marko

I would not be surprised if there was a curfew at Rye House but because over the decades nothing has ever come close to it, it was merely forgotten about, Maybe Len didn't tell the current owners about it? maybe there was complaints after the other week and it was uncovered then?

Its an interesting narrative that Lakeside are doing whatever it takes to win this tie but if they had truly wanted to do that then they would have found some way of staying at Arena Essex because what they might gain away in guests they lost ten fold in home advantage.

Is this a case of a communications break down between the owners of the stadium and Lakeside speedway? I presume the owners were aware of any covenants regarding the use of the stadium and should have passed that on, if they did and Lakeside still choose to start meetings at 7pm then more fool them, they were lucky because on another night that may well have cost them a place in the next round.

So what would have happened if with two heats to go the result of the tie had not been decided? And also how are we allowed to have Josh Pickering for Ben when we have only been allowed R/R for Kyle (both are second strings)? I am just glad my lasting memory of the Hammers was actually at Lakeside and not this farce which has replaced it.

yes and Adam is carry a weak shoulder so one harmless fall could still see the thing pop out of its socket.

This is worse than last time because unless you pay to have a selection of riders on standby if someone gets injured in the first match that team will be buggered for the second, and with both set to run rider replacement? it will mean the matches are bound to take an eternity to run, easily another 11pm finish. I wont be attending, that's for sure.

I think to be fair Steve both ties are dead rubber which is normally par for the course when it comes to semi finals, after the formalities of next week it will on to the real business of hopefully a classic finale.

Seems odd to me that you have a fan from another club who claims to know what is going on yet fans from the club the rider rides for doesn't know. I am always very sceptical when people say they are "in the know" but wont say anything, in such cases I call BS

Panthers in the driving seat and its theirs to lose, even at Arena this would be a tough ask to pull back but at Rye it will be hard enough to win the leg, never the mind the tie. If indeed BWD does not ride and can only be replaced by a NL rider it will be a leveller but I don't want to see that, I want to see two teams at full strength or as close as possible to it, it was a massive blow not having Kyle, Nick and Zach for the first leg, I think we could have been looking at a seriously tasty second leg had that been the case.

After all the rain we have had today, I doubt it will take much Sunday to put paid to events.

No one deserves to win, wins have to be earnt, same in any sport.

I will be doing a rain dance tomorrow, its hard enough without Kyle but to have Zach and Nick out too is to big an ask.

I would guess a doubler header the following Saturday taking on Panthers twice in different competitions, at least this time the Hammers will be no more tired in the second match than the Panthers.

To a degree though when two clubs are successful in several competitions at the same time, the likelihood is they will meet a few times too, the shield I think was drawn out of a hat, the koc the same and although Panthers choose to race us again in the play offs, aside from the repetitive nature, it makes sense travel wise and they know they can do well at Rye. The play offs the biggies and so you could say the shield and koc could be used a practice sessions but with something on the line.

Facing the same club four times in a row has got to be a record that will never be broken.

There is actually a weather warning now issued for Sunday, it’s more about strong winds than anything else, another event happening Sunday is an air show at Duxford, that’s likely to be serverly affected by the weather, unlike speedway though you have to buy tickets in advance and there is no refund. what is the situation at Rye regards available dates?

We have no choice but to use R/R for Newman. As for Zach I have looked at the green sheet averages and there isn't much choice out there, the best pick for the home leg could be Broc Nicol, Theo Pijper would also fit and is a very experienced rider and would be a good pick for Peterborough, I have no idea on his history at Rye.

Does Rye still have a tarmac base?

I started going at the end of 1988, introduced by a pal at school and until I passed my driving test I had to rely on parents to take us there, most of those early years you had the strange thing of paying on entry before you parked the car, this caused a real problem at one stage as I had very unreliable drivers electric window on my old Renault 21, we always used to joke about the state of the road leading up to the car park which was really bad until they resurfaced it many years later. Never counted how many times I went to Arena Essex but some rough maths would suggest it would be around about 450 times I reckon over the 30 years. Most enjoyable years were 1991, 1993 and 2003, the worst years were 1996, 2005 and 2006

Horrible crash, that split second where you see he was going to clip the back wheel AJ but could do nothing about it.

It was a race at Arena Essex in 1993 involving Brian Karger, Josh Larsen and Belle Vue's Jason Lyons, Jason went between both Hammers to go from third to first then Brian took back first place and Josh pipped Jason to the line to regain the 5-1 for the Hammers

I know it looks a straight run of A10 and A1M but still probably best part of a 2 hour drive if you stick to the speed limit?

Yes, nothing was cut and even though it was a very late finish there was no shortage of patrons who took the opportunity of doing the track walk afterwards, it was a real eye opener to see the track close up and how different it looks when your actually on it, and also the feel of the track under foot and how in some places it was like a very hard slightly sandy base but out towards the fence there was a lot of loose shale which I personally I wouldn't want to put a back wheel in knowing how these modern bikes can take off when they hook up.

I can't go as I will be working tonight but I cannot imagine this meeting being allowed to go beyond 11pm with so many houses near by, I know there is no curfew as such but I wouldn't be surprised if the second meeting is called after ten heats.

It was a really good crowd, I hope a few influential people were there last night to witness the fact there is still very much support there for a speedway track in Essex. As soon as I got in the car park you could see this was going to be a big crowd, I was really worried that they were going to run out of programs but I got lucky and still managed to get one, I would have been well and truly gutted if I had not because this was a lasting souvenir to our time at this venue, the meeting ended up dragging but to be honest I wasn't even aware of the time until later because it was just so nice to catch up with those who have not been for some time. It was what should have been a sad night but to me felt more like a celebration of the venues existence for all these years despite the many times that the stadium or the club itself has been up in the air as to whether it would see another season. The biggest thing was that it wasn't the end of the club full stop, we keep going at another venue for the time being and I do intend to support that now where I can because although my head says we will never have a track in Essex again, my heart says otherwise. So we still have a team, we have somewhere to race, now we just need an organisation who can run British Speedway properly and orderly.