NJC71 388 Posted April 26, 2015 Referee was terrible although that doesn't excuse the behaviour of certain elements of the crowd. Speedway does seem to attract some odd people. I find it quite embarrassing. Hope Anton isn't too badly injured. A broken collarbone (if confirmed) would be a blow. His exclusion in that race was questionable as was pretty much every other decision the referee made tonight. Great performance from Josh Bates who rode superbly and Jan Graversen who had easily his best meeting at Brough. Accept there were a number of falls, but again that's 2 and a half hours to run 15 one minute races. It's way too long and there is far too much standing about with nothing happening, which when it's cold like tonight is not much fun. We had the silly situation where we have a 15 minute break due to the sun again (although no announcement) and then it's decided (when the sun has gone in) that we're having an interval? Best part of half an hour with no racing. And with the referee playing the clown it started to feel like the meeting was never going to end. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chewbacca 653 Posted April 26, 2015 To be fair Mr Dowling was very consistent tonight. He got every decision completely wrong. I've been to 95% of meetings held at Brough since 1975 and I can't remember a worse refereeing performance. Even his use of 2 minute warnings was inept. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robbieblackadder fan club 145 Posted April 26, 2015 Having not been to a meeting in over a year I won't be in a great hurry to go back soon,21/2hours to run a meeting in the freezing cold was beyond a joke and a referee intent on spoiling the fun with the worst refereeing performance I have ever seen,no wonder speedway is dieing it's killing itself Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruffdiamond 6,115 Posted April 26, 2015 Well, that was hard work,,,, sad to lose Aston and a big well done to Josh Bates, thought the night was never gonna end :-(,,, and the poor old ref, probly not one for him to remember,,, I thought he was bad, and I didn't have me glasses on, just as well no-one in the crowd had a long piece of 'dowelling', cos they might poked him in the eye, the back one, a dunno :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arson fire 4,785 Posted April 26, 2015 (edited) Do we really need the tractor out as much as it was... Its a joke, track looked great and the race with robbo and rosen was great( correct decision imo to exclude rosen who locked up leaving robbo nowhere to go)... Its painful to go to meetings nowadays... I left after heat 13!! And regarding the ref, he was awful...no way was bates 3rd ahead of konopka imo and bjerre should have been thrown out... Great rider who i love to watch but was very dangerous in first bend a few times ..... Pre meditated imo. Edited April 27, 2015 by Arson fire 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobh 8 Posted April 26, 2015 I haven't missed a meeting at Brough since I don't know when, but I will not be there next week. This was a farce, badly organised and abysmally refereed and I am not the only one feeling this way. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StevePark 2,801 Posted April 27, 2015 I haven't missed a meeting at Brough since I don't know when, but I will not be there next week. This was a farce, badly organised and abysmally refereed and I am not the only one feeling this way. Could you expand on that please? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
waco 1,026 Posted April 27, 2015 The general standard of the current crop of refs is the worst i have ever seen in 65 yrs of being in and around Speedway, and with poor promoting of meetings ,,bad track preparation at many venues is it any wonder support is drifting away from a once great sport.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gaz 214 Posted April 27, 2015 As I have not been this season after looking at the updates I thought I had missed an eventful meeting and sounded lively, after hearing the meeting lasted 2 and a half hours and reading some of the comments on here I am glad I was not there, no meeting should ever take that long! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dantodan 314 Posted April 27, 2015 What a bad meeting. Referee as others have said was simply shocking. One bad decision or maybe two at the most is allowed i.m.o. as the Ref has to make spur of the moment decisions under pressure. But he got it wrong every time he had to make a decision. Anton was excluded by this strange referee, I think for allowing Robbo to clip his back wheel. and what a shame as Robbo is never a dirty rider but I think he was the cause of the stoppage not the hapless Rocket Rosen. Anton was entertaining the crowd by riding well in that heat and I hope he isn't out of action for too long. Well done Anton, in the couple of laps you completed and I hope it doesn't make you think twice about mixing it from the back in future. I hope the injury is less serious than it looks right now. The delays although I can point to worse long drawn out meetings, were terrible, we were all shivering and lots of us probably wished we had stayed at home. The biggest delay couldn't be explained by our main man, Geore English. I found his comments about taking an early interval puzzling to say the least. I would have thought he was the person to make that decision. Anyway, I think we all