mark cox

Jason is the Best! Jason is the Best! Altogether now! Whats 'The Crump' done to everyone?! Is he secretly developing weapons of mass destruction, putting up taxes, or is it something more sinister.... like loitering with intent in a grumpy manner, in a built-up area of riders, fat blokes in overalls and cameramen on acid shoving a lens up his jaksy! Guilty as charged then! He's top of the averages, he's collecting maximums home and away for fun, not for the first time in his career... then his bad luck occurs in the GP's... I think its likely he's going to be 'a bit upset.' And there's a friendly camereman to record every second of it! Don't forget to say cheese now Jason! Maybe if he'd won a title or two, he'd be as chilled as TRick when his bike runs out of fuel, or maybe he should try prozac. Anyway Crump to win. He is the Best. Pedersen isn't, but has raised his game fearlessly in the GP's. Shame about Adams who should've been Champ by now, and comiserations to TRick, but it is time for a change! Now Sullivan, he really is the whingeing get! Always bloody moaning about something. I think it was in the Aussie GP when he was on the phone to the Ref, after being excluded, saying 'oh come on, Crumpy did something similar last time and got away with it'. Absolutely priceless.

No point now, you've spoilt the ending! Anyway who's Ricko gonna pull off to win it...?

Keep going. The future of the sport is at stake... but do they they care!? Lets bloody hope so.

Bloody hell! I'm away for five minutes, and this thread which is apparently about the DEATH of a LEGENDARY speedway track, which nurtured five world champions in the last twenty years, has degenerated into which nation has the hairest bird! Whats going on!? Oi! Sandman! It might've been a dump, but it was our dump! That concrete terracing was real concrete! Scotsman bank was a legendary free viewing point for tight-arses, pork sarnies were er, legendary, the pits were the pits, and the team wasn't too bad either... God bless the Wood and all who sailed in her. P.S. Agnetha was the best, but check out Nina Persson of 'The Cardigans'. A total babe with good tunes to boot..... Ommer Um!

'Apollo whatever' is a great film, making an oxygen tank out of an old cheese spread container and some sellotape was truly brilliant and based on true stuff as well..... I've not seen Private Ryan but its not as good as 'Band of Brothers' which is ace and true! Forest Gump was total cack but Tom's best work has to be 'Big'. Er.... I hope Scotty wins tomorrow, or if it has to be an Australian lets hope it is Jason Grump because he is the best! Leigh 'see what happens' Adams is great also, but is a bit boring. Lets hope Gollob goes for it!

Row A, seat 1 in the 'Sofa End', in front of the box, with excellent views of the racing. Toilet facilities (bathroom at the top of the stairs), close by, with easy access to snacks (cupboard above cooker) and a bar service(tins of Kronenbourg in ice-cold fridge). Use of air horns banned (neighbours aren't too keen), but lots of shouting at TV compulsory, as well keen celebrating (jumping up and down, going ape-s**t, that kind of thing) encouraged when Nicholls, Loram, Richardson and Crump show them how its done. Should be a classic. P.S. After impending lottery win, will go to every GP forever. You can't beat it live.

Oi Mylor! Have you got those proposals ready yet?! We need to start e-mailing those giants of forward thinking at the BSPA. The future of our sport is at stake!

Pictures of the actions of the mean, greedy, spiteful and souless, can be seen on www.cradleyspeedway.co.uk If you're sad, miserable and upset about your team being bottom of the league or the state of British speedway, then take a moment to look at the pictures and reflect on how fragile this ace sport can be and keep supporting your local track.

Some great racing last night, despite the last third of the meeting being like a bad night at Brandon... no dirt just dust. Jason Crump not only had the fastest bike, he held his nerve brilliantly after touching the tapes and then facing elimination and deserved to win, despite giving Scotty an almighty shove in their race. With a bit of luck this will be his year. Rickardsson gave a real gutsy performance, a fantastic effort after all his problems. Write him off at your peril! I must admit that I didn't notice Pedersen sticking a wheel out, I was too busy enjoying Adams' brilliant track craft. Overall great stuff, setting up a real close finish. And just think, if that had been a 'one-off' final like the good old days, that would be it, no more speedway on the TV for a whole year! Phew! its okay, it wasn't and theres some more on in a couple of weeks... Wahey!

1. Scott 'I'll give it a go' Nicholls 2. Leigh 'we'll see what happens' Adams 3. Jason 'why me!!' Crump 4. Nicki 'I never touched him guv!' Pedersen. Lets go racing!

Well Mylor you have certainly thought about this and its great to read rather than kids flirting, people moaning about how the forums gone down hill, etc etc... What we have to do now is to get as many forum members as possible to agree a set of principles for the future of speedway. I think you Mylor could do a fine job of coming up with these, which could then be discussed, and then finally agreed.... and then as many people as possible would e-mail/write letters... to every single promoter, (or maybe BSPA members to start with), until they are fed up with us that they have to respond... I don't think they'll pay attension otherwise. Worth a try?...

