Glasgow v Poole/Plymouth Sunday 25 September 2022 - Semi-final Championship Play offs

[SharpenRake 1,505]

1 minute ago, Mr Blobby said:

Where have I mentioned the start time? There wasn’t one tractor on the track during the delay to try and fix things. Yet can make fans wait 2 hours earlier in the season.

Why else have they rejected every date offered to ride the jubilee.

Just to upset you and remind you that you didn't qualify.

[lisa-colette 6,035]

3 minutes ago, SharpenRake said:

Spot on. I'd suggest an automatic 2 match ban and replaced by a NDL rider

Lol, scared much! I mean you finished above us, why Glasgow are suddenly scared is beyond me! 

[Mr Blobby 2,662]

2 minutes ago, SharpenRake said:

Just to upset you and remind you that you didn't qualify.

I know can’t sleep at night of the thought we didn’t.

[Skodaman 192]

1 hour ago, Happy Hunter said:

One thing that bothered me watching on BSN last night was Richard Lawson waving his finger at the referee in an aggressive manner and giving him what looked like some harsh words. The referee looked taken aback by what Lawson said. If Lawson was out of order I hope the referee let's the appropriate people know.

He was fined at Leicester earlier in the season for a similar situation.

[Fromafar 10,375]

44 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

Where have I mentioned the start time? There wasn’t one tractor on the track during the delay to try and fix things. Yet can make fans wait 2 hours earlier in the season. We know the desperation to win things are through the roof so they’ll play every trick in the book and calling that off last night without even attempting to fix it is one. Unfortunately it was a rookie ref in charge and not someone who would’ve had the wool pulled over his eyes so easily.

Why else have they rejected every date offered to ride the jubilee.

You weren’t there then, the Tractor was on the track after the rain delay  as requested by the riders.Then announced that the meeting was going to continue.There was then One heat when Starke slid of then it all kicked off again.
 

[Noelinho 922]

2 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Feel sorry for the Facenna’s they being shafted by the riders.

I walked past Peter on my way out and I can't speak for him but he seemed quite disappointed to me. I know the social media guys had a good laugh at the Plymouth call-off, which really just seemed like good-natured banter, but they generally keep their counsel on these things. They don't often say much and stay in the background but they're quite switched on from the fans' side of things.

They took a lot of flak for the Leicester call-off a couple of years ago and they did become more proactive about re-arranging meetings when weather looked like it could be an issue.

@Cookiefan already mentioned Basso was a constraint on start time - I wonder if availability of other days (which has been discussed here earlier) might have left them in a tight spot for dates.

We have definitely run meetings with the track in much more challenging conditions than it was last night - the Test match against Poland last October comes to mind.

I still think it was possible to complete the meeting last night, but I understand why both sets of riders would feel the need to play games, either calling it off before heat 10, or once you got there.

I do think the ref should've been stronger and pointed out the relative ease the riders other than Broc rode the track once it was damp (Starke's fall was a mistake), but the heat 10 rule doesn't really work for a knockout match.

I also watched the first part of the BSN stream from last night - the cameras made it look much worse than it was in person! The wind was blowing, and it was dark, but the camera made it look a lot more miserable than it was.

[Steve Shovlar 10,439]

Neither Broc Nicol or Paul Starke wanted it at all. As soon as it got wet Nicol didn’t want to know. Starke didn’t want to know as soon as he slid off. That would have reduced the glasgow team to 4 riders willing to give it a go. Every Poole rider wanted to continue. Not until heat 10, but to the conclusion of the meeting.

The Poole team as a whole are completely up for this semi final and will be on it 100%. If that is not enough, Pirates would have been beaten by a better Glasgow team. 

[MattB 177]

2 hours ago, Bagpuss said:

Yep understand that but I'd have thought it'd be in their interests to try and sort something out as rain offs must do their heads in as much as all of us. I just can't get my head around there being so few fixtures on across all three leagues in the height of summer and then all the important stuff being crammed in during Sept and Oct when the weather can (and has) change dramatically.

Exactly.  It happens year after year after year, yet speedway still finds itself flapping about getting the dates in, only to be amazed that the weather doesn't play ball

[iainb 5,022]

22 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Neither Broc Nicol or Paul Starke wanted it at all. As soon as it got wet Nicol didn’t want to know. Starke didn’t want to know as soon as he slid off. That would have reduced the glasgow team to 4 riders willing to give it a go. Every Poole rider wanted to continue. Not until heat 10, but to the conclusion of the meeting.

