weatherwatcher

Just been looking on the internet after talking to someone who lives up the road from me. He has some old photo's of his nephew at Tamworth Speedway where he was a mascot with George Formby. He is going to scan them and let me have them, will put them on here when I get tehm. I was looking at some site about Tamworth speedway and it brought up a mention about Litchfield speedway supporters club. All I can find out about it is, that Corgi did a model of the coach used by them and a picture of the actual coach used, but there is nothing about the club. When did it opperate and how long did it run, the club that is. Has anyone got any details about the club, as Litchfield never had a speedway club, I presume it was just a bunch of fans that hired a bus to go to speedway meetings.

Starman, what Darcy did was a disgrace to the sport all his fans Poole supporters or not. I think he is a rider with true potential to go a very long way, if he can only stay on the straight and narrow. But he needs in my opinion, to make an appology to everone who are involved or follow the sport. He has been tried and found gulity and taken his punishment. He now has to get on with his life and if he hasn't got the balls to stand up and be counted to all the fans then he his, not doing himself any favours. Just been on his twitter page and all he can do is count down the days to when he rides again. A lot of people would see him in a better light if he has the guts to just say sorry. But all you have on his twitter feed are a load of young girls wetting theur pants, because he is standing with his arm around them and in their eyes he can do no wrong. Hope he does get his act together this time as you say one more wrong move and his speedway days are done.

Iy sounds like the new engine could easily become a firm favorite with riders in the PL and NL who have to run on a tight budget. If this is priced corectly, they could easilt take a lot of trade from the other companies that are making engines al be it that Jawa have now lost a lot of trade to GM With all the testing being done, the engine should at least be a reliable and practicle offering to the speedway world.

Moto-x is a totally different product from riding around a speedway track. We will have to see how he goes when he gets back over here. He just may miss the rest of this year if they have failed in getting his visa application correct and if the border agency deem his capable of meeting all the points of admission to ride in the UK. As far as I know there have been no statements saying that he has applied and been granted a visa, for this year. You can pratice around a track all you like, you can do it from dawn to dusk 7 days a week, actually riding against 3 other top class riders is a different kettle of fish, I know he has a great talent, but he has been side lined for quite a while now. I just hope he is not sitting at home in Aus with a few pint of Fosters a night.

What is the betting on Majic aggrivating his knee again in Poland. as for farming Ward out, has he got his visa sorted out and how many teams will have him in their side. First of I think before he returns, he needs to make an announcement, to the speedway world in general, to say he is trully sorry for his behaviour before that sad day last year.

I can see this having to happen sooner rather than latter. We have now come to the stage where the EL clubs are struggling to put together a 1-5 team, that is called upon to race at home and away meetings, we now have a few riders that are calling in sick, when track conditions don't suit them. Plus how many riders are mising due to having to go to GP qulifiers etc or ride for their team abroud. The clubs are really struggling at times to pull in a guest rider or riders, as most of the other are having the same troubles with their lads riding for their PL club. Well time and long over due that the whole structure of British speedway was changed before it is to late to make the changes. When will the promoters sit down and see sense, that things are going down hill, fast than a rabbit down a hole being chased by a fox.

SCB. has Marcel got a website anywhere about the new engine.

We still have to wait and see if Darcy has managed to get a visa to ride over here this year. If he has will Poole use him or are they going to farm him out to other clubs for the rest of the season. He must be a little bit ring rusty after sitting around at home for months now. How long has he been in traing and how long has he been practicing, since the ban started. There has been very little in the way of anything about the life of Darcy Ward in the press other than all the winging and wining and negative press we have heard for so many months. That is until everything went very quite for all parties. If the decide to farm him out to other clubs, who will take the risk, of having him in their side, if he is not 100% match fit.

Sorry but can you tell me what OTA is. Looked it up on the internet and didn't bring anything of any relivance up. Never heard of it before.

The whole product is sadly lacking just now, they have got an awful lot of work to do to make speedway the sport it once was with the following that it had, the years have not done it proud. It all started to go down hill from the late 80's onward. They need to come up with some very sound ideas in a hurry if we are not going to lose speedway in this country as we know it. We may be looking at teams made of nothing but young British rider, all riding at amatuer status at the best, in a few years time. Where did it all go wrong.

