Gresham78

you say it looks like a good meeting Orlov but is it? In reality it's little more than just a practice match for Nick and Sedgie to give them a bit more track time. At full price I'm struggling to get any enthusiasm for this.

well done Orlov, glad to see somebody has posted a thread about this meeting in the NL section. Maybe it'll just be you and me who show up for the meeting!!

Can't see us losing this one again, there's too much at stake. I don't think Lakeside will win at Kings Lynn either. The Stars are coming off the back of a couple of poor results and will be keen to make amends at home plus Lakeside are dismal away from their patch

thanks Trees, I'll give the stadium a ring tomorrow.

First of all apologies to anyone who thinks I'm abusing the forum but I'm hoping somebody on here can give me some advice. I attended the abandoned Kings Lynn v Swindon meeting on 20th July and given that I was not going to be able to make the rearranged date ( I live in Chippenham which is 20 miles east of Swindon so Saddlebow Road is a once a year trip at best) I took up the club's offer of a refund of admission. This offer was confirmed by a member of staff at the track on the night and confirmed when I emailed Kings Lynn Speedway and the stadium manager advised me to send in 'a copy of the ticket and full postal address' and I would receive a cheque in the post. I did this at the beginning of August but so far have received nothing. I've emailed the Stadium Manager twice since but had no response. Should I now try and ring the stadium or write a letter addressed to Buster? Grateful for any advice from Lynn fans. Thanks

Agreed Orlov. A team that's been chasing top spot all season versus play off hopefuls and it hardly raises a murmur on here. This is the business end of the season and judging by the lack of activity on the on the EL forum a general air of apathy prevails. Chapman and co need to take note of this for the AGM as it doesn't bode well for the future of the sport in the UK. Anyway back to today, I agree, think the Budgies could nick something out of this especially with Rohan's form being what it is....

Well done Robins,Rosco had them pumped Monday night and they wanted it more than Poole. Have to say though that this is not the strongest front end that Poole have had in recent years. It was of course Darcy and Holder for a few years, then Magic and Holder with solid support from Davey Watt. I think this is why they've not done especially well away from home this year. Holder's had an average year in the EL by his standards and Andersen is on the wane (more interested in posing in his Kevlars and his shiny bikes) Buzz is very unpredictable. Poole have become a regular fixture in the final and you take it for granted that they'll be one of the finalists however I wonder if they'll get past the semis this year? Incidentally don't agree with the critcism of Kurtz; the kid's a talent and people forget he's still a teenager, he's bound to be a bit inconsistent. He's done well enough this year.

I'm assuming Shale Searcher you've worked on tracks yourself judging by your comments in which case I accept what you're saying.However it doesn't excuse the lack of communication by the club. If they'd just announced something on the lines of ' despite heavy rain the club are confident of the meeting going ahead'That announcement could have been proceeded by a track inspection and followed up with a further inspection when the rain stopped. Everybody in speedway knows rain and racing don't go together very well so you've got to keep people informed when a meeting is likely to be affected by the weather & the track condition needs to be monitored regularly. It's no good just relying on the drains,letting people in and then saying 'oh darn it we forgot to tyre pack it'. If this sport wants to be taken seriously again its got to act more professionally and that includes the National Speedway Stadium as it should be setting an example to the rest of the sport.

You say it was reasonable to think the drains could cope with the rainfall but as I understand it Manchester had significant rainfall on Thursday night followed by 8 hours worth on Friday. With that kind of precipitation the best drainage system in the world isn't going to cope. The fact is there comes a point when the shale is saturated as it was on Friday and once that happens it has to dry out and it just wasn't going to do it in 3 hours. The worst thing is they let people through the turnstiles not knowing for certain that they were going to be able to put on a meeting. There should have been a track inspection at lunch time taking into account the weather forecast - an update posted on the website and social media followed by another inspection when the rain stopped and a decision taken then. You have to take into account not only the travelling supporters like myself who spent 6 hours getting to Manchester but also the home fans some of whom probably don't live that close to the stadium. and have to travel as well. Just taking a punt on it like they did last night and assuming it would be ok as it had been in the past is unprofessional and shows a contempt for the paying public. After the fiasco of the opening night messrs Gordon and Morton need to get their act together and act a bit more responsibly and professionally otherwise as Bellevueace said the fine facilty that is the NSS is not going to be exploited to the full. How the Belle Vue Promotion didn't learn from the farce of the opening night is beyond me; to have the paying public in the stadium only to call it off because of an unfit track is careless if it has hapens once but to do it again is just incomptent.

Total shambles - unprofessional and amateurish. People at the track said it didn't stop raining till around 4-4.30.Should have been a track inspection there and then and should have been called off. With the amount of rain they've had how did they possibly think it could go ahead & how can you let people through the turnstiles if you're not sure you're going to run the meeting? At least at Kings Lynn the rain came just before the start so people were already in the stadium. Chapman & co need to get hold of this type situation and lay down some clear guidance about calling off meetings.

thanks Phil.

Was thinking of going to this but the weather forecast is rain pretty much all day until late afternoon. I know the NSS has already got a good reputation with dealing with wet conditions but there are limits. Aces fans how confident are you that this meeting will go ahead?

Whilst I agree that Rohan's struggled at Blunsdon for most of the season and that has cost us I think the lack of support for Jason at the top end has been a major problem. I really expected (as I'm sure Rosco did) that Nick and Josh would have pushed on this season and both been on 7 point averages. Nick has clearly suffered through lack of time on the bike as his move into racing in Poland doesn't seem to have worked (but I wouldn't criticise him for that - he's trying to further his career) and Josh has been very inconsistent and I feel we have haven't seen the best of him. Surprisingly I think the 'Team Australia' spirit hasn't really happened and I really thought that would be a big feature of the team this year. And I agree with Orion about Rosco; I think his enthusiasm has waned a bit. As was said I'm sure he's become frustrated like the rest of us with the lack of prrogress with the new stadium. I think there needs to be a rethink about the make up of the team for next season and much as I like him I think it might benefit Nick if he moved to a diffrent team next year - a change of scene could be the boost his career needs.

