marko

Yeah but there is a certain integrity about it, its like someone trying palm you off with what you know is a fake rolex and insisting its the real thing, as opposed to someone saying hey, this isn't what your looking for but it will do the job and you will be happy and look around at how many others are wearing these, they know what it is and they are happy too. Probably that's a crap analogy but you get my point, there is no pretending to be something they are not.

If it’s at Rye it should be Rye House Rockets, if you try and appeal to two sets of fans you end up appealing to neither. We saw in 2017 a swing of fans go to Rye instead of Arena as they wanted to see a higher level of racing, that could still happen again especially if you have the odd rider or two with previous Hammers connections. The Hammers are done, at least for the time being, no point in losing another track in the process of trying to keep two sets of fans happy.

Probably just words of support Hammer180, I remember when the club were looking to drop the NL, Richard asked if there was anything he could do to ensure the club continued to race at a higher level, Top man is Richard Lawson. If you made a list of the top 5 most likable riders the club has had in its entire history, Richard would be in that.

The thing that above all else that has kept me away from Rye House is the small car park, if that is full I wouldn't want to leave my car over the river/railway, that estate always used to look rough to say the least, at Arena I knew even if there was 3000 in, I would still get parked and my car would be safe.

Once you get north of Chelmsford I think that is a sort of boundary between Arena and Ipswich although I did know of some people who lived in the north side of Chelmsford who were Witches through and through, many years ago.

I doubt that very much Whisperer, it would be too far for him to travel.

Stuart is/was the money man, Jon was just a paid employee who was named as a promoter, most promoters do not put money into the club, their title is for administration purposes only, without an owner it really is goodbye to any thoughts of even a track share.

I am in a similar situation, I let it go! all I want now is for its history to be respected and left as is it, in the past, at Arena! Even if there was somewhere else in Essex to go to, I wouldn't want the club to carry on in that name, it should be a fresh start, new identity, the works.

Richard doesn't seem like the sort of person to go around throwing gestures, I think there is more to this than meets the eye and I also feel that maybe the vibe of the Hammers camp isn't anyway near as good as has been painted.

Both clubs could be fined for failing to complete their fixtures or the bond that each club pays before the season could be forfeited.

To say inherited makes it sound like we brought the place, we merely hired it for a few weeks and there is nothing to say they will allow us to hire it next season, even if we did want to use it, we have no track of our own, we do not own the rights to promote at any track that already has other parties with the licence.

Either way after tonight Lakeside will no longer exist, our run at Rye was temporary as a stop gap to get our fixtures completed, which we did. "They" however do not have licence to run speedway at Rye House, it is not down to them whether they do or not run there in the future, its down to other parties as to whether they wish to hire out the venue to another promotion (same with Kent or Eastbourne). Even if Stuart wishes to keep going next season, he must have learnt by now, you can't simply move a club and carry on, there isn't a club in history that has successfully moved venues other than those who have moved the odd mile or two. I would rather not lose the Hammers, but to me we lost them once we left our spiritual home of Arena Essex. Maybe we will see Stuart pop up somewhere else where there is a track without a promoter as a opposed to a promoter without a track.

It’s also been proven fans wont support NlL racing at Arena, never mind at another track.

I don't call it doom and gloom, I call it being realistic and not burying ones head in the sand and hoping everything will be ok, we have no track and evidence to say the club doesn't have enough support outside of the county, and that's with a good team.

Dread to think what the score will be tonight, Hammers have pretty much nothing to ride for so if they could not hit 30 last night then I think we could be looking at a record loss for a Hammers team in the modern era.

They were lucky most of the rain went West of them, and they were able to get heats on the board, a ten point lead is very respectable.

The clock is ticking, rain on its way, just for once they really need to stop sodding around and just get on with it.

They cant make up their minds, we have had 7pm starts, 8pm starts, 6pm starts, 2pm starts.

No chance I would say

My season ended with the last meeting at Lakeside, had it in mind to get to Rye House at least once or twice but I am glad I have not bothered, tonight will be no exception, its a big meeting but I would rather my lasting memory of the season would be of a happy night at Arena Essex than a long cold night at Rye probably watching very much from the gate racing. I can't think of what would happen if this meeting was to fall foul of the elements, there is no room for error now, despite the fact this is the best team we have had under the banner of the Hammers for many seasons, its largely been a ghastly season for the sport with endless weeks of having no meetings then when we do get one it takes what feels like a few weeks to get 15 heats completed.

Another thing is you could spend all season battering teams then encounter major problems at the end, win nothing but still have to decimate the side for the next season, ,meanwhile a team that scrapes 4th place and wins it, can go again the following season with pretty much the same side with just a minimal change to a reserve.

Like in the Speedway of Nations

Without Sky Tv we would never have had the play offs, it was a made for television idea because they wanted to keep the interest up for their television audience, they were more important than the fans that go in person or the sports legitimacy. But I have said it with the Elite League in the past, there is nothing to stop a bunch of Peterborough fans getting together to have a very nice trophy made that they could present to the club, they say in sports "the table doesn't lie" well Peterborough did finish top of the table and there is no law which says your not allowed to celebrate that.

Don't know where "you can't concede" came from but I am sure a season or two ago, Lakeside pulled out of a competition because of a lack of dates?

Yes im sure it probably didn't sit too well with Robins fans seeing the front cover of last weeks Star with their rider celebrating with Poole having won the league.