marko

Said in jest i know but your actually correct, should have never been called Lakeside in the first place!

The problem is the FTR system is really an asset system, if you have good contracted riders you can hold on to them, which means if you finish bottom of the league one year despite having the first pick the next still end up with almost no choices because the other seven or eight clubs have already protected the Garrity's and Newman's of this world. It should either be a free for all which means any FTR rider can be drafted to any track based on who has first pick or some sort of average/grading system should be used because the difference between some of these riders is huge.

Is this the same Jon Cook who was co promoter at Eastbourne often bending every rule in the book and using every trick up his sleeve to screw other teams over including my own beloved Hammers! Now he pretends that never happened and he is somehow holier than thou and wants to put everything right? Too late Mr Cook, sooner he jumps back into bed with the Dugard family the better.

If Jon comes out and says that the Hammers are staying put then for me it is the end of the debate.

Since i will be working i will not be able to attend this upcoming fans meeting but i hope whilst some things will naturally be asked to remain "within these walls" I hope the future will be openly clarified, having the Kent racetrack available on a Friday though is not great news for the simple reason that i cannot see Lakeside Speedway agreeing to it much the same way as Rye House would not want Lakeside to race on a Saturday night, therefore in conclusion i can only assume that the planning permission for a Friday night would be to allow the "Hammers" to change location. We all no how much the doubling up of riders has grown to the size it has but fans doubling or even tripling up has been going on for many decades, certainly when there were more tracks around and so no promoter would want to see true competition by having to race the same night as a geographically close rival.

Curfews are no longer a problem now so long as the match has got to heat 10

Baring in mind the most if not all the management team reside south of the river it will be no great loss to them personally should a move to Kent be required or made out of choice if they felt the net gain would offset any loss. Such a move would not nessesarily mean the end of speedway at the venue, but as far as Friday nights it would, ps I am aware that drift events at the circuit are extremely popular and I am given to believe a lot of these take place on Fridays so maybe that is a potential factor, but my personal opinion has always been Friday night is the worst possible night you could have for this location, call me an old git by all means but I miss the days when Arena were in the then National League, racing Saturday's at 7pm.

Its a common rumor CB252 but much like last weeks election exit poll, nothing is certain until the facts come out.

Even if 200 turn up for these forums, that's barely 20% of the total fan base, mind you if they carry on as they are, that 200 is all they will probably have left. Sometimes rumors are positive, sometimes negative, sometimes there is a element of truth to them, sometimes they could not be further from the truth but never the less rumors and gossip are a part of everyday life, with the best will in the world you will never stop them, take weather forecasting for example, that's effectively just rumor and gossip too, you can't tell a weather forecaster your not allowed to say its going to rain or anything negative because it will put people off going out. And don't forget this whole thing with Lakeside maybe? moving came about allegedly from one of these see called forums!

Maybe a forum on the clubs future is more important than assessing what's gone before? what are the intentions for 2016? If your going to do a Terry Russell on us then at least be honest about it, that way it gives time for prospective businessmen or maybe a fans group to come in and start a fresh maybe using the original Arena Essex moniker like what happened in 1996, if you want to move to Kent then fill your boots but if the stadium is still available you cannot surely object to someone else running an operation from there hopefully in the PL.

I see that the Hammers have booked Rory Schlein for AJ and Poole have booked PK for Janowski and Blackbird for Newman, I got this down as another home defeat. Who would have thought this time last season that we would end up facing a team a year later with Davey and PK on the other side of the pits?

Not the first time this season so goes to show they have done absolutely nothing about it, if this is how you treat your staff its no wonder that sometimes they might think twice before breaking a sweat.

Maybe Freddie only agreed to ride if he was promised five rides? either way reads like another rather dull meeting with next to passing but we shall have to wait for others who went to give a more true reflection on that score. There was enormous amounts of criticism last week though on the Lakeside forum re: the state of the track for the Wolves meeting.

Was sure i read somewhere earlier this year that Marc Owen is actually now an Eastbourne asset.

Don't blame the riders, blame the promoters, they are the ones which came up with this silly format and agreed to have to pay the heat leaders a fixed wage as result of their earning potential being compromised.

Here's a microphone Rob, say something stupid! How do you Aces fans feel about this man trying to con you out of £20 plus petrol just because his team is riding like crap?

Lynn trying to get it called off, if only they had got on with it! Sky will never f'n learn

Sure we will get the same old same old "we will get on with it" only to have breaks for rider interviews, commercials and goodness knows what else. And then we will have arguments about should they try and run to heat ten, the winning side say yes, the losing team want to go home!

The problem for riders like Adam is that in the FTR positions many will go out and spend a lot on getting fast bikes and ultimately push themselves on the track to speeds which are often not in tune to their current ability which can result in falls and subsequent injuries to them and possibly others. Both last season and this, Adam has spent a fair amount of time parting company with this bike at Lakeside, he will be a very polished rider one day but you have to learn to walk before you can run.

They want to get the season done and dusted asap so they can plan their move to Kent?

Changing my prediction now to 8th place for this club, I have a feel a feeling that with the promotion possibly moving to Kent next season which seems ever more likely in view of recent planning approval conditions on use of the Kent track, this operation will be run into the ground with next to nothing spent on shale. Bech certainly won't last the season, maybe another month and then he will quit or be asked to fall on his sword and some old hand will be brought in on the cheap. Nothing will be said though until the end of the season for fear of alienating what fans they have left. Lastly well done to Wolves, knew PK would do well and well done for sticking it to the people responsible for wrongly sacking him, as they always say, form is temporary, class in permanent!

You can bet just about every single heat leader is on that, its why PK was dropped by Lakeside last season because the points he was scoring on track was not matching up with the money he was guaranteed, the whole thing is penny wise and pound foolish, any money being saved by using the draft riders is being more than offset by chucking money at the heat leaders.

I am a subscriber to speedway star but this one is always the highlight of the season, Mimmo makes a great point about pricing and really shows just how over inflated speedway program prices are, my local non league footy team which often gets gates lower than that of most speedway clubs but offers a program which is twice the content of a speedway example and still costs less!

I have said time and time again that Speedway needs to make each event mean something and put everything into making that event a "can't miss" We have twice home and away which means its no big deal if you miss the odd meeting plus the play offs have rendered the league matches less valuable. All too often in this country the race night is just "another meeting" and thus has that just "another meeting" feel about it. And as for the age thing, blimey! that is the most frightening thing for the future of our sport, can only really comment on Lakeside and i would think at around 60% are of pensionable age and another problem we have is its all very well getting the kids involved but if your a Friday or Saturday track once they get well into their teens the lure of a night on the town clubbing is far more appealing and you wont get them back if at all until maybe they have settled down and have kids of their own. Youngsters always like to be seen in places where its cool to hang out and they don't feel out of place, a speedway track is not such a place.

I remember seeing the changing rooms a few years ago when doing a ride and slide day, was quite shocked at the state of them, no idea what some of the riders thought of them especially the likes of Andreas Jonsson who must be used to having something decent, personally I would not use them for fear of being more dirty than when I started, I think you will find cleaner facilities at a tier nine footy ground than that.