Chris116

I only got to a couple of Saturday meetings but based on those I got the impression that the crowds were nearly the same midweek as they were on Saturdays.

I would agree that from a fan point of view then a Raiders team is a great idea but sadly I suspect most of us have seen how few of our fellow fans will watch a Premiership/Championship team and also watch a National League team at the same track on a regular basis. I have seen the size of crowds over the years at National League meetings at tracks that have a team in one of the higher leagues and with that knowledge I can understand why promoters do not want to run two teams at many tracks. What is needed is fixture lists that give a full programme of fixtures in the league of choice then tracks could run a full programme with just one team. Rye House has been the track I have visited the most in the last year and this season they ran/planned home meetings as follows:- April - 4 Saturday night May- 2 Saturday night (1 rained off), 1 Bank Holiday afternoon, 1 Junior on a Sunday afternoon June - 1 Wednesday night, 1 Junior on a Sunday afternoon July - 1 Saturday night August - 4 Wednesday night (2 rained off), 1 Saturday night, 1 Bank Holiday night, 1 Tuesday night September - 1 Friday night, 1 Monday night Just shows how uneven a fixture list Rye House landed up with. Two senior meetings in two months during the middle of the season with four meetings in eight days at the end of the season. I would agree a Raiders side could have filled some of the blank dates but would they have broken even, let alone made a small profit? The questions we really need to find an answers to are how does a track run a season with regular meetings that will be supported by the fans? Are we willing to have a meeting once a fortnight or do we want weekly meetings? Do we want to watch racing in two leagues or will we only support the team in the higher league? Personally, I am happy to watch racing in all three leagues given the chance but find weekday meetings much easier to attend due to other committments at weekends.

I hope there is another meeting but only if it is midweek like meetings have been for the last few months. If they revert to Saturday I will not be able to be there. I was very pleased when the meetings in August and September were mid week as it meant I could see more meetings.

That was what I thought but I always live in hope!

At the last two meetings of 2017 at Rye House it was mentioned that the Kings Lynn meeting would not be the last meeting of the season and we should look out for news of the last meeting. Still no news which makes me wonder if the idea has been dropped. If it has I can understand why but it would be nice to have confirmation or is that expecting too much?

I am going to be at this meeting, spending the day on the IOW Steam Railway and then the speedway in the evening.

Always got home on time and many a time he got meetings over before the rain came when with other refs we would have only seen 8 or 9 races. I wish all meetings were run the way he used to do it.

In amongst all the doom and gloom there are some bright spots. Teams are able to ride tracks other than their own far more than back in the sixties and seventies. I have seen some excellent meetings this year and last. OK, I don't like guests but provided they are kept to a minimum I understand the reasons and prefer a team with guests who can make a close match rather than a meaningless thrashing due to a team being short of quality riders. But then I would prefer to watch my team get beaten by two points rather than win by thirty! You can put that down to having watched White City Rebels bore me every meeting in their last season when they won the league but the crowd vanished due to boredom. I have booked my rail tickets for Isle of Wight on 21st September and just have to hope the visitors have at least half a team of their own! If we want the sport to improve then the supporters have to SUPPORT it. If we stay away we are signing the death of the sport we claim to love. EDIT for smelling pistakes! 😁😉

Please understand that I did not miss the ferry and I am very impressed with the service provided and with the whole set up at Smallbrook. However the Smallbrook station is a National Rail station on the electric Island Line that runs from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin and as you say the station is also on the steam railway The foot ferry from Portsmouth to Ryde is £19 return for Adults and £14.20 return for Over 60's. I always go in the morning and visit the Steam Railway during the day and then the speedway in the evening. The fares I quoted are for 21st September when Cradley Heathens are visiting and the Steam Railway has a two train service. Wightlink also do a special fare which includes the Ferry, Island Line to Smallbrook Junction and all day on the Steam Railway which is good value but I do not use it as I volunteer on another steam railway and get my own special deal on the steam trains. I have nearly convinced myself to attend the meeting having looked up the details!

Smallbrook is both Island Line electric trains and the Steam Railway. At present the electric trains only stop when the steam trains are running but that could be changed so they stopped for speedway meetings as well which would get rid of the need to have taxis for fans from the mainland.

