E I Addio

Wasn’t Tony a road tester for Triumph at one stage, along with Road racer Percy Tait ? I might be wrong but I have a feeling they were both involved with developing the Triumph 3 cylinder 750 cc.

Hi, Bobbath , Could you Just remind us who the last 16 are? Thanks

Time moves on and these sad events are inescapable, but it doesn’t make it any easier to see the sports rich history and the riders that made it, fading into the past.

Jack Scott wasn’t it ? I remember the name from the history books but never saw him race. A part of the sports rich history gone though.

Yes, Len Sliver coined the famous ‘ackney slogan “ Make it a date Friday at Eight”. Rye House was Sunday afternoons at one point but I cant remember Arena-Essex mainly because I was becoming an armchair fan by the 90’s and Arena Essex as it was never did anything to attract me. It was only when Stuart Douglas took over and brought a breath of fresh air to the place I became regular again. At that time most racing was on Friday but they switched to the odd Wednesday day when AJ had a GP at the weekend . Part of the reason they had to let AJ go was because they were losing money on Wednesdays. I think a lot of fans were ex Hackney and had geared their lives to “Friday at Eight “ so they might have found it difficult to change the habit. Whatever the reason the crowds seem to have been getting on for double on Fridays at that time.

Yes, I had forgotten that.

Choosing race nights was done on a first come first served basis at the time so clubs that had chosen their race night before others had first choice, but if nobody objected other clubs could race on the same night. I can’t remember what night Lakeside raced under Ronnie Russell who was losing money anyway. When Cook and Douglas took over the allocated race night was Wednesday and it quickly became clear that for various reasons including commuting from Kent on a week night mid week crowds were too small to sustain the sport ,whereas 8pm Friday brought substantially bigger crowds so for years in the old Elite League the Lakeside fixture list was submitted for Friday night racing and nobody objected because they all knew it was Friday nights or no Lakeside at all. Then for what turned out to be the final season they dropped down to the old Premier League, submitted their fixture list for the season, had it approved by the BSPA pre - season and booked the track for Friday meetings. Racing continued in line with the approved fixture list until about August when Scunthorpe had an injury to , I think from memory Steve Worrall but not entirely sure , but Godfrey then started moaning because he couldn’t get suitable guests because other clubs were racing the same night as Scunthorpe. Then he pulled out this rule and said Lakeside couldn’t race on the same night as Scunthorpe so he could get a wider choice of guests, even though he as BSPA member had approved the fixture list pre- season and the track had been booked. By that stage Rye House had closed or lost their licence so Lakeside tried to finish the season by racing at Lakeside when they could get Fridays and the other weeks they were going to race at Rye House on Saturdays. Then Godfrey in his BSPA position said they could not do that and had to race at one or the other, which basically meant Rye House and which in turn had a catastrophic effect on the fixture list. I think with League and cup matches I think we finished up racing Peterborough three weeks out of four or something like that to complete the by then congested fixture list which of course was disastrous for attendances seeing the same team every week. We were later told by John Cook at a fans forum that Stuart lost £24,000 on that episode with no help or assistance from Godfrey and the BSPA management committee. I might have missed a detail or two but that was basically it. The Lakeside owners sold the track at the end of the season and for some reason I can’t now recall Rye House never had its licence reinstated. So two more tracks went out of business in that season and another nail was sunk into the sports coffin and the BSPA continued to fiddle while Rome burned. To rub salt in the wound the SS carried an interview with Godfrey who was bleating about “ rules are rules,” but the principle of the “best interests of speedway “ didn’t seem to apply then . In fact if I remember correctly that was the season Peterborough almost went out of business as well.It’s the old, old story again, self interest first, self interest second, and if there’s anything left over, self interest again as far as the BSPA are concerned. No surprise the sport is in a mess.

I don’t think there is anymore mileage in the old Arena site. The stock car club owned it of course and it was never going to be financially sustainable with just Speedway. I’d like to think a new track can be found but given that a lot of fans came from South of the Thames it has to be near the Dartford bridge. Therein lies the problem because there will be so much redevelopment for both Tilbury Docks and Housing the available land will be very scarce . Jon Cook used to say you can’t just have land for houses and offices and nothing else but apparently the local council, or more precisely the Government think you can To be fair to the local MP Jackie Doyle- Price she did come to a couple of meetings and was very enthusiastic and supportive at the time, which is more than can be said for the local council but she is really under pressure now. When the club closed the local council had been told by the Government to build 37,500 houses in the area, and that’s without other infrastructure. This seems to be one of those impossible targets Governments give out so they can say they are doing something then leave others to pick up the pieces. I think Jackie - Doyle- Price has to be seen to be doing something although the site of the track is probably still contaminated from its old days as a sand pit. This sort of thing is I fear going to be the gradual death of Speedway over time. My final point is that realistically Stuart Douglas and Jon Cook really were Lakeside and saved the club from closure when they took over in 2006/7 Duggo , as far as I know still lives in America and apart from not wanting to own a club he is rarely able to watch, he lost a lot of money when he was stitched up by Rob Godfrey in particular, and the BSPA , as was . I very much doubt that a decent bloke like Stuart would want to get his fingers burnt by that shower again. So much as I hate being negative , and much as I would like to say otherwise I think the Hammers future is very bleak.

