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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/30/2021 in all areas

  1. 8 points
    Great to see a forward thinking club who are providing a great product i.e track,stadium and team can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned hope you guys win the playoffs.
  2. 4 points
    Thanks Martin for the information - Deflating way to lose out on the title - Thankfully cars and vans much more reliable these days - Back then a lot of the guys would put the bike in a frame on the back of the car - Remember seeng Bobby Beaton and Graham back in the day, not sure about Frank - I had the great pleasure of meeting Ivan when I was down at Lydd in 2000 - I would go there with one of my sons on sundays for his practise and racing and like most fathers did we helped out on the track by track grading, carrying red flags, painting the boards etc - On one occasion I was track raking at speed and someone shouted ‘Ivan’s here’ and everything stopped and I thought what is going on - we all walked back to the pits and there he was - the great man - apparently he knew the club patron and had asked to come along and see us all - Ivan started talking to us but I think pretty much everyone was starstruck so I thought it best to interact with him and it seemed to put him at ease and afterwards ( and I will never forget this) he came walking across to me with his arm outstretched to shake my hand - it just seemed unreal - and we spoke one to one and I apologised for booing him years before which made my friends laugh but he laughed and then kindly said he took all the boos as a mark of respect - He was the consummate professional with immaculate leathers and bikes - a great man - Lovely to be able to share the story -
  3. 3 points
    I only saw Craven ride once, and that was on the terrible night in Edinburgh. I went to his memorial service in 2003, at Liverpool Cathedral out of respect for the man. In his eulogy Ove Fundin openly admitted he would not have won as many titles as he did had Peter lived. Bartosz Smarslik pushes the boundaries. Perhaps he can with air fences and modern helmets and padding, but these boys had none of that. I hope he stays serious accident free because he is exciting. RIP Peter Craven.
  4. 3 points
    I have a video of the incident in heat 1 as it was right in front of me. Thompson locked up slightly and left Kelleher with no where to go but into him
  5. 2 points
    Peter was indeed a very clean rider, I cannot remember him doing a dirty on anyone. Despite his short height he wasn’t an easy pushover though. Fundin, on the other hand, was considered to not ride cleanly all the time. Having said that, I never saw Fundin do anything dirty to PC. I think he had great respect towards Peter. PC was a man for the fans, always willing to sign autographs and have chat when he could. I remember the shock and sadness in our household when we heard Peter had passed away.
  6. 2 points
    Just reading a post on another thread, I have found out that the home match against Kings Lynn, has either been postponed or cancelled. Per the fixture list, Tigers are now away on that date. I am really at a loss to understand why a match is taken off the fixture list like this, without a new date being arranged, and why better attention is not drawn to these actions, so fans who wish to go, can make arrangements. Definitely feels like they are working against, rather than with the fans, and totally fail to understand why.
  7. 2 points
    Peter did indeed have a great talent. We know his nickname was “the wizard of balance”. I think he was 5’ 2”, so small. We see many photos of him with his head as low as the left handlebar. Not always his riding style, more when he was riding the inside line. Remember that in the 50’s/60’s handlebars were wide and often upswept. This made it the more incredible his style of riding. Getting his head down low would put centre of gravity low, which no doubt helped his balance. Whilst a great talent, and one of the famous five ( Knutson came good 1959/60), his performance in the world finals was perhaps not as consistent as the others. For example 1959 9th, 1961 10th, and 1963 10th (his last world final). Fundin, Briggs, Moore and Craven were pretty much same age…. All born 1933 or 1934, so they were all rose to their peak at the same time, and about to start their decline (the Mauger years staring in 1968). Whether Peter would have won any more world titles we will never know, but I would say it was not a cert. I never heard Fundins eulogy at Peters funeral, but I don’t understand where it is said Ove said he would not have won as many world titles as he did if Peter had lived. Ove won in 1963, Peters last final (Wembley). when he finished 10th, and Ove only won one more world title, 1967, meaning Fundin had already won four. This is taking nothing way from Peters record, it’s just a fact.
  8. 2 points
    Absolutely correct, ktl, but then if you can't make a judgemental comparison, why say, "Zmarzlik is incredible to watch, a hundred times more spectacular than Mauger, Briggs, Olsen and many others put together and he pulls off moves you would never have see any of those afore mentioned riders make"? I saw Craven ride many times so I feel well qualified to make that comparison.
  9. 2 points
    Yeh but we know cook gets away with everything, same as a few others in recent years who feigned injuries so as not to get a ban for other issues
  10. 2 points
    I note in the Q&A Mr Jordan says the stadium rental is £1000 + VAT per meeting!! Some other tracks would consider that a snip!!
  11. 2 points
    'Lawson makes Wolves stronger'.
