8:30am Friday 19th March 2010
By Ned Payne
THOUSANDS of Swindon speedway fans were left disappointed last night when the Robins' season opener, the Bob Kilby Memorial, was postponed due to rain.
The likes of world champion Jason Crump, young gun Emil Sayfutdinov and the highly-rated Nicki Pedersen had been due to race, with the trio just three faces in a line-up that included a clutch of Grand Prix riders.
The majority of Swindon's 2010 team, including Leigh Adams, Grzegorz Zengota and Thomas H. Jonasson, had also been expected to take to the track competitively for the first time.
The meeting, organised to honour the memory of one of Swindon's favourite sons, as well as giving current riders an early chance to race the Abbey Stadium track in preparation for the upcoming Elite League season, will now be held on Sunday (tapes-up 6pm).
The town had been dry for most of yesterday but with rainfall coming in the late afternoon, the meeting was put in doubt.
And with the inclement weather still continuing less than an hour before tapes-up, the decision was made to delay the meeting by three days.
Speaking to the Advertiser just after the decision had been announced, Robins boss Ronnie Russell said: “It's a tremendous disappointment with the amount of work and effort that's been put in to get this meeting together. Everyone was up for it and the track was superb.
“We got up this morning and had a bit of sun, and we thought perhaps we were going to miss the rain.
“Then we got told it was going to hit the west coast of Wales by 12 (noon) and it wouldn't reach Cardiff till 7pm, so it was going to be slow-moving.
“Then we got that it was definitely between nine and 12 (midnight), and here we are now, standing in the pouring rain.”
Due to the postponement, the Advertiser understands the availability of a number of riders, including Grand Prix ace Hans Andersen, is in question for Sunday's meeting.
While Russell refused to confirm names, he insisted that Swindon management would do their utmost to ensure that as many of the original field as possible were present.
“Our problem now is we're battling with the riders to make sure (they are available),” he said.
“We had a provisional agreement with everyone, that if they took the booking for this, they had to be available for Sunday.
“Now we just hope that they honour their word.”
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