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I would just like to wish Len and his family a well earned, long, healthy and happy retirement. He has been an ever present during my time as a speedway supporter. He must surely rank amongst the true icons of British Speedway promoters, and I was delighted to see him inducted into the Speedway Hall of Fame this season at Central Park. At 89 years young, he is a truly remarkable man, and I am forever indebted to him for the speedway entertainment he has provided to me over the years. Thank you Len.

How can you reconcile those two statements? How can you claim to know more about the Rye House campaign than those running it? Our 'optimism' is based on simple fact, not blind faith. There HAVE been new, important discussions and a new attitude towards possibly incorporating speedway in the redevelopment. These are facts. Now I clearly stated that a door had been opened, not that we already have success. You sit on the sidelines offering your pitifully ill-informed comments. All it does is steadily destroy your credibility, not ours. Yes we could fail but certainly if we took your approach we would, It would be appreciated if people like you could keep their damaging opinions to themselves rather than try to pass yourself off as some all-knowing authority. It's hard enough dealing with the authorities and new landlord without having tom deal with those supposed speedway supporters undermining it. It would be easy to suspect that you actually want it to fail.

Rye House is far from dead. Important meetings have been taking place and real progress is being made regarding how the track can be restored. It's not exactly a new age of co-operation but at least key figures are now talking rather than simply stonewalling. There is still a very long road but the door to it is no longer locked and bolted.

Len might be a stubborn old goat but i doubt any promotor had done more for the sport than he has. The levels of drive and enthusiasm would be worth a fortune if bottled and crazy as it sounds at 89 still had plenty of vision for the future. Enjoy your well earned retirement Len. The sport you are leaving may be far worse than when you left it but its definitely not a reflection on your efforts or actions.

Provincial League Riders Champion. Not a bad standard for the era. Hackney and Rye House probably wouldn’t have survived as long as they did without him as promoter and he put far more into the sport in terms of both money and effort than he ever took out.

Woffy has a British wife, It's all about money, and who can blame them. If I could of got 6x more by doing the same job in Poland, it would of been bye bye Britain.

He didn't forget his riders and the ones that had ridden for him. Pre season he organised Skiing groups and took them as a party to his resort. I know riders enjoyed these trips and were grateful to be allowed to be included even though they didn't ride for him at that time. He cared for other promotions as well. When Newcastle left Somerset on our southern tour we used to travel on to a hotel in Swindon on the Friday night. If the weather or track was dodgy for their Saturday night, he always agreed to let us know straightaway early on the Saturday morning, so we could go up the road home and not have the wasted journey across London. In addition it meant the mechanics and riders could just drive straight home without prepping the bikes in less than favourable hotel carparks. It is this sort of consideration that is now very rare between promotions in the sport at present.

Basically we will have the same as usual,, the cast offs no one else wants,,,plus Danny and Drew.

Stadium as far as I know owned by the Council but run on a lease basis. I'm sure the local council find having a successful sports team in the town very good for the towns image, also bringing money into the local community. Matt Ford and those Pesky Pirates wether you love them or loathe them are the blueprint holders for a successful team and business.

Hope this doesn't happen to you guys haha

Surprised someone hasn’t lost their bottle and run one over to be honest. Just a matter of time before there’s a flattened leg.

That’s not what the article says. He said he was retiring from Kent Speedway, not all of speedway. My guess is he has phrased this carefully to allow him to reappear somewhere else. He’s only 89 after all. Far too young to retire

Ashfield has a lot more banking on the bends than Poole.

My understanding is that Len promoted at Kent on behalf of the then stadium owner Roger Cearnes (don't think I've spelled that right!). Therefore, no rent would have been necessary. No doubt ARC are now wanting the speedway promotion to pay rent - perhaps what they are asking is excessive - only the two parties concerned will know that.

Be careful using French terminology, you may offend someone or they may think it isn't funny!!

Start Marshalls need to be much more consistent and in line with every club in the league like in Poland. No lining up at an angle other than 90 degrees to the tapes. Front wheel one inch from tapes, which need to be taut. If a rider moves they will hit the tapes and be exc. if they roll back, the will be exc.

