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3 hours ago, chunky said:

Wimbledon was also where my parents met...

and mine. my dad was groundsman and my mum walked the greyhounds round before the races.

i also met my ex wife there, and her parents met at the stadium too

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1 hour ago, stevehone said:

and mine. my dad was groundsman and my mum walked the greyhounds round before the races.

That's weird! My grandad was the groundsman at Wimbledon FC in the 60's and 70's...

Nothing like keeping it in the family, eh?

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2 hours ago, chunky said:

That's weird! My grandad was the groundsman at Wimbledon FC in the 60's and 70's...

Nothing like keeping it in the family, eh?

message his name, i'll speak to my dad :t:

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11 hours ago, BOBBATH said:

Is this a quiz -can somebody give me the answers? I can figure a couple out- pork sarnies has to be CH, and the third tier WF reserve is Geoff Mardon who was with  Aldershot-then Wimbledon later on.. Where is Art's Fish and Chips etc!!!! Please help as this is driving me crazy!!

Weymouth...at the junction of Radipole Lane.

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On 12/13/2020 at 2:13 PM, Shrub said:

I'm reasonably confident that I've tripped and fell over something at my local speedway stadium and that no one has tripped over one of these at any other track in the country. To give some context it was back in the 80's when fans and riders packed the bar after meetings and living within walking distance it was always around midnight before tottering out of a very dark, unlit stadium and car park.

Any guesses? If not, answer tomorrow! 

...still waiting?

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12 hours ago, steve roberts said:

...still waiting?

Sorry Steve, as they say I've had one hell of a crappy week!

Anyway, to put you out of your misery......... a sleeping camel!!

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6 minutes ago, Shrub said:

Sorry Steve, as they say I've had one hell of a crappy week!

Anyway, to put you out of your misery......... a sleeping camel!!

Sorry to hear of your news.

I'm intrigued by the sleeping camel however!!

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33 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Sorry to hear of your news.

I'm intrigued by the sleeping camel however!!

We used to often have a circus camped on part of the car park during the summer. This one evening, I guess because it was late and the speedway crowd had left they tethered this camel for the night in the car park, I was told afterwards they often tethered the 'tamer' (or ones without big teeth!) animals out for the night when the weather was nice. Doubt it would be allowed to happen now.

Anyway my journey across the very dark car park, vaguely aiming for a gap in the scrub to cut the corner off the walk to the road took me directly into the path of a sleeping and subsequently very noisy and indignant camel. I sort of caught it with my foot somewhere around it's rear end and over I went.  I don't know who was most surprised but it don't half sober you up quickly! I do remember patting it's head and apologising to it!

Edited by Shrub
  • Haha 3

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1 hour ago, Shrub said:

We used to often have a circus camped on part of the car park during the summer. This one evening, I guess because it was late and the speedway crowd had left they tethered this camel for the night in the car park, I was told afterwards they often tethered the 'tamer' (or ones without big teeth!) animals out for the night when the weather was nice. Doubt it would be allowed to happen now.

Anyway my journey across the very dark car park, vaguely aiming for a gap in the scrub to cut the corner off the walk to the road took me directly into the path of a sleeping and subsequently very noisy and indignant camel. I sort of caught it with my foot somewhere around it's rear end and over I went.  I don't know who was most surprised but it don't half sober you up quickly! I do remember patting it's head and apologising to it!

So where was the track? Here's one for you guys. This track had a  Football team supporters club  at the track -you could join at the door for about 5 bob for the season and then you could go in at half time and get Whitbread Trophy (RIP- I think its no longer for sale anywhere) beer at a discount then go and watch the second half rides. BTW when did they get rid of second halves FFS???????

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29 minutes ago, BOBBATH said:

BTW when did they get rid of second halves FFS???????

Early to mid 90's I believe. Cant be any more precise than that, as I emigrated in 1990. They had moved up from 13-heat matches, so they didn't want to bother with a second-half.

A lot of fans thought they were pointless, but there are still a few of us on here who miss them...

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14 minutes ago, chunky said:

Early to mid 90's I believe. Cant be any more precise than that, as I emigrated in 1990. They had moved up from 13-heat matches, so they didn't want to bother with a second-half.

A lot of fans thought they were pointless, but there are still a few of us on here who miss them...

I certainly do! If I remember the British League finished with the traditional Second Half in 1984 and were replaced by a Junior Meeting from 1985 onwards. Chris Shears introduced an old fashion style Second Half whilst Promoter at Cowley in 1995 and the fans appreciated the gesture only for the BSPA to put a halt to further attempts! I did put the question of Second Halves to Martin Rogers in an edition of "Backtrack" and he made some interesting observations and was basically in favour of them.

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13 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

I certainly do! If I remember the British League finished with the traditional Second Half in 1984 and were replaced by a Junior Meeting from 1985 onwards. Chris Shears introduced an old fashion style Second Half whilst Promoter at Cowley in 1995 and the fans appreciated the gesture only for the BSPA to put a halt to further attempts! I did put the question of Second Halves to Martin Rogers in an edition of "Backtrack" and he made some interesting observations and was basically in favour of them.

I know the junior matches were introduced in the late 80's, but even so, I still considered them a "second half". I honestly can't remember exactly when we lost the "traditional" events (I'm getting old), so maybe it was even in the 80's?

Edited by chunky

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7 hours ago, chunky said:

I know the junior matches were introduced in the late 80's, but even so, I still considered them a "second half". I honestly can't remember exactly when we lost the "traditional" events (I'm getting old), so maybe it was even in the 80's?

I can confirm that in the British League (can't remember quite the National League as they were running matches over a different heat formula...could only happen in speedway) the last season that riders who took part in the main match in second halves was during 1984. Can't remember when junior meetings ceased to be honest...certainly some time during the nineties.

Edited by steve roberts

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Guest compost

If you want to see how a first division side staged its meeting from the 80's onwards then have a look at the speedway researcher website at Coventry's year by year files.  They show the results, and by extension the format, for all that tracks meetings.  They appear to have included some additional races at least for many of the seasons I looked at.

I once did a chart of average total number of heats per meeting - based on the Coventry files (I used Coventry as the files where very comprehensive and covered the period 1949 to the mid 00's) and there was little difference in the total number of heats (on average) held at a 1949 meeting and one held in the 00's. Sadly I didn't keep the chart so can't confirm numbers or exact details.

When I went to Swindon in the 90's and early 00's  I seem to remember they included a couple of junior races in the meeting program so several tracks, at least, did at least give better value than just a main event.

 

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