britmet
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Posts posted by britmet
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Attended all five. (Obviously southern softies can't travel!)
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51 minutes ago, gustix said:I have a query in regard to the underlined comment that the website is frozen. I have just visited there and it appears - to me at least - that it is 'business as usual'. Do other visitors find there is a contrary happening to my own finding?
To clarify for the benefit of others. Brian's excellent 'Internationalspeedway' website is still open, but since the advent of Windows 10, after almost 15 years, his site-builder programme no longer functions in Win.10, So no updates or additions, - for any area or Tests - , nor even an explanation, are possible.
There has been no 'business as usual' for about 2 years. The site is, in effect, frozen.-
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Thanks again, you're affirming what others are telling me they're finding, - or rather, not finding. (Ditto Newcastle.) I've added that date to the Fixture table.
Maybe Glennon had the task of organizing the sidecar matches and the whole project died with him.
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www.speedwaychampions.com
www.speedway-sa.com -
Recent extensive research of on-line international press archives by Cape-based expat David Austin has clarified and significantly extended the detail of the 1951 5-country tour of Europe by the South African speedway Test team led by Buddy Fuller.
Originally posted 15 years ago on the now-frozen 'Internationalspeedway' website, the updated comprehensive data on the 21 meetings undertaken by the S.African team is now to be found on the Speedway-SA website, HERE
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www.speedwaychampions.com
www.speedway-sa.com-
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Many thanks BL65, I shall update the British Sidecar Lge table with that data shortly.
http://www.speedwaychampions.com/sidecar-champions-p2.php
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www.speedwaychampions.com
www.speedway-sa.com -
Correct, a 6-match tour of Poland against club teams in 1994, which the Poles recipricated in '95/96 and again in '96/97.
S.African riders also did a 3-match tour of Hungary in 1992.
All known details of both at http://www.speedway-sa.com/test-matches-2.php
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5 hours ago, iris123 said:Quite strangely the original thread is now here rather than the subsequent thread joining in the international section!!!
A puzzle indeed. I put my post originally on the International section, as it is a statement, not of yesterday, but of today, . .about the current situation in SA, as of Jan. 2019 !
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http://www.speedway-sa.com/-
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The last club to stage dirt-track motorcycle speedway in South Africa has given up its lease on the Walkerville Showground oval, bringing to an end 90 years of speedway in S.Africa.
Operating as a true riders' club, - besides an annual subscription, members paid an entrance fee to participate in meetings - , retirements and work relocations meant that in recent years, as numbers diminished, it had been Flat Track and Quad bikes that have kept monthly meeting going, albeit spasmodically. Yet still the club struggled, with the only the odd speedway demonstration heat in the Sunday afternoon race programme. Even so, these alternatives have not been enough.
The Speedway-SA website, originally built for the WSRC (Walkerville Speedway Riders Club,) for result reporting and communication, has been re-built to serve as an historical archive for the 90 year history of speedway in the country, plus an additional supplement added to capture and record speedway elsewhere in the African continent during that time, from Egypt to Lesotho, via Kenya, Mozambique, and the Rhodesias, (today's Zambia and Zimbabwe.)
http://www.speedway-sa.com/
www.speedway-sa.com-
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20 hours ago, JOS50 said:Yes.
Although he's wearing a Brummie race jacket, the track is Cradley Heath, and the year is 1947, as there was no floodlighting in Dudley Wood's first season.
www.speedwaychampions.com -
3 hours ago, Tsunami said:I remember Sun Street from the early 60's. Was the track sunk down below the level of the grass/soil, cos I can remember I couldn't see the lower half to the riders on the opposite side. Might just have been they hadn't cut the grass of course. Adams, Harris and Peter Kelly I think were riding for Stoke.
Thats right, - you just saw the heads bobbing up and down on the top bend, over the rough surface.
Note that Parker and his team mate have their helmet and colours on, ready for Ht.1.
That was the way back then, no returning to the pits, and another 15 mins. delay before the racing started !-
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Concrete starting grid at Stoke 1953, with Belle Vue, led by Jack Parker, as visitors
It looks to be about 4 bikes length, going well beyond the stationery bike position, so that transition isn't abrupt.
(Peter craven is 3rd from left, on back row.)