It’s been said but unconfirmed that the new owner of Central Park has upped the rent for speedway significantly which has caused this issue.

Scotty tried it for half a season and it didn't work for him. I'll disagree with you it's not turning their back on UK speedway it's about being a professional who wants to progress as far as possible in his chosen career. You wouldn't stay with the same company who year after year struggled to keep their head above water if you could enhance your career with a more forward thinking and financially stronger company. It not Bewley, Lambert's or Tai's fault that UK speedway has a trash operation that attracts zero investment from outside. Three very talented and professional riders who deserve to succeed and earn a few quid on the way.

The Wolverhampton fans coined the phrase after the Heathens collected the wooden spoon by finishing bottom of the league table in 1966 and 1973. The Heathens also finished bottom in 1993. Sports journalist Tom Johnson, who I knew, spent many years covering speedway at Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton for the Express & Star newspaper and in October 1999 Wolverhampton met riders representing the defunct Cradley Heath team in the Tom Johnson Memorial meeting at Monmore Green. As Wolves had just secured bottom place in the league table, Colin Pratt took great pleasure in presenting each of their riders with a wooden spoon.

Me too Steve. Plus reading the translation of the Swedish report, it seems he had plenty of trouble with authorities and promoters

Setting off from Long Eaton at 620am on the train, arrives into Poole 1240. Change at Gloucester & Dorchester. Thought I'd leave earlier than normal to make sure I get there for the start!

I fail to see how it could be colder than Swindon! Have to wear two coats there in the summer months!! Edit - this made me laugh.. Speedway Social on Twitter: "Extraordinary image of Poole fans on their way to Glasgow for tomorrow's final. They've become accustomed to their top league luxuries I think https://t.co/48W7Gcd5Vz" / Twitter

Eastbourne speedway is far from finished.

Well you can tell him track is a lot smoother now! So should find it a better experience.

There’s at least a dozen Poole fans that I know of making the trip, and probably quite a few more coming up. Nothing like the large amounts we would normally bring to a playoff final closer to hone on a weekend though. Hopefully we can make enough noise to be heard.

The end of speedway in the South East is almost complete. Lakeside, Rye House, Eastbourne & Kent potentially disappearing within four years is beyond belief. Add this to the IOW dropping out of the league, will almost finish me with the sport. 2022 will mean amateur meetings, grasstrack and the odd trip. A far cry from the 1970's, when it was speedway every night of the week in my neck of the woods.

If not for you that's how you feel.. nothing matches being there live but find it a good second place this season

Flight was £75 return. Train in comparison was over £200. We are dossing at airport but not likely to get any sleep. We are in the grandstand. Come and join us so we can make some noise.

Fantastic rider first saw him in 1972 always round the boards on full throttle and not shy of pulling the odd wheelie RIP wonderful memories.

Yes but not a Buckingham Palace dining table size, just a regular sized one! Anyway thankfully no one got hurt and it forced their hand a bit to really sort the track out which they did, so that's good. I don't go dreading what it's going to be like anymore

Only missed one meeting at the wheels (well 2 as it was a double header) the night before the Bradford world final. I remember the first few meetings in 1984, I didn't drive at the time so I had to find my way to the stadium from the train station. Honestly it was like some kind of assault course off of the krypton factor, lucky I was a lot younger and fitter back then.

Best wishes for aHappy Retirement,he certainly has done his bit for the Sport and knew the game inside out.Decent rider in his day too.

#inthegafferwetrust

Nail on the head i reckon.

That's OK just being honest with you

i would say 200% better track is now a perfect racing track

The U24 league idea is an absolute belter and will be a great addition to the main league The play off idea is an absolute shocker and must have been given to them by Rob Godfrey or something. A team can finish 6th in a 8 team league, lose their first round of play off matches and still win the league! I don’t begrudge the top 6 qualifying but surely it has to be 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 with the winners then advancing to meet the 1st and 2nd placed teams. After the roaring success of the play offs this year it seems mad to change the system so drastically.

