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Greg

IOW 2020

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Sorry to see that Warriors have lost Macauley Leek due to him having financial issues. At this late stage they may have problems finding a replacement of the same standard but I hope Barry Bishop can work some magic. 

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1 hour ago, Chris116 said:

Sorry to see that Warriors have lost Macauley Leek due to him having financial issues. At this late stage they may have problems finding a replacement of the same standard but I hope Barry Bishop can work some magic. 

What a waste of an opportunity both for Leek and for the rider coming in who has little time to prepare.  Leek knew what was required when he signed so blaming lack of sponsorship is poor in my view although probably better now thsn the first few weeks of the season 

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A shock and very unfair timing on the club and it’s supporters. Not many available options at all unfortunately. 

Edited by Islander15

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Leek would have known his financial position when he signed so unless a backer(s) has pulled out his action is very poor. Bet he didn’t even think about going over to the Island and do some hard yards visiting local businesses.

Also leaves a gap in the under 21 qualifier that won’t be easy to fill.

Warriors will now have to call on their connections to find a number 7 up to 3.10.............think former Islander Tom Young might fit but after that who knows.

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I would just like to say speedy recovery to I.O.W promotor Martin Widman who is currently in hospital after falling ill.

Martin is a fantastic & genuine man who has done wonders along side Barry & the loyal staff on the Island.

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2 hours ago, Lionspride said:

I would just like to say speedy recovery to I.O.W promotor Martin Widman who is currently in hospital after falling ill.

Martin is a fantastic & genuine man who has done wonders along side Barry & the loyal staff on the Island.

I would add m,y very best wishes to this. Both Martin and Barry are excellent people as well as fine examples of how to promote sport.

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If you are a Facebook user, we are having a weekly speedway quiz on our usual Thursday race night. The questions and instructions are posted on the   Wightlink Warriors and Wightlink Wizards Supporter’s Club   Fb page at 19.00 with the answers posted the following Sunday. No prizes, just a bit of fun. Why not have a look and try your luck?

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It is with great sadness we received the news this morning that Bill Slaughter, a big supporter of the Isle of Wight Speedway, the National League and many riders including Kelsey Dugard and Alex Spooner, has passed away.  Warriors Promoters Barry Bishop and Martin Widman have written their respects on the Warriors social media, which are both included below:

Barry Bishop:

Very upset to read this news from Kelsey Dugard about Bill Slaughter.

Many of you will have known him on the pits gate or around the stadium. Bill first got involved with the Warrior - Way as a driver for Kelsey and he loved the place so much he continued to travel from his home every week to watch and support the Warriors before becoming a valued member of our volunteers force. Although a volunteer, Bill still paid his ferry fares and bought a season ticket for the club every year to do his bit.

God’s speed my friend, until we meet up again.

Martin Widman:

It is with great regret that I post the following news that was passed to me this morning By Kelsey Dugard and that is the passing of Bill Slaughter, our friend, supporter and recently the best dressed gate man in speedway. Bill you were a gentleman in every way, charming, courteous and very supportive of several young speedway riders. You will be missed by many people. RIP my friend.

Bill will be greatly missed on the Island and around the tracks in UK speedway.  RIP Bill.

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The Wightlink Warriors face mask will be here shortly and one can be yours for free.

The Warriors promotion have 100 of them coming and propose to give priority to the following.

1. NHS Staff of any capacity
2. Care industry staff of any capacity
3. Key workers
4. Fans that are in high risk category
5. Anyone else.

These masks are reusable and can be washed at 60c, they are double sided and produced with cotton inside and polyester outside.

What these masks do not do is replace the advice of the government and WHO. However, it has been suggested wearing a mask does help prevent the wearer transmitting the virus if they have it and also offers some barrier against the virus too.

If you would like to make a donation toward the cost of the mask, made by Dispeed, that will be great and we will send any money raised to Capt Tom Moore’s fundraising campaign.