The Poole team as a whole are completely up for this semi final and will be on it 100%. If that is not enough, Pirates would have been beaten by a better Glasgow team. 

I didn't think you went... yet it sounds like you were in the pits 

[Mr Blobby 2,662]

46 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

You weren’t there then, the Tractor was on the track after the rain delay  as requested by the riders.Then announced that the meeting was going to continue.There was then One heat when Starke slid of then it all kicked off again.
 

That was my point why weren’t they back out after starke. 

[Nickinho 429]

I knew as soon as i entered the stadium last night that half an hour of drizzle would make that track greasy as it was already wet as well as hard and flat and i could see some of the misgivings from some of the riders like Tom as they checked the conditions with their boot upon entry. The track was badly prepared which isn't a normal ocurrence at Glasgow but it was last night and i'm not exactly sure why this was the case but over the years i have seen riders launching themselves at tracks in much worse conditions so the riders have to take some share of the blame for the decision. The referee also helped to make the entire evening a shambles with some silly time-wasting and i felt a real lull from the outset despite the best attempts of the announcer to keep everyone upbeat. However, what concerned me the most was both the smallish crowd for an important semi-final (and yes i know it was livestreamed) and the lack of anger as they departed. Normally there is a lot of weeping and wailing like it's an Islamic funeral whenever a meeting normally gets called off but this time everyone just seemed to accept it with only a wee bit of grumbling. This is concerning because it tells me that everybody have really gotten used to delays, cancellations, postponements and the BSPA doing their utmost to cut large chunks out of the season and like myself they are thinking of finally calling it a day. It's been fun for a long, long time but with the costs also starting to outweigh the benefits i will be probably be cutting down my visits to just the odd meeting next year. 

[Noelinho 922]

22 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

That was my point why weren’t they back out after starke. 

Because 1) there wasn't a fundamental problem with the track (and Justin Sedgmen himself said he didn't think Starke's crash was caused by the conditions), and 2) they can't send the tractors out as soon as the red lights go on - by the time they'd cleared up Starke and his bike, the decision to cancel the meeting came really quickly (about 2-3 minutes).

I don't think you can blame the track staff. The track was holding up well and still kicking up dust in heat six.

[Ghosty 500]

What have the "rain offs" @ 1.Newcastle v Glasgow, 2.Plymouth v Glasgow & now 3.Glasgow v Poole have in common?

[Nickinho 429]

3 hours ago, Happy Hunter said:

One thing that bothered me watching on BSN last night was Richard Lawson waving his finger at the referee in an aggressive manner and giving him what looked like some harsh words. The referee looked taken aback by what Lawson said. If Lawson was out of order I hope the referee let's the appropriate people know.

Finger waving in an aggressive manner in a built-up area should be reported to the police.

[Beirao 202]

29 minutes ago, Nickinho said:

I knew as soon as i entered the stadium last night that half an hour of drizzle would make that track greasy as it was already wet as well as hard and flat and i could see some of the misgivings from some of the riders like Tom as they checked the conditions with their boot upon entry. The track was badly prepared which isn't a normal ocurrence at Glasgow but it was last night and i'm not exactly sure why this was the case but over the years i have seen riders launching themselves at tracks in much worse conditions so the riders have to take some share of the blame for the decision. The referee also helped to make the entire evening a shambles with some silly time-wasting and i felt a real lull from the outset despite the best attempts of the announcer to keep everyone upbeat. However, what concerned me the most was both the smallish crowd for an important semi-final (and yes i know it was livestreamed) and the lack of anger as they departed. Normally there is a lot of weeping and wailing like it's an Islamic funeral whenever a meeting normally gets called off but this time everyone just seemed to accept it with only a wee bit of grumbling. This is concerning because it tells me that everybody have really gotten used to delays, cancellations, postponements and the BSPA doing their utmost to cut large chunks out of the season and like myself they are thinking of finally calling it a day. It's been fun for a long, long time but with the costs also starting to outweigh the benefits i will be probably be cutting down my visits to just the odd meeting next year. 

This sums up how a growing number of supporters are now feeling. Only the truly committed will accept these kind of delays. A lot took the offer of a refund at the Scunthorpe meeting and possibly didn't go along last night, perhaps explaining the low turn out. It will be interesting to see how many attend the restaging whenever It is and it is to be hoped we can find a dry night. Another repeat of last night would be disastrous.