Mick Bratley

But you said Lindgren earlier

So far in this thread you’ve suggested: Jensen, Ellis, Harris, Riss, Douglas, Bjerre, MPT, King, Vaculik, Huckenbeck, S Lambert, Wright, Kerr, Batchelor, Kildemand, Schlein, Sedgeman, Fricke, Holder, Berge, Pickering, Allen, Lindback, Zagar, Kemp, Lidsey, Tungate, Nillson, Lahti, Pawlicki, C Cook, Etheridge, Mountain and Nicki Pedersen. (I may have missed a few) If you throw enough darts you’ll hit the bullseye matey. Oh and I agree, you’ll likely find out Thursday.

He wasn’t at 8:30 last night.

It really is.

Of course he hasn’t. It’s just another dart chucked at the board with the 33 others LOL

The bloke behind it lives with the fairies, it’s words and pictures. No planning application submitted as of yet, likely to be refused on the grounds of lack of road infrastructure to support the increased volume of traffic, is what I have heard. IMHO it will never happen as he currently plans it.

It has always been an option and came very close not so long ago, but with more housing close by these days, it would be difficult I would suggest. The stadium was recently sold to the Mick George Group incidentally, the main sponsors of Peterborough United.

This is all aspirational though, AEPG have many hurdles to overcome to get what they want, which will be as many houses as possible and locals know only to well how slow the planning process is in Peterborough. Even with 1600 houses which will result in 4500 to 5000 people and probably 3000 cars, good luck with finding placements with schools, doctors and dentists, and for sure the roads surrounding the area will not support that increase in traffic, it barely supports it now when major events are held in the Arena alone. I have spoken with the local Green councillor on several occasions, she is extremely supportive of Peterborough Speedway and I opened up communication channels with her and the promotion a while back. The last time I spoke with her she was adamant that the Speedway club be rightly looked after properly and 50 years of heritage be preserved and continued. Whether that happens or not obviously depends on many things. It’s all a bit of a game right now in my opinion, but suffice to say I doubt very much that the plans released yesterday will have very little resemblance to the finished project.

Awful news, Speedway has lost a great ambassador. RIP Scoop.

The local councillor (Green Party) is fully up to speed with developments at The Showground, I have had many conversations with her on this subject. She is adamant that the future of the Speedway Club must be assured, either at its existing location or elsewhere and that this must be a part of any development plans, I also understand the full council generally also supports this. She attended a fixture last year at The Showground for the first time and loved it. Additionally I understand the plan for 1600 houses is merely bluster, and has no chance of progressing as the infrastructure of roads, schools and health services could not currently support such a development. In short, she is on the case and will vehemently fight the Panthers corner. I should also add that I have put Buster in touch with the councillor and I believe they have spoken.

Why do you continually embarrass your club and its supporters by posting such utter nonsense with comments like this and total bull$hit about ‘being in the know’ which you clearly aren’t?

The track was being worked on all day yesterday (Tuesday). In response to Monster Trucks earlier.

Shocked to hear this news. A massive loss to the sport. RIP Phil.

I think this was a good call. I’m 400 metres from the track and we’ve had two lengthy periods of heavy rain between 4:30 and 6:30, and it has also been constant drizzle since 7:45.

Did you miss the deluge on Friday night? The track was completely waterlogged they pumped hundreds of gallons off it at the weekend, it was in no fit state for racing today rain or no rain.

. . . . . Not anymore.

Possibly. Possibly not. There are several parcels of land owned by the Showground right next to the A1 that do not look like they are going to be developed, after all houses next to the A1 would be a tough sell, all of these would be big enough for a Speedway track. Perhaps being a charitable organisation they will do the right thing. Perhaps not.

So I had a look at the Showground exhibition today and the initial plans look to build houses where the Speedway track currently is. However, they say that this will be starting in 2023 at the earliest. I think that is ambitious and there is clearly much concern from local residents about the existing infrastructure of the surrounding area and the effect 600 new homes will have. This could drag on quite a while. On the plus side, the local councillor was on local radio this afternoon and was adamant that any plans must involve keeping the Speedway Heritage in Peterborough (her words not mine). She was very committed in that Speedway is not overlooked, I was surprised, I didn’t know she was a fan. She was at the exhibition and I made myself known to her. She explained that there was a Local Planning order number 30 that requires any sporting activities (she said such as the Speedway) must be relocated before the existing site can be demolished and that she would be vigorously making sure this is followed. I was very impressed with her. Alas we all know and probably have experienced how developers and planners can operate, but I am confident our local councillor is going to be on the case for Speedway, which in all honesty is probably a lot better than I thought it would be at this early stage.

In many ways the Showground needs the Speedway. It is a 'noise' that has been present for almost 50 years and when the nearest residents were over three miles away. Plus as I said earlier, it is one of the few events that is for LOCAL people. (Probably the only event). It'll be interesting to visit the Showground tomorrow to have a look what they plan to do with the site in the coming years.

That absolutely was the case and was used in addition to the seasonal bucket collection as our contribution to the SBRF.

You are making a lot of assumptions in what you have said. In recent years the hierarchy of The Showground has changed from the times when I used to deal with them a decade ago, so I can't speak about the current management team, but my assumption will be that the practicalities of running Speedway at the venue will not have changed very much, if at all. Speedway pays significant rent to the venue. I don't know what the amount is these days, but when I was promoter it was, I felt, jaw dropping. It is considerable over a season. The Speedway club are also not allowed to bring their own concessions (catering) on to the venue, so the Speedway clubs income is restricted to admissions and the sale of programmes only. Speedway comes a long way back in the queue of the events held at the Showground and that's only rightly so, it is a business after all - actually it's not, it's a charity. Effectively you pay rent for the key to open and close the place, you get little or no help from them in putting the event on or clearing up after. The Showground is not a charity (actually it is, but you probably get my drift). The Speedway staff volunteers do an absolutely amazing (and thankless) job in getting the place ready for Speedway and clearing it up afterwards, it takes a monumental amount of effort and I mean monumental and these people are the real heroes of the Speedway club. The Showground does not 'plug' the back end or keep Speedway 'afloat'. They provide a key. A very expensive one at that. The one thing Speedway does do for the Showground is provide an event for LOCAL people. Practically every other event at the Showground is supported in the majority by people who live outside of Peterborough. Not everyone locally owns a Shire Horse, Truck or Modified Car or wants to pitch a tent a couple of miles from their home and there are only so many times you can drag yourself along to Truckfest. The 'dirty shale arena' gets plenty of use from other events, often these events damage the track and fence, which additionally costs the Speedway club to put right. If other events use the floodlights - which the Speedway club paid for and installed - and a light fuses, the Speedway club has to pay for this to be replaced as well.

LOL I’m definitely not Flappy.

At least he is having a go and surely that should be applauded rather than constantly pilloried.

There has been some great Speedway this season at The Showground and some crap Speedway. Pretty much like every season I’ve ever attended. i think Buster has tried to bring some financial sanity to the sport and this will be painful in the short term, it would be for the benefit of the sport if every club did this. i disagree that he intentionally ripped the initial 1-7 apart, I think his and the sports hands were tied. That’s my opinion.

I’m not ‘in the know’ haven’t been for years.