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Great gesture http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/news.php?extend.37899

Sounds logical if your prepared to alienate and lose a section of your fan base along with the associated revenue stream.

Speedway is rapidly approaching the point of unaffordability for a lot of people. The sport desperately needs new punters, but who will pay those prices. For the first time in 50 years of watching speedway, i am considering my options. The sport offers such poor value for money, i struggle to see how much longer it can survive in its present form.

That's pretty naughty saying that everyone is upset about Danny but accusing them of that is a pretty low and insensitive thing to do

I never understand as an OAP why Len, who must be knocking on 90? does not do concessions for OAP's like almost every other Club. These prices seem out of line with almost every other CL Club Brummies £16.50 (Concessions £14)

Good news is that I've heard from Wealdstone and he's fit and well but just had the enthusiasm kicked out of him by Panthers management. The clubs regressive action against their own disabled fans (even the ones that played ball) amongst other things has left him drained and in need of a rest. I know how he feels and I suspect that he's far from alone.

I know i have a program generator somewhere, i will try to have a dig. For 19 quid it will have to be a strong visiting side and some very good feedback prior to the quality of racing before i consider parting with my hard earned. I suspect Eastbourne & Mildenhall will see more of my pennies this year than Kent will.

Ouch. £14 for NL and £19 for Champs sorry but that's just too dear. Its £2 per head more than Eastbourne....

You don't have to explain yourself to anyone. We live in a free world and everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Your out of order iron scorpion, i was as shocked as anyone when i heard about Danny bless him, I'd watched him glow as a rider at Mildenhall and was looking forward to him taking it to the next level at Foxhall this coming season, speedway is a numbers game and my suggestion was purely based around that and not a attack against Danny.

Nice video, would be good to see more lineup, other than Bjarne and the lad he's bringing over... I'm hoping and praying Nicki gets announced soon

At the Doyle and Batchelor q&a...can imagine Ipswich are doing the right thing and staying quiet for a little while.....shame Iron Scorpion couldn't show the same decorum before having a pop

Genuinely fearful for Kent this year. A lot of good work has been done to get the club where it is and greed could easily undo much of it.

Nathan Greaves signs great signing

I can honestly say that since knowing Ronnie it is a privilege to be able call him a friend , a real nice guynever mentions his medal and what he did love the man

£19 will be more than some Premiership tracks. Speedway is just too expensive nowadays I’m afraid.

Ouch. £14 for NL and £19 for Champs sorry but that's just too dear.

Kings lynn. Too grippy to produce the good racing it used to. Can't see anything changing though.

Now your talking biggin blue festival.. we had a trip through there when I worked in wigton & aspatria back in the late 90`s cracking boozy joints but silloth is still 1 of my favorite places to get a good bevvie or a dozen soon the neck

Think that's where he should be riding far to good for this league.

Not necessarily. Some other clubs offer good deals by comparison, Ipswich for example:- Full paying adult £18, 60+ £16, 16/17 year olds £5 15 and under free.

Ronnie Russell featured on BBC West tv news tonight. Swindon track review in Star this week, with tribute to Danny Ayres, and feature on Lee Ashby, well worth read. Didn't realise Danny made guest appearance for Robins.

This has been posted by David Ayres on Facebook. Danny's funeral on the 14th of February Go to Mildenhall Stadium which will be open about 12 noon. There will be a play area for the children so families welcome. Danny will be brought in about 1pm and go round the track escorted by the riders. Then on to the Crematorium for 2pm, Those with small children can watch the funeral streamed live to the Stadium as best not to take them to the Crematorium . Party time at the Stadium afterwards. Fish and chip shop will be open and the bar. Music about 7pm. All welcome to give him a send off. This is a celebration not a wake, so colourful clothing please. Danny's favourite colour is pink. All welcome.

