25yearfan

The promotion at Plymouth speedway have stepped things up there in the last couple of years so moving back up into the 2nd tier did always look like the plan. Hope it works out but they could run into the same problems the club had before in the 2nd tier in that attracting riders to one of the Countries furthest speedway outposts could be an issue? It'd be nice if Plymouth also run a team in the NL but understandable if they don't. The NL director said in this weeks SS that all teams due to run last year have said they want to run again in 2021, theirs been interest from other senior tracks in entering teams and a team that would be a standalone track has also expressed an interest. This indicates a new track or a defunct track reopening - Workington?, Oxford? - Bradford? One must remember that in 1998 the 3rd tier went down to 5 teams but it survived. I just hope that plans to water the League down to more of a development League don't materialise cause its unnecessary and counter productive. We want to see Britain produce more riders capable of competing on the World stage, and the best way for riders to develop is by racing in a decent standard. Top prospects beating "wobblers" by half a lap won't bring them on quicker. Novice riders making their first steps up into League racing have the Development Leagues below the NL and theirs also numerous amatuer meetings to hone racing skills. Also the NL has been a safety net option for standalone tracks that have struggled in the higher Divisions and for new centres to test the water. Take away this safety net by reducing the Division to a free for all try out for novices and you'd likely lose the likes of the IOW, Mildenhall, Plymouth, Birmingham, Eastbourne and others over the years cause attracting viable crowds to watch it would be difficult. Take away Plymouth, Eastbourne and the Brummies from the 2nd tier and you'd now be looking at the top 2 Leagues amalgamating.

I also remember that in the early 80's. It was painful watching one of the top riders in the World at his peak, a colossus of the British league and in my opinion Halifax Dukes best ever rider scratching around at the back for a point or two. I think he averaged under 3 and had quit before the end of the season. Leigh Lanhams right in not coming back cause he had a very good career, finishing cause he was on the wane and no one wanted him in the end. If he came back he'd struggle to average 5. Paul Hurry might just about eek out a 6 average and Crump will average under 8. I remember reading something Ivan Mauger put in one of his books or an article where he said he was seriously considering a comeback on the Longtracks in the late 80's but backed away after consulting his son Kym who rightly said that you've got nothing to prove and you wouldn't be as good as before. Hopefully the new plan for young Brits will result in more homegrown riders filling out teams and Britain becoming stronger on the International stage.

100% unfortunately. Rye House speedway much the same as Coventry speedway and Newport speedway in recent years were facilities that had more scope for practice sessions than most other speedway tracks in the Country. Like has been much said over the years and Peter Oakes said as much in the star the other week, one of British speedways big issues in recent decades has been not owning most of the stadiums speedway takes place in which leaves it at the peril of owners who often grasp the opportunity to have their retirement pot being hansomely supplemented by selling the stadiums. Rye House, Coventry and Newport speedway tracks along with others could of been part of a National training programme along with the likes Scunthorpe, Lydd, Northside and Sittingbourne as well as continuing to host League racing.

Good luck with the plans! While its obvious that spending a fortune reopening the stadium just for greyhounds and speedway wouldn't be financially viable, making full use of the facilities by having other events can make it just about pay? Detractors of the plans need to realise that most professional clubs in the Worlds most popular game football run at a loss but there existance is justified by the community values of them, job prospects and the money they generate for local businesses on matchdays. - Society need outlets, its not feasible to just cover the Country in swathes of cheaply built new housing without facilities for the communities. - a reopened, renovated Oxford Stadium would be a great community asset even if it didn't generate a fortune for the owners!

