PCMT 20th march

[BV66 34]

No one wins in these situations, after putting together a very attractive field for the Peter Craven meeting the management must be gutted. The weather forecast for the rest of the week shows unsettled weather. I feel also for the traveling fans that have spent a lot of money coming to Belle Vue.

I tend to agree with Ove Fundin Fan that to run speedway in March is not really on, and the odds of inclement track conditions must be high, sadly though, it is the only time you can get the riders who ride abroad to come before the Polish season starts.

[szkocjasid 3,057]

Sensible decision to call it off, forecast for tonight was terrible!

[Garry1603 353]

Sadly the right decision, although there's still no rain here and hasn't been all day (7 miles from track).

Feel for the BV promotion who worked miracles to get such a world class field, there's no doubt that it won't be anywhere as near as good when it's restaged.

[Bagpuss 10,793]

53 minutes ago, tomhaines said:

Bone dry with a nice breeze here in the city centre… defying the previous forecast. 7mm of rain due in the next 24hours according to my iPhone…. Surely not enough to postpone.

I hope for Belle Vue’s sake they’ve got a better weather forecaster than me, otherwise it’s a speedway shambles before we even start.

Whilst I’m not advocating running in the worst of weather, I thought this track was supposed to be great with drainage and seem to remember the Covid year British Final was run behind closed doors in atrocious conditions. 

Started another season with optimism, hopped on a train (£50 x 2), booked a hotel (£50) and pre booked tickets (2x£26)…. Don’t think I’ll be bothering again this season in the UK if I’m honest. 

What forecast is that? The Met Office is the most reliable one and its filthy on there from 6pm onwards.

As others have said if you shell out money when the weather is unsettled thats the risk you take unfortunately.

[tomhaines 68]

6 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

What forecast is that? The Met Office is the most reliable one and its filthy on there from 6pm onwards.

As others have said if you shell out money when the weather is unsettled thats the risk you take unfortunately.

Weather forecast on the iPhone - suggests 1mm of rain each hour from 6pm… I’d call that light drizzle. I really hope for BVs sake that their forecast is right or it’s an expensive mistake. 

Agree if you shell out money it’s a risk you take, but what I object to is a meeting being called off on the basis of a weather forecast. Forecasts are often wrong and having kept an eye on it since Saturday it hadn’t actually changed much!! 

I guess there are worse cities to be in and we’ll make the most of Manchester! (With or without the rain)

[NeilWatson 1,994]

16 minutes ago, tomhaines said:

Weather forecast on the iPhone - suggests 1mm of rain each hour from 6pm… I’d call that light drizzle. I really hope for BVs sake that their forecast is right or it’s an expensive mistake. 

Agree if you shell out money it’s a risk you take, but what I object to is a meeting being called off on the basis of a weather forecast. Forecasts are often wrong and having kept an eye on it since Saturday it hadn’t actually changed much!! 

I guess there are worse cities to be in and we’ll make the most of Manchester! (With or without the rain)

I suggest that an expensive mistake would be to go ahead if there’s reasonable doubt the meeting won’t be completed.

[Garry1603 353]

Just started raining here at 4.50. To be fair, the clouds are very grey and it looks like it's in for the night, so well done Met Office (sadly)

[arnieg 3,652]

I think people are overlooking the fact that we've had the best part of three weeks of almost daily rain and that the ground is sodden. That is ultimately more significant than whether we get 3 or 6mm of rain this evening. Conditions have not been conducive to drying out the track so with the best will in the world this has looked to be in doubt for some time. After all a day of blazing sun wasn't enough to save Redcar yesterday.

[mikebv 10,320]

30 minutes ago, arnieg said:

I think people are overlooking the fact that we've had the best part of three weeks of almost daily rain and that the ground is sodden. That is ultimately more significant than whether we get 3 or 6mm of rain this evening. Conditions have not been conducive to drying out the track so with the best will in the world this has looked to be in doubt for some time. After all a day of blazing sun wasn't enough to save Redcar yesterday.

Indeed...

And if it had gone ahead the track would have probably been too grippy, or too slick due to removing several inches of slop..

Either way, not a good watch even at the NSS when tracks get prepared like that..

Let's hope most of the riders can make the restaging given the majority either ride over here, or live over here..

[JoeW436 606]

16 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Indeed...

And if it had gone ahead the track would have probably been too grippy, or too slick due to removing several inches of slop..

Either way, not a good watch even at the NSS when tracks get prepared like that..

Let's hope most of the riders can make the restaging given the majority either ride over here, or live over here..

You’d hope the majority of the 1/5’s in the premiership teams could make the re staging 

[Gordon Pairman 457]

Just to reassure the doubters, the forecast rain did as expected and arrived between 4.30 and 5. The roads round the stadium are saturated and there’s no chance this could have gone ahead. I’m in the Diamond Lodge just along the road and so would have been the first to moan had there been a chance. But there wasn’t. And still isn’t. Two meetings, two call offs, two hotels plus hire car petrol and flights. Can’t be helped. It’s UK in speedway season!

[iainb 5,048]

I've missed all the weather chat... it's been so boring over the winter months. Back with a bang though,  2 in 2 days 

[crescent girl 1,907]

I've always thought the season should always begin with the BenFund Bonanza.

Who knows, this year it might!

Edited March 20, 2023 by crescent girl

[Lefty 1,268]

6 minutes ago, crescent girl said:

I've always thought the season should always begin with the BenFund Bonanza.

Who knows, this year it might!

Or at least wait until the hour changes!

[Col 856]

I think it would have been sensible to have called it off at midday rather than 14:30ish!

As if the forecast was going to change.

I understand why the club did so, they're not going to get the likes of Zagar, Lindgren, Lambert & Holder over for the restaging.

Thankfully I'd only got as far as Dunham Massey when I found out it was off.  Now I need to decide what to do with the ticket but until Eurosport decide what fixtures they are showing I can't do that.

Going to be late April before my first methanol fix of 2023.