tonyd

It is a joke, a one liner, a throw away comment or even something called humour. ( well I smiled ) Why do people try and find something or make an issue of something that is not there ?

Maybe its because the chances of being dropped if they lose form for a few months of the season is next to nil. I think if Mark Courtney was still riding and not retired he would still be in the team now.

I still think the above will be four of Lens seven for next year, and I also now think you could add young Mr Morley to them as well. Mind you if Len sticks to his normal form the 2012 team is proberly all signed, sealed done and dusted and should be announced by Christmas. (at the latest) On a seperate issue Luke has been on Len`s / Rye house books for so long now he must be due a testimonial soon.

I will stick my neck out and say that four of the seven next year will be Neath, Boxall, Bowen and Nelson.

Here is the link to the twitter site http://twitter.com/#!/HackneySpeedway that give the heat results if its any good to you. Link copied from the great Speedway updates site.

I attended this meeting (my first meeting at Rye this year) and for me I enjoyed seeing the Hawk racing bib flying around the track again. All the team rode with conviction and were up for it from the off but I must say that Ben Hopwood caught my eye and he looked like he was enjoying his racing. Barrie Evans is well dialed into the track and in a class of his own last night and David Mason I agree did seem to go unnoticed until I added up his score at the end of the match to see that he had 11+3 from 5. Gripes well I have a few £12 entry I feel to much for this level of racing and I think it does affect the crowd level, reduce the cost and I feel there is a good chance of increasing the people through the gate. Sort out the track the state of the safety fence on the exit of bend two and this coupled with the fact that thre are railings placed on the dog track to stop people standing in this area shows that there is a problem with this part of the track. The amount of time the tractor is on the track grading and watering why can they not have two tractors going around, god knows how many laps it done last night but I bet it was more than the riders did. And finaly no fish at the fish bar at all last night, plenty of pies as long as you didnt want steak and kidney ones. Its not all moans honest as I did enjoy the racing last night but it did seen long and drawn out at times.

Whats a second half? Was it something that used to happen at meetings in the old days?

I also read it (2 or 3 times) before it disapeared, do you think a mod might have removed it because of the posts content?

Looks like it will be a good week for watching speedway I think I may book a week off work.

Right if you can get Boogaloo in a team against the mighty Heathens then you had better start selling advance tickets and give a date asap because I would want to be there (proberly along with many hundreds of other fans).

Question time folks ........ When I was a kid and lived in Wembley there was a car spares shop in Ealing Road, Wembley called Lloyds and I was told by a family member in a passing comment that it was owned by an ex speedway rider. So im just asking the question to see if anyone know`s if this was the same Wally Lloyd we are talking about here?

Wayne became my hero in 1970 (I was a 12/13 year old spotty oik at the time) when he rode for Wembley because the first time I went there and before we went into the stadium my uncle and I went to the pits and looked through those big double doors at the riders and machines. A rider came strolling out the pits clad in black leathers with football socks turned over the top of his boots took my programe out of my hand,signed it and returned it with the words come back after the meeting kid and get the rest of the riders to sign. That was it from that night thanks to Wayne speedway went from a sport one watched to a passion one followed. (On a side note I wonder what happened to that Wembley cannon they used to fire at the end of each heat as the winner crossed the line)

I think your right it was the crash that caused the end of the match in reality as the BSPA site quotes "lack of medical cover" for the reason. It was a bad crash and I hope both lads are ok and back on there bikes asap.

I also seem to remember that they had go go dancers as well to try and pull in the crowds. It was a crying shame about the lack of crowd as the houses and flats that made up the White City estate one would have thought that a lot more would have gone to support a local team. I also seem to remember that they were in trouble with the race relations board at one point when they offered any coloured male over 16 the chance to have a go and they would loan them a bike and leathers. Felt sorry for Bob and Danny because in 3 seasons they had a good team and won the league but still could not draw in enough of a crowd to run at a profit. AND NOW ITS A BLUDDY CAR PARK!!!!!!!

Leigh on a side note do you know what your uncle Tony Clarke is up to now a days? As a speedway mad teenager he was one of my idols when he rode for Wembley and Wimbledon in 1971 and 1972.

My daughter has several Vintage Speedway Magazines like below listed on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-speedway-Mag...=item4a9e62c5e1

My daughter has several old Backtrack Magazines like the one below listed on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Backtrack-The-Retro-...=item4a9e622d39

Speedway for me began in the 1960`s when a cousin of mine used to take me to wimbledon and my love was born, but that all changed in 1970 when the Wembley Lions were back and I had a track to get to under my own steam and there was no worry about a school kid wandering home through the streets of wembley after a meeting on a route that took him past every chip shop after starting at the Captains Table restaraunt / take away to see all the Lions having there fish and chip supper after the meeting.(The advert in the programe told us to eat where the lions eat ....... The Captains Table). For me 1970/71 was a greatest couple of years of my life. During the 70`s speedway was a must where a group of us would go off to as many tracks as we could and if one of us was short of the funds now and again the rest of us could normaly club together to get that person to and into a meeting. Also during the 70`s school finished, work began and driving cars started to happen .....the world was our oyster. What fun we had following speedway then with some weeks being... Wednesday..... White City Thursday........ Wimbledon Friday ..........Hackney Saturday....... Swindon or maybe Canterbury Sunday .......Rye House or possibly Eastbourne The close season was spent reading the speedway Star and saving every penny ready for the new season in march / April. As you can see the 70`s was my era and it included a lot of speedway and if it was possible to re-live any part of it it would have to be 70 or 71 to see that red and white lion racing around that half empty stadium and to hear the boom of that cannon again as the riders crossed the finish line at the end of the race. For me those were the days.

For me I always wanted to see the racing at West Ham but never managed to get there before it closed. The same goes for the other stadium I wanted to visit and that was the old Belle Vue track. I always wanted to get there and see the B.L.R.C. the line up used to be like a end of season world final with the calabre of the riders present.

I used to enjoy my friday nights at Hackney driving from Wembley to the stadium right across London. It might be my age but I seem to remember that every year they were the last London track to close at the end of the season and am I right in thinking that the last meeting of the season used to be the champions chase? The stadium has now gone but I bet in twenty or thirty years time there will be more people with more memorys and stories of Hackney speedway and Len Silver than these bl**dy olympics.

This is speedway and over the years I have learnt to accept the unexpected. On paper I agree that Slovenia should not be in the running, but be honest who who expected Russia to turn in that performance on Saturday to win round 1 ? This is the type of meeting that anything could happen.