NeilWatson

More information about the Rye House meeting should be available later today.

If I was Neil Waston I might have been offended by the comment :-)

Darcy Ward merchandise will be available!

A summary of the 'admin' information for tonight: COVENTRY are building up to their biggest match of the season at Brandon tonight (8pm) - as they face Poole in the Elite League play-off semi-final. The Buildbase Bees had a major injury scare last weekend when skipper Chris Harris crashed heavily in Poland, but after treatment during the week he has been declared fit to race. Bees also have Freddie Lindgren guesting for the injured Joonas Kylmakorpi, whilst the Pirates arrive with a full-strength line-up in the clash of the top two teams from the regular campaign - and a repeat of last year’s Final. Tonight’s first leg tie was initially set to take place on Monday before being put back due to the weather - and conditions are now set fair with a good forecast for Friday. Start-time is 8pm, with gates opening at 6pm. Admission prices: £20 adults, £15 concessions, £5 children (11-16), under-11s free. Programme (24 pages) £2.50. NB. Adult and concession admission prices will be discounted by £5 on production of a re-admission ticket from the Coventry v Lakeside fixture from Wednesday September 9. Season tickets are valid. Pre-meeting, there will be some members of the Coventry Storm team present with their bikes for photo opportunities with the kids (or adults!). In addition, Harris has launched a competition to design his 2016 liveries (http://coventrybees.co/news.php?extend.3353) and memorabilia gifts will be available for designs received outside the Track Shop with Bomber at 6.30pm tonight. Bookings for coach travel to the second leg at Poole on Monday can be made at the BOSS kiosk this evening.

COVENTRY captain Chris Harris will race in Friday’s crucial Elite League play-off semi-final against Poole at Brandon (8pm). The Buildbase Bees have been sweating on the fitness of their inspirational skipper since he was involved in an horrific crash in Poland last weekend. But after extensive treatment during the week, Harris is all set to take his place at No.1 in the line-up as Bees look to build a first leg advantage to take into the return fixture in Dorset on Monday. And whilst the Pirates topped the table by four points, a certain amount of history is on Coventry’s side as on both previous occasions the clubs have met in the play-offs prior to the Final, the Brandon outfit have emerged on top - in both 2002 and 2007. Just over a month ago, Poole boss Neil Middleditch stated he would not be picking Coventry in the semi-finals - but the Pirates then had a change of heart and elected to travel to Brandon in the first leg. And the Bees are now looking for a big atmosphere off-track as well as a big performance from their riders in order to make their opponents regret that choice. Promoter Mick Horton said: “It has all the makings of a fantastic tie - Poole obviously feel with their selection that they can roll us over, but we’ll see. “This season we’ve been to their place and won, and they’ve come here and won whilst one meeting here was a bit of a fiasco, and we have a score to settle. “We certainly want to take a lead down there, to give us something to defend, but I don’t think there’s going to be a lot in it - these have been the top two teams in the league this season, and we know they have a great side. “The boys will be up for it and an extra point for us is when we get the big crowd in. We want to make Poole feel uncomfortable, and the fans can play a big part in that for us.” Bees track the line-up which would have been on track on Monday before the first leg was put back by four days due to the weather - with Swedish star Freddie Lindgren guesting for the injured Joonas Kylmakorpi. Poole have maintained an unchanged one-to-seven throughout the year, barring an early-season injury for Davey Watt, and have won half of their away fixtures including twice at Brandon - but their only home defeat was at the hands of the Bees. Manager Gary Havelock said: “I won’t be setting any points targets - obviously we want to win the meeting but I don’t feel you should ever put a figure on it. “If you do that and you don’t get your figure you end up disappointed, and if you do hit your figure, you can go into the second leg a little complacent, and we certainly won’t be doing any of that. “Whatever happens, I truly believe that on our day we can win at Poole as well, and having Bomber ready to race is going to give everyone a massive boost going into the meeting.” Start-time for Friday’s meeting is 8pm in line with broadcast schedules, and supporters are reminded to bring their re-admission tickets from last Wednesday’s home match against Lakeside in order to qualify for a £5 discount. Season tickets are valid. BUILDBASE BEES (from): Hans Andersen, Jason Garrity, Chris Harris, Kyle Howarth, Danny King, Freddie Lindgren, James Sarjeant. POOLE (from): Kacper Gomolski, Chris Holder, Maciej Janowski, Kyle Newman, Dakota North, Paul Starke, Davey Watt.

