Leaderboard

Hard as an outsider to make sense of what's going on and gone on and Newcastle is a track I've always liked to visit mainly due to friendly fans and good banter. I wish everyone well but one question is this. On basis that those who ran last 3 tracks to liquidate (Rye House / Workington and Lakeside) losing their Promoters Licences, won't same fate befall Rob Grant.?? It would seem unfair if so as he has literally never promoted a Meeting due to Covid, but it does make Acesliders questions the more important. Hopefully Newcastle will be at tapes in 2021 and for many years after that.

Its all a very sad state of affairs and one I really don't want to get involved in for obvious reasons. Im still a Newcastle fan though and wish Rob the very best of luck. With the lease on the stadium only for next season and covid looking like it could well last well in to next year I do worry that for all the money and enthusism that Rob has shown it could all be in vain. Getting a new track in present times has proved nearly impossible for most as any houses within about a 15 mile radius will have someone ready to complain and get the planning stopped. Good luck to everyone involved in the future of Newcastle Speedway.

Lester Piggotts cell mate lol

Azwar Majeed who owned Crawley Town in 2009

I've never met the lad and there can't be any on here who feel any sympathy at the sentence which is well derserved in my opinion, but he was an entertaining rider and a decent heat leader in the second tier. Speedway is just a reflection of society though. The huge majority of riders are dedicated hard working professionals from good families but there will always be the bad apples and speedway is littered with riders who have fallen foul of the law. I'm currently researching the pre war years for the speedway researcher website and it's amazing, even in the 1920s and 1930s how many riders appeared in court for stealing vehicles, breaking and entering etc. We've had murderers, safe breakers, drug smugglers, burglars, riders stealing bikes from other riders, all sorts. Some of these riders served their time and came back to the sport, others disappeared. Jason will be in his early 30s when he comes out and will be young enough to make a comeback, but I can't see any promoter taking a chance on him.

Very sad to hear about the apparent demise of Newspeed 2003 Ltd and particularly if , as alleged, there are unpaid sums due to riders. That doesn't sound like the Diamonds promotion who I always believed had a reputation for paying riders on time. What I find concerning is the question over who does the bond held by SCB belong to? If it belongs to Newspeed 2003 Ltd, then presumably it will be available to pay off creditors? Which leads to the question, will Rob's new company have to make a formal application to SCB and stump up some more money for a new bond assuming the application is accepted? I'm surprised that Rob did not start with a new company and simply purchase the assets from Newspeed 2003 Ltd that he needed to avoid any skeletons in the cupboard appearing. Maybe there was a good reason for that, and perhaps it was related to the SCB bond. Personally I don't believe the former directors should have anything to worry about unless someone proves that they have withdrawn funds/value for their own personal benefit without accounting for tax and NI.To the best of my knowledge these matters are normally dealt with under civil rules rather than criminal, hence any talk of jail sentences is really a total nonsense!

As some of you know I was named after a speedway rider, Wimbledon captain, Norman Parker, and the first team I supported was New Cross. Yesterday, while sorting through some of my old Speedway papers, I came across a copy of Speedway World which included the results for the week I was born, so I looked up what matches were on the day I was born. By an odd coincidence, the only match on that day was Wimbledon v. New Cross, with Wimbledon winning 52-43, Norman Parker scoring 12 points. Sorry, I'll get back to my hole.

All of us, probably

Have to say the reason the Supporters Club ended wasn't because of you leaving Dave. Julie,Mala,Janet Ken Davies and myself continued for a good while longer. The main reason was my I'll Health at the time and neither Julie or I could commit as we were. We still managed to do a few month more but the straw that broke the camel's back was the final Social event we put on which was a Christmas party. Despite my best efforts to sell tickets like previous events a lot of people said they would pay on the night. I ordered the buffet but out of over 120 people who reserved tickets/played for tickets there were less than 70 in attendance. I put over £150 of my personal money in to pay for the buffet as we didnt have enough in club funds. I lost this money. That was when enough was enough for Julie and I. We raised a lot of money but could have raised so much more. We lost £600 in deposits for 2 cancelled events. The second family fun day and the second river cruise. Having been involved in fundraising for over 30 years you'll remember me saying on many occasions how frustrating I was finding things and you'll no doubt remember you and i locked horns several times over how we both wanted things done.

Bill had tremours for which he took betablockers. Unfortunately, the ruling body banned their use so Bill "used" multiple pints of lager instead. Some of which he managed to offset against his tax bill.

