AFCB Wildcat

After reading the article in the Star, it seems there is no intention to build a stadium. The plan is to demolish the existing stadium, build the houses but leave a levelled piece of land big enough for a limited capacity stadium and invite parties interested in operating a speedway facility to manage the operation. The successful applicant would then be a tenant but responsible for financing the building of a stadium that can operate within acceptable noise levels. It would take a brave person or consortium to take on that level of investment in a stand alone, limited capacity speedway facility. No doubt they would find a successful applicant in order to get the green light. Maybe even dump some prefabricated grandstand sections left over from the Abbey on the site before it all falls through due to financial difficulties and the applicant pulls out.

There's a name I know... I'm too young to remember the late 60's (just... 🙂) but I used to see him riding in Dragons meetings at Iwade about 15 years ago and he would have been in his mid 70's then. I didn't know that he'd ridden for West Ham. Glad to hear that he's still with us.

I joined BSF at the beginning of 2010 when my son started riding at amateur level. At the time, it was the place for all the information & updates on amateur meetings, riding equipment buying & selling and was invaluable for technical help on bike maintenance etc. Sadly that section of the forum has been inactive for a number of years. I think that as smart phones became more widespread, Facebook groups took over from Internet forums. It was my first foray into the world of social media and I was surprised by the level of unpleasantness on here. It seems some people are incapable of processing opinions that differ to their own without resorting to belittling & random rudeness. I guess that applies to social media in general though, which is why I avoid it. When I first joined, Speedway was in a lot more people's living rooms because of the Sky coverage, so there was always plenty to discuss, but the only Speedway I see now is the GP so I don't contribute as much these days. I still visit regularly though to catch up on what's going on. I know that even after 16 years I'm still a relative newbie compared to some but it's good to still see familiar names that have been here for my entire BSF journey 🙂

My first meeting was also in 1972. 1973 was my first full season though and Norman was a Pirate again by then, so I remember him well. From the Poole squad that season, we've also lost Christer Lofqvist, Antoni Woryna and Odd Fossengen but most who wore the skull & crossbones that season are still with us thankfully.

It's all witchcraft isn't it? I don't pretend to understand it all but I've got a setup that works well, so I stick with it. I bought the chromecast dongle years ago, before I had a smart TV and I've never had a problem casting with it from any source. I think it was about £30 for the Google dongle, but you can get an unbranded one for about a tenner. I'm using the mobile BSN site and as I said, my TV doesn't show as available which maybe to do with settings on either my phone or TV. Out of interest, I'll try switching to the desktop site and see if shows. Glad you've found a way to cast anyway, as mirroring is certainly less than ideal.

Can you not use the casting feature on BSN rather than screen mirroring? I've always cast from my phone to a chromecast dongle in one of the TV's a HDMI ports. By doing this, the stream goes straight to the TV, so you can use your phone to come on here or do anything else on it without affecting the broadcast on the TV screen. Looking at the tutorial on BSN, you should be able to cast direct to a smart TV even if you dont use a dongle. The list of available devices should show when you tap the 'cast' icon. For some reason though, only my chromecast shows when I tap the icon on BSN. On YouTube, I have the choice of my TV, my EE box or my chromecast when I tap to cast. For those not familiar, Casting & screen mirroring are 2 completely different processes. Screen mirroring uses the phones battery & CPU and replicates the phones screen on the TV. Casting diverts the stream directly to the TV, meaning that the phone is not involved in the process other than being a remote control.

Is there a problem with BSN at the moment? I wanted to watch the Ben Fund that I bought but didn't get to watch fully at the time, but it won't let me sign in. The instruction said "if using the new site for the first time, press 'forgot password' & re set it. I did that and got the email link but Im just getting auth/invalid-action-code I'm probably being dumb, but any advice would be appreciated 🙂

I'm sure you'll be fine. I think the bumper bank holiday crowd on Friday caught me out. We arrived at 5:30 and just missed out. I'm assuming the school was full too, as we weren't directed there. Worst case scenario, the Dolphin centre multi storey is only half mile away. It's £2:60 after 6pm for all night.

I guess it was pretty full. I was looking forward to going, but we were running a bit late. We got to the stadium about 5:30 only to find that the carpark was already full, and still a big queue of cars behind us trying to get in. We went home, which is probably just as well. I don't think my grandson would have had the patience to sit through the delay. Hope Tobi is okay, that's the main thing. Top guy who always engaged with the fans.

It's certainly a strange thing to say. I re read it a few times, but am still wondering what he means by that! The other part of the article that struck me, was the explanation of why they were so desperate to invent the 6th team. In a 5 team league where the top team goes straight to the playoff final, riders may find it preferable to finish second or third in order to get 2 extra meetings. If that's the ethos of professional sportsmen that represent their teams, how can you expect fans to invest in it? I know I'll be accused of being negative or moaning, but while I sincerely hope that Northampton and the season as a whole is a success, it does smack of desperation.

Fair play if they can work it, but I wonder what pretext is used to justify these visits. Are these visits during normal school time or as part of an after school activity? As I said, I can understand a football team because that might encourage kids to play football, which is a school activity. I understand visits to schools by prominent people that might encourage pupils to study a certain subject in order to emulate their accomplishments, but in what capacity does speedway enhance their education? My point was though, that you can't mandate visits to schools, when it is dependant on whether the head teacher wants to endorse Speedway.

I can't help feeling that may be beyond the remit of the BSPL. It would depend hugely on the willingness of the schools to participate, and I'm struggling to see why they would. A football, Hockey, tennis, rugby club etc. maybe, because it may encourage the kids to participate in these sports at school and promote physical education. Speedway though has no relevance other than being a form of entertainment. Why would schools allow someone to come in, just to promote their business to children while they are susceptible to influence? It would be like inviting the local cinema owner in to drum up trade. A stall at a fete is not a bad idea though.

Are the waters getting muddied here? YeOldPitGates post that has been quoted, is a reply to Orion's post about potential development of Poole Stadium, not the Abbey hub development.

Wasn't it a similar situation with Bristol in the 70's? As I remember, didn't Newport just relocate to Eastville?

My favourite quote from the article.... "Living out here is a lot easier than I thought. Obviously, as a stereotype, you associate Argentina with just eating cows and stuff like that" 🤣🤣