Reading Speedway

[van wolfswinkel 635]

What about the proposed introduction of speedway at Aldermarston as an out of town site for Reading?

I thought about having a speedway track at the Aldermaston Paices Hill Raceway when I drove past it on Friday. Think it's used for the occasional banger racing event, and other motor sports, has a dirt track, and very few houses around there opposite the massive AWE site.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Mad Moose

[Odds On 373]

^{you can look and find the ideal piece of land for a stadium but the biggest problem you will have is funding it.}

[Tsunami 10,219]

^{you can look and find the ideal piece of land for a stadium but the biggest problem you will have is funding it.}

..and getting Planning Permission for it.

[Great Central 226]

Reading was a bit $hit in most ways but for me it epitomised British Speedway. A bit crap but you loved it. Had some great memories, Newport rarely won away but I remember many wins at Reading and I don't think I ever saw Coventry lose there! And Big H on the mic was always a laugh, often abused a few of us personally on the mic

 

I miss the place actually. And it's really frustrating to know that it's been knocked down and nothing has been built in it's place so it could still be there hosting speedway in it's own slightly naff way.

It also had something very special these days, which was a fine training track, well run and well placed to any riders in the south of England, the south west and the Midlands. Miss it tremendously and it must be sad to see the whole Smallmead site flattened.

[EnglishRoundabout 1,752]

I actually attended the first ever meeting (and the last) at Smallmead as a school boy. It was in my eyes at the time, a brilliant new track, just down the road from swindon where I lived at the time and had exciting kiosks dotted around the stadium selling such things as bottles of coke and such like!

 

The track seemed to be an excellent shape, the crowds in the early days were very good too. The covered back straight and viewing area for the pits made it a stadium I always looked forward to visiting.

 

I didn't go to speedway in the 80's or the 90's but retuned in 2006, where I visited Smallmead again for the first time in 20 odd years. I got the shock of my life! It was a run down ramshackle of a place and within a year or so had been flattened. Very sad. But holds some fond memories for me.

[arnieg 3,697]

I actually attended the first ever meeting (and the last) at Smallmead as a school boy. It was in my eyes at the time, a brilliant new track, just down the road from swindon where I lived at the time and had exciting kiosks dotted around the stadium ....

 

..... Very sad. But holds some fond memories for me.

Exciting kiosks! - you get easily excited in Swindon!!!

 

(Whatever happened to Burnt Kiosk our Swedish number one?)

[Grachan 7,364]

There were some good kiosks in the early day. Or, at least, as good as kiosks can get!

 

I remember a big shop at the back of the back straight stand.

 

Reading v Swindon was massive. Swindon used to fill the back straight and there wad a real tense atmosphere for those early matches.

 

The stadium was never finished either. The home straight bars were put in as temporary and never got replaced.

 

Went to Smallmead a lot and it became my nearest track when I moved to Newbury.

 

I didn't attend the first match at Reading but was there for the second one, and even did the Reading reports for Speedway Mail for a couple of years.

 

Speedway just isn't the same without Reading and Oxford.

Edited March 17, 2015 by grachan

[Aces51 2,778]

I don't think either of these two posters intended to minimise the magnitude of what has been achieved by the Belle Vue promoters or, the tremendous amount of work they have had to put in to get this project to the stage it now is.

 

Your comments did make me laugh though and I do understand who you were getting at.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Aces51

[cityrebel 2,960]

I don't think either of these two posters intended to minimise the magnitude of what has been achieved by the Belle Vue promoters or, the tremendous amount of work they have had to put in to get this project to the stage it now is.

Your comments did make me laugh though and I do understand who you were getting at.

good Job someone does. I stand by my comment that it is a miracle that a new speedway stadium is being built in this day and age. Belle vue's achievement is no different to leicester's in my eyes.

[New Science 1,059]

 

Well I think its a disgrace, they promised to hold the 2013 SWC and what happened to that?

That's right I heard that the council sorted it all out and then gave Gordon and Mort a bell and asked them if they wouldn't mind running it for them. Talk about landing on your feet eh?

 

Some people are just born lucky.

If you haven't got the money you can have all the grand plans / ideas you want, without someone providing the cash they stay ideas and don't get built .

Edited March 17, 2015 by New Science

[EnglishRoundabout 1,752]

Exciting kiosks! - you get easily excited in Swindon!!!

(Whatever happened to Burnt Kiosk our Swedish number one?)

I was only 12!

[tonyk 1]

As a member of the Reading Speedway supporters club I helped build Smallmead Stadium. I used to turn up at the weekends with others to do whatever jobs needed doing. My first job was to remove bits of glass and metal from the newly formed terracing, the remains of the tip that it was. Went on to help lay the cables for the pits, creosote the front wall, unload the concrete fencing from the lorry, painted the safety fence springs and posts etc.. Even helped Eddie Lack, the track man, with track prep at times. Happy days, only too willing to help out, thought at the time it would be there for ever. How wrong was I. Still sorely missed.

[van wolfswinkel 635]

I actually attended the first ever meeting (and the last) at Smallmead as a school boy. It was in my eyes at the time, a brilliant new track, just down the road from swindon where I lived at the time and had exciting kiosks dotted around the stadium selling such things as bottles of coke and such like!

 

The track seemed to be an excellent shape, the crowds in the early days were very good too. The covered back straight and viewing area for the pits made it a stadium I always looked forward to visiting.

 

I didn't go to speedway in the 80's or the 90's but retuned in 2006, where I visited Smallmead again for the first time in 20 odd years. I got the shock of my life! It was a run down ramshackle of a place and within a year or so had been flattened. Very sad. But holds some fond memories for me.

You Swindon fans are obsessed with buildings such as bog blocks(on back straights)huts and kiosks. Get a job associated with garden centres and portakabins.

[YerRopes 3,009]

You Swindon fans are obsessed with buildings such as bog blocks(on back straights)huts and kiosks. Get a job associated with garden centres and portakabins.

 

Is that what you moved onto Keef ?

[van wolfswinkel 635]

 

Is that what you moved onto Keef ?

Yes I sell portaloos now