When I used to 'ref' for Alex Higgins in the early to mid eighties every Friday when he was practicing/taking on all comers for a fiver a frame, he was a very different player at 8pm after umpteen vodka and oranges, than the one who started off playing at 2pm. When 'refreshed' he was truly 'The Hurricane' and would hardly miss... From around 9pm onwards, he would start to be over the tipping point and start to lose a few frames/quid.. And that would be when the 'dark side' of a genius would appear...

I knew Arnie for a while in the mid 90's. I was working away from home in Morley, near Leeds. One lunchtime I was talking to the landlord of a pub about speedway when this chap came up to me. He said, "If you want to know about speedway you should speak to that bloke there". I didn't recognise "that bloke" but his mate introduced me. It was Arnie. By coincidence I had seen Arnie a few weeks before at Sheffield speedway. A couple of the current team had persuaded him to do a few laps after the meeting. Not the "Golden Greats" performance you might have expected and he was embarrassed when I said I had witnessed his performance. But we swapped stories and became firm friends. He didn't drive and when I offered to take him to Sheffield with me the next Thursday, he jumped at the chance. Actually he was very beholding to me for taking him which was no imposition at all. I welcomed his company on my usual trip to Owlerton. Anyway we travelled together and much to my surprise he got me in for free as a VIP guest. What that meant was that Annie went to the bar and held court while I went to the terraces and watched the racing. No problem, we both went home happy. This continued for several weeks. Circumstances changed, and we lost touch. The next time I looked him up I found he had died and I was sad. A racer from back in the day. Contemporary with the likes of Nigel Boocock who was an early hero of mine and a character who knew the sport from the inside. I'm glad I knew him, even if it was for a short while.

Quick Update - Nothing's changed at Coventry but they have beefed up security to make it harder to access the site unless you really wanted to get in.

Alan Wilkinson captained Belle Vue without ever being their top rider.

Wasn't Rob Grant Berwick captain for years, despite never being their no1?

I get on with a lot of folk dave but I don't carry or tell tales as you know.. I say it to the face as I hate having things building up inside of me.. & there's been a heck of a lot of 2 faced people telling tales at Newcastle speedway for quite a while & ,why can't they just say it how it is rather than telling tales & getting others involved

The nature of addiction eh? If we understood that, we could save many (famous sportspeople or not).

It’s clear the way things are going with Covid-19 that fans will not be allowed in stadiums for many months, in fact it could be years. Difficult to see how clubs and the sport can survive with zero income.

Magic.

Because David Rowe has done a damn good job for Eurosport for the last few years and doesn't deserve to be dumped just because the 'usual suspects' are at a loose end.

Sad, very sad.. but not surprising!! I walked away about 4/5 years ago after going for best part of 35 years home and away. Some on here called me worse than sh!te. Whenever i spoke up as a fan you were told how marvelous they are and how grateful we should be.. It was like the freemasons and a them and us set up, had various conversations with promoters and it was obvious the fans were taken for granted and i seen it with my own eyes!! Those that were in the clique were so far up each others ar5es yet were treat like royalty by most. “idiot the fans” was one promoters response to it being pointed out that it was freezing cold and kids were standing around still waiting for a meeting to start 25mins after it was meant to, the charging for the car park that is free at any other time at Brough also rankled, as did the freeloading through the pit gate for mates of the clique. They just expected the merry band of loyal fans to Comply..If they have sold a business and hidden debt from the buyer then the deserve everything they get. Its sheer arrogance and incompetence... and dont even mention the control they wanted over the supporters club a few years ago!! Good luck Rob, you will need it and it will be interesting to hear and see if the usual hangers on have the Bollox to comment? As they certainly had the bollox to defend them whenever i piped up in the past.

Have the government cancelled the whole year then?

I used to go to Sheffield speedway and watched Arnie entertain he was a great rider it was sad to hear of his death and after being in such a dangerous sport I was very lucky as some years ago I bought an old grass track bike, did it up and the engine got a new big end fitted,on the con rod was A Haley in permanent Marker on the crank case was stamped the initials DH so if any body has any info I would be grateful I would also be pleased to give anybody any info I can . Regards Steve Exley

Well the Aces obviously but Mike’s post makes a lot of sense IF spectators aren’t allowed in next year and all monies come from streaming, Belle Vue is possibly the only track in the UK I would pay to stream a meeting from, certainly the only one in the Premiership. You are almost guaranteed good racing.

Don't like the new format.