SCB

Workington is not exactly a hive of activity. I recon theres more people in a 10 miles radius of Somerset Speedway than Workington Speedway. Bristol is probably just short of that 10 miles too and thats no small place! Regards the Gwent Dragons. Back in 97-2000, Newport Wasps had bigger attendances than the rugby and the football (and we, the speedway, geenrally did well). Then things went from for the speedway and started to go right for Newport RFC and there crowds rocketed. Then they regionalised Welsh rugby, Newport RFC's rich benefactor got out and things went twit's up for the rugby. Now the football club is going through something of a resurgance results wise and guess what, the crowds are going up. I maintain that if Newport won a trophy or two, then the people of Newport would suddenly become Newport fans, if at the same time the football and rugby are having a bad time, even better for Newport Speedway.

Thanks Sir L, guessed there was something pretty obvious I was missing.

What suprises me in this country is the lack if places to LEARN to ride. You can practice at a couple of tracks but where can you learn to ride speedway? Is it the same in Denmark? Do they have training schools? Practice sessions? What? I see little point in little 12 year old Johnny riding around lap-after-lap doing things wrongs lap-after-lap. Old habits die hard and all that.

So if Corey Gathercole is not considered good enough to ride in the Aussie final, just how is he getting a work permit?

It's irreleavnt what you, I, or anyone but Tim Stone wants. He is the on ewho can stop a team opening up in Bristol or Cardiff. While Stoke, Newport, Buxton, IoW and Somerset are competing with who exactly? There's no scientific way to workout where speedway works best.

It would be suicide for Tim Stone to let anyone open up in Cardiff or Bristol. I'd say our crowd levels are so low now that it would take less than 50 people to stop attending to leave the club with major problems. With a lot of people coming to Newport from Bristol and Cardiff, how many of them would decide to go there instead? Then how many people from Newport would decide to support a more succesful team in Cardiff or Bristol rather than Newport, after all, if you're travelling 10 minutes (as I do) you may as well travel 15-20 minutes to Bristol or Cardiff! I'd not allow it if I was in Tims position.

Newport to Somerset is about 40 miles and Bristol airport (right o the far edge of Bristol) is 30 miles from my house, which is slightly further into Newport than Newport speedway, so you can pretty much guarentee that any track in Bristol would fall under the 30 mile rule with Newport AND Somerset.

I could be wrong but I'm sure Jon Erskine was a regular at Newport a few years ago. So I assume he lives (lived?) in the area.

Mid Wales? Even the sheep stay away from there!! Some where in North Wales, well place might just work and probably Cardiff if it was allowed, other than that, I don't think it's at all viable. I think Carmarthen pretty much proved that with there crowds of about 100! Cardiff play in the English League, they're certainly in Wales

I think you seriously over estimate the population of Wales! I don't think another team is viable away from Cardiff and sadly thats not possible as it's within 30 miles of Newport and Tim Stone would never agree to it.

Sounds like a good idea to me. If there's not enough intrest here then I'm sure a mention in the Vintage Speedway magazine would drum up a bit of intrest.

Rob Grant snr made a comeback and rode a couple of meeting for Berwick, Rob Grant junior had rode for Berwick earlier in the year (would guess 2002). I don't believe they both rode for Berwick at the same time though, just both in the same season! Rob Grant jnr actually rode for Linlithgow in 1999, so Newcastle 2000 was not his debut. steve19620 is right about seniors last meeting. Tsunami is right about junior too.

I remember this coming up about 2 years ago and I tried to access it in uni without any success so queried it with the relevant people and they said they'd see what they could do. Nobody ever got back to me and I forgot about it. I shall go back into uni tomorrow and try again (or some time I can be bothered and remember!). I'm guessing it won't be possible to "borrow" the footage it shows but I should at least be able to watch it myself and tell you if it's worth trying to get to see it yourself or not.

Try hotels in Newport. About £3 for a return train ticket between Newport and Cardiff. Ignore the people who say you have to rush out to get the last train, 2 years ago we were kicked out of the stadium and got the train and this year I went to a club, my sister could not get in and still managed to stoll back to the station to get the train.

