Andy Downes

Wasn't the rider who tried to get a track running in Spain in the 80's/90's Lee Paine? - I'm sure it was an ex-Arena Essex Junior/Reserve who was trying to get one started but was defeated by Spanish building laws? Happy to be proved wrong if someone has more accurate information

I am not a Poole fan - I bear no ill feeling to any of their regular contributors (unless they are responsible for reason 2 below!) but 2 incidents many years annoyed me and they have not won me over since Reason 1 - Mervyn Stewkesbury. - Remember his grand plan for saving speedway in 1991? Poole had won the NL for the previous 2 seasons and wanted to move back up to the BL. Nothing wrong with that but I suspect he looked at Hackney's attempt in 1987 and the lack of help from the existing BL promotions so he came up with a cunning plan where 3 other clubs would also move up thus increasing the numbers in the BL and forcing some movement of heat leaders, the problem Hackney never overcame. Fine - and you may say yes it worked BUT at the cost of the teams deemed not big or sexy enough to move up - 1991 saw Eastbourne close (at first), a substandard team at Wimbledon with only 1 heat leader before closing and moving to Eastie, a sub standard Hackney with a new promoter who proved to be out of his depth and the team closing halfway thru the season, both Mildenhall and Milton Keynes would not survive 2 seasons, with Canterbury closing in '87 and Rye House only having a couple more years, only Arena Essex (who would soon be a BL team) were left. NL speedway was all but wiped out in the south east thanks to Mr S - as a Hackney fan, I went from a 50/60 matches a season to a few weekend run outs on the M/C - which comes to reason 2 Reason 2 - Some un-names F***** at Poole 1994 I went to the occasional mid-summer match at Poole, it was a nice run out from London on the bike, especially if you avoided the M3 going down. I cannot remember the date or the opposition but I do remember coming out of the stadium to find my bike on the floor in the carpark, obviously it had been hit by a car, fairing was smashed, paintwork scratched as if it had been dragged and worst of all the front forks had been damaged. I called out the breakdown people who took one look at it and told me the front wheel was cracked so there was no way it could be ridden back to Kent as it could potentially collapse at any moment. Things got worse as the garage who had insured me had made a mistake on the insurance and insured it pre customisation which meant I ended up spending a fortune getting the bike resprayed in Embassy Blue. OK my fault on that one for not double checking but whoever knocked the bike over just drove off - no exchange of numbers/note left, nothing. So that's my reasons - I realise it's a long time ago and my feelings for Poole have mellowed through the years from pathological hatred to a smug smile when things don't quite go right - I bear no malice to any Poole bloggers, indeed I find them quite entertaining in their own way when they are defending their team Rant over -feel better for that

Thanks for checking that out MR - pretty close as I'm sure Laurie was out with a back injury so Sagey would have been the first RR of the evening

Think it was April 14th 1980 Crayford verses Young Sweden at London Road Tommy Nilsson won the heat I believe - not sure of second swede, think the Kestrels pairing was Alan Johns and R/R Laurie Etheridge but that's a guess Certainly remember the riders from the second meeting more - verses Nottingham Outlaws - Mike Sampson went thru the card for a 15 point full max Looking at the date, if correct, it was 42 years ago yesterday - off for a large G&T to get over the shock of that date ....

Back to tracks that you couldn't use from the original list: - Crayford. The old stadium was knocked down and a 'micro stadium' about half the size of the old one built - the rest of the land and the large car parks are now Sainsbury's The replacement dog track was heavily criticised by the dog owning community with complaints that it was too small with the bends being too sharp (resulting in too many dogs colliding and getting injured). Any speedway track laid inside would be around 150 - 180m maximum if it could be laid - and as the dog track has sharp bends, the bends would be somewhat pointed As the last dog track inside the M25, it is a busy track so cannot see the owners wanting the bikes interfering anyway

From memory, i believe he initially took a year off to help out with the family business and of course never came back Wayne Brown was for a while public enemy #1 at Crayford after his clash with Paul Woods at the 1980 NL Riders Championship

Tuesday April 12th(?) 1980 Ladbrokes Stadium Crayford Crayford v Young Sweden challenge match Ex Hackney/Coventry/Swindon(?) rider Tommy Nilsson won heat one i think, probably from Laurie Etheridge but i'm guessing here Following week was my first 'meaningful' match, Don't remember the score but Crayford beat the Nottingham Outlaws despite Mike Sampson scoring a maximum. it took a few matches but i probably really got hooked after seeing Les Rumsey's finest hour/six rides when we won the 4's at Peterborough later that year. Thought it would always be like that, following a successful team - little did i know that's as good a it got for that variety of Kestrel ...

used to love going to see the Kestrels generally lose (Crayford version) / win (Hackney version) at Kingsmead ... nice blast down the M2/A2 on the bike, 7:00 p.m. start and an early finish which meant you could get back home to Sidcup in time for last orders! I remember that most of the junior races were over three laps ... Also remember being much amused one evening by Jamie Luckhurst riding into the back of the tractor and watching his bike being dragged around the third bend by the grading machine

Having started watching at Crayford in 1980, my first hero was Paul Woods, who never really fulfilled his potential From then on, it was Barry Thomas at Crayford and Hackney I think I lost a little bit of love with the sport the day Thommo retired

Do you have a link, would love to have a go myself, some awesome little grounds I ve done following non league football over the years. Enjoy https://www.footballgroundmap.com/ be nice if someone more technically minded could do a speedway one ...

