IainB

Do a big poo at Poole for me, thanks

It's a pantomime... Ohhhh yes it is!

At the risk of sounding like a repeating record (remember those!). You'd do well to know Speedway existed in Leicester and you'd actually have to go out of your way to find out we are the defending League and Shield holders. The "promotion" have done nothing with the titles they spend the whole year trying to secure... so what's the point in it all? but all of the participants are the right side of 60... I don't know why there's such a disparity between those that watch and those that compete. The rest button needs pressing with Speedway in this country, the sooner we realise we are not Poland and we are not Sweden the quicker the recovery of the sport will be. The people that currently go may like to stand around on wind swept terraces for 2 and a half hours in some cases watching 15 minutes of action. People's attention span these days just isn't there. Cricket has gone T20, they're going even less now with The 100, F1 are introducing sprint races, we need a 90 minute show with 30 races on standardised machinery for starters

You're right we will probably never know the ins and outs of what happened at Coventry so until we do all I can do is base my opinions on what I hear about people and I've never heard a bad word said about Sandhu from anybody that has ever worked or ridden for him... Horton on the other hand... And Watson never gets a mention, but was joint helmsmen of the club at the point of closure. The club knew they had to find a new home for 5 years, yet did nothing to secure a new venue just milking the golden t1t in the hope that Sandhu would change his mind. Just because you've put money into a club or are involved with a club certainly doesn't qualify you and perhaps if the people that risk their money every week (the paying fan) were listened to a bit more then the sport wouldn't be in the state it is... these "promoters" have overseen the ruin of the sport. I can't ever recall a meeting being called off on the basis of a weather forecast until recently it just wasn't a thing. If it now is a thing because those in charge have run the sport into the ground then that's obviously now the way of the world. I hope you're using the word "promoted" very loosely, after your 3 terms at the club crowds are at an all time low. You know the track and what is possible to do with it, you've probably done as many laps around it as I have and you have as much knowledge of the weather around the track as Mystic Meg. It's good that you have such a high opinion of yourself. As for your words about Mick Horton... I'm reaching for the sick bucket "let him who is without sin cast the first stone", I thought I was quite reasonably asking why the match was called off so far in advance based, how long it would take the track to dry out in the summer and would it have gone ahead with a better forecast... that's all and then I got told it was "puerile rubbish", I thought Neil was better than that... obviously he's no better than the rest of us.

He's probably just a paying fan... absolutely of no importance at all

Being co-promoter and part custodian of the Coventry name at the point the club closed you have arguably done more to ruin Speedway in this country than any other man with the exception of Mick Horton... so I'll take no lessons on how a club should be run from you. In case you need your memory jogging: https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/speedway/coventry-bees-speedway-team-sale-12666571? Just search for "Watson" you actually get a couple of mentions

See you at Brandon on Friday then... oh hang on a minute...

Well, that's the chance you take when basing decisions on forecasts instead of what is actually happening. And your track record as a "promoter" isn't exactly brilliant. Number of clubs I have closed down? Nil

I was absolutely not inconvenienced in the slightest, all I was doing was questioning the wisdom in postponing a meeting based on a weather forecast that was 36 in advance of the event. People seem to be reading a lot more into it that is actually the case. I hope you don't seed based on the weather forecasts or we'd be in a state of famine in this country Have you seen the Clarkson series on his farm... an excellent piece of TV and a real eye opener for the uneducated like myself

Good day... you've seen the forecast

I don't doubt there was rain Friday/Saturday. All I'm asking is if the forecast was for what the weather turned out to be would they have not postponed it? Why bring forecasts into it? I went out for a walk this morning, the forecast told me the sun was shining... I had to return home after 5 minutes to get my coat as it started to rain... I made the wrong decision leaving the home without a coat. It looks like it's going to be a successful season for Peterborough, so I hope they don't run out of dates at the end of the year when they could have possibly been running on sunny summer nights

Hmm... I'm glad you brought that up because it reminds me that in the last Sheffield match they posted on twitter that the match was on, a number of people were asking what the weather was like and whoever does the Twitter just ignored what the fans were asking. That's why I was so shocked when I got there to see the meeting in serious danger of being cancelled because of "visibility" issues. Nobody likes wasted journey's but I prefer to watch my speedway on a sunny summer's evening rather than a cold wet October one. We all know in this country the weather forecast is only good for the upcoming few hours. Like you say dates are limited at the EoEA which makes the decision to cancel that early all the more puzzling.

So, it was the correct decision... but the wrong decision, OK. You run, until you can't. First rule of show business, the show MUST go on. If they were going to call it off based on Friday nights rain... just say so, don't bring the forecast into it or in future you get the fans second guessing what the forecast is going to be... which can quite often differ depending on which website/app you're looking at.

Would it have been called off if the weather forecast had predicted the weather that actually arrived? If yes, then fair enough... but why bring the forecast into it?

Nothing, nothing at all. So because other tracks do the same thing (wrongly in my opinion) that makes it alright for Peterborough to call a match off over 24 hours earlier based on a (incorrect) forecast? They got it wrong that's all, you cannot run a sport in this country based on weather forecasts or you wouldn't run half of your matches. I'll see you at the EoEA on a wet Tuesday night in the last week of October... playing in front of 500 fans

Thanks for your kind words... Would the match have been postponed if the weather forecasted for Monday have been no rain and sunshine? Because according to the website it was called off on the basis of the forecast. Quote from the website (the track) "will not take any more extensive rainfall." Can you give your parents a call and ask them if there was anymore extensive rainfall? In years gone by a promotion would do everything they could to put a match on, these days it looks as though they're looking for excuses to call it off if they can. Not just limited to the Peterborough promotion, yet year after year clubs run until the end of October on non race nights, sometimes running double headers, in a rush to get the fixtures completed. As I've said before, if you're going to run this sport based on weather forecasts you may as well not run at all in this country.

So... now at Peterborough the match will be called off if there's light drizzle in the air or it's rained within 3 days of a scheduled meeting or if there's a dodgy forecast 36 hours out? Good luck in getting the fixtures completed. Oh and don't be surprised if they're cramming fixtures in at the end of the season

Was pretty sure he was going round in the tractor in the previous Sheffield match

So, how long does it take the track to dry out in the height of summer was all I asked. I thought Buster had supposed to be a track wizard

That gave the track 3 days to dry! How long does it need? They managed to get the track sorted last week and ran... even with the "visibility" issues

A possible "excuse" back in the day may have been the lack of availability of GP riders, that's no excuse now though

Possibly... but it's a sad state of affairs that there is no meeting on anywhere in the country on a Saturday night in the height of the summer without any leagues having any GP riders, no GP being staged in this country for 2 years and it being "televised" behind a pay wall... is that really how confident promoters are in their product?

Did it rain? Could it have gone ahead?

What a joke... the British Weather is! Who do I complain to?

It seems as though the promoters are losing interest... This Saturday in the height of the great British summer there is no meeting on anywhere in the UK. As @Gambo has suggested elsewhere this was originally the date scheduled for the British SGP but this was cancelled on April the 16th yet not one promoter has decided to put a meeting on.