understand that George was understandably annoyed. So who was it that called the interval. Answers on a postcard The track was in pretty good shapeand the racing not bad, Christian flew around in 62.8 but why were the tractors out so often, that is usually reserved for meetings when the track is in bad shape. So did I enjoy the meeting? Hell Yes (Ed Milliband). I am a committed speedway fan, you will never hear me say I will not be back next week unlike some who need to wake up and understand that we will only have speedway in Newcastle if sufficient patrons come through the turnstiles and so far this season I think George and the promotion team will be a bit worried about turnstile receipts. Roll on next sunday, you can count on my support 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruffdiamond 6,115 Posted April 27, 2015 Why do people say 'their not coming' ???,,, maybe their on holiday or something, or get a lift off someone :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dantodan 314 Posted April 27, 2015 Why do people say 'their not coming' ???,,, maybe their on holiday or something, or get a lift off someone :-) God knows RuffDiamond. I have been watching the Diamonds since 1961 and have never said I wouldn't be back next week, some did when Ivan Mauger left and more still when Ole Olsen left. Really it comes down to this! Do you like to watch Speedway, if so you will be back despite what may have happened the week before. If you are not that commited then maybe you can say I won't come back! Obviously some are staying away as the crowd is pretty low this season. Personally if the worst happens due to lack of support I would hope we could keep going in the National League rather than close alltogether. I am a speedway addict and would support Newcastle in the "Mickey Mouse" league if there was one!!! However, We are an attractive PL side capable of winning matches so hopefully the crowds will pick up and get a little boost when the footy season finishes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobh 8 Posted April 27, 2015 Could you expand on that please? I feel that with better co-operation and organisation between all concerned, we may not have froze for over two and a half hours. Contrast last night when we saw aprox 16 mins of completed races in 2 hours thirty five minutes with Ricky Ashworth meeting at Owlerton when 3,000+ saw twenty nine heats involving everything from schoolboys to GP stars all completed in 2 hours 25 mins. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gaz 214 Posted April 27, 2015 God knows RuffDiamond. I have been watching the Diamonds since 1961 and have never said I wouldn't be back next week, some did when Ivan Mauger left and more still when Ole Olsen left. Really it comes down to this! Do you like to watch Speedway, if so you will be back despite what may have happened the week before. If you are not that commited then maybe you can say I won't come back! Obviously some are staying away as the crowd is pretty low this season. Personally if the worst happens due to lack of support I would hope we could keep going in the National League rather than close alltogether. I am a speedway addict and would support Newcastle in the "Mickey Mouse" league if there was one!!! However, We are an attractive PL side capable of winning matches so hopefully the crowds will pick up and get a little boost when the footy season finishes To be fair if it closed down it would be the fault of the promotion, if they dont treat their paying customers fairly and do enough to get new fans in, then do enough to keep them then that would be down to them. If you are going to speedway for the first time and take the family the last thing you want is to be standing in the cold for 2 and a half hours and definitely would not go the following week, its also worrying hearing fans who are used to go every week saying the same. There used to be 6 of us who went but now its down to 2, this is due to lies from the promotion and it hurts when we have been going for over 30 years. No doubt we will still go to some speedway but not necessarily at Newcastle! Maybe they should try and promote the sport like Newcastle Eagles do (crowds of 2-3k) and Newcastle Thunder (crowds increased from 50-100 to 700-1500 in 6 months) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DiamondsRock 79 Posted April 27, 2015 (edited) Referee was terrible although that doesn't excuse the behaviour of certain elements of the crowd. Speedway does seem to attract some odd people. I find it quite embarrassing. Do elaborate more? Were they being a disgrace by cheering or booing the riders / referee? unlike some who need to wake up and understand that we will only have speedway in Newcastle if sufficient patrons come through the turnstiles and so far this season I think George and the promotion team will be a bit worried about turnstile receipts. Then it's about time that promoters got off the high horse with the "use it or lose it" attitude, and actually got out there promoting. People (especially families) won't continue to hand over, say £60 of their hard earned £ each weekend just to keep a sport running if they're not happy about something. Most folk nowadays don't have that attitude -- it's all about getting the best value for your £, and if speedway is not providing that, they'll not turn up regardless. Edited April 27, 2015 by DiamondsRock 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
