Andy Smith Testimonial

[Col 854]

Joe's birthday is in November. Do they have matches in November?????????!!!!!!!!!   

Plus he was born in 1972, so if it was late '89, he was nearly 17!!!

 

OK, so I got that wrong. It was about a week after he got into the Ace's first team, Juneish - I assumed they'd not used him before because he wasn't 16 until then.

[21st century heathen 220]

Wrong.

He signed for Belle Vue in 1982 and rode in their championship winning team.  So his 25th year is this year 2006.

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So to have 25 years service he will have to complete this season. Therefore, he will not be able to have a 25 year service match until next season. SCB was right.

 

Anyway. I have to say that I could never really take to Andy, and I don't know why. I don't know him, nor have I spoken to him. I have no problem with him on or off track. Just one of those riders I don't really feel one way or the other about.

 

However, I recognise that for his years of dedicated service he deserves the testimonial, whatever form it has come in. All the best to him.

[AndyM 1]

Like Jason Lyons he's a bit shy and tongue-tied off-track, but eminently likeable. Does his talking on the track instead!

[pugwash 3,208]

he's a bit shy and tongue-tied off-track, but eminently likeable.

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Agree. I've put the date in my diary for a trip "up country". Let's hope the weather's O.K and that he gets a good turn out of riders and fans.

[bananas 0]

So to have 25 years service he will have to complete this season.  Therefore, he will not be able to have a 25 year service match until next season.  SCB was right. 

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He's having it mid-september so this season will be practically over. Don't nit-pick!!!!

[John Leslie 3,213]

So to have 25 years service he will have to complete this season.  Therefore, he will not be able to have a 25 year service match until next season. 

 

No, you have your 25th season testimonial in your 25th season.

Same as you have a testimonial for 10 years with one club in the 10th year.

If he waits until next year it will be his 26th year.

[Tsunami 10,219]

21st CH

 

 

You can have a testimonial during the qualfying year so perhaps JL is right.

 

[SCB 0]

Wato has done 10 season in the UK this season but he is not having a testamonial until next season, I thouhgt he was due a testamonial this season, seems the BSPA disagree. Another reaosn for me to dislike the shoddy way testamonials are handed out!

[lionheart 86]

Yes this date is a must for my diary One things for sure. If they put the dirt back on Kirky Lane that has been missing for far too long, old Smudger will show how speedway should be ridden. He is one of the very few riders who can cope with a REAL speedway track. I think that is why he never achieved the heights. His lack of gating ability meant that on the slick tracks where the race is over after turn two, he was always going to struggle.

A great pity that he could not be back at his spiritual home for this season (Well nearly, with Hyde Rd having gone).

 

Anyway,

 

Good Luck Smudger, and thanks for the thrills (And spills )

[Addy 1]

Like Jason Lyons he's a bit shy and tongue-tied off-track, but eminently likeable.  Does his talking on the track instead!

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His whole family are eminently likeable.

I was sitting on his table at the dinner dance last year and he managed to have me crying with laughter at one point

[garry288 0]

you cant knock smudgers bulldog spirit, so many times he could have walked away from the sport when no one would give him a team place, one of the best riders seen around odsal where his lack of gating prowess didnt matter, good luck smudger

[iris123 20,992]

He is also very popular here in Germany,where he has been given the name Andreas Schmidt by some fans Wish him all the best and hope to see him over here before his farewell meeting!

Remember last year at this time,Andy was late for an open meeting at Güstrow.They held the meeting up,giving us updates on how far away he was.He arrived,jumped out was within minutes out on the track and came pretty damn close to winning the thing.But i think everyone knew it was worth waiting for Smudger because he was the most entertaining rider there.That sort of sums his career up for me

Edited March 25, 2006 by iris123

[norbold 7,116]

You assume too much Young Hawk. There is a copy of my birth certificate in the British Museum and Subedei's was carved on tablets of stone. 

 

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I've only just seen this!

 

But I can confirm that Ron's birth certificate is in The British Museum as the oldest known example of a birth certificate anywhere in the world.

 

On the subject of Smudger, I've always admired him. He has been a great servant to the sport. His long run in the Grand Prix against all the odds is surely testament to this...Maybe never up there with the best of all time, but certainly, for other reasons, deserves to be right up there as one of the all-time greats of speedway.

[Rob B 1,257]

Wish him all the best and hope to see him over here before his farewell meeting!

 

Its not a farewell meeting, its a testimonial

[Guest Steve Dixon]

Andy is one of speedways hero's for me.

I remember first seeing him in the winter training school at Hyde Road.

He had just come off the track and was watching the racing, Alan Legge(former second halfer and photographer at BV) asked him if anyone had 'snapped him up yet' to witch he replied, no.

But he wasn't there for nothing, he was on the fringe of a team place come the start of 1982.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, i reckon Andy would have gone that little bit further if Hyde Road had not had to close, he just couldn't get to grips with the tight Kirky Lane circuit.

Although he was never a GP star his record of qualification from Lonigo speaks for itself.

Its a over used phrase i suppose but if anyone deserves a testimonial for services to speedway its this fella!!