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Great thread. BWitcher being a sore loser - and then denying being a sore loser. PS Wolves '93 are one of the most unfortunate teams in terms of missing out on a league title. I would also suggest Belle Vue '78 and Harringay '53.

A rouge would leave a lot of people red faced!

On the way out one particularly peed off/slapped arse Wolves fan who has been gobbing off all night after virtually every heat when victory had seemed a formality, said something of the sort of "Yowve unli wun it boi wun point, an if weed av ad Sammoi yowd err not wun it"!!.. We replied laughing.. "Yeh!, we know!!!" As we walked past we then asked the people running the 'megastore' if they had any 'Wolves 93 Champions' car stickers... They were not very friendly in reply..... Although that could have been down to the big stack of brown boxes piled up behind them.... Boxes full of what we will never know...! What a night, truly it compares for me with United winning the title in 93 after 26 years, and Barca 99... Pity you couldn't bottle it and produce the same crowds and drama today..

Well, you can go the new Official Supporters Club's Facebook page and like and share - they're giving away a Season Ticket!

get you facts right before stirring the pot

One of my best memories from Plough Lane was when Roger and Eddie got a last-heat 5-1 (from the back) against Olsen and Shirra to earn us a draw! Brilliant race... Steve

They'll really struggle against Poole on 8th and 11th April then!!!!

At least then, British riders will get their chance, which many reckon they should be getting in the first place.

Apparently the FA have decreed the rugby pitch is below size for a FA registered team and must be lenthened and widened, taking approx 18 feet of either side of the speedway track. Looking like the best supported team in the town have been kicked in the b*llocks AGAIN!!!

A stadium being pushed through by a council leader who is a share holder in reds and an ex town chairman who is the mouth piece for the plans , seems well above board puts mr perrys dodgey deals in the past to shame .

ipswich looking good and yes allen has beat many number 1"s home and away ,if they all can stay fit they will be in playoffs for sure

By bringing in Paul and Max, John Perrin made the sort of changes that in the modern day Matt Ford makes to win league titles. Their impact on the team was tremendous, and not just on track in terms of the points they produced at 7 and 8. Without them the Aces would have never been within touching distance of Wolves come that fateful night even with all their misfortunes. The Northern junior grass track alumni of Joe, Stoney, Paul and Max had quite an effect on galvanizing them into a real 'team' and on the night itself it was critical. The truth is that the pressure on the riders that night was quite enormous and sadly Steven Morris and John Wainwright succumbed to it badly ... Whilst their counterparts Paul and Max thrived on the atmosphere, outscorng them hugely. PS.. Shawn Moran was the captain in 93. Max Schofield was captain for the second half of 1995.

I wonder whether we will see a poster in future episodes.......Grantchester versus Slough?

Polish pairs championships MPPK ( 6 Extraleague + winners of Nice Polska league pairs )is at Ostrow on Saturday 11th May. Polish golden helmet final is at Pila on April 20th(Golden helmet is also used for GP qualification places) March 23rd is the super match between Ostrow v Leszno and the following day at Lodz is the Nice league north v South match.

Looks like the club are dammed if they don’t and dammed if they do, no surprise there either with some people.

I remember seeing Barney have a punch up with Martin Dixon up at Middlesbrough. It was well worth the admission money!

Oooh exciting...

As I said, he never really established himself at the higher level, but I think he was decent in the lower leagues. From what I have seen in a very few photos, he seemed a little ungainly, although that wasn't unusual at that time with the foot-forward style. Obviously, you can find info on speedway researcher, although it is fragmented because of the different teams. If you Google his name, there doesn't seem to be any singular concise resource, and being well before my time, I can't really add too much. As far as being a "favourite", there is more to it than simple ability and achievement. For instance, one of the first names on a list of favourites for me would be Jim Tebby. Jim was a good family friend, and we would meet at his house, then go to Ron How's pub and play darts! One of the loveliest guys I ever knew, and that is why he is a personal favourite of mine. Basil could have been the same... I just wish it was easier to find stuff on riders like him. Steve

Maybe we could all enter the competition to help our local loon out.....at a price of course.

Neck ?

Perhaps because the thread wasn't about praising Belle Vue, it was about "Most unfortunate team", to which I added further information to Moxey's post. The thread only went a bit silly when Grand Central tried to make the ridiculous assertion that the absence of Ermolenko didn't mean anything. It meant everything, as the collapse of the Wolves lower end showed. That's not a knock on Belle Vue, quite the opposite, it's stating that certain Wolves riders couldn't rise to the occasion without the presence of their talismanic captain... whereas Belle Vue did.

