DK Rides Again

1928 - 1940, as I'm sure Norbold can confirm, at length! Actually, at the time of the Shawcross report, CP Speedway stadium was under the National Sports Centre, so it would've been impossible to reopen.

Crystal Palace?????

It could be worse, I might offer to venture into deepest, darkest Essex and pick him up on the back of my Z1100! How do you fancy that Norbs?

No problem, I'll see if I can scare someone up.

Nobody is absolutely certain, but it's thought to be attributed to a cartoonist called George Chatterton (also known as 'Chat') and first appeared here during the war with the slogan 'Wot no..........' depending on what the shortage was at the time (the first one is thought to be 'Wot no eggs'). The best bit is, he appears all over the World with different names; where you are, he's known as Herbie, but South of the Canadian border, and most famously, he's called Kilroy. That all started with the popular grafitto 'Kilroy was here' and at some point during the war, it's thought that the Americans over here picked up on Chad, and combined it with Kilroy, so now he's everywhere, including, apparently, on the WWII Memorial at the Whitehouse.

Is it Lewisham or Southwark? If it is Lewisham, I might be able to help a bit, as I'm working on a project that involves LC; I'm probably going to have some contact with them on Monday, I'll see what I can find out.

Ah, sorry about that Deano, Gemini is bang on the money. I'm so used to people on here getting incandescent over the slightest thing, I took your little sarky smiley to mean you'd copped the hump about me posting pics of a dead track.

Seems like a good idea to me, how about it norbs? maybe speedyguy could gee up a few of his SLP mates to do a piece on it, it might bring the history of the place to the attention of some of the current locals. I might even be tempted to turn up myself, just so long as no-one expects me to do a few laps on the grass!

What's the problem? I was only answering a question posed by another poster, besides, I found it quite interesting; many members of my family, including my parents, went to New Cross every week, today was the first time I have ever been there and, save for a quirk of fate that put me in the area, I might never have gone there. Now I could understand if I'd posted pictures of a derelict but basically intact stadium that, but for the lack of a few quid and a few NIMBYs, could be resurrected, but I can't see the point of getting overly precious about a place that hasn't held a race for 46 years and where almost no evidence exists that it was ever there. Actually, it's quite refreshing. It sits like an oasis of greenery in a desert of bland housing blocks, so at least it's still capable of providing some small piece of relaxation or entertainment for the locals; better that than another faceless trading estate, which seems to be the fate of many defunct tracks.

Quite by coincidence, I had to go to Ilderton Road today, so I thought I'd nip down Hornshay Street and see what I could find. New Cross I think the stairs are probably the third set and you can certainly see a vague oval outline from the top, as though they just filled the stadium with earth and planted grass.

So, do we assume that the promoters had a rare moment of clarity as regards to the long term future of the sport (and their bank balances) or, that the Shawcross report was deliberately delayed and leaked to the promoters in advance? Or, (more likely) I'm applying 21st century cynicism.

It will the 30th anniversary of his death this coming July.

This one I suspect. I always rather liked it........... Hot Butter

Aren't one or two of the roads where Southampton's Bannister Court was named after former riders?

If they were playing the B side of 'Go Now', I can only imagine it's because the A side is probably one of the most poorly recorded tracks in the history of pop, so it probably would've sounded like white noise through a mid 60s PA system! Incidentally, 'Go Now' hit the UK charts in December 1964, so it was probably the 1965 season you remember it from Bobbath. As for Russ Conway, the tracks most likely to be played were either 'Side Saddle' (as mentioned) or 'Roulette', both #1s from 1959, the year that Russ was the best selling artist in the UK. In any case, to jog a few memories, here's Russ playing 'Side Saddle' on the Billy Cotton Band Show (bit of a petrolhead himself, Mr Cotton Snr, finished 4th in the 1949 British GP).............................WAKEY WAKEY! Russ Conway