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markyb

Coventry Bees - My Memories

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Back in the early 70's, when Wolves had little if any sucess, I remember us winning 3 years out of 4 at Brandon. Sweet.

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My best memory of Coventry was a cold wet dank night in October 2003!! :rofl::t:

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Where do you start? For me it was little boy blue in the early sixties when the old man first took me to speedways cheerful centre.

Booey carried the team for so long until the Danish maestro was snaffled from the wolves.

Ron mountford brave as anyone lifted on his bike to race ,Jim lightfoot, Col Cotterell, rick France roger hill from my earliest memories.

I remember one year we had a guest all year as Garry Middleton did not appear for whatever reason that was grim.

Bob Valentine arrived loved him as a rider but not the rider he seemed as a Sheffield tiger I think he packed it in after one year with the bees.

Ole signed and transformed us although the rider I really liked that first Olsen era year was Alan Molyneux .

Mitch Shirra Jiri stancl we suddenly had a competitive team.

 

Two opposition performances I always remember from this era were Dag Lovaas cruising to a 15pt Max in one meeting and Bo Petersen for Hackney miles ahead one night.

 

Peter Collins (Spinorama King) and Michanek Briggs Mauger oh my life what riders.

 

Ray Wilson looking back whilst in front in the Brandanopolis and coming a cropper, cannot remember who won it.

 

The two back to back years with Tommy and Kelvin JJ and Rick my favourite team with David Bargh ,Clarky and andy Hackett.

 

Brian Andersen another bees great never really took to hans Nielsen great rider though.

 

I could go on but I will leave it there

 

up the bees

Edited by naffer

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The first place I saw speedway and the first rain off as well, many happy memories, Andy Grahame winning the brit final, first time there 1973 and never missed a year since then.

Known some of the supporters for over 30 years, real mates, a great place to watch speedway and seeing martin Dugard as a wild card winning the brit SGP that year, happy days and huge crowds, all those great events, Saw all the best riders on there over the years.

Such good days.

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Being 'rescued' by Mitch Shirra outside the farm he was lodging at near Southam when the clutch cable broke on my Triumph 5TA, shortly after he'd shipped in from Oz. I'll never forget seeing him walking up the driveway towards me, and realising who it was! Together we jury-rigged the bike and I got home to Southam! Later, I used to regularly see the little bu99er zapping around town on the back wheel of a Yamaha XT500 just for fun. :lol:

 

John Harrhy (nothing more to say really).

 

Muscles, Booey, Hurriken, Tony Lomas, Ron Mountford, Jim L, Col C. Hilly. All those memories from THAT fabulous era.

 

(I also remember the Verner incident, although i'd forgotten it until the old memory was jogged earlier in this thread).

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I remember bees number 1 tommy Knudsen doing a wheelie coming off the fourth bend to win the race at Swindon and coming a cropper but can't remember if he fell before the Finnish line or after it.

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Friends, fans and brethren please spread the word.

Our Virtual Skid project next airs tomorrow, Thursday 16 July and features the Heathens going wheel to wheel against the Coventry Bees from the 90’s. Please come and join us on Speedway Portals Youtube channel, like our FB Page Virtual Skid and Twitter @skidvirtual

Each Heat is sponsored (as are the team managers Garry Stead and Adam Roynon). The Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund will be the sponsorship recipients.

Additional donations are being taken. Don’t  forget the SRBF text line is now open for you to be able to donate £5 - its quick and easy and you will be supporting a great cause. 

Text SRBF to 70085 or SRBFNOINFO to 70085 if you do not want any marketing updates.

Here is the legal bit....

Text SRBF to 70085 to donate £5
Texts cost £5 plus one standard rate message and you’ll be opting in to hear more about our work and fundraising via telephone and  SMS. If you’d like to give £5 but do not wish to receive marketing communications, text SRBFNOINFO to 70085. 

If you haven’t tried Virtual Skid yet, search Speedway Portal and follow the links to one of the five meetings that have already been screened.

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Only went once, 2007, Swindon needed 5-1 In last heat to win, and they did. Adams and Chrzanowski beating Nicholls and Schwein.Great track, great stadium, good fans, a sad loss to the sport.

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On 7/17/2020 at 7:21 PM, auntie doris said:

Only went once, 2007, Swindon needed 5-1 In last heat to win, and they did. Adams and Chrzanowski beating Nicholls and Schwein.Great track, great stadium, good fans, a sad loss to the sport.

