RobMcCaffery

Bear in mind Ivor was promoter at Long Eaton during the Rangers' BL2 era.

I most certainly recall Sean's auntie - goodness I suddenly feel very old. She was a good friend of Mrs rmc and a very active fan club it was too. Keith or course was a fine number 1 at Milton Keynes with Mrs White famous for her cries from the bar of "This one's for the gas bill Keith!" I hope Denny's doing well and that her lovely dad is still with us. Rob.

I recall a late 70s evening at Brandon looking at the scoreboard and seeing the advert for the next meeting "Next week's action Bees v Bummies". This was not the night to make such a spelling error since the visitors were Cradley............... The old Richard Greer song rang out that night :-) Rob.

One of my favourite memories of Michael was turning up for a Rye House press day and finding him sitting in the ref's seat operating the starting gate for the sessions. As always I found him quiret and friendly although obviously a lost soul. I cannot condone drug use and certainly not dealing but the guy paid a heavy price for his mistakes. Nor can I condone failing to meet his commitments to supporters but I could sympathise with Michael's frustrations with the sport and watched with profound sadness as his voice became one in the wilderness, as his protests and frustration took him down the wrong road. In the end he made an enemy of the speedway authorities. One day he let them have their opportunity to exact their revenge with catastrophic results for the rider and arguably the sport. You cannot help but feel that with the right guidance and support he could have let that talent flourish instead of being stifled. Sometimes it is safer for a rider not to have an opinion or rebel. Sadly some cannot do it effectively and constructively. Did Michael let the sport down or was it the sport that let him down? I suspect that both sides had serious faults in this case.

Just to emphasise how much the name caught on generally we have a prewar council estate in Gloucester called White City - well the houses are rather light in colour. There is even a White City Community Project. No trace of speedway sadly ;-)

I have a few memories of Bruce having toured the ice circuits in the 80s - and being blamed by him for a bad meeting because I was wearing green. He once had half the Rye House pits feeling rather queasy after he solved a dislocated shoulder by bracing himself against a pit roof support. Then there was a time when I interviewed him at Exeter about the track. He went through every detail of how to ride the place, virtually naming each fence rivet and which one to turn the bike at...complete with the main piece of advice over the County Ground fence "Keep well away from the thing" - obviously a censored version. One final point - Bruce was the headline story in the first-ever issue of Speedway Mail back in 1973 under the headline "Eyes on Bruce" - about him making his debut for the newly renamed Cradley United. An excellent character and a real contender on the ice tracks as well as shale.

My main memory of Denzil dates from the time when great efforts were being made to portray him as a Zimbabwean and thus eligible to ride in the old NL as a commonwealth rider - and him wearing a South African (non-eligible) jacket complete with springbok emblem...

Cradley with the girls parading up and down hoping the guys would notice them... Belle Vue knowing you had an eight hour overnight journey home... Boston for cockleshells and the best mushy peas.... Canterbury for the cathedral views..... Hackney for spoiling me for tracks that didn't have passing.... And Rayleigh - my first love, taken away far too soon just when I'd got to know it. P.S. - Assen ice track - for Tony's Tattoo Bar in Groningen...oops.....