davidba

Says on facebook that he's flying out tonight and will be at Mildenhall on Sunday, but doesn't say if he's riding or not.Hope he's set for the meeting at Rye House on the 11th.

Are you still coming to race in the UK too?

I'm more skint than most at present but £12 to see this is very good value in my opinion, should be one of the top meetings of the year if previous are anything to go by, and it'so rare to see so many new riders to the UK in one meeting, can't wait!

Great, really glad we will see the Russians in action over here(Maybe even the elusive Mr Gizatullin??)they are always fun to watch!!

Really feel for you Henning, the rules are mad and are putting many people off the sport.

More bad news from speedway land! Thank god Leicester are opening, at this rate with only 3 riders i've never seen before in British speedway(Nelson,Bondarenko+Nedermark)and less teams in EL+NL than usual i may not bother too much this season if they are really banning foreigners from the NL too!!

Hope they haven't introduced this knee jerk no 'foreigners' rule, 1 per team is sensible and i'm sure it increases crowds and they should be trying to get more people not less through the gates. Hope they haven't introduced this knee jerk no 'foreigners' rule, 1 per team is sensible and i'm sure it increases crowds and they should be trying to get more people not less through the gates.

Small world!

Cheers, looks like i will be going to Bydgoszcz v Lodz or Rybnik then!!

Always thought it was an odd choice of song for the movie, but hey i've seen 'Swagman' a couple of times recently so that was always gonna be in my head!!

Personally i'm waiting on where the following will be riding so any news will be appreciated: Mariusz Wegrzyk, Piotr Pawlicki(I know he's being lent out to a 1st division club), Matueusz Kowalczyk, Rafal Trojanowski, Slawomir Pyszny,Lukasz Jankowski, Joszef Tabaka,Marcin Jedrezjewski,Piotr Dym, Tomasz Rempela and if any of the young Slovenians are going to get a ride over there(Or Croats). Thanks

Really gutted i couldn't get out of family commitments to attend, but glad it went well Norman. I finally made it to the stadium site on Monday before the snow hit London, though it was freezing. The track is still vaguely visible from ground level and the old steps are stil there. As i walked away singing 'Ilkley Moor by tat' to myself, something magical happened, the sound of bikes came from the track area. I rushed back down Hernshay St and watched two men on scramble bikes ride around the area, though they soon dissapeared over the horizon, but as i left again i once more heard the bike noise and stood there for a few minutes imagining it on race night.It got too cold so i headed home but it did add some autheticity to my attempts to picture it all as it was,sadly my battery was dead on my camera by then though i have one blurry shot of a bike in the distance. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=302819&id=684042497&l=38f86e110b

Looking at flights for next season to Poland and there aren't any listed back from Poland to Stansted on Monday(Ryanair) anymore? This is from allPolish cities, what isgoing on? Not seen any news that they are cutting routes, nothing on their website, and flights are available on dates further in the future so it can't be that. Some cities have Wizz air alternatives but Bydgoszcz and Lodz don't!!

