martinmauger

Get In ! Now THAT'S Rock And Roll ! No one can say they didn't deserve it, no one stopped or fell in their races they had to really race hard & Aussies certainly don't ever just lie down, esp when it's v Us Pomms. When Woffy crashed in the GP I thought "Oh, no here we freakin' go again !", but Robert & Dan did it. Good on them. Believe me, people it means waay more when it's your team and / or your country. Loved it, I'm smiling (for once some might say !) ....

Well done to all that we had a meeting to watch, all the very best to young Thompson. Struck me that the Hellstrom-Bangs exclusion was very simlar to Madsen / Holder incedent at recent GP, as in defo slight contact tho both fallers could possibly (probably ?) have saved it, except in the GP the rider who came off, Holder, was excluded....

Well, duh: did TM's ex riding / non-riding not say to their riders "nice to win 'semi' but main thing is to make the final: so no lasts, if 2nd & 3rd just defend your position" ?, obv not in some cases. Czechs blew it, Aussies almost did. Still, we all go after it again Fri & Sat nites: GO BRITS !...

Thought the issue Skywalker Luke (not taking the mick, honest) had in the race with Lambert & the 2 Edinbugh riders (can't remember exactly or be bothered to check) was that Lambert left him a tad exposed so the 2 Monarchs effectivley 'beat him up'. It happens; 'you give me shove today, I'll give you a shove tomorow, long as we all survive to ride another day, then we go after it again'. IMO he'll learn more from such awkward on-track incedents, & going to Poland with GB U19 squad where gotta say he did blooming well, than beating NL-level riders with relative ease, well some of them. Said before, but Luke ain't half bad at speedway, at all, often need to check the number on his back to be sure it isn't the more experienced Ablitt one is watching. But young Luke has got 'it', that is the ability to race, not only ride, speedway very well, you only need to watch him for a lap, how much of 'it' he has, time will tell & it will be interesting to follow his progress, but he has defo got 'it'. Good luck to him I say....

Yes, it was good to see the NL riders doing laps of honour & ewere genuinely pleased following good races, whether they won or not, great to see....

Bit of a distance from Hull: not always had money or nowadays the time. Or a team to support, it means waaay more, trust me. In early days of away coach trips folks wouldn't let me go such relatively far off places as they didn't want me returning at 'stupid o clock' & waking everyone up. I got away with trips to likes of Halifax home 11.30pm-ish, Belle Vue (told 'em it wasn't actually in Manchester, bit nearer !) back 12 - 1am-ish, same with Birmingham, Coventry & Cradley 'they're outside of the cities, in villages, so also quite a bit nearer (!)' so got away with 2.30am-ish returns 'due to roadworks, honest' - almost every Saturday away trip (!), but Swindon away & a 4am return, waking up the dog & therefore everyone else didn't make me at all popular. Anyhoo good on Ippo, still sucessfully running speedway....

Never been to 'Ippo', thing is they've (pretty much) always come to the tapes since 1970 (I think it was), so must be 'doing something right' (!). Good luck to the Witches I say....

Obv v bad news for Doyle, Ipswich & his other teams (can't be bothered to check), good call there ^^ but pretty sure Scotty don't want / or can fit a full-time Prem League spot...

Obv terrible news what with all the good progress going on at Worky, Northside. Reccomend having a chat with Scunny as they sadly suffered similar issues a few years ago but solved them, now (finger crossed hopefully) no more such problems at the EWR, hope Worky can get secure also.....

Jumping in late (too late?), I'd go with John Cook, apologies if already mentioned. In 1980 he stuggled badly at Hull on a 4v JAWA known for tricky handling, he moved to Ipswich as part of the deal taking Dennis Sigalos to Foxhall (A HUGE loss to Hull BTW) with Billy Sanders coming to Hull (along wth a cash adjustment), where Billy became quite popular. But from 1981, riding a track he seemed to prefer more on a Weslake he defo preferred more, Cookie became the all-action 'Cowboy' that we all loved to watch, never a dull moment when he was on track....