The new U24 Ekstraliga competition will consist of 8 teams. There will be 16 rounds in 2 parts. At the end of the season we will know the Team U24 Ekstraliga Champion. In the main part of the season, each team will meet each opponent twice, once on their own track and on the opponent's track. The final part will be played in the knockout system with the participation of the two best teams (match and rematch). The U24 Ekstraliga schedule will be given in a separate announcement. In U24 Ekstraliga matches, teams will participate in teams of 6 to 8 players. Only U24 players from the Ekstraliga team on the match day may be entered into the team composition, except for players who obtained an individual average of 1,400 or more in the season preceding the season before the match. In the case of players competing in the lower leagues in the previous season, the average will be converted in accordance with the regulations. The current list of competitors entitled to start in U24 Ekstraliga will be published in the announcements. In each team with numbers 1 - 7 or 9 - 15, entries will have to be: at least 2 national competitors without international licenses at least 2 competitors with a license issued by a federation other than PZM Only youth runners (U21) may be entered with the starting numbers 6 and 7 as well as 14 and 15. National or foreign players can be entered with the number 8 for the visiting team and 16 for the host team. The players will not be able to take part in the PGE Ekstraliga match and the U24 Ekstraliga match on the same day. "Guests" players cannot be entered in the team composition. However, the rules of replacing a player will function in the competition: only with the first, second or third average of the reserve team (similar to PGE Ekstraliga, the sick leave will have to be issued for them for at least 15 days). The so-called ZZ will not apply to U21 players with numbers 6, 7, 8 and 14, 15, 16. The matches will be played according to the 15-speed system and the running table from the PGE Ekstraliga games.

Do you think he would have done that if he didn't have a British wife and live over here?

Arena leisure will be the reason

I did wonder how long the relationship would last at Sittingbourne now a new owner has taken over the dog racing at Central Park. I do believe Roger Cearns is no longer involved ? So that's Kent , Birmingham, Newcastle, and Poole all with dodgy landlords. It is amazing that landlords of stadia seem happy to take NO RENT AT ALL from a tenant rather than a modest increase. It's hardly likely that they have a queue of new tenants with bulging wallets .......... unless the ulterior motive is to run the stadia into the ground with no sporting activities and then sell out for mega bucks to a property developer.(or a car park entrepreneur)

...I've hung on to mine. A DVD/Video combination and still in good working order. Use it all the time.

Agree with what you say but the world cup win certainly went under the radar, nothing in the majority of news/media outlets. I always thought Woffinden could have used his position as world champion more to have promoted the sport over here, hes one rider who has the personality and would have been seen as cool by the younger generations, Doyle has shown far more loyalty to to UK speedway than our own riders and was only really forced out by the unfortunate situation at Swindon.

Don't Kent and Brum have the same landlord?

You’re very much mistaken; I have no problem with my anti-Poole stance.

Nicholls is riding the best he has for years. I'd have him over a couple of those named as he's leader and lower average

Let 'em roll creep push and stretch the tapes as much as they dare after the start marshall walks away. Ref lets the tapes up when the rolling rider is moving backwards and is left at the gate. However if the tapes are broken ....that rider is EXCLUDED.

Poland have zero tolerance and dont seem to have many starting issues and races start promptly.. Start Marshall walks away, and if a rider moves back, then the ref tells him and he returns to move the rider forward.. The Final at Peterborough had some riders six inches from the tapes.. No need for so many extra Mickey Mouse rules to be added if they just implemented some rules that they have properly.. Although there would need a comms system from ref to start marshall like Poland have... Two plastic cups and a piece of string may work..?

So sad to hear this. Zenon was one of my first speedway heroes as a kid at Waterden Rd. A spectacular rider and such a nice guy. I still have the yellow NGK Spark plugs cap he handed to me through the bars of the Hackney pits..A treasured possession. RIP Zenon, you will always be Poland's number 1 in my eyes.

The Fearless and Spectacular Zenon