old bob at herne bay

2nd bend beer hut has hit the nail on the head. Expect intial surge of interest for the opening meeintgs. Once everybody has seen whats on offer again , crowds will drop off. Still not long to wait for the P. offs this season.

"Anyone for F1 at £300 a pop" That's nearly as expensive as a weekend in Cardiff for 2 hours of ear deafening air horns at the SGP

Whatever the price of imported furniture has to do with speedway admisson prices is lost on me stu19. The clubs all made no losses in 2020, which must have been the first time for a long time , that is if we believe that they all run at a loss as they always claim ? Once again the speedway public have been taken for mugs, cost cutting by signing lower standard riders, (in the case of Kings Lynn no Rob Lambert) Once upon a time I was told that riders wages made up 80% of the costs of runnign a speedway team. Depsite the huge savings that clearly have been made the PL teams have taken the P and increased admission. If this were a temporary surcharge for PPE and other Covid 19 related precautions, then it would be understandable, and be removed once we have got past June . Chances are that there will be no hand soap or sanitiser in the toilets , which will be as filthy as ever. Yes the answer will be don't go if you dont want to shell out £20 per person plus £3 programme plus a £2 seat . Wise advice, stu 19.

Buy a £20 lottery advance ticket online and hope that the weather is good, the teams turn up as advertised and not full of R/R , guests. Speedway will have a big problem with advance online ticketing in the fickle British climate. Understand those are the rules imposed .... but upping admission charges for cut price riders and advance ticketing only is a hard sell.

I think most of the internet bandwidth in Scotland has been taken up by Nicola tonight

Maybe a letter to Justin Tomlinson (MP) Minister of State (Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work) Organisations: Department for Work and Pensions and Equality Hub would be more useful asking them to review the legality of the decisions made at the Peterborough Showground.

Well, once again despite all the hype about reducing costs by cutting points limits , one by one the "premiership" clubs are upping their admission prices. The ever ageing dwindling band of "diehards" will surely turn up, but if the aim is to attract new supporters to the sport , they are going a funny way about it. six green bottles sitting on the wall, six green bottles sitting on the wall....... How many green bottles will be sitting on the wall in 2022?

Pretty careless of the promotion to leave uninsured vehicles and equipment on a site with little security and in a high risk area during the winter. Lets hope they get in touch with Adrian Flux insurance at Kings Lynn and sort out some cover, or arrange secure storage for their machinery.

Don’t the club carry insurance for theft and damage to buildings?

Comparisons with a F1 meeting to a league speedway meeting are irrelevant. Maybe a speedway GP meeting is a more reasonable comparison. Even then they are entirely different sports that attract a different crowd. The F1 boys complain that speedway riders just go round and round in circles and follow the leader ! Bottom line is that the crowds turn up for F1 worldwide in far greater numbers than speedway GPs. In my “career “ of supporting speedway, I have felt short changed on several occasions. Endless delays to meetings due to so many excuses too numerous to mention...standing on a grass/mud bank in spartan conditions which often result in......... matches finished early due to “curfews” usually due to incompetent refereeing and/or meeting presentation. Declared result with 12 heats and no refunds. Arriving at stadiums to discover teams missing top riders and using R/R . ( pre internet days) now check online before travelling. Teams of 6 or even 5 riders ........infamous match England vs USA at Ipswich cancelled at short notice due to lack of a USA team! Wasted journey of 200 miles on a sunny evening. My £20 now pays for 15 heats, maybe only 12 with a declared result, as against my 2 bob paying for 19 or 20 heats . Oh yes 3d. for a programme, now laughingly priced at £3. Delays and more delays don’t deliver value for money for me and maybe have attended my last speedway meeting. I do however have to defend the Kent Kings stadium, who possibly have the best appointed spectator facilities in British Speedway.

Well Scott Nicholls was definitely at KingsLynn .... looked very quick.trying out a new Godden Engine.

Surely Speedway race nights and times at Kent are dictated by the local council planning authority? The NDL admission charge is the most expensive in the country, so IF as suggested the speedway has been running “rent free “ under Roger Cearns’ ownership, I would say that NDL racing at Sittingbourne will become untenable. I think much will depend on the profitability of CL speedway in 2021 . If not successful maybe dogs will take over every evening ..... I am sure the locals will prefer barking greyhounds every night rather than revving motorcycles.

