Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Glad you gave it a go - Somerset is usually one of the better race tracks in the country, so another visit should definitely happen in your near future - perhaps for a league match?

I *think* the policy for curtailed meetings is that you get a pound off the restaging (or usually any other meeting at that track) for every race you saw - so I'd assume you can get into your next one for £12. It should be on their website.

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Just seen a picture of the Belle Vue track which I presume was taken on Saturday and it looks like it needs more than a tractor and scraper to get it fit.

My season started with the Plymouth Spring Classic - it was decent enough racing for a glorified friendly. Ben Barker was the deserved winner, but run close by Mikkel Bech and Ulrich Ostergaard. The big surprise of the night was Steve Boxall, without a club and obviously with a point to prove, who won his first two heats at some pace and gave Barker a scare in the semifinal.

One proper meeting in and the Devils required a guest as Ellis Perks' van went kaput on the way to Rye House. Fortunately the Rockets let us use their No.8 who we then promptly broke in his second heat. This is where the NL at no.7 rule breaks down as our other reserve got to take his following two rides.

Somerset at the SBA on Saturday - hopefully the rain stays away.

The proper action begins this weekend with Somerset.

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, Greenlander, but Plymouth have announced they're closing, effective immediately. They're claiming that the attendance was poor for the opening meeting and this leaves them financially untenable. That's horseshit, but who knows what the real story will be.

[Ray de Galles]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Fucking hell, what a terrible few days for the sport in Britain.

Hope there can be something put together for next season, best of luck Greenlander.

[Ray de Galles]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Who makes a decision like that based on (or using as an excuse) the attendance what is effectively a pre-season friendly on a freezing March night?

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[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

I'm feeling totally hollow.

The vibe about the place from P&P to the Friday meeting seemed so positive so this is a real shock.

The statement says gates of 700 are needed to break even and I reckon we get that most weeks. The cheif promoter has links to the Falcons and my cynical side wonders if has left to concentrate on their resurrection taking the money with him.

Bollocks.

[Bored Of Education]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Terrible for the other clubs that have budgeted for fixtures with them as well as riders and supporters obviously.

[Third rate Leszno]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Man, that's shit news - very sorry to read it, Greenlander.

I see the BSPA statement is offering the flimsiest straw of hope by holding Plymouth's place in the league open in case someone wants to ride in and rescue them.

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Thanks for the wishes everyone - I feel utterly deflated at the moment but having had time to digest and reflect on the news the more the whole thing stinks.

The club hadn't managed to find a principle sponsor for the season and were relying on fans to cover some of the costs while asking a couple of those with connections to try and find some additional funding from local companies. However these requests only came in the last month or so. Meanwhile a number of fans had spent considerable time and money sprucing up the stadium and making the whole place look quite shiny, if not new.

Back in October the promotion had stood on the centre green and said Elite League was the aim. There were around 1100 in that night and with the team assembled for 2016 for once we were being touted as PL playoff contenders for the first time ever.

Why go to the trouble of building a team and going through all that preparation, they should have resigned at the AGM and looked at the NL as an option. However the timing suggests the promotion didn't want any of this. I'm sure the Exeter revival will benefit and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the gutless pricks turn up there in due course.

What a fucking let down - riders, fans, all the volunteers shafted.

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

So it emerges the Devils have folded over a historic debt of £26k.

But all is not lost - this has been an incredibly up and down week from the low point of Tuesday. An emergency meeting was held on Thursday including the team manager, Kyle Newman and a representative from the promotion.

As things stand it appears that if the debt can be covered and £20k found to cover the season then the Devils may yet run this summer. The owners haven't been liquidated and the riders have been paid so there is an amount of goodwill from the team. Most importantly it seems almost £15000 has been raised or pledged already. There was talk of whether the club could race in the NL but the bonds and licence are for the PL and would effectively be lost if we were to take this route - not to mention how to build any type of team to compete at this stage anyway.

Whatever happens there may well be one last meeting as a Devils Select will travel to Somerset next Friday for a fund raiser.

April 14th is the make or break day - no doubt there'll be more twists yet.

[Bored Of Education]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

I will try and get a group together to get to the Devils/Rebels fixture

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

A couple of points about Plymouth:

1) to safeguard the future of the club, they may have to bring Mike Bowden back. This will sit badly with a lot of people - fans, riders, and more - but may be the only hope.

2) successful PL speedway seems unsustainable at Plymouth so I was surprised to see that there's a "PL or nothing!" attitude amongst the people who want to save the club. The crowds and sponsorship available to Plymouth are perfect for the third tier, and that should be their aim for 2017.

