Shrub

Franz Leitner rode a couple of times for Ipswich sometime in the mid nineties, was hopelessly off the pace

I'm reasonably confident that I've tripped and fell over something at my local speedway stadium and that no one has tripped over one of these at any other track in the country. To give some context it was back in the 80's when fans and riders packed the bar after meetings and living within walking distance it was always around midnight before tottering out of a very dark, unlit stadium and car park. Any guesses? If not, answer tomorrow!

I was at the meeting at Ipswich which ended Hans' career. As has probably been mentioned on here before it was the most innocuous looking gentle slide into the fence but his back hit one of the small wooden supports that held up the collapsible safety fence. The fans on the terraces were wondering what was going on, shouting 'get up' as they usually do when it looks like a rider's making a meal of it but that soon changed when the ambulance was called on. Still considered as the accident with the worst outcome at Ipswich on the 'new' track inside the old one.

Never thought about it that way but you're right, if it had happened say last year they certainly wouldn't have published it. Different sensitivities 40 years ago? I think John Berry re-produced it in his first book, along with the photo's of Shrimp's hand after the crash that cost him a couple of fingers and thumb.

Yes, still makes me wince just thinking of that photo

Tony Davey broke his thigh for the second time, both times through no fault of his own, three days before his testimonial. Also ended his career.

Blimey, having to choose between King's Lynn and Liverpool! It's like being asked if you'd rather be shot or hung!

Nah, just a sublime move, I'm sure he had at least one eye open! From memory (it was 45 years ago, bloody hell!) it was a typical move with a few elbows that you saw most weeks up and down the country and I don't recall the Oxford pair complaining or having words with Billy afterwards. Most teams had one or two in their side who loved that side of the racing, Billy was always up for a bit of that and the other Witch handy with his elbows at that time was Ted Howgego. Ted had the most ungainly style of any rider I've seen, was difficult to pass as no one knew where he was going, least of all Ted and was pretty fearless. Going back to the Ipswich v Oxford match Gordon Kennett let you down, usually very good round Foxhall but failing to score that night but a real thorn in the Witches side was John Dews, who I think scored double figures.

In the 1975 season Ipswich had their first two or three home matches rained or snowed off and eventually started the season cold with a league match against Oxford, who on paper weren't great shakes at Foxhall and were usually on the wrong end of a 50 something to twenty something scoreline. It was a wet night and Oxford, who I think had a few matches already under their belts, lead from the start and went into heat 13 37-35 up. Shrimp Davey, just the fella for such occasions and an out of touch Billy Sanders who I think had only scored three up to then, against the in form Dag Lovaas and Richard Hellsen. As expected Shrimp shot from the gate and was gone, but Lovaas and Hellsen team rode Sanders out until the last bend when Billy dived under one and rounded the other to bring the house down. I still remember the roar of the crowd! And Ipswich won the league by one point. What a difference that last bend by Billy made!

The ban on crowds outdoors in sports stadium looks even more crackers when tickets for the Royal Choral Society's Christmas show at the Royal Albert Hall have just gone on sale, with up to 3,000 able to attend!

As an add on to the 1977 Belle Vue - Ipswich clashes, Tony Davey scored 0 from 4 in the first match and a 12 point maximum in the next!

You're right, no comparison between then and now. The only thing the same is King's Lynn are still waiting to win the league...

You've got the wrong county! That's Norfolk with the extra digits. If you want to use tired, old, unoriginal cliches about Suffolk people you need to post about tractors and farmyard animals.

You're right, that paragraph was a general response to all of the day' posting's, not meant to be aimed at you personally. I should have placed it in a separate posting.

I'm genuinely sorry to hear of the circumstances of your father's death ianb, however having now read the full exchanges on pages 21 and 22 it's clear that Bwitcher was referring to flu and not your father's death.

Must have been something dodgy about leaving your car in the car park at Hackney!

