2009 Welsh Open

[DUKEYBOY 1]

Schramm Ex/1/0/2/2 = 5

 

cheers thought he would have done better being his form this season and that he had about 3 seasons there

[Snyper1010 24]

As many have said it was from the gate stuff and Schramm wasnt gating therefore wasnt really scoring.

[arthur cross 492]

I always keep a note of starting-times for each race in any of my speedway programmes to show any delays so here are some of yesterday's details ...

 

Meeting was advertised as 1pm start ... but the parade was put back to 1.08 because Mark Lemon was cutting it fine getting to the track (and he was drawn in heat 1) ... he didn't feature when the riders were introduced to the crowd but did ride the tail end of the warm-up laps.

 

First heat finally began 1.22 after Shelby Rutherford had failed two minutes so decisively that the one remaining reserve, Sam Hurst, was waiting at the pit gate to join in as soon as the ref created a fresh two-minutes !

 

Heat 5 began 1.45 (re-run 1.50) ... heat 9 began 2.20 (re-run 2.26)

 

Heat 12 began 2.38 ... then we had the mid-meeting interval so heat 13 didn't go until 2.58.

 

The highlight of this interval was news of who'd drawn the raffle ... bearing in mind at this point there were two 9-point maximums (Lemon & Ryan Fisher) as well as the (happily now halo-less) Adam Roynon available in the pits as obvious names to make the draw, the honour actually fell to Ricky Ashworth ! ! ... "fell" being the correct description because Ricky had just withdrawn from the meeting (leaving only 3 riders in heat 12) after adding two "f/dq" to his recent catalogue of bumps and scrapes.

 

Then came the 5 different versions of heat 14 at 3.02 (Andersson shockingly chucked out), 3.10, 3.15, 3.24 & 3.32 ... that took so long that Chris Schramm (yellow, heat 16) had to be turned back from the tapes of heat 15 because he'd lost all sense of where we'd got to on the racecard ! !

 

Schramm correctly showed up for heat 16 at 3.40 ... Krzysztof Stojanowski was the unlucky rider drawn number-6 who therefore had the longest wait of the day between heats 9 & 16 which meant he had plenty of time for any other business ... 74 minutes to be precise ! !

 

In fairness, the rest of the meeting went through swiftly with heat 20 at 3.59 & the final at 4.10, followed straight away by the trophy presentations.

 

Unless our group's got strong links to any of the lineup, we'll find something else (anything else) to do on 11-July-2010 ... given the hot/humid weather forecast, the track was ridiculously dry beforehand so it needed far too heavy watering during the meeting ... we'd arrived just before 12-noon and the track didn't seem to have seen a drop of water all morning whereas a couple of soakings around 9am & 11am would have given time for the water to settle into the surface.

 

One other note (I've been to Newport several times before but this was my first Welsh Open) ... it felt very strange to see relatively few fans enthusiastically cheering on their favourite rider(s) while the majority just seemed to be there for "something speedway to do on the way home".

[Speedwaystevemk2 0]

I know that the track has several loads of water from large bouser early in the morning , in fact at 11am it was almost under water but the drainage at the track is good it soaks away very quickly .

 

Just think how good is the track been for the New year classic over the years , where other track would have not even opened there doors , so guess its a trade off when it very hot and sunny

 

 

The centre green was baking i can tell you and i think the promotion did they all could to control the dust , how many of you have been there in previous years after 5 heat that would have been a dust bowl .

 

I am sure the promotion would have liked to got the meeting done quicker but at the end of the day i guess they wanted to make sure safe for all concerned .

 

 

[Backless 538]

I know that the track has several loads of water from large bouser early in the morning , in fact at 11am it was almost under water but the drainage at the track is good it soaks away very quickly .

 

And? So, if it drains THAT well, flood it later.

 

Just think how good is the track been for the New year classic over the years , where other track would have not even opened there doors , so guess its a trade off when it very hot and sunny

 

Well of course that's okay then: just a bit of a bugger that the speedway season runs through what passes for the summer months really, ain't it?

 

The centre green was baking i can tell you and i think the promotion did they all could to control the dust , how many of you have been there in previous years after 5 heat that would have been a dust bowl .

 

Brilliant - the defence "it's not as bad as it used to be". Rubbish, but not as bad. That's allright then.

 

I am sure the promotion would have liked to got the meeting done quicker but at the end of the day i guess they wanted to make sure safe for all concerned .

 

I don't think Arthur Cross was suggesting starting the even heats from the back straight & the odd heats from the gate

 

Over 3 hours was ridiculous.

