Andy Downes

First match - Crayford v Nottingham Outlaws. Persuaded by my younger brother to give him a lift on my bike I remember Crayford won by about 8 points and their No. 1 rider (later found out it was Mike Sampson) thrashed all the home ones I did about every other meeting until the 4's that year which Crayford won - I got hooked that day and foolishly thought Crayford were a major force in the second flight - little did I realise that day was just about the highlight of the (original) Kestrels existance

Same bloke - According to Wiki, he was a jockey too!

Agree 100% with your best choices Terry but as the Harding/Weatherley crash was before my time my worst 3 1) Paul Muchene killed at Hackney 2) Leif Wahlmann killed during the Euro Under 21 Final at Kings Lynn 3) Crayford 1983/Hackney 1991 closures

1) Bristol - maybe they could build it near Cribbs Causeway - difficult to complain about the noise with the shopping mall and motorway nearby 2) Newport 3) Oxford 4) Reading 5) Crayford - purely sentimental reasons but sadly it'll be a cold day in hell before that would be remotely possible

I seem to remember several demonstration races at Hackney in the late 1980's but the racing was poor compared to the local grasstrack scene - I think the track was too small and probably too narrow for any decent racing. I believe there was some talk of a sidecar league around that time but that could be my memory playing tricks as I was falling out of love with the sport at that time

It will never work - in didn't when I supported Crayford in the 70's/80's and it wouldn't work now. The odd (let's face it) freak result every few years has clouded memories and the regular thumping's have been forgotten - the gap was too big then and it still is today

I Knew Michael Warren died of cancer but I didn't know Dave Hamnett had died - assume was it an illness as I don't recall him losing his life in a track crash

Couldn't agree more about 1991 - it didn't help that we had a new promoter who seemed patently out of his depth and having the worst team since the Kestrels moved from Crayford. I couldn't get the enthusiasm to support Arena/Lakeside, and have never gone on a regular basis since