lucifer sam

Rain offs in speedway are part and parcel of the sport. What isn't is calling off a meeting for another reason, and then using predicted very light rain as a very poor excuse. After yesterday's shenanigans, you'll be lucky if more than a handful of away supporters bothering to make the trip to Ashfield, as the Glasgow promotion seem to treat away supporters with contempt. Keep on defending the indefensible, but when there isn't a Glasgow Speedway any more, you might start to wonder why you didn't ask more questions.

There was a certain irony in that the meeting I wasn't originally planning to go to today, and the one where I ended up got rained off, while the one I was originally planning to go to could have taken place! But at least Scunny put in every effort to stage their meetings - they will only call it off early in the day if the weather is truly dire. It means you build up a level of trust. Of course, there's still the odd wasted journey, but that's all part of speedway. On the other hand, while I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face and miss Glasgow v Oxford when it's re-staged, my plans to do Glasgow v Scunny the day before Workington v Oxford have been shelved today. What's the point in booking days off work, booking hotels, etc, when the Glasgow make no effort to put on meetings and seem to call them off due to rider availability rather than the weather? Sadly, I've lost all faith in the Glasgow management after today's shenanigans. I used to think they are a shot in the arm for British Speedway, but sadly no more.

That's a non-answer if I ever saw one As you're not saying otherwise, are you agreeing that it was a very light "rain off"?

WEATHER UPDATE AT 12.15pm There have been some heavy showers this morning, but the sun is out, it's 17 degrees and the track is dry again. There are more showers about this afternoon, but they clear up by 6pm, and the current plan is that it's still all systems go for tonight!

They are indeed, and it won't stop me doing it all again. In my case, the day off work can't be reclaimed, but the hotel was still refundable. Others have been less lucky. But I do expect the management of clubs to play ball and make every effort to get a meeting on. It's very hard to see that that's happened in this case. Surely you'll agree that is a very light "rain off"? Just look at how light the rain in the forecast actually is.

The complete opposite. The travelling fans had already booked time off work, hotels, etc. To call a meeting off because of the possibility of a pitiful amount of rain reveals disrespect and contempt for the travelling fans. The Glasgow management should just come clean and reveal why tonight was called off, because if they can't stage a meeting tonight due to the amount of rain forecast, then how can anybody ever trust them to put on a meeting again?

Good point - we've already said what we're going to say! Now going from Oxford to Scunny tonight, which actually has a marginally worse forecast than Glasgow, but I trust them to put on a meeting when it's possible.

There's the photos for 4pm and 7pm - the one at 10pm is entirely clear. Explain to me again how this is enough rain to call off a speedway meeting.

Have a look at the radar photos and tell me there's enough rain there to seriously trouble a speedway meeting going ahead. There's next to nothing.

There's only light rain all day and it's spot where the light shower will hit at 7pm. Have you actually looked at the forecast?

Sorry, but I was travelling from Oxford, but would rather take the risk. It can always happen. What's far more of a pain is rescheduling all the plans. Would have to think about ever travelling again to Glasgow after this - it's obvious why the meeting has been called off.

Called off, despite the forecast being fine for today.

Final day out, due to concussion protocols. Charles Wright is the guest.

Just checked and weather looking good for this one... so travelling up from Oxford tomorrow.

Oxford line-up identical to the two meetings last week.

Work than less than half a mile from the stadium and weather still fine. A bit overcast, but no more than it has been all day.

Press & practice now on Sunday (April 2nd) at 4.30pm.

As has Cardiff for many years. It's standard practice - an enticement to persuade people to book.

Team – OXFORD SPEEDWAY Looks like the 2023 team to me! PS I didn't say anything about still not appealing to the die-hards, who are still there every week.

Hi Chris, The views have been listened to. Jamie asked me about programme sales, and I said occasionally some came into the stadium without cash, and then had to walk half a mile up the road to the nearest cash point to get cash for a programme. As a result, no-one will have to do that this year. Anyone wanting to buy a programme with a card this year simply needs to go upstairs to the track shop, which will also sell the programme, and which accepts both card and cash (and Apple Pay and all sorts). As for downstairs, it'll remain cash only, because there's no way I could sell around 500 in the last hour (which happened at times last year) while faffing around with card payments. For those who didn't like having to pay online for every meeting, there's now the option of season tickets. Otherwise, anyone introducing or bringing back a speedway track is going to run it as a modern business, which is payment upfront online. Today's call-off has again showed the benefit of ease of transfer - this was even more obvious with the mid-meeting postponement of the Newcastle meeting last year, where everything wasn't left frantically searching for their re-admission ticket. Such antiquated policies went out out the ark - it's now 2023 and not 1983. As we know, no matter how progressive a promotion is, they will always be people who like to moan (and are fully entitled to have a moan, if they like), because it's not run exactly like it was in 2007. But it's one reason I rarely come on the BSF these days, because forums are largely redundant and largely populated by people who have little interest in current day speedway. Speedway does not thrive by operating like it did 15 years ago. It acts like a modern, progressive business, and then like Oxford, it will attract plenty of younger support to go alongside the older die-hard supporters. The die-hards can't sustain a business alone.

Capacity is no longer a problem, while don't worry about the weather - the online ticketing means both transfer and refund options are very easy, no stupid, archaic re-admission tickets!

The points limit didn't get dropped. Was always intended to be 40 for this year.

Make sure you pay the day before then and get it cheaper

Good point. But the gospel according to Lisa Colette then decrees that Poole v Glasgow is wiped from the records last season, since it happened on November 4th and Glasgow v Poole had already occurred on November 2nd. Glasgow therefore won the league 50-40 from the only staged leg. Do you want to change your mind about this one?

Oxford have had a hugely successful first season. Silverware in the first season back (NLRC winner), Chargers getting to the play-offs and great crowds for both Cheetahs and Chargers. I suspect the NL crowds are around double the Championship crowds at Birmingham. That translates to a great atmosphere at Cowley, especially given the younger-than-usual crowd demographic at Oxford which sees many twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings on the terraces alongside the older fans. You'll find there's not many Oxford fans on the BSF, simply because it's all doom-and-gloom on here, and our first season since 2007 has been anything but that!