2ndBender

I personally don't think Speedway will ever be staged in Newport again. There's no site and no promoter. More importantly, perhaps, there are not enough people in the city who want it! The fan base that existed in the Somerton Park era, and in the early years of Queensway Meadows, have grown up, died or just lost interest, and the younger kids don't even know what Speedway is. As I've said on here before, if it doesn't involve the use of a ball, forget it! And Speedway in Ebbw Vale....??!! Not a chance!

Still looking for a programme from Lelystad if any kind-hearted forum members are going..........

Great post....and one of the main reasons why when you try to 'sell' Speedway to friends and workmates, their eyes just glaze over and they go back to talking about their ball games! Either that or they burst out in incredulous laughter.

SCB is a being a little harsh in his description of Newport, I think. True, at the moment the city centre is one big building site. But by this time next year the new development is going to be well and truly up and running, and that will change the whole nature of the place. I've heard that there is already a 'discreet' policing policy to eradicate the city centre of pond life. Your proposed accommodation is less than ten minutes walk from the new development and only a few minutes more to the station. SCB is right in that the train service is dead easy. There are plenty of pubs near the station, not only fizz-bars but one or two decent real ale hostelries. I am also sure that long before next July Tiny Rebel will have a city centre bar in Newport to rival their Urban Tap House in Cardiff. You won't have any problems in Newport should you decide to base yourselves here next July.

All these trips are do-able if you happen to live in the South-East, but sadly I don't. I've done a few, but they've usually turned into three-dayers from my side of the UK!

Don't rely on this meeting to rekindle your interest in 'real' Speedway! But have a great day anyway!

I'm not rubbishing Cardiff just now.... I've always had my misgivings! I've always loved the day out, but I think we're all guilty of getting so wrapped up in the sense of occasion that we lose sight of the fact that the actual racing is never much better than very ordinary, at best. I'll never go again.

Get Cardiff right? Not a chance. It's always been crap, as far as 'Speedway Racing' is concerned, no matter how often we try to delude ourselves that 'they really got the track right this year' and that it's the 'jewel in the Grand Prix crown'. I gave it the benefit of the doubt for the first ten years, but no more. And whilst I have travelled abroad to several Grands Prix, I wouldn't dream of going across the road to any of the rounds on temporary tracks.

Fifty one years ago yesterday, I saw my very first Speedway meeting - the first match at Somerton Park, Newport. Tonight, I finally lost interest. Following a long, slow, painful illness, Speedway is finally dead. At one point during tonight's dreadful proceedings, I switched over to Britain's Got Talent, and saw a man firing a cloth dummy 20 feet out of a home-made cannon. It was difficult to tell which channel was the most entertaining.

The church steeple in the background of some of these photographs is that of St Patricks - I went to primary school there! And yes, of course, I watched Provincial League Speedway at Somerton Park. After my Dad took me and my brother to see the first meeting against Cradley Heath I couldn't get enough of it! Great memories.

I can't be bothered any more. No weekend tracks within an easy drive and I won't spend hours on the motorway to watch mediocre racing on rubbish tracks diluted even further by no-show prima donnas and strangulated by stupid inexplicable rules. I've loved the sport to bits all my life but my days of watching it live at pretty much over.

Yes that's what I do... because I love the craic (during the day in the city) and because it's easy (for me) to do it. That's my choice.... I have to agree with you that the racing can, occasionally, be reasonable. But it's nothing like it should be for an event of this stature. I prefer 'real' Speedway tracks. Bydgoszcz?.....now you're talking....!

Don't get me wrong Trees....I love the day out for the Cardiff GP. Great stadium, great cosmopolitan city but usually a rubbish track with only average racing. But you try telling most Cardiffians that a world class sporting event is taking place in their city and most of them won't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. That's why Cardiff will never get any bigger than it is. I'm lucky...I can go there for the day out and then go home and watch it on TV. I went for the first ten years but no more....

I live twelve miles from Cardiff, I work in Cardiff, and STILL no-one knows it's on, and even if a few of them do, they still don't take it seriously. The occasional motocross stunt event or monster truck event has a higher profile. The Cardiff GP may continue to attract hard core fans from around the UK for a few years yet but unless it's played with a ball Welsh sports fans don't want to know.

I saw him win an individual meeting at Debrecen in 2006 against a reasonable field of Eastern Europeans, Italians and Austrians.

What gives you the right to be so judgemental? I've done it both ways; I've made all my own arrangements, and travelled independently, and successfully, but I've also made several trips with Travel Plus over the years. I've always found their tours to be hugely enjoyable, professionally organised and excellent value for money. James and his crew are the best in the business, and they take care of all the hassle.

I give up.....No-one, least of all me, is sentimentally attached to the kind of issues you describe, but some traditions shouldn't be messed with.

You're wrong. And with respect, I sometimes think you are deliberately contentious just for the sake of it. No-one is disagreeing that the sport has to move with the times, but some things are traditional, and should be preserved, often because they are part of a clubs identity. During the time of the last promotions' tenure at my own club, our 'colours' subtly changed to a grotesque neon banana-yellow and black; it is, should be, and always has been AMBER and black. Those have been Newport's sporting colours since 1912, and those are the colours Newport people identify with. So, lighten up Backless, some traditions should not be changed.

The sport is on its' a***e, that's for sure, but then I think it always has been, and always will be. Even in the sixties, when we used to delude ourselves into thinking that it was 'the most popular sport in Britain after football' it was regarded, in general, by the majority of sports fans, as a minority sport. Even now, it's still just fifteen heats of (mostly) fairly processional busts of one-minute 'action', and for most sports fans, that's not enough. Only us die-hards will be satisfied. But then, it will always survive; just look at the late fifties.

'Fire' by the Crazy world of Arthur Brown now reminds me (sadly) of Newport. Seriously though, I remember Sonny & Cher's 'I got you Babe' from the 1965 season at Somerton Park, especially (for some obscure reason) that magical night the Russians were there!

Wow! Your glass is not just half empty, is it? It was sucked dry, and thrown away, long, long ago. I stopped posting on here a while back, due largely to the bile and venom in posts like this. I'm with The White Knight on this one, and I hope to contribute to tmc's request/invitation soon. Good Luck!

I have similar memories from the test match at Somerton Park, Newport, in 1965. Gennady and the great Igor Plechanov broke, and equalled the track record about four or five times! (I can check the programme). And that was on a track which neither of them had ever seen before, and which many British riders considered 'difficult'! Great memories! RIP Gennady.

But if you don't have league racing, or some other grass-roots domestic competition, where are tomorrow's GP riders going to come from? They don't just appear on the GP circuit overnight - they develop and hone their skills and expertise over time, in domestic competition.

Moxey, Thank you.

Off subject a little, I know, but Michael rode in an individual meeting at Mildenhall on 3 November 1974, before the Fen Tigers got their league status. I think he scored 13 in the Bussens & Parkin Trophy. Does anyone have a full list of scorers from that meeting?