25yearfan

This winter the BSPA had the opportunity to do a similar thing! The top flight of Britsh speedway has to be made the mostattractive League to be in! The EL is on its knees mainly because of the low number of team 9! What should of happened was that 6 teams from the PL should of joined the 9 to make a 15 team EL. Any PL riders with an average 7 or over would of gone up as well. Only 1 2008 EL riders with an average 8 or over would be allowed in any 1 team! 1 GP rider per team! The The remaining 8 PL teams would of been joined by the IOW, Mildenhall, Plymouth and Weymouth making a 12 team set up. Any new team wishing to join one of the 2 top Leagues in the future would have to join the PL 1st! Only 1 2008 rider with an average 7 or over would be allowed per team. Prmotion between the EL and the PL could involve a play off situation involving the bottom 2 EL teams and the top 2 PL teams

The Shawcross report revolutionised speedway and was certainly more productive than the Beechings report which was also conducted around the same time!

Belle Vue normally get just over 1000 to watch them on a Monday night. I'm sure they'd get a lot more on a Saturday!

Sad day when the old Hyde rd track was demolished and I find it sad that the car acution site that replaced it is now not being used! Be great if speedway could return and Belle Vue could return to Saturday night racing which I think even in this day and age would nearly double the crowds BV get at Kirky Lane on a Monday night!

The stadium at Mildenhall is owned by the stock promotrs not the speedway!

I agree also that more should of been done to ensure places like the Shay. Hyde Road and most definately the Firs wern't lost! Although Hyde Road was a great venue, Kirkmulshulme Lane is also a good racing track even though its totally different to Hyde Road. Better than having no track! I'm sure if Halifax ever resuface like hopefully old favourites Exeter and Leicester are trying to do eventually then the new venues will not have the same atmospheres but it'll still be great to see these names back in the sport!

I think the wooden stand theory is a cop out for Belle Vue. Halifaxs old wooden stand existed for a fair few years after speedway left and Ipswichs main stand thats still used today is indeed wooden. King's Lynn only got rid of their wooden stand next to the pits 3-4 years ago! I think if alterations were made to wooden stands with exits and ensuring that nothing could drop underneath them then they could be allowed in some circumstances! The reason Halifax speedway left the Shay and moved to Odsal was a rental issue. - Halifax football club who owned the Shay at the time asked for a massive ridiculous increase in rent from the speedway after the 1985 season and yet Odsal was rent free so the move was made! Shame because the Shay was a brilliant unique speedway venue and in recent times the football club has fallen upon hard times which may of been avoided if they had ensured speedway stayed at the Shay back in 1985! Halifax apparently averaged 3000 a week at the Shay in 1985 but at Bradford the next season only averaged 1000 according to their great promotor and former rider Eric Boothroyd!

Yes the tragic death of Tommy Jansson led to a decline but many others say that when big Wimbldon heros like Trevor Hedge and Ronnie Moore left the club many fans also stopped going. Also the fact the club was highly successful in the 50s and 60s meant that the struggles in the British League years up until the drop down in to the NL in 1985 was hard to swallow for many fans who drifted away! I'd agree that the consortium NL years of 1987- 1990 saw a big upsurge about the place and it was a pleasure to go Plough Lane in those days. I think if the amalgamation hadn't taken place in 1991 then Wimbledon speedway would of carried on the same but the changes in League set up in 91 which led to the Dons competing in the top flight with a very weak team added to the recession at the time which meant their was no main team sponsor all contrbuted to the tracks death. The GRA had long before lost interest in speedway at Plough Lane by this time so didn't lose any sleep when speedway stopped. Whilst the 4 season spell in the CL was hard work getting going, eventually it started to become a success until the GRA stopped things. This CL spell proved that speedway at Wimbledon could still be a success if it was done properly and was well financed! Hopefully one day we'll see the Dons back at Plough Lane!

Also rode for St Austell in the CL!

Rode for Glasgow in 2003! After that couldn't get a team place and only rode in odd individual meetings like the Telford ice meeting!

Neville Tatum, Andy Grahame,

Nothing wrong with the Firs at all except it no longer exists! Just saying that Wimbledons Plough Lane stadium was more plusher if there is such a word!

The track is much to tight to be the Firs and the stadium looks far too plush as well! I'd say its Plough Lane Wimbledon.

Good idea and there is already a healthy amatuer scene in speedway that could do such a thing but how many defunct tracks are available now? Oxford is there but I doubt the GRA would consider renting it out for a handful of amatuer meetings! Newport will probably come back into league racing once Tim Stones legal affairs have been sorted out. Is the Hull track still in place? There are more than a few stadiums still about that once staged speedway but have either been rebuilt or the speedway track doesn't exist anymore.

