Scunny Stag

How the hell can you have an age limit?

I'd just been transferred to a crap job and I was still living with my mother so I had little to lose. As for money I never completed the challenge, due to the track closure, so wasn't able to collect. I was aiming for £10,000 but it was never going to reach anything like that. If I'd got close to half that it would have been a surprise. Sorry for not replying earlier. I hadn't visited this thread for a while.

Someone said Julian Parr was at the practice session yesterday. Didn't see him myself but Derek Richardson has been several times with his son Scott, who is just starting out with speedway. Jamie Hildreth, who did a small number of meetings for the Stags, also attended the first session and suggested that he and Andy Walker, a second-halfer in the early 80's from Hull, were going to make a one-off return to the track. Of course Rob Woffinden is in Perth, Australia and may come back to these shores for a summer if his son, Tai, wants to give it a go over here. Then there was an earlier thread about Arthur Browning still racing a Jawa road bike on the Isle of Man this summer.

It has been great reading through this thread and in particular the car-cleaning and car-crashing stories from my new friend Jim. I can't get close to that but I can remember when Scunthorpe raced away at Canterbury and Rye House on consecutive night and didn't lose either match. Okay they didn't win either, both 48-48 if I remember correctly, but considering that in 15 years of racing Scunthorpe often had problems going two matches unbeaten at home it was a standout weekend in my speedway watching. I also remember being allowed to miss two days school as a 15 year old to help Jamie Hildreth at a two-day Ivan Mauger training school. I'm not sure why Mum let me, because they were the only two non-sick days off school I ever had, but I'm eternally grateful (not that I can remember too much about the days :-)) I remember helping New Zealander Greg DeKok in a Scunthorpe Junior team match at Boston when I was either 15 or 16. It was a full 13 heat match and afterwards in the bar I had my first pints of beer. I also remember Kev Armitage and his dad mixing it with Charlie McKinna on the Ashby Ville centre green. Finally I remember giving up my job as a 17 year old at British Steel to help Scunthorpe Speedway. My main aim was to bicycle 10,000 miles in 7 months raising money for the club. I'd also hoped to cycle to every Stags meeting. Then on 13th May 1985 we ran our last meeting for nearly 20 years. My knees still remind me of the time everytime I step on a bicycle or spend much time with my knees bent. I hope you will excuse me if I still get a little excited about the return of the sport in town.

Isn't it time to change riders for the last three GPs? Is this is continuing (aren't we missing the scores from the last one) then my changes are: Adams, Gollob & B.Pedersen OUT Crump, Andersen & Jonsson IN Cheers, Richard

Agree with you there SCB. Tonight was a great meeting and still would have been if Australia had got through with the help of a joker ride. However, the joker ride would only take away from the spectacle, it doesn't add to it. Get rid BSI or make them go from 15 metres.

The current Stoke track

Riders out: Andreas Jonsson, Mikael Max and Hans Andersen Riders in: Tomasz Gollob, Lee Richardson and Bjarne Pedersen Thanks, Scunny Stag aka Richard Hollingsworth Lincolnshire Legtrailers

What's the format? Last year's worked really well considering the limited number of riders who will reach finals.

Just managed to get booked in to the Travel Inn at Port Talbot (only one available in S.Wales) for night of the 12th and there are still rooms available. It's ideal for those who are going to go to Carmarthen the following day. Let's hope the Meakins get more people attend this year. A couple of hundred fans can make a big difference to a club like that and last year's meeting put the GP to shame.

Have people seen the TV ads for Travelodge with £25 room rates? Well there are still some rooms available for Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd August at Hailsham (Travelodge calls it Eastbourne Hellingly). Rooms for the 3rd are £49.95. If anyone wants 2nd and 3rd then book them separately and you can get £25 for first night. I'm seeing how many £25 nights I can get booked for this season's jaunts.

A picture of Simon Cartwright is on www.berwickbandits.co.uk

I've read with interest the 12 pages of this thread and I have a lot of sympathy with Elite League fans. However it will be interesting to see what effect the drop in standard has on the silent majority. I like to think that the poorer clubs will stand a chance of competing and overall the crowds won't drop and with all due respect I don't think the strong views on here really represent the average watcher. Most on here are way too fanatical to be considered average. What I do see is the top riders who are frozen out in 2004 coming back in 2005. The league will have to relax the team building limit of 19 and probably go back to a rider's average limit. Either way the riders who earnt their 'valuation' in 2003 are going to be worth much more than a rider with the same valuation earnt in 2004. I guess the only rule that would need to be relaxed is the one where ther is only one rider in categories A & B. However with riders like Harris, Howe, Janniro, Norris, Barker, Stead, Ulamek, Gjedde, Lyons, Screen almost certain to obtain 'B' status so that is just a formality.

