YeOldPitGate

I didn't get to see him in the very early days/at his best as I started going late 84, when he had his first comeback at Lynn after a year or so off in 1985 in the first race he blitzed Eric Gunderson but after that he could be brilliant, very average or missing in action to the point where Rogers eventually booted him out. I remember one night when he got a 15 point max (we still lost) but the team riding between him and Bobby Schwartz was the best I have ever seen in the game from 1985 to present day. To me as he was so tall he never looked entirely comfortable on a bike but he was one of the greatest natural talents for sure.

Its a shame Austrailia don't have a really strong fourth rider in his prime like Fricke, Holder and Kurtz with Doyle at reserve if they had one more top line rider they could probably give the poles a run in the world team cup next time round.

Fantastic amount of money raised over the years that figure by the supporters club.

It certainly isn't easy Ippo has probably always been one of the best if not the best supported club in the UK with a friendly landlord so from that point of view its attractive, the big issue as we all know is that the sport as a whole is in one hell of a mess held up by rich fans who don't mind losing money. I would liken Ippo to having a really nice presented coffee shop with a good product but said shop is in a really rough area of town and all the other shops are run down and surviving month to month, in the longer term its a question of will you have a business in 2-3 years time as everyone else around you is slowly failing so it could be in three years yours is the only shop open in said rough area. Like most of us i've no idea how the sport digs itself out of this hole and as I've mentioned many times it could just be that like pubs, blockbuster videos, nightclubs etc its just stuck in a bygone age and doesn't appeal to youth that spend most of their time online in their bedrooms or on phones.

Fair point again Steve I was in hindsight thinking more from the media point of view, Phil normally heres a few whispers that are right more than wrong but even he has said this year its all been locked down more as far as info getting out goes.

If that is even remotely true its no wonder there's no takers £35k would be nearer the mark given at the current time your being asked to buy into a failing business model with top level UK speedway as a whole.

To be fair Flagrag is probably one of the best connected people on this forum to the powers that be, I remember him being the first one to highlight the Sky cash cow was soon going to be no more and he was spot on.

But what a corner it was.

Fair point but I would rather they took a chance on a 4 point newcomer on the chance on maybe unearthing a gem rather than a rider who has probably peaked at a seven point man in the championship and a 3-4 point man in the premier.

Mmmmm Henka, Loram, King, Lee and er Castanga much as I respect anyone who slings their leg over a speedway bike, I don't see Paco adding a thousand to the gate on opening night.

Good to hear Dean as I say they are probably the only two teams that could get away with a track share so long as it was central to both, even better if the new track was based on the design of the old Cradley track.

I've always thought if someone could get Cradley up and running again its probably the only area that could also house Wolves at the same track a bit like AC & Inter Milan given the strong support for both teams when they are based very close together. The issue apart from getting it running is ideally it needs to be set up in the short term before Wolves fans start to drift away en-mass. Wolves Monday & Cradley Thursday.

I know a fella who's in the badge business same as Tolley and it would appear theres big bucks in it even though it seems something from the 1970/80's

He's the only fella I can think of who can afford to lose 50-100k without worrying

Cookie reminds me of a lesser talented version of Mike Lee, Mike was never the same on his comeback 1985 onwards could bang in 15 one week whilst putting in 50% effort and then struggle to get above six for the next three meeting whilst missing meetings he didn't fancy. Agreed Cook if his head is right could still more than do a job in this league but it really is last knockings for him to put a proper shift in if he decides to comeback.

I seem to remember that now Triple H , Einar was pretty bad and how he didn't kill himself on the bike lord knows as he seemed to have a big smash every other week. I think that 15 point max got him over the six point average that was required at the time to come back the following year, me and my mate were hoping he would fall below six so Martin Rogers would be forced to go with someone new rather than the same old faces who fitted the budget but were generally 4-5 point men and none showing signs of getting better. Richard Knight used to be unbeatable when he came with Ippo but he turned into a seven point man at Lynn I think in hindsight it was just that we were so bad for 3-4 years we made Knighty look a lot better than he really was. I also remember Steve Redgeling starting to make progress then in one meeting (poss Oxford on a bank holiday) he was leading and both his front forks collapsed leading to one hell of a pile up, after that he never really went onto the next rung of the ladder which given the severity of the pile up was understandable.

I'm beginning to think someone running the mythical sixth team out of Oxford is looking the most likely outcome, maybe under Swindon name possibly, The Oxford stadium owner gets some money in which helps his situation, the other five promoters have to pay in 10-15k each to cover part of the expected losses. All they need now is to find a lamb to sacrafice that has 50-100k in its sheep coats ready for burning and its all systems go, the only other loser I can see would be Courtney given it seems speedway fatigue set in last season with fans not wanting to pony up to watch three teams.

Crazy prices for Speedway the last meeting I went to was a fair few years ago but was a world team cup qualifying round at Lynn, Hamill came back to help the USA out so I mainly went to see him one last time, it was £15 a head and there must have been north of five thousand there with a great atmosphere. I can't remember the year but £15 to £200 over possibly a decade is bonkers.

Plus don't forget Mike those polish tracks are like carpets compared to the pot holed ridden tracks in the UK.

Your normally on the money Phil but I'm hoping your wrong on this one.

If Flagrag is lurking do you have any updates your able to share as to whats going on behind the scenes good or bad ?

I think it was longer ago than that Mike in my view it started when Penhall retired, then Lee went off the rails, followed by the sad losses of Carter and Sanders in fairly short succession you had four of the biggest names gone in a few years and it just seemed to be the start of the downhill slide. I was speaking to one of my oldest friends the other day and we were talking about the year when Lynn had Bob Schwartz leading us and I don't think we won a match all year as we were so weak but like now no help was given to strengthen up. New greats did appear in Crump and T Rick and the Sky millions as we all know that was the golden opportunity to reset and stop the rot but was wasted by the short sightedness of those at the top who thought the golden goose would last forever and the number one's at the time hoovering the trough clean and once said trough was empty most left the UK for the new full trough of Poland. I would love to see a new crop of young Americans come through in the Penhall, Moran's. King, Hancock and Hamill mould the test match's against the USA were brilliant back in the day but sadly other than Steve Evans efforts the USA are in an even worse place than us which really does take some effort to achieve.

Don't think you will find to many crowing over Laguta in the UK Dean.

Also think there's merit in trying to forge stronger ties with Aus and the USA to try and help them get more youngsters set up they could send our way later, agree its probably to late with the Dane's and Swedes now as most of their better younger riders just skip the UK and head straight to Poland and with better money and easier logistics its easy to see why.

Keep near your phone this afternoon Dean I've heard you might be getting a call later about the size of your back garden and if its big enough to fit an Plymouth sized track in the back of it.