All this is good stuff and I've read all the threads in 'Speedway-the future'. I don't disagree at all with the principle of one rider-one club at all, and can see all the potential benefits to a league expansion to the Elite and Euro competition. But this seems unlikely to happen unless this change is directed from the very top. Every close season we are told that BIG IMPORTANT THINGS are going to be discussed and actioned by the BSPA, and this time 'we really mean it!' In reality compromises are inevitably made and a positive spin is put on any new, so called changes. What is needed is the FIM is to become more interested and pro-active in speedway(could happen with GP's higher profile) and think about where it wants the sport to be in 5 years time, rather than leaving individual countries to get on with it. The FIM, a business analyst, promoters from the top countries and the Speedway Riders Assoc. (if its still going!) need to think about what they want the future to be, thrash it out... costs, pitfalls, benefits...etc, formulate a plan of action and then BLOODY GET ON WITH IT! Give us some structure. Sounds far-fetched, can they be arsed?... I think we know the answer, but lets keep shouting, they might hear us one day... Lets go racing!

So the species ' Beathens' do really exist! I thought it was just a vicious rumour put round by Wolves fans and David Attenborough! Oh well, you pays your money you takes your choice I suppose.... But what you gonna do when the Heathens return because theres no going back! Instant Karma's gonna get you! (John Lennon RIP)

Just checked the GP website and it is on at 10pm on Saturday... and on Sunday its on 7am and 10.30pm. Nice one fellas!

Hopefully there will be a special 'one-off' (winner crowned on the night!) Roman Gladiators show where John Poshbloke, King Ole and Phil 'SKY can do no wrong' Rising pit their wits in a airhorn battle to the death with 30,000 peed off speedway fans. Although Poshbloke would probably cry off, insisting on a Swedish stand-in, claiming its not his air horn anyway.... Could happen.

SKY do a fantastic job for speedway.... but this lack of information is totally unprofessional... it must be catching! Never mind the future of British speedway. do we need to set our video recorders soon or what?! We've got people to see, places to go....

For a minute I thought John Poshbloke had pulled off a major coup... according to the GP website Swedens premier rock act is opening the whole show... hes gone and got Abba to reform!!!! But no its Bobby Wells and his orchestra, which sounds like a James Last tribute band! Now if he had got Swedens top act he would have surely booked The Cardigans with the gorgeous Nina Persson.

Well its a good story, but then again you might be making the whole thing up, just for a larf like.

Lets face it King Ole has dropped a huge one. Not only was Vojens 'fairly terrible' but now a GP has been abandoned. And thank Christ for that! I actually thought they were going to 'soldier on' last night which I think would've been even more diasterous on that dung heap of a track. It wouldn't have been close racing at all and thousands of TV viewers would've switched off for ever. Real fans who travelled there and stayed in hotels etc, are the ones I feel sorry for, as they are out of pocket. But as real fans they are used to this unprofessionalism and will continue to go (probably not next week!) because they love the sport. Any new fans will surely go and find something professional. Watching John Poshbloke being interviewed last looking totally devasted was an eye opener. He has obviously previously thought that King Ole, being a 3 times World Champ, buiding his own track, he knows 'a bit' about track prep and has left it all to him. Maybe Poshbloke realises he has to get in there now. They have taken speedway to a whole new level, top stadia, TV etc, they just forgot to take the most important aspect with them... proper track prep. Get that right and we'll all be laughing.

It will show how important speedway is to SKY if they do show it live. They do a brilliant job and I still can't believe I can watch the sport on the TV every week, never mind the GP series. But I would be interested in the number of viewers they get for speedway meetings as opposed to other sports they show. Not as many probably, if last years broadcast of the Aussie GP is anything to go by. Switching to SKY sports extra to show the Grand Final, a channel that not many of us have got, was truly an outrageous act, showing a total disregard for viewers. They probably thought, there are more viewers who would want to watch the rugby match that was due, and so sod the speedway! Remember they are in it for the money and speedway is still a minority sport in terms of viewers attendance figures.

Cheer up everybody, no one has died! I've seen countless rubbish meetings that I wish had been abandoned after 3 heats! But I go back for more cos I've seen loads of brilliant ones. If anything John Poshbloke and King Ole might now realise that , er you know, track prep is, er, kind a like important for basic things like good close racing and rider safety. They seem like intelligent blokes, but you never know... Lets go racing!

It was definately around that time. I think it was in that meeting that the legendary Phil Collins, in one race missed the gate (surprisingly!) and over slid the first bend, and was behind the other 3 riders by a whole straight.... Amazingly he not only overhauled third place, but snatched second on the last bend, joining Big Al for a 'Wipe Out'! A truly brilliant race.... still bloody lost though!

Belle Vue V Cradley Heath 1984 Premiership Trophy... Cradley's 1983 all conquering side had to be dismantled for the 'good of the sport', which left us a bit top heavy. Belle Vue were going to win everything in 1984 according to the Press and Stuart Bamforth, and so Cradley weren't given much of a chance. Mister Inconsistency himself Finn Jensen top scored with 10 points and we beat the Aces 40-38, which every true (and old!) speedway fan knows, is the definition of happiness. Watching Finn was always a mixture of anticipation, frustration and sometimes happiness.... he could beat a World Champion in one race and then look like a rank amateur in the reserves race. A real one-off! (Details from Cradley Web-site)

I don't think he should stand down, but he should definetely SLOW DOWN! I couldn't understand a bloody word he was saying in those pit interviews! Was he being paid on words per second or what!? He should stay if he wants though because he's done a superb job, firstly picking the right team (yes I know there weren't many left!) and then inspiring brilliant team spirit. After two brilliant performances it just wasn't our night, with the lads not doing it at the first bend but still giving 100%. We'll just have to do it next year now. I'll have my medication now please matron...

I've only heard bad things about Norris before, but as well as riding above himself he has been totally hilarious this week, saying exactly what he's feeling with great humour. Nice one fella!