Bert was a great rider in the 50's in the early days of Ipswich speedway! Amazing that he became a top rider after only starting up the sport when in his early 30's!

Nice sentiment, but all being well Newport won't be defunct for very long. A speedway only stadium with no restrictions in an area that would support a well run set up in large numbers - there must be a few people looking into it! Maybe a piece on the Newport speedway, Tim Stone years 1997-2008 would be appropriate.

Ipswich speedway legend Tony 'Shrimp' Davey had a good 10 year career but lost a finger in a 1972 good friday crash against Hackney when they had to cut his hand out of the sprocket with bolt croppers. Shrimp also broke his thigh at Leicester in 79 I think when his footrest got caught in the wire mesh fence stopping the bike and throwing him up in the air and down the track. He packed up pro speedway in 1980 after another crash. I feel without these bad smashes Shrimp could of got much further!

What happened to the Felton training track? It seemed to be a hive of activity in the 1980's and provided a great training facility for many riders. Shame its not running nowadays!

Get in touch with the promotors father and son duo Nigel and Gordon Meakins. I believe the track is still in place though but without the fence and spectator facilities and has been used for plough pulling events which has rendered it unusable for speedway. Carmarthen ran for 3 seasons 2002-04 in the CL but never got crowds of a decent level despite the considerable efforts of the promotion so pulled out and the owners of the showground wouldn't let anyone else extend the lease to keep speedway at the venue. I believe the promotion are still to this day paying of their debts

I'd like to see speedway return to the Milton Keynes area cause I think the area could sustain a CL track. A Milton keynes speedway set up would have no links whatsoever with the old Wimbledon speedway set up so comparing speedway to the hideous demise of Wimbledon FC is not relevent! I'd also like to see speedway return to Plough Lane cause I'll feel the stadium could sustain PL racing at the very least and stage some high profile meetings! Although something successfull is being built up at MK Dons I'll never accept it cause it was franchise football, the rape of a famous old club, although the demise of Wimbledon FC started when they moved from Plough Lane to Selhurst Park. Its been proven that the old Plough Lane site could of been turned into an all seater stadium holding the best part of 20,000 more than enough for the club. If Mr W**kelman would of formed an MK football team starting in the lower non league pyramid, cutting loose any old ties with the old Wimbledon FC like the Dons nickname then I'd accept them! The real Wimbledon team is AFC Wimbledon who do have a very feasible future!

Kevin was a quality rider who had the ability to of gone higher than what he did but like he says he seemed to lose momentum after leaving Ipswich for near rivals King's Lyunn in 1983! Great article in backtrack, just a shame they omitted his 1986 year at Boston. This year he was meant to gone back to Mildenhall his first club but disagreements over the financial elements of the deal led to him being loaned out to Boston. His move to Boston came late casue he was included in all of Mildenhalls pre season photos! Mildenhall didn't open in the league until 1975 but did ride in training school challenges against the like of Iwade before then. I believe Kevin was involved in these meetings!

To be fair to speedguy I don't think he was trying to defend the GRA. He was only stating fact, the GRA do only have speedway at two of their stadiums now and must of 'lost interest' at Wimbledon and Oxford cause otherwise we'd still be seeing them two famous old teams in the British League! Yes it was unexcuseable of the GRA to just wipe out 2 clubs with such a rich history and the potential to this day to reopen and become stable clubs thus making the GRA money!!

Very interesting article with lots of correct views on speedway from someone without a lengthy history of involvement in the sport but all these views were what we already knew to be fair and its unlikely this sort of finance would ever be chucked at speedway as the chance of getting a return back on your investment is unlikely! Afterall Posselwhite (or however you spelled his surname) tryed to be innovative and chuck lots of money at Reading during his short spell in charge at Reading but ended up broke and nearly saw the clubs demise! Lots of things sound good in theory but until they are actually tryed we don't know for sure what is the best way forward or not.

Speedway was staged in P N G in the early 70's at the capital Port Moresby I believe and one of the top riders was a P N G native!

I'm convinced Billy Bales retired in 1967 but I maybe wrong! The period from 1964 to when Norwich closed up until when Ipswich reopened in 1969 was when I didn't see too much speedway as I have in other eras although I did go to King's Lynn probably 30 - 40 times in between! Another long career I can think of - Rob Hollingworth - 1972 - 1986, 1999-2007, though like some of the other ones I thought of a few of them years wern't in league racing, things like 2nd halfs and amatuer racing!