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OGT

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Posts posted by OGT

  1. Posted

    1 hour ago, Turnip said:

    Commonwealth Games

    As the Games start next week would it be possible for a local supporter to advise on how busy it will be in the Perry Barr area as athletes & athletic's fans are staying there.

    Although I'm not going this information may help fans that are traveling to the speedway in regards to parking & any extra travel time required.

    Thanks in advance.

    P.s there is also a train strike on Wednesday 27th which may add to the traffic.

     

     

     

    The athletes aren't based in Perry Barr, they're being bussed in from Birmingham and Warwick unis and a hotel at the NEC. This is due to the fact the Athlete's village wouldn't be finished in time. 

  3. Posted

    52 minutes ago, Teromaafan said:

    Think you’ll find everyone finished above Leicester in 1976! Boy were we poor that year. In one meeting I recall the ambulance coming out onto the track before the start of a race! I think it was one of our newly acquired reserves (Bogh or Szczepanik, excuse the spelling) practicing a start and fell off. You couldn’t make it up. Summed up the Lions 1976 campaign, but at least it was a good summer!

     

    Oops I always get those two teams mixed up! :D

  4. Posted

    5 hours ago, GWC said:

    Blimey I remember going to Brum v Hackney 1976 and I’m sure they used r/r for Gary Middleton and he rode too!!

     

    Think that was another one. We were up against it from day one that year, then the injury to Big Al made things a whole lot worse. We were allocated Jiri Stancl but he refused to join us and went to Cov instead. At least we didn't finish bottom of the league though, somehow we finished above Swindon. 

  7. Posted

    8 hours ago, Mike0310 said:

    I don’t want to be a doom monger as I previously posted well done Birmingham but are the crowd levels really that worrying it’s the second city for gods sake what sort of promotional work do they do up there.

    You need to understand the demographic of the city. Not enough people are interested in speedway. It's as simple as that. The world promoting champion would struggle. Honestly. 

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

    9 hours ago, iainb said:

    Last Birmingham team match is scheduled for August the 10th though. 

    As for the Commonwealth Games meeting, simple a Commonwealth Riders Championship featuring a line up of British based Commonwealth riders, heavily promoted in the athletes village the night before the opening ceremony, hardly rocket science

    Brum v Poole on July 27th B)

  9. Posted · Edited by OGT

    On 7/2/2022 at 6:35 PM, brianbuck said:

    Speedway at Birmingham Wheels was unsuccessful during the three seasons of its operations there. There were many reasons for this, most of them being out of the control of Birmingham Speedway. The place was in its complete infancy, getting there was difficult and not very safe with no entrance via the main Bordesley Green Road, only via a dark and dismal lengthy back street (Landor Street) and approached through an unlit railway tunnel. The spectator facilities there were non-existant and what little spectator comforts were minimal.

    Sharing the track with banger cars was a disaster. This is possible at some existing stadia I know, but at the Wheels Park, the banger cars used it daily so preparation of the track for speedway meetings was virtually impossible. Even so, despite the problems, the track was a very good shape and before the cars wrecked it, produced some very good racing, and for all it's primitiveness, spectator viewing was very good.

    The speedway venture ended when at the instigation of the new Wheels Park Manager, an application to extend planning permission to beyond those first three seasons, was arbitrarily withdrawn, so Tony Mole who had just purchased the speedway rights, wasn't able to continue even though he was prepared to do so. Later attempts to get back into the Wheels Park using a different, unused part of the site to constructed a new exclusive for  speedway track, were blocked by the same Wheels Park Manager.

    Could speedway have re-established itself there? I think it could have. We could have had our own track and used it for training as well as public meetings, and now that there is the access to the site from the main road, we could have capitalised on the fact that it is now on several bus routes, and that Adderley Park Rail Station is close by. The Wheels Park is still located in one of the less glamourous parts of the City it is true, so it might have been a long slow haul to get the club back on it's feet, but I always thought the place had possibilities.

    Now it seems that the City Council are looking for ways of recovering some of the massive debts it has run up in its efforts to promote the Commonwealth Games, and are trying to reclaim and re-sell the land on which the Wheels Park is situated. All the hard work which has gone into building a popular and well used operation from very small beginnings, will be wasted if they succeed, and I wish the group who are challenging this truly outrageous plan, every possible success in their opposition, and will be happy to help in any way if I can.

    Wasn't there plans for a national speedway museum on the site too, Brian?

    Incidentally, I went there about 4 years ago for a stox meeting and it hadn't changed a bit since the speedway closed in 86. 

  10. Posted

    On 6/17/2022 at 9:44 PM, Fina said:

    If the lad is into other motorsport he will probably understand guests as Moto GP teams are obliged to find a replacement rider is one of their main riders is injured.  The team contract with Moto GP is to compete every round.

    TBF, it's normally the test rider who'll get the ride as part of his contract. 

  11. Posted

    4 hours ago, mikebv said:

    Really enjoyed that tonight.. 