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Here he is, on Youtube/BBC video, Olle Ahnstrom, who was 96 when this was recorded in 2016. (Is he still with us ?)
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A sidecar speedway league, the 'British Sidecar Lge', was formed in 1968 comprising the 5 Mike Parker tracks of Wolves, Newport, Newcastle, Nelson and Crayford.
Teams comprised 5-man squads and the league ran between June and August as a 2nd-Half event , - many of the September fixtures apparently went uncompleted.
I'm still looking for the following match dates and/or results, if anyone with 1968 programmes can oblige:
- Result of the Wolves v. Newport match of July 19th (followed the Wolves v. Glasgow solo match.)
- Fixture dates & results of any/all 4 Newport home matches, (excl'g the S.Wales v. Midlands challenge match of May 3rd, - result to hand.)
- Fixture date & result of Nelson v. Newcastle match.
n.b: It's possible the latter were not staged: a programme search that can confirm this would be equally valid.
http://www.speedwaychampions.com/sidecar-champions.php -
With respect to recent Flat Track posting under several topic titles, on US,(AFT), UK,(DTRA) and European.('World Cup') scene, this page, http://www.speedwaychampions.com/flat-track.php , puts into context the USA Flat Track v/v the British, European and other National F/T, S/T (Short Track), D/T (Dirt Track) and Hooligan scenes, including definitions and annual winners.
http://www.speedwaychampions.com/flat-track.php
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On 11/16/2018 at 9:47 PM, BOBBATH said:Sadly gustix, I think that Arthur Wright has passed, so of course has Ronnie Moore-any updates to the famous list e.g. Henry Long who is hopefully still around- I know Dick Bradley is and he must now be just behind Split Waterman
Yes, Henry long is still around, - heard from him only last month via the family in the Cape, where he now lives.
I wont say 'going strong', but at 91 he's holding up well and never complains says his daughter.-
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On 10/15/2018 at 10:44 PM, Schwantz34 said:Is it just me or is there a complete lack of info on the web about one of the most compelling exciting motorcycle sports on the planet?
You can also look at ice racing on this page, - http://www.speedwaychampions.com/ice-champions.php
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Leicester have stepped in to stage the Final round of the ACU British Sidecar Speedway Championship on Oct. 27th after the effects of Storm Callum caused the cancellation of the Belle Vue meeting this w/end, Oct. 13th.
This will be the third time that the East Midlands speedway has staged Sidecar racing this season after the initial round of the Championship in May and the successful Team Challenge of last month.
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Defending champs Mark Cossar & Carl Blyth lead Paul Whitelam & Alan Elliot by the slenderest of margins, so its going to be 18 heats of close and exciting racing to finish the ACU competition on Saturday October 27th at Beaumont Leys and crown the 2018 British Champion.
Admission is £10, - U16s free: Start time is 7:30pm.
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http://www.speedwaychampions.com/sidecar-champions.php
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At the 6th and Final round of the British DTRA Flat Track Championship at Greenfield on Saturday spaniard Gerard Bailo won the Pro Class from Gary Birtwistle and George Pickering. The Thunderbike Class was taken by Westley Agius.
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With riders dropping their worse score over the Series, Toby Hales was already in an unassailable position in the PRO's scorechart and took his first Championship win after last season Bronze spot. Bailo was overall second; Birtwistle took the #3 plate.
Mike Hill again took the season's Thunderbike #1 plate. -
No one's clarified which track they're speaking of, . . . ?
The Cornish Stadium finished in the 'sixties, - had an address as Par Moor, while the second circuit, opened in 1997, as the Claycountry Moto Park, was at Longstone Pit, Nr. Panpean.
When holidaying down there about 8 - 10 years ago I noted a car-park cum Sunday market site, (Cornish Market World, - ?) east of the town centre, and a 'Speedway Rd.' or some such, which I took to be the original Cornish Stadium location.
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The Eden Project is in just one of many china clay pits -
My memory of Czech tourists goes back to their first ever visit, as the Red Star Prague team in 1967.