Is it time to go back to one big league with the EL and PL joined together. If riders from the PL are not strond enough or can' aford the cost of riding in such a league, then they make it a 2 tier NL I am sure there would be enough teams to make it all viable. Because what we have now is just not working. Far to many teams having to field guest with riders missing for one reason or another, not just injury wise either. The league could be split as said before North and South. With the 4 top clubs for each region going into a run off then a huge end to the seson with the 4 teams 2 from each region having a one off meeting to find the winner of the league's. Bring down the admission fee's, if the top riders don't want to come over, then that is up to them, there would still be some very good speedway to see.

Hope the Lions can make this a home win, but I think they are going to struggle with so many riders missing again, those through injury and GP qualifiers, not good. Can see Poole taking this one, but the Lions really need to pull this one out of the bag. I bet that DH is not a happy bunny at this moment in time. Any idea's when the other rider will be joining the team.

Can't see why they can't ride in any heat. Why should they be so protected. It will give them a chance to improve and become better riders. Some of them should be in full team places now anyway.

The whole system is a shambles. The top British riders should be going all out to make improvements, but it seems that they would rather settle for a place in the PL than take a risk at going for the EL, that is if any promoters want to take the risk of using them. Is there any answer to this problem. Doubt it because if they are happy just to stay as they are, then the quality of British riders will never improve to any graet extent. We have the reserve lads, but it is not true EL riding they ride against the same ones they ride in the PL or NL, plus a few second stringers. You have the odd few that are getting the chance, Newman, Garrity etc who are riding agaist some of the top lads. They just are not getting the chances that young British lads where 10 years or so ago. Maybe come next season, we will see them finally move up in the teams and then we will see what they really have. Or not. Hope that when they do move up that they can hold their own and prove that, things needed changing to get some new blood into what has become an old soilers British team, with the same riders being picked that never did any good. This year may see some of those riders finally get the chance, win or lose they will give their best. That is all they can do, if they lose, at least they will have riden against some top riders and there is always another year for them, also with them riding against better oppostion in the EL.

It would be far better to stage the GP's a SWC final or qualifing matches at Belle Vue, which by then would be a permenant track, that had been race on regulary. Far better that staging the GP's as they are now at Cardiff, on another of these tempory tracks, that always fail to hold up and give us some really great speedway. Seen the way the track breaks up and forms ruts and furrows, that throw the riders all over the place. We don't need these tracks. All it ever boils down to is trying to get a crowd of 50,000 or around to line all those deep pockets. Because very little of those, earning, go into improving on the track quality. So at least we can hope that by 2017 we will see it move to Belle Vue.

Still think this could very easily go the Lions way with PK now out of the meeting. If the Lions get their act together they could win this.

It looks like Tai put in a lack luster performance. Was it a case of, he wants to save it for the night and just cruised home. But I doubt he would have done that, or has he just forgotten how to set his bikes up for over here. He has never seemed to that very well at Lynne, so he he the right choice on the night. For the British team place.?????

Should be a good meeting, can't see the Lions winning, but keep my fingers crossed for them and hope they can come away with at least a point .Hope Lewis has got some fire burring in his belly after his long lay off. Jason and Woz should do well, that is if Woz is fully fit after his injury, he is certainly dedicated t riding over here and Newman is a cracker when on form. Sinonz is still a bit unprodictable at the moment, he has a good night, then follow up with a terrible one So it could end up being a big suprise. If they are all in top form.

The sport of speedway in this country is on a fine point of going bankrupt. Most of the teams are spending above and beyond on what they are getting through the gate, to pay the top riders wages and before very long unless they adopt a new apraoch to the sport, they clubs will die a death. Is it time for the B.P.S.A to sit down for once and take a proper look at the way things really are. We have come to a stage now, with riders riding for so many clubs at home and abroud that, week in week out riders are missing from teams, A lot of the time it is the top riders who have contracts that they have to follow to ride for their overseas club or in their countries competitions which leaves the clubs looking for guest riders to cover. Above and beyound the speedway fans are strting to get exreamly fed up with having to watch a team, with rider changes faster than magic roundabout. Have we come to the stage where the leagues have got to be disbanded and a new league introduced. That uses mainly home grown talent or young EU riders that are willing to ride over hear for a full season, but not the rubbish that we have had to put up with in the past. At least makes the clubs and teams competative and bring the admission down to suit what we the paying public get to watch. It will still be our sport of speedway, without the big names and the cost of employing and bringing these riders over. It is crippling many clubs as we have seen with thye clubs that have folded, or the ones that have dropped down the leagues just to keep in business, they are the ones that have come to their senses and have seen that they can no longer go on paying stuppid amounts of money for the worlds top riders, just to make the clubs look good. If something is not done soon all we will have left of the sport is just a number of amatur clubs as it was when speedway first strted.

