Bunce

It was probably you Haza, who told me before? I was subscribed to the service years ago, but the texts suddenly stopped coming even though I had the same mobile number. As I said in my previous post, I contacted the Norfolk Arena office, and asked if the service was still running, and could I be subscribed to it. Didn't even get the courtesy of a reply, and they wonder why fans loose interest. I'm getting very cynical in my old age, and now adopt the attitude, if they can't be bothered....then neither can I.

My hero back in the day was Barry Crowson. No idea why ! Mine too! A fast gater, lovely smooth style and top bloke. I have vague memories of him beating Ivan Mauger around Saddlebow Road, and Mauger threw a right strop getting beaten by such a "lowly" rider. Bumped in to Barry at the World Speedway Riders dinner at Norwich in 2016, he lives locally and has lost all that lovely long hair he had in the 70's. We had a nice chat, and I found, like myself, he is a keen caravanner and spends much of the year touring around. I have fond memories of his time at Lynn, and it was nice to see him again.

I contacted the AFA several months ago by email, to ask if they still did the texting service which informed fans if a match was postponed or rained off. I was led to believe by somebody on this forum, they still did it? I live south of Norwich, so its 100 mile round trip for me (I must be mad) and I don't want to arrive in Lynn to find we have a rain/wind/electrical failure postponement. Did I get a reply.....Did I hell!

I recall a meeting which I believe was in the premier trophy in March 2007, where Kings Lynn Beat Sheffield 75-15 I remember that meeting well Alex, not because I was there, but was sitting in a Theatre that night watching a show, with my mobile (on silent) in my hand getting updates from a friend at the meeting. When he started texting, Heat 1. 5-1, Heat 2. 5-1, Heat 3. 5-1 and so on for every heat, I thought he was having a laugh. I texted back "stop being silly and post the proper score" he replied "That is the proper score!" Ah yes, remember it well.

Excellent post JC, and very well explained. I'm even more depressed than I was before! Do you think the expenditure would be much less if the Stars ran in the Championship League? I thought the whole idea of being in the Premiership was to see the Worlds best riders, but with hardly any GP riders in the UK, and lots of doubling up, the product has been watered down to the stage where fans like me couldn't give a toss about what league we are in, I just want to see good, exciting racing every week with the same team members. (injuries excepted) but with so many matches across the UK running with R/R and guests, is it a wonder interest is waning. I'm sure we have all seen the team line ups with R/R and several guests giving the fans only a couple of their actual team members! I don't have the answer, and I'm sure we all have our own ideas, but reading JC's post makes the reality of the sports survival even more bleak.

No chance of Lebedevs or Milik coming back to Lynn I suppose?

Gave up after watching the debacle against Poole on that infamous night that we don't speak about. Mostly my team seem to be either using R/R or have several guests for their meetings, so I don't really feel it is MY team that I am supporting. Maybe my attitude will change next year (assuming there is a Stars team next year) but at the moment I just want the season to be over. When Lynn moved from the Premier League to the Elite League (as it was then) we were told we would be watching some of the Worlds top riders, well that didn't last long, there are hardly any GP riders left in the UK, and even our favourite NKI had to pull out due to the stupid Polish regulations. Personally I enjoyed it much more when we were in the (then) Premier league, when we seemed to have a match every week, more or less the same team each week as riders weren't constanlly riding for their Danish/Polish/Swedish teams and we got to see many more different riders and teams. Just my view I know, but if Lynn got relegated and dropped a League, I'd be delighted!

I'm fully aware of the differences between the UK and Swedish rules regarding concussion, but I would have thought that it was in Nicklas's own interest to take the full break from racing to allow himself time to heal. What if he had suffered another severe bang to the head when racing in Sweden, the result of which may have been too terrible to contemplate?

I just love the Kings Lynn match preview and I quote " The only current absentee is Nicklas Porsing (concussion) with regular stand in Simon Lambert stepping into the breach at reserve" Porsing top scored for Rospiggarna tonight scoring 13+1, not bad for someone with concussion. Then he should be treated the same as Batchelor, and be shown the door. But then I guess he's not bothered as its almost the end of the season. No doubt there will be lots of explanations, as to why he rode in Sweden, but it doesn't wash with me, like several others he is letting the club down, and I for one wouldn't want him back in Stars colours.

I'd pencil Josh Auty in straight away, so far he has put some of the other riders to shame.

Totally agree. Thats why I tend to watch the recorded version after the event, and keep my finger on the "fast forward" button! I also get very tired of the analysis directly after the race, where we are shown the same race over and over again, when I have just watched the ruddy thing. I SAW what happened, I don't need to be shown it again and again.

Lots of stoppages, bike failures and a heavy track after lots of rain rather spoilt the meeting, but hats off to all the riders for giving it 100%. I thought Doyles actions were uncalled for, I seem to remember several lunatic moves by him that ended in tears. At least THJ was giving it all, which I suspect wouldn't have happened from two other ex Lynn riders. I'm not sure why Robert Lambert and Kai Huckenbech had such poor meetings, if they had scored well, this could have been a lot closer.

