wandersome

Alls good then.

So crimes against speedway racing were being noted by the police as far back as 2011

and what you've got to work with is the worst track shape i've ever witnessed.

I do wonder whether riders are trying this slightly wider line you mention but we all just don't notice because it generally makes no difference (unless the rider in front is literally crawling around as happened in the Hall pass).

I'm not saying overtaking doesn't happen. I would, however, like to point out that in my opinion the example you used for this year, Hall's pass on Nielsen and Doolan, happened because Nielsen was coming to a halt half way around Doolan was stuck behind him. I think anyone far enough behind Nielsen not to get stuck behind him but close enough would have overtaken him. I don't think who the rider was made any difference at all. Graversens pass last night happened when Skidmore got it all wrong on bend 3 and 4 and drifted out and slowed it up, Dyer was too close so had no option but to also slow up. This allowed Graversen to chop up the inside of both of them. I wouldn't say there was any level of skill involved in the manouvre, in fact taking into account all the riders involved it was actually caused by a lack of skill. totally agree with the rest of what you say though. DH's programme notes were an unbelieveable rant by anyones standards. not according to David Hemsley's programme notes.

in this sentence, i think you sum up all the issues with the track perfectly. It the opportunity to overtake that is important and that's what we don't get at BP. Its Never happened in 3 years, never will. Not strictly true. All we need is more lines in the corner that allow overtaking. That is the basic premise of the sport, thats how it works. Doesn't matter what shape the track is as long as that simple premise is adhered to. Plently of people with experience as to what could be done have given advice but they have all been ignored in favour of the cheapest possible solutions which clearly don't/haven't worked. Those changes are a laughing stock. It does need extensive alteration to the bends but i've heard that the cost would be around £6-8k and a week of work. These might not work either but at least it's then got a chance. In it's place we get £200 worth of changes, a track that's as crap as its ever been, a promoter that will tell anyone who will listen that no track problems exist, that it's all good. And then blaming any discontent on the belief that there is a personal vendetta against him. What do you do. Head, Sand springs to mind.

I have to say every rider i've seen take it wider ends up lengths further back than he started. Pretty much every pass that i've seen at BP involves the leading rider making a mistake and going off line or else having considerably less speed that the man behind, and i mean considerably. Surely the obvious answer to all this would be to actually make some meaningful changes to the track though. I think you're skirting around the edges of the problem to make excuses of the riders and not the track. The track is dreadful. Rather than make threats about pulling the plug if people don't turn up and blaming the likes of me for harming Leicester Speedway It's about time he stood back, had a reality check and finally figured out what it is that's causing the discontent among the supporters.

I would have thought if there was another line then the riders would be trying it all the time and being successful some of the time. On every occasion i see riders move off 'the line' they appear to be generally heading in a backwards direction or at best making making no impression at all, which is basically the issue i have with track. I have to say i haven't seen a rewarding line to go round if a rider is prepared to attack all race although i'm not saying it doesn't exist.. its just i've never seen it in 3 years of watching. I didn't see Nemo making any useful ground up on Summers in that race and even if he caught up with him i couldnt see how he would possibly have got by without Summers making a mistake. As much as i enjoyed that Bjerre/Palm Toft race, I would also point out that your example involves a home heat leader spending a whole race to reel in a 5.00 second string who ended up going wide under pressure thus allowing Bjerre past. I don't think the track deserves any good will at all.

Unfortunately, My night was rather spoilt by the track being absolutley awful!. No overtaking whatsoever. That's two weeks running. The only 'pass' tonight i can remember was when Skidmore went wide. The fact that Dyer on a double appeared to be actually really struggling to find a line past Skidmore says it all. How can expect to see any overtaking when riders of the same team are struggling to let their teammates by when they are under no pressure from opposing riders. Amazed at David Hemsley's programme notes tonight. To say people complaining on the internet are seeking to damage Leicester Speedway is, in my view, a joke. He did mention the customer questionnaire last season and mentioned they had done their best to pick up on the top three recurring issues at BP. I can't believe the track came only fourth as an issue but it clearly must have! anyways, 180 post 1st/2nd bend laps, 0 genuine 1st/2nd bend passes Good to see Simon Nielsen do the business in his last two rides. Looked like his confidence to get involved returned after his spill. Great to see Doolan keeping up his return to form.

surely that just makes it even more of a remarkable effort from the guy.

to be fair to Neb i think he's managed what we'd all like to. He's blanked the reality of Darcy actually being a Leicester promoter from his mind! nice move Neb .

I agree re result. I think we will be up against it with Micky Dyer at reserve for Redcar. He looked pretty handy last year at BP and i think he's probably even moved his game up a level since then. Mick.

Crap track missing the only home rider who has looked like overtaking anyone on it all year. Personally wouldn't blame Bjerre but shows up the issues we have. The Lions policy i'm sure will be to try and make as little as possible of the situation in the hope that as many of our fans as possible will turn up and pay to see the spectacle. As ever, nice that Long Eye and Tsunami see it from both fans, riders and promotions view, erm something like that.... Thankfully, i'm taking Tina's advice and i'm now going to the speedway for the craic rather than the speedway. Lets hope i make some friends. After all, who goes to speedway these days to see motorbikes racing? Mick.

what's the latest on Roynon? Missed the radio show last night so wondered what the news is... any mention on when he's back..

