SCB

I remember going to the speedway with my yougner sister in 2000 (so she was only 11 at the time). We went around to the pits and as we were looking in, Colin White started smoking, my sister looked at him in dis-belief, within minutes there were 6 riders, wearing Arena-Essex* race jackets all smoking. She turned to me, while these riders were all about 10 yards away and said, "They're smoking!? They shouldn't do that they're sportsmen and it's like taking drugs". Fair play to Jan Pedersen, he heard this and instantly stopped. I remember being reall embarassed at the time but she had a very valid point and she was an 11 year old girl. I think smoking should be banned in the pits, you have the image it gives off, I'm not niave enough to think footballers, F1 drivers, rally driver etc don't smoke, they're human. However, when was the last time you saw one of these guys smoking at a game, race or rally? It just doesn't happen, it makes them look better, they've banned cigarette adverting for a start so if a competor was seen smoking I'm sure he'd get into some serious trouble, so how do speedway riders get away with it? When at the track they are in work, if the promoters want to stop them from smoking they should, after all, I can't smoke in uni and I was never allowed to smoke in school(even when old enough) or in work. Every time anyone I knew who moked had to leave the grounds of the building to smoke, speedway should be the same. If nessecary let the riders go and hide behind the pits or something. I've managed to go off on a tangent of the original message but I don't care BTW, I agree you family, friends, media etc DOES effect what you do, however, we all work in different ways, so some people rebel against the strict parent and take drugs, smoke etc while others accept it. Some people who have easy going parents and for that reason take the drug etc as they see no wrong in it, others feel they have no need. Michael may have resented his parents interfearing and took drugs even more. *I've seen riders from all teams, Arena-Essex just happened to be the team my sister saw that day.

I got the impression he was after fame, he didn't care if he got it by making thr sport bigger or by rebeling. As it was it come about by the latter, he did say he could see the sport failing, he said it on speedway videos from 82-83 so he always said it and he was right. I think he was rebelling becasuse he could see what was happening. Certainly an intresting read.

A TR and a TS can only score 6 points. So a team can only score 8 points in one heat. Thanks MM, I thought thats how it worked btu I was unsure after a TS was not used in heat 14 (when Wolves could still win, in theory). I'm not buying a rule book for it to be out of date 2 weeks later

We(Brandon 4th bend) discussed this tonight, how many TS or TR can be used in a meeting? Is it 2 of either, just 2? or some other combination as I though it was 3 in total with only one TR but someone else said it was only 2, thats one of each or 2 TS's. So how many and what are the possible combinations! Whats pathetic is that I can't work it out and I like to be up to date with the rules and regs and don't know so how will the average fan understand?!

A team can only use one TR or TS per heat, so 10-1's are NOT possible, eve the BSPA don't allow that!

He's probably thw weirdo we have at Newport. Though come to think of it I havent seen our weird person for a long time, so he has either gone or has blended in with the rest of us! He was the kind of person everyone tried to avoid, if you saw him walking towards you then you looked the other way.

Head over Heart, ok my Heart win! Scott Nicholls or maybe Crumpy. Though I wouldn't mind seeing TRick win a few more, so I can claim to have seen the greatets speedway rider ever when I'm in my 70's and tell all the youngsters that they have seen nothing as TRick was a World Championship winning machine

I've been going to speedway since I was a baby but my first real season of supporting and taking notice (rather than being dragged along and playing in the dust at most track or hiding from the stones that used to hit me in the face or covering my ears to trying make the air horns seem quieter ) was 1999(half way though '98 really, Lol Hares first meeting as a Wasps was when I become a regular, thanks to Scott Peglar and Craig Watson) and only a few years later I keep saying speedway is not what it was, it was better in 1999 I think we just remember what we want to, it can't really have got much worse can it or we wouldn't go any more. Either that or the last 2 or 3 years it has got worse and we're all slowly leaving and not watching speedway any more?! :s

Someone asked why the BBC don't mention speedway, I explained, from what I know, why. The "Exclusive" right should not have been sold, the fact TR tried to sell the gambling/live on the net side proves he didn't realise he had sold it all, so Sky have got one over on the small man(compared to BSkyB the BSPA are tiny really!) and the BSPA should now take the Sky dealings away from Terry Russell and given them to a real agent or something similar.

