Your Worst Rain-off Experiences

[proud panther 1,505]

On 3/31/2023 at 2:05 PM, Diamonds85 said:

The last couple of weeks... I really wanted to see Emil's first meeting back in this country so I booked Ipswich vs Peterborough last week (hotel booked, traveled down just for it to be called off as I was reaching Ipswich and about 10 minutes too late to cancel my premier inn... It was only being advertised that morning, surely the track must have been waterlogged all day as it wasn't really raining that much?)

I was gutted by this so I stupidly decided to book this week up as a little speedway tour (I've been missing it greatly since mid last season when the Diamonds folded )

So I planned this week...

Monday - Peterborough (on but a very delayed start with Nicki's crash, stadium issues, track issues, but was an ok meeting in the end)

Tuesday - Day in Cornwall (p!ssed it down the whole time, expected)

Wednesday - Poole (Off)/Thought about popping up to Oxford (Off)

Thursday - Leicester (Off)/King's Lynn perhaps? (Off)

Friday - Back home, across to Redcar (Off)

Can't tell that the season's just started can you? Who's betting that Berwick will be off tomorrow also 

I will point out though because I know people will have a go at me, that I know all of these meetings were cancelled for rider safety, and I completely understand that, it's the most important part of speedway... Just typical though ain't it, driest winter on record followed by the wettest March 

Is your nickname lucky by any chance lol.

[Shadders 4,134]

Rockets northern tour around 10 years ago

. 
Friday: Edinburgh, 2 heats, then rained off.

Saturday: Berwick rained off mid afternoon. 

Sunday: Glasgow. Rained off while we were en route from our base at Berwick, so we turned round and headed for Newcastle where the Bandits were racing. That was called off before we’d even got as far as Berwick.  

Edited April 5, 2023 by Shadders

[briggo 29]

World Championship Qualifying Round 1974, Swindon

I was 14 at the time, and a fanatical fan, so much so, that I used to walk from the centre of Swindon (not far from the Magic Roundabout, and the hallowed turf that is the County Ground) all the way to the Abbey and back again. A round trip of about 9 miles according to Mr Google. My morning paper round (up at 5:30 every morning) didn’t give me enough cash to get the bus and get into the Abbey stadium, so something had to give.

I seem to recall it was only drizzling when I set off, but by the time I got there it was hammering it down. Everybody, bar one fanatical fan, was under cover. I was up by the pits (on the cheap side of the Stadium, they opened a gate at half time so you could stand by the main stand), watching all the riders, warming their bikes up discussing the torrent that was submerging the track. The powers that be wanted to wait to see if the rain relented, it didn’t, and after about 30 minutes stood in isolation by the pits , it was off.
 

My thinking was that I couldn’t get any wetter than I was, so I trudged off home, with my faithful programme clipboard with me. It was homemade chip board type of thing with a big bulldog clip. All it needed was a few stickers to brighten it up I thought. So, on my way home I must have passed countless shops and off licences. As the incessant rain kept everyone indoors, I thought I would “borrow” a few stickers that these shops displayed on their outside windows. After peeling off three I thought that would justify my completely sodden attire. My clipboard looked resplendent in these new colours, although I did have to sellotape them on, as they had lost their “sticky ness”.

The other thing I got from this evening out was a severe case of man flu. Didn’t make the morning paper round all the next week and missed two days off school. So it was worth in the end……..

 

 

[TINYS 292]

18 hours ago, briggo said:

World Championship Qualifying Round 1974, Swindon

I was 14 at the time, and a fanatical fan, so much so, that I used to walk from the centre of Swindon (not far from the Magic Roundabout, and the hallowed turf that is the County Ground) all the way to the Abbey and back again. A round trip of about 9 miles according to Mr Google. My morning paper round (up at 5:30 every morning) didn’t give me enough cash to get the bus and get into the Abbey stadium, so something had to give.

I seem to recall it was only drizzling when I set off, but by the time I got there it was hammering it down. Everybody, bar one fanatical fan, was under cover. I was up by the pits (on the cheap side of the Stadium, they opened a gate at half time so you could stand by the main stand), watching all the riders, warming their bikes up discussing the torrent that was submerging the track. The powers that be wanted to wait to see if the rain relented, it didn’t, and after about 30 minutes stood in isolation by the pits , it was off.
 

My thinking was that I couldn’t get any wetter than I was, so I trudged off home, with my faithful programme clipboard with me. It was homemade chip board type of thing with a big bulldog clip. All it needed was a few stickers to brighten it up I thought. So, on my way home I must have passed countless shops and off licences. As the incessant rain kept everyone indoors, I thought I would “borrow” a few stickers that these shops displayed on their outside windows. After peeling off three I thought that would justify my completely sodden attire. My clipboard looked resplendent in these new colours, although I did have to sellotape them on, as they had lost their “sticky ness”.

The other thing I got from this evening out was a severe case of man flu. Didn’t make the morning paper round all the next week and missed two days off school. So it was worth in the end……..

 

 

Man flu, it don't get any worse than that.

