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Iconic race jackets, trips to Wembley, Wimbledon & Belle Vue for major events. The lights being turned off in stands during races. The superstars - Briggs, Mauger, Moore, Olsen, Fundin etc. trip's up & down the motorways including stopping at services. going to multiple meetings on bank holidays , once in 1976 I think doing Reading v Hackney, White City v Hull & then Wimbledon for Internationale on Whit Monday. I used to get a badge & year bar from each track I went to if possible. The smell of the bikes warming up. Seeing teams visiting once a year or at most twice. Coming home covered in shale! I guess nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Is £14.95 pricey? It’s an FIM meeting, no travel involved, more than one person can watch, own food and drink etc

I thoroughly enjoyed that, great racing and excitement right to the very end. Best wishes to Bradley and Tero. In my mind that was money well spent.

Aub Lawson won the first race I ever saw. He beat Split Waterman in Heat One of the Britannia Shield match, New Cross v. Norwich, 11 May 1960. He went on to score 16 paid 17. The only New Cross rider to beat him was Jimmy Gooch, who instantly became my favourite rider. Another favourite, both at New Cross and West Ham, was Reg Luckhurst - though he was more of a pop star of course.

pupil of KK

So going by Johns comment about tickets sold, after all Robs efforts, some fans have only gave it one home match to decide they won’t be back!! Cheers to them people.. in a time of need when the diamonds needed them!

Long live nostalgia. In my head I’m still 19 and going to Custom House on Tuesday.

Suffered a recent heart attack and had a stroke a couple of years ago which has stretched his finances to the limit and can't afford the physio required as treatmet is private in Australia. Story was covered in the recent "Backtrack" magazine.

I see no hope Sid.even if the sport were really well run society has changed. People are not interested in such a basic sport in today’s high tech electronic world. Also , with the price of Land and pressure to build houses it becomes uneconomic to keep a big stadium going just with speedway and dog racing, then shut during the winter months. Even dog racing is only a fraction of the size it used to be. I think Romford is the only dog track left in the London area whereas there used to be 40 in the 1960’s.

Yes, My memory of Knutson is that he was so accurate it was as if he was riding round on rails, almost in the same tyre tracks lap after lap. Apart from the rise of stardom of Malcolm Simmons, one of my all time favourites, we saw the rise even further of Norman Hunter , my first No1 favourite rider. I was gutted when he went to Wolves, and even more gutted when injury stopped him progressing further. I was so sure he was on the verge of a World Final appearance. Lets not forget “ Gentleman “ George Barclay . Pretty much out if his depth in the top league but as he used say when I used to chat to him at Lakeside, “I was the one who always came fourth” . Never a star but no rider was ever more deserving of the title “ Gentleman”. A truly lovely man. I don’t know if he is still with us but the last I heard he was suffering with dementia, which is tragic for such a nice man. His wife Linda was lovely as well. I never saw Aub Lawson ride, but I spent my early years living in Otley Road which of course led straight down to the main gate of the stadium. Aub was a household name among the older generation in the whole neighbourhood,for years after he retired. He is one of those riders at the top of my “Wish I had seen list” as is Tiger Stevenson, who I think I am correct in saying only ever rode for West Ham in his entire career. Fantastic memories that I wouldn’t have missed for all the tea in China.

Still chat to Reg Luckhurst on facebook messenger. Some faves from the 60s..Craven, Fundin, Squibb, Penniket, Knutson, Briggo, Hitch, Nygren, Hedge, Luckhurst, Ashby, Kilby, The Boococks, Betts, Broadbanks, Wilson........

You'd think, after tonight's game, that a lot of folks would be looking for something else to do when England play their next match.

Sooner the sport is governed by a independent body the better.

Shambolic and farcical but sadly as expected from the administrative powers of British Speedway

Just a personal view obviously but in my opinion the racing was better at Custom House and Hyde Road. Having said that I always enjoyed my trips to Wembley and Plough Lane, though did not see a lot of league racing at Plough Lane and only went to Hyde Road for the BLRC meetings.

