can't find any news on him anywhere

Edited by iainb

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There is a-lot of complaints about the speed of the lions meetings when they “try” to run a double header & the gaps between the meetings.

The speed of the meeting is down to the referee & IMO its no coincidence that for both double headers its been the same referee Barbara Horley who is known to run meetings at a slow pace & from what i was told insisted on the track being relaid & prepared as if it was a standalone meeting which is why it took so long.

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5 minutes ago, Lenny Lion said:

The speed of the meeting is down to the referee & IMO its no coincidence that for both double headers its been the same referee Barbara Horley who is known to run meetings at a slow pace & from what i was told insisted on the track being relaid & prepared as if it was a standalone meeting which is why it took so long.

I also go to Peterborough quite often, for a fix of proper Speedway, and this year their meetings have always run at the same pace and from a 7:30 start, I've usually been away by 9pm. Has that just been co-incidence that all the different refs have kept to the same time scheduling, putting the 2 minute warning on as soon as the riders from the previous race have cleared the track... or maybe it's just been the same ref at all of the meetings?

... And it was a different ref for the 2nd meeting at Leicester on Saturday evening

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When Tom Spencer lay on the track and didn't move, it was obviously a serious and worrying situation but it was reassuring that he seemed able, eventually, to get into the ambulance with some assistance. I went to the loo as soon as the ambulance had left the track, and returned to the sight of a tractor going around, so immediately decided that was enough and left. So I don't know what announcements were made if any to explain what the situation was.

But the whole episode has shown that attempting to start a second match at 8.30, especially an NDL match is not a good idea, especially as I think these matches are sadly more prone to long delays due to accidents. And of course that inadvisability includes the possibility that substantial track remedial work will be necessary in order to produce as safe a racetrack as possible for these inexpreienced riders. It was therefore ironic and annoying that, after the lengthy work done following the Glasgow match, the first heat of Cubs v Cradley revealed a lethal fault on the racing line on bend 3 which required yet more time to fix.

And if the availability of additional medical cover is problematic when attempting to stage a double header, for whatever reasons whether that is cost or availability, then it's a no-brainer to just not attempt it in the first place.

 

 

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