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I visited Charles in his office once. Alongside being in a business meeting with Ivan Mauger it counts as one of my most memorable moments in the sport. I can't bring myself to watch the drone footage. I lost my track at the age of 16. It still stings. Keep fighting while you still have one brick to save. Once lost they don't come back. 

 

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On 7/5/2020 at 11:44 AM, ONTWOMINUTES said:

At 11.36 into the footage the boarded up window to the left of the blue door is about as near to Charles's office as you could get ( I know his wife always sat in there) to the best of my knowledge. I know the management office was always in that area. 

Thanks for the info, I'll have close look.  For some reason I used to think the C.O.'s office was maybe at the far end of the main bar, recall there was a door with 'private' on it.  I filmed the very last (slowest ever) lap of Craven Park as I walked round literally hours before the track was dug up for pitch widening, sad but I felt it had to be done as likely no-one else would.  Should clarify that I held the camera as I walked, I wasn't filmed walking around the track, did the same at the Boulevard in 2008 or so whilst the dog track was still in situ, also what was left of Hedon (not much after 60-odd years) and a potential new site which didn't happen.   The greyhounds left Craven Park in 2003 and moved across Hull to the Boulevard, hopes were high of a bigger & wider track at CP, similar to Workington, but it wasn't to be.....

Edited by martinmauger
added info, ocd upper case
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3 hours ago, ChrisSimpson said:

It's changed a fair bit in 2 years :(

Depressing!

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Depressing!

Sad stuff. I'm glad i managed to do a couple of meetings at Brandon in their last season.

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17 hours ago, ChrisSimpson said:

It's changed a fair bit in 2 years :(

The thought occurred to me looking at those pits, and I'm only half jesting when I say this, such is my desperation to see the Bees back on track... But wouldn't it be great if Banksy paid a visit to the stadium and re-decorated the pit area ;)

Does he do requests?

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Maybe Banksy could take it over as he did in Weston Super Mare, and turned a derelict site into a depressed theme park or something similar. Get some Bristolians to track him down.

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1 hour ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Surely will become another housing estate .... mega millions to be made .☹️

Helpful as ever.

 

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Think you meant realistic Mr  McCaffery .....let’s not kid ourselves that someone is going to invest money into Brandon Stadium to run speedway at a loss each and every week?

Have you read this weeks Speedway Star page 2? Just about puts the tin lid on the Rockets . The new owner doesn’t want his new gym getting “all grimed up” from the bikes. 

 

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3 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Think you meant realistic Mr  McCaffery .....let’s not kid ourselves that someone is going to invest money into Brandon Stadium to run speedway at a loss each and every week?

Have you read this weeks Speedway Star page 2? Just about puts the tin lid on the Rockets . The new owner doesn’t want his new gym getting “all grimed up” from the bikes. 

 

Yes but if you read The Buzz you will know from Jeff Davies and his group there has been a couple of people who are willing to buy the stadium off BE and get it back up and running but BE prefer to sit on it and let it get further into decline.

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This makes me angry.  Speedway 'promoters' have allowed this to happen to the sport.  Most of them too dimwitted to plan for the future.  Most of them too insular, treating Speedway as a hobby and if you come and watch, that's up to you, and if you don't, so what.

I visited Coventry for a British riders final in the early 2000's.  The racing was not competitive and very boring, this seemed due to track.  I brought newcomers with me, they hated it.  We visited a food van and asked for chips.....the woman said (rudely) we don't do chips they were too popular.

I went to the opening night of the London Lions, there was nowhere to stand to watch the racing due to the stadium being redeveloped without terracing.  I stood on a grassy bank as I had done watching the Hackney Hawks.  The speedway management called the police to have us removed.  I asked Colin Pratt for a refund and he told me "if you don't like the stadium - idiot off)

Track shops selling embarrassing tat.  Meeting presentation anachronistic and embarrassing.  Riders wearing the race suit of another club while riding for their rivals as a guest........

Would those things happen in any other area of modern sport/entertainment/leisure? no of course not.

After 40 years I'm almost done with speedway.

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I'd love to see Coventry back up and running and would throw in all the bits we used to do presentation wise and centre green wise for free as we did at Leicester to try and keep the name going. But that's purely because I'm a Coventry fan and have had the sport drilled into me from birth to now. The problem is anybody investing in speedway full stop in the UK would be doing it for the love of the sport and for the memories in the Bees case of years gone by. Anyone investing in speedway will only lose there money going forwards, speedway in it's current guise is not where the British public want to spend their hard earned coin.  It's not moved with the times and the terraces are getting emptier and emptier as sadly followers of our beloved sport pass away.  Just be glad of all the memories you have as future one's may be sparser to come by :(

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Chris really enjoyed your presentation for Coventry Storm and also in the box was a nice change from Peter York, nothing against him but just feel his style is a little old and needed a freshen up :t:

 

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8 hours ago, ChrisSimpson said:

I'd love to see Coventry back up and running and would throw in all the bits we used to do presentation wise and centre green wise for free as we did at Leicester to try and keep the name going. But that's purely because I'm a Coventry fan and have had the sport drilled into me from birth to now. The problem is anybody investing in speedway full stop in the UK would be doing it for the love of the sport and for the memories in the Bees case of years gone by. Anyone investing in speedway will only lose there money going forwards, speedway in it's current guise is not where the British public want to spend their hard earned coin.  It's not moved with the times and the terraces are getting emptier and emptier as sadly followers of our beloved sport pass away.  Just be glad of all the memories you have as future one's may be sparser to come by :(

Sad but true, and the powers that be dont seem to either be able or dont want to try something to stop the trend.. Using the marketing company Hatfits is/was a step in the right direction, it might be another step forward see them appoint someone (a Barry Hearn/Frank Warren/Bernie Ecclestone type) to oversee the Sport who has no vested interest.. but Rob Godfrey has already said he has no appetite to see that kind of appointment..

Edited by greyhoundp

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