The Warrior’s will make no financial gain at all from this, but the promotion will know we have done a little bit more to support you and the NHS at the most strange of times in the name of our volunteers, fans, sponsors and riders, while bringing the club to the very forefront of the action.

Please contact Barry Bishop for his address to send a SAE. Please note this is not being funded by the Warriors but by the promotion.

Remember stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

590642087_WarriorsFacemask.thumb.jpg.5520a3dc54d9d880b01a831f32383fbe.jpg

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Official Club Statement
Wightlink Warriors Will Not Run Speedway In 2020.
Wightlink Warriors bosses Barry Bishop and Martin Widman have, after careful consideration and much anguish, decided not to run speedway in 2020 in the National League, even if the government and local council guidelines permit it.
In a joint statement the promoters said, “While we know this news will be devastating to some, expected by others and to all of us a massive disappointment, we cannot see a way in which we can put speedway racing on without increasing the risk to our fans, staff, riders, sponsors and of course the wider public on the Isle of Wight. The Island is a unique place and have been proud of their success in keeping Covid 19 under control, and we would not want to be responsible for introducing an outbreak of Covid 19 however it was caused, and nor do we want to increase the health risk to our fans, friends, staff, sponsors, riders and management by staging a public gathering/event.
Health aside, there will be an increased financial risk to run speedway now and our sponsors, quite rightly, will expect a return on their investment which we could not achieve in 2020 and this risks a knock affect for 2021. Our sponsors have been brilliant, many coming forward to increase their sponsorship to help us become Covid ready and we value that so very much, nor will we forget that support. However, the risk is too great to health and finance, so we have therefore decided to not risk the club’s future by running speedway in 2020 and we look forward to 2021.
Our stadium looks perfect, ready to go, and probably the best it's ever been in our tenure and like you, we love our club, our fans, and our ethos. As sad as it is, this is the right decision in our view for the club and sport and we should celebrate the fantastic work currently continuing at the stadium to ensure that we would have been ready in 2020 while ensuring that the pride in the club shines through for the world to see. We will continue to keep the Warriors in the forefront of online activity and we look forward to see you in 2021, if not before.
Thank you.
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Very sorry to see that Warriors will not have any meetings this year but totally agree with the reasoning and wish Barry and Martin all the best for a successful future. 

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Wightlink Warriors and Wizards 2020 Season Report.

Firstly, I hope this update finds you and yours in good health and good spirits. Like yours, our 2020 was like no other and the knock-on effect for the clubs and sport has been traumatic, frustrating along with many other expressions that spring to mind. For us, and many others, 2020 was a non-starter for the Wightlink Warriors and Wightlink Wizards on our track due to government restrictions for the use of stadiums preventing the publics attendance, which culminated in the sport’s governing body, the BSPL/SCB, abandoning any form of league racing. But that’s not the end of our 2020 story………

 

Did we actually get to go racing?

Amazingly, yes we did. The Warriors got to go racing at Plymouth for a 3 Team Tournament involving Plymouth, Eastbourne and the Isle of Wight. The Warriors management team worked extremely closely with Plymouth to ensure that fans were safe in a Covid secure environment before the meeting which proved to be a huge success. This kind of meeting involves 4 riders representing each team and our quartet of Ben Morley, Tom Woolley, Connor Coles and Chad Wirtzfeld did a superb job missing out by just a single point for the top spot on the night. The result being Eastbourne 31, Isle of Wight 30 and Plymouth 28. It was a great meeting in front of 400 spectators and streamed live to a wider audience and while this wasn’t on the Island we can rightly feel proud that we helped enable this meeting to happen and we were able to represent you all with pride.

In addition to the team efforts Chad Wirtfeld continued to ride on the grass in the few meetings available winning all in his class – so congratulations to him.

 
 

What else did we do?

BDO Darts Sponsorship

Working with our partner ASGUK we managed to arrange for a super opportunity for the Warriors logo to appear on stage at the BDO Darts. This raised huge interest in the club and also excellent marketing with speedway fan and professional dart player Scott Mitchel ensuring our logo was not only on Eurosport but also around the world on his twitter and FB pages.