We could lend you Dave Darcy. Long term. You may not have heard of him as he normally just drives lorries for a living but he's actually such an expert track curator he even supercedes Glyn's race track knowledge down here at Leicester. Ask Tsunami though, he's the expert. More cheap digs at cheap solutions. sorry.

things rarely are tsunami, things rarely are.

the only reason we thought you were taking the p**s was because some of your points were so far fetched. No disrespect. No mission or anything from me... You just don't need to be so far fetched in what you write in someones defence. You didn't roughly say the same as Mike a couple of weeks ago. That's why nobody has felt the need to respond to Mike thinking he is taking the p**s. I for one don't particularly disagree with him on any of the points he's made. You were mentioning 6Million pound stadium, fantastic new toilets (3 urinals, 1500 crowds), riders who only used the bits of the track that have been altered etc, etc, etc. figure it out.

Don't disagree with anything you say Neb, and no, i can't think of a better plan. I was only pointing out that as i see it the dynamic of the team suffers with Karlsson in the team. I don't blame Karlsson for this as it's a team thing. With him in the team though we end up with lots of tracks where everyone in the team struggles, much like last year. That's all the point i was trying to make. the intention wasn't to have a dig at Karlsson, although i accept it may appear such, in which case my bad.

Wasn't talking about you with regards to being delusional. A bit strong either way though so I have edited that remark from the original post. That said, we are clearly poles apart in what we want out of our speedway and I'm just having a little fun finding tenuous links to say we agree on. There you go though.

glad we agree Tina, because i think that's what were doing. I guess without the major element of being entertained by the racing on the track that's what we are reduced to though isn't it? Surely an element of speedway entertainement on track would improve the chances of people turning up to nothing meetings as you describe it when the weather don't look great. You have to surely ask yourself why people don't want to stand out in the rain at BP for a 'nothing meeting'. Do you want me to have a guess as to why that is? With everyone having witnessed the 'best speedway race ever' last week i cannot believe a bit of rain would put them off returning to see more of the same! Particularly with our track record for going ahead in adverse weather. I don't think there was ever a chance the meeting was going to be off. I went around to the first bend for this weeks meeting and spent the my night with another season ticket holder, the father of a friend of mine. Not spoken to him about speedway at Leicester since we reopened due to us standing at opposite ends of the track but last night he was telling me everyone he knew has the same issues i have with the track. They also have the same worries about some of the amateur mistakes being made, such as the work to the toilets that have left inadequate urinals for fans to use. These things need changing asap. Maybe it's time to put down the Lion, get out from the cliques and walk about among the actual normal crowd to see what the common Leicester fans think. Not the ones who feel a bond because they go in the bar after the meeting for a drink with the riders and owners or the ones that get a call out from Chris Popple every week or the ones who know someone who son rides in the the juniors, etc, etc, etc. I'm talking about the ones who go to the meetings, watch it, get back in their car and go home at the end. They are the ones Hemsley needs to be worried about.

I agree, Karlsson, as nice a guy as he seems, isn't the rider he was a couple of years ago and he's changed the dynamic of the team to one similar to last years. Much depends on whether Adam is seriously not too far from a return or not but if he is it's Roynon definately back in for him when available. Nielsen definately needs time away, for his benefit as much as ours. Robert Branford as a short term solution to that problem would appear the best i can come up with so far. Branford was starting to look decentish when he got injured last year and he looked capable round BP. I don't see a solution to getting big reserve points on the board though. That would have been to have had the 2 Lewis's in at reserve but we let that option slip.

Crowd was very thin on the ground last night. Clearly the weather wasn't ideal but i'd have said lucky if there were 700. Weather wasn't really too bad though and basically there were just a few spots from around 7.00 onwards. I would have thought the panic buttons were being hit repeatedly with that turn out. But then I guess this is a problem they need to deal with when you ignore the obvious issues with the enternainment served up by the track and rely on the kind of fans who just want to see seven riders turn up on track and get the Lions a win. Not enough of them. Here's hoping the promotion all have deeper pockets than appear on the surface. To me it looks like a stategy that will unravel in a painful way as the season unfolds. Last night the crowd appeared to be made up of the die hard 'Leicester can do no wrong' and then the likes of us 'just can't give it up' brigade. Not enough though people and sooner or later one or other of these elements will probably 'do one' as well, as Liontamer likes to say.

Chuffed for Doolan over the last few nights. Shows what a bit of positive thought and action from rider and fans alike can do (note to Dave Darcy). Pity we capitulated towards the end after at one point around heat 9 actually appearing to having a bit of a tickle at cup progress. It went out with a wimper when Bjerre got bogged down trying the outside of bend 3 and everyone seem to lose interest from that point. First time i've seen Fricke and he looked amazing for a 16 year-old riding at 4! Track was obviously a little tricky tonight but no passing at all. not even a chance of a pass (i'm not sure if i've mentioned this before but personally i think the shape might be an issue). Graversen had it going on for us this time, and Bjerre looked good until he lost interest round 3/4. Nieminen and Karlsson still look a yard short of where you hope they'd be and Blackbird has had a struggle of a week by the looks of it. Nielsen though, and this shouldn't be seen as a dig at him, has clearly lost all confidence and i'm not sure him carrying on in the team at this moment is doing anyone any good. I'm not sure you could say a good race win might bring it back, he looks a long way off mixing it. anyways, 135 post 1st/2nd bend laps, 0 genuine passes. I can see the like button but i'm struggling the locate the not like one. Mick.

not sure tsunami, i await you're definitive answer via carrier pidgeon from Workington.I know you have the sense! anyways, have you finished with Lewis Kerr yet. Mick.

of course that's my point Tina. My point being that having such an absolutely dreadful home track may have an influence on how the riders ride and set themselves up for an away track. How's the 'none so blind...' saying go. jeez.