Chris116

Sadly the weather could mean this meeting is postponed. The start time has been moved to 5pm in the hope that the weather improves during the day. Good luck to both teams with a safe, exciting meeting.

As a youngster I was by the pits at Wimbledon one evening when Teo was racing and at the end of the meeting he came over to a small group of kids and gave each of us one of his flick off visors. Tragically he had his accident a month or so later and I treasured that visor until it vanished in a house move in the mid 90's. I still very much regret that I lost it as and have never forgotten Teo and his kind and friendly nature.

One of the biggest problems is that the last few seasons we have suffered a mad dash at the end of the season to complete fixtures before the cut off. The cut off also can mean that teams finish their season far too early (witness Sheffield this season). To get around the problem I sould suggest running the league until the middle of September which then leaves six weeks to stage the playoffs. The League Cup would only be open to those teams not in the Playoffs and would ensure that all teams have meaningful meetings to at least the middle of October. This can happen as part of one big PL/CL or with the two leagues run much as they have this last season. If we do have one big league then I would think that it should be run with North and South divisions and if 18 teams are involved them 2 Home and Away meetings between those teams in the same division and 1 Home and Away for those in the other division. That gives 16 Home meetings within your division and 9 Home meetings against those of the other division. Mid March to Mid September is 25 weeks so teams could run weekly. All fixtures would be fixed at the start of the season and a Rain-off would be 1 point for each team with no rearranged dates. If the league is run on this basis then I would drop the KO Cup as it would make for too many meetings in the season.

I enjoy car and bike racing but having been to both on circuits and ovals would always choose Stock Cars and Speedway over anything the places like Brands Hatch and Silverstone can dish up. The fact that on an Oval you can see all of the race but on a circuit the race flashes past every however long they take to do a lap is a big factor for me.

It is interesting that Lakeside are giving the Peterborough fans a chance to pay for only one meeting but not accepting the Newcastle fans rain-off tickets. The simple thing would have been to run the meetings in the other order but that would have meant a late finish before a long journey for Newcastle fans and left the Peterborough fans forced to watch a meeting they probably have no interest in. Of course, better fixture planning that stops double headers being needed would solve the problem!

I think the cut off is two weeks before the KO Cup date so looks like they need to get a move on.

Lakeside are advertising the KO Cup against Peterborough on Saturday 29th September and Rolling Thunder Show are also advertising a meeting on the same evening. One of them will have to be either moved to another track or the date changed.

The Rolling Thunder Show, car racing, has a fixture for Ninja Sprints Southern Championship, Stock Rods, Superstox, Junior Hot Rods, RTS Hot Rods, Euro Rods and Thunder Cars which could be interesting or could point to the speedway not being at Arena Essex!

Wimbledon had an electric scoreboard in the 60's and 70's until the GRA started to destroy everything in the stadium so they could close it. The scoreboard was used for dog meetings for the tote betting and for speedway and stock car meetings for results.

At least one season in the early 1960s had handicap racing in the league. The sight of Ronnie Moore going from 30 yards and still being in the lead at Plough Lane is forever etched on my brain. Second half races were often five rider, handicap events and great fun for the spectators although the riders may have been less keen about the idea.

Sadly one factor in the decline of Speedway is that the younger generation think an evenings entertainment consists of watching TV, playing video games or chatting on social media. Many people only "go out" when they go to work or for weddings and funerals. Many have stopped going to the pub because it is a ten minute walk and they can't take the car. It is that sort of mentality that many sports like Speedway are fighting. Added to that is the very short attention span of many younger people and sport in general has a problem.

I was lucky enough that my parents moved to near Wimbledon Stadium in 1957 and immediately started going there for Speedway. Ronnie was very soon my hero and I saw him win the World Final at Wembley in 1959. As many have already said he could team ride superbly and from a 30 yard handicap was regularly in the lead by the back straight in five rider handicap races. After Peter Craven, my mother's favourite rider, was killed and Ronnie broke his leg and retired my family lost our love of Speedway and only went Stock Car racing for a time but we're soon back watching the bikes and when Ronnie returned I was in seventh heaven, even though he was never quite as dominant as he had been before his time away. I got to know him and he was as nice a person as he was a great rider. It is a very sad reflection on the sport in this country that both the BSPA and SCB websites have ignored this news. (Good to see that the BSPA and SCB caught up with the sad news on Monday.) RIP Ronnie, you will not be forgotten.

I believe football fixtures are dictated by the authorities, not by clubs making agreements between each other. If the SGB Premiership continues with fixed race nights then the simple way to solve future fixture problems would be for teams to have to declare any dates they are not available at the start of the season. Clubs would then be given the dates of their fixtures. Two home meetings a month with a third date each month for any rain offs. If a meeting is rained off then it is automatically moved to the next rain off date at the track that the away team are not racing on. Two teams my by mutual agreement move a fixture by a maximum of three weeks either before or after the planned date but this must be announced at least six weeks before the original date so that fans can plan their travel arrangements without the worry of last minute changes except those caused by the weather. Plan all fixtures to be completed by the end of August with the first two weeks in September kept clear to run any rained off fixtures. The Play offs could then be run over the following four weeks. If we have Monday and Wednesday as fixed race nights then all play off matches would be on Wednesday with the following Monday as the rain off date. All the BSPA need to do is to ask the Football League if they can use the computer program which football use to generate their fixture list.

I note they could still have an interval to up the bar takings but then one race later call it off. That sort of antic is why I stopped travelling from Wimbledon to Poole by train and will take a lot of convincing to ever go back.

Most speedway fans are probably not aware that Arena Essex is the home of TWO stock car/hot rod/banger promotions. Having been a lifelong follower of both sports and having worked for Chick Woodroffe please let me explain. Chick opened the track under his Promotasport banner as part of the then thriving P. R. I. organisation. He then started the Speedway. The Promotasport racing is held on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday afternoons. For the last few years there has also been the Rolling Thunder Show events run by Vincent O'Connor on Saturday evenings. RTS do not run Bangers but Vince is a former Promotasport driver in both Stock Cars and Hot Rods and I think still races in Sprint Cars. Promotasport may be finished and the Woodroffe family moving out but I suspect RTS would be as keen as Lakeside Hammers to continue and they might want to move to Sunday afternoons although I have no way of knowing if that is true.