Dave Jones

Got to know Wayne through some mutual friends who were Cradley fans. Socialised with him on a few occasions and always found him a very cheerful friendly guy. He was very popular in the area being a local lad, something that was evident by the size of the turnout at his funeral . Still think about him regularly despite the passing of the years.

Saved me the trouble of a reply ..

Agree 100%. When you are a fan watching your team take a beating the last thing required is "couldn't care less attitude" from team members. I recall a tv meeting from Swindon against the Bees in their last season in the top league. Coventry were being well beaten, and when the camera zoomed in on the pita area two bees riders and the team manager were fooling around in front of the camera. Not a good feeling watching that , then again it is something that would never have happened during the time bees were run by a disciplined management team.

Ha Ha , speedway promotion - never my choice of career. However I have been around the sport long enough to recognise a good promoter when I see one.

Yes, but as a former promoter you must realise that you will be judged on the quality & wording of your statements. Blowing ones own trumpet isn't a recipe for success IMO. Having said that your promotion of Coventry Speedway wasn't much of a success so "par for the course" I suppose.

Surely that should read "when the club released him"?

Excellent news.

Best aggregate scoreline I've seen since 4th October 2010.

And still Poole riders can't keep up .

Messrs Robinson & Geary a right pair of "nutcases". Neither are worthy of the time it takes to read one of their posts .IMO

Whilst I wouldn't disagree entirely with your comment, I've often wondered whether the reason for the speedway's struggle to attract numbers was down to the tremendous success of the "Bulls" around that period.The rugby was such a huge success at that time & it attracted very large attendances week in & week out ,to the detriment of all the other sports in the area perhaps? Affording rugby and speedway might have been too much for many people. The rugby club are in the doldrums presently and they don't get the support that they previously enjoyed so perhaps there's a place for something else now . I do believe the stadium is to be sold now , I can't think of anything else that it could be used for as it is a rather "unique" place.

Top quality rider, have some great memories of his time a Brandon. Just sad that he didn't manage to lift a world title as i always thought it was within his capabilities.

Ah yes Wolves on a Friday. Perhaps my long term memory isn't as good as I imagined. Michanek was a rider who always seemed to be a thorn in the side for Ole.

Back in those times I regularly did two or three meetings a week. Coventry on Saturdays, Wolves on Monday and Long Eaton midweek. I had the pleasure of watching OO at Wolves most weeks, and remember well the tussle that the CO had getting him to brandon after Ole asked for a move away from monmore. His second world title win is still etched in my memory A great time to be a speedway supporter.

I know he wasn't your cup of tea, but I always admired his natural ability. To have him at the bees was the icing on the cake for me. He pulled the team together IMO.

Back on topic, my favourite has to be the O O . I first saw him ride in a world title qualifier at Owlerton in 1966 , his first official outings in UK I think. He won the first heat of the night against three other Scandinavians and created an immediate impression. I followed his progress firstly at Newcastle, and then got to watch him on a regular basis when he moved to the Midlands. Had some great moments watching & supporting Ole, and always liked listening to what he had to say He had then & still has a wonderful personality.

I amaze myself sometimes, I can't remember what I did 10 minutes ago, but 30 years ago is clear in my mind.

Oh yes Roman! I remember an evening at Brandon when he was riding a new " all singing & dancing" GM. I'm sure it was Bees v Reading and Roman was " lined up" & passed by Jan Andersson on his dilapidated looking old Jawa. Roman wasn't impressed, after the race finished he rode up alongside Jan & gesticulated towards the engine. I thought WW3 was about to start, Andersson took offence , believing that Roman was accusing him of having a "large engine" and there were ructions in the pits area. I think Andersson insisted that the engine was examined there & then and if my memory serves me Tommy Knudsen took the top off the engine and measured its capacity. Everything checked out fine and we all moved on.

i suppose it depends where you consider "a touch of luck" finishes and a huge chunk of luck begins really. i will say that such was my intense frustration with the result, & for the one and only time in my life I found myself at the back of the room during the riders press conference heckling the winner during his speech .

I think you will find that the major criticism of this particular silencer was that the power from the engine didn't come in progressively. It caused the riders difficulties as often they would pick up drive unexpectedly, usually in the turns, and the bikes would lift dangerously. As a result riders were reluctant to get too close in case something untoward happened which indirectly caused a deterioration in the quality of the racing. IMO

Is that a serious question? I don't get the impression you are that naive .

I had it in my mind that it was a well known issue, but it was a long time ago and my memory isn't what it once was . Thanks for the info.

I don't worry about that. I've encountered plenty of posters like him in the time I've been on the forum. Most don't hang around too long usually.

I agree with that. IMO it was also a point where the quality of racing deteriorated as riders were complaining that" the engines didn't react to the throttle as they had prior to the new silencers being introduced ,and close racing was more difficult due to the way that the power came in".

Frank Ebdon.... No idea why, but it was a topic of discussion for quite a while as I recall edit Upon thinking about this a little more, I'm sure that I heard it first at a "talk in" in Coventry where Hans was guest speaker. He mentioned then that He and Ebdon had issues but didn't expand on that.