MajorMauger

I hope Stoke speedway sorts itself out cause it is on the slippery slope to oblivion how things are being run at the moment. No one wants to see Stoke speedway close as much as we don't want to see a rider getting seriously maimed for life or worse so changes are needed! A properly run Stoke speedway with money spent on improving the facilities could be viable at 2nd tier level cause many of the stay away fans would return! This will only happen when a different promotion to the current Dave Tattum set up is running the Potters!

Kelvin Mullarky was one of the great characters of British speedway of the 1970's and 80's! His confrontational, loud, aggressive personality which was a bit of a front cause Kelvin wasn't really like that, often overshadowed the fact he was a decent speedway rider! I always felt he could have established himself as a middle order top flight rider had he wanted to but Kelvin seemed happy to be a bigger fish in the National League where his antics would be more appreciated! Got to be one of Rye House Rockets greatest ever riders! I recall him coming out of retirement after initially finishing at Rye after the 1985 season, at Mildenhall then back at Rye House again in the late 80's and did he make a few appearances for Rye House in 1990? Kelvin had to of been one of the last riders in the top 2 Leagues that wore the old style 1970's grey monkey mask?

A shale track would surely increase the chances of speedway returning to Brafield?

Good luck Brett Saunders! An exciting, all action rider as I remember! One of the few riders I've seen hit the stock car fence at Ipswich on the 1st bend, back in 1989/90 in the Witches National League (1970's/-1990 2nd Division NL version!) days after going through the collapsible wooden fence on the inside speedway fence. I believe he hurt himself badly in that one and had to have an organ removed.

One, if not the greatest rider speedway has ever seen! Not the most naturally talented but his desire, commitment, work ethic and overall attitude was far, far superior to anyone elses! Todays ultra professionalism was started by Ivan Mauger!

Its a difficult question to answer! Last season I felt their were to many matches in the 2nd Division especially when riding teams twice at home and away. The novelty of seeing teams twice over wears of. It OK in a big League where you see most teams only once. Anyway most tracks don't run individual or challenge matches nowadays because people don't support them. At Ipswich which I suspect must be in the top 5-6 best supported tracks in the Country, they used to run the Star of Anglia and 16 lapper individuals as well as challenge matches but don't do any now. Look abroad, where in Sweden they run less meetings but get bigger crowds. In Poland again they have less meetings and much bigger crowds. Even in Poland which is the best attended speedway nation in the World, non League meetings aren't well attended! On the weather question, this spring so far has been horrendous weather wise and running substandard meetings in poor conditions aren't good for the sport because those attending get wet and fed up while many most don't bother attending at all!

Interesting photos! What became of the speedway track in Leningrad?

Great response thought not at all surprising! Trouble is we've been here before at Cradley where despite near total opposition to the redevelopment plans eventually the developers win the fight unfortunately! Not holding much hope but you never know!

Vaclav Verner couldn't have been no older than early 70's? Shock to me cause he always seemed such a healthy. fit bloke! Amazing to watch at Exeter and I well remember the Czech tours of the early 70's on the 2nd Division tracks where he made a massive impression with his daredevil riding! Was still a force on track in the early 90's!

Unorthodox riding style due to his tall height but he was a very good 2nd Division heatleader while with Eastbourne in the late 80's! Yes he was the winner of the notorious unlicensed junior meeting at Hevingham near Norwich on a cold lunchtime just after Christmas in 1976 in front of over 2000 fans! Still convinced had this venue got the go ahead it would still be in operation now and very likely in the top Division cause the support levels in the Norwich area were good and would of seen the venue develop into a bonafide stadium!

Great work by the IoW promotion since their rebirth although I still and will always maintain that "Islanders" is such a better nickname (because it is original and can only be associated with an Island team of which the IoW are the only one!)than the "Warriors" which has been around for donkeys years when I believe Wigan were called that! Back to the main subject point - Len Silver is one of the all time greats and still continues to produce the goods at Kent. OK he is cantankerous, thinks he's always right and doesn't accept others opinions, but I'm sure Kent speedway would be worse of without his input! That said, Kent speedway will sooner rather than later have big decisions to make cause with their healthy support and impressive facilities, the clamour for the Kings to operate at a higher level has already begun so eventually in order to maintain interest, avoiding going stale (like Rye House did under Uncle Len), they will have to move up a level!

If you was going to lay money on one rider injuring himself in this way, you'd of put it on Josh Bates. That said how many thousands of youngsters have been messing about on sledges this week? I remember messing about with ice skates in 1963 which was a much worse spell than this current bad one!

Kai Niemi for me! Rode in the British League for 15 years from the mid 70's to early 90's when nearly all the Worlds top riders competed in it when it was the World toughest speedway League and for many of them years had averages of 6+. Rode in a number of World Finals pre the GP years when you had to qualify on merit rather than wildcards. Also must be noted that Niemi had to get through the notoriously hard Nordic final then the Inter Continental final which often had a stronger line up than the final itself. At Bradford in 1985 he was in the top 6 scorers!