 

GB Young Lions U21 Training Camp

The Warriors provided 3 days of intense on and off track training with Neil Vatcher for the GB Young Lions. The camp offered the cream of Britain’s young riders the chance to develop their on track knowledge with expert riders Steve Worral and Paul Hurry as well as media, nutrition, and fitness classes.

 

My First Skid

With the relaxation to allow training and amateur sports events without spectators, we reintroduced My First Skid. Unfortunately, we could not allow the use of hire bikes and places were limited to 15 riders who owned all their own equipment and had to follow a strict Covid guide. This proved to be a great success allowing us to ensure that our track equipment remained functional and our island-based riders more time to further develop their skills.

 

Re-run of Meetings via Speedway Portal

We have worked since the start with Speedway Portal and its owner Andy Hague. Andy has established a full history of the Wightlink Warriors from our very first fans forum, when we nervously announced our plans to return speedway to Smallbrook. Andy and his team have recorded almost every home meeting since 2016 and the quality and ingenuity is clear to see – so much so Andy is now invited to film at other stadiums across the UK.

Andy asked Martin and I if we would like to stream our meetings for free to fans to ensure we keep them engaged with the Warriors and the sport in general. Of course, and we didn’t need to be asked twice because for us not only did we engage with our fans but by watching re-runs we can see where we can improve on race day as well as afford our sponsors more airtime which is always a great thing.  Our re-runs were so popular that it encouraged our governing body and other clubs to do the same.

Moving forward with Speedway Portal, we shall continue to stream our meetings for our fans throughout the winter period up until press day and should there be a delay to the season start we will continue to spread the Warrior Way using this forum.

 

Hot Heats

Unannounced spectacular races from across our seasons to keep the Warriors in the minds of fans across the nation and beyond.

 

Rob Dyers Speedway Quiz

From the start of the 1st lockdown our track announcer Rob Dyer produced a weekly quiz for fans to participate in. This proved extremely popular and indeed encouraged our own governing body and other clubs to produce their own.

 

Virtual Skid

Virtual Skid came about as a way to create a real meeting using historic footage. Working with Speedway Portal we invented an algorithm that would take 4 meetings, (60 races) and jumble them all up so to give 15 race choices of A, B, C or D. We invited two celebrity team managers, selected from ex-riders, referees, sponsors and super fans to try and guide their team to victory by selecting each race. So far, we have produced 15 meetings, all available on YouTube including one which raised over £1000 for the Ben Fund.

 

Face Masks.

The club has raised well over £1000 for charity from the sale of Warrior branded face masks. We employed two methods for the face masks. Firstly, key workers, no matter what they did could request one for free while anyone who was not a key worker we requested a donation and anything over the cost price we gave to charity.

We gave £605 to Capt Tom, £261 to Mountbatten Hospice (IOW) and £250 Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund to injured Speedway Riders.

 

And there is more.

Even today, volunteers are giving their time and effort to ensure that Smallbrook Stadium is on point and ready to go and ready to serve the community in every way. We have refurbished rooms, improved areas and much more. We know it is a long continuous process but without your support nothing our volunteers do would be possible and Martin and I thank you so much for it. Our drive and enthusiasm is as strong as ever as we look to continue to win awards, trophies but most of all provide the best night out in Speedway in the UK.

With 2021 just around the corner, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support this year, to assure you that we have continued to do our bit for club, community, and sport and together we look forward to a fabulous 2021. May we also take the opportunity, early to be safe, to wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas time and a brilliant New Year.

 

All the best
 

Barry

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Many thanks for the summary. Very informative. So easy to forget all the good stuff that was and still is taking place. Really hope circumstances allow the Warriors to come to tapes when action resumes. 

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Announcement yesterday that the Warriors have withdrawn from the National League and won’t run in 2021 although some training sessions might happen when Covid regulations permit. Seems that some rules being imposed by the BSPL are the stumbling point.

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