25yearfan

Thought so! Would be nice to see Boston back in the NL as much as to bring the numbers up. Be even better if they found a site for a new track in Boston cause a Somerset like set up in the town would surely be viable at 3rd Division level! Hope your right and Rye House and Buxton will return to the NL cause the more tracks there is the better of the NL and British speedway in general will be!

Boston? Could they be contemplating a return to King's Lynn or do you mean Buxton?

The cynic in me suggests Plymouth were turned down to ensure the NL has enough teams in it to be viable?

Is this for real? Silly season has begun! Sheffield have always been in my opinion a top flight track and beings Sunday racedays weren't overly successful this season and things at Owlerton have got a bit stale of late, moving into the top flight on a Thursday makes sense! Kent have a decent stadium in an area that's got much interest for the sport so while I've got no doubt they could move in to the top flight on the right racenight, 6.30pm starts with a 2 hour time restriction makes things difficult? Berwick run sustainably at 2nd tier level on a Saturday night with a few local rivals in the same League. Surely Saturdays would be out of the question in the top flight and the loss of the meetings against local rivals would be financial suicide?

New Cross is the track on the once a jolly swagman film, doesn't look that big!

A great servant to speedway especially in the old 1970's National League where he was a top heatleader at times!

Very true Garry. I suspect there would of been a major rider shortage at the time if all riders taking recreational drugs were banned from riding! Feel sorry for Steve Payne if what Guglielmi says is true.

I subscribe and got my latest edition of Backtrack last week. Just read the Gary Gugliemi interview. Fascinating stuff cause while many people who followed speedway at that time knew about the drugs and Billy Sanders stuff, I'm not sure if Garys ever been interviewed about the story giving a more in depth look at things? Sounds crazy that he'd try to smuggle drugs in his engine and that the motorcycle authority repercussions in the aftermath were draconinan. I've never spoke to Gary Gugliemi but at the time my opinions of him were something of a wild, harum scareum racer who probably was the same of the track and not the most pleasant of people. The interview completely blows this personality analysis apart cause the guy sounds like a lovely thoughtful person who was probably naïve in his youth like we all are. A similar scenario I think exists with Michael Lee whereby people who've never met him will look at his life story and think he must be some really awful person. Like always Backtracks a great read!

Quite possibly as Barrow and Scunthorpe were really struggling at the time but the influx of 4 tracks who were in the BL in 1984 the year before led to a shortage of decent enough riders for all the teams, hence why these two small clubs with small budgets couldn't turn out a decent line up. Scunthorpe in fact weren't expelled like Barrow were, they pulled out due to low crowds turning them into a loss making venture. The present day NL suffered a similar fate a few years back when Eastbourne and Birmingham dropped down from the Elite League, combined with Cradleys presence which meant that these former big time clubs were a more attractive proporsition to riders which left the like of King's Lynn Young Stars and Buxton finding things very difficult. You say that Chris Roynon the Barrow promotor was told NL or nothing when he wanted to be open License only, which backs up my idea that a 3rd Division was needed at the time, which Barrow would of probably survived and maybe even thrived in? The previously mentioned Birmingham and Eastbourne would of been finished without the safety net of the 3rd tier in 2015. The 1995 to 96 one League amalgamation of the top 2 Divisions was a great idea apart from as you said the costing were done at the old 1st Division level rather than trying to reduce to somewhere closer to the old 2nd tier.

Yes your correct, but thrown out or closed down, end results the same! While a decent sized League is best in all sports, their is a limit and like I said in 1985 the NL was to big and two small clubs paid the price. Amazingly the '85 NL was all set to contain 22 teams but Boston Barracudas pulled out on the eve of the season. A Third Division would of probably helped to keep Scunny and Barrow going at the time. Unfortunately this lower Division didn't form until 1994. Another reminder that the current 3rd Division has to be retained!

The year the NL went to 21 teams was in 1985 but that soon reduced to 19 before the summer holidays after Scunthorpe Stags and Barrow Blackhawks closed. To many teams that season cause the likes of Eastbourne, Wimbledon, Poole and Exeter dropped down which made it harder for the lesser teams in the league to compete even more so with Barrow being out on a limb geographically. Other than that the post by Rob was spot on. The 80's in British speedway were much healthier times than present. I myself, much prefer a bigger League where you see a different team each week. Many people knock the large one League amalagamation of the top two Divisions in 1995- 96 but I enjoyed it for the variety, just a shame that the top riders weren't spread around more.

Agree totally Arch Stanton but from what I've seen the racing on the widened track is rarely any better than it was before 2010! That said in recent times Ipswich is now not inferior to King's Lynn in terms of the ability to overtake and produce good racing. It was for many years until the early 00's!

Fair play to Ipswich, they wanted it more in both legs when the conditions were tricky in the wet. Shame half the Poole team including the No's 1 & 5 lost interest when anything other than slick track flat out drag racing was required! Decent crowd at Foxhall last night, certainly 2500 present I reckon. Foxhall even with modern health and safety and the 3rd and 4th bends off limits to fans is still a large stadium in speedway circles. The 2 open seated stands that stand above the terracing hold 3500 between them! Had to laugh when I saw the King's Lynn fan commenting on the poor passing nature of the Foxhall track. I agree on that whole heartedly but King's Lynn in modern laydown rocketship speedway bike times has become a very difficult track to overtake on!