Like I've said before one of the best naturally talented speedway riders I've ever seen in my time! Yes he was made a scapegoat from 1984 onwards (the early 1984 incident at the King's Lynn V Poole meeting was blown out of all proportions!) but his lifestyle, attitude and punctuality particularly after his 1980 World title win were very poor which put him in a precarious position with officialdom and made him an easy target for disciplinary action. King's Lynn in the Cyril Crane era bent over backwards for Michael Lee until the end of 1982 by which time they were glad to sell him, their previous golden boy, to Poole. Michaels return to King's Lynn for short lived spells under the Martin Rogers promotion for stagnated parts of the 1985 and 86 seasons were again fraught by a complete lack of reliability due no doubt to an ever expanding drug problem. A lesser rider than Michael Lee would of not of been afforded the numerous chances Rogers gave him in 85 and 86, when even the laid back nature of the well spoken promotor was tested to the limit. A shame cause even at this stage in the mid 80's if Michael could of sorted himself out he looked still capable of returning to something near his previous best. I always wonder how Michael Lees career and indeed the history of Mildenhall speedway would of turned out if the plans for Mildenhall to step up in to the British league in 1983 with Michael as number 1 at his original training track stomping ground had gone through? - I believe King's Lynn objected cause Mildenhalls very close to Lynn and no doubt had it happened with Lee as the Fen Tigers No 1 quite a few Saddlebow Road regulars may of defected over to West Row. - Would this move have settled Michael down and possibly cemented Mildenhalls place as a top flight track? His last aborted comeback in 1991 saw Michael Lee as a pale shadow of his former self, while still competitive as a reserve, time and bad lifestyle choices had fully taken their toll by this stage. Even in 1991 his reputation went against him as he was picked for a random(!) alcohol and drugs test when he was a reserve in the 1991 Commonwealth final and was found to have traces of alcohol after apparently having a pint on route to the meeting when he thought he wouldn't be riding. Again like I said before, Michael Lees a nice bloke who went of the rails through drugs use and through having so much ability he didn't appreciate what he had, but its wrong to lay the blame entirely on officialdom for his downfall. Yes by 1984 onwards the authorities were out to get him but he had put himself in that position to be shot at.

Amazing rider and story! He was better at that stage than the similarly aged Hans Nielsen and look what Hans achieved! - Best 16 year old I've ever seen and probably ever will! Despite his dark, illicit side which indicate a loathsome persona Michaels actually a very nice down to earth person, one that was too easily led one assumes. He has long indicated he has no regrets but surely deep down he must know that he could of been up there with the likes of Mauger, Rikardsson and Fundin in terms of title wins!

I don't think crowds would drop by 50 % by not having "star" riders about because in reality not many of the Worlds top 30 riders compete in the UK anyway, haven't done for a number of years now and In real terms the smaller amount of fans (compared to years gone by) )that still go to British speedway meetings have long since gotten used to the idea. Also theirs probably not enough interest from current non speedway spectators to potentially come along just cause some foreign guy who finished in the top 10 of previous seasons GP has signed for their local club. Likewise I don't think that most fans nowadays necessarily view watching the highest level of speedway as the be all and end all. The better the rider, the less mistakes they make, the faster they become which both add up to overtaking become much harder and less likely which is a key element to good racing. This is why NL racing is often better entertainment. My local NL track Mildenhall have in my opinion made the correct decision in staying in the lower cost, mainly amateur 3rd tier of British speedway because moving up into the Championship (2nd tier) would increase outgoings on rider wages and travel costs massively but crowd levels wouldn't go up enough to cover these extra costs. This was proved in the 2006-08 spell when Mildenhall moved into the 2nd Division. Likewise 2nd Division clubs moving up to the top flight have found the same thing as well for years now! I do get your theme of British speedway being reborn cause I think sooner rather than later British speedway will have to evolve into a mainly part time, lower level status and clubs and riders will have to cut their respective cloths accordingly. This will involve not paying out big time wages if the crowds can't pay for it, less expensive overseas and/or top level riders and riding on racenights that suit the individual clubs not the F.I.M. While I can't see British speedway returning to the halcyon days of the 70's I do think theirs enough interest for it to be sustainable if run within its limitations and more locally based riders are found that would help to stimulate interest!

