wandersome

was it a good one though, was it the best they'd ever seen?

You are right Roy, David Hemsley did deliver speedway back in Leicester though i'm not sure everyone will agree with your version of history. Hemsley has even told me that he never went to Blackbird Road and wasn't interested in speedway until he became involved with with the LSSC towards the end of the campaign. But that's for other people, more involved people, to respond to. The jist of what of what you say appears to be what right have we, the paying public, to criticise Mr Hemsley and his track when if it wasn't for him we wouldn't have one. Well, i'd counter that by saying what right has Mr Hemsley to keep taking the money off loyal Leicester speedway supporters who aren't willing to give up on a dream, even though the dream has turned into a nightmare. I'm over 5k in so far. That's over 5k of making his dream as you call it 'a reality', and so far there has been no benefit to me. And a speedway with that track is his dream and his dream alone, of that i'm certain. I'm not alone, there are literally hundreds of people, if not a thousand or more, who's money makes his dreams a reality but who he will not listen to. He even goes as far as making a point of not listening. For what reason, who knows. The attack isn't on Mr Hemsley, it's on the product he sells and more specifically the track he has built.

someone on Leicesters facebook reckons Blackbird has signed for you

I do apologise for any offence caused! edit: Just as an alternative, you could argue that around about 30 lions fans regularly post or read these topics and by my reckoning there is 1 person who thinks the track is OK (Long Eye).

Now they've started listening to me I have a few other ideas that the promotion might want to take on board Seriously though, i think Branford is a good signing. He looked on the verge before his injury last year and it clearly hasn't affected his riding on his comeback. A good signing.

who's in the gang Neb? This post beggars belief. I personally think the most tiresome part of most Leicester threads are not talk of the track, but yours and Robert's spats which nearly all involve personal attacks and always end with you both being abusive to each other. I nearly always make a point of ignoring the pair of you, but it now appears you're trying to bring others into it. If moderators need to get involved then i'd say this what they need to get involved in. You, trying to goad people into an abusive argument. The defination of trolling. That's all i have to say on the subject. Mick.

Tina, the post of mine that i have quoted above was when i still thought the promoter was going to make some changes and and i was still firmly on the pro Hemsley side of the fence. It's from the beginning of this year when it looked like he was going to make the changes. Wasn't your husband up there that day? obviously the end bit in brackets didn't quite work out after all!

I think it's over to Montie to answer this one!

Just as an alternative, you could argue that around about 30 lions fans regularly post or read these topics and by my reckoning there are 3 who think the track is OK (you, Long Eye and Mrcts).

you are right Tina, if David Hemsley wasn't there there wouldn't be a problem because the track would have been altered by now!

i kind of agree with you Glennylion. But everything you say requires enough capital in the business to move it in that direction and going by the desperation shown in those programme notes last week you have to wonder whether it's there at present. Or how it's going to be added without track changes being added to the agenda.

fair enough.

Poorly worded by me again. I don't doubt you're correct in what you say but what I meant was the mid-week meeting between the promotion and staff, that also saw the wife of one of the promoters walk out on Leicester Speedway, was the reason the 4tt meeting didn't go ahead yesterday. It did seem there was a meeting being planned until that meeting happened. You got to ask questions about what's going on, no?

Refering back a thread or two to Nobrakeshere's post about a/the leading member of the backroom staff walking out mid winter. Rumour has it she has walked out for good this time after a big fall out between promotion and staff mid-week. I'm guessing this is the actual reason yesterday's junior 4tt meeting didn't happen.

I do feel myself at times getting drawn into making personal comments on David Hemsley by posts made on here, which is never my intention. All my comments are made with a passion for the subject i'm talking about, that is the well being of Leicester Speedway, and at times that can cross into comments on DH as they clearly go hand in hand. I always trying keep these comments to an impersonal nature but that isn't always easy. My points have been clearly made hopefully elsewhere in the thread and hopefully they may have resonated with a few people, even if you choose to ignore them. That's your perogative though and as i don't want to be drawn into more personal comments about DH I'll leave it with you saluting away.

Why would changes be made when finances allow. I'm fairly confident that David Hemsley thinks the alterations he made in the winter have made an already good track into a very good one. Interestingly enough, if finances were an issue, i definately know of at least one sponsor who would have personally paid for some proper track changes to have been made if he had been approached at any point over the last couple of seasons. Unfortunately he hasn't, he has had enough of it all this year, and that opportuntity has been missed.

that was on the first bend of lap 1 wasn't it? That was 4 riders entering the first bend and finding their position.. I think i'm beginning to see how we may differ in our views of what constitutes a pass, maybe this is what Hemsley was talking about. Maybe i am that simple Mick.

In your world, Long Eye, I probably am.

very clever post elephantman. Unfortunately without the god given talent to go with those attributes you mention id think that attitude will get you so far then leave you wanting. This is how it;s looking to me anyways. It's more likely to leave Hemsley with deep holes in his pockets. For that reason Elephantman, i fear you may find yourself saluting a fool. I'm sure we've all done it though Here's a game for everyone to try. I have to say that my money is on Long Eye to be the winner. I was told by David Hemsley that the new track is working and it was shown by the fact that in the Redcar meeting he saw 3 clear passes that just wouldn't have happened prior to the changes. The game is 'name those passes'. Bear in mind these are not just passes, but passes that were down to the change in track. I've spent all week racking my brains and i'm at 1 pass, Jan Graversen, unless that counts as two. But then it doesn't count as any really, because it had nothing to do with the track changes, right. The game is harder than It looks.