    So much so, I am actually thinking of getting an inflatable air fence now..

    Looks like loads of fun to be had putting it back together, and there was lots of handy tips tonight on how best to do it..

    I will need 12 or so neighbours to come around, fold their arms, talk amongst themselves, and watch me repairing it to get the full value of my purchase obviously, but I am sure it will give me hours of fun..

    The only disappointment tonight for me was the amount of racing that kept breaking out between the air fence repairs..

    Maybe they should give the racing their own programme and leave us air fence followers the chance to watch our programmes without interruption?

    Edit..

    For those of you on here complaining about those doing the air fence repairs I would ask you just this...

    Have you ever air fence repaired for our entertainment?

    No?

    Thought not...

    Maybe you should try it and then see what risks these air fence repairer's take..

    British Speedway..:rolleyes:

    :D

    Well I pay my £6.99 per month for Disco+ and for that I get Eurosport's excellent coverage of British and World Superbikes, SGP (hit and miss I know) and this nonsense.

    I think an air fence would make darts more interesting, BTW :blink:

  12. Posted

    Birmingham has fallen out of love with speedway before, in the days when the sport was immeasurably more popular than it is now and at times when there were hardly any other attractions to spend your money on. The demographic of the city is vastly different to how it was 60, 50, 40 years ago. 

    It's no surprise it's struggling now. Unfortunately. 

     

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

  14. Posted

    1 hour ago, lisa-colette said:

    Yeah, it is a bit mean spirited. But Mike is very passionate about Plymouth tbf to him.

    See on Birmingham's twitter that they put down 20,000 litres of water today Be interesting to know if it is enough on a hot day like today! Unless you're an Aussie and then it is just a mild day! ;)

    Fair play to him for taking the sport seriously I suppose. :blink:

    • Haha 3

  15. Posted

    5 hours ago, Gerbat1875 said:

    Villas average attendance last year 37000 Birmingham 18000, this year will be lower between both as St Andrews was half closed, 20000 on a waiting list is total rubbish, Villa, Birmingham, West Brom, Wolves all have gaps in the stadium, not one of them ever get a complete sell out, even the young kids in Brum don't support the local football teams, they have all been brought up on the sky big 6 phenomenon, speedway in Brum is never going to attract, it would have happened in the elite league days when we topped the standings if it was ever going to happen 

    And there was me thinking Blose fans knew everything about the Vile. Oh well

    https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2022/may/03/season-tickets-for-2022-23-coming-soon/

    https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-premier-league-2021-2022/1/

    B)

  16. Posted

    9 hours ago, Gerbat1875 said:

    Birmingham can hardly fill the football stadiums, 55,000 average between Villa and Birmingham is terrible for the size of Birmingham, 

    Ha ha, brilliant. I officially apologise on Villa's behalf for only being to fit 41,000 fans in for a home game with 20,000 fans on the season ticket waiting list.

     

    :rofl:

  17. Posted

    58 minutes ago, uk_martin said:

    Still got road works, but little in the way of delays....OR...you can now travel by train and use Perry Barr's shiny, brand-new train station :rolleyes:  Well, brand new it is, but shiny it isn't. Some genius designer decided that "dirty rusty" is the new black, and erm, well, the locals aren't amused. No doubt it will one day become a "future classic" of it's type...possibly? But anyway, rail services to Perry Barr are now available again.

    Loving the "Oi, come back with my bike!" mural. 

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

    There are a lot of things not good with GB speedway @ the moment the lack of available riders being the major problem.

     

    But please all Birmingham fans be thankful that due to your current owners you still have speedway, unlike Exeter, Somerset, Swindon, Reading, Wimbledon, Arena Essex, Stoke, Workington, Hull, Cradley, Bradford, Halifax, Weymouth, Hackney & others I've missed!

    I get that, but loyalty wears thin when the team isn't quite as attractive as you first thought or were lead to believe. 

    Speedway isn't a charity and times are bloody hard for a lot of people. 

    And times for the club have just been made even harder. 

    • Like 5

  25. Posted

    12 hours ago, mikebv said:

    It's UK Speedway....

    It doesnt really matter...

    Just go along and hopefully enjoy a good evenings entertainment...

    There is pretty much no kudos in victory, no major financial reward, and hardly any media coverage other than the odd mention in a few papers for the play off winners allied to good coverage in the Speedway Star, so it really doesn't matter who wins any league..

    What does matter is that teams win at home most weeks and stay solvent, which ensure riders who spend tens of thousands on kit are able to ride on many nights of the year to justify their expense..

    The sport has been ran in a "bit Mickey Mouse" way for decades so it wont ever change.. 

    It still has the capability to deliver a cracking night out, and the racing today is as least as good as I can ever remember, so just go along and enjoy what is on offer..

    You might be even be lucky enough to be there for Bomber's 100th appearance of the season...:D

     

     

    Speedway is lucky it has some people left who put up with all the shenanigans.

    • Like 3
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