MajorMauger

Brian Anderson only rode for Coventry and Oxford in the UK. Hope Newcastle speedway reopens at some point, unlikely but not impossible!

When Rye House closed in 2018 they were in the top tier. Like I said they enjoyed a good 1st season in the top tier in 2017 when Saturday night racing proved popular but in the winter the set racenight was brought into the top flight which meant that Saturday night racing was out of bounds for top flight teams. Rye House had to move to Wednesday night racing which decimated crowd levels which lead to the Rockets pulling out of the League mid season. Lets hope Rye House Rockets return cause I think that Saturday night racing would be popular at Hoddesdon! Likewise, for Workingtons reopening to be successful Saturday racing has to be a must!

I hope your right Rob! Didn't Rye House close mainly because a successful, well supported Saturday night operation was forced to move to midweek racing because of the dreaded set racenights for the top flight? - Same reason why Poole now reside in the 2nd tier when they are one of the biggest clubs in the Country and should really be in the top flight! I'm convinced that Rye House speedway running on a Saturday night would again be a viable well supported operation if it can be re opened! Good luck to the new Workington speedway set up at Northside. In this day and age of diminishing crowds, less greyhound stadiums around and excessive rental demands from existing stadium landlords, the Northside blueprint of owning your land and building it up into a bonafide stadium as and when funds allow seems the only way to open new speedway tracks. - Although obviously I hope Rye House speedway will be an exception to the rule as well as Eastbourne, Kent and Coventry!

100000000000 miles of the mark! It would be financial suicide for Mildenhall and Kent to move up especially Kent at Iwade. Workington closed down in 2018 cause they couldn't make the 2nd tier pay on low crowds and they won the League! Getting rid of the 3rd tier would wipe Mildenhall and Kent out of League racing and Workington wouldn't consider League racing without a cheaper Division to test the water. The 3rd tier in its many guises had been one of the best things to happen in British speedway since its formation in 1994. In fact a 3rd tier was needed from the 1970's as the great Ian Thomas observed at the time. The likes of Workington, Barrow, Ellesmere Port, Milton Keynes, Birmingham Wheels, Hackney, Scunthorpe and Mildenhall who all closed in the 1978-1992 era would of stood a better chance of continuing and maybe other venues like Norton Canes, Felton, Iwade, Castleford, Matchams Park and others would of seen League racing which would of changed the landscape of British speedway. Tracks like Rye House, Mildenhall, Somerset, Buxton, Stoke, Wimbledon, Arena Essex, Plymouth, Weymouth, IoW, Linlithgow, Carmarthen, Eastbourne, Birmingham and Rob Godfreys Scunthorpe would have not opened/reopened/kept going without a 3rd Division. - The 3rd tier has been a nursery ground/feeder for the higher leagues in both riders and tracks. Young riders would have seen development limited without the 3rd tier cause the old junior Leagues had run its course by 1992. On the subject of Junior Leagues - The Soutern Junior League, Midland development League and Northern Deveopment League were going well, ran at a lower level than the 3rd tier, until in their wisdom the BSPL decided they didn't like these Leagues so imposed sanctions that made running them in the previously successful format virtually impossible. The intended replacement The Premiership Junior league has been a farce so far with hardly any meetings taking place! All in all looking at the facts, the continued failure of the Premiership Junior League, current 3rd tier standalone tracks Mildenhall and Kent (in their current Iwade venue)) being unable to run at a higher Level and many young riders getting proper organised League racing experience then it becomes very obvious the 3rd tier has to continue!

Lest hope for positive news on Peterborough speedways long term future! The proposed new owner of the Panthers surely hasn't bought the promotion with only the guarantee of one more year?

Remember him being a decent long serving rider! Sounds like he had a fantastic life!

Crazy start time for a mid week double header in late October on a track and level of racing thats notorious for delays! Given that an average Mildenhall meeting takes 2hours on a good incident free day, this adds up to an 11.45pm finish on Thursday, which is not taking into account time to refresh the track inbetween! - Or I and I guess many others suspect, the 2nd meeting won't get started and the result for both finals will be counted on the one meeting!? Understandable its the end of the season and the stadium has other events on this weekend but a midweek 7.45pm start time for a double header at NL will likely put quite a few off. I'd suggest a large % of Mildenhalls regulars are retired persons who don't have to get up for work the next morning/don't have to rush back from work and its currently half term which may entice regulars with youngsters to attend so surely a 6.30pm start time could of been a more sensible start time. An earlier start time would also of been more favourable with the working age supporter I suspect? I wondered the other week why the 2nd leg of Mildenhalls play off semi final against Berwick wasn't run the day after the 1st leg up in Berwick cause this would of put the club a week ahead with fixtures which could of avoided the need for a midweek meeting? The latest meeting I've ever attended in the UK was the World U 21 final at King's Lynn a number of years back when crash after crash meant a meeting that started at 7.30pm finally ended at about 11.45pm-11.50pm by which time alot of the crowd had gone home! - And this was on a Saturday! Don't like to be the perveyor of doom and gloom and I hope it works out well for the Mildenhall promotion and I'm proved wrong but I can't see where a 7.45pm start time on Thursday is going to end well in terms of attracting a viable crowd?

Yes us oldies all remember Boston Barracudas! - A great vibrant Sunday evening out especially in the first 5-6 years after New Hammond Beck Road opened in 1970! But why put it on this Odsal thread?!

