SFTGNigel

I agree, he didn’t perform well there either from what I’ve heard. He’s certainly not blameless for coming back too early, I just wouldn’t make a judgement on his value for the whole season because of it.

You can’t judge Kennett’s season by today’s performance as he had clearly been rushed back too early from his knee injury. Even in the parade he was clearly in some discomfort from it and I was worried then, his scoring bore that out. I’m 100% confident a fully fit Eddie would have contributed far more and given us a better winning margin.

Yeah, agree with all that. Felt the meeting was a lot more gating-orientated last night than is usual at Rye House and it took the home riders longer to get their starts right, once they did it their advantage was clearly with them.

Really? I found it as dull as ditchwater and had the rain that threatened late on curtailed the meeting then the time wasted on it would have been infuriating. There is no likelihood of cross-pollination between MotoX and speedway supporters and the centre green is now an eyesore that will limit the view for far too many when a decent crowd turns up. Agree on race jackets, Wolves looked like a pro outfit last night against Ragtag Rockets, especially with Harris and Nicholls having to tie a big knot in those tacky shirts to reduce drag from them flapping behind them. I can understand the cost of kevlars being prohibitive but a race jacket can be knocked up for a couple of hundred quid surely, I'd be willing to sponsor one if I got it at the end of the season (especially if it was blue and yellow!).

I was told last night that NBJ's Wednesday Danish commitments rule out him moving in to the Rockets side permanently. Otherwise he'd be a shoo-in to replace Clegg, total points allowing.

I really missed the back straight enclosure on the stock car track as it’s the best place to watch the racing at Lakeside, though I’m told it was due to track access issues (from the police activity, one presumes) and will be back next meeting. Not much interesting racing for the neutral last night unfortunately. In the interviews between heats the Hammers management and riders made much of the difficulty predominately second tier riders are going to have with their trick track and it certainly seemed that way for Redcar with only Barker (who I wish had stayed at Rye House) making any inroads. Very good to see the meeting zip along so quickly (until the long gap prior to the final heat, at least) and a decemt crowd there.

Tried to post a couple of photos but the forum doesn’t seem to like the urls from the image hosting site I use. Here’s my waffle on the MotoX track copied from the Rye House fans page on Facebook : Ironic that after all the worries about views we lose a meeting (at least partly) due to visibility from mist. My experience was this, after getting to the track 75 minutes before tapes up and squeezing in to the very last spot at the front of the viewing platform next to the ref’s box I actually had an OK view. Though being 6’5” and getting a spot at the very highest viewing point in the stadium (with the possible exception of the last row of the bleachers on the second/third bend) certainly contributed significantly to that. However, I can’t see how everyone in the stadium can have had a satisfactory view without those advantages. I’m certainly concerned I won’t have one if I don’t manage to get a spot in the same place for future meetings (and there will, hopefully, be plenty of busier ones where good spots will be even more at a premium). I had hoped to try out a few other spots in later heats but obviously that became impossible. At the very best, the moto-cross track is a distraction from the racing, at worst I can see it being a real obstruction to viewing at points around the track. The concerted PR campaign about it from the track announcer (even dragging Scott Nicholls in to tow the company line) was an irritation too, albeit a minor one. I’m reserving final judgement until another meeting or two and see how things settle down (speaking of which, I wouldn’t be surprised if some work had been done to level off some of the bumps in the MotoX track since the original photos and videos were taken, which is a good move if so). A pity that we lost a meeting featuring some good, promising racing - Leicester’s much hyped new stars seemed ill at ease on our track and our riders seemed to be coming together well before conditions got too treacherous.

Certainly a good idea, though clearly a reaction to the outcry over the issue and in itself it doesn’t solve anything if the viewing of the racing is obscured.

Not sure if this link will work, some video on instagram here : https://instagram.com/p/BgzRXc6hQSx/

Not a regular contributor here but thought I would come in and see what the news was on this farce with the MotoX track. I cannot see how there will be even half decent views from anything except small pockets of the trackside, at best. It will take major work in terms of building extensive and substantial stands to give the majority of the crowd sightlines that let them see the racing. The new racenights were actually a bonus for me and I was expecting to get to more than my usual 6-8 home meetings a season but I really fear that my first one this campaign may be my last, at least for the foreseeable future. I’ll attend the opening fixture and if it’s as difficult to enjoyably view the racing as I expect it to be then will ask for a refund (and I suspect I won’t be the only one) and sadly have to consider making Lakeside my regular speedway fix. That would be a huge pity as Rye House is where I discovered the sport, is my favourite track to to watch it at and the team I care about. At Lakeside I would be an interested well-wisher, no more. I read someone upthread tell people to “Support BMR” which is absurd, I support Rye House Rockets not the company currently owning it. The promotion have done a lot of good in the short term but some of their actions show a worrying ambivalence to speedway’s long-term future at the track.