  12. 2 points
    The starting gate looking like a potato field is the norm. It is ripped up on purpose. what needs to happen with the stadium is the lease is revoked from the current landlords. They are not fulfilling their obligations of providing a sports facility for the people of Poole. No dogs, no football, no five a side pitches, no nothing. They make their money charging nurses to park there for the hospital. Take the lease from them and give it to Matt Ford and a consortium to bring sport to the stadium. Matt has said previously he knows he can get a group of businessmen together to do this. Gaming International or whatever their current name is, are a failed business. Wherever they have been, trouble follows. Where is the new Swindon stadium? Where is the new Torquay Utd stadium? Thank the Lord they don’t own Poole Stadium.Matt said the council is 100% on his side.
  13. 2 points
    Well there you go…..as it seems to be allowed, who have Glasgow gone for? Laguta, Zmarzlik, or, with the connection to Hancock, maybe Janowski? Or is it just Dudek after all?
  14. 2 points
    It would be interesting to see how that rule would be viewed by the Directors should a CL Club try to sign, say, Artem Laguta.
  15. 2 points
    I think one of the major factors in track conditions is the demands on the track man from riders. If the promotion were strong enough to tell the riders to leave the man alone to do his job then maybe we might get a smooth consistent surface. It's all well & good for the top riders King & Schlein to make their demands but the lesser riders like Hume & Nielsen have to ride the same track. As we pay through the gate we expect the heat leaders to return double digits on any track but its the second strings & reserves that win the meeting with a hard earned 7/8 point haul
  16. 2 points
    Quite, Sidney. Not to mention Peter Craven - you could hardly accuse him of not being spectacular. And then there were the likes of Sverre Harrfeldt and Christer Lofqvist. Each generation has had its share of thrill makers, going right back to 'Cyclone' Billy Lamont, whose on-track antics earned him the nickname, "The Man With a Month to Live!"
  17. 2 points
    More spectacular than Briggo really ? and by the way they have 13 world titles between them hardly a bunch of also rans.
  18. 2 points
    I've also visited Newcastle & Workington, 2 venues with a lot of speedway history, I enjoyed both tracks and was so glad I made the effort. Sadly I never made it to Wimbledon, another venue of much history of course. On enquiring of a possible Hull Speedway Supporters Club coach trip in either 1980 or 1981 I was informed "we are not sure whether we are taking a coach to the Wimbledon v Hull match, but then again we are not sure whether the Hull team will even be there" (!). A caustic, yet accurate remark referring to the (in)famous match Dons v Vikings match in 1979 when 3 Hull riders didn't make it to Plough Lane and the remaining Vikings (Ivan Mauger, Kelly Moran, Dennis Sigalos, Joe Owen + guest Graeme Stapelton) battled on, losing 41-36. Many still beleive this meeting cost Hull Vikings the League Title in 1979, the final match of that season was lost before an estimated 20,000 crowd (!) at Coventry, another venue of great history....
  19. 2 points
    Doyle was the best rider in the series for two years, injury robbed him of the title in 2016. Fully deserved his World Title in 2017.
  20. 2 points
    Think Matt said there was an issue with the landlords and that the rent for each year was always paid in advance. He didn’t go into detail but reading between the lines the landlords could be demanding a much higher rent for next season. I might be off the mark. The landlords no longer use the stadium at all and only use the car park to charge nurses to park there for work. The only people to now use the stadium is the speedway. Matt said the council back the club. It’s about time the council withdrew the lease from Gaming International.
  21. 2 points
    Saw a quote yesterday that Glasgow throwing money at trying to win the League again with our new signing. Whilst other teams also make signings but are not throwing money at it. Must be just us that throw money about you couldn’t make it up. Not surprising though.
  22. 2 points
    Hope you are right Waco but previous week the blue groove on turn one after just 4 heats returned and was not properly sorted - Not seen that in previous meetings this year but saw plenty of it in National League days - Will probably give the Birmingham fixture a miss and see what the forum has to say about the track - Hope to then be back for the rest of all fixtures - Hope all goes well and good racing -
  23. 1 point
    Nobody knows what’s happening next week these days.
  24. 1 point
  25. 1 point
    Very good post and a good assessment of speedway in uk . As the parent of a young rider we have seen the level that European riders are in terms of ability against our lads and in all honesty it's not so much what they do on the bike it's more about the set ups. These lads all have constant training on all aspects of the sport with national coaches who also travel with them for meetings. We have occasional days with current and former riders which is more based on track than in the pits. The days are ok but are always run on slick tracks with no preparation done to them , after speaking with our counter parts the always practice on fully prepared race tracks . There is no help for the parent who has to do the spanner work and in all honesty even though I'm quite mechanically minded I do believe there's not much more I can do and without guidance I don't know how much more I can do or teach my lad. His natural talent will only take him so far then it's about small marginal gains which without more help at this stage we won't know how to get them
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