A somewhat reluctant Frank Arthur gave an interview in the Sporting Globe back at the end of 1929 recalling his life and career up till then 'I was born in Lismore (NSW) 22 years ago on December 12th 1907. After having left school at 14, I took a job at a windmill foundry. A year later I purchased a motor cycle and in the following year (1923) I won a race at a mile track at Warwick (Queensland). This fired my ambition to be a 'speed demon' and it was not long before championship honours came my way......In 1926 Mr A Hunting opened the Brisbane Exhibition Speedway - the first quarter of a mile track in the world- and I rode with varied success for a season. Then I transferred to Davies Park where Dame Fortune still smiled on me, so much that I was chosen to go with a team of 11 other riders to go to England in 1927.' I can tell you I landed in the Old Country with plenty of enthusiasm but very little cash. Just the bare £13...... Having had to beg for an advance so he could pay a deposit on two bikes he made his debut at White City 'Shall I ever forget the wet, dreary day? For a while I felt dispirited. It was make or break with me. I had incurred extra liabilities and was "stumped" as far as cash was concerned. I was wearing an Australian flag on my jersey, and I felt overjoyed when a voice called out: "Cheer up Frank ; show them how the Aussies can ride !" The onlookers words acted like magic and I cleaned up108 pounds for the day's riding. Within 4 days in the following week I gathered in a shade over £600.....' In 1928 he won around 4,000 pounds and then the next season upped that to 5,000. The £9,000 then worth around £575,500 today. But to put it into perspective Tai earned £400,000+ in 2018 just from his polish club Arthur's dream was to win the TT Trophy on the Isle of Man and hoped to persuade one of the leading teams to enter him in the race After his speedway career he wanted to buy a sheep station in Queensland and live in the city and fly out by plane every day to his farm.

I see that Nathan Greaves has signed for Armadale Devils,. In my opinion he should be riding for the Monarchs in place of 1 or 2 others with a lower average. Whats not to like, young gained good experience with Redcar last year, he could be ready to take the next step.

With prices like this speedway is pricing all but the most avid fans ,,and the well off,,right out of the sport...another nail in the coffin of this once great sport of speedway......?

Umm I did not realise that, the other thing how do ipswich move forward with team building there is never going to be a good time, at present the timing may be not right and to be honest I dont envy the Ipswich management that task

Steve Rees states he'd prefer shale in the article.

I fear people are remembering the Odsal of the late 80s and 90s. Went to a rugby match there this summer and the place is falling apart, terraces weed strewn and crumbling concrete. Without rugby I cannot see how Bradford Council can possibly keep it open. Speedway's only hope would be to piggy back stock cars but I suspect they would prefer a tarmac track rather than shale.

Just a bump

I'm from Widnes. We're not easily scared, even of mutant fish selling you cocktails...... Just waiting for someone top say they spent a month in Maryport one weekend. ;-)

could the new rider never to ride in the Uk be the 46 year old Norwegian turned Pole.

I think we could get away with rough tracks before the bikes turned into full throttle skidding missiles. I've seen some horrors over the years but we got by.

Same here....I was so looking forward to the Championship but those prices are a real kick in the teeth.Len and Kent have got this so wrong!!!!!!!!

Looks like a load off old waffle to me just saying something for sake of it

I was expecting £10-12 for NL this season and with a pricey CL side it could have really boosted the crowds i fear that greed could undo a lot of the good work done at Kent.

And if anything like previous seasons will be a very basic programme! At those prices I will also be choosy on meetings I attend.

At least it appears to rule our Ostergaard with the quotes about a new rider

As an OAP on my visits South with my wife I can get in to Eastbourne for £30 (they class my wife as an OAP at 63 as Men 65 and Ladies 60 there for concession) and Kent for £38. Brummies will cost us £30 so great value but they don't class my wide as an OAP (over 65 at Brum) Poole I can't find any Admission Prices for on their website - any ideas? So Kent is over 20% dearer than Brummies and their local rivals. Should Len reconsider?

How to alienate your fan base straight away. Surely it should be aligned with with Eastie on price, otherwise fans like Sings will go elsewhere for their speedway fix.

It does seem a bit excessive, especially the NL price, unfortunately think the NL crowds will be very small because of it, I would have thought the total income from charging say £10/11 would be greater than £14 with a bigger gate, but higher than average prices have always been the norm with Len, and to be honest the Champs should be £17 really.