Which is probably part of there reason why they will not even give results, only Sky will gain.

About the BBC, when I bought my car just under 18 months ago I bought it form a man who (did) work(s) for the BBC, infatc he worked for BBC Wales Sport. So, as we were test driving the car (Myself and my dad) we obviously got chatting to him and found this out, so being speedway fans, we asked if the BBC had looked into showing speedway in any way, shape or form and his reply was along the lines of, we(the BBC) wanted to show the British GP(from Cardiff, Wales) so loked into it, but Sky wanted far too much just to show highlights, not even enough for a programme of it's own but they wanted to muhc for the BBC to warrent paying for a few heats to show on Grandstand. He also knew, without us saying anything, about Newport Speedway and he told us about how they had done well in 1999 so we told him that we went to watch the Wapss EVERY week, so he told us how he was sorry about our poor season (having just a week or two before, picked up a wooden spoon!) and he clearly knew a fair bit about speedway, it's background an it's politics so, as we had started, we asked, why can't we have any coverage from Newport Speedway and he told us again, that BBC Wales Sport had looked at it and wanted to keep people up-to-date with Newport Speedway as the Welsh will support anything Welsh and they wanted to help with Newport Speedway BUT AGAIN Sky wanted more money than it was worth to show highlights during there weekly sports round up(Wales on Saturday) on BBC Wales. He pointed out that the BBC had got speedway on Wales on Saturday one week and we told him yes, we watched it and we even have it on video and he told us that it costs a huge anount. So finally, having moaned at him and got what were clearly well researched answers (and we didn't give him time to research these answers, it all happened in a car driving around Cardiff) we asked, why don't the BBC mention speedway in it sports news round ups even if they cannot show video coverage and his answer was, why bother, who is going to watch it to find out how Newport speedway have done for 5 seconds at some point in a 30 minute program and have it looking amatureish as they have no video to show as vidoe was involve sending camera men to Newport (not cheap to beging with) and then paying SKy for the pleasure) So there you go, BBC Wales at leats have TRIED (clearly after Skys involvement) and have got nowhere, clearly Terry Russell has sold Sky's sole to Sky, had he only sold EL rights BBC Wales would show Newport Speedway highlights and give it a mention. SO well done Terry Russell and that why I laugh even more when I hear he sold the Right for GB Speedway twice, once to Sky and again to the betting company who were going to show speedway digitally on the BSPA site but TR had to give the 2nd company there money back, prehaps the BSPA should get a man in with experiacen of selling TV rights etc rather than trusting a man who owned a cleaning company for Gawds sake!

Go on, tell us the story again I remember reading it a while back and it was great, I'd love to read it agian

I feel sorry for young Connor, I tihkn the worst thing he can do is take yup speedway as what ever he does he will be a failiure. Look at Chris Collins and all his pressure, he's constantly son of Peter, he must be fed up of it by now. Connor doesn't only have the World titles to win to get rid of the "son of..." tag but he has to have the charisma and all the little extras that Bruce had. TMG, fiar play to Bruce, he went out onto the ice where a few riders had struggled and although he was not fast, he actually rode speedway style and got the bike to slide, unlike a few others who had more rides than Bruce, I'm sure had he rode against Rusty Harisson he'd have beat him, infact he could have probably scored 3 or 4 points in the main meeting had he been willign to "race" rather than ride as he controlled the bike much better than most of the others Like I have said, just a shame Les Collins' riding made it look so Mickey Mouse. I was looking at some old pictures of Bobby Schwartz last night and he has changed even more than Bruce He was not even obviously recognisable at Greg Hancocks testamonial from 1995