Personally i would like to have seen the EL at 10 teams with no B fixtures, making these big events and getting rid of the repetition thats killing off the EL of late(Not reducing it even more)then the top riders could have been tempted back, as long as cllubs didn't pay OTT wages. Then these clubs would fill their blank weeks with NL fixtures by running a team in that division too. I know Poole lost money on running Bournemouth but thats because fans in hard economic times had to chose between which of 2 meetings per week to attend. If EL was once a fortnight and properly advertised it would attract good crowds, and on the off week the NL outfit would attract more than when in competition with EL fixtures, especially as the NL would then be a proper 18 or more team league with say 1 foreign rider per team, so massive opportunities for local lads to have a go and progress through the ranks. Nl racing can be just as good as any other level, i think if run properly most teams could attract 50-70% of their EL crowd for NL fixtures which should be enough to be viable. All this talk of law suits etc is self defeating madness, lets have a 10 team(Inc Cov+Peterbro) EL, keep 14 PL for now with view to going up to 18 in afew years once Bristol reopen and Sittinbourne bed in etc. Then have a big exciting NL with some sort of fixed costs system, standardised bikes whatever, with; Stoke, Dudley, Buxton, Weymouth, Mildenhall, IOW, Sittingbourne, Rye House, Kings Lynn,Scunthorpe,Newport, Bournemouth,Belle Vue Colts, Peterbrough 2(Boston?),Coventry 2(Tamworth, is that nearby?),Brum 2,lakeside 2(Arena Essex?), Eastbourne 2 (Hastings?)and Swindon Sprockets(Or Reading?). That's 19 potential teams, though obviously not all EL teams may choseto run another team dependent on their rental situation etc. Then we'd have 3 healthy tiers with good variety, plenty of opportunity for British riders and some controls hopefully in place too on needless costs in tuning and flights for riders etc. Oh and while i'm dreaming, El will be at least 12 clubs by 2013 as Wimbledon reopen thanks to a sugar daddy and the olympic site is used for an East London team(Stratford Olympians??)so there is a proper London rivlary to be enjoyed. Should i send this to santa?

Thats some good news at last, thanks!

Gonna be impossible for riders who ride in Poland on a Sunday to get to Uk meetings on a Monday!(That may not be a bad thing?). Weird that they cut all Monday flights from all Polish cities as each one i took last year was full(Half of the passengers being speedway riders!!). Is this another conspiracy against world speedway!!!

It has been reported elsewhere that the Nl conference this year is in December, so half way between when it usually is and when it needs to be!!

Would love to see the Lea Bridge footage from this movie from 1933 but unsure where i could find a copy,any ideas?

Just seen that the Extraliga fixtures are out next Thursday(18th), hope the other divisions are out soon too as i want to get to Bydgoszcz and Krakow etc.

When are the Polish fixtures out, need to get booking flights and i can't remember when they came out last year, before Christmas i think??

Can anyone attend this?I've just ordered Norman's book and intend to walk the old track site soon so would be very interested in attending. Are northerners who were born after the place closed welcome??

Got a copy of this movie now and watched the 'lea Bridge'part this morning about 8 minute long section very near the end of the movie(And a few second clip half way through).5 man races, very good action shots which include Tom Farndon, Gus Kuhn, Colin Watson and a few i dont know, Ron Johnson, Claude Rye and Arthur Warwick. There are some funny moments as they keep racing while a burning bike is on the track(And jump over it!) and a drunk steals a bike and races it the wrong way at another set of riders(The race having been flagged to start while someone else drunk on the track!!).Worth seeing, though i hoped for some outside shots of the stadium, or overheads, to place the stadium clearer in my mind. Still great to see it at all. I also got the 'Wall of death' movie with more great New Cross footage, though similar to 'Swagman' footage. If anyone wants these movies i suggest you contact the lovely guy i bought mine off, he's very cheap and threw in extra bits i didn't pay for! PM me and i will give his details.

Glad i went for a last taste of action in 2010.Was tired after returning from the north west at 4pm and feared the worst when the first heat was delayed that we may be in for another marathon event, but they did get it done in a reasonable time and some fine racing at times. Lambert must be kicking himself for that mistake when the meeting was all but won. I couldn't see if the decision to exclude Cook in heat 20 was correct or not, but i did have a very good view of Ben knocking off Cockle earlier on and was amazed he wasn't excluded! Considering all the cock up's, lack of info, poor communication, dodgy weather etc i thought the crowd was ok, though obviously the lads deserved more. Hopefully Oxford is still happening in 12 days, i'm not quite ready to let go of my season yet!

If anyone cares i've now found someone selling a copy after a long websearch and have ordered a copy. I know the Lea Bridge Stadium was right next to the station but does anyone know on which side of it?Hopefully the footage on the film will shed some light on this as i used to work near there and always wondered where exactly it stood.