Killer Cat from Mars

I really miss Belle Vue not being in the Northern Riders Championship - it used to be one of the highlights of the year - watching PC, Mort, Ivan Mauger, Shawn abd Kelly Moran, Kenny Carter et al all vying for the title. I'd love to see Belle Vue host it and invite Sheffield, Workington, Newcastle and Scunthorpe riders(plus others I've probably forgot!) . Come on the Northern clubs, let's get this sorted!

Perhaps we should rename the ELRC to the Elite League Second String Championship! Can't believe how a meeting that was once THE blue riband event of British Speedway is now a total joke! Can't believe any of you actually want to pay to watch it! Boycott the meeting and the message might finally get through! Though I doubt it.

How about Ian Cartwright? - can only ever remember him riding for Halifax during the 70's and 80's - plus Kenny Carter at the Shay too. Tom Owen at Newcastle? John Jackson at Ellesmere Port?

Really enjoyed this meeting - some good racing - Adams and Crump as always worth the admission, but the real joy today was seeing Tai Woffinden and Ben Barker riding so well, in fact they put Scott Nicholls to shame! Good crowd too, seemed to be from lots of different clubs as well. Overall a good day, and all for a great cause.

There's always hope that the Aces will return to Hyde Road, but the derelict land is on a major arterial route into Manchester, and is only a mile or so from a motorway connection - in other words, worth a lot of money for business or housing! There are rumours of a consortium who are looking at buying the site to return it to it's original splendour, but nothing concrete. Perhaps if the credit crunch really bites, the consortium could get the land for cheap! As long as they are also unaffected of course!

I mentioned Belle Vue earlier in the thread - other Greater Manchester tracks include Droylsden (now a housing estate), Salford (now a casino), White City (now a retail park) and Audenshaw (now a housing estate which I live in - yeah - I actually live on the track!) The sad thing about many of the above closures though, is that when Belle Vue lost Hyde Road in 1987, White City and Droylsden were still in existence - it's such a shame the Aces couldn't have moved to one of these - but I guess town and city planners prefer to turn their cities into an endless sprawl of housing estates and retail parks!!

The greatest stadium in the history of sppedway, Belle Vue's Hyde Road, sadly is now covered by derelict car auction sheds! Norbold was asking about road names being named after speedway personalities - there is indeed a Hoskins Close/Road (can't remember which!) in the Belle Vue area of Manchester - surely too much of a coincidence. Too add to above, rumour abounds that a consortium are looking into buying the old Hyde Road site and returning it to its former glory as the playground of Manchester, and this includes room for the speedway. Happy days indeed if true.

Yeah - I know someone who went to the ground recently watching football - but they said there was no sign that there had ever been a track on the site! Fleetwood Town are resident there I believe.

Very interesting post above Norbold, as you know I've always been an advocate of Droylsden being the first speedway meeting, but I also like the idea of speedway evolving over time, which is probably a healthier discussion than who was first, so to speak.

On a slightly different theme, I would love to have seen the birth of our sport in the years 1927 to 1930, and travelled around the country watching meetings at Droylsden, Audenshaw, Bolton, Salford, Manchester White City, and all the London circuits plus Fullerton Park in Leeds, amongst others. Unfortunately, I wasn't even born then, and can you imagine the logisitics of travelling around the country in that period with no motorways etc!! Plus I'd pick up a badge at each track, and have a collection worth a fortune now!!

Hi everyone. I've posted this in General Discussions too, without any luck. Does anyone have any biographical information about Riskit Riley? He rode in the pioneer years of speedway, racing at Belle Vue and Audenshaw in the 20's. A fellow speedway fan asked me about him, and I've found it hard to dig up any information except for odd race results. Can any of my fellow forumites help with any information?

They had a copy of the book in the Buxton track shop on Sunday.

Yeah, I saw him at Buxton the other week - looked quite tidy then.

Only just seen this Tiger Tom - the deeds basically mirror the life and death of the speedway - dates land bought, what was on the land before, date the speedway company went into liquidation - and I have a nice map of the area before the track was built. Probably not that interesting in the end!

Thanks for all your efforts guys, much appreciated. During my research I found out that Riskit Riley won the Audenshaw Cup in the final meeting held at Audenshaw in 1931. My house is actually built on this track, and I have interesting information about the track in my deeds!!

Aghhhh! Here we go again - Belle Vue and Coventry fans just can't resist falling out can they? I'm sure we can find replacements, and with the Bees having a fixture backlog, it's only fair that they use this night. There you go, the voice of reason, it's not that hard is it?

This is a very vague memory, Kevh, but I seem to remember a kid around that time riding for Belle Vue, who came over with Jason Lyons from Mildura. I'm sure Rob B will know the answer to this.

There was a Belle Vue Colt in the 1980's called Declan Eccles who seemed to have it all. He had the speed and style, and certainly had the ability at the old Hyde Road stadium to beat many a visiting rider. I remember one glorious race where he overtook Sam Ermolenko on the pit bend at Hyde Road, only be overtook a lap later. I really felt he was going places but he suffered a bad injury (can't remember the exact details) and we never saw him again. Does anyone on here know what happened to Declan?

Buzz Burrows must have ridden for a fair few clubs, Belle Vue, Wimbledon, Middlesbrough, but I'm sure there are more. Wayne Carter also seemed to ride for quite a few teams.

Yes, I believe the leathers were donated by a sponsor - the story I have heard is that they were worn until PC injured his foot on the drain cover at Hyde Road just before the World Final in '77, and the leathers were then considered unlucky and all the riders got rid of them. Someone told me that the riders were actually presented with them at that match, which makes them a one match wonder, but I don't know if that is true. That was also the year that a competition winner in the Manchester Evening News designed a dreadful body colour that the Aces were saddled with all year. The riders and fans hated it!! Do you remember, the one with the diagonal stripe, and the Ace on one side and the number on the other.....urghh!!

Yes, imagine the cluster of dots in Manchester and London!!

1999 - King's Lynn Braves - Conference League 1998 - Newport Mavericks, Mildenhall Tigers, Norfolk Braves - Conference League

I thought I'd mention that little known team, the Belle Vue Aces, who in 2008 will start their 80th consecutive season, a feat unmatched by any other team

Yeah, I just thought the referee would exclude the Belle Vue rider for running into the Someset lad.

I'm sure Newman was second actually behind the other BV rider, but I was surprised the red lights didn't come on.