Thanks DWP for sharing that with us. I'm sure we all wish Nicklas a speedy recovery and hope there is nothing seriously wrong. I know he doesn't want to let anybody down but its obvious he should stop riding straight away and get himself well. Lets hope all goes well for him on friday.

What a great meeting! A shame rain brought an early end to the meeting as Heat 15 would have been a cracker. A fair result in the end as neither team deserved to loose. Sorry not impressed with Jim Lynch, nice guy but should have used the B&W while he had the opportunity.

Great display by Robert. But I've seen more spectators in a farmers field on a sunday afternoon!

Amazingly if the Stars had got a 5-1 in the last race, they would have won this meeting! Well done to all the riders who gave it a go in what I understand to be tricky conditions. As DJ said, commitment is a leveller. Pleased that Porsing had a much better meeting, after coming back from injury. Not a win, but a well earned point.

Totally agree with your observations GRW. He falls in to the category of a frustrating rider to watch, we know its in there somewhere, but never know whether it will come out. As you said, on his day he can be a match winner, I wondered if the fact that Rob Lyon who was a great team manager and always seemed to bring out the best in some riders, had any bearing on his form, now Rob is not here?

Fabulous, I couldn't stop laughing! Don't forget the only way is up....

I agree the forecast was bad, it was raining hard where I live near Norwich, so couldn't risk travelling to Lynn for the expected rain off. Much to my amazement it went ahead, but from all accounts, I didn't miss much. I emailed the stadium a week ago asking if I could subscribe to the text service which updates fans if a meeting is cancelled, I'm told by several people on this forum it is still in operation, but did I get a reply to my request....Nope. Once again, total lack of communication to a fans enquiry, and it just sums up what everbody else has been saying on this forum about this Club.

It seems Buster has listened to the fans, and taken action. Good for you Buster! I stood on the terraces at THAT meeting, and vowed that was the last meeting I was going to this year, I was that disgusted. Now Holder & Batchelor are gone, I shall end my self inflicted exile, and be back to support the team. We may not win anything this year, but as long as the guys give 100% and we see some decent racing, that will do me.

A meeting was advertised in my Radio Times as being on BT Sport 2 at 7-30pm (didn't say which one) but its now vanished from my Sky planner, and also vanished from BT Sports online planner. Thats a bit of a blow, as I thought the weather forecast was OK for today for both PL meetings? Poor show by BT if they have pulled the plug that early?

There's plenty of people work at the club.... Are they the ones in blue jackets that are frequently seen walking around stuffing chips or with fags hanging out of their mouths? Just another thing that looks so unprofessional when they are "supposed" to be working. I could accept it perhaps during the interval, but this is during the racing. No doubt somebody will say they are volunteers, and not paid members of staff, but that doesn't excuse it in my book. Rant over.

Thanks for the info about the text messages Steve. I wonder why I no longer receive them? I've had the same mobile number for years. I have looked on the Stars web site, and the most recent programme, but can find nothing about the weather service text messages, any idea how I re-subscribe? I seem to remember sending a message saying "subscribe" to a certain number. If you don't know, I'll have to email the stadium. Thanks again.

Don't forget Danny, some of us have a long way to travel to home meetings, in my case, I live 6 miles south of Norwich. If a meeting is in doubt, I'd rather not risk a wasted 100 mile round trip. I've done it many times in the past, and sat in the car park, only to have to turn round and drive back to Norwich again! Once upon a time we were able to subscribe to a Stars text service, that sent a text message to your mobile if a meeting was called off. Excellent idea, and it did save me some wasted trips, may be some thing to do with JC? That no longer happens, so as I said, far from being a "fair weather" fan, I just don't want to waste my time and money, especially with the current situation. A good explanation DWP, which sounds perfectly plausible. What I can't get my head around, is the race times. After Buster spread tons of sawdust on the track, and graded it, the riders were blasting round in times well under 60 seconds, which is quick for a perfect track, so if it was that unrideable, why weren't the times 64 seconds of something like that? Apart from the clouds of sawdust being kicked up, nobody looked to be having an issue that I could see. Very strange?

An interesting and honest article in the EDP, but surely Rob is a Promoter at Lynn, so why did Buster say “I’m sure it’s not the end of his time with the club and we are sure to see him again very soon.” That leaves some unanswered questions, and although I'm a great fan of Rob's, how can you be a Promoter of a Speedway Club, and yet not take any active part in its running? Is he a "silent partner"? Also if Buster is going to call meetings off every time we have a shower of rain, the fans are going to soon get pretty fed up with that. Seems like the tail is wagging the dog at the moment! Well at least he is to be congratulated for keeping us up to date, but in the long term there are still lots of issues to be addressed, is there any support on this forum for a drop back in to the Championship again?