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Diane Abbott

Can I say that you are all entitled to your opinion of dogs and their owners treatment of them? All I would say about my attendance at speedway meetings with my faithful friend is this. I am a responsible owner. Lenny remains on a lead at all times at meetings. Should he disgrace himself (God forbid) I always (N.B. ALWAYS) pick up. And he doesn't bark or detract from the entertainment in any way. The only time that other fans take note of his presence is to come and say hello and enjoy his happy response to their attention. He, therefore, in my opinion, only adds to the occasion and in no way upsets anyone or imposes his attentions on anyone. If it were in any way different I would not bring him. I make no apology for wanting to bring Lenny to meetings and we both enjoy each other's company. The way our adopted team is going this season, if I choose to stay away I think Lenny would leave me at home. Lenny's a nicer bloke than some so called fans that I've met and he is certainly better behaved than a small minority of children at meetings I've been to. Lenny is a light brown Greyhound cross. I'm conspicuous by my Bees coat and hat. Feel free to come and meet us at meetings at any time and debate the wisdom of my bringing him with me.

Let's just go and win at Armadale and let others worry about the maths

2 hours is not enough for young riders to learn their trade. There are always going to be crashes and mishaps. I can't relax and enjoy the meeting with the curfew hanging over me. A second ambulance would reduce some of the delays and should be looked at by the management. You have to give the punters what they have paid for. You wouldn't go for a three course meal and miss out on the dessert!

so Adams average will revert to a rolling average so presumably his average will go down by about a point and a bit . This Double change should improve us by around 5 points a meeting and a real chance of winning heats 1,13 and 15. Kyle and tobias had averaged 5 and 1.6 per meeting so 6.6 combined. Adam and Nathan should average between 11-12 points combined . Enough now to nick a few home meetings hopefully.

The build up of deep shale on the second bend exit coupled to the narrow straight is a problem to mainly the inexsperienced young riders,of which there are several at kent ,,this needs to be addressed now before there is a considerable exit of fans due to the crazy short curfew ,,15 pound as well ,,,is too much for national league speedway with no senior citizen consessions...You can hardly understand the announcer in the stand,,the presentation should be much slicker ...The ref Cris Gay holds the tapes to long and always causes lots of starting problems that also eat up the time.....It all needs sorting,,this is of course only my opinion.......

The bank holiday afternoon curfew is a new one on me. It has never been enforced prior to this season. The farcical events of two weeks ago stopped me going today, i took up Swindon's offer of £9 admission instead. Far too many meetings at Kent don't go the full distance and fans should be compensated when they don't.

Well I'm back on the track Staff now and am not at all impressed by having to re build the back straight fence every other heat. Almost entirely due to the track cambers which take the riders into the fence, totally wrong. If this is not rectified many more meetings will be cut short without a doubt and paying the extra pound this season to spectate is asking too much, thank god the club never moved up to the Championship, laughing stock would be an understatement.

When you have only 2 hours to complete the meeting every minute counts and you need to keep on top of this from the start to the finish. Yesterday the riders had been introduced and paraded and the first race could have started bang on 4pm. Instead someone sent out 3 juniors to trundle around the track waisting valuable racing time. Keep this for during the interval of after the meeting if you find you have the time, it's just a little bonus If you can afford to include it.

Don’t think fans would grudge any rider “ good money” but the reality for a lot of clubs is that attendances don’t see to be getting any better,and Birmingham seem to be one of these clubs,so the poster has a point IMO.Speedway riders don’t disclose their earnings( fair enough) so fans can only speculate.

Great comeback by Poole. Top of the league!

Me and my wife watching on tv was amazed at rosco comment what a prat he is sometimes

It wasn’t just a poor decision it was diabolical and quite rightly the BT panel condemned it unanimously, Rosco of course as usual saw it to his advantage so didn’t find anything wrong with it but from a racing point it of view it was ridiculous. It really is about time that the TV matches are refereed by the best referees, what made it worse was I thought I saw Tony Steele in the pits who I assumed was the second SCB official, if it was he should have been on the button.

I've attended well over 70 meetings at kent, so I'm a paying customer and entitled to an opinion. Why during the enforced breaks isn't the track graded and watered. Surely this would benefit the younger riders to have a consistant surface to race on. You only have to listen to the sarcastic cheers in the main stand every time the tractor makes a rare appearance. With so few venues in the South East, it's not so easy to take it or leave it.

Very poor decision by the referee .strange that rosco thought it was right .just think if it went against rosco he would have lost his rag

Somebody plz shoot down that drone awful to watch from the sky, not a good advert for the sport delays gardening more delays a poor decision by the ref to award a race all in all a poor first meeting for " bt".

Almost on a par with Paulco then.....!!!!.....

If Harris and KP rode to their averages Ipswich would have won by more Its all ifs buts and maybes

Considering that the glass was full and people were having good time on Dec 20 compared to now when running at all seems to be the usual plus point and the regular closure threat is used to counteract dissent then I'd say that it's a half measure in a pint glass however you want to cut it

The club needs to survive ....

Another way of looking at it is that the Edinburgh v tigers rain off could delay the rest of the competition. We all know what happened last year.its not Glasgow fault that the Edinburgh match was rained off so Glasgow should not suffer if the bspa bring in a deadline for the match to be completed. Somerset average 2.25 from there 4 meetings and Glasgow are averaging 2.4 from there 5 meetings. So if Edinburgh can't fit the match in or it gets rained off again Glasgow should be included as the best runner up

If he replaced Lambert it would be a miracle as Lambert is the U21 rider

Central Park has far too many meetings that are curtailed.This is one of the reasons I do not like NL....young riders making mistakes,maybe track not too good etc etc.It all adds up to delay after delay.And the fact that Kent increased admission prices for people just to stand around with nothing happening is just wrong.There was a lot of delays last season and this hardly encourages people to go.

