martinmauger

Adding to the chap above's comments : I would have thought when the Poultec sessions take place, based at King's Lynn I beleive, that the track time would be on a circuit prepared for an offical meeting i.e. starting off grippy and possibly a tad damp, then gradually drying out & becoming slick so as to give the riders experience of the changing track conditions, as they would encounter in a proper meeting, and being instructed in the set-up changes required. I've also heard that such training sessions, in Poland for example, the rider coaches & riders themselves are asked how they'd like the tracks prepared so as to gain experience of the different conditions which occur.....

I've also visited Newcastle & Workington, 2 venues with a lot of speedway history, I enjoyed both tracks and was so glad I made the effort. Sadly I never made it to Wimbledon, another venue of much history of course. On enquiring of a possible Hull Speedway Supporters Club coach trip in either 1980 or 1981 I was informed "we are not sure whether we are taking a coach to the Wimbledon v Hull match, but then again we are not sure whether the Hull team will even be there" (!). A caustic, yet accurate remark referring to the (in)famous match Dons v Vikings match in 1979 when 3 Hull riders didn't make it to Plough Lane and the remaining Vikings (Ivan Mauger, Kelly Moran, Dennis Sigalos, Joe Owen + guest Graeme Stapelton) battled on, losing 41-36. Many still beleive this meeting cost Hull Vikings the League Title in 1979, the final match of that season was lost before an estimated 20,000 crowd (!) at Coventry, another venue of great history....

Shame. I also recall trips to Belle Vue, Hyde Road; before the meeting pop across the road to 'Taffys Super Cool Speedway Shop', Track In Spares actually, to drool over all the super cool speedway stuff for sale, chat with riders picking up bits & pieces, chat with Taffy himself, maybe buy the odd sticker, then back across the road for the speedway. RIP Taffy....

I always knew him as 'Dave Ratt'', for obvious reasons, he also ran the track shop at Hull for a few years and he was certainly an amusing & interesting character....

I speak as I find and if Fruit Of the Loom it isn't the best though I thought it ok, then it made the stuff even less good value, but of some tour merch I've seen FOTL stuff is pretty good. Tour progs / tourbooks were £25ish at the venue, later decided I wanted one afterall and picked up a mint example soon afterwards for £15 inc P&P off a well-known selling site....

Jumping in late re: pricey Guns 'n' Roses t-shirt at £40, I can easily believe it. In 2019 I saw KISS at Manchester Arena (brilliant, mate) and merch prices were out of this world, i.e. very high. T's were in the region of £30 - £40, 'sweats about £60, hoodies about £80, etc, etc, ever upwards. Now some KISS fans are known for literally filling their houses with KISS stuff, no-one is forced to buy of course and the clothing was / is quality 'Fruit Of The Loom' stuff, but I saw few fans wearing or carrying new merch, one reason is the ''new T' design wasn't the greatest, IMO, and also likely the pricing. Myself, it could be said I own some KISS stuff (most was presents), but I didn't buy a thing at the show....

Big shame, enjoyed reading his stuff, a huge supporter of speedway and a rock behind Speedway Star. RIP Phillip....

As did Hull. All those huge wins with 5-1's slammed in almost for fun come at a cost....

I recall a spectator being tragically killed at an F1 race, I believe in the early 2000's, when following a pile-up an errant wheel went through a gap in the armco barrier into a spectator area. It was such a multi-million to one occurance: imagine on a speedway track part of a bike going through the one gap in each and every every speedway fence, the small 2" - 3" gap where the tapes pass through to the outer starting gate post. That is the equivelant of what happened....

Eric Boocock mentions in his excellent book "Booey, Around In Circles" that he once saw a lady fan climb the ladder to the refs box at Halifax to protest his exclusion. He later found out - it was his own mum (!) ....

Once a meeting at Craven Park Hull in 1999 was rained off, I should say 'monsooned off'. As I drove into CP car park you know those videos of folk on a Niagra Falls boat trip and they ride under a wall of water, it was just like that. 20-odd year ago rain offs apart, I also recall in Scunny's CL days, the fixtures fell, CL, KOC, rain off replay?, that Plymouth visited 2 or maybe even 3 consecutive weeks. Now compared to Glasgow Scunny is relatively 'just up the road' but, each time half or dozen or more Plymouth fans turned up wearing team caps, most with 'red devil' capes. Good stuff....

I normally watch live-ish at my mum's inbetween the soaps, or Saturdays at my mates for the GPs / SONs / SECs but recently I've relied on the Quest hi-lites. Quick comment re shedeuling; why are Wolves shown almost every week, apparently on 12 July it's Belle Vue v those Wolves, again........