Spot on

They send immature kids to the naughty step

I phoned my Dad earlier this evening - not to just ask him about this I hasten to add - but I did ask him if he remembered it and he said that it was p!ssing it down! A boiler suit meeting as he called them. Couldn't really remember the meeting but the car (a huge white Ford Zephyr) ran minus one cylinder on the way home from around Chelmsford back to Felixstowe!

I noted in my post that only urgent symptomatic cases were being seen. That's not my words, that's taken from the introduction in the Lancet's article, explaining what was happening in hospitals during lockdown. The fact remains though that the critical screening and diagnostic services did stop, failing to pick up next months, next year's cancer cases. This decision, and the catastrophic loss of life it will cause, is a disgrace, a state sanctioned death sentence for thousands for years to come. Perhaps when you see one of your health professional friends next you should get him / her to explain virus transmission to you! I have to say as well, on coming home from work today and catching up on the postings here, that I could hardly believe what I was reading. Bwitcher doesn't need me to defend him, he's more than capable of doing that himself, but to call him the 'C' word (again) in the same childish schoolboy manner as before, suggest he's possibly autistic - then accuse him of being a bully! The staggering hypocrisy.... Chunky and Stevebrum have summed the situation up perfectly in the past hour or so, I'll not add to that but agree fully with what they said.

I went with my Dad to this, I was about 10. I remember going straight from school to Hackney, my first of what turned out to be many, many visits there, it was the night after the England v Russia match at Ipswich, and Tiger's 12 point max but little else! Though the rain rings a bell now that you mentioned it!

Can't remember the score but I know this one wasn't a massacre like the England v Russia match. You can definitely put a row of 3's next to Tiger's name though!

You're right it was seven man teams, but your old age is letting you down just a little! We had the Russians v England at Ipswich, you had England v Poland at Hackney (12 point max for the Tiger!) Think that match was shown on World of Sport. (Unless my old age is letting me down!)

I'm sorry but you're totally wrong about hospitals.Once lockdown was announced, all cancer screenings were suspended, routine diagnostic work deferred and only urgent symptomatic cases were seen. All non Covid NHS services were decreased or ceased and staff moved to Covid wards. As I said in my original post we all know that early diagnosis and treatment is essential in beating cancer; what effect do you think stopping screening and diagnostic work had? Back in early July the Health Care Research Hub for Cancer estimated that 7,000 extra people at best, 35.000 at worst will die this year alone due to missed cancer treatments because of lockdown. The 'optimistic' figure was based on the hope that things will return to normal quickly. Sadly this hasn't happened. In my area cancer referrals are still 37% down on this time last year, in fact it's down in every area. I've banged on about cancer a few times over the past few months. I've lost family and friends to it, I'm sure you have to, in fact every single forum member will have lost someone close to them through this horrible illness. We've also all probably had a loved one diagnosed late or tragically, too late which is why screening is essential. Not rocket science, but clearly beyond the wit of this government. The lockdown has been a needless death sentence for thousands of people, killed so they can instead concentrate on a virus that in up to 80% of cases the person doesn't even know he's got it. To hammer home the point, read the attached report from the lancet about excess cancer deaths due to lockdown. Sobering reading. Then look up 'Transmission' in the dictionary. You clearly do not understand what it means. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30388-0/fulltext

Do you deny that people are dying or are going to die early because they did not get their cancer diagnosis / treatment because the hospitals effectively shut due to lockdown? We all know that early diagnosis and treatment is essential in tackling this disease. Yet because of this lockdown which you think has been so great, 2.5 million patients are now in the logjam caused by this delay. This was known at the lockdown, you don't have to be a medical expert to realise what would happen and now countless thousands will die prematurely over the next few years, dwarfing the Covid numbers. A percentage of these will be young people as well. And that's not counting other serious illnesses and conditions that also had their treatments stopped. The only thing missing from Johnson's lockdown speech was the black cap that he should have been wearing as he knowingly passed a sentence of death on thousands of innocent people. And again to re-iterate Bwitcher's valid point, unless someone can credibly explain how the lockdown made the Covid numbers plummet yet did nothing to another virus transmitted in exactly the same way, then the lockdown's "success"' story is totally blown out of the water.