Leicester vs King’s Lynn - Thursday 21st March

[iainb 5,017]

3 minutes ago, marko said:

it’s the same old, same old, tracks poorly prepared 

There was nothing wrong with the track, you'll probably see that when hopefully we'll see Tarasenko's heat 13 ride on socials later today!

[iainb 5,017]

6 minutes ago, marko said:

Those who try to cover our sport in the best light it can be are being buried by those in charge

You're doing a pretty good job of burying it yourself, having not seen it and just going on an anecdotal post on here!

[Skodaman 192]

50 minutes ago, bigcatdiary said:

I watched it courtesy of BSN who I am pleased to say again made a very decent show of it.

The track was dreadful, the starting area was just ridiculous, gate four was so good nearly everyone won from it, you could count the number of genuine passes on one hand and gate 2 was as bad as gate 4 was good.

Clearly both teams were suffering from match practice and it was close so it kept the meeting watchable.

The Referee “Dave Watters” had three decisions to make all night and cocked them all up big time, the first when Kemp totally locked up and was collected by Thompson in heat 2 was frankly embarrassing, how on earth that wasn’t Kemp excluded, Thompson awarded second and Wojdylo third is anyone’s guess.

Then we had the starting gate pole left out on track in heat 3 when it clearly obstructed Palm Toft, my understanding is these are not allowed any more, so that was missed by the start Marshall and the referee who both should have known that. Interestingly it wasn’t used again after that.

And the third cock up was Kemp hitting the tapes in heat 14 which should have resulted in his exclusion but again the referee did nothing.

BSN announced a FIM referee was also watching near the booth and was approached for his comments but declined to comment, I bet he did.
 

Clearly the previous days weather didn’t help track preparation but why isn’t this track ever a decent racing strip which allows some kind of passing and close racing, despite many years and quite a few changes.

I was also surprised that their didn’t appear to be too many watching for the first match of the season.

He didnt lock up as such; he lost his chain.

[Bagpuss 10,780]

 

[FishersGate 522]

After looking back and doing some research there certainly was a few dodgy decisions by the ref that went against both teams. The track was a weird one really, gate 4 was making it the heats to predictable which was a real shame but it was also refreshing not to see the tractor out every 3 heats. I think the score was a fair assessment of the both sides. I'm happy as like SD said, just win the meeting..and we did, so I went home happy. 

[bigcatdiary 3,165]

4 minutes ago, FishersGate said:

After looking back and doing some research there certainly was a few dodgy decisions by the ref that went against both teams. The track was a weird one really, gate 4 was making it the heats to predictable which was a real shame but it was also refreshing not to see the tractor out every 3 heats. I think the score was a fair assessment of the both sides. I'm happy as like SD said, just win the meeting..and we did, so I went home happy. 

They were all shocking decisions by someone who has been a referee for years, basic errors that shouldn’t happen.

And yet as someone mentioned we had two grading breaks when no grading was done, gate 4 was a shocking advantage whilst gate 2 was dreadful, this matter needed sorting out early doors, they did nothing which unfortunately made racing in the first half generally from the gate and very predictable.

[FishersGate 522]

Just now, bigcatdiary said:

They were all shocking decisions by someone who has been a referee for years, basic errors that shouldn’t happen.

And yet as someone mentioned we had two grading breaks when no grading was done, gate 4 was a shocking advantage whilst gate 2 was dreadful, this matter needed sorting out early doors, they did nothing which unfortunately made racing in the first half generally from the gate and very predictable.

That's my only issue with last night, the track. Apart from tarasenko no one else looked like passing. It looked like from where I was standing the camber has been levelled off slightly,  so no more of that sling shot back into straights anymore. Gate 4 does need sorting, think someone said 12 heats were won from there! 

[False dawn 2,298]

27 minutes ago, FishersGate said:

That's my only issue with last night, the track. Apart from tarasenko no one else looked like passing. It looked like from where I was standing the camber has been levelled off slightly,  so no more of that sling shot back into straights anymore. Gate 4 does need sorting, think someone said 12 heats were won from there! 

That is correct.
I hate to bang on about my own favourite gripe, but the only chance of dealing with "uneven" gates during a meeting is men with rakes.