Again, i'm not sure i totally agree with the way the opening post of this thread was executed. i don't, however, disagree with 1) the principal of the points that were made and 2) that David Hemsleys programme notes probably do deserve a thread all of their own. It's also unfortunately true that these topics you mention do appear to be important issues to a number of Lions fans who post on here. Surely a promoter writing programme notes berating armchair fans for not turning up in large enough numbers when the weathers not ideal and threatening to close if we carry on not turning up in future, publicly threatening to sack riders, telling us we are purposely trying to harm his business by talking about it on the internet and then apprearing to tie these on-line complainents into abusive text messages he is recieving, saying he has addressed every issue fans had over the close season and finally, pointing out he's up for offers only no one is offering. Surely that's good enough reason for it's own thread. Too much time on my hands so i can point out the last Lions Redcar thread had 36 different people posting over 8 pages so there is clearly a level of interest in these topics that we're all moaning about even if they do appear to annoy you. that's the issue Long Eye. Did it actually happen? and what makes it stick in your mind if it did indeed happen and i missed it. Rarity? It says it all that you haven't come up an example from this year, four meetings in and all. We used to get told of ridiculously large numbers of passes that happened at BP on a weekly basis by Wie-Ja. I'm afraid it didn't make it any truer just because he had said it.

I have to say, i'm reading this response, it making me think of what Leicester Lion (i think it was Leicester Lion) was saying on the last thread and I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think without you bringing Makininen in to it i would have gone with laugh but i'm afraid with Makinen used as an example it's cry all the way. I thought me thinking Hawkins being the only rider capable of genuinely passing another rider was far fetched enough and between us the the leading examples of it appear to be Ritchie Hawkins and Jari Makinen. For fear of a trip to the hospital, I'm gonna have to leave my Rice Crispies this morning .

It's disappointing but the absolute fact is we are now in our third year of speedway and i can recall one genuine pass around bend 1 and 2 since it opened. If i remember rightly that was Ritchie Hawkins taking Simon Lambert. Taking into account of the riders involved even that I have a feeling may have been an illusion of my viewpoint when i saw it. I'm often tempted to buy the DVD to make sure it was genuine pass but i can't bring myself to pay a second time to watch something that was a chore the first time round. If you don't go regularly then i guess you may think i'm exagerating for effect or even joking but i'm not. Genuinely there has been, as far as i can remember, 1 pass at BP around bend 1/2 since it opened. That's a level up from poor racing i think most would agree.

no disrespect but as you are not a Leicester speedway supporter i don't see why you suddenly feel qualified to tell us what we should be happy with. I guess you may not have been to BP much as if you had you'd realise how funny the description 'at least you have some speedway now' is to a Leicester fan, as we clearly don't! the phrase a fool and his money are easily parted springs to mind when i think what i've spent on Leicester since it's return but i have a feeling unless something is done soon there will be bigger fools than me losing more considerably more money than me on Leicester Speedway. I've been dreaming of speedway returning for 28 years and it's turned into a blooming nightmare. It's the only way i can describe it. I'm unfortunately now thankful for nothing. Forgive me if i carry on moaning. Mick.

I have to say i agree with Neb in the principle of what he is saying, if not in the manner. I do think if you are saying something personal to a specific person then it should be sent, in the first instance at least, to the person you are addressing it to. If you then feel you are being ignored then maybe that is the time for open letters although even then I'm not sure posts such as these do any good at all in an open forum and are more likely to have the opposite effect to what you wish for. Just my opinion. Mick.

I'll give it a go - though if you read all the threads i think most of this has been covered at length by many people. 1) if you've read the many threads on here then you really should know who David Hemsley has upset, why he has upset them and which people who post on here feel aggrieved from personal experience with David Hemsley. Although i wouldn't exactly class myself as one of these people i only read these forums and i know the issues inside out so the information is clearly out there on the BSF. It's up to you what bits you think are right or wrong. I've disagreed with some elements of what is said but not others elements but it's clear that Mr Hemsley is a very polarising figure. Although i accept it's all relative I have, however, personally spent a lot of money supporting Leicester speedway since it's inception and some of that support has been based on assurances that measures were being taken with the track that then haven't happened. On one occasion i was told changes had actually been made that hadn't. 2) Re: track. I'm not sure what you've been reading because i and others have made it clear on numerous occasions what we think is wrong with the track and therefore it's obvious then what the solutions would hopefully be. My take is as follows. The straights are too long and fast and the bends are too sharp. the solution, IMO, is to shorten the straights considerably and the apexs less so therefore lessening the angle into the bends and the speed riders enter them at. This would hopefully allow riders to enter the bends using different lines and at different angles of attack and give them the chance to actually overtake. It's only a couple of pages ago that Glyn Taylor was pointing out that the problem Leicester has is that the there is one very fast line around Leicester that is much faster than any other (it's the inside one that every rider uses). The bends are too sharp to carry any more speed into the bends than riders can currently take by using that line, therefore there are no more racing lines and no overtaking without a rider making a mistake. That's my take anyway.. It's also common knowledge that many track experts and curators (I mean proper people working in that field, not us fans) have said things along the same lines and at various times over the last 3 years these alterations were going to be made. Why they haven't is still anybodies guess but the best guesses appear to be that Mr Hemsley will not accept he got it wrong when he laid the track originally. Re: the costings and timeframe. That's has also been widely covered on here by people who would have been involved. Generally the figure is put at 6-8K and the timeframe is a week. Finally, you may want to go back a few pages and re-read the post from 40-38. He's not someone who is on here constantly 'having a dig' at Mr Hemsley (as you would probably accuse me of doing) but i think he encapsulates all my frustrations with the David Hemsleys management to perfection. I'm only guessing but i'd say others too.