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Side-tracking a bit the long gone Walthamstow Avenue ground was definitely my favourite of all time. A very sad loss. All very complicated so I apologise for any minor errors (hopefully none). The straight answer to your query is, "NO". Avenue are actually now part of Dagenham and Redbridge FC. Two other historic sides, Ilford and Leytonstone (I am sadly too young to have done their grounds) ultimately merged to form Leytonstone and Ilford FC after the former sold their ground, which I believe was literally next door to the tube station. When Ilford also sold their ground, the merged team moved in at WA in a ground share. My own opinion, based on watching a L/I game there was that they actually became the dominant force in the stadium and ultimately the 3 sides merged under the Redbridge Forest FC banner. Finally RF were integrated with Dagenham to become Dagenham and Redbridge FC who actually got as high as the third tier in the professional game, although now back in National League. The current Walthamstow team have links with another historic London team, Leyton, whose original ground is still standing, albeit in a desolate condition, a stone's throw from the Lea Bridge speedway track. They were originally called Pennant but added the Walthamstow tag (becoming Walthamstow Pennant) when Avenue went through their merger, effectively stopping the loss of the Walthamstow name from senior football. Leyton have gone through numerous incarnations/reformations, including a period as Leyton Wingate, when the latter lost their ground, but are now integrated within Wingate and Finchley FC at step 3 in the pyramid. Another offshoot of Wingate played under their generic name for a while in Barnet at a stadium currently owned by Hadley FC. Ultimately Leyton and WP merged becoming Leyton Pennant FC. However during a period of instability, much of it not football related, the then owner changed the club name to Waltham Forest and initially started playing at Wadham Lodge stadium, but to continue the above links. later entered a ground share with the reformed Ilford FC at their current Cricklefields stadium. From memory it was around 4 years ago they however returned to Wadham Lodge stadium and reclaimed the Walthamstow name to reflect their "homecoming" . Currently they share the ground with Clapton Community FC, a phenomenally successful group who have had 4 figure crowds playing on "park pitches" and who, to the chagrin of some, have bought the fun side back to the game and actually encourage putting donations into the local food bank in lieu of admission to their games. They have recently acquired the freehold of the old Clapton FC Old Spotted Dog ground and are already improving the pitch and ground for their return to another traditional old London venue. The original Clapton currently play behind closed doors at Terrence MacMillan stadium, which was considered as a possible venue for West Ham speedway when Custom House closed. Finally (Thank God) during the Waltham Forest "exile" from Wadham Lodge a breakaway team formed by some of the former management , called Wadham Lodge FC moved in ensuring continued use of the ground. When Walthamstow FC "returned" they changed their name to Leyton Athletic to reflect the original history of Waltham Forest FC. Following a year's sabbatical they were to return this season with a high profile manager and quality players but clearly "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" and a sweary departure days after he signed saw the manager resign and nothing further being heard of a return. .

52 years experience and the system still takes time to work through. Plus you understand the system to begin with. Scoring should be instant as fans in the stadium must know what is happening. Which must mean keeping it simple. This system to new or irregular fans is not simple.

Been a good couple of nights on the Swedish Speedway. Well done all.

I was lucky enough to do Ilford, Romford, Leytonstone and Walthamstow Avenue. One of my School mates old man was something to do with the Surrey FA. He was also a fan of Wimbledon and Tooting and Mitcham. I cut my football teeth visiting those famous old non league London grounds. A very similar path to my speedway roots.

its like donald trump if he wins the election, FOUR more years of heartache and ruin . speedway is/will be a forgotten sport. poss never to return. but at least ruff and pie man are keeping the newcactle thread alive !

Hmm Mike Sampson, Les Rumsey, Tom Owen, Steve Finch, Kelvin Mullarkey, Dave Trownson.... Young boys on the terraces, shale in your hair, Oxo and Pie, watching over the fence Hmm proper Speedway

Here are details of Ron Johnston's World Final appearances. Impressive! 1955 - London, Wembley Stadium - 12th - 6pts 1957 - London, Wembley Stadium - 6th - 9pts 1958 - London, Wembley Stadium - 8th - 8pts 1960 - London, Wembley Stadium - 5th - 10pts

Exactly why the system is rubbish. How would any fan know this when watching live.

If Doyle had beaten Laguta in the second semi final, Lindgren would've been world number two! It's stupid that a race between two riders not involved in the podium (Doyle & Laguta) can decide who finishes higher between two riders on the podium (Woffinden & Lindgren)!

TV director wants shooting.

Interesting that the new system stretched out the field, particularly the top three from the rest. Last night, it meant the championship wasn't decided until the first semi-final instead of earlier in the meeting. But it could very easily go the other way. If you look at this year's European Championship, it went down to the last race. Had points been awarded on finishing positions, it would have been over as a contest after three rounds and Madsen would have won easily. I still prefer the old system. Had Bart finished on 8 rather than 9 points last night, then Woffy and Lindgren (both already qualified on 10 and 9 respectively) would have been looking at ways on how they could have eliminated Bart from the semis. Under a system where every point counts, that kind of manipulation was much harder. But we were one point away from it happening last night.

For me it is not relevant as long as we pick racers rather than riders.... we will see good racing The track is brilliant and The promotion deserve it to be a success

Well done the Russian! Cracking nights work that!

Thats the full house boys

4 finals would give TV and paying fans a scoring system that is easy to follow. Every heat would be meaningful. 24 heats instead of 23.

it was 8p behind for equal after heat 10.

A lot of people in this thread owe Tarasenko a drink.

Nilsson doing his best to ruin it for us, and although he’s scored well Pawlicki never fills me with confidence either

Handicap after heat 8 success

Just did a few quid under the max that they would offer me.

