NEWS: British Indoor sparks Christmas goodwill

The staging of the eagerly anticipated British Indoor Finals at the Sports Connection – now only 10 days away – has sparked an abundance of Christmas spirit and goodwill towards the championship promotors, the Coventry Cycle Speedway club.

Only two months ago, with no written expressions of interest to stage the finals, this year’s British Indoor Finals were looking extremely unlikely to take place. It is believed promotors and volunteers were reluctant due to the huge logistical operation and high costs to stage the championships.

However, the Coventry club stepped forward to save this year’s finals by being the only bidders for the event. They have secured a well-known centrally located facility, sourced discounted 4 star rated hotel accommodation for riders and officials alike and arranged the now required Speedway style airfence.

And, now the sport is rallying around to help support the Coventry club in its efforts to keep the indoor scene not only alive, but thriving. In the past few days, the British Indoor Finals Official Event Manager, Lee Marsh, has received scores of offers of goodwill and volunteering help.

From all around the country, others of help have poured in. The Poole club have offered to provide officials to help run the various eight events, whilst Luke Morton has also offered support from the Sheffield delegation. Affable Stockport official Alan Taylor has also offered to lend a hand, amongst the many offers received by Coventry.

On the promotional front as well, various well known riders and officials have also stepped forward to assist the Coventry club to maximize entries. National Woman’s Co-Coordinator Natalie Timms has been using Facebook to optimize the Woman`s entry lists, as has Lucy Whitehead.

Meanwhile, Leicester`s Craig Marchant has also been busy in using social media to attract further interest in attracting veteran’s entries, with some success.

To help offset the huge costs of staging the event, National Referee`s Manager Mike Hack has skillfully allocated Midland based officials to keep costs low. However, some referees have already decided not to claim expenses in a further display of goodwill.

The Coventry club are mounting a huge logistical operation on New Year’s Day, Friday 1st January 2016, at 6pm to set-up for the marathon two-day extravaganza. Here again, the sport has rallied to help Coventry.

Headed by Step Whitehead, Leicester are dispatching a van load of volunteers to help with the three-hour task of setting up the facility ready for racing the following day. The Leicester members will be concentrating on laying the track.

If you would like to help out at the British Indoor Finals, the Coventry club would be delighted to hear from you. Please call or text Lee Marsh on: 07400 993999. Bearing in mind that many of Coventry`s new intake of officials are relatively new to the sport (and so have difficulty in identifying riders), the club would be particularly keen to hear from those who could act as Pit Marshalls.

Describing the many offers of help from around the country, Lee Marsh adopted a Christmas tone in heralding his appreciation. He said: “Bear one another`s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).