I'll try and edit this post as people tell me where they're going. Lonigo Rob B R_Terkelsen Wroclaw ZKZ Kitten (unconfirmed) Psycho Girl (unconfirmed) Mateusz sjw Rico Sandie Queen Bee HenryW lady s (unconfirmed) Nikkif R_Terkelsen Eskilstuna Queen Bee R_Terkelsen Copenhagen 21st century heathen (unconfirmed) bananas (unconfirmed) Queen Bee (unconfirmed) R_Terkelsen Cardiff SCB - (Got me bed sorted) ZKZ Kitten Steve Turner Chivs DartfordHammer Mateusz sjw Rico leanne1706 Hazzman 21st century heathen (unconfirmed) bananas Mildenhall 06' Sandie Queen Bee buxton-babe crazysue (unconfirmed) HenryW laurafisher lady s Nikkif Jay the_angel_of_delight Sir Jasper beesboybert R_Terkelsen Prague SCB (+ sister of SCB) - (Got plane there and back) Rob B sjw 21st century heathen (unconfirmed) bananas (unconfirmed) HenryW(unconfirmed) laurafisher (unconfirmed) Nikkif (unconfirmed) the_angel_of_delight beesboybert R_Terkelsen Malilla Queen Bee R_Terkelsen Bydgoszcz(Thanks Kev ) SCB - (unconfirmed, been invited, depends if I have a job, or money!) DartfordHammer (unconfirmed) Mateusz sjw Rico Hazzman (unconfirmed) Sandie HenryW lady s (unconfirmed) Nikkif R_Terkelsen Krsko Rob B sjw R_Terkelsen Gelsenkirchen (provisional) Rob B sjw Hazzman (unconfirmed) Sandie beesboybert R_Terkelsen Is anyone goign to Latvia? Even R_Terkelsen is going to all of them except Latvia. What have the Latvians done to upset us? Anyone fancy coming to Latvia with me?

Good ol' Wetherspoons, they sell Staropramen too You can't beat the alternative stuff when you go in there even if as KevH says, it's more expensive than in the country of origin.

At £5000 travelling expenses, I'll go and ride in Vostok or any other un-spell-able and unpronounciable Russian city/town and give the Bitish League a miss

Yes. I think it's something like £15.99 there, £5.99 back + taxes. Works out at just under £50 there and back. Then there is insurance and a fee for paying by credit card.

I'll be flying from Birmingham this (next?) year. But I'll be going from Newport not Edinburgh. However, using BMI I see you can fly from Edinburgh to Brimingham from as little a £30 (return, including taxes) and then you can fly from to Prague (and back) from as little as £50. So £80 all together but maybe a bit of messing about with 2 planes there and back. Still much cheaper than flying directly from Cardiff to Prague (works out at about £160!). I'm going form Wednesday to Wednesday for £50

Its worth going just for that. I got to see him do 4 flying laps at Exeters end of an era meeting and it was stunnig to see this 60+ old geezer ripping around with so much disregard for his health He certainly doesn't take it easy!!

It is. BTL has not mentiond dates.

He'd have got over the crahs with Pickering, had his shoulder not had a fight with a steel shoe about 3 weeks earlier. The Pickering incident was just damn unlucky. Had both not occured he'd probably have been a regular at Newport and been up there in the legendary status by now (had he not moved into the EL!). Hard as nail, fearless, scared of nobody sort of rider, just what ever teams needs one of, exactly what we've been missing since Frank retired IMO. Wato can do it, if he has too but rarely does (apart from against Somerset for some weird reason!! Clearly understand the local rivals thing!

I'm sure at some points the Collins brothers all rode in a meeting together. One of them must have had a testimonial or someone saw a bit of publicity for getting them all together.

My opinion is that if we're just paying £25 to meet up and nothing special, why bother. We can meet up in a pub/bar/club for nothing but if we were to all get our suits out and actually do it with a bit of class, it's a bit special and not something we do often. That said, we're speedway folk, we're not used to posh, so maybe a quick bite to eat in McDonalds and over the road to the pub is the best way

Thanks for all the info I've said it before but it's worth repeating again, Frank Smart means an awful lot to us folk in Newport and we'll neevr forget all that he did for us in his 3 season as a Newport rider. Quite possibly the best all round rider to ride for Newport as he could ride any line, team ride anyone to victory and was a genuinly decent guy. I know that Craig Watson is hoping that Frank will be at his testimonial next season and I'm sure I speak for every Newport fan when I saw we're hoping he will be there too. Is he still hanging off the bike and making the un-wary think he is going to fall off at any time? I still have this picture on my keyring and always show people when they ask what speedway is.