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foamfence

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Posts posted by foamfence

  1. Posted

    22 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

    If I remember speedway journalist and all round enthusiast Bryn Willliams used to travel around the country via public transport or lifts from colleagues because he never could drive. That's dedication for you but there's no way I would have relied upon public transport to get to matches personally...how he managed it is beyond me?

    These days a lot of tracks aren't accessible by public transport, we used to have loads around Yorkshire and Lancashire, you could visit several meetings every week.

    • Like 2

  2. Posted

    3 minutes ago, *JJ said:

    Actually, all this business is just some busybodies (who, of course, know what is best for the lower orders) being silly as usual. I am 76, and will be taking my caravan to away matches, Redcar, Plymouth and Poole, Berwick and Newcastle and so on. I have always had good night vision and still have.

    Well good luck to you, many of us aren't so fortunate.

  3. Posted

    2 hours ago, keepturningleft said:

     

    It is clear from many postings over the years here on the forum and on Facebook pages that Kenny Carter enjoys hero worship status amongst many.

    Thank goodness I am not the only person who feels deeply uncomfortable by all this.

     

    According to Tony Mac’s excellent book, a close friend of Pam’s claimed that Carter regularly hit Pam and prevented her from going out and leading a normal life.

    So now it turns out our hero is a wife beater, a man who inflicted mental anguish on his wife and then finally a murderer.

     

    If Carter’s actions on that fateful night had come about after some blazing argument resulting in a red mist moment, it may have made this whole wretched business 1% more bearable.

    However we know that Carter travelled to the Huddersfield area the day before the shooting to seek out the murder weapon, eventually sourcing one on the day of the murder so he had plenty of time to consider his actions.

    The decision he had made, to murder his wife and devastate the lives of two young children, clearly identifies this as a premeditated and truly heinous crime.

     

    Some claim Carter had become unhinged over the years and that his actions were fuelled by his, admittedly terrible, upbringing.

    Some are also now tagging a mental illness spin (with no proof), on the story but listening to Carter’s many inarticulate, and cringeworthy ranting interviews on World of Sport over the years he comes across as a little more than a hot headed child and frankly, not very bright.

    Many people are raised in deplorable and shocking circumstances but don’t go on to murder.

    If you take the position that it’s possible to separate Carter’s speedway career from his personal life, then you have to ask yourself this question: Is Kenny Carter’s speedway career more important than Pamela Carter’s life?

    It’s interesting to speculate about what might have happened had Carter not killed himself that night.

    Presumably he would have spent the rest of the 80’s, all the 90’s and some of the early century in prison.

    Would he have been given a heroes welcome home on the day of his release?

    As a convicted murderer, I doubt that he could have returned to speedway in any capacity and especially now given the extremely high profile nature of the Me Too movement and the game changing outrage over the murder of Sarah Everard.

    Kenny Carter would today almost certainly be banished to complete obscurity, a sad old man.

    Would his fans still be lauding him as a hero and legend in these circumstances?

     

    But of course by killing himself Carter conveniently avoided all this, thus bestowing upon himself the status of moral coward of the very highest (lowest) order.

     

    The achievements of people such as Carter, Phil Spector, Oscar Pistorius and many others in their respective fields, will aways be there on record. Nothing can take that away from them, but what we should do is to stop eulogising them.

    Their crimes have cancelled their status as legends or heroes.

    RIP Pam

     

    He's still a speedway hero, whatever he did and why he did it, he was still magic on a bike, while I accept your views, what happened was tragic, why it happened and all the circumstances, we'll never know. Personally I also liked Garrity as well, he was a great entertainer and despite his many shortcomings, I liked Ward, I've been involved since the early 50s and I still think Darcy was one of the best two or three riders I ever saw. This is a speedway forum and great moments will always be remembered, no matter who created them.

    • Like 2

  5. Posted

    12 minutes ago, TheWatcher said:

    Booing is now frowned upon by the woke presenters and announcers up and down the country. There is one particular track where you are actually actively encouraged to applaud the away riders, which gets a lukewarm response by and large, especially when they have just stuffed in a 5-1.

    Which means it's even less of a sporting contest with support, erm... Not working is it?

  6. Posted

    19 minutes ago, Wee Eck said:

    I agree with much of what you say. He certainly was box office but as much for his whining and moaning as his on track performances, which were legendary. 
    His achievements were substantial, twice BLRC winner, twice British Champion, World Pairs Champion and all by the time he was 25. But away tracks booed him because they bored of his histrionics.

    Remembering and acknowledging his performances is a given. Still referring to him as “#kingkenny” is not and I’m pleased the tweet has now been removed.

    Away tracks booed anyone who was brilliant and not theirs.