Does anyone have any information on the Kent v Wimbledon meeting next Monday. The fixture has caught my eye before but I've never been able to make it until now. Can't seem to find much information on the Kings' site itself.

I have two best grandstand (section E, Row H, Row 107 & 108) combined race-off/final tickets that I now can't use due to a date clash. Happy to pass them on for face value, £75 each for both nights if anyone is interested? Please feel free to call/text 07802 822836 as I'm an infrequent visitor to the site!

Cook's full comments : "We are very pleased, its like a return to the days of old with a really British League and it was very cool that Britains very own World Champion Tai Woffinden was the first person to give the thumbs up to Elite promoters decision to follow our Swedish & Polish League counterparts by including two British youngsters at 6 & 7 in all 2014 line ups. Woffinden was guest of honour at the closure of Saturdays session of discussions and was fittingly the first person outside of the sports promoters to hear the news that the top 20 young Brits selected by the GB senior & U21 team officials will be graded and allocated in a fast track programme, a move warmly welcomed by our very own World Champion. Clubs will be allocated their riders at a draft meeting at the sports Rugby HQ early next month and there will be a change of race format to produce two reserve races. The Hammers expect the first rider they are allocated to be Adam Ellis who signed a full contract for the club at the end of the 2012 season. The Sports top stars will remain in the Countries top league, led by Woffinden, with a points limit of 32 set for the top five riders. There will be plenty of action for the youngsters to soak up as they remain eligible for all three leagues and, importantly, for fans wanting to enjoy a more regular fix of racing, clubs will now meet home and away twice increasing the league programme from 28 to 36 meetings culminating in the ever successful Play Offs. The top league will remain at ten in number, but sees a change of membership with Leicester replacing Peterborough who have been withdrawn from the league and placed up for sale by its owners. Further good news is on the horizon, as the sports broadcast partners GoSpeed confirmed to the sports leaders that they expect to confirm a new TV contract shortly. Continued Cook I know our fans will be absolutely delighted at our extended fixture list and season ticket prices will be announced Wednesday morning and I am looking forward to going into more details of the season ahead at our fans forum on Friday the 22nd of November at the Park Inn. In the meantime Stuart and myself are working with Neil to inform this years team of our intentions, as well as target riders for what we hope will be a memorable year to come.

Perhaps a key comment from Jon Cook on the Hammers site : "Clubs will be allocated their riders at a draft meeting at the sports Rugby HQ early next month and there will be a change of race format to produce two reserve races. The Hammers expect the first rider they are allocated to be Adam Ellis who signed a full contract for the club at the end of the 2012 season."

Any idea when Somerset's leg of the final would be assuming there isn't a massive shock in Edinburgh? Hope to make it my debut visit to the track but worried it might be the same weekend as Torun like Rye House's home leg.

Very annoyed to have missed this but spending 10 of the previous 24 hours driving to and from North Wales meant another 3 or 4 getting to Sittingbourne would have been foolhardy. What was the crowd like and any indication how many Dons fans were there? Did they go ahead with the auctioning off of Dons race jackets etc.?

Yes, hence my quotation marks around it, to emphasise it was the official line. I believe Simon Lambert broke his ankle last night so maybe Andre Cross will be reinstated in his stead?

"Finally: Andre Cross very graciously stepped aside from riding to allow an emerging young rider Danny Phillips an opportunity . . ."A selfless act by a true gentleman," said CTA Fire Kings team manager John Sampford"

Simon Lambert and Dan Greenwood too.

Names are being dripfed on the Kings' twitter feed: https://twitter.com/kentspeedway

Just been announced as 2pm on Sunday October 6th. Not the Saturday night as it would clash with Torun GP, though I was hoping to be at that and the KOC Final!

I think their curfew is 8:30pm and I'm pretty sure I was out a litlle before that on the one meeting I attended to comfortably get the London train.

Anyone have any more information on this meeting now it's a week away. I mentioned it to the chap who runs the Kent and Rye House track shops at the latter's meeting last week and it all seemed a bit sketchy.

I don't suppose anyone knows if SpeedwayTV's portal stream will work on an iPad, do they?

Yeah, my first visit to Kent last night and the whole experience was great, crowned by their win. But for that understandable but tricky early start time I would get along there quite a bit. Gutted that I'll be on holidaa for the Wimbledon Dons meeting.