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Went there many times. Always looked forward to that weekend despite the dodgy surfaces they had to race on. The buzz in the City before the meeting won’t be captured again.

https://ipswichwitches.co/king-tobi-getting-back-to-his-best/ Jake Mulford, originally booked to guest for Ipswich in this meeting, now guests for Sheffield instead 😂 Rider replacement for Chris Holder also.

With having 3 weeks between home matches, and early call offs more people will get out of the habit

Kings Lynn is what you get if you order Poole from Temu (Also trophies not included)

Speedway at Cardiff felt like a big event, a spectacle. Speedway at Belle Vue feels like another meeting. Manchester will never replicate the roar when Harris passed Hancock on the final bend.

ridiculous being called off this early.

Andrew Chisholm is in charge of the day to day running of the club, not Coleman who has his hands full elsewhere. Chisholm and Hurry put the team together, and decide on team matters, that was confirmed before the season started. I’m not quite getting this overreaction either. It’s all explained in yesterday’s article. They planned to use Kennett while the uncertainty around Bangs continued. They were less than impressed when a scheduled practice session after Thursdays meeting didn’t materialise when Kennett didn’t bother turning up so quite rightly binned the idea. They then booked Mulford as a guest for Thursdays meeting under the impression that Bangs would still be unavailable. That changed literally yesterday when Bangs himself is quoted as saying he only received the paperwork from Doctors to resume racing yesterday I have been working really, really hard to get some papers from the doctors to allow me to get started as soon as possible. I got that today, and now I am ready.” What have they actually done wrong here? I agree it’s an unusual set of circumstances, but circumstance it is. People are being overly critical and typical of this forum, overreacting to trivial matters.

Interested to know why you feel his statement was stupid - having read his comments in full he was addressing the entire issue of meeting postponements / rain offs and the habit of postponing things perhaps on a whim. I was at the aborted BV match and I personally felt the track would and could be ridden - the bikes never warmed up and not one rider either offered or was asked to test the track, or at least not one bike even rode a lap to test things. - came away feeling not enough had been done on that one! The annoucement said they were going to scrape off the surface and then after some token efforst the annoucement was its off!! He was really alluding to was a lack of professionalism and consistency - he cited that in almost 200 SGP etc events they had only 2 rain offs. If the sport is to be taken seriously and thrive which is, i think what we all want, then somehow things like this needs addressing. Yes there is perhaps a element of the (naive) newbie having a say and perhaps ruffling a few feathers etc but, in part his comments were perhaps aimed at both promoters and riders. If things don't get more professional / improve etc etc blah blah waffle piffle and Mayfield decided to say exit speedway in 2031 etc everyone will be back about missed opportunities and why won't the big money men touch our little sport! The change (largely in attitude) has to start somewhere!

I miss it, it brought a different demographic to Speedway a younger and often female demographic that you just tended not to see at league Speedway, some of these were foreign but a lot seemed to be British. I know of people with little to no interest in Speedway who used to attend from Leicester, so there must have been others. As league Speedway is followed by an older, more male demographic, a lot of who arent interested in actually having a good time socially or enjoying the atmosphere that a big crowd generates and only interested in "the racing" and filling their programmes in before a race is complete and standing there in stoney faced silence offering no applause when a rider comes round and acknowledges the crowd... when they stopped going it only left "the normals" and that just wasn't enough to sustain it. (Controversial, sorry if that's you). It's done the sport as much damage as the loss of Wembley did back in the 80's and it's going to take some coming back from. I went to every one and enjoyed every experience I had... even the ones with crap racing. I only stayed over twice, never in Cardiff, never went just to get p155ed up, never paid more than £30 for a ticket after year one and just had a cheap maccies to keep the costs down. With the 14 odd tracks we currently have running today it's difficult to see how the British Speedway showpiece event can attract a crowd of more than 6,500 ever again in the current setup.

It wasn’t a great occasion. Dodgy tracks, rip-off hotels, public transport awful and roadworks. Wembley knew how to deal with 90k fans. Tube trains lined up, coaches given parking space. Cardiff struggled with 30k fans. Cardiff was OK for those who wanted to be on the squirt but sadly fell short in other key areas.

