SPEEDWAY has got off to a torrid and sodden start to the new season – with THREE rain-offs in a row.
The crackerjack top-flight opener between Ipswich and Peterborough was called off early today (Thursday) and there was probably a massive sigh of disappointment for fans looking forward to seeing the Premiership return of world-beaters Emil Sayfutdinov and Nicki Pedersen.
The Witches’ wash-out followed the postponement of Belle Vue’s prestigious Peter Craven Trophy on Monday and unlucky Stuart Robson’s long-awaited farewell meeting at Redcar on Sunday.
Additionally, Peterborough, Oxford and Wolverhampton all had to jettison their pre-season practice sessions because of the wet start to the action.
Last year, the first ten meetings went ahead as planned – the first rain-off was on March 30 when Birmingham’s scheduled challenge match against a Coventry Select had to be canned.
You have to go all the way back to 1991 for the last time the first three meetings were postponed because of the weather.
That year they were at Berwick (v Belle Vue), Cradley Heath (v Swindon) and Coventry (v Berwick) and the FOURTH match, between King’s Lynn and Reading was abandoned after heat eight.
The first completed meeting was a challenge between Cradley and Swindon, the SEVENTH scheduled meeting of the campaign on Wednesday March 20.
WORDS: HOLESHOT MEDIA
IMAGE by TAYLOR LANNING