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I have just put on YouTUbe a video with all of the 1976 Gulf British League and New National League teams body colours. The image I personally made using scalable vector graphics ( SVG) but the images in the still look very good from my high quality PNG files in 1080p. The youTube link is https://youtu.be/Nz9ProH9Cxg If people link the video I may put some body colours up on YouTube for everyone to enjoy once I have made them.

The track issues are twofold. One is the base in certain places (as confirmed by the management in both the Speedway Star and the Matchday programme notes) which hopefully the blade will have improved during the reduced access allowed by the Stadium owners. The second is the shale (or lack of decent shale) which has become too 'thin' and therefore dusty. New shale has been put on the track during the past week which hopefully will have had time to bed in with the combination of torrential rain and high temperatures between yesterday and Thursday. It may well take away any home advantage during the early heats - unless there is any chance for the team to have practice beforehand?! Gating (as ever) and getting their set-ups right will be crucial.

Agreed totally but by the same token it is a good idea not to confuse whingeing negativity from those with an axe to grind with constructive criticism ... or just the inane ramblings of an idiot which stifles constructive debate and destroys the ability to have a worthwhile discussion and get information into the public domain.

So you are saying,,, give them squeeze to check they are nice and firm and not to saggy. I can manage that,,,, some more excellent advice. This forum really is starting to be useful

Attack the post,,,, seen bans for less,,,

Your team manager has said the base is the problem Your owner has said the base is the problem Couple of ex riders have said the base is the problem The people doing the remedial work on the track have brought in a huge blade.....as the base is the problem All of Poole fans on here (some of whom i have no time for).....say the base is the problem I guess i should listen to the fool who sells the speedway star over all of those should i........

It's nonsense to suggest that Kent need team changes. In fact I'd be nipping down the bookies to get a bet on them winning the play-offs. Gilkes has been a big loss, but he'll be back soon, and once everyone else has had their 2.00 riders gain new averages and move into the main body, he'll be cleaning upat reserve. Kemp is a top quality rider. He had bike trouble and had to ride borrowed machinery for the 1st leg, but was excellent last night. Rowe is also developing into a superb rider. Ledwith was always going to more than double his joke 3.50 assessed average. Spooner was quick last night and will get better and better with an injury free run. Jenkins has been a bit of a weak link, but only through injury. An injury free second half to the season will see him move up the averages. I think Kent heads went down last night when they knew Ablitt was out and they thought they had to cover with a "no hoper". Turned out Luke Mulford was anything but a no hoper, but they'd beaten themselves by the time they found out he was quite useful. The other thing Kent did to beat themselves was watering a bald track and making it greasy. Crazy! Belle Vue always seemed to have someone at the pit gate watching everything, and maybe feedback on track conditions helped them make changes to cope, while the bad track prep backfired on the home riders? A fully fit Kent 1-7 with Gilkes back will hit form just in time for the play-offs. No need for team changes. Get your money on them.

On the subject of food I went to an Eagles concert at Wembley (Sunday). Food available, Hot Dogs £6.40. I really fancied the venison burger. £12 each, I said to the lady serving ‘ That’s Deer’ !!

Not according to Jon Cook!!!

I would just like to thank the Plymouth Speedway family for the generous bucket collection last night for injured rider Sam Norris. Everyone dug deep and raised just under £300,it will be topped up to £350 by the Plymouth Speedway riders fund. I will be contacting Sam's family to send the money to them. Thank you for your support. Stuart Kellie, Plymouth Speedway.

Hope these two teams reach the play off final... Would be a cracking two legs I reckon.. Was great to watch two teams going for it with real intensity at the NSS and the score on the night belied how close some of the races finished... On another night Kent could have been so much closer going into the 2nd leg.. Great to see two evenly matched teams full of young lads giving their all.. From reports, both sets of fans at the two legs went away with nothing but a positive outlook on NL Speedway.

George english does every close season!

He said earlier the track needs rain.......

Joe Lawlor and Connor Coles would be better options than Phillips. Both have improvement in them. They might not score a load of points at the minute but could still weigh in with 3 or 4 and that can make a difference.

I wish Workington fans would stop bleating the comets had there best season ever , so here is some options for you all to consider 1- The town of Workington didn’t support there speedway team in big enough numbers 2- The Comets promotion paid over the odds last season for success 3- The promotion should never have put a side together this season , for them to be let down very late , not nice as it’s cost one of there riders from returning to these shores to race ie Mason Compton

Nick Morris to guest at 6........

Yeah...1 banana 2 banana 3 banana 4

That`s rubbish- the road blade was got in to sort out the base- what else would it do ??

If Nicol came in for Lambert this would give Nicol from the USA more income as he has a CL team place, whilst at the sametime Lambert from the UK no income at all as he has no CL team either, if it happened would be a bit harsh on Lambert especially after his loyalty to Lynn and the fact Nicol isnt much of an improvement on Lambert

She's at school, well that's what her mother told me

Kasper Andersen?:-p

Be careful.....Workington asked to move to Fridays at the same time as Scunthorpe and Glasgow both of whose promoters at the time were on the management team. Guess who got what they wanted?

YES! Edinburgh, Glasgow, Redcar as well as Scunthorpe & any other team that has an ALTERNATIVE race night when any of these 4 are racing. You would know this if your promoter turned up at the AGM. Oops, sorry. You did not have a representative in 2017 , then had one there in 2018 only to disband early in 2019 when financial promises did not follow through. Still, we do not want to see any clubs leave our sport for whatever reasons. so chill & have a

do i even want to know what that means?

Some people simply have no class.

Naked hot laps, stealing the grading tractor, walking the length of the infield on his hands, handcuffing people to the flagpoles in their pants on their birthdays the list of escapades goes on! Parker was a true character and legend of our sport, get well soon!