Te complete lack of information coming from most clubs on their plans to restart the season in less than 4 weeks time fully supports my opinion that they have their heads in the sand and are hoping that this all goes away by May 16th, and it will "business as usual. " All pretty shabby, certainly doesn't inspire confidence that the speedway stadia will be low Covid 19 risk environments. Frankly I would be amazed if half the stadia were allowed to open as planned in May. Only Eastbourne appear to have grasped the nettle, and set out their plans to their supporters.

Go on surprise me “Trees” ..... soap is now available in the toilets at Saddlebow Road.....and there is more than one entrance to the race bowl from the field used as a car park ?

Much still to be done before crowds are allowed into Speedway "race bowls" in the UK IMHO. Gone are the days of banks of turnstiles located at several entry points around the tracks ....... with spectators located all around the entire circuit. The sanitary facilities at most "race bowls" are now so scarce and rudimentary , lacking even a bar of soap, that surely will be questioned by local authorities in assessing attendance limits. The last track I regularly supported struggled to maintain electric lighting in their facilities. Oddly, I suspect that social distancing there woudn't have been a problem, assuming you took a torch to the gents ;-) Eastbourne have laid out their stall with some commonsense planning ... but whether the local authority have given them any feedback on their plans ....

Talking of Eastbourne, I seem to remember some un sportmanslike behaviour from their NL team manager to delay a meeting at Kent and invoke the curfew, and prevent 15 heats being run. Seems there nothing in the rules to prevent "time wasting" .....

Jason Crump and Chris Holder jointly hold the Eastbourne track record set in April 2008 ..... will Jason improve on that in 2021 ???

Just needs an air fence, some track lights and a starting gate.

Aha Hackney Hawk, not so keen on attending speedway anymore .... not so much a supporter of Kent rather a very occasional attendee. tbh I haven't the patience to sit around (even in Kent's palacial surroundings) watching the seemingly never ending delays to racing. The last meeting I attended was at Kent in 2019, with frequent delays and ended before heat 15 due to the "curfew" restriction, and I haven't been back since.

Yes this mandatory advance ticket booking is going to make it impossible for last minute decisions on attending due to weather. Not sure how late in the day you will be able to book online tickets ... but if the cut off is days before the meeting this will deter some folks from booking tickets. Like blueherb777, I have been bitten once too often to even consider travelling with a dodgy weather forecast. A shower of rain nowadays and meetings are OFF.

If only half the stadium is open - this will reduce the maximum crowd capacity , and pro rata reduce the maximum crowd permitted under the 50% of the max capacity rule under the Covid 19 rules for sporting events. You have to have the whole blinking stadium open to allow for social distancing , not just huddle them all together !

Might have been intended as a gag....... but seems appropriate for an Aerospace sponsor. Nice one. :-) :-) Might spoil the grass :-)

Thought I read he was taking a job at Peterborough ? Unless Saddlebow has moved to Alwalton ?

Just to add to the "fromafar" post .... my last regular attendance was at Lakeside as a social habit with a small group of regular attendees. All had been supporting speedway for 50 years plus. Has to be said that what turned out to be the last season at Lakeside the endless delays to the meetings, the petty antics of riders on the start line made watching 15 heats of speedway a test of endurance on the cold and draughty grass/mud banks in the Spartan facilities at Lakeside. For the first time in over 50 years I found myself leaving the track before the end of the meeting. I knew then it was time to hang up my programme board/ gas rattle. It's so much more comfortable watching the delays and hold ups from your sofa with a beer , and you can record it all and fast forward 50% of the stuff with practice starts/gardening and air fence repairs. Will I go back again? Maybe only for selected meetings to see Jason Crump. I will put up with the delays and gardening to see him one more time.

In the free world of the United Kingdom, I would like to think that people have a choice when or not to drive their vehicle. Age certainly isn't the only issue as to whether you should be driving at night. By all means introduce a compulsory eyesght test for ALL drivers periodically , rather than the present honesty system, but a blanket ban based on age alone is surely not justified. (and probably illegal under "human rights" legislation !!)