Also former Hull, Boulevard track record holder 74.2 secs, 7 July 1971, the Tiger never worried about the Hull track being a tad narrow, squarish or bumpy, he just rode it. I often wondered how much more he may have achieved had he been not a relative late starter in speedway at 28 / 29, as in addition to Ipswich he was also more than capable rider in the later years of his career at Halifax then at King's Lynn & was still pulling on an England body colour & scoring well at WTC level in his 40's. Condolences to the Louis family, RIP John 'Tiger' Louis, a true England great....

Ok thanks, as with every rider good luck to her....

Do we know for sure that Worky actively saught out Fraulein Libmann, for publicity etc, or was it a case of "well she's available, we need to build an asset base, let's give her a try", serious question. In the pics shown she is with other riders at some point, not just on her own say miles behind, but it depends where she finishes in races. Hoped to see her her at Scunny last Friday, didn' t happen of course & I couldn't make it anyway, but agree, as with each & every other rider; give her so many meetings then look at a replacement if she isn't scoring or at least improving....

In that case: good call. I recall a British F1GP at Silverstone, 1994 / 95? can't be bothered to check, was held at Easter instead of July - and it rained, a lot. Spectators spent all day having cars towed out of quagmire car park, didn't sound fun, Worky don't need that for 1st 'Division 2' level meeting....

Unless more tracks open & any more close (obv hope not) this may be the only option, add KOC, maybe 4's & pairs.....

Think the speedway version is: 'a track in a field with a fence around it & a few Potakabins', bit like when Scunny first started up in 2005/2006. Still, little acorns & all that....

Remakable performance by Carter, he certainly had a lot of courage on that day. And, wasn't it 'just' his right leg that was broken, though it was plenty enough, think he crashed heavily again the next year so didn't make the '85 World Final on his home track Bradford (which must have been - literally gutting) & don't think his leg ever did heal fully.....

Good idea; get some competive laps in at Worky in front of a crowd, before the serious league stuff starts....

Ok thanks, interesting stuff, fingers still crossed....

Think the Ben Fund meeting would also be a good 'test the water meeting' for Celina Liebmann in addition the Peter Craven Memorial at Belle Vue. She will need to jump at in the deep end & race the top riders sooner or later but think a meeting of this kind, on her home track, would be a good, better ?, 'test the water' meeting for her. As with everyone, I'm looking forward to seeing her race, good luck to her hope she goes well....

Query re Brandon Stadium, just a thought: what condition is the back straight stand in ? There's been lots of talk on needing to rebuild or at least refurbish the main, home straight stand, but don't recall the back straight stand being mentioned. I mean if Coventry are able to resume at Brandon, I wonderded whether the back straight stand could be used, temporarily moving the startline to the other side. Obv still long way to go but it's looking more positive, like I said was just a thought....

Could well be a tad out of her depth in this meeting, but won't know if she don't try. Nutshell she is is (mostly) 'just another rider' with a head, 2 arms, 2 legs with a (broadly) similar motorcycle to the rest of the field / league and the 'proof of the pudding' will be when she is actually on-track v the rest. You can't hide in modern speedway, everyone's scores are available for the world to view & discuss, if not instantly, then very quickly. An interesting addition to the British League for sure, good luck to her....

+ someone to carry your kit bag, another holding a fan to your face to cool you down (Nicki P), Bruce Penhall commented "I never had that and I know what my mechanic would say if I'd asked him". Prob "do it yourself", or similar ....

Can confirm; defo not easy, much more difficult getting the technique right than you would imagine, a speedway bike is much, much more tham 'just a 500cc motorcycle without gears or brakes', needs to be tamed bit like riding a wild beast i.e. wild stallion or cheetah - not necessarily the Oxford version. Kudos to all those who can, and do....

Did same at Reading v Hull, 2000 season. Had a chat with Hull riders pre-meeting, hung out with mechanics whilst riders got changed, only left on 'warm up' as we were obv in the way, potential hazardeous area, riders need to get 'in the zone' - and we woudn't have heard ourselves think . No-one from home promotion said a word, pit exit to car park was open, occured to us we coulda poss wheeled a bike out "gotta swap it, he needs the other bike out of his van", and coulda been off with it. Very lax security, done same at other tracks but was at least asked what we wanted & warned we needed to leave at warm up time....