It is Great Britain, we all know that it is a team. As for using the big Union Jack on the race suits, it is probablly politically incorrect to use our flag, which so many of us are proud of in case it upsets someone.

It seems the last few seasons have got far worse with the use of guest riders, don't get me wrong it has always happened, but not to the extent it is now. It seems that if a rider has broken a finger nail, then he drops out of a meeting and they usually bring in another rider that rides the track they are at or if the track conditions at home don't suit them. The promoter have to carry some of the blame for allowing riders to carry on like this or is it the promoter that drops the rider for those chosen meeting. Time the B.P.S.A started wrapping a few nuckles, before it gets totally out of hand. Ok when it actually calls for a guest when a rider is injured and I mean injured, not the broken finger nails, then that is what has to be. A club can only afford to carry so many riders

It produced the goods last year, but where they rewarded for their efforts no, they where held back for another season. I can't wait to see what happens with them when next season starts and wait with baited breath to see how many get the chance that they should have had this year. The whole British speedway system is far to slow.

When you sit and look at the state of British speedway these days, you only have to look now at just how few riders we have in the EL and just how many do we have as heat leaders. Most of our riders are still plying their trade in the PL and NL and unless the promoters can even come out of their shells and finally sign a few young British lads into the main body of the teams. They are just going to end up going nowhere. They are far to eager to sign up the overseas riders, to try and say that we are still one of the countries that they want to come and race at. This shows with the amount of riders who come over here at the start of the season and then do a bunk when Poland and Sweden start their seasons. I for one would be more than happy to go and see teams with 5 or more British riders than some of the rubbish we get coming over here now.They just use the UK as a stop off to earn a few bob, before they go back home to make the big wages they pay. If we want our lads to progress, then they have got to ride against far better riders than they are facing at the moment. They are not getting this chance in the FTR and never will, alll it is doing is holding them back. At least 6 of those riders should now be riding at full team level this year. I was amazed when I saw they had been placed in the FTR again this year. Who is, that fails to see that these lads, are our future British Team squad, and give them the chances they need.I s it the promoters, it can't be anyone else. Have they not got the bottle, to move them up to full team honours. While bringing in oversease riders that are no better. Bring in a British League, drop the prices. Then set up a series of meetings against the worlds other riders, give them the bit between their teeth and then hopefully, we will have more riders than we care to mention to be picked for the British squad. Because as we are now come another 5 years. They will be in no potition to even field a British team.

Just watched Saturday nights GP, had the grandchildren here on Saturday and can't watch it because of the noise and distraction. Would have been better watching it on Saturday. The total nights racing was a turd. Did they have long elatic band attached to drag the riders around, because the gaps between the riders where had to belive at times. If they called of the meeting 2 weeks before due to dangerous track conditions. Then this one should have been finished by heat 4. At times it was like watching those mot-cross lads over a rutted cow field. How many more time are they going to be selling rubbish like this to speedway fans, perhaps when the crowd's, nearly wrote crows then, but soon that is al that will be watching the GP's from the stadium roof. Any back to what I was saying, when the crowd levels drops to a few hundeed fans, will they they at long last take off the rose tinted glasses they seem to wear and realise that they must start to up their game and give the public, some truely great speedway meetings instead of the rubish they have put forward as a spweedway GP series so far this year. Truely dreadful show, so far.

It is bad enough when clubs are having to find riders to cover, for genuine injured riders. But no way should this be allowed to be practiced, when a riders is fit to race, if Magic rides in Sweden, then the B.P.S.A should step in and start asking a few questions, not only about Magic, but also other clubs who are using guests, when riders are fully fit to race. It is now time for the B.P.S.A to come out of its shell and start getting a little bit nasty and handing out a few fines and also banning these so called un fit riders. The clubs who do this should be brought to task also, if found that they are using geusts when there is no reason for it, either take away the points from the said meeting or ban the clubs doing this for a couple of weeks. If this was done then you would soon see the riders back in action again very soon.