E I Addio

I couldnt find it on youtube but I came across this one that might be of interest to some... https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=YouTube+when+sammey+met+barry&qpvt=YouTube+when+sammey+met+barry&mid=C2C10E677C2160FF487CC2C10E677C2160FF487C&&mcid=33D5D3F06EEB42C9A0298032BD93B9A4&FORM=VR

Thanks for keeping us up to date on these things

It’s a vicious cycle really. Promoters want a winning team, at least at home meetings otherwise the attendances drop, so top riders on good equipment will usually put numbers on the gate but that costs money so it’s a difficult balance . Round about 2015/6 the late Jon Cook told me it was costing around £20k to run a speedway meeting. I forget what the gate money from spectators was but it was well short of £20k so apart from any TV money the balance had to come largely from sponsors and again sponsors like to be associated with winning teams so good riders can almost command their own pay if they are. successful. When Bomber was riding for Coventry he told me he never paid for anything and the sponsors paid for it all but I think he was the exception rather than the rule. I don’t pretend to know the details of how all this works but speedway has not been awash with money for years. In Len Silvers book he describes what it was like in the’60’s and 70’s for promoters and how most lived pretty much hand to mouth, even in those days. According to Silver, he couldn’t afford to pay the Hackney riders top dollar but he gave them a longer season to make their money up. It probably works differently from club to club. Not many people retire from speedway as rich men, either promoters or riders. Having said that, I don’t think the BSPA have much idea, at least in recent years.

Very difficult to quantify one’s feelings at a time like this.Somehow we wish we could turn the clock back and stop it happening, then somehow convince ourselves that it won’t happen again, but at the same time secretly knowing that it always will. However long we follow the sport the pain we all suffer when this sort of thing happens never gets any easier to deal with. Motor cycling in all its different forms is a very special sport. I wouldn’t swap my time on bikes for the world, but it is so sad to lose young men this way.

Fair comment. He was one of speedways great stylists, a great team rider as team riders go in the modern era, totally focussed, and machines were always immaculate. In fact one could say he had all. That is all except possibly the most important quality of all and that is the killer instinct. Perhaps he was just a little too much of a fair rider, too much of a sportsman, to have the absolute hunger and will to win. Maybe he would have won the top prize if he had been a little more of a hard man, but if he had been harder he probably wouldn’t have been held in the high esteem we all seem to hold him in.

I had a chat to Olle at Lakeside a few years before he died . Well into his 80’s by then but full of beans, and a really great character. Speedway is poorer without him.

Do you know roughly what the Stadium rental is these days Steve ? It’s a long time since I’ve been to Poole but at a guess I would imagine it has either needed family extensive renovation of will soon be in need of it and that money, or at least a chunk of has to be paid for through the turnstiles. It must now be one of the oldest stadiums left in speedway.

“ Foote’s me name, elbows are me game “ as he used to say !

I don’t know anymore. If someone is on a 4/4.5 You are talking about someone who you expect to hover just inside or outside your reserve position and win some of the less important races both at home and away if the team are to do anything. I would say Kildemand still has the experience to beat a lot of second string/reserve level riders but for the sort of money he probably wants the promotion would probably expect him to be almost a third heatleader at home and score enough points away to enable the team to a few away wins. Whether he can do that is anybody’s guess. If you think of riders like Hans Andersen, Peter Karlsson and even Jason Crump to a certain extent they all went off the boil fairly quickly when they got to a certain age. So to sign Kildemand is a certainly a risk but it really depends on what exactly they want from him and who else is in the team. I would love to see him do well but the promotion need to go into this with their eyes open.

When Greg Hancock was 35 he still had three World Championships ahead of him. Plenty of sportsmen stay at the top longer these days but it doesn’t get any easier physically as you get older. Kildemand could do well but he does have a number of crashes behind him that tend to cause riders to lose their edge, especially if they are married with kids. I’d like to see Kildemand turn the years back but I don’t think anyone will really know until the season starts.

He had a good innings and kept the sport going at great financial cost to himself. Lived and breathed Speedway. Former Provincial league riders champion but as others have said he really came to the fore as a promoter. Inextricably linked to Hackney and Rye House, particularly the latter where the sport only existed because of him and his financial input. One of the best if not the best GB team managers in his day despite backstabbing from other promoters with half his ability. Throw in the fact that he was a top rate track curator and we see there weren’t many areas a of the sport where he was wasn’t a powerful force. The sport is now a poorer place without him

He certainly looks super fit. I’m pleased for him, because speedway wasn’t particularly kind to him and I think he could have done better if injuries hadn’t come at the wrong time. Good rider.

Does anyone have any news on what retired riders are doing now? Adam Shields seems to be doing well as a personal trainer in Oz and as far as I know Dave Watt was working as a carpenter of shopfitter. Last I heard Robert Mear was still digging up roads but doing quite well on continental grass tracks. What about the likes of Stuart Robson , Hans Andersen, Steve Johnson, or Tony Rickardson and those like them? Anybody know what they are up to these days ? I think we all take a bit comfort from knowing that various old favourites are doing ok in their retirement.

To some extent a team managers job is as busy or quiet as you want it to be. A good team manager is usually kept pretty busy in the pits. Riders are kept pretty busy with their bikes and often have no idea of the time or the score. A team managers job is first of all to get everyone together for a track walk then make sure the riders are ready with to go on parade and you would be surprised how many riders arrive an hour or more before the meeting and still have to be chased up to be ready. He has to make sure his riders are ready for each heat ( although the pit Marshall also does that). If a rider is on two minutes and has to sort his bike our with minor repairs the manager has to make sure the time warning is not exceeded. He has to think ahead and have another rider ready to go in case someone touches the tapes, decide on things like reserve swaps and when to use a Tactical Ride , and of course use a bit of psychology to motivate riders and see every race in case he needs to speak to the ref. I would say it varies from meeting to meeting but team managers are kept busier than most people think at times although of course there other times when it all runs like clockwork.

I forget where I read this,but it was probably in Classic Speedway, and it was on the lines of “ you didn’t need to leave a on gap for Ove , he would come through whether there was a gap or not and whether he needed to or not”. By all accounts it seems Ove had to win every race even if it meant knocking his own team mates out of the way ! Somewhat surprisingly the same was said about Nigel Boocock- by his own brother Eric !