Vic Meldrew

In the last few years I have been able to complete the race result in my programme as soon as the riders have ridden around the first bend!!

If I had a £1 for every such comment I would be a millionaire by now!!

On the "Morning Live" programme they simply refer to the rider as "Mike" - he sadly died of a brain tumour a short while ago. A pair of boots and metal shoe are shown and a short clip of four riders racing around a bend - not sure of the track - could be Canterbury ? Mke's wife says that he rode between 1975 and 1978. I did not recognise him from the photo they showed.

Looks like it is a pair of speedway boots - to be featured on BBC1 "This Morning programme" this morning Wednesday.-

Short article in this month's The Oldie magazine. A fair summary of the current state of affairs.

Please correct me if I am wrong but didn't the SCB bring a halt to the racing at Iwade (Sittingbourne) and initially insisted on the installation of an air fence which a the time was beyond the financial means of the club. Since its opening I have been a supporter of Kent Kings but for this season I will gladly incur the extra costs and attend meetings at the IOW and give the Kings a miss. Barry Bishop and his colleagues have done a fantastic job over the last few years and should be encouraged to continue operating speedway racing at Ryde. The SCB, ACU, FIM or the BSPL should not be legally allowed to ban riders competing at events at the IOW track. For those who may remember - shades of the dispute in 1964 between the National League and the Provincial League culminating in the Shawcross Report in January 1965. I agree with the comments above regarding the illegality of restraint of trade involving riders and their services.

What has your lack of tube contents to do with the new format and content of the Speedway Star? If you must, then suggest you post further nonsense of this nature under the new thread "Once the envy of the world."

I am sick to death of posts on this thread talking about the non or late arrival of their Speedway Star magazine. If you have a problem then contact the publishers direct or take the matter up with your local Royal Mail contact. It was inevitable that putting the magazine in a clear plastic type envelope sends the wrong message to Royal Mail staff, i.e. it is probably junk mail and goes to the bottom of the pile for delivery.

The simple solution to this statistical nonsense is to construct starting grids comprised of a hard surface which riders cannot excavate with their boots such as tarmac or concrete (as in the good old days) and instead of having the start line at right angles to the track, make the line slightly forward from inside to out so that the rider in grid 4 starts slightly ahead of the other grids!!

Well done Dave - a worthy successor to the great Dave Lanning - streets ahead (or should I say laps ahead) of those screaming hyenas Tat and Pears!!!

Hello ruckerroo - Trust that you are keeping an eye on the heat times!!!

I was at the meeting last night - unlike some of the posters on this topic. The riders from both teams need to be thanked for riding in such conditions. The Kent riders were definitely up for the meeting and sadly with the exception of Palin and Flint the Belle Vue riders were not really interested in competing. Overtaking was possible - ask Dan Gilkes and Anders Rowe. After all, the conditions were the same for both teams. The heat times, which are really irrelevant, were only 5 or 6 seconds slower than the previous meeting at Central Park - 60/61s average for the Kent Laurels and 65/66s average for last night. The message here is to the BSPA - DO NOT schedule play off matches (across all three leagues) for this late in the season.

Heat 14 posted on You tube. Why did the start marshal and the referee allow Josh to get away with starting on a mound and pointing his bike inwards?

It is certainly a worrying time for Kent with a shoulder injury to Alex Spooner at Kent due to a shed chain, back injury to Jordan Jenkins at Mildenhall on Sunday whilst guesting for Stoke, collar bone injury to Rob Ledwith sustained at Stoke in the NL Fours and a wrist injury to Anders Rowe in the same meeting at Stoke.

Bye , Bye blueherb777.

What case? You never had one!! Where are your OWN detailed opinions on the merits or otherwise of the Kent track which were requested earlier? I suppose that you think that the track at Peterborough is dangerous now considering the accidents that occurred there last night.

Well blueherb77 perhaps you could enlighten us with specific details as to what you think are the problems with the Kent track and how they should be resolved. Would you care for a track inspection with Len Silver and the track curators to specify your track improvements? The accidents at last night's meeting were simply racing incidents and not as a result of poor track conditions, shape etc. I am sure that you will appreciate that unfortunate accidents do occur at all tracks and at all levels of the sport and that only in a very minority of incidents is the cause due to track conditions.

Well goodbye blueherb777 - I am sure that speedway at Sittingbourne can do without supporters like you! There is nothing wrong with the track - plenty of work goes into its preparation during a limited timeframe and Len regularly ensures deliveries of new top surfaces etc. Let us know how you get on with criticising other tracks, in your travels.

A massive thank you to the track staff last night. Where would we be without these dedicated volunteers? An eventful and entertaining evening even with Jack Smith doing his party trick again of taking out the fence boards on the first bend. Slightly disappointed at Cradley's gamesmanship in preventing the running of heat 14 to ensure that they earned a point from the meeting.

Sings4Speedway and blueherb777 clearly not Len Silver fans!!

Why don't you meet Len on site and explain to him where he is going wrong with the track surface, materials and shape?

No match reports from local reporters is a backward step. As a poor substitute look at the live reports of race meetings on the Speedway Updates website. Agree that the two pages devoted to Grass track should be dumped. Thought that this was a Speedway magazine not grass track. Although I have not read a copy for some time I thought that the newspaper weekly Motor Cycle News covered grass track meetings.

I have been a subscriber to Speedway Star for more years than I can remember. A fantastic magazine - keep up the good work. I also look forward to the "Where are they now" features and especially John Chaplin's "Museum Piece". I do not think that there was any drop in quality in last week's issue - just unfortunate timing of the BSPA AGM. I am sure that we will get reasoned and informed comment and views in this week's issue.

Suggest you view the video of heat 5 now posted on the GB and Kent websites so that you can see the overall condition of the track and the quality of the racing.

The injury to Luke Bowen had nothing to do with the track conditions. It was simply a racing incident when James Shanes attempted to pass Luke on the outside. The track last night was in good condition and apart from the unfortunate injury to Danyon Hume it was a thoroughly enjoyable meeting. Best wishes to Danyon for a speedy recovery.