OveFundinFan

I planning to do a swop (loan) with my brother for Dave Mortons book.

Never lend a good book.....you may never see it again

I have finished reading "Keeping It On The Tyres", PC's autobiography. Its an amazing book, tells of how not only his own pursuit of speedway started, but also a whole stream of riders that came from a small village outside of Manchester, called Partington. The history of his career as a rider is very well documented, and some really good pictures. By the time PC had stopped racing I had stopped going to meetings, so my eyes have been opened re what was going on behind the scenes ie the management of Belle Vue as a speedway race track/team. Full of detail, not all of it good for BV nor the sport in general. It is a wonder how BV survived it all. Chapter 53 "Bail-Outs, Passes and Respect" contains all the detail of the rider pass issue that many on here have referred to. Perhaps those who have put their copy of the book on a shelf never to read it should take it down and read it. Then at least you would know what was suggested by PC, was it up to 100/200 of his mates and hangers on that he was asking to be given passes, and make your own minds up. Also, interesting what he offered to BV when they actually moved into the NSS in 2016. It was refused - a legacy of Belle Vues history. The whole of chapter 53 was an eye opener for me, it is one of the longer chapters in the book, but hang on in, its a good read.

Do you have a link for being a bt road and client and getting btsport app free. I done a quick search and cannot find it, so need your help please.

I forgot how much BT Sport costs these days. Anyone know the price. ?

I presume that free discovery+ is linked to the bt broadband subscribed to BTSport.

Is this particular point in this thread going to go on and on. More than a few members of the forum have had their say, some more than once. If I was a forum moderator on here I would have closed this thread down by now. I don’t know if there are any moderators on this forum but if there is I for one would welcome you close this thread down

I would imagine that the majority, if not all, of todays promotors would just love to see the “good old days” return with the crowds. Reading books like Peters, where recollections are put in writing, we can get a glimpse that not everything was rosey. What with disputes between riders and disputes between riders and promotors and even the governing body, makes life in those days come alive, and interesting to read.

So, what they should do is start to sell first tickets that encompass all four days. After a reasonable period then they should sell off the last chance and the final together, then finally the final by itself. That way would also allow those who want to do the four days chance to ensure they can get accommodation as needed.

Anyone subscribing to Discovery+ I think there is a current offer for 20% off, taking £60 down to £48 for the year.

£60

Isn’t BT Sport something like £25 per month? whilst Discovery+ annual fee is £60 (£5 pm). BT Sport paid a lot of money for football and subscribers pay the price for that. That’s ok if you are a football freak and watch a lot. I don’t, nor do I watch boxing, so I would be paying a lot for sports I don’t want to watch. Where as with Discovery+ I got speedway GP, rally cross, cyclo cross, skiing, all for a fiver per month. I can watch MotoGP on ITV4 on Monday evenings during its season. Just two nights ago I extended Discovery+ into a second year as from Feb 4th.

I can’t remember Barry Ayers so don’t know what he was like, but ,yea, riding a speedway bike (which I have not done) I would imagine can get pretty scary, especially pre air fence days. So hats off to arty Ayers, he had the courage to have a go. I did grass tracking at club level, never really felt scared, perhaps because big open spaces and no hard fencing, just ropes. I do remember one race where 3 of us were close. The 2 in front were battling side by side and I was close behind. It did flash in my mind what would happen if they touched and come down in a heap……blow me the did go down. Fortunately for me one fell to the left, the other fell to the right, leaving me a nice gap to go through. I do regret not taking up the offer at Crewe where on some Saturdays they let grass bikes have a go round their huge track, but I never went.

Well said, nw42. You wrote what I was trying to put together. Sorry you suffered, must have been very worrying, glad to hear it ultimately not affected you too much. Listening to his interview on tv I think Peter has done very well. As I read his problem was acted on quickly as Angela had to go back to the house for something she had forgot, found Peter not well, and got medical attention to Peter quickly. The quicker the medics can act the better the likely outcome will be.

Staying with your Norfolk thinking. Was there a track in Great Yarmouth at that time. I know speedway was there sometime but think it was also stock cars.

That’s sad. I remember Peter for the years he was at Belle Vue. A good steady rider.

Agree, a good interview and promotion for speedway. Slowly working through the book, on page 365 now which is part way through one of the longer chapters

If there was it wouldn’t be worth it….Full of cancelled dates, changed dates, and substitutions. You wouldn’t be able to follow it.

I don’t read about Poole no matter how many pages their on.

I am about two thirds through the 500 plus pages. It is an extremely well put together history of PC’s career, starting from a very young age, very young. Having lived and brought up in the same small village of Partington, sort of 10 miles south west of Manchester, I find his detail of life at that time very interesting. The passing away of Bill Collins, Peters dad, at such a young age, and of his mechanic George Clarke, again so young, was very touching. Two nice guys. Earlier in this thread I commented the first chapter I read was Mechanics (as I valued my mechanics when I was doing club level grass tracking). Another interesting chapter was the one about music he listened to whilst travelling to meetings. 60,000 travel miles a year… there is only so much small chat you can cover with your mechanic/driver. He met some amazing artists during his travels. I too was/am a fan of the Hollies and ELO, to get to meet them would be amazing. Peter did, I am jealous.. I still have a third of the book to read, one day it may be a single chapter, another day 2 maybe 3 chapters. I am sure the remaining chapters will divulge a lot more insight into Peters highly successful career. Big surprise for me was chapter 6, paragraph 3. Well done to Peter, TonyMac and Sue, plus all the others, and there will be many, who put together this record of Peters career…….arguably Englands most successful speedway rider (he is in my mind anyway). I have read Chris Morton’s “Until the can runs dry”, a very good read. I want to read Dave Morton’s book. I always thought Dave was going to be a very top rider but maybe his serious accident curtailed his progress to that very top level. And I still waiting for a book that will cover what really went on behind the scenes leading to Belle Vues new stadium and the first 12 months of its management. Just curious.

My 2 year contract with BT expires Jan24 and I won’t be extending/renewing. Possibly going to Plusnet (part of BT group) and BT Sport will be available, but I don’t yet know at what cost.

Add to BSN a Discovery+ package for £60 per year, then you have speedway GPs together with world team/pairs PLUS British premiership for a total of circa £140 (less than £12 per month). That is not even the price of entry to 1 premier speedway meeting. personally, I would prefer to watch MotoGP/2/3 then British premier speedway, so looking into 2023 package with BTSport…..now they joined up with Discovery. OR I will take Discovery+ for Speedway GP’s for a second year and just watch MotoGP/2/3 for the hour on ITv4 Monday evenings.

For a little over £4 per match it has to be a bargain buy.

If not, and you want a book, I suggest you contact TonyMac’s office and ask have they any signed stock. Worth a try.

I think its been agreed on here some time ago that if promotors gave the youngsters the type of entertainment they want then more youngsters may be attracted. The fact is promotors cant give the audience they currently have what they want means there is not much chance of it being expanded to what the youngsters want.