Malcolm Simmons

I'm looking forward to Sunday and my return to Poole, where I spent so many happy years. It will be good to catch up with my old team-mate Pete Smith and other riders who have been around almost as long as me! I'll be signing copies of my book and hopefully seeing plenty old faces from my days with the Pirates between 1975-80. Even if you've already bought the book at Poole, or from the publishers or at any other track, please feel free to bring it along and I'll be very happy to sign it. See you there! Simmo

Thank you for the comments, I'll try and respond to them... Firstly, thanks to those with positive messages and glad you are enjoying my book - Fast Gater, spiegal, etc. Fast Gater seems to at least recognise what I was trying to do with the book and how honest I wanted it to be. semion - Obviously, you don;t live in the real world. If you think I';m the only one who did 'favours' for riders then you are mistaken. It takes more than one bloke to make these 'deals' in the pits. You call me a cheat, but I can assure you I wasnt alone. Star Lady - nice comments, thanks. I'll be signing the book at the Kings Lynn/Rye House match on Wednesday night, so hopefully you will be there with a lot of other fans who followed the Stars n my day. I've asked Bettsy to come along and he has agreed, so it will be a like a mini reunion. Tigerblade - I never said i'd do a rider's testimonial and not turn up. If I agreed to be there, I was. As for guest apearances, again if I agreed to take the bookingthen I'd do it. I think you must be thinking of the times I wouldn't got to Newport and Bristol for the reasons explained in the book. But I DID go to those tracks for official team matches for Poole, it was open and individual meetings that I missed when I wasn't contracted to appear. What happened around the 84 British final is also fully covered in the book. spiegal(James) - telephone poles? - enlighten me...I don;t remember???? tiger74 - I wasn't jealous of other riders, all I meant was that if an English rider won the world final it would mean the best sponsorship deals going their way instead of mine! Take PC as an example...if I was really that jealous of him, would I have helped him with my twin carbs set up before the 77 world final? Custom House Kid - great to hear from an ex-Hammers supporter, as I have very fond memories of my early seasons with West Ham. There are a couple of whole chapters in the book covering this period of my career, with about 20-odd photos, inc Hurri-Ken, Sverre, Norman Hunter and all the other boys. moxey 63 - thanks. Yeah, I did talk to Pete Ansell at Poole about a come back but it was those damned averages again. I think I was about 0.2 too much for them to fit me into the team. I woulkdn't put the boot in on Lee Richardson. I've had a go in the book about his poor GP performancesbut everyone goes through a rough spell in their career in the league and he can come through it at Elite League level. Dekker - Ha-ha!! Glad I gave the Swindon fans something to cheer any way. I must have been thinking of the Robins when I forgot to turn on my fuel tap! At least you appreciated the help I could offer Jimmy in his first season. frigbo - another Swindon fan, I see. I did cover this business and admitted the average situation affected my results during all of the last month of the 85 season. It all came down to that last match, which explained the big fat zero. I've said how selfish I behaved and felt ashamed. I just hope that speedway fans in general will not remember me for what I did for one month at Swindon and forget the good things about my other 30 years in the sport. Keep the banter coming... Simmo

I'm not very good with computers, but I thought I';d try and get a bit involved in this topic!! Firstly I would like to thank everyone who has taken the trouble to leave a message reacting to my new book. I knew it wouldn't please everybody and I can understand those who have had a go at me, even if I dont agree with them all! I have had my say and it's only right that people can come back at me with their opinions. I can't promise to reply to every comment that comes my way, or to spend a lot of time on this site (I have a full-time job to do aswell!!!!), but I will keep looking to see whats being said about my book. Loved the comment by Moxey63, by the way!!! And thanks to those who've stuck up for me so far! As I said, I just wanted to tell the truth as I see it now, looking back over my whole career. I think I have made a lot of admissions in the book, I know where I went wrong and there are a number of regrets, but we can't turn back the clock now, can we. One thing I forgot to do and I want to try and put right now, is to thank Mick Potter. He was a bloody good sponsor of mine, providing me with grass-track engines, and I meant to mention in him in the list of thankyous at the start of the book. If your reading this Mick (I think he has a look on here from time to time), many thanks for all you've done for me. It was great to meet and see so many old faces again when I launched the book at Cardiff. There was one embarassing bit when my old Swindoin promoter Riuchard Vowles came up and bought a signed copy. I recognised him straight away even though it's been 21 years since my one season with the Robins. I wonder if he's read that chapter yet! Sorry Richard and to all Swindon fans. Cardiff was a fantastic success all round and I really enjoyed the whole occassion. The racing wasn't much cop, but the atmosphere was tremendous and they do put on a brilliant allround show. I think we'll have to find a horn-free zone next year though!!! Peter Collins was sitting just in front of me and June and it was nice to see PC again. We both agreed that we would have loved to have ridden in such a great arena in our day. it was like being back at Wembley on World final night again. Thanks again for your interest. Simmo