Halifaxtiger

Tracks are often less than ideal but riders still ride (and race) on them. Most riders, that is. Fans are being critical of one (or maybe two) for not wanting to ride here. In a case where all the others did ride - and there doesn't seem to be any suggestion that they did not want to - then they have every right to be scathing about those one (or two). Chapman does deserve his share of the blame for this farce but this simply isn't just down to him.

It was better than that, Buxton are hardly crowd pullers and Lakeside's gates have always been affected by traffic on the M25.

Totally agree, Rob, and its something I thought of when Schlein was going nuts about a wet track up at Berwick earlier this season. I am certain that everyone has a great deal of sympathy and understanding for a rider who has been seriously injured but the simple truth is tracks will never always be perfect and will occasionally be significantly less than that. If you are only going to ride when conditions are favourable you should be thinking about not riding at all,

Definitely had an effect. One of my pals was stranded in it and eventually gave up and went home. I went down through Ongar, Brentwood and Ockenden (thanks again to E I Addio) and it was amazingly clear. I didn't think it was a bad match at all, Lakeside using their home advantage to full effect by continually scooting up the inside on bend 2. The highlight was heat 8 with Locke's brawn just about seeing off Woodhull's brain. Impressed by both these lads - Woodhull hadn't been good on the Island the night before but he rode with some skill, while Locke has improved massively from 12 months ago. Morley was imperious and hard as Williamson and Knight tried they never looked beating him. Overall, not quite the beating some might have predicted - Andy Young's description of Buxton being 'dogged' was spot on.

They are. First of all, track hugely improved from that building site against Belle Vue. Some decent racing, I thought it was a good meeting. Scoreline flattered Poole. Word for Starke ss he never stoppex trying. Very solid indeed (bar Ayres) for Kings Lynn.

Speaking to Comet Dan last night the Comets planning permission conditions are pretty tight. They can't just race when they want to. I know that there have been a number of attempts to bring other clubs to Derwent Park and the promotion are conscious both of the gaps and a possible backlog of meetings. It has, however, been difficult to get anyone to come, especially on a day other than Saturday. Sounds to me like this is beyond the promotions control.

Many congratulations to Sheffield. When the chips were down, they wanted this far more than Workington with Bates, Grajczonek, Howarth & Bjerre all pulling off race winning passes in the last few heats and if Sheffield make the play offs they will look on this result as a major one. The way I saw it, Tigers had the stomach for a fight, Comets didn't. The last 4 or 5 races were pretty good (mainly thanks to Sheffield) but what we saw before that was mediocre at best. It wasn't helped by poor control of the meeting. It wasn't Workington's fault that the first 3 races took 45 minutes or that after 85 minutes we had had only 10 races (a lot of track work was undeniably necessary on a hot, windy evening) but to take an interval then was stupid. Quite simply, people had been standing around long enough. We then had the bizarre sight of spectators waiting for the off and riders at the pit gate only to be unable to start because the track staff weren't in position and there was a further delay until they were. Things then got worse as we had to have a sun break after one race. Most fans accept them, but surely Workington knew that was a possibility given the weather conditions ? What should have happened is that there was no planned interval but it was taken if and when the sun required it. People accept intervals (in many cases, very grudgingly) and sun breaks. But not both in the same meeting. I have made no secret of the fact that I have a lot of time for what Laura has tried at Derwent Park. However, you just have to avoid the unnecessary delays that took place last night.

Might have been a little more than that but not much (I was texting). Those who stayed away missed a treat. Four or five cracking races before an absolute stormer in heat 15. Easily the best race I have seen anywhere this season as four riders went hammer and tongs for four laps. Little wonder there was a bit of a clamour at the end to move meetings back to Friday night. Douglas was brilliant and Bailey hugely impressive. A word, too, for Auty who deserved more than he got. Newcastle - not for the first time this season - were disappointing and Worrall and Howarth aside offered little. Rob Godfrey isn't always everyones cup of tea but it was good to see him enjoying himself tonight. His baiting of referees is just superb. Three other points of interest : an insert programme..............at half price so no-one feels ripped off. Should be standard practice. The decision to exclude Howarth in heat 13 after he pulled a locker but did not fall, Auty laying down. Spot on. And the refusal to open the pit gate after an unsatisfactory start in heat 11. Bang on and also should be standard practice.

As far as I can see, the problem is at the bottom end - specifically the big scoring reserve. The way Scunny's team was built there was a significant reliance upon the senior reserve beating not just the oppositions reserves but also their second strings and the occasional heat leader. Rob Godfrey admitted that was how it was supposed to work due to the relative weakness of their top 5. Against Redcar, Carl Wilkinson had great difficulty even beating the Bears reserves and that was a major factor in a big defeat.

The way you saw the Barker/Auty incident was precisely how I saw it but, being on the back straight, I didn't have a good view and that was why I referred to what two of my mates saw (they were in the home straight stand). You can say that Wilkinson not being excluded would have been a fudge and I dare say a few would agree. However, in my experience when a rider runs out of room on the first - or second - bend after a start that's almost always all four back and I have no doubt that is what it should have been. Kerr definitely moved at the start (by this time I was on the home straight) but I didn't see anything wrong second time. One of the aforementioned mates definitely did, though. Ayres moving at the start, leaving the tapes stone last and the race being called back because he had moved effectively gave him another chance when he was at fault. If a rider gains advantage through moving then the race comes back. If he does not, there's no way that should happen - that's nothing less than ridiculous and Rob Godfrey was right to make comment on it.

Harsh. Even if you allow that the decision to exclude Auty was correct - and a couple of my mates on the home straight said it most certainly was not - Scunny very much got the sharp end of some poor refereeing yesterday, and that was without the injury to Aarnio and the bike problems suffered by Kerr & Palm Toft. As far as I was concerned, I agreed with everything Rob said.

