RobMcCaffery

Those planks are still some of my best friends.... Glad you saw Rye House at its best, or at least on its way up. There's a word for a semi-wolf you know. A combination of lack of imagination and a general under-rating of meeting presentation, I suspect. The 'anything'll do as long as it doesn't cost' business model.

Maybe they should use the stuff Greg Hancock's on instead .

No, just being a primadonna. I'd had problems with him at Cradley years before. I'm sure as a Wolf you'll be familiar with having agro at Dudley Wood ;-) I can only assume that the blackboard was one of a few things that went missing when the promotion was sold - Andrew Silver being another case! Back in the 70s I was just one of the crowd on the home straight 'terracing' (planks).

Probably mind-numbing if the rider scores a maximum. See my comments about cliches. I'm just as guilty. At Rye House I played a piece of Jeff Wayne's 'War of The Worlds' every time we scored a 5-1. It was a shameful rip-off of Cradley's use of 'Wipe Out'. One day I thought it was probably for the best that the days of the Rockets getting up to 10 5-1s a meeting or sometimes more were over. There was no danger of that during the era in which I was proud to serve my club.

Spare a thought for the followers of the other form of Rugby (no, not sevens!), or more particularly Widnes Vikings (just me and parsloes1928 I suspect) who get the chance to watch them on the new Sky Sports Mix channel tonight. Well, it would be good news if we weren't playing Wigan away...... Okay, way off-topic, apologies. Sky Sports Mix is a new sampler channel for those who have Sky or Virgin subscriptions that don't include Sky Sports. The initial schedule included Elite League speedway next Wednesday but that seems to have been removed, not I hope because it's Poole It could be useful in the future for the odd match.

I picked up on a few stories when I was also doing those Backtrack interviews. The best was probably Jamie Luckhurst who had become a professional glamour and fashion photographer whose main subject was a gorgeous young thing. Where did it all go wrong? I seem to remember David Walsh was working at the university in Glasgow, which perhaps for those who know him or have read is poetry would be no surprise. One story that I'm sure has some wider media potential is Gary O'Hare, the speedway rider who simply wouldn't quit and is still travelling all over the country to race and win at an amateur level. Those using Facebook won't find the next one news but a major personal surprise for an ex-Rocket was to find the long-lost Karl Fiala burst back onto the scene in a major way on social media after disappearing from the sport in 1981. We spent a fair bit of time in that appalling post-championship year wondering what had happened to him. He's apparently built a successful business making debit, credit and smartcards. A while back I was at the Ellesmere Port reunion and Karl turned up there, a good couple of hundred miles from home. Off-topic, there was also a display of bikes there that included one used by Dave 'Tiger' Beech of the Rayleigh Rockets in the early 70s. That's the first time I've ever wanted to be photographed sitting on a bike! Any veterans (survivors?) of the Weir will understand....

The sport has seen many tragedies over the years but one form is so often overlooked - that former speedway hot-beds such as Southampton, Norwich and Bristol have been without speedway for far, far too many years. That was the case when I discovered speedway. I never thought that one day we would have to add London to that list. What a dream it would be to bring speedway back to even just one of those cities or , say, the West Yorkshire conurbation? We saw speedway come back from the dead in Newport and Leicester. I do so hope that the latter doesn't go the way of the former. There is so much goodwill in the sport. I still cherish the sight of families pulling together at Iwade to give their kids the chance to make it in the sport. If that kind of spirit could flourish against the cynicism and selfishness what a wonderful sport we would have. Sadly, too often speedway has taken the unimaginative short cut, and not always through necessity.

Glad to return the many favours you do for us regarding TV coverage

There is one fundamental difference, whether it suits your agenda or not. Alcohol and tobacco are legal, whether you think that's right or not. It's the usual excuse of the user.

UK TV Coverage: BT Sport are showing Dorna's 1 hour highlights show as follows: Friday 9th September 22.30-23.30 BT Sport 1 Saturday 10th September 06.30-07.30 BT Sport 2 It's a minor but possibly significant expansion of BT's speedway coverage.

Different motivation - love of speedway v love of winning.

I am also a huge fan of Rob Godfrey's work. "Look, I believe in the kid and he's going to prove me right one day but until then he's not Matt Williamson, he's Matt Black!" At the other end of the spectrum Workington in the non-Ian Thomas era - late 70s/early 80s had a character called Rocky Brown - pure West Cumbrian but totally unqualified for the job. The story goes that a rider flicked a v-sign at the referee which Rocky thought was for him and he told the rider quite directly what he'd do to him if he did it again. Given your extensive travels I'm glad to hear that the standard's good at the moment. Regarding club themes I had only one instruction from Ron Russell at Rye House regarding music "NO, Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines!" ...... Yes I did edit that.

