steve roberts

Good post! Agree with everything you say. I have often cited many of the same views as yourself on this and the old Oxford Forum (the one that old Shovlar never frequented!) Personally I feel that the sport has reached a critical point and just tinkering with the rules isn't going to turn it around.

Testimonial Meetings became/is a bit of a joke really. It should be 10 years spent at one track (or at least with the same promotion). Benefit meetings, however, are another matter.

...probably the impossible dream!

Probably my list would be the same Sid!

Easy one that...Ivan Mauger!

I would have thought that chanting banal songs and other such nonsense at football matches embarrassing enough...but they seem quite happy to do that!

Trouble is the speedway fraternity doesn't really know what and what doesn't appeal to a younger audience because there is a lack of engagement between the two. Personally I don't know what excites and enthuses young people (other than the usual stereo-typing) and working within the tourism industry it's still a mystery to me.

Sorry I don't I'm afraid. Extracted the information form the 1978 Yearbook edited by Peter Oakes.

Brought up in Cowley I've always wondered where it used to be? Anywhere near the caravan park that is/was?

Couldn't agree more! It makes me so angry when I read of the predicament of my old team Oxford who first operated before the war at Cowley Stadium and then from 1949 and were one of the longest running clubs only for some incompetent successive owners of the stadium to create the mess that presently presides. Oxford Speedway grew from very basic roots whereby Grasstrack enthusiasts who used to run ad-hoc meetings at Sandford-on-Thames took the initiative and had a stadium built on the out skirts (as it was then) of the city. I wish the Save our Stadium campaign all the best and hope that the facility can be saved for future enjoyment, in whatever guise, as the people of Oxford deserve better.

The bonus point issue is interesting. From my understanding they were points carried over from previous rounds...bit like the present GP system or certainly the Grand Prix Tournament that ran during the seventies culminating with a Grand Final whereby points were carried over from the qualifying rounds.

Yes I was tempted a couple of years ago but I awoke to drizzle and gave it a miss...however who knows!

Yes it's well known on here that I stopped attending when I re-located to York from Oxford. When living in Oxford (Littlemore) it was a short walk to the stadium and that was my main incentive in continuing to go as, even then, I could see that the sport was experiencing problems and was on the decline. My nearest tracks where I now live are Sheffield, Redcar and, I guess, Scunthorpe (Manchester is a pig of a place to get to on a regular basis) and it obviously would require me to get into a car and travel upwards of fifty miles one way. That's a massive dis-incentive and one I'm not prepared to do.

Reminds me of the comment John Berry once made regarding the state of the inside of Cowley track back in the seventies (it did hold stock car racing for a short while) "It looked like a place that Morris Minors came to die!"

The result was Bristol 16 (Langli 9 & Boocock 7) Belle Vue 15 (Morton 11 & Phil Collins 4) Exeter 14 (Verner 9 & Prinsloo 5) Wolves 10 (McMillan 7 & Nielsen 3) Swindon 5 (McNeil 5 & Rumsey 0) Fastest Time: 74.6 Langli

Most certainly...point being that certain people on here need to realise that instead of getting their knickers in a twist!

That would be my chosen 18 but which two would be the reserves? Now there's a conundrum!

I would also include Vic Duggan and Spit Waterman.

Having read Nick Robinson's book (BBC Political Editor) he stated that public forum's are often based on an individual's personal opinion and not necessarily based on facts.

Sad news indeed. RIP

A meeting I would enjoy watching in my fantasy world would be: 1. Sprouts Elder 2. Lionel Van Praag 3. Bluey Wilkinson 4. Eric Langton 5. Jack Parker 6. Jack Young 7. Jack Milne 8. Freddie Williams 9. Ronnie Moore 10. Ove Fundin 11. Peter Craven 12. Barry Briggs 13. Bjorn Knutsson 14. Tommy Farndon 15. Igor Plechanov 16. Tommy Price What a meeting that would be!

Crumbs that rules out about 50 per cent of the posters on here!

I would have enjoyed watching the likes of Van Praag, Langton, Parker, Farndon, Elder etc etc. The pioneers of Dirt Track Racing in its formative years.

The two 'backtracking' volumes would be a good start.

That's what I tend to do if so inclined!