Certainly! As a matter of interest, how many open meetings did Poole have in their "non League" season? A poster mentions Middlesbrough on the "lost" list but Redcar is in all but name Middlesbrough speedway. I believe the Redcar name is used because the track is situated in Redcar just outside the Middlesbrough boundary and is a nod to the Redcar authorities who allowed the speedway facility there to be built. Certainly another track in Middlesbrough wouldn't be built in opposition to Redcar! Is Iwade speedway still open for practice sessions? My own personal viewpoint on the future of speedway in this Country is that eventually with land prices and poor crowds the sport will continue to decline until the professional League(s) will be down to about 10 teams at the most. Then any other tracks still about will all ride in an amateur, grassroots, low cost League and thats where seeds of growth can appear. Their is an urban myth among many that top level racing is the be all and end all but that isn't the case. Quite often lower level racing can provide more interest than the top level where riders make less mistakes and are too fast to overtake. Speedway in East Anglia is a prime example cause Mildenhall speedway in the 3rd Division more often than not provides better value for money than its two top neighbouring tracks King's Lynn and Ipswich. Indeed Lynn and Ipswich who have long traditions of staging top flight racing have had resurgences after dropping down into 2nd Division racing. Hopefully one day sports venues will have more protection from the government if those in power will ever recognise the importance of having outlets for the population. Venues like Exeter, Cradley, Coventry, Arena Essex to name but a few should have had preservation orders on them ensuring their survival as sports venues.

That's exactly what I meant, cause I knew the Pirates had a year out of the Leagues! Lets hope Poole speedway survives the present concerns about its future!

100%! I still live in hope that I may just be around long enough to speedway back in Norwich! Whilst speedway is seemingly on a one street to oblivion, I can still see a future for it cause at grassroots level it is just about sustainable cause theirs still much interest. The future may well be basic tracks in fields like Somerset/Scunthorpe/Buxton run by enthusiasts with facilities built up over time and riders being part time.

All 3 of my local tracks have been defunct for a spell after the initial first time ever of opening up! Ipswich had a chequered, struggling history in the 60's and it looked like Foxhall was lost completely to speedway in the late 60's when the original track was tarmaced for car racing. In 1969, John Berry and Joe Thurley as legend says, climbed the perimeter fence, surveyed the vast Foxhall arena and came up with the idea of carving a new track inside! - Since 1969 Ipswich speedway have been ever presents in League speedway and can probably claim to be one of the most stable tracks still operating! King's Lynn shut in 1996 while major improvements were made to what was at the time a crumbling stadium that had been possibly earmarked for the site of another warehouse. Nowadays the Norfolk arena has been improved with decent facilities and is a popular venue for speedway and stock cars. Mildenhall first shut in 1989, remerging in the 2nd half of 1991 with a new track and concrete terracing on the 1st and 2nd bends. A mid season 2nd Division closure followed in 1992 before a successful 3rd Division revival began in 1994. Another mid season closure occurred in 2010 but since then they have been a well supported Sunday afternoon speedway outfit. Other places like Wolves, Berwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Birmingham, Poole, Plymouth, Scunthorpe, Leicester and others have reopened at either their former venues or new venues after spells of no inactivity! So to answer your question Yes it does happen but obviously its hard to restart again especially in modern times with modest crowds and huge construction and land expenses. Lets hope that places like Coventry, Oxford, Bradford, Rye House, Cradley, Southampton, Norwich, Arena Essex, Stoke, Buxton, Newport, Exeter, Bristol, Workington, Hull and others can at some point stage speedway again!

I keep including a Workington angle in part of all my posts on this thread! I agree wholeheartedly about your views on speedway in Norwich Brian! Norwich Stars speedway at the Firs was an institution not only in Norwich and Norfolk but also East Anglia. I know many people from Suffolk and Cambridgeshire went to the Firs regularly. Speak to anyone 70+ years of age in the Norfolk area and its highly likely they took in spectating at the Firs at some point. As you say with the ballroom and Firs pub (now a Tescos!) across the road, the social scene around the speedway was tremendous! - Was Sandor Levais wife really 6'6"? - Sandor wasn't over tall! I've heard it said that Norwich City FC had a lot of influence on the local Council in them days and saw the speedway as big rival in terms of crowd pulling so made things difficult for the numerous attempts to reopen speedway in the City. Nowadays with the Canaries getting 27,000 sell outs despite one of the poorest seasons I've ever seen, a speedway track wouldn't be any threat! I'd be interested to know how many people from Norwich go regularly to watch speedway at Ipswich, Mildenhall and King's Lynn. I'd suggest it wouldn't be more than a few hundred at the very most so like you say I don't think a new speedway track in Norwich would be any threat to the local tracks, in fact it would help to stimulate extra interest and fans? The Norfolk Showground is in my opinion the most ideal location for a new speedway track in the Norwich area! I've always liked Derwent Park as a speedway venue but Workingtons history there is one of initial boom - early 70's in the 1st era then 1999 - 2004 in the second coming then when the novelty wears of it struggles to be viable as the crowds drift away. Therefore I reckon the best chance of a viable long term Workington speedway set up is for a self owned Somerset/Scunthorpe like venue at Northside where all income streams go to the speedway. - That said a Somerset/ Scunthorpe like venue would go down well in Norwich!