Edited March 22 by False dawn

[False dawn 2,298]

27 minutes ago, FishersGate said:

That's my only issue with last night, the track. Apart from tarasenko no one else looked like passing. It looked like from where I was standing the camber has been levelled off slightly,  so no more of that sling shot back into straights anymore. Gate 4 does need sorting, think someone said 12 heats were won from there! 

I think it's a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. The track was clearly well packed with little loose shale. Standard practice when the weather is wet and unpredictable. Put more shale on and it rains and it quickly turns into a quagmire. 

Edited March 22 by False dawn

[False dawn 2,298]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the real source of entertainment. That being the two minute clock. You'd have thought they would have checked it worked correctly prior to the meeting. Repeated attempts to get it stop from starting at 3 minutes were successful late on only for it to then to insist on starting from 40 seconds.

Ironically, I felt the meeting did actually move along quite well.

[Mick Bratley 474]

17 minutes ago, False dawn said:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the real source of entertainment. That being the two minute clock. You'd have thought they would have checked it worked correctly prior to the meeting. Repeated attempts to get it stop from starting at 3 minutes were successful late on only for it to then to insist on starting from 40 seconds.

Ironically, I felt the meeting did actually move along quite well.

Not just me then. Kept me amused all night. Not the brightest idea having a red display either.

[GeneralMelchett 482]

17 minutes ago, Mick Bratley said:

Not just me then. Kept me amused all night. Not the brightest idea having a red display either.

The one at Ipswich seems to be placed so when viewing from the 2nd bend grandstand and someone is stood partially in the way of the clock ive mistaken it for a red light on more than one occasion.

Still bespite the doom and gloom there is a lot to be hopeful about - the season launch event looked good to me and both Ipswich and Oxford seemed to have good crowds last night and the season seems that it will be fairly evenly contested based on results so far - I am not sure if Ipswich picked up any Panthers - I did see one Pathers jacket last night at Foxhall - lets hope a Peterborough solution is found. I passed Alwalton turn off on the A1 on Wednesday and i did think - such a shame that the EoES has gone!

Edited March 22 by GeneralMelchett

[therefused 819]

16 minutes ago, Mick Bratley said:

Not just me then. Kept me amused all night. Not the brightest idea having a red display either.

I thought that, when standing on bend four I thought the red lights kept coming on every race. 

[bigcatdiary 3,165]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

There was nothing wrong with the track, you'll probably see that when hopefully we'll see Tarasenko's heat 13 ride on socials later today!

What apart from the uneven gates all night and very little racing or passing.

Yes brilliant, that and a totally incompetent referee, yeah superb entertainment, fans will be flocking back.

 

[IronScorpion 1,407]

3 hours ago, bigcatdiary said:

I watched it courtesy of BSN who I am pleased to say again made a very decent show of it.

The track was dreadful, the starting area was just ridiculous, gate four was so good nearly everyone won from it, you could count the number of genuine passes on one hand and gate 2 was as bad as gate 4 was good.

Clearly both teams were suffering from match practice and it was close so it kept the meeting watchable.

The Referee “Dave Watters” had three decisions to make all night and cocked them all up big time, the first when Kemp totally locked up and was collected by Thompson in heat 2 was frankly embarrassing, how on earth that wasn’t Kemp excluded, Thompson awarded second and Wojdylo third is anyone’s guess.

Then we had the starting gate pole left out on track in heat 3 when it clearly obstructed Palm Toft, my understanding is these are not allowed any more, so that was missed by the start Marshall and the referee who both should have known that. Interestingly it wasn’t used again after that.

And the third cock up was Kemp hitting the tapes in heat 14 which should have resulted in his exclusion but again the referee did nothing.

BSN announced a FIM referee was also watching near the booth and was approached for his comments but declined to comment, I bet he did.
 

Clearly the previous days weather didn’t help track preparation but why isn’t this track ever a decent racing strip which allows some kind of passing and close racing, despite many years and quite a few changes.

I was also surprised that their didn’t appear to be too many watching for the first match of the season.

Where is W9 Lion when you need a clarification?