ghcooke

I've signed it and urged readers of the Blunsdon Blog to read it and sign it - link on the front page of the blog. Good luck to everyone concerned. http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?p=11601

http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?attachment_id=10827

Just in, from the King’s Lynn website: King’s Lynn Speedway is delighted to announce that Australian Troy Batchelor will return to the Stars next season as they challenge for Elite League honours. Batchelor, 28, a previous Australian Champion and ELRC winner, joins Robert Lambert in the Stars top five next season and will fill one of the heat leader positions when tapes go up next March. Team manager Rob Lyon admits that having Batchelor in the team will bring more than just points. Lyon said: “Troy is, of course, no stranger to me or the club. I am delighted he will be coming back to us next season. He is an accomplished rider that will bring a lot to the team, on and off the track. Troy is a character and I believe we need that, we missed a bit of personality in the team last year especially after Rory’s injury.”

This post carries a public health warning : here they are in all their dubious glory, in full colour: http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?attachment_id=10650

Not for the faint of hearted, in next week's Blundson Blog, we have a full sized, full colour photograph of the ... "inside" of the infamous "back straight bogs"!

This is the comment on Facebook : I don't know if l can complete this post without loads of swearing but we have just arrived at the track to find that the new pits we have recently built have been demolished the building housing the change rooms and toilets have been burnt to the ground wiping out the electric supply and a tractor that had been lent to us. With their final act they have slit all the air fence panels which means the end of Northside Speedway for the foreseeable future and Sunday's meeting is off. To say we are totally pissed off is an understatement Dreadful news for the club. We, at Swindon, wish them all the best as they try to recover from this awful setback and hope that those responsible are caught and brought to justice quickly.

Yesterday's meeting against Lakeside at Blunsdon may have not been the most dramatic of race meetings but it was most certainly one, if not the most, dramatic day at Blunsdon since I’ve been coming up. The photographs below on the Blunsdon Blog (link below) show not only the latest phase of the building work behind the pits at the Abbey Stadium, they also capture the moment that the building work on the other side of the fence became work on our side of the fence. 19 months after we were first told to vacate the old away pits area at the bottom of pit lane, at last they were demolished yesterday morning in just minutes. http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?page_id=10015

The latest building / demolition work at Blunsdon yesterday is recorded in the latest blog in the Blunsdon Blog. http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?page_id=10015

The sad tale of our soggy efforts at Blunsdon yesterday is available here: http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?page_id=9000

I can understand why people who made the journey to Swindon for the match yesterday will have felt angry and frustrated that it was called off apparently quite late in the day. As a member of the track staff who had been there since 8.30am (two members of the staff had been there for most of Thursday as well getting as much done as possible), I can tell you that we tried out utmost to get the meeting on. The track was in good condition, one puddle on the main staright apart, throughout the morning. By the time that the greyhounds had finished the sky was brightening and it was warming up (slightly). The weather forecasts that we consulted were very contradictory - rain thoughout the afternoon - no rain until 5pm - no rain until 10pm. We watched the clouds and the wind direction and, by mid afternoon, as the riders began to arrive, I was sure we would be OK. Most of the riders seemed surprised by the state of the track and vans were unpacked. And then the drizzle started, a drizzle that steadily grew heavier and heavier. The track surface started to shine and after an hour's worth of rain it was clear that the meeting could not go ahead - it would have been a mudbath. I can tell you, that going around, unpinning the air fence, at 6pm in the pouring rain, just about finished it for me and the rest of the lads who'd battled all day to get the match on. Soaked to the skin, aching from a full day's work and frustrated by not a single wheel turning, it was a day that will not linger long in my memory. We could have called it off at 9am. It was raining then and the weather forecasters were saying that it would rain on until 4pm. If we had given in we could all have spent a day with our families, or even in work. You can't win! All I can say is that we tried - that's everyone involved with Swindon speedway. We tried to get a meeting on but were beaten by the weather - sorry!

The diggers were clearing the bank immediately behind the pits on Thursday. I suspect it wont be long before the old away pits complex is demolished and the access route for the site pushed through behind the pits. Quite what the impact will be during meetings and during prep time we just don't know at the moment.

Hi there. We spent all day Thursday getting the air fence out and in place. Turns 3 and 4 are difficult to locate because the pit gate has to fit perfectly, so we had to move both sets of fences back and forth to get that right. Turns 1 and 2 are much simpler, being just one run. They're all clipped together and will need no more than 2 hours work next Thursday to get right. The main straight is still very wet, but it always is at this time of the year - the frost has been drawn up through the shale but it was much better this week than last. The drains are all being pumped out each week and just keeping standing water off the track is making a real difference. Fingers crossed for a dry week next week! For more information on the track, and how wet we all got yesterday morning in the rain, check out the Blog - should have it posted by late afternoon on Sunday.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a link to a government e-petition relating to the potential for anyone who buys or rents a property close to a motorsport venue to make an official complaint about noise and nuisance despite being perfectly aware of the locality of the venue and the potential for disruption when legal searches were made prior to purchase. At the time, my re-posting was dismissed rather bruskly by another correspendent on the forum, but this reponse from the “powers that be” perhaps should be aired further. To put this in context, let us remember that there were suggestions when the Blunsdon site development was first muted that the new stadium would have to be built before any new houses could be constructed on the surrounding land and that the new stadium would be shielded from housing stock by industrial buildings. Now, however, as we enter the last year of racing at the old Abbey Stadium, we have a number of houses nearing completion within 100 yards of the edge of the stadium complex. It seems inconceivable that these residences will not be occupied before the end of the season and the noise from the Abbey will certainly fill the air on a Thursday night when the bikes roar. So could anyone moving in to a new house adjacent to the stadium, or any other stadium, have a valid right to complain about the nuisance? Perhaps the government’s response below will shed some light on the situation! “The e-petition ‘introduce mandatory noise complaint waiver for anyone who buys or rents a property close to motorsport venue’ signed by you recently reached 37,927 signatures and a response has been made to it. To read the rest of the determination go to http://blunsdonblog.co.uk/?p=8721 The Italics in the response are my own. It makes for interesting reading, I think

Well done with the Crossword - it seems to have been quite well received and downloaded over 100 times. We would be delighted if you could come over to see us on a Thursday. We meet up at 8.30am and then work through until the light or the weather defeats us.

Cheers mate - much appreciated! They are all stars and give up so much time for our beloved sport.