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17 hours ago, Midland Red said:

Does anyone know whether the BSPA have been in touch with the “All-Party Parliamentary Group for Motorcycle Speedway”, if it still exists?

Not sure about that but I heard Rob Godfrey has been to a seance to try to get in touch with the living.:approve:

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2 hours ago, Elmo said:

There were lots of fun & games from my memory as a 16 year old.

By 'fun and games' I don't mean a second half like in the programme  you quoted with perhaps a few unusual races. ( I have still got mine too.)  I mean a bit of banter between everyone that usually happens on the final night of the season and 'Goodbye, see you next season' little speeches from the riders. None of this happened whereas it did on every previous season. I was 43 then and can remember thinking how strangely it all fizzled out. 

Edited by Gemini

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4 hours ago, Grachan said:

Whoever it was it can't have been difficult to recognise him considering he had no helmet on.

Still had the mascot suit & head on though lol

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6 hours ago, Elmo said:

There were lots of fun & games from my memory as a 16 year old.

Here’s the 2nd half from my programme.

227BE039-EB8D-441E-B787-9ED312257438.jpeg

No-one finished Event 7? An exclusion for no helmet? :blink:

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1 hour ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

No-one finished Event 7? An exclusion for no helmet? :blink:

Yes the mascot was not wearing a helmet lol

They were on 50cc mini bikes.

Edited by Elmo

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20 hours ago, Pinny said:

Have said it before but will say it again, it was an utterly bonkers decision to even attempt to run the season this season and this was always going to happen. Clubs going on hold, promoters begging for donations to stay afloat , riders not being able to travel freely etc. 

In a sport that , even before a hint of this pandemic, was on its arse with nearly all promoters struggling, what hope did it have with reduced fans? 
 

It was a crazy decision to attempt to get the season going and I cannot believe those in charge actually let it happen. 
 

I want everything to get back to normal, everyone in the world has in someway been affected by this pathetic virus and I am one of those who feel that we should just continue to get as many people vaccinated and forget about the virus and get everything back to normal . I am in Australia and cant even get a flight back home to see family without being stuck there until Australia reopens its borders and dread to imagine how many others are in the same boat. So seeing stupid decisions like restarting speedway only for clubs to start whinging about money less than a month in really is a joke. 

can't see much getting back to normal in Oz for a long time - the figures  i have seen only 5% of the population have had any vaccine doses (at that rate you will be there for another 3 years) - it is not a bonkers decision HERE(over half the adult population have had both doses)  as its not just speedway but everything (theatres cinemas clubs racetracks  etc are all  opening and there would have been many complaints if speedway had not tried to open.  Many of the riders from Oz are here and enjoying their racing.  Its a vastly different situation here to Oz.

Edited by startline sid

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1 hour ago, startline sid said:

can't see much getting back to normal in Oz for a long time - the figures  i have seen only 5% of the population have had any vaccine doses (at that rate you will be there for another 3 years) - it is not a bonkers decision HERE(over half the adult population have had both doses)  as its not just speedway but everything (theatres cinemas clubs racetracks  etc are all  opening and there would have been many complaints if speedway had not tried to open.  Many of the riders from Oz are here and enjoying their racing.  Its a vastly different situation here to Oz.

Oz is largely back to normal internally, and with the exception of Melbourne never really had lockdowns to the extent of the UK. The country has had less deaths in total than the UK had in one day earlier this year.

Of course, the Australian government claims to have controlled the virus by banning their residents from international travel, and forcing returning residents into hotel quarantine at their own expense. There is some talk that requirement will be lifted towards the end of the year for fully vaccinated residents, but we shall see.

Australia was slow off the mark with vaccinations, but I think it's been ramping up quickly and it's closer to 15% of the population now. 

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3 hours ago, Elmo said:

Yes the mascot was not wearing a helmet lol

They were on 50cc mini bikes.

My last meeting at Blackbird Road was the Golden Gauntlets in August 1983, won by Kenny Carter.

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2 hours ago, cityrebel said:

My last meeting at Blackbird Road was the Golden Gauntlets in August 1983, won by Kenny Carter.

