BigFatDave

The Darren & Sharon Boocock Scholarship Tour Downunder, November-December 2012. Yes, it’s on again. For the fifth year running the Scholarship will be helping young riders from the UK and New Zealand improve their skills as well as providing a shot in the arm for Queensland and Australian Speedway. Despite the current economic climate this year the scholarship has been able to come up with enough sponsorship to cover a six-meeting program for three young British riders; Kyle Howarth, Kyle Newman and Tom Perry; and one up-and-coming New Zealander, Hayden Sims. Kyle Newman will be making his fifth riding visit to Australia, Kyle Howarth is here for the third time while Tom and Hayden are on their second trip, although in the case of Hayden Sims it will be his first year on a 500. Hayden’s mother Maree will be accompanying him, and she’s more than capable of keeping the lads in line. Kyle Newman has proved himself in the past few years as a first-class ambassador for British Speedway, while Kyle Howarth, Tom Perry and Hayden Sims have already endeared themselves to Aussie fans for their take-no-prisoners attitude to racing and their willingness to go the extra mile to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with local fans. During their stay in Australia they will be based in Townsville in a purpose-built accommodation unit (OK, it’s a bunkhouse!) with a modern, roomy workshop adjacent to the house of Bev and Marcus Williams, the driving forces behind the Scholarship, and they’ll be aided in their endeavours by several local identities, too numerous to mention here, who will be taking care of the Tour Logistics and teaching the lads all they could possibly wish to learn about the mechanical requirements of operating motorcycles in a Tropical environment at a variety of tracks the length and breadth of Queensland. The Itinerary is as follows: Saturday 17th November. Mareeba Speedway, Far North Queensland. (The meeting format has yet to be confirmed) Saturday 24th November. Queensland Under-21s Solos, North Brisbane Speedway. Saturday December 1st. Queensland Senior Solos, Brandon Speedway. Saturday December 8th. Speedway Bonanza, Maryborough Speedway. Saturday December 15th. Macs Speedway, Mackay. (The meeting format has yet to be confirmed) Saturday December 22nd. Teams Meeting, North Brisbane Speedway. A quick geography lesson may be required for those of you who may not know one end of Queensland from the other: Mareeba Speedway, at Kerribee Park - Springs Road, Mareeba in Far North Queensland, is one of three new venues for the Scholarship, and indeed is pretty new to Motorcycle Speedway; this could be the first Solo meeting at the Venue. Situated in the heart of the beautiful Atherton tablelands, on the banks of the Barron River. Mareeba is also the starting point of the annual Wheelbarrow Race to Chillagoe, commemorating the early Mining Pioneers of the area, who back in the day set off for the Goldfields of the Hinterland pushing all their belongings in Wheelbarrows. North Brisbane Speedway, in Raubers Rd Northgate, SE QLD, is opposite Brisbane Airport across the M1 Motorway. Brandon Speedway, in Ayr, North Queensland, is in the heart of the Canefields, near the Jumping-off point for the Whitsunday Islands. Maryborough Speedway, in Gympie Road, Tinana is inland from the Central QLD Coast midway between Brisbane and Gladstone. Historically a car track, Maryborough have recently begun hosting Solo and Sidecars on a regular basis. A 360m circuit, this is their 55th Anniversary Year. Mac’s Speedway near Mackay, in Bells Road, Palmyra, Walkerston Qld, is halfway between Rockhampton and Townsville, and is another relative newcomer to the solo scene. 400m on the pole line, it’ll be one of the largest tracks the lads will be riding. Finally, a huge thank-you is due to all the Sponsors, both great and small, who have helped to make this tour possible. In no particular order, they are: The Stoddart Group; GM Australia; SPEX; CPD Mechanical; Regina Chains; Silkolene; RMCS Racing; Gordon Pairman; Stuha; Talon Engineering; Tomi the Czech (answers to Lubos!); RRE; BFD Racing (!!) Grumpy Grampy Racing (!!!) Tappat Link; Just Concepts; Dan Thompson Architectural Drafting; Burdekin Motors Group; K & M Filters; Howarth Motors; Pharoah Homes; Pegasus Speed Needs; Scandic CNC; Future Sports Motorcycles and a host of volunteer dogsbodies. Special thanks must go to Major Sponsors Ros and Steve Koppe from Future Sport Motorcycles, without whom the Tour would never have got off the ground, let alone made it to five years in a row. Also deserving of praise and thanks are Lindsay Granger, General manager of Motorcycle Queensland, and each and every one of the tireless workers on the MQ Speedway Sub-committee, without whom this tour would not have been possible. Incidentally it's still not too late to get on board: three more young British riders are currently in reserve in case more funding can be found.

Don't be so hard on yourself, iris!

Still got the Potty Mouth problem then? Nothing new there.

....and you don't - jealous?

In similar vein to the Darren & Sharon Boocock Scholarship, which is mainly funded by a few companies and far-sighted individuals for the betterment of British Speedway, and receives no official help..

Here's a few for you, iris! Plenty cheered Tai on in SWC last year. Most morons can't spell as well. Another attempt at wit? The last one was actually after your post but I believe it falls into the same category. Quite why some forum members choose to go the Nationality Route to slag riders off all the time escapes me; maybe it's inspired by jealousy, or more likely their own inadequacies; who knows? You have to remember, Marky, that these intellectual pygmies who slag Tai off all the time are all so much better than he will ever be - just ask them. All I can suggest is to wait politely for their next rant, then when they've calmed down a bit just tuck them in and they'll go back to sleep, until it's time for their next tantrum/bottle, whichever comes first. Tai's been blessed with the option of dual nationality and he's chosen to ride for his birthplace; GB. That should be enough for most people, but not the ones born with a chip on their shoulder, alas.