That's wonderful news about Bordesley Green Brian, but surely the owner Phil Bond must be getting a bit long in the tooth (like myself!) if he was running things there in 1984? What are the long term prospects for the venue continuing as a motorsports (or as the name of the venue says - Wheels) venue? I've long thought that while Birmingham Wheels wasn't right for Birmingham speedway, with the location being in the middle of the Country a National speedway training venue would of found an ideal home there. Then again I've often thought if funds could subsidise it a Birmingham 'Wheels' or Birmingham 'Bulls' National League team. Makes a nice change for a motorsports venue to be retained rather than built on. Any more latest news regarding the Workington Northside plans?

The great Brian Buck, Mr Birmingham speedway! I've always read your almost exclusively spot on views with much interest and followed your long campaign to get back speedway back to Birmingham from the 1986 Bordesley Green closure time. Thankfully the Brummies are well entrenched back at their spiritual home, Perry Bar! - Has the Wheels site shut for good now? Cyril Crane and Martin Rogers with a lot of help from the then very strong Norwich speedway supporters club got land behind the Marsham Arms in Hevingham and ran a Black licence meeting using junior riders + David Crane without the consent of the speedway control board in early December 1976 on a very cold day as I recall. The crowd was quoted as over 2000 which wasn't bad considering the time of the year, next to no facilities and the riders were mostly under 16. Cyril eventually got fined by the speedway control board for staging an unlicensed meeting, I recall legendary Ipswich promotor John Berry being a loud critic of the meeting. Although the local Council had allowed a small number of practices and meetings to take place on a trial basis before a hoped for future full planning application, they later became very anti speedway at the site no doubt finding Cyrils rebellious stance against the control board unappealing. I think eventually the Council used the dodgy blind entrance (if coming from North of the venue, most fans from the City would of entered the venue from the South!) as the main reason for not allowing it to become a permanent venue for speedway. Shame cause I think the venue had potential, the issues with the entrance could have been overcome if the Council had really wanted to with signage, a 30 MPH zone and maybe traffic lights on racenights. Cyril intended to run in the old National League in 1977 and at the time I'd imagine it would have been well supported. Its possible that eventually facilities would have been built up over time like a grandstand and concrete terracing, the Norwich team running out of there would of moved up into the British League and it would still be running up to present times. - I still maintain that a Norwich speedway track could run even in modern times without adversely affecting the attendances at nearby Ipswich, Mildenhall and King's Lynn cause many Norwich locals who didn't go to speedway would be enticed to become regulars. Not sure with King's Lynn already called the Stars, what the new Norwich team would have been called? - I suspect John Berrys opposition to the unlicensed meeting had much to do with him being worried about losing some of his crowd to the new track. The land is still unused to this day and is not near to any housing apart from the adjacent Marsham Arms pub. Today I still think this would make a good venue for a Norwich speedway stadium. Back to Workington. As Brian Buck would testify, 3rd Division speedway was the saviour of Birmingham speedway and has led to the club returning to the 2nd tier. So 3rd tier racing at Northside would be better than no speedway and is a good starting point. Hopefully the plans on the Northside venue bear fruit and Workington Comets return to League racing. Ironically while I've never been to Northside I'd imagine it wouldn't be to much different to what Hevingham was all them years ago!

On the contrary, Laura Morgan made it public that running Workington speedway was a loss making exercise during the last title winning season and after winning the League was very non committal about running which was proved when speedway didn't run at Derwent Park in 2019. If anyone wanted to take on Workington speedway at Derwent Park and were serious about it, things would of happened during the last 2018 season or even in the 2018/19 winter to ensure the clubs survival. I'm sure any would be saviour was put of by the debts Laura Morgan accrued. The current plans to build a new Workington speedway track on the Northside training track sound promising and look to offer the only realistic way that League speedway will return to the area. The fact that the would be speedway promotion would also own the site (after building it themselves) and subsequently have the rights to the all income streams attached would make the chances of the venue being financially viable much more likely. A Somerset/Redcar/Scunthorpe like set up at Northside that could develop over time while in operation could work I reckon. Heres hoping we see the Workington Comets back in League speedway soon!