This one

6CBBEE16-05DD-42FA-85BE-3D8A1781D530.jpeg

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On 6/13/2021 at 1:17 AM, Pieman72 said:

I attended Birmingham Speedway 2 years ago and quite honestly I was made to feel like a second class citizen. To be fair the Greyhound Track control the venue but the restrictions on the paying public was disgusting. It was made clear not to drink or consume you own food which we ignored  or you could purchase anything as long as it was chips washed down with a £4 + pint of Lager from a hole in the wall. It was a freezing cold night and no admission was allowed in the main building unless you were someone important. Sorry but speedway is 'dead in the water'. Supporters need to be attracted to a venue also on a day or night that is normal i.e. Friday or Saturday oh sorry our wonderful foreign riders have European commitments. In a nutshell what a mess of our own making. Reading the posts on here there is a lot of denial but the truth is unless something very radical is undertaken then there is little chance of speedway surviving in it's present form.

Therein lies one of the main reasons why speedway has declined so badly : taking its supporters for granted (not allowing patrons to take food in, taking heavy handed action to stop them and charging ridiculous prices for appalling food and drink remains one of my few complaints about Belle Vue). 

I am certain that a lot of your issues (while remaining totally valid) were the fault of the stadium owners but there's doubt that similar circumstances have applied at virtually every track in the country, including those who own their own stadiums. I have certainly heard such accounts many, many times and, indeed, have experienced them myself.

Worse still, when we do get a track that is remarkably customer focussed the BSPL make their position so untenable that they withdraw. 

On 6/11/2021 at 7:33 PM, Humphrey Appleby said:

Speedway has been practicing social distancing for quite some time though... 

That would be funny if it wasn't so serious, Humph.

On 6/11/2021 at 5:08 PM, steve roberts said:

I used to attend White City on the Wednesday, Oxford Thursday and Swindon on Saturday with the occasional Reading on Monday thrown in!

It was still possible only a few years ago, albeit travelling a bit further afield. 

I used to do Birmingham or Kings Lynn (Wednesday), Ipswich, Peterborough, Swindon or Isle of Wight (Thursday), Plymouth, Somerset, Lakeside or Weymouth (Friday), Eastbourne or Rye House (Saturday), Mildenhall (Sunday) and, on occasion (or a bank holiday) Wolverhampton, Kent or a TV match on Monday. 

Then there was Redcar (Thursday), Edinburgh (Friday), Berwick or Workington (Saturday) and Glasgow (Sunday).

The thing that used to annoy me was that Weymouth, Plymouth and Somerset all rode on the same night :blink:

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10 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Oz is largely back to normal internally, and with the exception of Melbourne never really had lockdowns to the extent of the UK. The country has had less deaths in total than the UK had in one day earlier this year.

Of course, the Australian government claims to have controlled the virus by banning their residents from international travel, and forcing returning residents into hotel quarantine at their own expense. There is some talk that requirement will be lifted towards the end of the year for fully vaccinated residents, but we shall see.

Australia was slow off the mark with vaccinations, but I think it's been ramping up quickly and it's closer to 15% of the population now. 

I'm sure the recent trade talks between the two prime ministers included talks about international travel between the two countries.

I haven't seen my Grandkids for almost three years because of the restrictions...so hopefully things will open up soon.

The Daughter is a nurse over there and was emplyed on a vaccination program to isolated communities, it was soon halted because of concerns about Astra zenica, but now in full swing.

Slow and steady seems to be the best way out.

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2 hours ago, BrizHeathen said:

I'm sure the recent trade talks between the two prime ministers included talks about international travel between the two countries.

I haven't seen my Grandkids for almost three years because of the restrictions...so hopefully things will open up soon.

The Daughter is a nurse over there and was emplyed on a vaccination program to isolated communities, it was soon halted because of concerns about Astra zenica, but now in full swing.

Slow and steady seems to be the best way out.

It will come into affect when things get back to normal, I would hope. 
 

 

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Taking fans for granted is probably the main reason why the terraces are empty and speedway is dying. The administrators are well meaning but they are digging a hole that just gets deeper. How can there be a future with a team full of expensive foreign imports where is the logic and then lay some of the blame on the Council due to Covid restrictions. Is the fans Monday evening entertainment being sacrificed for the bottom line? You just can't treat supporters like this but nobody is listening.

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For years now most teams have been living beyond there means and the Senior Teams have been surving mainly due to TV money, now Covid has brought up the inevitable Crow coming home to roost so to speak, the BSPL have for years avoided taking decisions that would help the Sport survive and maybe prosper, any household or business simply cannot go on year on year making losses and ignore the simple maths lesson of paying out more than what is coming in, how is it possible to employ foreign riders cheaper then british riders ?, answers on a postcard please. I dont know the answer but one thing is for sure things cannot carry on as they are, if it means going back to basics with Teams made up of british riders then thats the way we have to go short term loss for the long term gain, no Premier League just 2 Leagues with the NL being the second tier, and no stupid payments to riders.

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