Can fit a hell of a lot of money in a space as big as that But seriously THJ is a godsend for any club... Brilliant of him to do what he's done, and we should all thank him for his efforts... But thanks to EVERYONE who donated, every little helps. I notice all the football teams were on Look North tonight asking for donations and going around with their donation buckets... And that's FOOTBALL, the game with the most money, who knows what speedway clubs are like right now, it's scary Next home meeting there better be some buckets going around, and the extra £3 everyone saved on their tickets better be going in... Please And who knows... Maybe I'll get my bikini and Finnish flag out just for THJ

If that's true it's even more impressive. He was a class above the field tonight.

Tobias never practiced!!

A lot of people are sitting thinking yeah yeah we’ve heard it all before. Seriously if people don’t attend IT WILL CLOSE AND SPEEDWAY WILL BE LOST. Just try asking any fan of say Workington,Hull,Reading,Newport or Rye House to name but a few if they’d like to watch their team. Think we know the answer. Don’t leave it to somebody else,get yourself to your track and support your team. Granted it’s not the best of teams but Christ we’re talking about 10 meetings or so. So what they’re not going win the league, but the noise the smell and the thrill of watching speedway nothing comes close to it.I know Covid restrictions are playing a massive part but as I’ve said previously Newcastle speedway are being told how to operate at the moment. So if you haven’t yet got your ticket you have until 1pm I think. Oh and Diamonds 46-44 Leicester

Both Bewley and Lambert through to final by the skin of their teeth!

Great result for the two Norwegian youngsters Pollestad and Sola, who qualify for the Euro final.

9pts from 4 rides excellent stuff from the young man

So far so good for Adam in Italy , seven from three rides.

Brennan just beat Holder

With Rules in Speedway nowadays your guess is as good as mine.

Sound has been fixed now.

Qualifers from Holsted 1. Phillip Hellstrom-Bangs SWE 14 2. Marcus Birkemose DK 12+3 3. Emil Breum DK 12+2 4. Espen Sola NOR 10 5. Matthias Pollestad NOR 10 6. Esben Hjerrild DK 9+3 ------------------------------------------------ 7. Casper Henriksson SWE 9+2 8. Silas Hoeg DK 9+1 9. Chris Wennerstrom DK 6 10. Jesper Knudsen DK 6 11. Noel Wahlquist SWE 6 12. Rune Thorst DK 5 13. Gustav Grahn SWE 4 14. Patrick Skaarup DK 4 15. Ludvig Selvin SWE 3 16. Rasmus Pedersen DK 0

If they get more than zero from Bates R/R then that makes them stronger the way his form has been.

Or get all Speedway meetings 're classified as "test events" just like at Donnington this weekend where they have a music event over 3 days with 10,000 people no masks and no social distancing. Bloody powers that be must think 1500 in a speedway meeting is a 100% Covid spreader.

Looks like more than the 8 to a dozen FANS who told me they won't be back due to the weak team we have ( not our fault & rob having to work wonders with what he has & tried to ie bring new blood in ) which he has with JPB who is a very good rider for his years by the way so come on stay away fans get back to brough or it will be a longer enforced break in the speedway as if it goes to will probably never return...

With only 300 tickets sold of the 660 available those sold out areas must be full... Are people expecting rain? Looking at the forecast the morning will be damp but the rest of the day will be dry and fine (famous last words) however folks need to know 300 paying customers doesn't sustain even this team so it needs a show of support and people need to get behind this promotion if not the team because it will go... I'm not sure people appreciate what a precarious position this club is in... It a throw away comment but if you don't use it you will lose it and no amount of crowd funding will bring it back... Regards T HJ

We will..If we don’t come out then when every bugger is vaccinated then we may as well spend the rest of our lives under these restrictions…the virus is something we will have to live normally alongside like every other virus out there….speedway crowds will be normal from 19 July I’m pretty sure. Any news of when the Belle Vue v Woves tickets for 12 July will be on sale as I want to book some. ?

