Ian

I'll go along with that, Paulco. Maybe the gradual ruralisation of the sport is in its long-term interests, and maybe not, but that's why I am delighted to see Birmingham back with us again.

I agree with both of you. A night out at Old Meadowbank for a Provincial League match was an event not to be missed. It almost invariably contained all the ingredients necessary for well-rounded entertainment - drama, pathos, giant-killing, the hate figure - it was all there. Of course TwoMinuteWarning is right, and rough tracks and punch-ups added to the entertainment (not that any of us would advocate that now, naturally!) This also reflects an issue which has been debated on this forum year in and year out: is the standard of the Premier League getting weaker? In 1965 the standard in Provincial League teams took a quantum leap when they amalgamated with the National League to form the British League. Monarchs subsequently brought in superb riders like Bernie Persson, Reidar Eide and Bengt Jansson, and it was great during that '65 season to watch the world's finest come to Meadowbank to challenge them. But here's the question - did the entertainment value improve? Not a bit of it!

I have a funny feeling that he may just remember Featherby knocking him off. Many riders would remember that. Having said that, it was guys like Clive Featherby who pulled in the crowds.

I don't know who Cyclone Davis is, but if you click on Ginger Lees it tells you she's an actress!

I know. Some say it was spelt "Charles Lamb".

Would this problem of people not being able to spell their own names be a common one in rural Hampshire?

I remember Tommy Roper as one of the heatleaders in what looked like a super-strong Sheffield side at the start of 1963. Five heatleaders - Tommy Roper, Guy Allott, Jack Kitchen, Clive Featherby and, I think, Tony Robinson. Would that be right? The funny thing about Sheffield in those distant days is that their lineups invariably looked ultra-powerful but managed to achieve little success on the track, although I have no idea why.

Bob Coles, maybe?

I've no idea what he's doing now, but Tony was a bit of a character. Legend had it (well, Dave Lanning had it) that he honed his biking skills racing around the North Circular Road. I remember him rising rapidly through the second halves at West Ham and going on to tour Australia with the British Lions. I may be wrong, but wasn't he allegedly connected with the theft of bikes belonging to a touring Russian team?

Sorry, I've no idea what the origin is. My mates and I used to refer to the Glasgow one as the "Quite Sh!tty Stadium" though.

You're lucky Norbold. There are days I think I can remember Captain Bligh!

Thanks for that Gemini. It's a major relief to know I'm not the only person who reads the maritime reports!

I've been away for a bit, so forgive me if anyone has already posted this, but it's not every day that speedway hits the maritime news. "The Grand Prix -- Aboard M/V Hyundai Fortune is a brand new £250,000 air-barrier that is to be used on the safety fence at all ten rounds of the Grand Prix racing world championship SGP Series. John Postlethwaite, Chief Executive, BSI, said: "From the details and pictures we have received it looks like the ship transporting the new air barrier from Australia is still on fire and we will not find out for many days if the barrier has been affected by the blaze. Thankfully we still have the air-barrier from last year's Series so safety will not be compromised at the Grands Prix." Briefly, Hyundai Fortune suffered a serious fire, I think on 23rd March. It looks like being close to a write-off. I only happened to stumble across this information because I'm awaiting a cargo which is on board another Hyundai vessel en route from Taiwan to Rotterdam which has been diverted to Yemen to pick up cargo intended for Hyundai Fortune.

Taking the 2s 4d figure (that equates to 12p) then the entrance fee was about 2.8% of the average weekly wage (on Norbold's figures). If we take today's average admission price as being £12 and the average wage as being about £450 per week, then then pertcetage jumps to around 3.7%. Not a sufficient difference, in my view, to affect attendances drastically.

I suspect that what speedway owes to Johnnie Hoskins is based on something other that which way round the riders went, whether they broadsided or whether they wore steel shoes etc. I think that what makes Johnnie's efforts different from those who went before is that he set out to popularise speedway not only amongst the motorcycling fraternity but to the wider public. In doing so he laid down the marker that speedway is a balance of sport and entertainment, and to some degree that is the legacy which has endured ever since (despite some promoters not always being aware of it). The title of an old speedway book comes to mind: "Thrilling the Millions". Speedway is certainly the only branch of motorcycle sport that ever achieved such a goal, and much of the credit for that belongs to the one and only Johnnie.

Thanks Norman. I now remember West Ham's long winning run when Tony joined them.

On the subject of Tony Clarke, Iris, whatever happened to him? I remember him breaking through from the second halves at West Ham and becoming a decent rider - I seem to remember him even touring Australia with the British Lions. He was also a colourful character, and Dave Lanning's publicity at the time had it that he had previously been a "ton-up" racer on the North Circular Road, from memory. Did he just disappear out of the sport after a relatively short career?

You're not wrong Andy. To see pictures of Ove Fundin, the world's greatest ever rider, wearing the colours of one of the world's greatest ever teams, is nostalgia at its best.

A BV rider? That's none other than the magnificent Peter Craven!

Best wishes to Cam Woodward, Matthew Wethers and Robert Ksiezak. Obviously a 1-2-3 is a big ask, but there again.....

Well, I was interviewed on the telly in Canada last week (sorry Norman, I forgot to mention your Wembley book!)

Sorry, Iris - it's the jet-lag. "Grandson of Boris" - could be the title of a new horror movie, couldn't it?

Does anyone know if Artjom Samorodov is any relation to the legendary Boris Samorodov? Boris, along with Igor Plechanov, was one of the Russian greats of the 60s.

I'll go along with Lunchy and SCB - it's all a little more vitriolic than is really necessary. Surely the issue here is that the future of a track is in jeopardy. I don't know the rights and wrongs of whether the promotion or the riders are to blame - I wasn't there. I do accept that Australians specialise in a perhaps more colourful use of language than might be commonplace in the UK, and I well remember attending a session of the NSW Parliament where members could apparently call each other "scumbags" with impunity. But none of that is going to help Aussie speedway out of the doldrums, is it? Incidentally, I do know Rory Schlein and his parents, and I must say I don't recognise the character who has been described on this thread. Let's hope our friends down under can put all this behind them and get on with the long and proud tradition with which we all associate the term "Australian speedway".

Yes. I remember being impressed by the Oysters Kilpatrick. The Moreton Bay Bugs were very good too.