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

A bit of a to-do going on at the moment on social media as Tai Woffinden, British & World Champion, has elected not to compete in this year's British Championship. He's already ducked out of the British leagues, and chances are we won't see him in a non-FIM meeting in the UK this season (and only 2 FIM meetings).

The BSPA, & TeamGB manager Alun Rossiter, have backed his decision, because they're scared he won't turn out for the team at the World Cup, which they desperately want to win. Woffinden, for his part, has blocked all dissenters and is making jokes about it, unaware that it's actually quite a big deal.

This sport, eh?

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Oh, and the BSPA have threatened anyone found periscoping from any stadium will face a nationwide ban. This is because of a restrictive TV rights deal which gives the rights to any race footage over to Sky, who do nothing with it.

[Third rate Leszno]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Errorist Sympathiser wrote: Oh, and the BSPA have threatened anyone found periscoping from any stadium will face a nationwide ban. This is because of a restrictive TV rights deal which gives the rights to any race footage over to Sky, who do nothing with it.

I had to look up periscoping. I had an initial thought that it might be like tromboning, but I'm pleased to find that it isn't.

[Ray de Galles]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

I haven't really followed the Woffinden story much but it's annoying, almost as much the attitude from him that has accompanied it as the action itself.

I've seen something about having to qualify via the semi-final ( I saw him do so at Rye House a few seasons back ), is that the crux of his problem?

Didn't make any meetings over Easter (my Good Friday option at Lakeside was my only potential destination which survived the weather anyway) and away this weekend so I think Lakeside v Poole a week Friday looks like my first shale of the season. Seems a long way away.

Is anyone planning to see the World Cup Final (with added Woffinden) at Belle Vue on July 30th btw? I'm planning to do that the race-off the night before.

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

THE DEVILS ARE BACK!

[Bored Of Education]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Where has that come from?

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

There has been loads going on behind the scenes this past week with the crunch meeting between supporters group and potential investors taking place this evening.

Full statement to follow tomorrow but it has been announced on the Devils forum that we will run in 2016.

[Ray de Galles]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

I'd seen a bit of speculation to that effect on Twitter and it's excellent news.

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Why the promotion had to take the drastic step to close the club for the increase in supporter involvement to happen will, I'm sure, become apparent in the coming weeks.

Given how the fans have mobilised and raised the necessary funds to complete the season the situation could have been averted with some forethought.

I'm buzzing tonight - while there will be a promotion behind the club, there will also be increased fan involvement. This now promises to be a really interesting season - there is a bond between the fans and the team and I can't wait to see how it all pans out.

I don't want to think much beyond 2016 yet, but I'm in broad agreement with Errorist Sympathiser's point about NL speedway moving forward.

For now though I'm going to enjoy the ride.

[Errorist Sympathiser]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Brilliant news! Both the continued existence and the fan involvement. Enjoy your speedway!

[Ray de Galles]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Finally getting to a track tonight. Lakeside Hammers v Poole Pirates, the top two in the (far too early and asymmetric to mean anything) table.

[Greenlander]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Plymouth return to the track this coming Friday with all the riders still on board. It will be interesting to see what sort of crowd turn up.

Anyway we had a public meeting involving the promotion and the emergency committee last Friday, it was mainly positive stuff - the historic debt (about £35k) of the club has been covered by the existing promoters and some new investors, the money raised by the supporters will be used to cover the losses on individual meetings.

However Allan Trump had much to say, here are the interesting bits:

A meeting at Plymouth costs about £10.5k to stage (taking into account that riders have to be paid twice from this money; on the night and for the corresponding away fixture). The average recceipts are around £8k.

The resurrection of Exeter speedway is very unlikely to be successful.

Only one, possibly two clubs in the country make any sort of money - Poole, maybe Coventry.

The BPSA are looking at a restructuring for 2017, amalgamating the EL and PL and splitting the league on a north-south basis.

[Ray de Galles]

Crystal Methanol - Speedway 2016

Bloody hell, that is very interesting stuff - especially the potential restructuring.

Lakeside v Poole was a great meeting in the end, an exciting (if freezing) start to the season for me. Poole were expected to win out, as much through their superiority at reserve as anything else. While it's true that they were comfortable winners in that department they were pretty supine further up the team with the exception of Hans Anderson.

Spectacularly pathetic showings from Chris Holder and former Hammer & track specialist Davey Watt ( scoring 3 and 2+1 respectively) meant the Pirates were comprehensively outgunned in the top 5 leading to a 50-40 home win.

This lead to a lot of pissing and moaning from Holder on twitter about Lakeside's track, all of the UK's tracks and speedway in general in this country. He may have a point on a lot of it but probably best not to come up with it after such a humbling anonymous perforamance especially when Andersen, Andreas Jonsson and Piotr Swiderski all managed to perform creditably.

.