    • Like 2

  7. Posted

    1 hour ago, MattK said:

    I think you're on to something. Speedway fans moan endlessly about there only being six or seven teams in a league, but rugby fans cream themselves about the same six teams playing each other every year in the Six Nations.

    Apart from some rather dubious birth qualifications, they stick to their national side, rather than playing for all of them during the course of the season.

    • Like 3

  13. Posted

    1 minute ago, Grachan said:

    This argument doesn't stand up at all, even if speedway didn't attract non-white people.

    If Bradford has a population of 530,00 and 67.44% of the population are white, that still leaves around 360,000 white people in Bradford. That's more than the entire populations of Poole and Swindon combined.

     

    The majority of Odsal support came from outside Bradford, places such as Halifax (a short drive away) and further afield. You also have to consider that the Boomerangs, Tudors, Panthers, Northern, Barons and Dukes were all Bradford clubs and all of them closed down. Having said that, good luck to anyone who tries it.

  16. Posted

    1 minute ago, Jonny the spud said:

    If that’s the case you have to ask what British speedway has done in the last 40+ years  to target them as a potential audience ?

    You have no chance, they won't make hero's of other races or religions, believe me I live there.

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, Halifaxtiger said:

    The financial situation and team building in the NDL is very different to the other leagues. As greyhoundp has pointed out, the points limit was imposed - apparently without any discussion or negotiation - on NDL clubs by BSPL members who, in some cases, do not even have an NDL team. That is not the case in the higher leagues. 

    A few years ago, Scunthorpe ran an extremely weak NDL side but every one of their matches was run as a double header with the Championship team for one reason and one reason only: Rob Godfrey knew no-one would pay to watch it if it ran the NDL meetings seperately. My understanding is that Newcastle (at least) plan to do the same. Consequently, a double up club can afford to run a weakened NL side  - Isle of Wight cannot, as they rely on putting out a competitive and attractive team to pull in spectators.

    The reasoning for weakening the NDL - or at least the team strength - is an attempt to get other clubs to join. It has to be questioned just how many of the new teams would have joined the league if the points limit had stayed at 39.

    No rider is in a 'comfort zone for easy money' in the NDL. True, some have been there for years but that is simply because they have reached their level and have nowhere else to go. It would be ludicrous to suggest that any rider would remain in the NDL if their ability guaranteed a place in one of the higher leagues. 

    You must know something I don't because at no point have Isle of Wight simply said this is a matter of 2021 only. They could, indeed, have closed for good.

    You say 'go back to its roots of bringing on young riders' as though that has not been done for years. One check of the British riders in the Premiership and Championship for 2021 will show that they all started their careers in the third tier of the sport, as did our two representatives at the highest level, Tai Woffinden and Robert Lambert.

    The NDL has no need to 'go back' to developing riders as it has been doing a pretty decent job of that since it was formed.

    You're obviously not aware of the reputation that the promotion at Isle of Wight have built up since 2016.When Mimmo said that they were the 'most forward looking club at any level, that I can remember seeing for many a long year' his comments were neither exaggerated nor misplaced - that's the general view of a large number of people from right across the sport who has either had the opportunity of attending one of their meetings or has followed their progress closely.

    One glance at facebook comments following the news of their closure will show that while there is a significant degree of sadness and disappointment at what has happened there is no anger or criticism whatsoever - indeed there is a large amount of support for their actions. As far as their supporters are concerned, while there are those to blame for the demise of the Warriors that does not extend to Barry Bishop and Martin Widman. 

    Nothing obvious about it, I stand by what I wrote, they've let people down.

  18. Posted

    4 minutes ago, phillwhitewasmad said:

    As I apparently have an agenda to like the Bspl I will have my say. If the IOW were such a progressive club why have they not embraced what is in my opinion a dawning of a new era in British speedway with the advent of the rising stars and taking the NDL back to its original intention of a development league. Admittedly the cut to 35 for team build is harsh and has led to some unsavoury measures to allow teams to come under the limit but it had to be done .

    the new era may not be the promised land but speedway in the uk could not of carried on as it was . I personally hope the 5 year plan continues and in 4 years they announce what is going to happen after that . Remember the plan actually covers riders who are 11 now as they will be coming into the system.

    also like to add I do think it's a shame they didn't choose to try to make it work.

     

    They've taken their ball home, I'm glad I'm not one of their supporters.

  25. Posted

    23 minutes ago, Ray Stadia said:

    I suppose they could use a foamfence? :unsure:

    Indeed they could but they're more costly. Meanwhile this 'Foamfence' who lives quite near the track, probably won't be going, even after seeing every meeting there since the mid 1950s (had enough).

    • Like 1
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