If Workington had regular viable crowds in its last years of operation they wouldn't of closed and would still be operating out of Derwent Park! - The old adage of use it or lose it certainly applies in this instance. I remember in the 80's right through to 2002 King's Lynn speedway struggled along year after year in the top flight with supporters saying it was top flight or nothing. I think the King's Lynn owners wanted to drop down into the old National League as early as 1986 but supporters always had the attitude of not wanting it so managed to convince the promotion to not do it. - Fast forward to 2003, after another poor struggling top flight campaign in 2002 King's Lynn finally bit the bullet and dropped down which was a blessing in disguise as the move revitalised the club and eventually led to the club returning to the top flight! - Nearby Ipswich have also had a new lease of life after dropping down a couple of times and then eventually returning to the top flight! Top flight racing isn't the be all and end all. Us in East Anglia know that very well cause more often than not NL fare at West Row on a Sunday afternoon is better value than top flight racing at nearby Ipswich and King's Lynn! Anyway my original team in speedway Norwich Stars have been absent now since 1964, a whopping 56 years and counting. I think 3rd Division speedway in Norwich would be welcomed with open arms!

Graham Jones (the first one by the way not the 1980's/90's Stoke and Wolves rider!) had his first League rides for Boston in the early 70's before going to ride long distance for Berwick for many years so wasn't completely a one club man!

You can say that about many Businesses in these unprecedented times!

World class riders like Craven, Briggs and Fundin used to race at Yarmouth mainly in the open licence years and produced good racing. Likewise Lakeside, Armadale and Newcastle are three of the more awkward shaped tracks of recent years and all have produced good racing! Indeed the awkward shape of the Great Yarmouth track would be beneficial at National League level cause the requirement to turn sharp into the corners would help to improve up and coming riders skill levels much in the same way as Buxton did for many years!

Sad that a stadium that used to stage well attended speedway and stock car meetings until under 4 years ago and would still be to this day is in such a state. Its a long shot but hopefully, somehow ownership can be reverted to a leisure company who can reopen the venue for speedway, stock cars, greyhounds and other events!

Did a sterling service at many tracks for a lot of years. One of his great feats was building Romfords track from scratch in a couple of weeks! He was still helping out in the late 90's when Dingle Brown ran Mildenhall! He must surely have been in his 90's when he passed away?

Running a reopened Great Yarmouth speedway in the National League would be the only way to have any chance of the venture being financially viable cause holiday makers would boost attendances if the meetings were advertised and relying on an area that hasn't staged speedway since 1961 to provide a reasonable hardcore of regular fans would be optimistic to say the least. This is considering that when Yarmouth last staged speedway from the late 40's to 1961 they struggled for crowds outside of the holiday period in an era when crowds were much larger than those of modern times!

My abiding memory of Smallmead in its latter days was that it was a decent stadium apart from the ageing main stand and the car park that needed resurfacing. Replace the main stand and sort out the car park and you would of had a very good speedway stadium!

Bill Dore and his daughter Pat Bliss ran both the speedway and the greyhounds at Smallmead. It doesn't take a genius to work which one of the two sports was the only profitable one! Therefore I'd say that greyhounds did subsidise the speedway. Subsequent speedway promotions after who didn't run the greyhounds as well, lost money!

Yes a tragedy when one considers when Smallmead was originally built in 1975 Reg Fearman got a 90 something year lease on the land which obviously got changed and apart from a new main stand needed the stadium was still in a decent state. Although for the last 20 years of its existence at least, the greyhounds subsidised the mostly poorly attended speedway meetings. The idea when Smallmead stadium got demolished was for a new stadium elsewhere in Reading featuring speedway, greyhounds and incorporating a casino. Could this type of set up be built at Smallmead? I've always felt that a Somerset type of set up could be built on the Smallmead site, with the facilities slowly being improved as time goes on. - Multi use would be necessary to give it any chance of being viable. - stock cars, greyhounds, all weather pitches, speedway training track?