 

Nothing whatsoever done to the track for more than an hour before the start, the 15 minute parade started late when it was announced that basically "Lemo's late so we're going to stand around & do nothing" God forbid that they watered the track then & settled it down by the warm up laps.

 

I know the club's strapped for cash, but does the programme for such a meeting (and for such a crowd) have to resemble a (failing) school project with an excel spreadsheet? It's obviously beyond the promotion to think that a few colour pages & a better quality would sell for more & the punters on the day would buy it.

 

Surely SOMEONE has a Flymo to blast the weeds on the centre green. There's also a dozen various flagpoles in need of a good home.

Okay, flags doesn't make much difference, but the whole impression was one of "can't be bothered".

 

That's the same attitude I'll have next year on the day after Cardiff.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Backless

[stemoc 187]

Well done Kev great win and well deserved, having watched 3 meetings in 3 days this was by far the worst, the track was appalling sorry to say that if this is the best that Newport can provide I for one will never return (Gate and Go) never let any one call Dry House again, as we came up the M4 I thought we were driving on the Newport, track only difference was that there was more shale on the M4, sorry Mr Mallett but this was a golden opportunity to impress both existing and new supporters and it failed miserably, I would never enjoy seeing speedway stadiums close but after yesterdays farce (over 3 hours) on a bone dry track (watering can came out after heat 1) have got to say it doesn't look good, even some of the locals couldn't get away fast enough, hope Newport does survive.

In terms of the racing as I say Kev was by far the best and deserved the win, Fisher was a disgrace and spend most of his time trying to push riders wide heat 14 being a classic example. In heat 21 I thought that I was actually hit by a piece of shale then I realised it was Fishers dummy as Kev put him in his place and showed him the way home.

Would like to say it was a great meeting but in all the 30 + years I have watched speedway this is the worst meeting I have ever paid to watch

Sorry Newport and well done Kevin

Edited June 29, 2009 by stemoc

[Vicar 2]

Does anyone could post heat details and full results? Because I can't find any.

[Diesel 26]

I always keep a note of starting-times for each race in any of my speedway programmes to show any delays so here are some of yesterday's details ...

I bet you are the life and soul of any party...

[billybikespeedway 75]

I bet you are the life and soul of any party...

 

just remind me of any party this person attends, and I'll make sure I'm not there

 

[Dietbowers 522]

First chance to post anything about yesterdays meeting.

First up,the good news,they never run out of `Bow

As for the rest of it,it was too long in being completed,but everybody could see that was going to happen when there was countless re-runs and falls,and with the weather being a bit on the hot side,plenty of watering had to take place.

There wasn`t much racing at all to be honest,but I was impressed with Jonas Andersson,I`ve still no idea what he done wrong to get excluded(I point blank refuse to use the term disqualified) after his tangle with Doolan,perhaps the ref shared a lift down with him from Workington

Nice to meet up with BigFatDave,and a few of the stewards favourites from Saturday night

Oh,and SilverBee,you should have a `Bow or two yesterday,I`m pretty sure it would have stopped you whingeing for five minutes

 

[Snyper1010 24]

Nothing like an unbias view eh stemoc? Doolan deserved winner with only 3 wins from 5 qualifiers. Also heat didnt Ryan put Doolan in his place in all 4 runnings of it? Also in heat 14 how could Ryan take anyone wide when he was out the gates and in the lead going into the first bend. That wasnt once that was in every running of heat 14 he out gated everyone so had no one alongside him to take wide. I think you had a bit toomuch dust in your eyes.

[stemoc 187]

Nothing like an unbias view eh stemoc? Doolan deserved winner with only 3 wins from 5 qualifiers. Also heat didnt Ryan put Doolan in his place in all 4 runnings of it? Also in heat 14 how could Ryan take anyone wide when he was out the gates and in the lead going into the first bend. That wasnt once that was in every running of heat 14 he out gated everyone so had no one alongside him to take wide. I think you had a bit toomuch dust in your eyes.

Your opinion son but the facts speak for themselves Kev won the meeting

[Snyper1010 24]

Yeah he did but im asking you a question not giving an opinion. How does 3wins from 5 qualifying heats make a deserved winner. over 4 from Lemon and 5 from Fish?

[BigFatDave 258]

Maybe not the greatest racing although Kev winning meant I had another chance to wave the flag, a large G'day to everyone I met, I had a ball but I'm now addicted to 'Bow - curse you Dietbowers!!

 

I'm on a borrowed 'puter so I'll catch ya later - Youse have been warned!!

[Racing Jase 0]

Some more pictures from Sunday's meeting: -

 

http://www.stevedixonphotography.co.uk/gal...WEzOWQ5YTNhM2Nm