But Peterborough headed the league table, heading into the play-offs. Were Reading that unlucky, when they failed to top the league table and subsequently also lost the play-off final? After all, if the second leg was at Smallmead, it could be argued that it may have panned out differently and Racers snatched the verdict. Having the second leg at home can be a big advantage in a tight situation - and Racers didn't win that right. I'd plump for Poole 2010 instead, who headed the table by a mile, but then lost to Coventry in the play-off final. To me, they were more unfortunate, although that's not denying Coventry, by far the better team in the play-off final.

Exactly, Belle Vue won, you don't feel anything less about the victory because the other side had injuries/bad luck or whatever it might be and rightfully so. That's sport.. the ecstasy of victory, the agony of defeat. Wolves lost that night, but I'm so glad I was there to experience it. This is why I enjoy the play-offs so much, it's the closest thing to replicating it.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope to quote that on May 26th.

Never liked Olsen, even before that. Steve Roberts has detailed why.

This may surprise you, but he is an ex-Don! Never really established himself there, but was at Plough Lane in the immediate post-war years. Also rode for Aldershot, Eastbourne, and Tamworth. Steve

Considering the current family-run No.1 UK Carpet Cleaners in Christchurch wasn't incorporated til 2014, I find that difficult to believe!! Maybe you should delete your post as at the very least its defamatory!!

BELIEVE it is a new three year deal for SGP/SON ... still a year to run on domestic speedway.

Limited to riders I've seen and with the clarification that's it favourites rather than best: Hans Nielsen Jens Rasmussen Jan Staechmann Charlie Gjedde Niels-Kristian Iversen Erik Gundersen Jan O Pedersen Brian Andersen Per Sorensen Thomas Jorgensen I never saw Arne Pander ride, while Ole Olsen wouldn't be included in my favourite 1000 Danish riders - he was a complete git to Hans Nielsen!

SO, not being swept under the carpet

Looks a different company to me also. Seems to be different people as well.

Oh no i didn't miss your point. I just considered it and, upon reflection, disagreed with it.

Since 1928 I am sure that when would be promoters are interviewed by the powers that be, it is a prerequisite of their CV. Appearing on Rogue Traders is very much in the top league!

Aren't they signed up for another 2 or 3 years of gp, and not sure the contract length but think they are committed to league racing also.

Just hoping that whatever type of racing there is the crowds go up this season.

Probably a meeting with the Rugby Club to see how they can extend the centre green to accomodate the Reds Football team !

So let’s get this right. You start a thread asking a question you already know the answer to, and which nobody has the slightest interest in, and when challenged you try to tell us your reason for starting it was to see if Iris 123 would trail you . Of course you didn’t expect him to catch you out by pointing out that it was just another of your attention seeking scams. Take notice of what Chunky says and stop making a complete fool of yourself.

You don't help yourself with stuff like this John. If you're posting a genuine question, fair enough, but a simple googling of the blokes name taking us to an article written by you is frankly just weird. And i doubt the other member has a collection of your writings... as i said.. google gives answers in less than a second.

I don't see a lot of improvement in this season's (anticipated) side and don't see us challenging at all, which is very disappointing after last season. Robert would have to go great guns to put a big increase on his average again. Went from 7.38 to 9.13. Sure he'll be between 9.00 to 9.50 but he won't have a lot of support this year. Despite Niels having a poor season by his standards, they still chalked up several match winning 5-1's. Ty put 1.17 on his average last season (5.50 to 6.67) and I can't see him doing that again, in fact would be surprised if he even matched his average with having to be 2nd heat leader. Thomas only added 0.12 (5.93 to 6.05). MPT's average actually dropped by 0.21 (5.57 to 5.36) despite some headline performances. Lewis added 0.44 (5.06 to 5.50) and will do well at reserve, especially at home. Kasper was nowhere near his 4.00 average despite there obviously being some talent there as shown with some of his performances for Sheffield. Erik came in on 6.10 and finished on 6.08. Became very good at the AFA but his away performances tailed off after a promising start. I could maybe see increases for Robert, Thomas, Erik and maybe MPT but that would be about it and certainly not by a point or so, more like the odd 0.10/0.20. I see Lewis probably being in around the same but think he'll struggle in the main body of team away from home. Be surprised if Kasper reaches over 4.00 and think Ty's will fall if no one else steps up into the second heat leader role. To me, the side looks like the cheap, easy option. Would love to be proved wrong but expecting a battle to avoid the wooden spoon. I actually like all the riders, I just don't like the balance of the team and think we'll really be lacking in heats 13 & 15. Might get away with it at home but see some right hammerings on the road. At £18 a meeting. I'll be picking and choosing my matches from now on rather than being the die hard I once considered myself.

