MajorMauger

A Norwich Stars, Yarmouth Bloaters and Norfolk speedway legend! A very good innings for a very interesting life!

Ask fans of defunct clubs and they'll tell you to be careful of what you wish for!

You could say that about almost every football club, Rugby club and (obviously) speedway club in the Country!

Rew was almost certainly always going to be a work in progress project whereby he needs to be given this season to get acclimatised as long as hes shown signs of improvement and potential to be competitiveness which he has. King doesn't score enough as a 3rd heatleader for a team with serious title ambitions but its hard to see who they could get who would come in and start doing better. Big mistake replacing one Thompson for the other because while Dans a step from Joe your only talking about an upgrade of 3pts a meeting on a good day. There were better options out there like Bailey, Rowe and local lad Kemp. While I understand why Louis may have reservations about Kemp cause we all do with his attitude and lack of aggression in tight situations he'd of almost certainly scored better than Dan Thompson.

The only 2 tracks out of them that directly shut as a result of low crowds were Newcastle and Eastbourne. With no planning application yet to be put in for the East of England Showground is there any chance of speedway taking place there next season and maybe even somebody buying the stadium so it remains in situ? - Cause with the leisure facilities planned for the EoES site surely keeping the stadium would only benefit such plans?

If you talked to riders from the 60's a lot of them struggled when the pudding basin helmets were replaced by open faced helmets that went right round the side and over the ears because they couldn't hear as well! - I still recall seeing a few riders with pudding basin helmets in the early 70;s, when did these get outlawed? Dave Jessup rode one meeting for Mildenhall at Wimbledon in 1988 which was his final one and he was still wearing a monkey mask. I'm not sure if he ever did wear a full faced helmet, the only time may have been when he was sponsored by Briggo in the early 70's? Ray Morton and Scott Swain are two of the last riders I remember who wore open faced helmets. A question! - Are open faced helmets outlawed in present times or not?

Decent meeting, heat 15 with all the passing and close racing is almost as good a race as is possible to see! Dry slick track, were they expecting rain? Thompsons needs a break from the team. Not improving, not on the pace and getting fed up of it. King is King which is inconsistency/ doesn't adapt to different track conditions, but of course he is part of the furniture at Foxhall but for a team with title winning aspirations as a No 3 he comes up short. That said Wolves were very good apart from Flint, seems like they are on a mission after the devastating news about Monmore Green earlier this season.

I hope your wrong obviously! I think British speedway will continue to deterioate to a point where drastic measures that should be happening now like clubs allowed to run on whatever night they wish to run on, more use of English riders, 2nd halves, not having dictatorial Directors like Godfrey bending the rules to suit himself, independent governance of the Leagues, less doubling up etc will be implemented. Whether it has a long term future is debatable but I think we will see League racing on the 100th anniversary in 2028.

Ludicrous, petty, short sighted, almost certainly illegal and most importantly derogatory to the future of the sport in this Country, a sport that is wobbling badly as it is.

When one considers that a certain Rob Godfrey head honcho of the BSPL is part of the Speedway Control Board, EG the SCB, and also holds NORA events at his Scunthorpe track then one can make their own minds up about the farcical nature of this incident! - (I totally respect what Rob Godfrey has done at Scunthorpe opening and maintaining speedway racing in a Town that struggled to run viable speedway in the 70's and 80's but his decisions at SCB and BSPL managerial level are not made with the best interests of speedway at heart) I'm sure if this was taken to a court of law then the Speedway Control Board wouldn't have a leg to stand on if you consider freedom of trade rights. In these days of speedway looking like its long term future in this Country is severely under threat, trying to eliminate an initiative that could lead to more track time for riders and potentially new tracks opening is very counter productive!

If I look like Chris Holder does when I'm 90 I'll be happy!

I'll never be a fan of the teamsuits cause I feel racejackets serve the purpose of the team aspect and it'd be nice to see riders have their own individual racesuits. My only criticism of Ipswichs colours are the fact they should be blue and white which are the traditional Ipswich colours! Yes if every track in the UK was run like Ipswich then the sport over here would be in a better position!

Anderson is more washed up than Iverson, otherwise I quite agree! Despite Peterborough being a poor, stale outfit, it was a decent meeting last night with passing and incident. I wish Doyle and Sayfutinov would miss the gate in every race cause they are pure entertainment when coming from the back!

