Brian Buck

Just a slight clarification - Birmingham have not yet been offered Monday nights or any other night as a racenight, and also have not been offered an extension on their lease of the stadium. This information is required in order that the Brummies can commit to racing in any league, Premiership, Championship or NDL, and as far as I know, this needs to be forthcoming by the date of the BSPL AGM.

Times are tough for Plymouth but this isn't the fault of their management, so I hope that the genuine supporters will stick with them. If you lose your club, then you won't get it back - I know this from experience!!!

I've signed this petition and would urge every speedway enthusiast to do the same. People's views on the current state of speedway in this country are not the issue - every possible effort should be made to save one of the sport's finest race tracks, so come on folks, sign - don't just leave it to others!

Seemed a fair enough decision to re-run that race, to me. Wright might well have overtaken Sedgy on the last lap, so I have no complaint about that! I watched the meeting on the stream and was most impressed with the commentary and with the presentation. A good meeting raced on a very well prepared track, and a close scoreline from start to finish - what more could a speedway enthusiast ask?

Hope you will have a good day - but beware of the traffic congestion when you make your way to the stadium. It isn't far from Birmingham City Centre, but it can get extremely nasty between about 4pm and 7pm. The City Council have spent millions on renovating the route from the City to Perry Barr, but it doesn't seem to have done much to improve the traffic flow, so allow plenty of time to make your way to Perry Barr. Have a good evening though, and hope you enjoy the racing. I don't think we Birmingham fans have too many illusions about the outcome - but every dog has his day!!!!!!

I think that was a mis-type by BrizHeathen! I'm pretty sure that he meant to type "will be a missed opportunity if NOT true!

The first match which James Wright missed through his injury was Birmingham's offiicial opening fixture on April 19th. Therefore, since last night's match at Plymouth was 27 days later, the Brummies were perfectly well entitled to hire a guest in line with Wright's average, and would indeed if they wished, also be able to use a similar guest in this evening's home match against Edinburgh, after which, the 28 day dispensation period would expire. In the light of this, I don't see how anyone can claim that Birmingham have breached any rules. Plymouth's Team Manager is widely regarded as a very astute man who rarely misses a trick, but in hindsight, he probably blundered in opting to use rider replacement for Howarth rather than employ a guest, so he will probably be pilloried for it! In truth though, he was still able to use Plymouth's best on the night riders, Worrall (twice), Barker, and Gilkes in all of Howarth's scheduled races, so it was hardly Mr May's fault that these lads only managed four points collectively in their extra races.. To suggest that Birmingham only won the match because Plymouth were so poor is insulting. The Brummies won through some determined teamwork which helped overcome the first race loss through injury, of Stefan Nielsen - and although some of the usual contributors to this forum will continue to look for excuses as to why Birmingham won a match which they were confidently expected to lose, I think it was a thoroughly deserved win from a team which has not deserved the criticism it has received in recent times. Well done Brummies and thanks Plymouth for an enjoyable match.

I'd suggest that the heading for this topic be changed to Cycle Speedway since all of the postings are about this sport.

This is a photo of my club Sandwell's track. Sandwell were my only club and I was a member for 63 years, firstly as a rider and then as an administrator. We build the track ourselves from scratch on land we rented for £15 per annum from Sandwell Council, and everything that can be seen on the picture including the floodlights, the clubroom, the pits, and the spectator accomodation, was constructed by our members. We never had a penny in financial help from Sandwell Council, but we had a watertight document from the council's predecessors (Oldbury Council) that we couldn't be kicked off the land as long as we paid our rent and caused no nuisance. In 2014, Sandwell Council sold the adjacent land to a private school and as this was a school for problem kids, the new owners wouldn't allow us to cross their land, and as access to the track compound could only be made through the school grounds, we had no option but to wind up the club. Sandwell Council had no interest in helping us resolve the impasse - all they were prepared to talk about was upping the rent to a level we could never afford, so a marvellous facility was lost to the Borough. At approaching 84, I'm too old to be involved now, but I loved my time in Cycle Speedway and would highly recommend any youngsters taking it up.

As it seems unfair to for me to muscle in on this site which is supposed to be about Long Eaton, I have created a new "Birmingham Wheels Park" site - so anyone who finds this of interest, should log on to this.

Yes - that's correct. Salford Stadium could be seen clearly from spaghetti junction. The stadium was given to the City by an unknown benefactor in celebration of the Festival of Britain in 1951. When we looked at it, the only users were Salford Cycling club who used the velodrome which surrounded a cinder based running track which had been very rarely used in previous years. Spectator capacity was only 2,500 with uncovered terracing only on the two bends, but there was considerable scope to at least double this by installing terracing on one straight (the other straight ran parallel with the main Lichfield Road so could only have accomodated a single row of spectators around the velodrome. Salford Cycling Club could only use the stadium between May and September because the floodlights didn't work and the City Council wouldn't fund having them repaired. We would have done this, so the Cycling Club were very keen on having us as co-users, but the Council, prompted by a single determined high ranking councillor, put forward every conceivable objection to having speedway there, including saying that the substantial sized carparking area was "too close to the entrance to the M6 Motorway." We would have used the stadium once a week between March to October, leaving the cpuncil to offer out its use to other potential users on the other 300 or days days of the year. It was then decided to offer out the stadium to tender and we were told that we could submit our tender providing that this complied with four conditions - the first of which was that the activities of Salford Cycling Club must be maintained, as other tenderers would also have to. The only organisation able to comply with all four was - you've guessed it - Birmingham Speedway - so the council awarded it to a Five-a-side Football provider which couldn't comply with any of them! The Cycling Club were straight away evicted and the velodrome was demolished. We had plenty of supporters within the City Council's staff who were initially enthusiastic about the prospect of having speedway at Salford Stadium, but it just shows how one high level councillor can bulldoze his way into getting his own way when he doesn't care for a particular project. The irony is that after the success of the Commonwealth Games last summer, there have been strident calls for Birmingham to install a velodrome within the City, but it seems that no one remembers the perfectly good one which was destroyed!

Graham Drury isn't involved in speedway these days although he is an occasional visitor to Perry Barr. Gary Patchett hasn't beeen seen or heard of for several years now and was banned from Perry Barr by the GRA unless he brought with him a cheque for the money he owed them!!!

Post War promoters at my club (Birmingham's) track have been: Les Marshall, George Buck (no relation to me!), Phil Hart, Doug Ellis, Joe and Bill Thurley, Colin Barber, John Berry, Dan McCormick, Jeff May, Tom Evitts, Les Powell, Duncan Corbett, Tony Mole, Graham Drury, Gary Patchett, Alan Phillips, Chris Luty, David Mason and Nigel Tolley. Pre-War promoters (before my time!) were: Bill Dallison and Arthur Westwood.

In normal circumstances I would have agreed with Tony MacDonald that personal disputes should be kept private, but this is an exceptional case, and I think it is right and proper that this matter should be brought to everyone's notice, and as someone who has known and respected Steve Casey for over 50 years, I am absolutely appalled at the way that he and his family have been treated, and fully agree with the sentiment that Peter Collins has now lost the admiration and respect that very many speedway supporters once had for him.

In fairness, I'd say that in many cases, the amount of effort riders elect to put in when they are adrift, depends largely on how many laps have been completed and how far behind they happen to be!