Little Thumper

Well, thank you stevec! There may be the slightest hint of sarcasm in some of my post. But the bit about handing over a beautiful, fresh 20 pound note to Jason Pipe is absolutely straight. I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night after having a vision of Mr Pipe frittering away my lovely money on cheap ale and pork pies at some dull and dingy tavern!

Why is that? Is the pay better in Sweden?

Apart from namby-pamby sports like tennis and cricket, there can't be any other sport which is so vulnerable to the vagaries of the British weather. Cricket and tennis have got bucket loads of money, so they are probably not too bothered. And if the worst comes to the worst, they can always put Cliff Richard up to belt out some of his chart toppers to entertain the snobsters. Shale has had it's day and it's time someone devised a better racing surface.

I think this strategy proves difficult for the good Buxton people due to other commitments. But it would suit me if they could bring things forward an hour or so as I have quite a long ride to undertake after the meeting. But there you go - life is full of disappointments. I believe that Rye House Raiders will be coming up on Sunday 23 October even though it is not listed on the Buxton site. If we can't out-race them at least we will be able to freeze them to death!

Well,that's all very well and good but I thought riders got paid according to how many points they scored? I can't believe that NL riders wouldn't try and maximize their earnings if they could. I don't see too many of them riding round in Aston Martins. Now if you were to suggest that riders were under instructions from management to knock it back a bit so as to keep themselves and their machines in one piece so as to be better placed for more important meetings, then I might believe you. And if you were to further suggest that from time to time favours are repaid, then I would also be receptive to your suggestion. Just wondering if Birmingham owe us any favours??? Just my opinion, obviously.

So is this just an Eastbourne thing? Or do other teams give it less than 100% when away from home?

Yep, I'll be there! Hope you shape up a bit better than you did today.

That's next year!

Well, there you go! Just as I predicted, a magnificent win for the wonderful Buxton Hitmen and the southern softies were despatched back to blue rinse land empty handed. To be fair, some of the Eastbourne riders seemed more concerned about perfecting their wheelie techniques rather than winning races. But a win is a win and as our great leader Mr Pipe would say, "always expect the unexpected in this sport". I was so overcome with emotion by this great triumph that as soon as the meeting finished, I rushed round to the pits to shake Jason's hand and donate £20 to the team's fuel fund! Looks like those Brummies could be in for a bit of a thrashing next week. ..........and all credit to Buxton, they had actually got a PA system that worked, so matey didn't have to shout out the results from on top of his shipping container......hooray!

Weather forecast looking pretty promising so hopefully, the Buxton Zimmner Men can send the southern softies back to God's Waiting Room empty-handed! Give it LARGE, Buxton!

Just chanced upon this article in The Guardian:- https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/24/love-affair-became-obsession-megafans-of-small-teams Half way down is the speedway bit and I think it touches a bit of a nerve with those of us who hang around the lower echelons of the speedway world.

Don't give Jason Pipe any ideas!

Jason Pipe's latest monologue is notable for two reasons. Firstly, he would seem to be attempting to set some kind of record for paragraph length and secondly, for his unabated, blind optimism. Jason states that,"I'm targeting at least 3 wins from our last 5 home meetings, which is something we are capable of pulling off. Some may say I'm talking nonsense (surely not) but I know my riders and I know how desperate they are for that first home win. That win is coming!" (and so is Christmas). Well, I'll have a pint of whatever Jason is drinking because it clearly takes you to places far distant from reality. Probably, an Eastbourne win by 10 to 12 points but as Jason says in his latest offering, "always expect the unexpected in this sport!" Come on Buxton! ......and always expect the unexpected on the good, old weather front

And more importantly, if either of these riders get injured in this farce how will this affect Buxton's chances against Eastbourne on Sunday? Not sure that Jason Pipe would be able to conjure up any more riders.

Belle Vue team includes 2 guests and 1 rider replacement!!! This really is a pretty poor state of affairs and short-changes the supporters.