I think the perosn who said the problem was with the advertising material, had they used newer photos it would not be so bad. I thing he has aged a hell of a lot in the last 5 years though becuase we were watching Chips '99 the other day and he didn't look a day over 30, suddenly he does look like he getting older and that really supprised me how in Chips '99 I could recognise him from mums old posters (incidently, I think they were selling smaller versions of the same poster at Telford but could not get rid of them so had to given them away with the programme ) but the man who walked out onto the ice at Telford was not recognisable and even 20 years later, most people are still recognisable but Bruce was not 5 years later. Mind you, he doesn't look bad for somone who's 47(I'm sure thats what the program said) not when you consider Les Collins is a year younger and my dads 3 years younger My bigest gripe abou seeing Bruce rid is not Bruce but Schwartz and Collins, it was just so Mickey Mouse, Les was pasing him and drifting wide, then passing him and drifting wide, who were they fooling? Why not have them ride side by side? Or even let Bruce ride 4 laps on his own and compare his time to a few others(say the youngest rider there and then Les/Boogaloo and as he was probably going to be within a second or 2 make a song and dance about that. Personally I felt the way Les was riding sort of mad Bruce look pathetic and thats now how a real legend of the sport should be made to look and I just could not watch it in the evening. Atleats Boogaloo rode side by side with him and made it a bit more respectable and interesting and made Bruce lok good.

He was still doing it for King's Lynn in 2000(ish). Having seen videos of him he could team ride so well and as you say, he was ALL over the bike. John Cook, Frank Smart and Carl Wilkinson side by side for 4 laps woudl be great

1999 Conference League Champions, Newport Mavericks. 1999 Premier National Trophy Winners, Newport Wasps. See, we haven't always been rubbish.

In reply to Peters, are you suggesting Peter Craven was outgated by 2 lower order riders, it does not have to be the case, it makes sense if you think Craven had started 15 metres back that he had to pass the other 2 riders to be in 2nd place. It could be that he simply outgated the two lower order riders, from the normal start.

You can see who Nicki Pedersen learnt his tricks from But dad says all Danes have always been the same, everytime we watch a video and Olsen or Neilsen appear dad starts giving them abuse Silly b***** went to Ole Olsens farewell meeting though, despite not liking him at all Yes '83 was Olsens last season, well he had his farewell at Brandon in '83 and the crowd size made the ELRC and the EL playoff crowds look tiny, almost insignificant! Had the forum people been on the 4th bend you'd have not been able to see us as it was so crowded. Intrestingly 20 years later speedway promoters are teling us speedway is getting bigger

Lee "I' going to average 6" & "Son of Phil" Herne He went on the average 6.2 in the CL!!! Similary, Matt Cambridge was going to average 5 last year, i'm sure he was refering to the PL, his CL average was under 5!!!! Hopefully Dawid Kujawa won't be in here, 2001 U21 Champ, can't average 6 in the Polish 1st League (2nd division!!!).

Wasn't he stopped coming through customs once while with Kelly Moran? Or have I got my Americans mixed up?! Any way, I said Bobby Schwartz on the Newport forum last week and he's had most votes on here so I must have been right!!! (not bad for a young 'un!)

Surely it's ideal at televised meetings, while Sky are having a break, put a few juniors on the track.

Well in Wales we say Luherahm. (It made sense when I wrote it, thought not when I read it!)

Speedway or football?! SPEEDWAY! Who cares about England vs France? Watch Pedersen vs Crump vs TRick vs Adams instead! I'm sure anyone in Cardiff GP weekend will be able to find a bar showing England vs France if they ask, after all, all of Wales will be suporting the French (or nobody at all as it's a bloody stupid sport!)

Tim Stone manages 30 heats, PL+CL for a pound extra so cost wise it possible to have 15 main heats and 15 junior heats, why not make so that team HAVE to have say 10-15 junior heats in a junior league and let the stand alone team run in the CL. That way Sheffield, Newport, Oxford and Peterborough wouldn't need a CL team.

In Matt's perfect little world!!! Why is a heat with standard bikes better than a heat with highly tuned bike? It's not, you will still have better riders and not so good riders, all that will happen is that the better riders will still gate first and still be fastest as they are now and there will be just as many faster riders failing to make the start and passing, as you do now. However, some "standard" bikes will be better than others so riders will buy bike, after bike, after bike until they get a good one and so drive up costs and they'll want more money and promoters WILL pay it and the sport suffers. More dirty?! No, just well prepared not nessesarilly loads of dirty. I'm no expert but I'd say you need a thin layer of dirt with grip on the outside, slightly less dirt/grip about mid track and an almost slick track on the inside, not completly slick or you get the 'blue line'.