The above mentioned fatal accident happened in 1972, Hampden Parks last season of speedway.

The NL seems very vulnerable in terms of next season but its essential that this level of racing is maintained cause it is a great breeding ground for young riders and enables standalone clubs who don't/can't go higher League to survive and prosper. It would be nice if Rye House and Buxton return although one must remember that in 1998 the then 3rd tier, at the time called the Conference League survived and indeed prospered with just 5 clubs. For the record in these deepest parts of East Anglia, Mildenhall speedway more often than not is better value for money than its higher League neighbors at Ipswich and King's Lynn!

Shaun Venables at Hackney and Belle Vue in the early 90's had potential! Kyle Legault a few years back looked promising, then disappeared! Speedway in Canada seemed to almost go hand in hand with the speedway scene in the New York area. Whats happening out that way speedway wise?

Sorry being a Norwich Stars fan in the old National League pre 1965 amalgamation, I didn't see much Provincial League action apart from a few meetings at Great Yarmouth in 1960. Indeed Clive Featherby was a top star in the Provincial League! I was referring more to the British League 1965 onwards! Great character was Clive!

Tough rider and character as well! Never a star but a middle order/ lower end team rider who contributed much to a golden era of speedway!

Walthamstow stadium was iconic and was still turning over a tidy profit with decent crowds still watching the greyhound racing right up until its closure. Another place that should have been listed and the old speedway track was still inside the dog albeit tarmacked over. Walthamstow stadium could have provided the answer to speedways current lack of presence in the capital.

Sponsorship/lower wages for the players/ rich benefactors!

If every sport needed to be profit making in order to continue existing then there would little to no sport about now and that includes the Worlds most popular sport - football! - Look at the current plight of 3rd tier clubs Bolton Wanderers and Bury as well as one of the biggest football clubs on the planet Manchester Uniteds ongoing debt. Indeed without many modern day football stadiums being multi use venues, football would be even more unviable! The universally more acceptable athletics has never been profitable! I do feel that certain things should go above profit making and money for the best interests of society. Stadiums should be included in this. Iconic speedway stadiums like Belle Vue, Exeter, Norwich, Southampton, Wimbledon, West Ham, the old Leicester, Coventry, Cradley, Oxford and probably quite a few others should have been listed and prevented from being turned into housing estates. Had indeed been the case then the sport today would undoubtedly be in a better shape. Football gets afforded this allowance cause of its popularity and local communities all over benefit from it. and Like I've said before on here, Odsal could be staging football, speedway and stock cars if ways could be found to make the venue more multi use?

Bradford and Halifax Dukes speedway team. Stock car racing. Bradford Park Avenue Football club. All 3 above sports could be reintroduced to Odsal! - Would be nice!

The 3rd tier is one of the best things to happen in British speedway in the last 30 years, if not ever! The 3rd Division should have started in the late 70's/ early 80's when a number of tracks were starting to struggle with the then 2nd Division (called the National League) getting more and more expensive. The great promotor that was Ian Thomas said as much at the time. Maybe then tracks like Barrow, Workington, Milton Keynes, Castleford, Boston, Scunthorpe, Paisley, Ellesmere Port, Birmingham Bordesley Green and probably others would of had a longer more viable existence in the sport. These combined with training tracks of the day like Felton, Iwade and Ringwood and other potential venues that would have been tempted to open in the lower cost League would of made a decent League that in them days would have been in undated with potential riders to make up the teams! The current struggles of one of Britains top prospects Drew Kemp in the 2nd tier emphasizes how the 3rd tier is needed to help nurture young riders rather than put them off by throwing them in the deep end of the 2nd tier to soon! Without the 3rd tier, Birmingham and Eastbourne would have closed a number of years ago which would have had a knock on effect in the 2nd tier cause without the Brummies and Eagles this season the 2nd tier would be down to 9 tracks! Likewise would speedway at Somerset have ever been attempted without the safety net of the 3rd tier when they first opened in 2000? Would Berwick have re emerged in the 2nd tier had they not had a number of seasons building themselves up again in the 3rd tier in the 1990's? I'm sure at some point attempts will be made to re establish League racing at Rye House, what's the betting this will be in the 3rd tier? Look at today! - Without the 3rd Division, I wouldn't be going of to West Row to hopefully enjoy Mildenhall take on Thurrock a currently homeless team which is no doubt being helped in their attempts to find a new track of their own by being able to run challenge matches at 3rd tier level. Combine this with the fac that young riders will be getting valuable track time especially in the junior match that takes place after the main meeting!

Whilst I agreed with Mildenhalls decision to drop David Walllinger, denying the lad the chance of rides to put himself back in the shop window is ridiculous!

An understandable move in order to maintain interest levels at Mildenhall! Wallinger was at Mildenhall as a 2nd heat leader to put pressure on Danny Ayres at number 1. While Wallinger was a steady scorer at home albeit not out and out heatleader form, his away form was poor and made Mildenhall weak. Due to Leek increasing his average he has become the unlucky sacrificial lamb in order to fit in Atkins. That said a reserve duo of Butcher and Kelly looks vulnerable especially away from home so Atkins will certainly have to score double figures every match in order for the team changes to have the desired effect.