Would love to know what caused Wright's alarming slide. Strangely enough it was at the same time as his brother's rise after years of nothing.

Very enjoyable meeting despite the result going against us. So many young potential future world champions out there between the 2 teams. It wasnt until I went out to interview the Winning team that i realized that it had been raining for later part of the meeting and quite how wet the whole track was. Got to say both sets of riders did themselves proud on and off the track and another example of what a great product national league speedway is.

My name is Jack Davies actually.

I must admit I’ve not been on here for some time !! Only when I’m pointed towards it ! In the 1st instance I will declare a conflict of interests not as any kind of official of the club but as the wife of Martin Widman and the Mother of Chris. its unfair to unleash such criticism on Martin as anyone who knows him knows he is straight down the line and an open book. Him and Barry make all the decisions together and equally they are consummate professionals. No one person is bigger than the club. Onto Chris. You’d do right to criticise the start of his season and I know it’s nothing more than he has been doing. He’s had some spectacular bike issues and that has led to a lack of confidence on the track and That’s not a great combination. Just when he thinks he’s gotten sorted, following some long head scratching hours and visits tonengine tuners, something else happens, that’s this season. He had a nasty Crash last year at Cradley where he had to have a wrist plated and probably went back too soon but that’s him all over which explains his issues last season. Also he’s switched from JAWAs to GM’s which have taken some getting used to but I’m afraid that’s where my mechanical savvy ends. I’m sure Barry and Martin are looking at the best interests of the Club on a regular basis !! Thanks for reading and I’ll now leave you to your discussion on what seemed like a good meeting on Friday night. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go.

Is this the thread for Training shoe advice.....

Brother of Richard. Also, he spells his name as Kris. Also rides for Exeter in the SDL/MDL League. Not a bad meeting. Track didnt appear any different to before. Almost as dusty, but not quite. Still needs work, in my opinion. Not often do you see a 'blue groove' all the way round the circuit. Yes, even the straights! Meeting was won and lost by Woods unfortunate bike problems. Harsh to blame him as he was good to watch. Others do need to look at their performances. Both Wood and Morley did as expected. One rider to single out on the Warriors side is Connor King. Rode and worked hard for every point, coming from the back on several occasions. Not often you see away reserves doing that. Well done that man. For me, the highlight of the meeting was the form of Adam Extance. Ive really enjoyed watching him emerge this season. He even led Morley (as tac sub) and Wood for a while before succumbing to their pressure. Ran out of steam in the end, but an excellent performance all the same.

Weather forecast looking good for thursday

Maybe Starman ran off with it saying 'we don't need it, nothing wrong with the track...'

Thats the tricky bit. If its upside down, it's not the same.

it was not just any old shale , it was experienced shale plus in amongst all that shale there is a water drainage system that should have been left @ Derwent Park !LOL

And that league was fair more successful in the last few years than the old BL. Maybe the promoter's should dust off the old NL rule book

Is it safe enough material to use as foundation infill for the new (soon to be built) Allerdale stadium ?

Great vid, but just wondering why you used a generic Dons jacket rather than the 1976 version with the yellow border? I love to see the old colours, but I'm amazed there is no central online resource with all teams and versions. So many of the really old ones are only seen in black and white photos, so we don't always know exact colours. Steve

from what ive been told thats a very good question ray

Nothing wrong with the base.

I'm not sure that Broc coming in at this stage of the season ,will do better than Simon overall. Simon has a 4.67 average at the AFA, but 0.00 from is 2 away meetings. So 3.11. Broc surely would be better away though So they might be thinking of a few extra away points will help the cause

Very sad to hear about the death of Monarch's photographer Ron MacNeill. Always had a smile on his face. Condolences to his family and friends.

I only pulled you up as ive dropped several clangers myself recently so its nice to be the know it all for once.

You are correct , it wasn't the EL it was the PL. My mistake. In 2003. I was setting up the Gems team for that year with Kenny Smith, and we heard about this kid at Belle Vue and we made enquiries about him joining us. We knew that Buxton were not intending to run that year so we thought he would be looking for a track. The advice we got was we should be going for his younger brother Charles as he appeared to be the better bet. We made enquiries to try and sign then both, but then we heard that Jan Staechmann and his mechanic had taken out the lease on Buxton for one year, and the Wrights had signed for them. Missed opportunities to get two top kids on board.

You always think Poole will win easily so you can say we failed if we don't win by a wide margin.

Potentially Shields would have to be near the top of the NL riders who rode for Oxford.Fast exciting he could of reached a higher level i have no doubt about that.Away riders odviously the same old suspect's Jackson, Etheridge, T.Owen were exceptional team men but hand on heart Oxford were two good a club to ever be in the N.L.

Great memories of Shane as a Knight / Star in 1997-98, 2000 & 2003, in particular that first season when he had some very quick bikes and beat most riders round Lynn. Very best wishes to him for a full and speedy recovery.

Only thing you’re behind is bad mouthing and wrecking speedway

speedway is all but done, take Saturdays Grand Prix as an example, 16 of the best riders in the world(in theory), 24 races and arguably 20 of those races were pure rubbish, very little in terms of entertainment and excitement. I would say that 80-90% of speedway meetings see the first 25% of a meeting with no overtaking or excitement other than when a rider gets out of shape. It is also very noticeable that nowadays riders find it hard to control a bike if the track is anything other than a smooth and shale less.. Right now there aren't many people making money out of the sport, the top riders and engine tuners for sure but the vast majority of riders and promoters are doing their proverbials. Fans need to realise that in a matter of only a few years there will only be one league in the UK, as Clubs will sadly go to the wall and never return. Speedway is in the entertainment business,it needs to start entertaining to the wider audience than just the die hard speedway fan.