marko

Historically most Mondays either in the past via Sky or now via BT the outcome in more or less the same, not many fans in attendance, no atmosphere BUT come the play offs, Still on a Monday night and suddenly the stadiums are alive and buzzing with record numbers of fans for that club, for that season, its great but where were all those fans the previous six months? So the question is, are the league meetings not seen as important enough? and if so, how do they get more people taking an interest in the journey and not just the destination? The play offs work, they generate interest and therefore money, no need to change that, but the play offs on their own will not subsidize everyone's season.

When it comes to football you will be surprised, not the very big clubs who attacking five figure crowds but lower down certainly, I understand one of the Thurrock teams, was recently in danger of losing their ground, Truro are having to ground share this coming season after losing the ground and apparently Weston Super Mare is now sharing with the rugby club, and many will have heard the problems affecting Dulwich Hamlet who for a non league teams had a fan base that some in League 2 clubs would be envious of. Look at the amount of brown field sites that you would never have expected housing to be put on because it would make no sense or very appealing because its slap bang next to a motorway or busy A road, no where is safe.

First thing I noticed on getting to the car park was how much fuller it was, it was nice to see the support back to the sort of numbers we have seen in the past, I think Panthers will probably bring a few people next week too, at all helps to strengthen the clubs argument for a right or at least a chance to continue.

Also interesting to hear Jon say there were some sort of caveats that if speedway wasn't included in the plan than they (the owners) would have to provide another site for the club somewhere in the region, how legally binding that is I don't know.

11 of the 15 races were pretty much from the gate and at least nine were stone wall from the gate not even a hint of a pass being possible, if people want to call that entertaining fair enough, hopefully some cooler conditions next week and a bit more grip so there is more than one racing line. If that had been on BT Sport, this meeting would be getting Hammered right now, (pun not intended)

Covatti tried his nuts off to be fair, but there was nothing there for him to hook up with on lines he was attempting to ride, if he could have stuck his front wheel to the white line he probably would have doubled his points but its not his way of riding.

The racing did improve towards the end but most of the passing there was, was because riders drifted off the inside, Ben Morley showed exactly how it should be ridden when its like this, rider of the night for me.

It's certainly boring and predictable tonight, Nicholls had a good go in one heat and nearly caught Lawson after he tricked him off the white line

Track too dry, inside line or nothing!

There is one thing that has crossed my mind today, which is in the unlikely event work cannot start on the complex for another year plus, as the only tenants at the raceway, we could race any Saturday (every Saturday if the league was big enough) without any conflicts from four wheeled motorsport, clutching at straws a bit there but on paper that is currently our best case scenario, Saturday speedway at Arena, now that would be going full circle back to the late 80s when it was weekly on Saturdays at 7pm.

Yes it is a s**t hole but its our s**t hole, if I had Belle Vue or Poole on my doorstep I would go there but I don't, and unlike a lot of football fans, us speedway supporters follow our local teams.

Depends on Zach and Kyle, Zach has been very average at best when he has actually turned up for us lately whilst Kyle seems to be struggling due to lack of racing, all things being equal it would normally be a comfortable home win. No idea if the stadium is being used during the day but they will need to flood the track before hand, I wouldn't think about running junior races as they would be trying to race on a very wet track, probably too dangerous for their level of ability, of course it would be nice to give them the extra laps but it should never be at the expense of what people pay to come and watch and the track will require of a lot of careful detailing, if it starts dry then your down to the base in no time, and then your pretty much knackered. No mistake about it, its going to be a battle from now on in, to hold what support we have, every meeting has got to be on a good par or fans will walk away thinking, what's the point, it will probably close at the end of the season anyway, any vibe that the club is simply running down the clock even if they are not, would spell disaster for the already fairly poor crowd numbers.

In that case then we are probably knackered, but if you had told me back in the mid 90s speedway would still be going at the stadium in 2018 I would have been amazed so really I’m just glad it lasted as long as it did, no one ever really expected the place to remain untouched for ever.

That article mentions north and east, the raceway is actually west of the retail park and south west of the main shopping complex, so this is probably another area, maybe just maybe someone will buy the land who wants to improve what is already there, long shot? the complex needs serious investment though and more uses, its clear the family who currently own it were asset rich but actually in terms of cash were very poor, so the raceway was just left to get more and more run down. There are not many places you can visit having not been there for 30 years and say, ow this place hasn't changed one bit, Arena Essex is the exception.

Every Monday night, speedway dies another death.

The track looked more like a bigger version of Kent's, and with the same Len Silver preparation which is tarmac covered in a light dusting of shale, Dusting being the operative word.

Arena Essex is completely different, you cant have tractors going around whilst cars are racing a few feet away, that's dangerous, however I don't think there is any danger or a dog losing control and ending up on the speedway track (there is a fence there anyway) or a tractor ending up on the dog track , although if Swindon is like Romford dog track, they do have tractors grading and watering the sand based dog track anyway between the greyhound races. Don't even have to use a tractor, just use a hose on the bends, or how about buying some cheap sprinklers?

They cant water the track because of the dogs? I didn't know the dogs liked to use the speedway track and doesn't the dog track get watered? Poor excuse from Swindon

Dirty man Doyle, back to normal

I cant say what I think about that decision as I would be banned from here

who is the ref? its not Turnbull or Horley is it?

Dan would be better having a small track as one of his homes, he can cut it on the large ones but these smaller ones he needs to improve on to be a better all rounder, but time is certainly on his side. There isn't a club in the land who wouldn't want a Dan Bewley in their team.

This will sum up a lot of clubs seasons over the next month or two, dry warm weather and no speedway, then when meetings finally come around it will rain.

I am at home, I was being considerate and thinking about the poor sods there.

Its not going to stop raining, just call it off now and let everyone go home.