Chadster

When I attended the NSS there was a piece in the programme about welcoming old riders back, but on WSRA terms. It was accompanied by a photo of Eric Broadbelt on a recent visit. I think the people on here who have been critical of PC's stance have all expressed their great admiration for him as a rider and their reluctance to be critical. Of course, we also have the timely reminder from nw42 of the health issues which should always be borne in mind.

Any kind of tactical substitution system in any sport will produce a 'false result'. In football, for example, teams with strong squads (usually the bigger clubs) have the capacity to make changes which influence matches much more effectively than the majority of teams and yet no-one decries a football result in which a substitute scores the winner as being a 'false result'. The double points rule contibutes, with guests and doubling up, to an impression of speedway as not quite a serious sport. Of those mentioned, I think doubling up is a more serious issue.

The old tac sub rule was less offensive because it was very closely linked to what happened in other sports such as football or rugby. Is there another sport which has a double point rule like speedway? I can't think of one.. Tac subs also allowed out of touch riders to be replaced, whereas at the moment you see reports of meetings were a rider is taking 5 or 6 rides and scoring only 2 or 3 points. I can accept that promoters might not want to pay star men for an extra ride but instead of double points perhaps choice of gate positions might be a better tactical option

Seems a valid original posting to me. Quite a few posts suggest that speedway is currently at its lowest ebb, but things were a lot worse in the late 50s/early 60s. Maybe the solutions then might be valid now. It's also worth pointing out that 10 years after the article was published, the second division was established and fuelled a great boom in British speedway. So things can change dramatically over a relatively short period of time.

Would this new 10 team Premiership be riding once at home and once away? Can't see a 9 meeting home season going down well but on the other hand the big guns that are supposedly wanting to ride over here always say they don't want too many meetings here. If the big guns do come back it will buck the trend which the BSPA seems to have established over the past few seasons of bringing the leagues closer together.

Thanks! That rather confirmed my impression. Hopefully, things will improve soon.

Last night was my firs visit to the NSS. I left feeling disappointed, having seen so many great races there on TV. The two memorable races were for 2nd/3rd place. It seemed to be that the guy in second on both occasions lost out by trying to catch the rider in front and was riding slightly the wrong line. Last night there seemed to be one really fast line out wide. Perhaps regular attenders could comment on whether the track was prepared differently to usual. One thing that struck me was that Cook was very reluctant to try the outside line, continually trying to work his way through on the inside. I'd have thought he'd have worked it out after his first ride. Maybe he had bike problems?

I hope this works out. It's good to see an attempt to offer something to the community and hopefully that will be a way forward for this and other potential new tracks.

The problem with extensive rider commitments these days is that it would be almost impossible to organise, certainly for the major nations. Back in the day, Poland or Sweden would come over and ride 5 or 6 meetings in 8 - 10 days but there's no chance of that happening now. A way forward might be to invite teams from some emerging nations (Germany or Latvia, for example) to send a team to ride against our under23s, with the possibility of a reciprocal tour. It's most important for our younger riders to get experience and exposure on the continent

BT lost out in the battle for cricket coverage so that might be good for speedway as another summer sport to fill the schedules that might have gone to cricket. It also means that BT should have some cash available...unless they decide to save it all up to try and crack Sky's position in football.

If we could bring someone back from 1964, I would imagine they might find this thread familiar. One league was running black, the top flight was down to 7 sides (with one of them closing at the end of the season) and the country's best rider, and one of its biggest drawcards) had been killed the year before. And yet, things did improve quite dramatically, as we know. So things can change. Arguably, the challenges now are greater and the external agency that brought about the change (the Shawcross report) isn't there, but dramatic change is possible. There's a lot of comment on this and other threads about the sport not being run 'professionally' and yet in its golden years speedway was always a semi-professional sport, and with attendances as they are, it really needs to go back to being that again.

