Kent Vs Birmingham - 18th July

[Sings4Speedway 3,247]

6.30 meeting starts, NO a young girl does 4 laps, then the the meeting starts NO a young lad goes and do s 4 laps,then the meeting starts NO a parade of both teams, at 6.55 only on heat completed,I was also at Kent last week to see the Rye House meeting same thing happened then,and again no heat 15 when will the Kent Promotor learn

Right about last week and no ht 15 but that was an acceptable reason attending to a fallen rider after a nasty spill.

however kent got the luck then and didn't last night so maybe it levels itself out?

 

Real shame was that kent fans appauded the brum team after the trophy win and were repaid with under hand tactics and under hand waves

[GASBLOKE 20]

A neutral Eastbourne fan, who went to watch the so called "clash of the titans".

At 6.30 we had to endure two kids poodling round the track, and one impressive one, Nathan Aiblett I believe.

Than the teams were brought out on a trailor for a poor excuse of a parade.

The kids should have been on at 6.15, the parade should have been the riders on their bikes for one quick parade lap.

Do the toss in the pits, although at this level I doesn't think it makes any difference anyway.

Three times I have been to Sittingbourne now and have yet to see a heat 15, pathetic. If it has to be 8.30, start at 6 pm, locals can still get there for the start, not many away fans travel as they can't get there for 6.30 so a 6 pm would make no differenced to them anyway.

A decent pit marshall should be employed to ensure that the four bikes and their four riders are ready to go before the previous race has finished.

Now Graham Drury has been in a position to use the clock, because of Kents ridiculous curfew and their unwillingness to get on with the meeting, other teams will follow suit if they are in a similar position. At 8 o'clock Kent fans were shouting "get on with it", I suppose they could see what was coming.

The Darryl Ritchings fall and trying to get the race rerun to give Jack PB a second chance was a despicable act, at least lie down and pretend your hurt, not jump up the moment the red light comes on and ride back to the pits. I'm glad the referee saw through that and awarded the 5-1v to Kent. But this has happened in speedway many times and will continue to be footballs "dive".

No Kent fan could put his hand on his heart and say that they wouldn't want Luke Clifton to lay his bike down to give Luke Bowen a second chance from the gate, should the position arise.

This Saturday at Arlington, Ellis gates and is leading by a mile, Charley is 2nd, Bowen 3rd and Clifton at the back, lap two, Clifton lays his bike down, red light, rerun, Ellis always wins anyway, but at a second attempt Bowen gets the better of Powell, Kent go down 2-4 not 1-5, so you will find ALL teams do it when it suits them.

After heat 14, Jack Smith came round on his winners lap, a big fist, wave and a kiss to his girlfriend and mum who are sat just in front of me, the same as he had done after his five race victories, he was ecstatic. Then some Kent fan, a women, starts fffffing and blinding at Jack, calling him a cheat, (why ?), not realising she was standing behind Mrs Smith, this lady then started on Jacks mum and g'friend.

Eastbourne are out of the race for the title because of our never ending injury situation, and the Brummies are miles better than the Kings. I reckon it will be Brummies, Eagles, Kings and Belle Vue as the top 4, with Brummies beating Kent in the play off.

I couldn't get any more neutral if I tried.

 

.

[guitar_art 247]

As ever there are two sides to every story. the following was posted on the Birmingham fans forum: -

 