Duplicate post removed

Monday September 14, 2015 COVENTRY have a major concern over inspirational skipper Chris Harris ahead of Friday’s crunch play-off clash with Poole. Harris was involved in a heavy crash in Poland on Sunday and has returned to the UK with ankle, wrist and elbow injuries. He plans to see a specialist early this week and it leaves the Buildbase Bees sweating just days before their biggest match of the season. Harris said: “It was a big crash on the first bend with me, Sebastian Ulamek and Michal Szczepaniak, and we all went straight into the fence together. “Me and Seb were actually under the fence for a time and they had the ambulance out but we did manage to walk away. “I carried on in the meeting, it was an important one for the club, but it was afterwards when the adrenaline had eased that I really felt the pain, and I’ve got a swollen wrist and ankle. “I’ve got to get plenty of treatment over the next few days, I really want to be fit for Friday but I’ll have to see what the specialist says.” Bees already have Joonas Kylmakorpi on the sidelines, with Freddie Lindgren booked to guest, and it is now a relief that the initially-scheduled first leg against the Pirates tonight was put back by four days. That call was taken on Saturday afternoon due to an adverse weather forecast, with the conditions of Monday already fully justifying that decision. Boss Gary Havelock said: “You’re always worried about receiving a call saying one of your riders has crashed in another meeting, and now we have to wait and see with Bomber. “He’s massive to our team, and being without him is not really something I want to think about. It’s a huge concern for us. “I will be looking at our options, of course, but we already know how limited they are and at the moment we just have to keep our fingers crossed.”

It certainly is! Gives you an extra 30 minutes to get to the stadium. Of course, why do you ask?

Revised start time for this meeting now confirmed as 8.00pm

Presumably because the Gold Cup is a semi-final so affects following fixtures, the NT final doesn't.

I don't know that's the case - do you?

No we couldn't... You can't Our facility would be a guest or RR both riders averages are too high

Sky meetings are unique as their staging is a co-operative effort between both parties. For a normal meeting, I'm afraid economics play a significant part in our decision-making process. It's no secret that speedway is an expensive sport to promote, and the majority of a Club's income comes via the turnstiles. Sometimes postponement is obvious and inevitable. However there are meetings where we may feel we could present a racing surface by start time, but much of our costs are incurred much earlier in the day: rent, medical cover, referee, track-staff, hospitality catering etc. Do we press on, when we know full well that the Internet has been buzzing with doom-merchants reporting bad weather at various points near and far and so we run the risk of racing in front of a minimal crowd, or postpone early to save costs and hope for better luck next time? It is an inexact science, and I'm sure we don't get it right every time - but the decision has to be made and there's only one person who can make it! The critics are always quick to judge when a decision goes against us (our recent Sunday meeting v Cradley for example) but they are also (often the same people!) quick to say we postponed too early.... As an aside, I was greatly amused this morning by the poster on the Forum who commended us on a good decision to postpone tonight's meeting 'because it was raining in Bournemouth'.... So enjoy tonight's meeting, and I hope you'll all turn out in force on Friday to support the Bees or the Pirates.

I agree 100%. I have watched the Raiders a number of times this season (yes, my relaxation away from Coventry business is watching speedway!), and their set-up is exactly what I believe the ethos of NL speedway to be. I believe that Coventry and Kings Lynn also follow the same path, while acknowledging that some of the stand-alone NL Clubs may have differing philosophies.

Completely irrelevant. Our three outstanding meetings were all rained-off at the first staging or (in Mildenhall's case) the second staging. Coventry were not alone in finding it impossible to re-stage rain-offs before the cut-off date. Don't forget it's not only Coventry affected - Kings Lynn could have qualified for the Gold Cup too.

And no doubt would, if we were racing.......

I have taken on board everything that's been said in this thread. Should we stage double-headers in the future I will make sure that a revised policy is in place to cater for the different circumstances.

My comments here are either factual responses to fans' enquiries, or an attempt (often in vain) to bring a balance against a few posters who seem to delight in using insults, innuendo, and downright lies to bring discredit on our Club. This is made difficult at times by the confidential information I have access to that others outside the Club do not, which would often put a completely different complexion on topics where posters are convinced they are right, when in fact they are totally wrong. I am privileged to be a speedway promoter, but I am a fan first and foremost and enjoy sharing my love for the sport where I can. At the end of the day, there is always the ignore button if you're so concerned about my contributions! Back to the racing -Coventry 32, Cradley 24

In your opinion, a phrase that is missing from so much propounded on this site. It was not our opinion, nor that of the referee. £4125...

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=80320&p=2680321 and other posts in that thread. You are very free with your use of the word 'lie' - an extra £10 in the BenFund bucket tomorrow from whoever's wrong about the Turnstile notices? I assume you'll be there as it's not a double header. It might :-)

The facility for an absent EDR rider is either a guest or RR.

If that comment is aimed at me, I don't have any involvement at Peterborough this season!

Danny Ayres is quite capable of racing at PL level, he also gave a great performance for the Bees in the Elite League a few weeks ago. He may have had a tough couple of rides tonight but as others have said, Plymouth are a good side and had a lot to race for.

But you are quite happy to misquote me. I didn't refer to 'rules', you asked on another thread what Coventry's policy was and I responded. You should at least have the honesty to re-title this post ' Warning to anyone attending a double-header at Coventry' as the current title is misleading and assumes my colleagues all have the same policy. For the record, while our policy is as stated, in exceptional circumstances which would make the current policy clearly inappropriate, we would of course make an appropriate adjustment to the policy on the night and make an announcement to those affected ((ie) the fans actually in the stadium). That's the beauty of having a policy not rules.