My biggest wish with Smallbrook stadium is that they could have a pathway to Smallbrook station so we could catch the train that links with the ferry. It would make the journey much less of a worry as last time I attended I nearly missed the ferry due to the first taxi being full and the second one not arriving for some time.

I went to my first speedway meeting, aged 3 months, at Rye House in 1954. My parents moved to Southfields in 1957 and we started going to Wimbledon within a few weeks. During the next few of decades we went to meetings at New Cross, Hackney, Wembley, White City, Reading, Coventry, Cradley Heath, Oxford and Crayford. We also went to a similar number of Stock Car tracks and enjoyed both sports equally. As tracks in London closed I spent time living in Basildon and Skegness and saw racing at Arena Essex, Peterborough, Kings Lynn and Skegness. Now I am back living near Wimbledon and sadly went to most of the last season of car racing there. I no longer drive a car and this restricts me to Rye House for Speedway, Aldershot for Stock Cars and a few other meetings when I can get a lift from a friend. As I am a railway enthusiast I volunteer as a guard on the Mid Hants railway which means I can not attend Saturday meetings so I have been pleased they have been racing midweek meetings recently. I just hope they keep to midweek dates next year so I can continue watching some great racing.

So you have the problem of not really wanting them to race mid week while I cannot see more than a very few Saturday meetings! Looks like whatever happens one of us will be missing next season which is sad.

You can add Grimley to the list of stock car tracks. It was nearly lost last winter due to planning problems but they started racing again once the problem was solved.

I agree with those who say it is nonsense that they have to have an interval but until management say they have stopped having an interval and aim to complete meetings by 9.20pm. I will not be risking missing the last race. I fully understand that a crash can delay things, that is outside anybody's control but the love of intervals is something I can do without.

I live near Wimbledon and used to enjoy going to Poole and Rye House but sadly Poole insist on having an interval which meant last season I missed the last race in order to catch the 9.52pm train. That was with a 7.30pm start time and allowing 10 minutes to get from the stadium to the station. When I spoke to two officials I was told they had to have an interval because the track staff had to have a break which in my opinion is ridiculous. Two hours and ten minutes to fail to complete a meeting without any injury delays has meant I have only seen racing at Rye House this season. I just hope they go to all midweek meetings next season as I am busy on a Saturday.

If this meeting is not run before the cutoff date and that is the cause of Rye House not getting into the playoffs then it will be my last season of watching a sport I have followed since 1957. All season there have been massive gaps in the fixture list for all teams and with the cutoff date nearing all of a sudden it is a surprise that they need to run the meetings. Just as the GRA are the biggest menace to stadiums around the country so the BSPA is the biggest threat to speedway. Very upset that things should come to this. They need to either run it next Wednesday or extend the cut off so the match still counts. If Rye House fail to score the points fair enough but if they are not given the chance I feel that the BSPA are a fraud.

I agree with that as his sudden improvement is down to who he is riding for.

Forgive me but KK scored 11+1 for Rye House at Poole earlier this month so he can't dislike the track that much!

Sadly I travel by train and the last train from Kings Lynn to Liverpool Street is at 10.30pm which makes going to a doubleheader pointless. Not happy!

They are at every meeting at Rye House. For those who missed tonights meeting and to see what you have missed then Tuesday and Friday this week plus Monday next week give you plenty of chances to enjoy the errr.... racing!

Poole and Kings Lynn web sites and BSPA web site say that Poole are racing at Kings Lynn on 31st. Only the Rye House web site says they are at Kings Lynn that day! Going to be interesting to see what happens! If it is a double header I can see both aways sides wanting to be in the second match given how KL folded up in the last double header they staged! The fact that the 4th place in the league could depend on the results that night makes for uncomfortable thoughts of who is fixing what for whom!

I am sorry to say that you have hit the jackpot with that answer.

There is a simple reason why they would like the idea. It means an extra meeting that should be profitable!

As I asked the original question I take exception to being called thick and to be told it is an inane question. I know there are rules that cover where a rider races when there are clashing meetings but did not know if these would be what applied in the case of a promotion/relegation match. Having seen the childish way people treat each other here I will not bother asking any further questions as this forum is making me question my following a sport I have watched for sixty years. Note to admin/mods - Please either moderate the post I am replying to or remove my account as I am now in a very bad temper.