I wonder if you had one big league with each team meeting each other once home and away, whether what are now regarded as 'meaningless' meetings would become more meaningful? For example, Swindon, Somerset and Poole could begin the season with a mini-league, in the knowledge that those teams would only be visiting once more, rather than twice. Similarly, individual meetings would be more attractivebecse they would be featuring riders visiting for the third of fourth time. As an old-fashioned old-timer, I'd like to see one big league but, the BSPA having loudly proclaimed the bold new future of British speedway last winter, I can't see them making more far-reaching changes soon.

The real problem is with the number of doubling-up riders how will they be able to fill 126 team places in one big league? If it went ahead they'd have to re-introduce 6 man teams.

Was at that cup meeting, still possibly the best meeting I've ever seen, with all three results possible as three riders roared off the last bend of heat 13 together. I seem to recall Bengt Larsson also beating Mauger that night as well.

A very solid heat leader for Sheffield in his day. Qualified as reserve for the 1969 World final but didn't get a ride. A year or so later I remember him beating Ivan Mauger around Belle Vue in nthe Silver Sash match race.

In 2005, the GRA would have been hoping to sell the stadium very quickly for redevelopment. My guess is the other tenants of the stadium, not being involved in a league structure, could be evicted quickly whereas the speedway, needing to run for a whole season, couldn't. I suspect the rental demands on the Dons were much greater so as to provoke a breach.

If I'm asked about what attracted me to speedway I initially mention the sensations; the noise, the smell, if I'm honest being frightened, but also the bright primary colours of the race-jackets against the black leathers of the riders. The designs were clean and simple, so many modern race-jackets/race suits are over cluttered and badly designed. Recent Belle Vue race suits are a case in point, not a patch against the classic design.

As I recall, on the re-opening night, the track was laid on top of the stock-car track and the plan of the promoters was to 'lift and lay' the shale for every meeting. One problem was that the track shape was far from ideal and coupled with the wet weather, the racing was, shall we say, not for the purist. The initial track record was 90 seconds in heat one though by the time of the abandonment it was in the 60s. The next scheduled meeting was postponed as the saturated shale had not dried in time and fairly quickly the bends were widened to produce better racing. The problem then was that the inner curbs of the stock car track were in the middle of the track, which was considered a safety risk and the new promotion was ordered to build a new track completely inside the stock car circuit. Given the succession of difficulties that were faced I was impressed that the promotion survived as long as it did. I must stress these are the recollections of a terrace fan and not an insider so I hope they are accurate.

I enjoyed the recent one on Wembley by Peter Lush and John Chaplin. It's reviewed in Speedway Star this week.

The only Sheffield rider I can think of who wore glasses was Dave Baugh.

I've seen a black and white picture of an Ipswich team in quarters but hard to say what the colours were, but blue seems likely to have been one of them. Sheffield rode in blue and yellow quarters in the late 60s and may have done so earlier.

My first visit to speedway was to Liverpool in 1960. I can't remember anything about it apart from it being very wet. I have much better memories of those Liverpool football teams of the 60s. Peter Thompson almost always played at no 11. Ian Callaghan was no 7. I saw Alun Evans debut against Leicester in which he scored and we were 4-0 up in 12 minutes. By that time I was going to speedway at Hyde Road and being absolutely hooked on the sport.

Brings back some very happy memories.

Charlie won a big individual meeting at West Ham very early in the 1965 season, which surprised a lot of people. When you consider how powerful the Hammer's heat leaders were that season it was some achievement.

Remember that Cradley meeting, it hinged on an exclusion for Bo Peterson in heat 12, I think. The other memory is of the Cradley team coming round on a lap of honour and getting a great reception from the Hackney fans. Fair play to them. another fond memory is a cup match at Hyde Road against Sheffield in 1969, I think. It was just one good race after another, culminating in 3 riders coming off the last bend of the last heat line abreast with all 3 results possible. In the second half Arnold Haley capped a great night for Sheffield by taking the Silver Sash off Ivan Mauge.r