My first visit to the home of the Kent Kings and have to say a lovely stadium, great shaped track and a very wide and impressive blue groove all around the inside line - it was reminiscent of watching the indoor stuff at Brighton many years ago with riders sitting on the start line heating up their rear tyres as much as possible to try and get some traction on the concrete.
On to the meeting - with only two hours to run it, and having missed the curfew last time out against Rye House, I was amazed at 6.30 to have 3 mascots each taking it in turn to do their 4 laps whilst the Kings and the Brummies stood in the sunshine on the trailer waiting to be introduced. Heat 2 hadn't started at 6.55 due to Luke Bowen missing the 2minutes in heat 1 (then doing his Charlie Dimmock impersonation when he did get to the grid) and Jack Thomas doing the same in heat 2 first time around.He also did a couple of 'victory' laps after the race to presumably convince the ref he had passed Zach on the run in to the line.
There was a clash going into the first turn in heat 2 rerun between Jack and Danno Verge but quite simply Jack held his ground off one and wouldn't be intimidated - should also mention that Verge was down for about 10 minutes on the centre green following this clash but then walked back as right as rain to the pits on the opposite side of the stadium.
Daryl did 'fall off' in heat 4 and stay down but with the race on the third lap and Kent riders clear of JPB it was always going to be awarded but not something we like to see whoever does it.
Cue the Kent fightback in heats 4, 5 & 6 and also the Kent riders going around for victory laps holding flags and beating their chests like Tarzan in front of the grandstand to great ovations (all well received by the home fans despite the clock seriously ticking at that point). Heat 6 also saw the incident between Jack S and Luke Bowen - Bowen is a top man in this league with an average of over 10.5 and he seriously didn't take kindly to Jack flying past him - a lap or two later he came up the inside of Jack and quite simply took him to the fence and dumped him in it. Even the Kent fans was with felt it had to be Bowen excluded but no it was Smith and understandably he was annoyed with the decision. Heat 7 also saw Danny Ayres try desperately to fence Smith with an horror move on bends 3 & 4 but fortunately for Jack he missed - again a view also held by the Kent fans.
Things calmed down then for a couple of heats and Graham D did switch his reserves but it did give some riders two on the trot and hence slightly longer delays. Heat 10 saw our 3rd exclusion on track when Danyon in 3rd place pirouetted on the concrete and Luke Clifton did a great job of laying the bike down - more frustration for Jack S in this one as once again he had got in front of Bowen and was holding him until the race was stopped and as always happens Bowen beat him to the first turn in the re-run and that was that. Also worth noting that Clifton was also down on the centre green for about 10 minutes then he too ran over the centre green as Verge had done in heat 2 before him wasting more valuable time - by now it was gone 8 but no urgency being shown.
Heats 12 & 13 saw Brummie exclusions for exceeding 2 minutes but that was only the same amount of times as Kent and again we had JPB doing 2 on the trot so surely extra time??
And then heat 14 and another great ride by Smith greeted with lots of abuse from the stands - so Jack did what all the Kent race winners had done and went around beating his chest and his big Brummie B and guess what they didn't like it and gave him what for - he was wrong in gesturing back but hes a young kid who had ridden brilliantly.
Final couple of things - well done Tom Bacon - awesome gating and held them all back at one point or another and perhaps Kent rather than blaming the Brummies should talk to the ref about getting the meeting running quicker, talk to their riders about being ready to go and not doing victory laps waving flags if time is running out and finally talk to the tractor driver and bowser man and tell him to put it in 2nd gear next time!!

[GASBLOKE 20]

Oh, and if it had gone to heat 15, Danny and Smiley would have got a 5-1 and Kent would have won 46-44, so get yer fingers out next time !!!!

 

[guitar_art 247]

As an extra thought: -

 

It has long been lamented that speedway doesn't (Like many sports these day's) have any real characters left. And yet when one emerges like Jack Smith he is vilified. But you can be sure that his perceived action, right or wrong will put bums on seats come our next meeting (which could conceivably be in a final or two. Surely that is something speedway needs these days.

 

I don't blame the Kent promoter for stirring the pot in the way that he has done. He is looking at the bigger picture for Kent in that one.

[GASBLOKE 20]

I hadn't seen the Brummie post before I wrote my epilogue. Do not agree with some of it. Verge did make a meal of his fall, but I thought Clifton was brilliant to lay his bike down, I hope the other guy thanked him for that. At the end of the day, if you do not get a move on, two hours is not enough time to get a meeting down. If it was all done in 1 hour 15 mins, we would have the moaners demanding some money back !!

[guitar_art 247]

I hadn't seen the Brummie post before I wrote my epilogue. Do not agree with some of it. Verge did make a meal of his fall, but I thought Clifton was brilliant to lay his bike down, I hope the other guy thanked him for that. At the end of the day, if you do not get a move on, two hours is not enough time to get a meeting down. If it was all done in 1 hour 15 mins, we would have the moaners demanding some money back !!

You would not have seen the post as it was on another forum. I understand you do not agree with it but that does not make your version of events right (or wrong.) Gasblokes previous post seems to have gone out of the way to be nuetral, for which I applaud and perhaps should be the final word on the matter.

 

2 hours not time enough to get a meeting done? Your having a laugh if you don't think you can get 15/16 minutes of racing done inside 2 hours. Birmingham regularly do it in 90 minutes and that is with an interval. Just takes a bit of organisation. Oh and by the way. No-one complains.

Edited July 19, 2016 by guitar_art

[GASBLOKE 20]

My last one on this topic. I have just read some of the other posts.

Whitlegang, you are an idiot, end of.

Will somebody please print which of the rules Graham Drury or the Brummies broke in achieving this win.

