salty

Lived in South Norwood for a while so occasionally dandered there with my daughter on a Sunday morning to have a look around. Remember the dinosaur lake and the guys racing their remote control cars up the top of the park.

A cursory glance at the British Speedway Handbook shows guests (as opposed to junior replacements) were only used sparingly, with 8 teams not using them at all. Wimbledon's stats show Maidment and Tebby being ever present and Hedge and Everett only missing 1 match each. Bobby Dugard missed 3 whilst Ronnie missed 10 and Reg Luckhurst (who suffered a broken leg) missed 16. Pete Murray notched up 16 so did most of the cover with the 8 guest appearances and, presumably, RR doing the rest. Of the other team's guests were used very sparingly apart from Newcastle who relied on one all season to bolster their undermanned team and also the Hammers who suffered badly with injury. For my team Cradley, even Bernie, who later in his Heathens career seemed to be absent more than he was present, only missed 7 league matches and if memory serves some of those were due to injury rather than Swedish commitments. It certainly was different times...

I've got Coatbridge only using 9 riders as well. Wimbledon is more than 9? A number of guests alongside the main 7 of Moore, Hedge, Luckhurst, Tebby, Dugard, Maidment, Everett and main replacement Murray. Those were the days eh?

You truly are the Milkman of Human Kindness!

Always good to see some Bard of Barking references.

Has anyone thought to tell the crowd whats happening?

Gate positions?

Enjoyed last night's meeting. This despite a poor surface to race on. Good to see the Czechs and Latvia doing so well. Kelvin and Chris clearly struggled last night. Much as I wish them well, the difficulty to understand the scoring and the possible ramifications was amateur hour. Instead of banging on how Denmark were in with a chance prior to the last race they should have identified the Latvians situation who - I believe - could only be denied a place in Heat 22 by one possible result. The whole broadcasting team don't seem to grasp that the most important thing is to not finish last rather than to win a heat. For example, in the Final the camera should have been following the race for 3rd not 1st. Not a good look for the sport to have such a poor crowd, lets hope tonight's turn out is better.

Another cracking race in heat 5.

Thought there might be one involving the Swales twins, but by the time they (Teesside) rode Barrow in April 1974 (against the Owens and Sheldricks) Tim was missing from the Teesside line up.

Sad to hear that might be the end of the 2 mags. Have been a subscriber since issue 1 of Backtrack and have most of the Classic Speedways. Have really enjoyed them but I have to agree with Falcace that the "Life and Times" feature is not so interesting as the new interviews. Obviously with over a 100 issues it becomes increasingly hard to keep the mag fresh. Even so, I'm hoping someone else takes it on. Great to hear from Tony that he intends producing occasional books and DVD's. Many thanks to Tony and Susie for their efforts over the years.

£50 Bewley more £50 Thomsen more

Thanks for doing this again. Bewley over £25 Lindgren over £25

What terrible news! Was a fantastic advocate for the sport. A sport that will miss him terribly. Thoughts with family and friends. RIP.

The Laurels in 1986 was run with 12 riders and the top 8 going into Semi-Finals and thence into a 4 man Final, which Nigel Sparshott won.

As far as I can tell this the current "Lambeg" Stadium, Lisburn, currently known as Drumbo Park. From what I can understand at the time of being used for Speedway it was a trotting track, but then got re-configured to be used as a football stadium to house Lisburn Distillery, who moved from their old ground in Belfast where they had been known as just Distillery (Derek Dougan's old team). Greyhounds were also introduced and are still held at the stadium. Drumbo Park When I moved to the area in 2000 it was known as Ballyskeagh and has undergone a few changes of ownership since then.

Enjoyed this thread, but..... Arnie Haley is in the list with one? Sheffield never won a title so assuming it refers to his time at Cradley in 1981, but he never rode for them in th BL.

Jason Doyle?

Bjarne Pedersen? Must have got a few with Poole, plus last year with the Panthers?

On the same website this link covers a few old tracks. https://www.derelictlondon.com/derelict-london-sportsgrounds.html

He really is quite tiresome......

Try this - Books (speedwaymuseumonline.co.uk)

Working and living around South London used to come across The Bill being filmed all the time. They used to use a Caff on Earlsfield Road and an independent bookies off London Road in Tooting. They also used a place I'd lived in Roehampton. Didn't go down to well with the owner when it was depicted as a drug den.

Was there not a New Cross Memories thread rolling around over the last few days? I'm guessing someone's been deleting threads they've started once again.

Pretty sure John Hyam (who occasionally graces us with his presence) told a tale about when Sandor first came over here. Maybe he could re-tell it here? Apologies if I am mistaken.