Whilst I don't have a high opinion of Chris Louis as a person you cannot deny that he runs one of the most professional speedway set ups in Britain.

Both clubs stink of staleness, going through the motions, half hearted lack of interest from the owner and teams of riders most other clubs don't want.

Weymouth and Poole speedways had good times when under his ownership.

Your right, Sir Arthur Elvin (originally from the great City of Norwich!) died in early 1957 while on a cruise at the reasonably young age of 57. He alone for some years had been the main reason League speedway continued at Wembley (speedway was apparently his first sporting love) so his death was soon followed by the Lions team being pulled out of the League by the remaining Wembley Directors. Its reasonable to suggest that had Elvin lived until his 80's then League speedway at Wembley could very well have continued uninterrupted into the 1980's, especially since speedway had a renaissance in the late 60's up until the early 80's and the 1970/71 Wembley Lions two year spell in the British League was a well supported success. - I'm sure also that a follow on from League speedway at Wembley lasting until the 80's would have been major meetings surviving for even longer (into the 1990's?) at the grand stadium when one considers that the last speedway meeting at Wembley, the 1981 World final took place 11 years after the last season of League racing there back in 1971 with quite a few other big speedway meetings taking place between 1972 and 1981. All ifs and buts like everything else in life, its always interesting to wonder how different things could have turned out just by one event not happening as it did!

The FA didn't own Wembley in 1972 when the successful Wembley Lions speedway team were told they couldn't be fitted into the stadiums schedule largely filled by football. The last speedway meeting at Wembley, the 81 World Final had a crowd that wasn't far of a full house and the 84 final was due to be staged there as well. A speedway meeting at Wembley would certainly attract a 40,000+ crowd at least?

I' m sure you could be correct. While I'm a keen environmentalist and totally agree with plans to make human beings more "green" some of the rules trying to achieve this are ridiculous. If the current Peterborough speedway track and stadium was retained and 30 meetings (nowadays this amount of meetings would be extremely unlikely ) and 20 practise sessions were staged a year that would be 50 days out 365 days a year when speedway would take place and then that'd equate to 45 minutes of noise spread out over 2-5 hours. - Hardly constitutes a noise issue! - Anyway the wonderful grass centregreen is very environmentally friendly! - Anyway eventually combustion engines will be a thing of the past and electric bikes will be the norm. The current speedway track and stadium would be brilliant additions to the leisure developments. - Has anyone tried to plant this seed thought in the mind of Councillors, planners and other relevant parties?

Yes I've had that impression with King's Lynn and Peterborough before this season.

Maybe Busters losing interest cause King's Lynn seem very lack lustre as well?

King got double figures so wasn't awful but he tailed of badly in his last 2 rides when his bike didn't seem quick enough. Rew like you say is getting better weekly! Is it any wonder Kasperzaks team mates aren't enamoured with him? Mind you the whole team seemed a bit lack lustre, almost going through the motions.

Peterborough like Busters other team King's Lynn look in poor shape, definitely them two for the bottom 2. On the subject of the pending closure, I was glad Rob Lyon spoke up to mention he was dissapointed about the distinct lack of fight to keep the club going. The Peterborough track and stadium is one of the best around in my opinion and more of a fight should be happening to retain it. I can't see why the track and stadium can't be included in the new leisure pans for the Showground especially since the indoor Arena is remaining and speedway has been a Peterborough and Cambridgeshire institution since 1970. Indeed I was listening to live coverage of Wolves V Panthers on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire tonight!

Yes Mimmos very correct in his assessments on the current state of play at Mildenhall speedway. Nice atmosphere and I get the impression the management are trying to be more professional than they have been in the past which makes the meeting experience better for the fans. The Mildenhall track is only an issue when its grippy and some of the inexperienced riders can't handle it.

Kasperzak was shocking today at Ipswich, shutting of going into the 1st bend and when Rew got near and eventually overtook him shut off and seemed to feign bike troubles. Insult to the paying public, the Stars management and his team mates. With fellow heatleaders Kindt and Palm Toft inconsistent like the rest of the team, Lynn have a battle with Peterborough to avoid the wooden spoon.