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old bob at herne bay

Will British Speedway Survive ?

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37 minutes ago, falcace said:

Recommended. Worth a read and a re-read. Tony Mac should be paying me for this ;)

It is indeed a VERY goord read, highly reccomended as is the follow-up 'More Confessions'.  Tony ain't paying me either B)....

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2 hours ago, cityrebel said:

I knew John Berry well, when he was running Wimbledon. He could be a funny guy with a great sense of humour, he also had a very serious side when it came to speedway. I got on well with him, he was a pleasure to work with.

He was really  close to Billy Sanders wasn't he City ????  a relevant point was made by Falcace in an earlier post.John could be a tad bias but i think he was tough but fair he was twenty years ahead of his time.Just the man to ask !!!! City did you ever see any of the likes of Mike Bast, Scott Autrey, Sumner McKnight , Jeff Sexton, Gene Woods practice at Wimbledon after the meeting's.? I know you went regular and was a huge Ronnie Moore fan i am  sure Iris was a regular Plough lane visitor as well at one time or another.

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John Berry was before my time but someone my old man respected hugely and the mention of Billy Sanders the same.... I say before my time I would have been too young to remember but they probably would have seen me.

Billy again such a character from what I hear the best story I ever heard was the prank he played on my parents on their wedding day.

Billy somehow stole/borrowed a sheep from a field and covered it with squirty cream and locked it in the back of my parents wedding car so when they were about to be whisked off they were met by a rather hyper sheep ready to run for it lol

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3 hours ago, Falcon1983 said:

This is why if the main event in british speedway was an individual championship for British riders all the promotion can go into this and developing stars no matter whether they end up in poland or not   then interest could then drop to local teams etc as well 

And the more British riders that get success, the better the national team becomes..

And the better the national team becomes, the more the mainstream media are interested..

The more the mainstream media are interested, the more domestic speedway can feed off the back of it..

The cricket and rugby union's organisational leaders saw this year's ago and brought in central contracts for their elite so they could control their training, diets, health and well being etc, and development plans to bring through home grown talent to ensure that if the elite go off into other more lucrative playing zones, that a conveyer belt of talent is there to replace them...

They knew that nothing generates high media interest in their respective sports more than a strong, successful national team, and then, on the back of that, they would get better crowds and sponsorship for their domestic game..

Saracens, Wasps, Leicester etc winning the Championship in Rugby, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Essex etc winning the County Championship in Cricket. Won't bring anywhere near the coverage for either sport that a World Cup win would bring for the national team.

Their respective organisations knew this and did something about it..

UK Speedway instead seemingly must have had a plan to help train up every other Speedway riding nation's riders, often replacing UK riders to do so..

All to try and win a title, that the only recognition you get is a buffet in the town hall and a selfie with the mayor.. :rolleyes:

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4 hours ago, martinmauger said:

It is indeed a VERY goord read, highly reccomended as is the follow-up 'More Confessions'.  Tony ain't paying me either B)....

Both these books are a superb read! It's also quite sad how Berry could see how speed should and could be ran and sadly how his predictions of how the sport would end up is pretty much bang on. 

A great man with so many forward looking ideas however just like some before him and more since the BSPA sucked all the enthusiasm and energy he had for speedway out of him. 

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4 hours ago, Sidney the robin said:

He was really  close to Billy Sanders wasn't he City ????  a relevant point was made by Falcace in an earlier post.John could be a tad bias but i think he was tough but fair he was twenty years ahead of his time.Just the man to ask !!!! City did you ever see any of the likes of Mike Bast, Scott Autrey, Sumner McKnight , Jeff Sexton, Gene Woods practice at Wimbledon after the meeting's.? I know you went regular and was a huge Ronnie Moore fan i am  sure Iris was a regular Plough lane visitor as well at one time or another.

Like i said Sid, John was like Marmite, you either liked him or you didn't. I got on well with him. Regarding the yanks. I remember seeing Autrey having after the meeting spins at Wimbledon in the early 1970's, and Gene Woods had a short spell riding for the Dons in 1981. It's a shame he didn't stick with it, he was a stylish rider with lots of potential.

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41 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

Like i said Sid, John was like Marmite, you either liked him or you didn't. I got on well with him. Regarding the yanks. I remember seeing Autrey having after the meeting spins at Wimbledon in the early 1970's, and Gene Woods had a short spell riding for the Dons in 1981. It's a shame he didn't stick with it, he was a stylish rider with lots of potential.

I saw both Woods brothers ride both had real potential to be decent over here a shame they did not stick at it.

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18 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

I saw both Woods brothers ride both had real potential to be decent over here a shame they did not stick at it.

I also saw Steve Bast ride a couple of meetings for Wembley in 1970. I was just a wee lad at the time!

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22 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

I also saw Steve Bast ride a couple of meetings for Wembley in 1970. I was just a wee lad at the time!

I do not think Steve Bast was    ever fully committed , he did not have is own equipment and rode the Wembley track spare for his entire Wembley  sojourn. I can  recall various riders trying to tell him what lines to ride but to no avail

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10 minutes ago, wealdstone said:

I do not think Steve Bast was    ever fully committed , he did not have is own equipment and rode the Wembley track spare for his entire Wembley  sojourn. I can  recall various riders trying to tell him what lines to ride but to no 

One of his away matches was an abandoned meeting at West Ham. He must have got the shock of his life seeing the wide open spaces at Custom House!

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1 hour ago, wealdstone said:

I do not think Steve Bast was    ever fully committed , he did not have is own equipment and rode the Wembley track spare for his entire Wembley  sojourn. I can  recall various riders trying to tell him what lines to ride but to no avail

I can remember Bert Harkins helping him, and i read that Steve thought he would be riding three or four times a week everyweek.That did not happen so he went back home. I often think also what could  Dewayne Keeter have achieved if he had comeback after his decent debut 1969 season.Keeter along with Keith Chrisko are the two Americans who don't get mentioned much but both could of gone on and had decent British league careers.

 

 

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Seen that the polish top league clubs  have all received 600,000 zlt around £120,000 as part payment from tv deal which is a good help.

However they are still saying rider contracts will have to be renegotiated because their other income from local government and sponsorship from large companies is unlikely to be given,  companies will no longer have the cash for speedway because of coronavirus and the same goes from local government.

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That's the big problem with polish speedway the money they give big riders signing on fee its stupid.  Now with what's happening in the world.  They will not have the money to giveaway? Will be interesting to see how the riders react.  

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