So phone them up on 020 8335 1113 9am-2.30pm, my copy now arrives in the clear bag and, touch wood (taps temple), gets delivered reilably. Speaking as I find: on the rare occasions my 'Star hasn't turned up at all, say once a year, a quick call to Dave Fairbrother ( a man of few words who gets things done ) and a replacement in a brown envelope arrives the next day. Every time ....

Excellent clips there, for some reason 'on-bike' or 'helmet cam' footage often doesn't come out very good, but that was great. I assume shoulder mounted cameras were used....

Shame he's ill and was a good entertainer. He certainly provided entertainment at Hull and think it was when Long Eaton folded he was approached to join the Vikings but didn't sign as he wasn't keen on the Craven Park track apparently, fair enough. That said, you'd never know he wasn't a CP fan as he always gave the home riders a hard time and I'd have been quite happy had he become a Viking. Get well soon....

And Hull. Shame the sport losing another track & team, premanently this case, and gotta feel for Rebels fans. Thing is, someone told me a long time ago "if you ever come into money (some hope) invest in land, the value will always go up as they don't make it anymore"....

I'll just add that "personal privacy isn't an issue until it is lost", trust me on that, I'll say no more....

No wasn't Thomas, it was grey poodle-type specimen, loved its speedway (and its crisps) though.

So is doggo an Aces or Tigers fan Used to be a couple from Peterborough regularly brought their dog into the stand at Hull when the Panthers were in town. Think it enjoyed the racing while dining on crisps inbetween heats, my sometimes-speedway-fan girlfriend initially didn't beleive me so ensured she attended Hull v Peterborough meets just to see the dog . As you do.....

As above (belatedly) I always enjoy reading Backtrack over and over (!), and very good to hear from Brain Larner, much more has been heard of and from Ian Thomas. Shame their partnership & friendship ended with moving Newcastle into the top league, both realsied on reflection it was a mistake, you can't win 'em all but they had a lot of success in speedway....

Good for you ! A previous job of mine was helping run 'Silver Surfer' & 'Computing For The Terrified' courses. Pretty much "this is the keyboard, this is the mouse, the computer won't laugh at you or bite, just because you don't know how to use one yet is no relfection on your abilities, as with everything you just need to learn", etc. One lovely old lady joined to learn word processing to, and I quote: "get her life story in print before she pegged it", i.e passed away. Well after getting her story 'down', she went on to learn basic accounting and literally ended up preparing the accounts for a row of shops in her village, I moved jobs and lost track of what she did next. Many such courses finished in Hull and the surrounding area due to the usual lack of funding, at one centre all the computers got half-inched (!), but mainly due to lack of interest by the local populace. Shame as there are still folk who want to learn about such things....

At the risk of stating the obvious; if the replaced track vehicles are road legal, and I fully understand they may not need to be if only used on the track, one solution could be possibly moving them to different locations before and after meetings. Another suggestion, which a promoter [name redacted] told me was when the stadium got broken into and his tractors regularly vandalised, but no other damage took place, they actually caught the culprit(s) and gave them jobs working on the track. Problem solved - no more vandalism and it worked out cheaper than constant repairs to track equipment and apparently they did good work on the track. Obviously suggestion 2 is potentially of high risk and would depend greatly on the character of the people concerned.....

Hull Vikings fans wouldn't complain too much either. A team full of great riders would be brilliant for fans of every club, but I guess the main thing for 2021 is to get a competitive league season up and running, then take it to and from 2022....

Just to let everyone know the CHiPs episodes with Bruce Penhall are being shown on ForcesTV Channel at either 6:00PM or 2:30AM and repeated at weekends. Sky Channel 181, or Freeview 96. From what I recall there weren't many episodes which featured speedway; one called Speedway Fever, and there isn't much and the one centered around the 1982 World Final, it isn't that great and is pretty 1980's cheesy and possibly a bit of a wasted opportunity but are worth watching from historical interest. Shame Bruce left Cradley Heath & speedway itself, but you cant really blame him; vis a vis the queues of hopefulls waiting in all weathers to audition for 'Britain's Doesn't Have Any Talent Nor The X-Factor' - type shows in the quest for fame & fortune Stardom. Looking forward to the speedway bikes, meantime gotta love those Kawasaki Z900 & Z1000's which are worth a small fortune these days. Think I need to get out more....

Ommited the 'magic' word in my own post: "Hope I'm wrong but if Odsal was considered a GP venue think it's too late for this year.", yeh Odsal not mentioned. With the Covid situation chnaging almost by the day like last year think the GPs will take place at the venues if / when they are able to...