MajorMauger

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!

Billy Bales retired at the end of 1967 not 1969 as my fellow ex Norwich Stars fans Star Ghost suggests! Though hes right in saying that Billy begun his career at Great Yarmouth in the late 1940's, so he enjoyed a long career! Geof Pymar first rode at Norwich in about 1930 and I believe rode his last season at Middlesbrough or Bradford in about 1962 though I'm sure Star ghost will correct me! Les Collins first rode league speedway for Crewe in 1975 and was still going in 2003 with Glasgow! Neil Collins first rode in about 77/78 and finshed in 2006 with newport. Ivan Mauger first rode speedway in 1955 in New Zealand and finished riding competitively in 1986! Olle Nygren also rode for many years from possibly the late 40's till the mid 70's. If you don't count league careers and just total years spent racing then some riders have had massively long careers. For instance I remember seeing Chris Louis/gary Havelock/Mark loram riding on junior grasstracks in the late 70's/early 80's and others like Phil Morris, Scott Nicholls and Leigh Lanham riding in the mid 80's!

That is quite obvious - many of the spectators who followed Southampton speedway up until the early 60's closure wouldn't now be with us just like many who I stood with at the Firs, (Norwich speedway) but that doesn't mean that a new, young generation of fans couldn't be found. I bet theres quite a lot of old Southampton Saints fans still about anyway! Southamptons a big place so the population is there to draw a crowd from. How many people from Southampton go to Poole speedway or IOW speedway the nearest tracks to the city? - Probably not many, but if speedway returned to Southampton I bet many persons from the area would be enticed to go. Southampton remains in my opinion like Norwich, Bristol, Halifax, Exeter, Cornwall, Wimbledon, Cradley, Leicester and no doubt others a totally untapped potential hotbed of speedway. If only the local Council could see this! Good luck with the reunion!

Southampton would be a great place to reopen speedway as I'm sure it would be well supported!

Hope it comes off but like everything else in speedway I'll believe it when I see it! Good luck!

Ellesmere Port stadium still stands to this day. Tony Mole was twice turned down in 2001 when trying for planning permission there despite strong local support, which was evident at the very well attended public meetings they had. The reasons given for turning the application down were parking issues and the dreaded noise aspect though speedway had been staged there up until the end of 1985 from 1972 when the bikes were much more noisier. I'm sure that CL or even lower budget PL racing could work at Ellesmere Port.

Graham Clifton is Luke Cliftons uncle so I'm led to believe!

Agree totally! Regionalisation goes on now anyway as it is - Look at all the northern tracks that make up a big chunk of the PL. They stay there cause they know they'll get local away fans coming to meetings which wouldn't happen if they went in to the EL. I'm sure that with their large support, Workington would of moved up into the EL by now if they were more central.

The CL has offered young/new riders a proper constructive less competitive than the 2nd Division (PL) league to fine tune their talents. The CL has offered capable riders who although aren't good enough for higher leagues but are still capable of producing entertaining speedway an outlet. The CL is much more constructive and provides more opportunities than what the old 2nd half junior/reserve leagues ever managed to be! The CL has offered teams like Boston, Mildenhall, Stoke, Scunthorpe, Rye House, Berwick, St Austell at a new venue who all struggled to afford higher league racing in the past and had closed down an cheaper alternative to allow them to reopen, rejuvenate then eventually make the move back into higher league racing. - I'm local to Mldenhall and believe me without the CL the Fen Tigers would of never come back into speedway and I'd say the same applies at Rye House as well. The CL has also offers opportunities for new teams/old training tracks such as Plymouth (yes I know they had a team up to 1970 but this is a new track and 36 years down the line!) Buxton, Somerset, Iwade (Sittingbourne), the old Linlithgow to try league racing and in the case of Somerset and I suspect soon in the future Plymouth the momentum to try a higher league. The Premier league in particular has the CL to thank for its strength of numbers. Without the CL this year Oxford speedway would now be defunct instead of the situation now when the CL has given them a fighting chance of building itself up again. The same scanario applied in 1996 at Arena Essex cause when the previous 1995 top flight promotion uped and left to supposedly pastures greener at Hackney. The stadium owners at Arena kept speedway alive there by running CL when otherwise speedway would of probably closed. Yes I'd agree that an element of the CL namely the utterly ridiculous grading system is shambolic but the concept of the CL is brilliant in that it has done so much for the sport in terms of teams, tracks and riders. The CL should be preserved at all costs! Again I've seen more posters put in their prefered league set ups for next with Exeter, Buxton and Sittingbourne in a reorganised PL. Exeter aren't running next year while Sittingbourne and Buxton have small budgets at CL level so wouldn't contemplate a higher league set up. Anyway getting rid of the CL would see the end of the Rye House Raiders and the Boston Barracudas - 2 of the better ran and productive CL outfits.

No way ever should the CL be sacrificed cause the EL is struggling! CL has been one of the best innovations ever in speedway - so it should stay in its present state! Anyway look at the situation realistically - Sittingbourne and Buxton couldn't afford to go into a more expensive league cause they struggle to keep afloat at their present CL level. If they were forced to move inot a higher level then their only alternative would be to cease with League racing. Exeter aren't running next year do to planning difficulties. Theirs no guarantee that Oxford will revert to higher league next year anyway. What should happen - The EL should be joined by 4 PL teams making the numbers up to 14. One home and one away in the league, play offs, kO cup, bring back the internationals, bring two foriegn clubs over to ride challenge matchs at 14 EL tracks at the start of the season to give them another fixture. 6 man teams with 2 of the team British. The PL would lose 4 tracks but hopefully Scunthorpe, Plymouth and Oxford could be persuaded to move up from the CL to increase numbers, with any other new track reopening or moving up from the CL having to go into the PL. In a few years the PL could be bolstered by the return of Cradley, Leicester, Exeter Hull ETc. 3 riders out of every PL team must be British. But please the CL as it is!

If it was done properly, EG the fair distribution of riders then it could work for most teams but; I'm afraid Buxton and Sittingbourne struggle to afford CL so most definately couldn't run at an even higher level. Also finishing the CL would most probably mean the end of one of its stronger better run clubs in Boston who don't have a track of their own and don't get regular good crowds at KL. So looking at these points it is far better to continue with 3 leagues - but trying to make the EL more interesting and viable. With Exeter hopefully returing, Oxford likely to revert to PL, Scunthorpe set to move up with Plymouth thinking about it, as well as strong murmouring from 2 former big league teams who could have new stadiums then their would be scope for 3-4 of the better PL tracks to move up without hurting the PL number wise!