TwoMinuteWarning

Lee Richardson scored 11 in 5 rides on his Russian debut today. His team, SK Turbina Balakovo, won 48-42 at Vladivostock Details here

Igor first came to the UK leading the Russian Test team on their inaugral visit in 1964. Their visit gave the sport banner headlines in the tabloid sport pages, for at that time, at the height of the cold war, anything to come from the "mysterious" Soviet Union was of enormous interest. The Russians lost the Test series 3-0 - but it was a pleasure to be among the 27,000 at Wembley for that historic 1st Test, for the visitors were exciting, full-throttle merchants, riding strange bikes with even wierder handlebars. Plechanov dropped just 10 points in the 18 rides of that series, against the might of Briggo, Nigel Boocock, McKinlay, and How. Some weeks later, at Gothenberg in Sweden, Igor came second in the World Final - behind Briggo, but ahead of Fundin. Given his very limited experience against these great riders, it was an amazing performance by the Russian which shook the speedway world. So thanks, Igor, for some wonderful memories, you were certainly your countries' greatest ever rider and, in the 1960's, one of the finest riders in the world. R.I.P

No, and I can't help thinking that the German promoters are missing a trick here. Polish season has finished by then I think, so most of the top riders should be available on the Sunday.

I think he's the oldest rider competing in competitive league racing, yes. Just hope he stays healthy, it takes rather longer at that age to recover from injuries. The oldest regular rider anywhere appears to be Hugh Randolph, who rides in California most weeks. He is about 75 I think!

There is a rather special Referee's Box at Divisov - see here

Just checked, he rode for Leicester in 1980, plus 5 matches in '81.

Huszcza beat both Gjedde and Max in an exciting meeting at Poznan yesterday, and looked great, he's still willing to mix it on the first bend - I couldn't believe that I was watching the same rider that I saw riding for Hackney 26 years ago. Must be one very fit guy. And that's a fine article by Roman Chyla in Backtrack!

Parsloes, can't see that they have any speedway planned for that period - probably all gone on holiday to the UK! The Italian Motorcycle organisers, the F.M.I, have a site at http://www.federmoto.it/Home/Sport/tabid/63/Default.aspx Select a sport on the left hand menu, then select Calendari Hope you more luck than I did with the site, though! Probably helps if you speak Italian, I guess...

According to the latest entry on the blog at http://speedwaymalaysia.blogspot.com/ , Linden Warner is helping with the training in KL. I'm sure there are plenty of Rye House fans around from the late 80's / early 90's who will remember Linden! This is not the first attempt to set up speedway in Asia. That was in 1930, in Singapore - see http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/space4/singapore.htm

Bill was a new Zealander, little guy who used to double up as a horse racing jockey. Don't remember him riding for Exeter, though.

Olly Allen called up. Press release: GREAT Britian boss Neil Middleditch has called up Olly Allen to replace David Howe in his World Cup squad. Howe has been forced to pull out of the competition after breaking a collarbone in Saturday's World Championship semi-final at Lonigo - ironically, which he was taking a reserve ride. The Wolverhampton man hopes to be back racing within a fortnight, but next week's events will come too soon for him. Howe said: "I was going well, leading the race, and then Lukas Dryml's wheel struck my clutch lever and wiped me out "It's so frustrating for me but my priority now is to get back as quickly as possible for Wolverhampton, I don't want to miss too many meetings for them. "I will listen to medical advice, but my target is to be back after the break for the world cup the week after next." Allen was tipped by several pundits to earn a place in the initial top six, taking into account the fact that Great Britain enter the competition at his home British track of Coventry - where he has picked up a number of high scores this season.

I'm sure you are all overwhelmed by the presence of the strong British entry ... Oh bu**er, there aren't any! Maybe one day ...

What's that noise? ... oh, it's all the cheers from Canada! Many thanks Tomaz - great job!

Blimey, someone who actually WANTS the Sky commentary? I watched the TV pictures, but with the excellent local radio commentary - Johnno was brilliant!

Welcome Annie. If we can narrow this down a bit, Wolverhampton only ran pre-war from 1928 - 30. Midland Speedways Ltd promoted there early 1929.

At the clash of Russia's top two teams today, Togliatti's two foreign riders were unbeaten and gave their team a victory which took them back to the top of the league table. SK TURBINA BALAKOVO 34 Peter Karlsson (2 1' 2 3 2) 10+1 Aleksandr Kosolapkin (0 1' 0 0) 1+1 Sergei Darkin (0 1 1) 2 Maksim Kalimullin (1 0 0) 1 Roman Povazhy (2 2 1 2) 7 Kiril Filinov (0 2 0) 2 Artem Vodyakov (3 0 0) 3 Graegorz Walasek (1 2 ef 3 2) 8 TOGLIATTI 56 Nicki Pedersen (3 3 3 3 3) 15 MAX Danil Ivanov (1 f,ex 2' 0) 3+1 Denis Sajfutdinov (2' 0 1) 3+1 Ilya Bondarenko (0 1 1) 2 Roman Ivanov (1 2 2 1) 6 Oleg Bestchastnov (1) 1 Emil Sajfutdinov (3 2 3 1' 2') 11+2 Ryan Sullivan (3 3 3 3 3) 15 MAX

This may be relevant: Swedish Elitserien 2007 (from http://www.speedway.nu/) Max 68pts from 47 rides Davidsson 116 pts from 52 rides However, Jonas is less impressive - or consistent - outside of Sweden, that's for sure. I get the impression Max is taking things fairly easy these days? (Blimey, someone who remembers Vic Ridgeon- famous Wolf of the Provincial League!)

Brilliant news, Tomaz ... thanks!

Agreed, but would the track condition at practice be anything like that for the actual meeting?

Len also started the 1961 season for Sheffield but, for business reasons, could only ride home matches. The other Provincial League teams weren't at all happy about this - understandably - and he was soon forced to retire. I seem to remember Ivan Mauger riding a season like that for Exeter.

Well, yes ... where is Hamill?

No, but it will have to be quick. Otherwise the most important people at Lonigo and Ljubljana - all the FIM freeloaders - won't be able to book their travel in time. Edit - Apologies, the above should have referred to the riders. Freudian slip.

Thanks!

Can anyone help? I need the date of the Newcastle v Rayleigh PL match of 1961. The result was 37-40. I can't find any mention of the match in that year's Speedway Stars! If anyone has programmes of either team from that year, the fixture list may help. Thanks!

Latest video about the track building is at The first Malaysian season starts on July 21