Interestingly, the top brass from Buxton were witnessed in deep conversation with the Stoke management in the pit area prior to the start of the meeting. So perhaps there is something afoot. It is quite possible that Stoke had borrowed Buxton's PA system for this meeting as it was practically inaudible unless you had particularly keen hearing and were stood directly below the referees box. And whereas at Buxton a bod shouts out the results from the top of a shipping container, we had no such courtesy extended at this meeting. So you had to work out for yourself who was starting and what the heat results were. And there was no explanation offered as to why the meeting started 20 minutes late. But these technicalities aside, Stoke nearly won! On the excellent Speedway Updates site, the texter, John Woolls states, "Not a huge crowd with almost as many dogs as people". It was nice to see a few brave souls having made the trip up from Kent and I was particularly pleased to see one lady had brought her four or five dogs with her! Hopefully, the dogs enjoyed the meeting and the canine supporters and the other Kent stalwarts had a safe journey back home. Thanks for coming. Sorry it was a bit rubbishy.

That sounds more like an ailment than a speedway team.

Well, clearly the higher echelons of the Stoke management team are closely watching the wise words that appear on this forum because lo and behold, on Sunday morning a meeting preview has appeared on the Stoke website! In this preview, Malcolm Vasey appears to have delved into Jason Pipe's stock of limitless optimism and suggests that, "we will just have just enough fire power to get the victory". I hope that you are right, Malcolm, because the last thing we need to see is Stoke suffering another demoralising defeat. Rather pleasingly, they have clearly taken on board my dissatisfaction with the rider replacement nonsense and have brought in a guest to replace AWOL Phillips. Slightly disappointingly and with no disrespect to Ryan Blacklock, this change will have little effect on the overall result but at least, it will ease the pressure on the remaining Potters. With Stoke and Buxton seeming to interchange riders on a very regular basis, It might be well worth their while combining into just a single team next year. Not sure what the team would be called though - perhaps the Stoketon Pitmen? Just my opinion, obviously.

Falcon Hammer, my friend, thank you for this information. And thank you to Kent for providing the information which Stoke should have supplied. In the light of Danny Phillips going AWOL, then I amend my prediction to an 8 point win for Kent. Ben Wilson will be tired from his exertions at the NLRC and the others probably won't have much to offer. I really dislike rider replacement. It feels as though you are getting diddled. And it is not as though Stoke have got much in the rider talent department to fall back on. We shall see what tomorrow brings................

Tomorrow, the feisty Potters invite the Kings to sample the delights of the Loomer Road theatre of dreams. As I am thinking of drifting along to this feast of shale-carving action, I thought I would read the preview on the Stoke website but sadly just 24 hours before this encounter, there is no mention whatsoever of the meeting. Not to be deterred, I swiftly zipped over to the Kent website to see how they were viewing the forthcoming action. But again, I failed to find anything at all - no team line-ups, no delusional predictions of how it would all pan out - nothing, zilch, nowt. So without knowing who might be lining up, it is hard to predict the result but I have a feeling that the Potters will sneak a narrow win. This will be my last season of following speedway as I can no longer be bothered trying to give enthusiastic support to clubs who don't seem minded to inform and encourage the poor souls coming through the turnstiles. Just my opinion, obviously.

Well that must be true since even Buxton can win at Coventry!

I bow to your superior knowledge in this area, martin_t. However, if I log on to Twatter or simply view one of their pages, they will still attempt to track me. I resent that. So if a club can't make the effort to use the website that somebody has taken the time to create for them then I will remain in blissful ignorance.

To be honest, RS50, I'm going to give up with Buxton. You try and overlook all the shortcomings but the fact that they can't even take the time to try and involve their pretty loyal supporters has finished me. I shall go and support the Stoke Potters this weekend and although they will probably get well beaten by the Kent Kings at least they seem to put a little bit more effort into it. Just my opinion, obviously.

Well, I choose not to do Farcebook and Twatter so that's bad luck for me. If they can't be bothered to keep their websites updated, they should take them down.

Thank you for that information, Islander15. I have said it before but at the risk of appearing repetitive, why do teams bother having websites if they can't be bothered to use them to pass information to their supporters? If I want to know about a certain product, I would not expect to have to go trawling round competitors' sites to find the information. There are times when I think that the paying supporter is treated with utter contempt and surely it would only take a couple of minutes to bung something up on the website so that the club supporter might feel well-informed and develop a closer bond between the fan and their team. Unless small clubs get their act together and start implementing all the low cost measures at their disposal to maintain/increase their customer base then I do not hold out much hope for their survival. Just my opinion, obviously.