Once again speedway in Britain has backed itself into a corner. Fixed race nights ( whether you agree or disagree) will contribute to the death of the sport in the UK. Already we have a pile of fixtures stacking up with limited dates on which to stage them. If the top flight promoters won't deal or cannot deal with the problem, then quite frankly the sport deserves to die on its arse!

What this early. The forecast could change by then. Way to early, that shouldn't be allowed. Buster has a lot to answer for

I went to every Cardiff gp too and I miss it very much. It was an occasion and a big event, now it is great racing on a great racetrack but a lot less people see it live.

Any business, regardless of industry, cannot hope to succeed when your "opening hours" aren't regular... Expecting your customers to have to constantly check when you are open, rather than just knowing due to consistent opening is asking, and expecting, a lot...

My god is it any wonder that no one (other than the Fords) can make a quid out of the sport how are you expected to hold onto a fan base with a month and half between home match's.

Cardiff was a great occasion and the last gp held there was pretty good racing wise, the year before was awful though and that is probably what killed it although I thought they pulled the plug too soon. Nothing wrong with transport, plenty of trains and buses. You didn't have to book an expensive hotel, we always stayed locally, last time was Caerphilly 30 mins on the train.

If you saw the track at 1pm you would see why it was called off

Can't do anything about the weather and the track is waterlogged but I think the negative comments (Myself included) are mostly driven from the whole fiasco surrounding this meeting in regards to the Hellstrom-Bangs situation. Ed Kennett signs, Ed Kennett unsigned, Mulford guests for Ipswich against Sheffield, Bangs returns for Ipswich in place of Mulford, Mulford then guests for Sheffield against Ipswich.

Quite evident glasgow made a big mistake letting perry go and keeping hodder. Max is a steal on that average

Buster has just postponed Ipswich vs Sheffield now too! You couldn’t write it 🙄 he’s ruining the sport ffs

No fan at Glasgow ever slated Max Perry, we all acknowledged his effort, even when he didn't gate and most fans wanted him back.

Will be interesting to see if this thread gets the same hour by hour analysis of the latest forecasts as the Lynn thread did on Monday, or was that just special treatment because people don't like Buster ? I assume the Ipswich fans who were all over it, despite the meeting not involving them, will be equally critical of their own team if the forecast rain doesn't arrive. 😉

At least with the postponement, It saves everyone from further embarrassment.

I,m hoping it will be over by christmas as it can get a little chilly that time of year.

This six team league is going to run until the end of October isnt it?

didnt coleman slate teams for calling off matches to early 🤣

Why would Manchester be different to anywhere else? Check the number of 'rain offs' at the NSS far fewer than at most tracks.

20-25k might come but that would still be half of what Cardiff was getting near its peak from what Mike has said it seems to me the current business model is go for a much smaller crowd of 5-6k over two nights but apply the maximum soak you can get away with when it comes to prices.

No Brakes

its our age..

There seems to be a mistake with the title of this thread......

That's probably it in a nutshell - and I don't think the promoters did enough to try to retain those people (I'm one of them) - and, without them, the event became unviable

Well, there's ckall else to do with every speedway match in the country being called off this week, when they mostly could have been run with some effort from those involved.

We had absolutely biblical rain in Leicester for over an hour during the night before the Sheffield match last week yet the track was dusty after a couple of races, yes we did have 30 degree temps during that day but with the wind we're having at the moment and around 15 hours of daylight I do feel this was a bit of a premature postponement. When you've sat and watched a GP qualifier from Glasgow at the weekend being ridden, often in driving rain, on a wet track you have to wonder why Ippo meetings get called off so easily... like the BV match the other week! Have the Foxhole drainage problems resurfaced?

Kind of disagree because it completely depends on the situation and how much rain has already fallen, and how much is forecast. Some clubs DO postpone way too early on the strength of a forecast that has a few “possible showers” in 24 hours time. I’m sorry but you can’t be calling off meetings on the back of a few possible showers being forecast more than 24 hours before a meeting. If everyone started doing that then nearly all meetings would be getting postponed. I think that was his point.

