bigcatdiary

I arrived at about 1.30 and although the car park was rammed we got in reasonably quickly, it was very lightly raining from the start, well it was where we were sitting opposite the start, and the rain did vary from light to reasonably hard, which carried on until it was called off, nothing made up at all. if the meeting had been run at a reasonable speed from 2.15 it would have easily been completed to heat 15, Wojdlo second exclusion when he went into the third bend fence was cleared pretty quickly yet we waited a while before it was rerun. Their was no urgency at all

Considering the weather forecast I was amazed the meeting wasn’t run at a reasonable pace to give everyone the chance to see a full meeting, it started to rain pretty much from the off but the meeting continued at a fairly average pace, despite the rain it was announced that we were taking the interval after heat 10 and they did even though the rain was still coming down and the last 3 heats clearly showed the riders were struggling somewhat, we then had another 15 minutes when it continued to rain, some attempt to lay a bit more shale on the track and then the inevitable announcement that the match had been abandoned. The track looked fairly slick from the start and had clearly been prepared with the forecast in mind, if the meeting had started at 2.15pm and run at a reasonably brisk pace without an interval I suspect it would have easily finished before the rain made it not safe for racing but it wasn’t which benefited Chris Louis because he only had to pay his riders for 10 heats and Keith Chapman who only had to pay his team for the same. It is a shame the 3,000 or so supporters that turned up didn’t get the same benefit.

We are planning to attend this meeting so any weather updates from Ipswich area would be very much appreciated.

As far as I know the clubs had to declare their line ups at least 3 days before the fixture on a separate website that only officials and clubs had access too, I am not sure if this system is still running,

Again nothing new, Lynn are dreadful for putting out information on riders, particularly bearing in mind Poland have already stated he has a shoulder injury and I have read broken collarbone somewhere as well. This is a common problem with club websites who use them to promote news they want broadcasting and keep anything else under wraps particularly injury news, despite the supporters really wanting to know.

That’s four live meetings I have watched this year and a problem where one gate was so much better or one was dreadful has surfaced in every one of them. The closeness of the match kept this meeting alive as it certainly wasn’t the quality of the racing which was generally gate and go with the odd pass now and then, the middle section of the track was hopeless and really slick, with very little grip as riders found out. Quite why tracks are not prepared to ensure gates are as even as possible and at least some grip everywhere to offer riders the chance to pass opponents is beyond me. Their didn’t appear to be a vast amount of spectators watching, having some knowledge of Birmingham I am assuming most of the supporters were watching from inside due mainly to the weather as well as the view from trackside which is limited at best, but the home supporters went home happy following the expected decision after Pawlicki went down as the Kurtz exclusion settled the match in Birminghams favour.

Thanks Tim

I take it the draw follows practice tomorrow afternoon

I think it’s fairly common knowledge that Buster won’t splash the Wonga for any rider.

Is the correct answer

Pretty easy really, let the meeting referee call it, and take it out of the hands of staging promotions. Its been done before.

Most people just ignore the idiot in the first place

So what’s new, it’s been like that at Lynn for ages

A friend at Lynn said nothing was said about John Louis at all which is a real shame because of his standing within the sport.

Fair point and more eloquently put than the other idiot. No doubt most Workington fans are connected to the Workington social feeds, unfortunately I am not, other sources suggested Cook had dislocated his thumb.

Nothing stupid about it at all, Cook fell in his second ride and withdrew, I think it’s reasonable to expect an update as to the latest position on his injury and whether he rides or a replacement. Workington has an official website, it would be a good idea to use it.

Nothing on their official website, not even a match report from last night, that’s poor especially as the gate opens at 1pm for the second leg

Sounds like two ambulances would have saved the show tonight being held up. I bet it’s freezing, normally is on nights like this

Lynn missing at least one according to the pictures

All 49, and how did that work out

The Superheat seriously favours teams with two big hitters and as it’s said when you have an aggregate bonus point up for grabs it isn’t necessary.

Heat 2 - Admittedly he might have been watching the race winner when Kemp locked up and was collected by Thompson but if he didn’t actually see it surely their are others in the box with him (timekeeper, announcer, incident recorder, he can ask surely. Heat 3 - No Excuses here, I am reliably informed by an ex referee of many years standing that when using start posts they automatically check after the tapes go up that the start Marshall has removed it from the track, otherwise the red lights go on, of course that’s also assuming he wasn’t aware that the rule had changed and that start posts were not being used this year. Heat 14 - It seemed fairly clear from my TV view that Kemp touched the tapes, BSN made a point that the wind might have played a part in blowing the tapes but it still meant Kemp had moved. Thats the only 3 decisions he really had to make in the match and he made a mess of all 3.

SCB press statement on the SCB website today stating the referees decisions and incidents are being investigated.

I think everyone in the stadium and watching thought that unfortunately the one person that didn’t was Watters, heaven alone knows what he was thinking. For a referee of his standing to come to a decision like he did suggests he is past his sell by date and needs his ticket pulled, the other two decisions he made just support that.

Utter drivel