A well deserved victory last night for the Bees with an excellent all round team performance - all Coventry riders contributed and the Robins were outgunned in every department. Unfortunately Nick and Josh failed again to support Doyley which has been a disappointing feature of the season. Sedgie looks very short on confidence. Although on paper its still in Swindons hands to qualify for the play offs it looks like Rosco has a major job on his hands to give them the belief they're capable of doing so.

I really thought the Robins were going to lose this by a lot more tonight so credit to Jason, Nick and super guest Robbo for keeping the score respectable. Thanks to Bryn for his weather updates although I didn't go in the end - having been at the shambles at Kings Lynn on Wednesday & with the BBC forecast predicting slow moving thundery showers in the Grays area that was enough to put me off. Instead I went to watch the other half of the Robins team at the Oak Tree arena Somerset where Rohan Tungate recorded a 15 pt maximum. He goes like a bat out of hell round there pity he's more like an asthmatic sparrow round Blunsdon... Bad week for Rosco's Roobins - play off chances severely damaged...

Ever thought of getting a job with the Met Office Bryn?!

Thanks very much Orlov - after getting caught up in the Kings Lynn fiasco the other night I'm understandably cautious about going along today...!

Was going to attend this meeting but I see the forecast is predicting slow moving thundery showers in the Thurrock area for today and having been caught out the last time they tried to run this fixture ( a downpour flooded the track late afternoon) I'm thinking about giving it a miss unless somebody local has a more accurate forecast? Would be grateful if any Hammers fans could provide a local weather check.

Regardless of whose job it is to call off a meeting what we got last night was a shambles and yet again the reputation of the sport suffers. As a Swindon fan i was expecting to hear the announcement at 7.30 that due to the heavy rain shower the meeting was postponed and i would have accepted that as the amount of water that came down was quite considerable. The worst thing for me was the lack of communication with the crowd - we were just left standing there wondering whether we were going to get a meeting or not. Whatever line of business you're in you should be putting the interests of your paying customers first and I don't think that happened last night. Whether it was Buster's fault the refs fault or whoever's fault it's the sports governing administration that needs to get its house in order to make sure this type of thing isn't repeated.

Thanks GRW123

Think this could go either way tonight. Which Robins team will turn up? If its the motley crew that flopped so badly at Wolves on Monday then the Stars could probably leave NKI to beat them on his own. As well as wanting to win for the team there are a number of Lynn riders with personal reasons for wanting to get one over Rosco; Batch, Lewis Rose and the guest for tonight Kyle Howarth will feel they have something to prove so no lack of motivation in the Star's team. Also Robert Lambert will want to impress in front of Rosco thinking of his Team GB place. For the Robins I think it depends on whether Rosco can motivate them. Interestingly enough Rosco said in the local press after the Wolves meeting that the team "wouldn't listen" to him when he was trying to tell them where they were going wrong during the racing. It does make you wonder if there's something awry with Rosco's relationship with the team as there have been other incidences of the riders just doing their own thing. Perhaps its the "Team Australia" thing and they'd rather just listen to Jason instead? I'm planning on going to this - if there are any KL fans who could provide an update on the weather forecast I'd be very grateful. Good luck to both teams tonight and let's hope for a good, competitive and safe meeting.

This was a total shambles by Swindon and reminiscent of some of our more embarrassing efforts at Wimborne Road. None of the Robins came out of it with any credit and Rosco has now got a job on his hands with it being such a crucial week with 4 fixtures in 5 days. You don't want to to start with an absolute mauling but that's what we got. As Hagonshocker has said Doyley lacks a 7.5 rider to support him but to be fair I think Rosco expected Nick and Josh both to push for that no 2 position but we're not seeing the best of either them this season in particular Nick. By the sounds of things he's not picking up the rides in Poland and just isn't getting enough time on the bike. Josh is capable of more too, especially when you think how good he was with Poole. For one reason or another this team hasn't clicked this season and I think if we don't pick up something at home to Belle Vue and Lakeside beat us on Friday (which is highly likely after this showing) the Hammers will be in the box seat for the 4th play off spot.

Sadly this is a reflection of the state of the EL ; first v third separated by 2 points and nobody's really bothered. Still, I'm off to watch it and also going to King s Lynn on Wednesday, the Aces at the Abbey on Thurs and Lakeside on Friday - bring it on!!

Congratulations to the organisers of Saturday's GP; the presentation was very slick and Ole Olsen's team produced an excellent racing surface which was reflected in the standard of racing which was the best i've seen in the 5 years i've been going to Cardiff. Pleased for Lindback he's a flamboyant character and was very quick all night. Agree with some of the comments about the fanzone - liked the new location but the formatt is looking very tired same routine every year and badly needs freshening up. A word about Tai; he's done a lot of good for the sport but bad language during a press conference is unprofessional and presents a bad image of the sport. That kind of behaviour can cost him and the sport sponsorship opportunities which speedway is desperate for. I'm all for keeping the GP at Cardiff the only downside is the amount of empty seats in the stadium but please keep it out of London!

thanks Tocha and Bryn for weather updates - i took a punt on travelling to the track - got as far as Cobham Svces on the M25 when i saw the post. Oh well that's speedway and the British weather for u...