Graham and his team were just cute, obviously cuter than their counterparts.

This away win was caused by, if you like, the Kent fans inability to get their club to get a bloody move on.

Another thing, they could save some print space in the as they allow spaces for fans to fill in second half races, that's a bloody joke, bet they've never been seen.

[Shadders 4,134]

Len Silver didn't seem in too much of a hurry to get meetings going when he was Rye House promoter.

Not surprised a team led by Drury resorted to underhand tactics to win a meeting .He was the same at Mildenhall.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Shads

[GASBLOKE 20]

Thanks guitar art, we all love speedway, we should all be pulling the same way. My two hours was including a tractor with only one gear and not enough dirt on the track to grade anyway. There was a blue line appearing as Tom Bacon won heat 3.

Len Silver didn't seem in too much of a hurry to get meetings going when he was Rye House promoter.
Not surprised a team led by Drury resorted to underhand tactics to win a meeting .He was the same at Mildenhall.

Of course he wasn't in a hurry, he had no curfew.

Drury was just cute.

I hope Connor Dugard has the balls to do the same if the case ever arose.

[Shadders 4,134]

Of course he wasn't in a hurry, he had no curfew.

Drury was just cute.

.

That's my point. Kent should've hurried the meeting on from the start and not given Birmingham the chance to rig the result Edited July 19, 2016 by Shads

[arnieg 3,643]

Oh, and if it had gone to heat 15, Danny and Smiley would have got a 5-1 and Kent would have won 46-44, so get yer fingers out next time !!!!

 

Everyone seems to take this as a given, but Tom Bacon had already beaten Bowen, Ayres and Shanes so it is quite possible that he could have done so again in heat 15.

[LordoftheShale 32]

Everyone seems to take this as a given, but Tom Bacon had already beaten Bowen, Ayres and Shanes so it is quite possible that he could have done so again in heat 15.

I agree with you on this.

[Mike.Butler 601]

Many thanx for your thoughts all..I think I now feel its 75% Kent 25% Brummies fault we didn't get 15 heats: as opposed to 75/25 the other way as I left the stadium.

LEN - GET A MOVE ON - START AT 6.30 PLEASE AND TELL YOUR RIDERS THEY CAN HAVE A LAP OF HONOUR AFTER 10 heats are done in the first hour.........

 

AND - next week give fans a couple of quid off to make up for the missing races over last couple of weeks..I mean to say, 14 mins racing in 2 HOURS!! (pretty pathetic really don't you think!) Maybe we could get some 2nd half racing if there was proper meeting management taking place. *JOKE*

[westhamboy66 599]

That's my point. Kent should've hurried the meeting on from the start and not given Birmingham the chance to rig the result

Was 32 degrees there, water truck came out after every race, couple of crashes they couldn't hurry it on.Ok so they have a couple of mascots and a short parade if they did away with that it would give the Silver haters even more ammunition, start at 6.15 well there are enough complaints that 6.30 is too early. Easy to apportion blame but there was only one man to blame and that is Drury up to his Mildenhall tricks again. Time was wasted on purpose which robbed the fans of a last heat decider. If anyone thinks that Drury was cute they need their head examined. Birmingham won on the night, they will probably win the league and another title for Drury won at any cost in a pathetically cynical way. Speedway and dare i say the fans were the real losers. It's not just Kent fans who suffer at the hands of the dreaded curfew, look at Berwick.

If that was the case, knowing the curfew situation, the referees at Kent matches need to be stronger with getting on with it, 2 minute warnings etc.

In this case it would have made no diffence. rider fails to come out gets chucked out for failing to beat the two minutes, Ref gets the info from the pits about reserve replacement another 30 seconds then a fresh two mins and the reserve replacement comes onto the track with five seconds to spare. they did it twice so thats nine minutes wasted not bad when there is a curfew and the cynical management run down the clock heat 14 finished bang on curfew. Out of the refs hand, during the meeting the water cart came on after every race and it was needed otherwise everyone would be screaming about the dust

As far as I can see (and I wasn't there I have to own up to) nothing happened that was not within the rules. Nothing happened that has not happened before. Nothing happened that wont happen again. Therefore by definition there was no cheating involved and your last statement is therefore slander. (And I imagine your grapes don't taste very sweet either.)

 

The bottom line is run your meeting quicker and this wouldn't happen. It would never happen at Brum.

It would happen at Birmingham if they were losing approaching heat 10 and the rain was falling. Not strictly cheating but the fans taken for mugs again by Drury. How any fan who pays their money is happy to see this sort of cynical management is beyond me