JamesB

Not in Ipswich. It’s been wet virtually all day and still very overcast with drizzle still around. There’s no way the meeting could have taken place.

How could you suggest that having Doyle and Thompson missing would influence the decision. 😀 To be fair, it’s been raining here just north of Ipswich since 7am and it’s currently hammering it down. There’s no way the meeting would have gone ahead.

My comments were in the context of the weather forecast for today, which was/is rain showers throughout the day extending into the evening. A Speedway Promoter is the owner of a business. In my experience, where you have weather conditions as described then the attendance is diminished probably because people are concerned about paying their money to get in only for the meeting to be cancelled or a mad rush to Heat 10 on a borderline track with reduced value for money both in terms of heats completed and quality of racing. What business owner in their right mind would want to go ahead on that basis? Also, from a customer experience perspective, what would you rather have: 1. A meeting completed on a borderline track with processional racing due to the conditions. 2. A meeting rushed through to Heat 10 to get a result. 3. The meeting postponed and rearranged for a nice sunny and warm evening. I know what my preference is, but each to their own.

Hawkins mentioned on Monday evening that Doyle is targeting the next GP.

I have to say that Monday’s meeting took place on a good track and was enjoyable, however the running of it was hardly an exemplar: 1. The good people of Norfolk failed to work out that there may be ‘quite a good crowd’ for a local semi final clash and decided to turn up at their normal time. The rest of us had to sit around whilst they were accommodated. 2. It was great that so much time was spent preparing the starting grid and just beyond, but not testing the starting tapes until heat 1 was a bad decision which resulted in another lengthy delay. 3. There was less tractor racing in Prague on Saturday night than there was in this meeting. Let’s face it, in excess of 2 1/2 hours to complete 15 heats of speedway cannot be acceptable on what was a lovely evening.

For me, speedway has rightly gone past the approach of ‘can we somehow get the meeting on’ even if conditions are borderline and poor for both riders and spectator’s. There is also the economic angle. Ipswich are a generally well supported team, but a home semi final against local rivals is likely to create an above average attendance. If the weather is inclement during the day with a threat of rain in the evening as well, then inevitably people will decide it’s not worth the risk resulting in a poor crowd and a lost revenue opportunity. Louis will want to maximise the income opportunity from this fixture.

We have to try something. Danyon has always given 100% for the Witches over the years, but it’s obvious that he is not the answer (I do hope that he proves me wrong on Thursday!).

He was at least half a lap behind and he just stopped riding the fourth bend allowing the bike to gently roll in to the fence, jumping off it before it did so. He was not holding his shoulder as he walked back to the pits. Did he aggravate an old injury……maybe, we’ll never know but Heat 8 effectively won the meeting for the Stars.

There was at Foxhall three weeks ago, best guess would be about 4000. It’s a funny old game. Win away at Ipswich and then lose at home to Birmingham a few days later.

I am sure that Doyle and Thompson will be pleased to see you gloating about their injuries and inability to continue their excellent form so far this season. What type of speedway fan takes pleasure out of riders being injured.

You sound very certain on that and I presume that you have some inside knowledge. However, I would expect that the visa application (for which there was a problem) which I think I read somewhere was submitted at the back end of last year would have needed to have been approved prior to Zagar working in the UK. How could he have been able to ride (work) for Birmingham prior to the visa being approved?

Better news than expected. On the flip side, Thompson has withdrawn from the U21 final following a crash in his first heat.

I think that the score depends on which Klindt turns up. If he has a good day 50-40, if not 58-32.

Plain English but a lack of understanding of the qualifying criteria. Programmed rides only, Heat 15 did not count.

No he didn’t. Programmed rides only.