Unfortunately I have to agree with those sentiments. Always amazes me when we go out for a meal and couples aren't engaging with each other instead both looking into their phone devices (at what goodness knows?) as society seems hell bent on succumbing to technological gizmos which often requires a solitary existance rather than socially mixing and interacting. Very rarely on the bus I talk to anyone (pre-covid) as they're all staring into their devices same as in the staff room where I work. Okay the world has strunk but at what cost?

Peculiar that you not mentioned what Allen Emetts current plight is, are we meant to guess?

Kolodziej really did throw it away in the re-run of the final. As you say, Bartek must be a bit pissed at the stoppage as he looked locked to win first time around. I was a bit disappointed with the meeting, to be honest. Partly because a few big names apparently weren't fit enough for the meeting and partly because the track prep was far below the standard that I expect based on previous big meetings at Torun. Phil Morris has taken some abuse from Poland in the past about his track prep demands for the SGP meetings, but I'm pretty sure every Torun GP I have seen from Torun has had a track that offered up much better racing lines than what we got tonight.

I'm a grass man and there are some fantastic riders who produce brilliant racing funded out of their own pocket. The problem is the fans turn up (that's if the stadium is open) week in week out and accept that the racing has to be done with foreign riders syphoning the life out of the British Leagues. While I accept the situation is very difficult the promoters should work harder instead of defaulting to foreign imports. There is nothing I'd like to see more than local riders doing something that they want to do and hopefully get paid doing it.

The point is that if the stadium is not using all the official allocation, then you ask Why. Most people are thinking, maybe right maybe wrong, that there are a lot of fans who simply do not want to book ahead. They want to make their mind up on the day. So less people are paying. Now add a huge sporting interference such as an England game and running must be considered suicidal. It is not rocket science.

I'm not a Diamonds fan, but I donated the cost of an adult admission. We can't afford to lose more clubs. Here's hoping the appeal raises more money in the coming days. Every little helps.

Something else probably!! I hope people realise if they are going to break the covid rules set by the council/stadium owners then it gives them a great excuse to stop speedway from running. But your choice!

With Wolves not running, good time for Buster to nip in and grab Becker and Douglas. Just too help the two lads out by earning a few quid.

He doesn't have an average as removing Newcastle meetings means he has only had 3 meetings. Established averages are given after 4 meetings. I suspect it will not change - just another rule that the SCB will not enforce. Personally think Mr Vatcher is too interested in the Youth setup to get involved in keeping to the rules

Hi guys, may be of interest for those that wasn't able to attend or view the live stream from this meeting.

We've all been weaned off it Sid. Last year i attended 4 meetings, my lowest total since 1968, which was my first season. This year I've done 9, which includes 2 amateur meetings at Lydd and 1 on the grass. I really feel we are entering the last professional era for the sport in this country.

Taking fans for granted is probably the main reason why the terraces are empty and speedway is dying. The administrators are well meaning but they are digging a hole that just gets deeper. How can there be a future with a team full of expensive foreign imports where is the logic and then lay some of the blame on the Council due to Covid restrictions. Is the fans Monday evening entertainment being sacrificed for the bottom line? You just can't treat supporters like this but nobody is listening.

A criminal record used to be compulsory to get into Aus lol

Yep that's what was said. Nothing next Monday on Eurosport. Plus Belle Vue - Sheffield is postponed anyway. Isn't it wonderful the options that a six team league gives???

Indeed. I remember the excitement at the end of season speeches if a rider said he would be back next year.

Definitely the opportunity to take in several meetings in a week, and particularly bank holiday weekends! Driving down the motorways seeing other cars with speedway stickers, and everyone honking their horns! Bumping into the riders at the motorway services. Decorating coaches on the away trips.

Just do what you've got to do mask wise! I've been wearing a mask for 7 hours a day at work for all the time we've had to wear them, you do what you have to do for everyone else's sake!!!!!