I remember that race Doris. Adams almost fenced Chrzanowski going into the third bend...I think he was taken by surprise at how quick the Pole was.....I think he scored something like 17 points that night. 

A couple of memories for me at Brandon....the British Final run off between Ray Wilson and Martin Ashby in 75 I think. What a fabulous race. Ashby stalked Wilson for 3 and a half laps before almost executing a perfect pass going into the final two bends...sadly, Martin was far too nice and gave World Cup Willy the room he needed to win by a tyres width on the line. 

The 2007 play off final between the Bees and the Robins....arrived late on one of the Swindon coaches...heard on the radio Swindon had extended their lead by winning heat 1 5-1. Much jubilation on the coach! Had also been informed that Sebastian Ulamek had crashed into the fence on the warm up!! 

Entered the stadium in five for heat 3. Looked across at bends one and two and saw a sea of red and white. Swindon fans packed in there. 

From then on,  Swindon were completely outridden by a better Coventry side. 

Terrible shame that there’s no longer any Speedway at such a great stadium and decent track. 

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3 hours ago, EnglishRoundabout said:

I remember that race Doris. Adams almost fenced Chrzanowski going into the third bend...I think he was taken by surprise at how quick the Pole was.....I think he scored something like 17 points that night. 

A couple of memories for me at Brandon....the British Final run off between Ray Wilson and Martin Ashby in 75 I think. What a fabulous race. Ashby stalked Wilson for 3 and a half laps before almost executing a perfect pass going into the final two bends...sadly, Martin was far too nice and gave World Cup Willy the room he needed to win by a tyres width on the line. 

The 2007 play off final between the Bees and the Robins....arrived late on one of the Swindon coaches...heard on the radio Swindon had extended their lead by winning heat 1 5-1. Much jubilation on the coach! Had also been informed that Sebastian Ulamek had crashed into the fence on the warm up!! 

Entered the stadium in five for heat 3. Looked across at bends one and two and saw a sea of red and white. Swindon fans packed in there. 

From then on,  Swindon were completely outridden by a better Coventry side. 

Terrible shame that there’s no longer any Speedway at such a great stadium and decent track. 

Yes Chezanowravoski scored 17 from reserve. Adams and Mads K0303rneliussen lying on ground after heat 1 crash. Probably best meeting I've attended. Didn't go to Final but mates left after heat 8 in minibus, said about 500 Robins fans there. The good ole days.

The Robins had a lot of wins at Cov.

Edited by auntie doris

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On 3/31/2014 at 7:51 PM, FranktonBee said:

Being 'rescued' by Mitch Shirra outside the farm he was lodging at near Southam when the clutch cable broke on my Triumph 5TA, shortly after he'd shipped in from Oz. I'll never forget seeing him walking up the driveway towards me, and realising who it was! Together we jury-rigged the bike and I got home to Southam! Later, I used to regularly see the little bu99er zapping around town on the back wheel of a Yamaha XT500 just for fun. :lol:

 

John Harrhy (nothing more to say really).

 

Muscles, Booey, Hurriken, Tony Lomas, Ron Mountford, Jim L, Col C. Hilly. All those memories from THAT fabulous era.

 

(I also remember the Verner incident, although i'd forgotten it until the old memory was jogged earlier in this thread).

 

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what about the night frank smith popped out of the traps to beat billy sanders ( god bless him). they nearly lifted the lid off the place screaming him on. happy days indeed.

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6 hours ago, auntie doris said:

Yes Chezanowravoski scored 17 from reserve. Adams and Mads K0303rneliussen lying on ground after heat 1 crash. Probably best meeting I've attended. Didn't go to Final but mates left after heat 8 in minibus, said about 500 Robins fans there. The good ole days.

The Robins had a lot of wins at Cov.

Yes, that’s probably an accurate figure of the amount of Robins fans Doris. Swindon fans always seemed to populate together, similar to what they did at Smallmead on the pit bend. 

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8 hours ago, EnglishRoundabout said:

 Had also been informed that Sebastian Ulamek had crashed into the fence on the warm up!! 

 

That was a strange one.  My memory of it is that he fell off and his bike hit, and then went over, the fence.  But it’s a while ago and I might have imagined these details.  

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On 7/17/2020 at 7:21 PM, auntie doris said:

Only went once, 2007, Swindon needed 5-1 In last heat to win, and they did. Adams and Chrzanowski beating Nicholls and Schwein.Great track, great stadium, good fans, a sad loss to the sport.

I only went there three times but I agree about the fans. Really good crowd and very sporting , very friendly. They deserve a lot better than what happened.

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