[Shockster 400]

1986 and the first season of Bradford after the move from Halifax.   It was April as Kenny Carter was still with us and started with a Saturday night defeat at Cradley Heath 41-37 which was actually better than normal for the time.  We'd gone on the supporters coach and it arrived back in Bradford after 1am.  The next morning we had to be back I think for 8am as we were away at SWINDON.  It's a fair trek to Blunsdon from Bradford and was an afternoon match. If I recall correctly it started to rain as we went past birmingham and never stopped.  The coach got to SWINDON and it was off.  TBF Swindon let us in the stadium and we got a tea/cofffee from them before we set off back on the long haul back to Bradford.  A long 2 days, but we got 1 match. 

[gmarsbar2 174]

Way back before smart phones set off from just north of Glasgow at 8am to go to King's Lynn. Arrived mid afternoon, beautiful summers day, only to find out the meeting had been called off at 10am as monster trucks had wrecked the track the night before.

Thursday Swindon rained off 30 minutes before start time.

Friday Oxford rained off early.

Sunday headed home, broke down near Penrith and missed Glasgow's home meeting.

[Pinny 2,536]

Premier league fours at Peterborougn 1999. 
 

Travelled up in a minibus with a leak in the roof, was a nightmare. Didnt get rained off until we got there either. 

[Skodaman 192]

Not Rain but snow at Blackbird Road stadium: June 1976. It started to snow prior to the meeting starting and the match was abandoned.

[steve roberts 9,246]

32 minutes ago, Skodaman said:

Not Rain but snow at Blackbird Road stadium: June 1976. It started to snow prior to the meeting starting and the match was abandoned.

...okay the meeting had started at Cowley (1975) when a snow storm caused the Cradley team to walk out handing Oxford a whitewash win. John Boulger was given the name by the Oxford faithfull as "Snowflake!"

[Jonny the spud 2,281]

Ok grasstrack not speedway but …. 1994 I was racing sidecars at a meeting in a certain club in  northern Germany, (1,500 kms from my home near Bordeaux). We arrived after a near on 24 hour drive.. not a very fast van and avoiding most autoroutes to save on tolls, set up van & awning in the pits, got bike out and ready for scrutineering - set  for 6:30 pm. It was raining so the organisers delayed it an hour, then another hour, then till the next morning. ( more about that later) 

The following morning the rain had let up a little but was still coming down. Scrutineering was further delayed and we had an ominous feeling. Around 10:30 they cancelled the meeting. Bins were opened and the caterers threw away lots of food, piles of programs were dumped  and we started to pack up. 
 

I went to race control to pick up our start money. (About £600 back in the day.. it covered diesel tolls etc) and was told that as the bikes hadn’t been scrutineered the meeting hadn’t officially started, therefore no start money was paid out. 20 minutes later the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. 
 

i had to hang around for a couple of hours as Mark Loram was bringing me two new race suits from the UK, over 10,000 spectators were turned away and Loram couldn’t believe that it had been cancelled. ( I bet he got his money though!)

Another 24 hour drive home, hugely out of pocket and never raced at that club again. 

[Andy Downes 48]

About 15 years ago I was working in Saudi Arabia and I was asked if I wanted to go back to the UK for a Thursday/Friday seminar at the Sandbanks Hotel in Poole. 

Now almost every flight from the Gulf to the UK leaves in the middle of the night and arrives in London about 7:00 a.m. so for a Thursday course, i thought aha! you have to be in Poole on a Wednesday for that and what happens in Poole on a Wednesday? Speedway!I I'll do it!

Disaster struck though as for possibly the only time in their history, Poole decided to shift the meeting to Thursday for some reason - think it was a big championship meeting in Scandinavia on the Wednesday so they shifted the meeting back 24 hours so they'd get a full side out, or something similar

So not a rain off (although after being stuck in Saudi you tended to view rain as something of a novelty) but definitely a case of travelling in the hope of seeing some action - of course Thursday was out as the after seminar dinner was compulsory. 

Flew home Friday night so no chance of seeing anything anywhere else.

[Dave Goddard 356]

In 2004 I got my A level results one summer morning and had my university place confirmed, but rather than going out celebrating with everyone else, me and my family drove to Swindon for a Wolves meeting...that was being called off just as we arrived at the Abbey Stadium.

[TINYS 292]

Last season,s Kings Lynn v Sheffield when it didn't rain.

[*JJ 512]

In the late 70s, my family went to an away match at Belle Vue. Having got to the end of the motorway, the heavens opened and rain drenched down. We thought that no way is the meeting going on in this, and turned round and came home. We later discovered that the rain had somehow avoided Belle Vue and the match had gone ahead anyway!

[oleoleole 227]

Like all speedway fans I’ve experienced quite a few “rain-offs”. 

I’ve been to about 15 continental SGP’s and managed to cop all the postponed/abandoned ones; Gothenburg, Gelsenkirchen, Riga and Warsaw. Also Berlin which was a complete farce!

I also experienced the first ever England international football match to be postponed at Wembley!

England v Bulgaria (21st November 1979). From Rugby on a coach with my local football club. We got all the way to the Wembley car park only to be told that it was off due to fog! We then spent hours trying to get back out of the car park. Never got off the coach! I’ve read since that Kevin Keegan missed the replay the following day because he had to be back in Hamburg …. and no we didn’t go back down for the replay.