Antonio's is part of the Golden Lion now they knocked into the White Star (Bubbles) next door and my spot is about 300 yards from there towards the dock just back from the harbour side... I think the place is great and when I retire that's where I am heading off to... just a pity there isn't any league Speedway over there at present but I keep my fingers crossed that the situation might change someday... Regards THJ

From the Sellafield Factory Outlet Shop

Behave ffs! That’s totally unfair

Honestly Big no (NOOOOOoooooo) to that one Ruff... However what none of them Cumbrian's will admit to is being a Jam Eater (due to it being an insult) (av been called worse) but the guys who I drink with in Maryport where the original jam factory was (and that is true) use it as a derisory comment to refer to their near West Cumbrian neighbours. In 1901, Burnfoot Preserves Works (the jam factory) established themselves in Maryport. However, by 1934 the jam factory had closed (Aw!) Now one story I was told was that due to the decline of the Coal Mines in the Workington area miners from Risehow and Solway PIts were transferred through to the Whitehaven mines Haig, William and Lowca pits. All those transferred to the Whitehaven mines were made welcome as colleagues and a lot of long and lasting friendships were forged between the workers (allegedly; but they really hated each other). However on settling into their workplace the new arrivals were soon inducted into the practices and traditions that existed in the Whitehaven mines. Allegedly one of those traditions that prevailed was "Blind Swap" which took place every Wednesday, where most of the miners that were working in groups exchanged snap tins (lunch boxes). On opening the lunch boxes belonging to the Workington miners a number of the boxes contained "JAM SANDWICHES" with the Whitehaven miners retorting bloody jam, and calling their Workington colleagues "JAM EATERS" there was no nastiness they all thought it very funny and laughed and joked about it and the name still sticks to this day. However I have heard another story that goes due to the dust and heat in the Workington pits due to poor ventilation jam was the only thing you could put in your bait without it going off down in the mines The term "jam eater" is often used by the people of neighbouring Workington to refer to the people of Whitehaven, or more generally to people from West Cumbria. The common view is that the term is insulting because it implies people could not afford to buy meat for their sandwiches, so they had to eat jam instead. Also due the long-term rivalry between Whitehaven and nearby Workington: Legend has it that one town's miners had jam on their sandwiches and the other did not, but no one agrees on which town it was or whether they did it because they were snobs or peasants. All I know is us Maryport lads (yes av been adopted), who live a few miles further up the Cumbria coast (which, is occasionally mentioned in discussions on the topic; as we used to have the jam factory) take the moral high ground as we made the stuff and exported it to the poor folk of Whitehaven and Workington. However I have been led to believe that the term originally referred to people from Whitehaven, and and it has been suggested that it was always used as a distinction between the Whitehaven "jam eaters" and Workington "high siders" which has gradually been lost in the trading of insults across the rugby pitch However there's many a theory on it.....which ones correct? which one is true? who knows? who cares? everyone says its the other lot who are the jam eaters but its the elephant in the room because no one knows... https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/17154970.who-are-the-jam-eaters/ Now sit back and let the Cumbrian Jam Eaters defend their position... but the one thing I do know for sure is us Maryport lads are definitely not Jam Eaters... Now back to the speedway... Whats the chances of Nicki Pedersen turning up for the 90th Anniversary meeting; Bjarne is signed up but I would love to see Nicki back as he was (and still is) a class act and who knows he may want some track time in before the UK Premiership season kicks off in earnest? One can only hope.... Regards THJ

The last line of the statement is the key one - having the correct equipment. Absolutely vital for everyone track. One assumes their first visit will be to BH15.

From Mildenhall Speedway - We will be producing a special Danny Ayres tribute t-shirt in consultation with Jodie and the it will be available from the opening meeting at Mildenhall and throughout the season. All profits to the family. Also Re-Run productions will be producing a special Danny Ayres DVD with all profits again going to the family. We would like to offer our thanks to Steve Girwood of Re-Run for his very kind offer.

No words.. One of a kind.... Truly Unique is an age of bland same old same old.. God Bless.. RIP Danny You burned bright, but sadly for nowhere near long enough.. Condolences to your family and friends..

Chris mentions the incident in his book and again in "Backtrack" in that he admitted that the only time he deliberately knocked off an opponent was an early skirmish with Birmingham's Alan Grahame - a pre-meditated act that he very much regretted and never repeated. Apparently Grahame had been particularly robust and Chris saw the "red mist."

I’ll stand the 1st team increases even if I disagree but the Colts is a different matter. Its 1 club/business at the end of the day and the £1 extra for the Premiership should have filtered through to the young team. As someone who attends both, I see that as a net increase of £3 and that is too much to justify over a season. The consequence is I now won’t be attending the colts meetings and that will be counter productive for the club. Attendances will fall marginally again and all the increase does is hide any YOY decline in terms of footfall. Dissapointed.