Great News for next year's tour: in 2013 the Scholarship is looking at running an eight man team and heading further South, with Kurri Kurri firmly on the agenda. Among the names bandied around so far is Bradley Andrews from Auckland, NZ, who rode in the UK in second halves this year under the watchful eye of SGP Rider Jason Bunyan. Bradley is the grandson of Bob Andrews, who rode for the Dons & the Heathens back in the day.

Great News for Aussie Fans last night; Chris Holder interviewed on SPEED Channel told us that in response to the outpouring of support from Downunder he's definitely considering riding in this season's Ozchamps. Now if we can just get a certain Bristol-born three-time World Champion to consider having a spin as well........

Thanks Mama. So that'd make SWC 20th July in Prague?

Simon would have been Fifty-two today, October 15th. Thanks for the memories.

Couldn't help himself - totally sucked in.

It's a total waste of time and space replying to your obvious and increasingly desperate attempts to pick a fight, since you cannot even acknowledge your own shortcomings while going to town on what you perceive to be mine. Goodbye.

Apart from committing the cardinal sin of quoting yourself to prove a point; pretty much a peak for egotistical megalomaniacs, you deliberately mis-quote my reply: a sure sign you've embarked on a deliberately argumentative stance. Lift your game, mate. Good to see you're 'working' late; hope your boss doesn't mind you ripping him off.

Geez, you're up late on a Sunday Morning - still haven't got a life, eh? Do you know where the Sun doesn't shine? That's where you can place your advice, mate. I'm up to here with your continual trolling of my posts, your gratuitous advice, empty threats and general holier-than-thou attitude. How about you treating the forum members who actually contribute to Speedway with a bit of respect; you've certainly shown none so far, coming on here on your high horse with your antagonistically argumentative stance on anything and everything. It's little wonder that people who actually support Speedway, either by regularly attending meetings world-wide, working on machinery gratis or simply sponsoring riders and clubs are leaving this forum in droves if comments like yours are what greets them on here. I might be one of the very few Aussie contributors left still posting regularly where once there were several; most of whom have been driven off by a vociferous minority. There are a couple of members who think it's the height of intellectual debate to call anyone they don't agree with "Bell End" or "Tosser" - why don't you troll onto their posts and lecture them for a change, they seem to be more on your level?

In order to take part in the Scholarship, riders have to come up with Airfares and Pocket money for two months. The Scholarship provides everything else, from toothpaste to methanol, with everything in between, including transport to & from tracks for practice and meetings, plus all accommodation. When you take into account the sheer size of Australia, indeed just of Queensland, the costs of running the tour are prohibitive; it's a miracle this year's tour is on at all, especially given the almost complete lack of interest from British Speedway Clubs, who are the main beneficiaries of the finished product. The benefits of spending a few months riding on a variety of Australian circuits can easily by seen by watching the improvement in riders who've already taken part. If they want to come, all they hafta do is come up with the bucks. I agree, MrMungo, it would be great to have more riders and different riders taking up the challenge, but it's not up to the Organisers to do everything for them, wouldn't you agree? Prospective Riders have to get out there and raise funds as well. There have also been approaches from Denmark and Sweden to get their riders involved; it all comes down to money in the end.

Depends if you want to wipe the floor with them I suppose. Don't forget, this week's Anglers Mail is next week's fish wrapper. I look forward to your tips on Bait, Blazeaway; you're obviously a Master Baiter.

If you can't make a post without hurling insults left right and centre then why bother? Oh, wait! I see your post has been approved by Troll Central.

All depends on Sponsorship, Rodders, and how long they're staying over for. I'm going over for the Brandon meeting on Dec 1st so I'll check on what's happening. It'd be great to see Kyle Newman in the Aussies again, and I was most impressed with how much Junior Howarth has progressed this year. Tom the Pom'll probably be too busy chasing sheilas again, or to be more honest being chased!! Shame there's not enough sponsorship to bring the Worralls and Ash Morris back over, but alas financial support has been very hard to come by from Pomgolia, despite Laurence Rogers' sterling fundraising efforts.

You obviously don't know many Aussies, Mate! If anything he's a lot more of a typical Aussie than you'd think; a real Top Bloke. Do I tell you how to live your life, sidney? Nice & warm in Darwin today, by the way.

What has your post about Chris Holder got to do with what I was discussing, viz Nicki's insufferably rude attitude after wiping out AJ? Rather than attempting to respond to the point in question, you're just introducing red herrings to try to cloud the issue.

Aha! Answering a question with another question, eh? This is also known as a counter-question, and is invariably used when one's argument starts to fall apart. I tell you what; if you'd like to answer the original question I'll consider whether your response was purely rhetorical or just time-wasting.

I trust that's in reverse order, NR? Back-to-back wins for Rooboy!

I call it as I see it. You're talking about Nicki's rudeness, are you? Not attacking the Poster I trust? Did Chris put AJ in Hospital?

Sadly I doubt it very much. Some of the Riders are fully-based in Europe these days, and don't even own bikes in Australia any more; they're just coming home for a few weeks' holiday. Some are looking forward to the off-season to recover from injuries carried through the season. Some of the hardier souls won't even be coming home; they'll just hibernate until March. However the riders who will be competing will ensure that this is another Championships to remember, for both themselves and spectators alike, and the added attraction of appearances by newly-crowned World Champion Chris Holder will ensure bumper crowds.

Doesn't really make up for his rudeness after wiping out AJ though, does it?