With Jenga haunting everywhere else on the Forum...

Profit is a profit mate. Well done. If tonight goes belly up then Masarna would've blown the best chance they'll ever have of winning the Swedish league imo. They have been the whipping boys for a couple of years now and with the Polish fixtures and the weather issues everything has fallen into place for Masarna imo. Say Ludvig & Andersson get 10 between them which is a bit of a stretch tbh then Bjerre, Aspgren & Jeppesen would still have to put up more than 34 between them for our bet to lose.

I'm no big gambler and have only been betting on Speedway this year for abit of extra interest in meeting. I've made about £200 profit so far this year which certainly isn't big time at all, but I've just lumped £50 on the same bets as you. I've also backed Masarna on +2 after Heat 8, that should be the easiest bet of the lot!

But the team (ie pairing) wouldn’t be ‘dreadfully weak’ if Tai rode, you could argue they’d have a decent chance of winning with him.

Is this the team once known as Walthamstow Avenue a one time force in Amateur football

I think that was the following year when mike sampson threw his over the stadium wall .

24, 25 next March.

As R&R has already said, they need two Poles and one rider under-24. There was an article within the last couple of weeks that predicted Doyle would be leaving Czestochowa and it mentioned about Torun weighing up whether to keep Chris Holder or bring back Jason Doyle was loaned out this season. Due to the new under-24 rule bought in, Torun would only be able to track two out of Jason Doyle, Chris Holder and Jack Holder. Torun have also been heavily linked with Robert Lambert (like just about everyone else I think) to fill the under-24 role and also Shamek Pawlicki for one of the Polish team positions, presumably to replace Musliek or Miedzinski.

Don`t forget they will need 2 Poles in the top 5- plus an U 24 rider in the top 5( Pole or foreign) I`m not sure that Doyle is a given to go back to Torun- he didn`t leave on the best of terms with them.

Sportspages closed its doors in London about 15 years ago. The one in Manchester, I believe closed following the Arndale bomb. Pretty sure the shop owner John Gaustad passed away a couple of years ago. I spent many an hour browsing away in the shop in London. Edit. Just checked my copy of "Speedway in London", which was purchased from Sportspages, and indeed it is autographed by Mark Loram.

How difficult is it to keep the camera on the race for approximately one minute?

If Sayfudtinov leads Leszno to another league title and he wins the SON with Artem, you could argue that he's had a better season than Zmarzlik.

I had not even heard of it....

It is a worry as we are now 6 month down the line & it looks as tho covid is going to get back to if not worse than the springtime high & with the winter looming it may take longer to get some sort of control on it !! So we will just have to keep everything crossed for a healthy 2021 & hope the powers that be can get some sort of vaccine to keep it at bay as I reckon it's here to stay

They are very rare....so any condition would qualify......still the record price paid is £5000 for the first High Beech...the second is just over a £1000 paid for a Celtic Park.....at least my memory tells me that. Oh yes the High Beech needed restoration!

in 2019 NL Palin averaged 8.82, Rowe averaged 8.37.

He'll be OK, as long as he lays off the food and drink.

Fair play to Premier for putting them on Freesports.

I think its great that theres even one nation left where the team manager has some authority and balls to try and kerp the riders in line.

Cmore bloody amateurs. How hard is it to show right team name and logo?

You couldn't make this up. Premier Sports are showing both 3rd/4th legs live but the finals delayed. Worse still, on Sunday there is no other live sport beyond 7.25pm on channel 1 but they are repeating the 1st leg (for the third time!) at 8pm followed by the final leg at 10pm.

Pontefract Collieries (Northern Premier League, North/West Division) have pushed the boat out this season, getting Footie Print to design and produce their match programme. Picked one up (28pp, £2.50) at last night's game with Marske United. A major improvement on the club's previous efforts. Colls don't seem to be enjoying any increase in crowds while bigger neighbouring clubs are playing BCD. Just 167 watching (including about 35 following the visitors). Mind you, Pontefract is right in the heart of rugby league territory. Featherstone Rovers Rugby League Club draw a lot of support from Pontefract. Brighouse Town, in the same division as Colls, pulled in 346 the previous evening. Doubtless, the crowd (more than double last season's usual) was swelled by live football starved supporters of FC Halifax Town and Huddersfield Town.

The second one of Tai or Lambert is ruled out we have no chance of winning. Glad we’ve given riders who can use the experience a chance rather than Cook or Bomber who will be outclassed anyway.

Lublin 2nd day- another impressive performance https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/112668/zaplecze-kadry-juniorow-w-lublinie

Got to go for Cook and see if he wants the gig. A big ask though given hardly any prep or testing time and would you want to risk your (still brand new) kit for just one meeting? Failing that then I would ask the 'best gater' the UK has, whoever that is?, who has ridden already, and hope for some fast starts.. Passing is always a premium at the highest level so trying not to run too many lasts will be the objective.. Lambert will win enough I would think for us to remain there or thereabouts so his partner will need to avoid being fourth too often to make those victories count..

On a slightly different note, I was surprised Freddie performed so well at weekend knowing his wife had gone into labour on Friday in a foreign country on her own.

Maybe your next username could be DaveJessupfan?

not sure that'll happen, reckon the clubs have the riders by the short and curlies after this year

Speedway, Flat Track and Side Cars

That's great for you and the mental work out is obviously part of watching the event for you... it's not for everybody though. I and many others don't sit at home watching it on TV filling a programme in, I don't even have a programme when I attend live so I rely on what the commentator or announcer is saying (or Speedway Updates when I'm at a track). Put yourself in the position of a floating watcher and imagine how it appears to them.