YeOldPitGate

Reg and Ron at 6 & 7 maybe

To be fair there's only thirty or so of us on here now, flip side I guess is we are still 70% of the total speedway audience these days with an average age of 79.

Yes it was a hell of a side, King was my fave rider at the time had stacks of talent but never quite kicked on to the very top.

Agreed he really seemed to be stepping up to the highest level Cradley had terrible luck with injuries loosing Gundo, Cross and Jan'o soon after he became world champion, was it the Cradley 83 or 84 team that was rated one of the best ever.

To be fair though other than a handfull of riders in the prem the rest are also in the championship.

Agreed Bagpuss so long as they both don't start over riding in the early part of the season and avoid big smashes also they both should be core England regulars in 5-7 years.

Agreed they were all previously top line riders but all way past their best but as you say they always had a strong reserve which paid off in a super weak league in my opinion it was a bit like when Leicester won the prem all the usual favorites had problems and everything fell into place for them.

Hopefully someone also has a really good look at the old pit gate as we all know how they can play up.

They need to take a leaf out of Rich Lawson's book when it comes to managing your average.

Does anyone know why the investors pulled out ? Given all the problems/loss of revenue/lack of teams with the top flight going into 2026, I would have imagined the only people interested would have to be massive fans of the sport who would shrug off losing 50-100k. I don't think the Bates are short of a few quid I guess it just comes down how much there willing to loose on the club in 2026 compared to previous years.

The only reason dad's army won that year is you had a group of previous top line riders but they were all at least a decade past their peak but were still good enough to pull it off as the quality of the league in general that year was probably the worst in top flight history.

Whilst handing out wads of tenners to bang average riders.

I guess it will come down to if he wants more than Shaun Moran used to get paid at the peak of his powers.

When you present it like that its hard to disagree.

I can't remember it but pretty sure Buster owned the stadium might have been the year after Waggy ran things for a season Bagpuss will probably know. Doh would help if I read to the bottom of the thread he has answered already.

Has anyone seen Harry around London kicking the doors in of big business searching for sponsors ?

I wouldn't have thought so but I think it will most likely be driven by Poland only and the one other league rule if it comes in rather than the top league promoters actually doing some forward planning that in a sensible world should be happening now.

I had forgotten about Handberg never hugely rated him but from memory didn't he finish third in 1992 world championship ? such a shame re Simon Cross as he was at the time really looking like a truly world class rider but then had a bad smash and was never the same afterwards.

You would have thought so or your in the position Tolley ended up in 2025 where your laying out top dollar for average riders on ever decreasing crowds and that's before you factor in your a nomad team on someone else's track or trying to build a brand in a town/city with no previous speedway following. If there is someone genuinely interested the sensible thing would be to park it and plan for 2027 with a view to helping them but given this is british speedway if they find someone who doesn't know any better they will be rushed in and then served up the scraps.

The new lot seem well funded so hopefully will get one top line rider on board, I just hope they don't make the same mistake as the fella who took over Rye House and put a load of riders on huge guarantees and then went bust at the end of the season.

With Northampton having the remaining scraps of the bones if they turn up.

It is sadly one of many more holes fast approaching Mike along with all the existing one's that are just patched over.

Probably started with Simmo , Jens Rasmussen and was it dear old Peter Shroek ?

Agreed I can remember I think it was Joe Owen who an 11 point man in the old national league being called on by the british league and he struggled at reserve in the top league the gulf back then between top men in division2 and 1 was massive when the likes of Havvy and Andrew Silver moved up it took them a while to get established and they were both super naturally talented riders.

Yes Ray was doing mostly second half's when I was going the stand outs were himself, Sean Wilson and Andy Phillips who was at Wolves. Martin Rogers heart was in the right place and he always tried to promote the team I can only assume he had a shoestring budget that's why it all looked so good when Simmo and Bill Barker took over we on paper had a powerhouse team of Lynn specialists there must have been 3k-4k at the first home meeting and I think it was us and Bradford who had the financial backing of the Ham brothers who were favourites. Six months later all the Lynn specialists other than Lance King who had a couple of bad knocks looked dire Bo Peterson went from unbeatable round Lynn to awful. I loved it when Bill was in charge he used to wander round selling raffle tickets and you could always nab him for a catch up and things did look promising for a while when we had Loram and Henka and the odd glimpse of the old Mike Lee.