Norbold, Thanks for looking. Maybe he never made the leagues and was just the equivalent of our second-halfers. I think I'll make further enquiries when I'm up there again. Richard

A couple of years back I had a chat with a interesting old bloke up in Northumberland. During the conversation he told me he had been a speedway rider, amongst many other things, and I think he mentioned some of the old South East/London tracks (I'm sure Rayleigh was one of them). He did tell me the name he rode under but I forgot it. I think it was just a nickname instead of Jack. Does anyone have any further information on this rider?

Thanks for looking Norbold. As far as I'm aware you're one of the experts round here. I guess it could have been 40's as I'm only guessing he is about 70. If you can't find anything then I'll make an effort to see him again (he's a neighbour to the cottage where we stay a couple of times a year) or get one of the other locals to maybe try and find out a bit more. Cheers, Richard

Sorry, it's not him. I do know his name is Belfield (seen it on parish council minutes :-)) I've just scoured a couple of VSM mags because I'm sure it was a popular nickname. There's actually a scoreboard in Vol 8 No 2 where most of the riders have nicknames but the only one that it might be is 'Skid' and I pretty certain it wasn't that. It wasn't Crash, Tiger, Splash, Zip, Flyer, Buck, Smudger or Ace either. I hope someone with some of Peter Jackson's speedway archives might be kind enough to see if his name appears. If it does then I'll probably see if Peter still has copies for sales (I have his postal address but I don't believe he's on e-mail). However, I'm not going to spend over £50 for all 9 years to only find he doesn't appear.

This was a good meeting on an excellently prepared track. The temperature was into the 30s so how they managed to prevent dust from flying at any time during the meeting I don't know. It was a shame the attendance wasn't better though. As for the riders Andrew Moore provided some excellent entertainment with some charges round the outside whilst Chris Harris and Scott Robson also bagged good scores for England. Andrew Appleton and the two reserves, Barrie Evans and James Brundle, were all very disappointing. For Australia Craig Watson was the star but they scored points all the way down the order with the reserves, Joel Parson and Lee Herne, probably being the deciding factor. Result England 43 Australia 47

I agree that if ALL the British promoters agree to lower what they are paying riders, especially the GP ones, then it would help. Many of the riders would reduce their costs and agree to ride, sooner or later, at the reduced rates. However as soon as one club wants to pay a bit more to get a particular rider, and obtaining rider sponsorship counts just the same, then the whole thing will quickly spiral out of control again. I'm sorry SCB but your dream will never work out, not even if rider control was also brought in. The only way it could work out is if Elite League speedway was run by one company (like BSI get away with it for the GPs) and profits shared.

Exactly! I get the impression that the only place it may have do is in big budget North American leagues who can spend a fortune on policing. It certainly doesn't work in British ice hockey where players were paid for second jobs with in the organisation, their wives were given jobs, sponsors paid players direct etc. There are too many 'legitimate' ways round a cap.

Whilst an increase in CL teams might make it more complex to arrange fixtures I think the current structure is fine (not to say that 4 tiers is wrong). The second teams have the option of running in the Trophy (7 home meetings), the league (12 meetings) or even both. Then of course, they can add the KOC. I think that flexibility has helped encourage Armadale, Trelawny and Stoke to ride in the Trophy this season and Oxford, Wolverhampton and Swindon step up to the league (if I'm not mistaken). As for Tony's suggestion I think it would be a bad idea to take money away from the EL and give more to the CL. I'm a big fan of the CL but the EL is the one struggling to survive whilst the CL, like all motor sports at the lowest level, has to be treated as a hobby. The more money given to the CL is only likely to tempt has beens back into the sport or worse still tempt them down from higher leagues. Phil, What was your thinking behind the question? The number of teams at that level, a disparity between the top and bottom teams or something else?

I loved the one encouraging you to bring the wife because you won't be able to hear her ;-) We acquired about the posters too. A missed opportunity if you ask me. I'd be happy to pay 'over the odds' for one to add to our collection of framed ice hockey ones from various world championships.

Not having been before I wonder if anyone can tell me if the programmes have been good value for £5?

I hope Bryn doesn't mind me posting this from his Yahoogroup posting. It was good to see Harris do so well and Howe also qualify. I'm sorry but once again it makes the GP wildcards look a bit silly. * denotes after run off!! Here's the Result courtesy of Graham Reeve: 1. Chris Harris 13* 2. Niels-Kristian Iversen 13* 3. Krzysztof Kasprzak 12* 4. Jarek Hampel 12* 5. Frederik Lindgren 10 6. Richard Miskowiak (pol) 9 7. David Howe 7* 8. Ryan Fisher 7 * 9. (Res) Mikael Smolinkski (Ger) 7* NON - QUALIFIERS: 10. Rinat Gufurov (Rus) 6 11. Andrew Appleton 6 12. Simon Stead 6 13. Tomas Suchanek (Cz) 4 14. Rory Schlein 3 15. Friedrich Wallner (Aut) 3 16. Rune Sola (Nor) 2

The BSPA site confirms this. Personally I think Chris Harris should be there. Beat Howe @ Sheffield, beat Stead @ Poole and has a better EL average than both (such that Steady's is)