That’s not surprising. You should have seen him on big wide grass tracks. I have his DVD . He was a true motorcycle enthusiast. A great rider who was too scatterbrained to reach his true potential ( that’s not a criticism , it’s just life.). It seems his second wife straightened him out a lot but his best years were behind him by then.

Briggo said his favourite track was West Ham “ So fast and wide you could pass anywhere’ . I am not going to argue with him !

There is a lot of history about him and some lovely photos on the Newcastle Speedway History website.

Does he have much memory of anything ? I used to chat with him and his wife Linda a lot at Lakeside. If he is “with it “ and can hold a bit of a conversation I’d like to go and visit him, but there’s no point if , as I fear , he has no memory,

Great experience talking to an ex rider like that. I just about remember him at West Ham, but I don’t think he really settled to the big track there. Dis he say anything about his days as a Hammer?

Exactly! Where do find the equipment to pick up and store perhaps 15-20 tons of soaking wet shale , where do put it and where do you find the unpaid volunteer staff to do all this. Even if you could somehow get the wet shale off where do you get hold off another 10 tons of dry shale at the back end of the season ? Totally unworkable suggestion to relay the track and bed it down .

Something I somehow never thought I would read. He seemed almost immortal. 8 World Championships and 8 TT wins puts him up with the best of them. The former European Trials Champion Don Smith once said you can always tell if a rider is a true enthusiast because they carry on when they are past their best . Phil Read rode his last Manx GP at the age of I think 59, forty years after he started racing, and just before his licence would automatically be suspended on the grounds of age. Often outspoken and difficult to deal with but by any measure a true enthusiast, and I respect him for it .

I am not sure the word “managed “ has any place in British Speedway any more.

I can’t add to what others have said . He was an absolute credit to himself and the sport.

Absolutely spot on. I couldn’t have put it better myself. I went to bed last night feeling that maybe I’ve watched my last speedway meeting. I don’t know. Maybe some of the feeing will come back, Im not .sure. I went to Paradise Park a few weeks ago and just watching Sverre Harrfeldt warm up an immaculately restored JAP sent shivers down my spine but last night brought it all back to an all time low. I like Adam Ellis and wish him well Cardiff, and it wasn’t just last nights fiasco , but more the way the sport struggles from one crisis to the next. Like you I feel worn worn down, or perhaps worn out with it. And Godfrey is worse than useless. Always has been always will be.

Sadly It might be the case that George Barclay may no longer be with us or if he is , then he is probably very ill. I used to chat to him and his wife Linda a lot at Lakeside, then he was missing and heard he had dementia. I can’t confirm it first hand, just what I heard . If anyone can update us on him it would be appreciated. George is/was a lovely man and a genuine Speedway fan . He ran one of the ride and slide schools at Lakeside which put money into the club but was dumped and badly treated by Jon Cook.

Devasted that I missed Norman Hunter , and meeting the inimitable Norbold , but I arrived a bit lat and spent so long the museum ( which was excellent) was running out of time . Highlight for me was Sverre Harrfeldt warming up an immaculate Rotrax- Jap with a straight through exhaust which sounded fantastic. Sverre is just such a modest guy you can’t help but like him . That Jack Parker collection in the museum . I never realised that Ove Fundin was the last rider to win aWorld Championship on a JAP but the bike in the Museum , which I don’t know if it was Ove’s or replica was poetry on two wheels. Finally a question I came away with. According to the Jack Parker section of the Museum the British Match Race Championship was suspended in 1935 until after the War due to the death of Tom Farndon. Is this correct. I don’t see what a fatal crash has to do with a particular event, as accidents can happen in any part of racing.

….nah, happy days at the ‘ Ammers. I doubt if I cursed anyone except Bob Andrews and Sandor Levai !

I’ll look out for you and certainly come and say ‘ello. I used to stand downstairs a few yards in front of the starting gate. I hope you or CHR weren’t the blokes who dropped your old peanut shells over the upper tier on my ‘ead ! Please not that we ‘ave to get back in the ‘abit of dropping out ‘h’s’ agen if we are celebrating Custom ‘Ouse.

Jack Keen from Erith probably ……

Ok , I stand corrected on that, but one still has to look at the practicality if this type of marketing and not simply assume it will work. Someone has to administer it in a sport that is largely run by volunteers. I remember an article either on here or in a speedway Star years ago when Mick Bratley was involved with Peterborough. He did an enormous amount of legwork with flyers and special deals, reduced entries etc, including the large Polish community around Peterborough and little or nothing came of it, and Mick was far more committed than most. Then Rick Frost took over at Peterborough, on of the best Promoters of modern times, and a successful businessman who knew what he was doing. He spent a fortune but it was all down a black hole. Now I agree , that with the likes of the unimaginative Godfrey running the show the sport couldn’t be in a worse position but all these marketing ideas have been suggested and tried and tested and re-tried and re- tested over the years and not really worked. The absolute bottom line as far as I can see is that if the product is not right people won’t keep coming back and paying 20quid a time to see processional racing or even good racing unless it is there all or most of the time. Hence my comment earlier about Holder and Ward. To be fair what is there to keep a rider of even modest talent riding in the UK if he can earn more abroad? It pains me to say this but times have changed, people have changed and entertainment has changed but speedway and indeed all stadium based entertainment ie stock cars and greyhounds has largely been left behind . There used to be 30 greyhound tracks in the London area, now there is one. What does that tell you ?

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