I was just thinking the same - there is a football web site where you can put all the grounds you have been to (both old and current) and it produces a map showing you where you've been and other stats such as how many grounds have been knocked down. When i completed it, it turned out 38/80 footie teams i had seen at their home ground had moved to a new stadium, almost 50%. Compare that with the number of Speedway Tracks who are still operating/have defunct stadia ; in my first season (1980) there were 37 league sides; 17 teams are now defunct, 8 are still racing but in a different stadium and only 12 are still at the same track as 40 years ago. So in summary, just over 2/3 of supporters have lost their 'home' although around 1/5 have a new home track. The point (yes there is one) is that this is close to the football average so enclosed/semi enclosed stadia it appears do have a natural shelf life before redevelopment looms. Maybe any Rugby/Speedway fans could comment if the same is true of their other favourite sport

Recently, there's been a lot of criticism and general bad karma surrounding Craig Cook - coming from many different directions. I know he has never been the most popular of riders but some of the recent vitriol has got me thinking. Who was the most unpopular/hated rider and more importantly why? I know in the past there have been many 'pantomime villains' who play to the crowd as much as anything; certainly at Crayford the mere mention of the name Kelvin Mullarkey would lead to a chorus of boos; but riders like these were those we 'loved to hate' rather than have a genuine dislike about Who do you think was an unpopular rider and why?

1985 or 1986 not sure which year but certainly a May bank holiday 11:00 Kings Lynn 15:00 Arena Essex 19:30 Hackney

So by that logic Antonio Lindback isn't Swedish ?

Yes - he was coming to the end of his time at Crayford when I started going in 1980 but TBH I cannot really remember anything individual about him

Not sure but wasn't Mike Fitzpatrick, 1980's reserve/second halfer at Hackney and Rye among others Irish? may possibly have been second generation

Is that the world's first Lay-Down engine?

Melvin ******* Stewkesbury I personally hold him 50% responsible for Hackney's demise after he convinced/conned 3 other teams to dump the old National League so his precious team wouldn't step up a league single handed - took what was then a great league and ruined it - it has been been the same since. Not only did the league loose Poole Wimbledon Berwick and Ipswich but Eastbourne closed both Hackney and Milton Keynes were gone within 18 months

Having watched the programme today, the one thing they didn't mention was how he started on drugs - was he injured at the end of his career and it was to initially take the pain away? Addiction is a strange thing - it creeps up on you and slowly takes over your life bit by bit. I was a betting show manager for a number of years and I often saw people collecting pennies off of the floor they were that desperate to get the gambling rush of potentially backing a winner. i saw people waste fortunes in a few months and it's a lot worse now with companies making out that internet betting is cool and trendy and no worse than playing bingo with your friends, For some that may be so but for many others it's an addiction that often leads to theft to fund the spending. - just like a drug addict Whilst part of me congratulates Daniel Smith and his vigilante approach to drug pushers, not sure how you stop multinational bookmakers (or alcohol producers come to think of it) from pushing addictive product Anyway, good luck to Blair Scott - he may have done terrible things to his family but if he can get himself sorted out he just might be able to pay for the hurt he has caused his family

As an Aston Villa fan since the late 60's I had a love/hate relationship with the man. Since he sold out to Randy Lerner 10 years ago, my attitude slightly softened towards him - he always had the team at heart but seemed he wouldn't go the final hurdle to make them compete at the absolute top level (our European Cup victory was during his period not on the board) There have been many comments about him on the Villa Fan Web Site and a surprising number show how down to earth he was, fans writing to him would get personal replies within days and he was very generous with his time. he also had a wonderfully wicked sense of humour which he showed in the following exchange with the then birmingham city director Karren Brady Karren Brady) Hello Mr Ellis. Doug) (reading her name badge) Good evening Miss Brady. Why are you at this function? Karren Brady) I am with The City. Doug) (knowing full well who she was) Ah. The Council. Oh and to Mr Sholvar, Swindon Town admitted to 36 counts of illegal payments and the chairman Brian Hillier went to prison for six months, was Doug really to blame for penalising your club?

Adonis - I don't know how old you are but if like me, you have been a fan of the sport for 30 years or more, I think you tend to remember riders from earlier periods more fondly and rate them higher than current day riders. It's not Woffy's fault that bikes are now set up like rocket ships, competing on slick tracks and the argument that modern riders couldn't deal with the amount of shale or different bikes will always be a hypothetical one. You can only race and beat what is around you at the time and I would argue that the successful riding styles are almost unrecognisable to those of say the 70's or 80's which in turn are totally different to those in the 30's and 40's (if the action in Once a Jolly Swagman is anything to go by) . You would like to think a top rider of one period though could adapt to the style of another era. At the end of the day though it's all about opinions, I respect yours but I don't agree with it.

His 70's glory years were before my time I remember being disappointed when he joined hackney in the 80's - mainly because his huge average meant we had to lose 2 decent riders and promote a junior - the result meant hackney 1986 was perhaps the most forgettable of the hackney Kestrel Teams A beautiful stylist who dropped down a league too early (IIRC he was the only rider to beat Neil Evitts in the British Championship Final that year) but his final years seemed to be surrounded with controversy (I doubt Arena Essex fans have fond memories of him) with non arrivals, questionable injuries and other rumoured happenings that may or not be true but cannot be repeated as they could be construed as libellous

There are a few bits and pieces of Bristol Speedway memorabilia in the M Shed museum in Bristol - no real thought or narrative behind it though

Depends on what you want from your top ten - personally, I prefer entertainers to trophy winners and as I watched more NL speedway in the 80's than any other period, my list would probably not agree with anyone else's Anyway, in my opinion 1) Barry Thomas - the rest in no particular order Alan Mogridge, Mark Loram, Andy Galvin, Martin Goodwin, Kelvin Mullarkey, Kelly Moran, Chris Morton, Tomasz Gollob, Joe Screen