Not so much a gating tart,just not interested most of the time,he has talent but attitude stinks IMO.His fellow Frenchman Bellego suffers the same traits.Seem to be earning a living out the sport though.

Having watched more and more higher quality riders drop down into the championship over the last few seasons I feel like the distance between the top riders and bottom riders level in championship is far greater than in the premiership and therefore the racing should be more competitive, especially as most teams have more of a strength in depth look to them - if Heeps/Allen make a good start in ht 4 (5&7’s race) for example they have every chance of beating an opposing heat leader and achieving heat advantages or at the very least closer races between all 4 riders! The drop in point limit for the championship has only exacerbated the situation - next year there’s several riders at reserve in the championship that have barely reached heat leader status in the national league yet, we’ve seen at Foxhall over the last couple of seasons it’s not an easy track for national league graduates, it’s set up grippy for home advantage, while the shape/size means you have to turn the bike quite hard at the same time, tricky skills that take time to develop and are particularly rigorous on the upper body so young lads of 16 barring some exceptional talents will struggle more with as they’re learning and getting stronger. Look at difficulties the likes of Connor mountain has had at Foxhall and he’s been a 9 point rider in the national league for several seasons now and is miles ahead currently of several of the lads stepping up this year yet teams still have Schlein/Harris Kenneth/Lawson nicholls/r.worrall at 1&5 how can you say races with two of these guys in accompanied by two 16years old 6pt national league riders are going to be as competitive as say Harris/Allen vs Andersen/barker....? It’s not! You’ll get two match races in one, with one half a lap ahead of the other. We’ve consistently seen fantastic races in ht13&15 the last couple of seasons when Danny/Rory come up against competitive pairings of a higher skill set and with the top flight we’ll have a lot closer matches races across all four riders in a race! Like chessell, Henry Adkins cannot beat Craig cook or Rory Schlein - maybe one day but not yet and won’t get there in 2019 cameron Heeps Jake Allen could and probably have beat some top boys in the premiership. its been a difficult winter as a witches fan and clearly teambuilding has been tough for Chris and things haven’t gone quite to plan, but I firmly believe we have a side assembled that can be competitive in all our home matches and the entertainment will be much improved than had we of gone into this season in the championship with the new reduced points limit. im hoping first and foremost we can have a season that steered clear of too many major injuries as we’ve had more than our fair share of rotten luck the past few seasons. just having a quick skim over the announced riders assuming Kerr and mpt are back at Lynn I make it 21/49 prem riders racing in championship so that’s more like 42.5% - I know you’re statement of 80% wasn’t calculated but I think this does illustrate there’s a much bigger difference in the two leagues this coming season with the lower points limit for the championship.

Of course it will be more competitive.Take a look at the Witches team from last year towards this years team 6 of them would be classed as Championship heat leaders all riding for the same team.The same with most other teams plus a good few higher classed riders as well so most races the witches fans will see this year would last year have been all heat leader clashes so it has to be a better class and more competitive season of speedway than last year.

We looked the weakest last year sid, and that prediction included Puk averaging 9 or so and he fell way short of that. That means everyone else stood up to cover him and more besides, we were a team way stronger than the sum of its parts and but for injuries we almost certainly would have won the title. I appreciate that people give honest opinions on the strength of all seven teams but when people look at Lynn it’s almost as if they are ignoring what was achieved in 2018. We finished top with a bit of daylight with a misfiring second heat leader and a fairly limited number seven. Replacing those two with Kasper and Lewis certainly makes us weaker but the whole league is weaker and I just can’t see the nucleus of last years side dropping from top to bottom. More likely to be somewhere in the middle.

Translated as - Have no opinion about what decisions we make " in the best interests of the sport". We offer no information as to how those decisions were reached and anyway it is nothing to do with you. Purely a business decision. We are handling the managed decline of UK speedway as we see fit ( as it belongs entirely to us ). What remains of the sport in the UK after crowd numbers and sponsors fall to an unviable level is equally of no concern of yours. How many clubs are owned by or under the control of any BSPA member is a private matter for themselves only. Yes, please pay by direct debit, whether you intend to go to matches or not - Oh, and bring a friend ( as our dependable marketing scheme has long directed ). You know it makes sense and offers you a stress-free way to enjoy speedway racing.

I think the biggest positive is its another season of speedway at Foxhall for those that want to go and watch it.

Just seen Zorn here at the border. He will fly home from Russia because otherwise he would have problems with his car at the border.

Just as well Gospeed didnt need to be asked......

He did and Andy used to come out to the AGM's abroad with Dave Pavitt for a few days away. Andy was like a son to Terry.

Andy Galvin [even though he went off the rails] and Alan Mogridge were worth the admission money on their own at most tracks. Top entertainers