Swindon V Somerset Bank Holiday Monday At 5.00

[Red Robin 200]

Yet another wasted journey from Bristol, was pouring down on the M4 and still it hadn't been called off. All the forecasts I have seen today gave the weather as getting bad by 3pm for Swindon. There was a huge swathe of rain and thunder as seen in post 33 by "Chun" above. A very accurate link I would say.

[EnglishRoundabout 1,752]

And frustratingly looking like it's brightening up now ...can remember once when it emptied down about 6.45 Rosco helped with pumping the first corners off and Leigh I think set his track record!

2007 Hagon. Delayed start, track soaked, Adams steamed out of the start and set a new track record. He went on to break that again of course in later years.

[keef robin 551]

Dashed back from Heathrow through the showers in vain. Another meeting end of August when there's all these blank Thursdays bloody ridiculous, who arranges these fixtures, a joke, 2 more blank Thursdays, they're not considering the fans. Just have a season in June July August.

Shame for the club, would have been big crowd today. Lost revenue and very little action lately.

Edited May 29, 2017 by beefy keefy

[A ORLOV 8,628]

Dashed back from Heathrow through the showers in vain. Another meeting end of August when there's all these blank Thursdays bloody ridiculous, who arranges these fixtures, a joke, 2 more blank Thursdays, they're not considering the fans. Just have a season in June July August.

If we have bad weather in August we will be stuffed as we have 5 home meetings and 3 away.

[keef robin 551]

If we have bad weather in August we will be stuffed as we have 5 home meetings and 3 away.

So if there is a double header end of August that will mean 5 home matches in 2 weeks weather permitting..expensive. Since the Poole meeting 6 weeks ago there has been one home meeting against Kings Lynn. With the next home match scheduled mid June that's one home meeting in 2 months. May have to find another sport to follow, not enough action for me. And the club aren't getting any income.

With most riders riding in other leagues here and abroad the Premier is struggling, no wonder crowds are going down, ever-weakening line-ups, and daft rules and regs. Shame as its a great sport.

Edited May 29, 2017 by beefy keefy

[colin wood 249]

Its so frustrating when matches are so spread out.Up here in Manchester we have dodged the rain and if we had a match it would have gone ahead.Bank holiday and no meeting what's that about ?

[topsoil 2,498]

Some people will not like this post but every promotion should take a look at the Berwick Bandits facebook page. Four meetings saved this season by track covers. They have made reference before that it takes a team of 8 of them an hour to lay the covers and the same time to lift them. Take a look at the photo they posted on Saturday night of the helpers. Amongst the group (including Kevin Doolan) are women and kids (which goes against the argument you need a team of strapping lads to do it).

Think of the money lost by Swindon today. All the income lost from a Bank Holiday crowd, all the expense incurred.

You can put forward all the arguments you want, not being able to get a group of volunteers together, can't get access to the stadium, too much work involved. Just excuses. You need to take a more professional outlook. It's been proved you can do it. By of all teams, a "tin pot outfit" as labelled by Jon Cook. If you wanted to do it, you would find a way.

[hagonshocker 1,956]

Problem today though the rain came too close to start time to be of any point to cover...pretty sure you need to get them off at a time to give yourself plenty of time to prep the track as it would sweat so much especially this time of year

[Fromafar 10,378]

Problem today though the rain came too close to start time to be of any point to cover...pretty sure you need to get them off at a time to give yourself plenty of time to prep the track as it would sweat so much especially this time of year

The track at Berwick was not ideal after they removed the covers IMO ,it's was breaking up on the entrance to the 3rd bend needed extensive grading to help fix it,don't know if having covers down affected it.The meeting was saved however because it was not raining when the meeting was due to start.

[Starman2006 2,356]

 

 

The track at Berwick was not ideal after they removed the covers IMO ,it's was breaking up on the entrance to the 3rd bend needed extensive grading to help fix it,don't know if having covers down affected it.The meeting was saved however because it was not raining when the meeting was due to start.

Covers would make the track sweat, you don't grade a track which is breaking up.

[BluTiger 21,701]

If we have bad weather in August we will be stuffed as we have 5 home meetings and 3 away.

If the speculation is true about Young Adam going to Panthers, today's rain off at Swindon has completely screwed that up. August can sometimes be very wet, so let's hope it's dry this year...

[Fromafar 10,378]

Covers would make the track sweat, you don't grade a track which is breaking up.

Berwick did,maybe it was patchy due to covers the riders were having trouble entering the bend in the 1st 4 races and it seemed to improve the situation.

[A ORLOV 8,628]

The track was being graded at about 3 so covers would not have allowed the grading, apart from the forecasts, many of which were wrong and conflicting with each other, at 3 the weather was fine. A bit later the rain came and got heavier, there would not have been the people or time to get covers down.

Ironically the rain cleared by about 4.15 and the next few hours were dry and bright.

[hagonshocker 1,956]

So basically we are mostly in agreement track covers aren't always the answer!

[A ORLOV 8,628]

So basically we are mostly in agreement track covers aren't always the answer!

If they were like the covers that are on the side of campervans that roll up into a holder behind the safety fence at the press of a button then they would be quick and easy to pull out and put away.