The vast majority of professional football clubs in this Country run at a loss and that includes the big clubs! Iconic sports venues like Coventry speedway should have preservation orders put on them preventing them being demolished! The fact that their are parties who would take on the stadium and reopen it regardless of profit or loss margins speaks for itself. Anyway, has the Stadium been a burden on the Local or National tax payers? I'd suggest that the stadium has increased the local economy and gave a few jobs to locals! While I've got nothing against Mick Horton and appreciate that running a British speedway track in modern times isn't easy, Chris Harris' pretty damning assessment of him in this weeks speedway star says as much as you need to know about him!

There must have been 3-5000 at the dog meeting at Romford when I went and we parked although it was difficult to find a space. Now in current times I doubt if hardly any team meetings in British speedway get more than 2500 at the most! Speedway at Romford Greyhound stadium could work I think!

I've been to Romford greyhound stadium and there is lots of noise and the main London, Liverpool St to Norwich is right next to it. I can't imagine one night of speedway a week 25 times a year in the summer with strict time limits, acoustic barriers and the pits area situated in a position in the stadium where its noise is kept to a minimum like Birmingham would be a problem?

Len Silver got the bug again after the 1999 homeless Rye House Rockets rode in the Conference League, racing their home matches at Mildenhall and Eastbourne. Without the initiative of the fans who decided to do this, its doubtful Rye House would of got going again! Yes they maybe a futile exercise but Cradley for instance have been a major pull at 3rd Division level, pulling in big crowds home and away, bringing on up and coming young riders and keeping the clubs name alive!

In a perfect world we'd have no homeless teams competing in Leagues but if allowing these teams to run eventually leads to them finding a new track or in Rye Houses case in 2000 a return to their stadium then their existence is justified!

Yes it was a scandal that such a well supported sports team, the Romford Bombers were forced to close cause of one blokes campaign. Ironically, the blokes son was a "Bombers" regular and the guy moved soon after winning his campaign. I'm convinced that had Romford speedway been allowed to continue, the Bombers with their huge support would of eventually gone into the top flight and become one of the biggest club sides in the Country, probably much the same as Ipswich speedway did who opened the same year as Romford in 1969! I believe the stadium was knocked down in the late 70's because the football team were struggling and couldn't afford to keep it open, how ironic again! I also think that reopening Romford speedway at the Greyhound track would also be viable even in current times and would be the closest thing we'd have to a London track!

Like others have rightly pointed out Ron Bagley along with John Berry and John Louis are the names that spring to mind when casting your mind back to the formative days of the current incarnation of Ipswich speedway which began in 1969 on a new track inside the stock car which was the old original speedway track! Indeed while John Berry is correctly credited with being one of the best promotors ever, the assistance he received from Ron helped him achieve this! Ron Bagley was one of the few riders who rode on both the outside and inside Ipswich tracks, indeed he rode for the Witches in both eras which I'm not sure anyone else did? He was instrumental in helping to nurture the careers of Witches legends John Louis, Billy Sanders and Tony "Shrimp" Davey as well as many others in them wonderful years in the 70's. His team riding with Louis in 1970/71 at Foxhall was masterful! I recall him starting out at Caister Road, Great Yarmouth riding for the Bloaters alongside Geoff Pymer. He will also be remembered by older Mildenhall fans cause he was team manager in 1979 when the Fen Tigers won the National League. He also had a short less fruitful spell trying to turn around the fortunes of an ailing Workington speedway in the early 80's before drifting away from the sport. Alongside another Ipswich speedway legend, "Noddy", Ron should have a spread in the 1st meeting programme! If there was an Ipswich Witches speedway hall of fame, then Ron Bagley would be most definitely in it!

In fairness Joe Jacobs was never going to be more than a 6pt 2nd Division rider at the very most! But he's had less chances than many 2nd/3rd rate foriegners! If he'd of been about in the 1970's Joe would of had more rides for teams!

Henny Kroeze by a proverbial mile! Held a regular place in the top flight and was a half decent rider around Halifax! Even rode in the 1987 World Final in Amsterdam when he was seeded in being the best Dutch rider even then, when he was way past his best!

Silly question when you look at the results! Armando Castagna by a preverbial mile!

Noddy always said he started watching speedway when John Berry and Joe Thurley reopened Ipswich in 1969 which is now 48 years ago, so I'd say he was in his 60's? I well remember him from the 1970's and he must have been in his 20's then? A unique character!

A great character who you'd bump into all over the place at various speedway tracks especially his beloved Ipswich and nearby Mildenhall! One of his greatest achievements was hitchiking to the Ukraine in 1990 for the World U21 Final fittingly won by Ipswich's own Chris Louis! Yes at one time he was a cobbler amongst other things. I believe he often worked at shops where he knew that someone, either a rider, promoter or a fan lived nearby so he could hitch a lift to the speedway! He can't have been any older than late 60's? Speedway's much the worse without this one- off character!