Barker team riding Perks got Redcar two 5-1's today.

Had to have a bit of sympathy for Scunny today because almost everything that could go wrong did. Blown engines, injuries, poor refereeing, the lot. That's not to say that Redcar didn't deserve to win. They did. I am still wondering how Barker & Auty got up so quickly after that awful high speed crash in heat 12. Pity the home announcer (not Messrs Godfrey or Tagg) commented only on how good it was to see that Auty was OK . Most (if not all) speedway fans are very happy to see any rider get up after a fall, particularly one as bad as that. Not a bad meeting, but the racing at Scunny hasn't hit the heights of 2016 in my visits this season.

Lets hope so. Even if two teams are far better than the others, there could still have been some racing.

I think that is par for the course. I know Workington let season ticket holders in on Saturday for nothing even though they would usually pay.

To me, putting on a decent show on track is far more important than a full house in the stadium.

Of course it was to do with the track. It was bloody awful. As to children, I suppose that might refer to Dan Bewley (although its a nonsense to suggest that Bewley wasn't competitive), Jack Smith and James Shanes. What about the other 10 ? When I first went to speedway in 1982, Wimbledon had Dave Jessup, Malcolm Simmons and..................Alan Mogridge. The next season they had a child called Kelvin Tatum. Its always been like that. I doubt if there are many who would disagree that there is a degree of complacency within the sport but that had nothing whatsoever to do with just how poor that meeting was.

I think its harsh, too. From the Isle of Wight facebook page, so does Barry Bishop. But its also the right decision. The Warriors simply cannot carry on the way they are now and desperately need a stronger team, particularly at home. Standing in the promotions shoes, I doubt there are many who wouldn't have done the same thing.

In my experience, most riders do indeed get the amount of time they need after a fall.

Class act. Much missed at Belle Vue.

​Dead right. Its all very well pointing to being hard done by in heat 15 (and I think Workington were and it is likely that Tony Jackson's view of events is what happened) but there has to be an acceptance that the performances of most of the Comets simply weren't good enough. Cook deserved longer than he got. After all, we'd already been waiting for 3 hours - which was almost entirely the fault of the Newcastle promotion - so a little longer wouldn't have mattered. Indeed, its entirely possible that Cook & Jorgensen got less time than the Diamonds riders when they were neither injured nor had damaged their bikes but simply had two rides on the trot. If there was such a directive to referee's at the start of the season, in my view few of them are complying with it and one of them who most certainly was not was Stuart Wilson last night. Given the ridiculous amount of time that had elapsed, he should have had the two minutes on as soon as one race was finished (where possible) and he should have refused permission for the constant track grading in later heats. Absolutely unnecessary, and if Newcastle had made as much effort with preparation prior to the start we might not have had a dangerous track that left 2 riders requiring hospital treatment and a 3 hour meeting.

Get it right in the first place, perhaps ? I tend to agree. A close finish and some decent racing was destroyed by how long we were standing around waiting for the track to be fixed after Lambert fell, then a ridiculous amount of tractor grading after that (it might be me, but didn't the referee at one stage order them off the track ?) and the tapes malfunctions. 3 hours is just not on. A bit of both, I thought. It seemed to me that he simply didn't get enough time after falling in heat 15 and spit his dummy out by making no attempt whatsoever to comply with the two minutes warning. While I have no time for the latter, I can sympathise with the former. The amount of time allowed on occasions when the Diamonds had two rides on the trot seemed to be a lot longer (partly because the tractors came out on almost every single occasion) and he should have had more time. No doubt the referee thought that 3 hours was enough, but he has to take part of the blame because there was little urgency in the later stages of the meeting. Whatever the case, all credit to the Diamonds on their win and on pulling back that deficit. Workington (Cook aside) were poor. Proctor managed to beat Greenwood and Hopwood only, Williamson was a shadow of the rider from the afternoon and both Campton and Jorgensen managed to throw away points.

Good meeting Some very decent racing, partly due to some excellent work by the track staff on a windy day. No dust, no blue line and no ridiculously long or constant tractor racing. Cook never looked like being beaten, Williamson was as good as I have seen him and Jorgensen's ride in heat 13 was out of the top drawer. Get Sarjeant going and Comets will be a real handful. Lindgren, Rose and Lambert were all competitive but Worrall was poor. Nobody should doubt Lambert's ability but doing wheelies when you are stone last won't win you anyone's appreciation and, young as he is, he'll know that.

Thing is what sort of reaction are you going to get. I did this once and got a mouthful of abuse, and that's not exactly unheard of. In addition, almost any feedback is valuable to a business so it should be taken for granted that the King's Lynn promotion actually read this and any other forum connected with their club. Any operation that ignores the views of their paying customers gets what it deserves. True, there is some rubbish on here (and elsewhere) but its not difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. Good to see you're not lost altogether. To me, its more damning if one of your fans up sticks and goes elsewhere rather than quits totally. One suggests you love speedway but not that served up by a certain club, the other says you have had enough completely. The former is a bad reflection on a team but a good reflection on the sport. In truth, I think I have seen 35 matches now and I haven't seen an outstanding one anywhere. Some have been good, most have been OK and one or two have been rubbish, but I don't think I have used the words 'fantastic meeting' at any point.

Peterborough is definitely one of the better race tracks but that's not 'standard stuff' when I have been there. Checking over the last three meetings on BSF threads and proboards there's not much to suggest that anyone else thinks that either and this chap definitely doesn't : 'Not at 5pm on a hot Sunday it isn't. It'll soon be a one line gating competition'.