On an August Saturday afternoon when the Czechoslovaks were due to meet Cradley Heath Heathens I was riding a few miles away when i came across a car and an estate both with bike-laden trailers parked on the side of the road. The number plates on the Skodas made it obvious who they were, so I stopped and went over to them. Somehow they'd got all 8 riders (one serving as mechanic) plus the team manager and a face I recognised as BSPA secretary Dave Stevens into the 2 vehicles, along with leathers, helmets and kit, etc, for all the riders, plus 8 bikes ! (Possibly statistician Bryan Seery was also in there too, -? Sorry, it was a long time ago.) Admittedly Dave was only of slight build, (Bryan Seery the opposite,) and obviously only joined them once the visitors had reached London after their 800 mile journey across Europe, but even so, traveling conditions for the 9 would have been far from comfortable: what a difference from today's riders in their luxurious Mercedes Sprinter vans!
Dudley Wood Stadium had always been notoriously difficult to find, - the SS&N once did a 'True or False' story entitled 'The Track that Disappeared' : - it was true, and based on Dudley Wood! Sure enough, even with Dave Stevens as UK guide, the party was lost. So after a brief chat I had them follow me the couple of miles to the stadium , in plenty of time for the match.
I kept in touch with team manager Pavel Kacer for many years afterwards, - as an organiser of the Pardubice Golden Helmet he'd send me the programme each year plus other memorabilia, and I'd reciprocate with things like spark plugs for a family Hillman Minx that they couldn't get a match for behind the Iron Curtain.
Cradley Heath was again on the tour programme the following year, 1968, and meeting with Pavel at the track that evening, he said that they'd got lost getting to Dudley Wood and had to follow a chap on a motorbike that led them to the track. Because of the poor english, I thought he was relating the first visit of the previous year: "That was me, I said, last year. "No, he replied, - Today, - it happened again !"-
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2 hours ago, Sidney the robin said:Jack Young did win the meeting right? some roll of honour"s have Ron Howe as the winner.
Yes, Jack Young.
All winners, 1939 to 2016, listed here,
http://www.speedwaychampions.com/spplt-3-uk-local-helmets.php
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www.speedwaychampions.com
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3 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:From heat 1, 2mins on and a countdown clock and ready to race on zero. Not ready, excluded with no replacement allowed. No return to pits or they too are excluded.
Winning rider rides round for lap of honour, while doing so 2mins on for next heat and so on.
5min break every 4 heats. Allows for track grade, toilet/tea breaks for medical teams etc.
No more intervals, absolutely pointless.
I think we'd all like to see matches per se speeded up, but then the 15-heat programme would be even less of a night's entertainment and be over well within an hour, and fans would consider they've had even less for their money, esp'ly when you're forking out for a family . . . then Second Halves certainly would be necessary to justify your spend.
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37 minutes ago, Thornaby48 said:The good thing about the old system is that it allowed the reserves extra rides including the up and coming riders who got valuable experience against established riders. At Middlesbrough several riders came through the ranks like this. At Redcar none of the current second junior's have appeared in the team despite on the odd occasion being listed at no 8.
Second Halves served a useful purpose:
- Winner (of 4) in the Novice Race got to ride (against programmed 3) in the Juniors' Race;
- winner of the Jnrs got to ride against 3 team reserves in the Reserves Race,
- and that winner got a ride against the #1s to #5s (plus home #6) in one of the 3 heats.
Hence a new name could even get to the Scratch Final, - for example if a regular grass-tracker decided to try out speedway.
So a rider got an opportunity to prove himself and claim a team place on current form, (and not on historical statistics. )
There's no facility for that today.
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www.speedwaychampions.com
www.speedway-sa.com-
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How Many...
in Years Gone By
Posted
Still nobody has derived an answer to the question "How many. . . . . "
Seems the answer so far is 29, 32 or 35.
As regards the nations (or Crown Dependencies) of UK, unlike soccer and rugby associations which have their own Scottish, Welsh, Nthn Irish authorities, there's only one motorcycle/speedway authority for the UK, - the ACU is one entity for the whole of the UK.
So does that not make the answer 29 ?
The answer swings on 'Germay', 'West Germany', 'East Germany', . . . and on Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.
Oh, . . .and on Croatia and Slovenia: if we never had a Yugoslav ride in UK, (think not,) then that's an easy 2.
www.speedwaychampions.com
www.speedway-sa.com