Well after yesterday he won't be getting my little help as often. If you're going to charge top dollar you need to at least give the customer all 15 heats!

You are well aware, I am sure, that at none of Buster's tracks such foul language as "official attendance figures" is permitted. £10 in the swear box please.

Do you know? I don't care what we're talking about. Those 2 sentences are more telling than anything I've read on here in a long time, maybe since I joined the forum in 2001. Yes 2001. When we debated sensibly about tracks, riders even Norbold's Hole. I'm heartened by your contribution. There's hope.

Maybe I'm getting old (no maybe about it David) but I can't differentiate between the white and yellow helmets this year

Ryan Fisher for me would be a good signing. Gives it his all in every race.

grateful for BT coverage but the view of race starts from a camera 200 feet above the ground is awful.

Wow,,, Harris is erm,,,,,,, let's put it politely,,,,,, under performing. And I don't care if he isn't fit,,,, if not fit don't ride,, simple

Was nice to meet you too THJ , I take back my slagging you off on the Worky page last season, you're not a bad bloke really

Nope. He lost it before all that kicked off, so I heard anyway

So you think having a good track to race on is all about having lots of material on the track?

Most Clubs have another day they can use if required.We only have half the fixtures these days and we still struggle to complete fixtures(only in speedway)

Aaaaand someone brings up money. It only took a couple of hours. Last time Adam rode there I heard stories about the money he was allegedly being paid. He was actually getting half of what I was told. Gotta love a bit of gossip

Crowds will need to improve as dire so far and this must be a gamble as Ellis will want decent money, hope and pray it comes off as if not situation is dire. I agree about averages , back to simple one average per League no fiddling just keep it simple points and bonus divided by rides.

These are good changes and will improve our team no end. Feel sorry for Thomsen, he will come good in a few years time I'm sure. As we haven't started our home league meetings yet, I hope the crowds improve a little too! I don't know about anybody else, but the way the averages work annoy me more than the guest system...

All TV matches are on Thursday`s which is an additional night for Sweden this season- i did mention it in the OP

I was surprised Ellis wasn't in heat 15, but maybe it was felt he might twitch at the start under pressure? Having said that, though, Tobi was in instead and he is the other one who has been moving a lot at the start too. Rosco was a bit chirpy at the after meeting press conference, calling them both "pillocks" for moving and nearly costing Swindon the meeting!

Like watching paint dry, track started like it had already had a meeting on it, VFM not.

You mean lay downs that have been around for nigh on 30 years ?

I don't know the in's and out 's of that. As a stat nerd, Rohan averaged 4.67 tonight. But before you jump on me, I thought he did okay. Charles Wright is a rider I've rated for a while and paid 18 is outstanding. BWD just does what BWD does; he surprises you. Analyse this properly. Peterborough scored 14 paid 15 from reserve against Swindon's 4 paid 6. Peterborough scored 8 from their RR number 2. You can't look further than the No.1 to see why you mathematically lost this meeting. And again, don't leap on me. Hans obviously had his mechanical problems. Having said that, I'm not sure about heat 13. He may have been having problems but he clearly released the clutch lever and hit the tapes as a result.

That's correct long way but getting all important track time,Kieran Douglas was riding no 8 for Plymouth at Mildenhall another long journey

I thought I heard that young Freddie had come up from St Albans in Hertfordshire, close to my old stomping ground. Amazing how the parents of these young boys sacrifice so much for their kids. I’ve done that journey many times and it’s not pleasant.

Bjerre is struggling at present as a Championship heat leader riding at 3, his scores have been average at best, he should of started at reserve for Peterborough was thrust into a second string role with the Cook issue, now having struggled in that spot finds himself as third in the averages all on the back of his scores two years ago this can only happen in speedway and its wacky ways with averages

That’s the trouble with the sport these days ,the more successful you are the more money you lose.Catch22.

He won't be out that long.. Tough as old boots these speedway riders.

They were the days when the 2nd division was quality - we were spoiled with a great racetrack and watching a quality team of racers too. Add Charles Wright and Alex Davies to the riders you’ve named too. Quality entertainment week in week out. You’re right on that last point too - where I stood there used to be a group of 10 or more I expect and it used to be crammed for space. Last year it was just me and Willowman.

I agree the gap is huge,it's certainly killed off any promotion and relegation, remember that ? I remember a few seasons back (,before i stopped going 5 or 6 years ago) when Rebels were in the second division, the current Poole side would have been a second division side, we had Nick Morris, Josh G, and Doyle, now you are paying more for a lot less with a 38 point limit. At the end of season with the team average risen to 45 or more and riders on a false average compared to their ability, you will weaken it further the following season.I wonder how many pensioners still go with no OAP discount? When i last attended, apart from Najjer all the people i used to see an stand with 20 or even 10 years ago no longer attended, and they can't all be dead. very sad !

Alan Sage rode for West Ham at the back end of 1970, moved to Ipswich in 1972 and then to Crayford in 1975. From his first appearance for West Ham in 1970 until 22 July 1979, Sage did not miss one single official fixture, riding in 327 consecutive matches. A quite remarkable record. His run came to an end when he broke his leg guesting for Canterbury.