Is that 2026 or 2027?

Or, seemingly, Kings Lynn... Or Ipswich.... Or Northampton... Or (insert name as and when required)..

This is definitely getting a pussy sport

Probably - I reckon it must be something to do with the Lynn fence

And you all complain when other clubs have an early call off 🤔

Cheers.

Plans for An Evening with Stoney & Nick The Lip We have been in talks since yesterday with WCSSC and because of your generosity on Saturday evening whilst promoting our trip around Europe in a car for under £500 which was a phenominal response, we are going to thank you and pay back. We have agreed on the 27th June 2026 @thewaverleyhotel 1930hrs start time after young Jay Cartmells Memorial meeting at Northside earlier in the day 1500hrs, that we will have an evening with 'Stoney and Nick The Lip'. Talking about the upcoming rally and any questions you want to throw at us about anything. Further details will be anounced by the WCSSC very shortly. Once again. Thank you Workington. You have done us proud. X

the Saturday forecast looks a bit iffy...risk of staging it in Manchester

What a difference a week makes, red hot this time last week

Book parking when you book your ticket. Saves a lot of hassle

Always respect your views Mike as you have said previously there are ten's of thousands of lapsed fans of which I am one. I used to live near Lynn so in my late teens I could drive to Saddlebow in ten minutes and then be in the stadium, now I live about an hour and quarter drive away so roughly two and half hour round trip on a school night. I should be able to semi retire at sixty in three years time so might go a few times then but its the usual things that put me off, £25 (I'm guessing to get in now), track seems to have a bad rep these days against mid 80's early 90's when it produced great racing, plus likely guest fest and r/r as well throw on top probably £20 for fuel and another £20 for a dubious burger and a flat pint and your looking at getting on for a £75-£80 verses staying in and watching something of choice on 100 plus Sky channels. Its ever tougher for the sport to attract peoples dollar not just speedway but pubs and nightclubs decimated over the last 20-25 years and look like they are never coming back sadly. As I say to my to lads "in my day you had to go out and find a woman none of this online stuff, my generation had to take ---- off to the face" but great time also pre-mobiles and internet. Its a shame as the last four races of the world cup held in Poland when Poland just beat the UK were some of the best racing I've seen for years so it shows the sport can still be every bit as good as it was in the 80's and 90's.

quite a few contributors seem to be trolling the forum for some reason...over the winter there was too little comms. now its too much. i welcome the more regular developments. at least it shows we are being proactive in managing the team

I blame El Nino (and Poole, of course) 😁

I don't want to get controversial - but I will. I think a big part of Speedway's problems started with the Laydown Engines, and the 4-Valve bikes used in the 70's. It started the free for all with the Engine Tuners. Spiralling costs due to Engine Tuning etc. contributed to increasing the price at the gate, thus taking the Sport out of reach of very many people. Costs became prohibitive crowds grew smaller and smaller. This is where we find ourselves now. There is no doubt in my mind that the old 2-Valve was cheaper to run, safer for the riders, and no real advancement has been shown on the Track. The 2-Valve may have been fractions slower but, what we gained in speed, we also gained in injuries. Tracks built for Speedway nowadays can't cope with the the new 'rocket ships' that riders are using at the moment, hence the big increase in injuries. Tracks haven't changed much since 1928 - but the bikes have. THAT to me is a problem also. I don't believe that the GP System has done British Speedway any good either. Personally, I much preferred the old 'one off' World Final.

The fans have been doing this on Live Updates for over 20 years!! And it was started by Ipswich’s very own Crazy Sue. At one time she received a call from the Proboards CEO to say that Live updates was their busiest forum! Also, I know that in the bad old days of the BSPA’s premium rate dial-up results service, the guy who recorded it would use Live Updates because it had more details, and was often quicker than waiting for someone to call from a track. The obvious bonus with Live Updates is that you can chat during the meeting.