2ndBender

Here in Wales, my understanding is that the DragonHeart Hospital, aka Principality Stadium, is being retained in a state of readiness until at least October.

I think the ball games will take precedence if ANY sport takes place at the Principality Stadium in 2020.

I've got a copy of the programme, neatly filled in, and there is no indication of a run-off. As Davis beat Bason in the heats, I've credited him with the win in my own database. There is also no indication that the meeting took place on any date other than the 26th.

Great city for 'Speedway tourism' with lots of interest near the city centre and further afield. Lots of stuff around the shipyards where Solidarity and, some say 'modern Poland', was born. You could take a boat out to the Hel peninsula and see a real 1950's style seaside resort. Or you could get a train to Malbork castle, the largest brick-built castle in the world. One of my favourite Polish cities.

Done it both ways, independently and with TPT. Independent travel is good fun, and, as someone pointed out, getting ever easier to do. However, I've had some great tours with TPT and I can't personally fault them at all.

Thanks for the link BB, and also for another very informative and interesting post!

Thoroughly enjoyed your post BB and I'm glad you had a good time! I've met some generous people on visits to Poland myself, notably at Katowice and Gniezno - you are dead right about 'Speedway people'. You mentioned a 'set' track record at the meeting you attended, so I'm assuming that meeting wasn't the first at the new stadium? I'm not up to speed with Lodz's fixtures, but as a programme collector I'd be keen to get a copy of their first one. One interesting question though - do you think the attendances at Lodz are going to justify the capital investment involved in building a brand new stadium? I read that at one of their meetings the attendance was only around 300.

I'm from Newport but I've worked and socialised in Cardiff for most of my life. In my experience the 'locals' are barely aware that there is an event at the stadium on GP day. Those I worked with were rarely tempted to attend, the usual response being 'Whats that then, something to do with car racing?' There was more enthusiasm and interest in several monster truck events that have taken place there. I've said it many times before, if there's not a ball involved, South Walians are just not interested.

Reading the above posts re Aarnio, Hungary and Lawson, is it any wonder that no-one takes this sport seriously. As usual, you couldn't make it up....

Yes, I'm pretty sure Cyril identified Somerton Park as a potential Speedway venue, and recommended it when he was with Wolves. Good solid team man whose best period with the Wasps was probably when he partnered Toby Harrysson. RIP Cyril.

Many thanks to you both. Always pleased to plug a hole in my database, however small!

No worries Moxey, always on the look-out for obscure results myself. Unfortunately, I can't track down the Hungarian Czaki's christian name, which annoys me greatly1

Nyiregyhaza 29.04.91 Hungary 68 (Zoltan Adorjan 18, Joszef Petrikovics 15, Zoltan Hajdu 12, Robert Nagy 8, Sandor Tihanyi 7, Laszlo Bodi 6, Zsolt Kovacs 2) Belle Vue 40 (Carl Stonehewer 11, Chris Morton 11, Kelly Moran 10, David Blackburn 3, Nigel Leaver 2, David Walsh 2, Paul Smith 1) Miskolc 30.04.91 (rained off after 11 heats) Hungary 43 (Zoltan Adorjan 11, Zoltan Hajdu 9, Joszef Petrikovics 9, Robert Nagy 7, Laszlo Bodi 4, Sandor Tihanyi 3, L.Czaki dnr) Belle Vue 22 (David Blackburn 7, Chris Morton 6, Nigel Leaver 3, David Walsh 2, Paul Smith 2, Kelly Moran 2, Carl Stonehewer dnr) Warsaw 23.10.55 Warsaw 42 (Wlodzimierz Szwendrowski 16, Florian Kapala 8, Marian Kaiser 8, Mieczyslaw Polukard 6, Alojzy Frach (r) 3, Andrzej Krzesinski 1, Zibigniew Ranisewski (r) 0, Edward Kupczynski 0) Belle Vue 66 (Peter Craven 16, Ron Johnston 14, Ken Sharples 11, Arthur Wright 10, Peter Williams 9, Bob Duckworth 6, Dick Fisher (r) 0, Fred Rogers (r) 0)

Fully agree with the comments about the lack of team affinity and club loyalty. One of the reasons I've stopped going is because you can never be sure who is going to represent your team anymore. Guests, doubling/trebling up, three or four clubs in three or four different countries - its laughable. You may just as well have an open pool of riders from which the home and away team managers choose seven each on the night (God, please don't take me seriously, BSPA.....!!!). Oh, and I fully agree with the comments about Wilkie. Saw him ride many times and he was Belle Vue through and through. Good luck to the man and his family.