A far too young age to die. Gavin Hedge was an entertaining full throttle merchant in his League appearances mainly in the 3rd tier for Mildenhall and Wimbledon. A late starter in the sport I suspect had he started earlier he may have gone further than he did?

Interesting article, I remember watching the Russian tourists at Ipswich back in 1990 but my excitement of potential news of a possible Exeter revival was shotlived! Anybody know if anything is happening regarding the future of speedway in Exeter?

Bamforth was certainly a shrewd operator thats for sure! I remember rumours about a move to Kirky Lane dog track in about 1985, 3 years before they did it so it was always in the background as an alternative!

Yes I guess Iam! - And I'm sure you agree the sport would be better off!

Thats an amazing innings! Well done!

Like has been said before Eastbourne speedway probably hasn't been financially viable since the halcyon Division 2/NL years of the 1970's bar maybe a couple of seasons after dropping into the 2nd tier in the mid 80's and the 3rd Division seasons a few years ago. Only Bob Dugard bankrolling it for years kept things going. Even then he nearly nearly pulled the plug during the early 1980's when the first move into the top flight was proving a big struggle and this in a time when crowds were bigger than those seen in modern times. One wonders how keen Bob Dugard would have been to keep speedway going at Arlington in the 80's had his son Marin Dugard not developed into the brilliant speedway rider he was? I think British speedways is soon coming to a point where only two Leagues will be viable - a top flight for the clubs who can afford to stay professional and pay overseas riders, tracks running on nights best suited to them, ETC and a 2nd Division a little bit stronger than the current National League featuring only British riders and Commonwealth riders and run mainly on weekends and riders part time. - When this scenario arrives which I predict will happen in the next couple of years then the likes of Eastbourne and other defunct tracks will stand a better chance of reopening?

As we saw yesterday at Belle Vue Scottys no longer on the pace on the big pacey tracks but is still decent on little technical tracks where his natural ability can still get him good scores. I'd like to see him finish his career of with a couple of seasons back at his home Town track Ipswich. As for the Peterborough track, I so wish this new development on the land would include retaining the speedway track seeing as the indoor Arena is being retained so the carpark will be staying surely. Peterborough speedways one of the best facilities in British speedway and despite being in operation for 52 years still seems modern and clean. Lets face it if Peterborough speedway has to build a new track and Stadium the chances of that happening is slim at best.

I very much doubt Louis will do anything that saves fans money and means less income into the pension fund cause he knows that the play off meeting(s, hopefully!) will be well attended anyway!

Both Boocock and Bamforth were feisty, in your face characters who both said what they thought regardless of whether the opinion was rude or not and liked to have their own way so the chances of them two not clashing were minimal at best!

The current Crystal Palace Athletics stadium is on the site where the old speedway was. A few years ago Crystal Palace unveiled plans to move to the site and build a new stadium there cause it was where they originally played in their early years. These plans fell through and now the Eagles have plans to increase the capacity of their current Selhurst Park Stadium.

The only options I can see for the Edinburgh Monarchs are - Buy Armadale Stadium? Trackshare with Glasgow or Berwick? - The latters extremely unlikely because of strict planning restrictions and the stadium being also used for football. Moving to Workingtons too far, remember Glasgows disastrous spell in the Cumbrian Town in 1987? Would the Cowdenbeath stock car promotion allow their track to be covered in shale and the Monarchs move in? - Its only 22 miles from Edinburgh so a similar distance that Armadale is from the Scottish capital. The long serving Edinburgh promotion has proved to operate one of the best run speedways in Great Britain (not my opinion but fact when you look at what they've achieved since the mid 1980's!) so I have more faith in them coming up with a positive solution than I would with most other promotions. - Good luck!

If only Milton Keynes speedway and Elfield Park could have hung on another couple of years when the 3rd Division began in 1994. It may have proved viable at that level? Berrington Lough was not basic, it had undercover viewing and a clubroom and bar!

John Perrin had an unfortunate, abrupt rude personality which made him extremely hardwork to get on with but he did keep Belle Vue going during a very difficult time after the move to Kirky Lane. Its quite likely that without his dogged determination to keep Belle Vue speedway going in the 1990's they would have closed and the present standing of the club would of been less likely to have happened.

Stuart Bamforth was astute Businessman with an eye for a bargain and longer term profit. This was the case when he purchased Belle Vue speedway and the Hyde Road stadium in 1982 relatively cheaply. He knew the land would be valuable but in fairness he also knew that the speedway could move to the greyhound Stadium down the road. That said he put his money where his mouth was in buying the stadium when it looked on a downward spiral, ran one of the best promotions at the time and was a solid Chairman of the BSPA.

The West Row track was in great condition today thanks no doubt to no stock cars this weekend and more favourable weather conditions! Unfortunately nearly all the crashes today and in most meetings were down to inexperience rather than track conditions. With the current sparcity of riders in current times the standard of the National League at the bottom end has dropped especially when a number of riders are out with injuries. Jason Edwards got an 18 point maximum riding round like he was sitting in an armchair and got one of the fastest times of the season.

Needs to go to 2 Leagues - A professional League of all the clubs that can afford it at a level similar to the current Championship and call it the British League. 6 man teams will help as regards the rider shortage. A second tier at a level a bit higher than the present NL retaining the NL name. Only Commonwealth and British riders can ride in this League.

100%! Leisure facilities should be listed and protected from redevelopment! How many more speedway tracks would we have today if this was the case?