Tinker

From memory I've been four times. Two excellent meetings with lots of passing and the other two not so good. However, even the "not so good" meetings were still very enjoyable and exciting due to the fantastic atmosphere generated.

Been to Cardiff several times and always a real treat. Some of my mates are not real Speedway fans but they love the experience. The atmosphere outside the stadium with thousands of fans milling about, the electric atmosphere inside the stadium, the colour, the razamataz etc. Some really nice bars and restaurants at the waterfront once the live action has finished. Locals absolutely fine with us and no problems whatsoever.

Kenny Carter was well liked in Halifax where I live and got tons of local press. Used to love watching the Dukes away from home where all the opposing fans would be booing him which made for a great atmosphere! He'd go out of his way to make them boo even more but alot of it was just showmanship which is sadly lacking today. However, as good a rider as he was I cannot condone in any shape or form what he did. As Ray Stadia points out though, no one can be sure what his mental state of was at that time and I'm also pretty convinced that the long list of injuries that he had during his racing career (some very bad ones at that) took their toll on him.

I used to have the Speedway Star delivered but when my local Tesco store started stocking it I thought I would buy it there instead. It costs me more money to do this but I wanted to effectively prove to Tescos that there were people out there who would actually buy the magazine. I live approximately three miles from Halifax and my local Tescos always has five magazines for sale on the Thursday. By the following week there is only either one or two copies left so it shows there is the interest/market there. Keep up the good work Phil and fingers crossed that you have so much more current info to report on once the season finally gets underway.

Most teams seem to be announcing riders now for the new season but nothing much coming from Belle Vue. Anyone got any ideas/snippets of information?

Yes, I agree too. Let's have some positivity about the place. Cup half full and all that.

Wasn't aware before now of the David Mcallan incident but I have just read a report on it in the Glasgow Herald newspaper (one year on). It states that the meeting was actually a double header against Birmingham followed by Stoke and Phil Morris was scheduled to guest for Stoke following the first meeting. However, the report says that not only was Morris excluded for the Mcallan crash but that he was then thrown out of the rest of the meeting!

There seems to be alot of criticism on here as regards the people running Speedway in this country. At this moment in time I think we have to be thankful that there are these individuals who are prepared to put the time and effort in for little reward and a great deal of slagging off! If they weren't doing it I'd really like to know who would be prepared to take on their job. I certainly wouldn't want to be at the "top end" with all the decision making to do in these very uncertain times where things seem to change on a daily basis. So good luck to them!

That's rather harsh. I think they are doing all they can for speedway at the moment, it can't be easy.

I agree with the comment made by Topaz325. I started watching Speedway at the Shay, Halifax in 1966 so "older" articles on riders such as Eric Boocock, Ray Wilson and Jim Airey have some relevance to me. However, when I read any articles pre-dating the early 60's I tend to switch off. Having said all that the Star is a fantastic read and I really look forward to getting it each week. I love the Backtrack articles which have more of a depth to them and maybe something could be done on the same lines for more recent riders.