You could say the same about London. We were in a restaurant in Norrkopping once after a Vargarna meeting. One of the crew was served a very expensive piece of fish that wasn't fit to give the cat. The owner had kindly stayed open for us but the chef had gone home so he offered him two free beers - which were worth more than the fish... Glad to hear it's more affordable now. Only place where I've been breath tested before being allowed into a disco, just in case I was drunk. Okay, the bouncers walked along the queue to see if they could smell alcohol on people's breath. Wonderful city plus world-class speedway, what more could you want? Wish I was going.

I was a student in Liverpool in the late 70s and with family just up the road in Widnes and Runcorn I was a regular at Thornton Road in term times. As with most tracks round a football pitch it wasn't the easiest p[lace to pass but when someone did it was a sight to be seen. John Jackson would almost paint pictures on that track and it was a joy to see a rider so in tune with his home circuit. It was a privilege to interview both him and Steve Finch for Backtrack in more recent years. I do remember, sitting up the ref's box in the back of that stand how if I couldn't see gate four, how on earth could the ref? With Doug Adams guiding us through the meetings on the mic it was a pleasure to spend my nights there and it's so distressing to see the place now. Sadly there just weren't people coming through the gates when it was open and too few to reviove it. Nobody can take away the memories.

If Leicester was purpose-built I think we need to launch an investigation to find out what the purpose was. Dismayed to hear suggestions of which track may also be in the same plight.

That's the point Arnie, musical cliche is probably more irritating and damaging than verbal or written. It goes on a whole lot longer! Going back a few years Fanfare For the Common Man was was done to death, as was the William Tell Overture. They were both great ideas ..... at first. By contrast, properly used a theme can work wonders. Few people who were fortunate to know Hackney in the Hawks era will fail to be stirred by the opening bars of "The Magnificent Seven", but it was used once to launch the meeting then sensibly packed away until the following Friday - and it was always the following Friday, unless you'd reached the end of October. Staying in the past for a moment to give another example of excellence, in my trips to Ipswich in the seventies I can't recall the music, but I can remember that genius on a mic, John Earrey. He made those Witches meetings fizz but given an impossible task at White City to create atmosphere even his talent couldn't help. One favourite moment was one night at Foxhall when Anglia had put their gantry on the stand roof. John was up there, telling us what the view was like and how great the TV pictures were going to be. Note, that's celebrating and appreciating the past, not living in it. Every track needs a 'Magnificent Seven', and oh boy does it need a John Earrey.

I'd suggest it has a lot more to do with money wanted by the riders.

Oh, that's me on the mic! Did you have to choose a 5-0?! . You try talking for 70 seconds on two guys cruising round unopposed. It was shot on hi-band u-matic using professional cameras for Screen Sport TV. It's what's happened to the picture afterwards that's the problem. It's been copied on VHS until it's been copied to death. Our standards were far better than these knackered VHS copies suggest. Bear in mind VHS was still pretty new at the time and unlike digital every time you made a copy you lost a heck of a lot of definition. I suppose in a way it's a compliment that they've been passed round so much. Jan Staechmann has bought what back catalogue that survived and I think you'll find that his legit copies are of a rather higher standard. http://www.classicspeedwayvideos.com/ Glad to hear it - a true gentleman and a pleasure to work with in 1985.

You're quite right there. To bring in Bryn and Halifaxtiger's comments, I wish sometimes that those who want to have a fair and intelligent discussion could find a more civilised and controlled corner of the net to maybe have some positive conversation. Yes HT it was harsh, but sadly I believe necessary. It was said not out of mischief or scoring cheap mpoints but sheer despair at how the internet has given people the wonderful ability to communicate so freely - and then see how that gift is trampled in the dirt by the selfish, insincere and often just purely ignorant. Thankfully there are those like yourselves and others who still make it worthwhile.# I just love speedway still after all these years, for all its faults and the pain it brought me and want it to thrive, and ideally help it to thrive. All I can offer now though are ideas and hopefully constructive criticism. When I see others with the same intentions drowned out it does get to me. This can be such a wonderful sport but it's so held back by the selfishness, ignorance and sheer nastiness I referred to earlier.

'Drugs in Speedway?' I find a good supply of Nurofen and Prozac are vital when reading the rule book.

Ironically his last team was Rye House Rockets. Yes and Dave King of King silencers also briefly rode for the Rockets. Now which PL team did Tai ride for? It was all our fault! We should never have given team places to Willi Laydown or Ivan Dirtdeflector either....

He does work hard though. Obviously he'd met one of the backroom team at Sittingbourne I also announced for Boston at King's Lynn when they were the Boston Barracuda Braves. I reverted to Gordon Parkins' old tactic at New Hammond Beck Road. 'c-u-d-a-s - CUDAS! (Leaves space for the Borussia Moenchengladbach joke) There.

No matter how good the presentation you still need a sound base product to work with. Regarding p.a, systems, as some will know I worked as Rye House announcer from 1989 to 1993. Their system was an ancient, fragile set-up owned by the greyhound racing landlords. It may have been suitable for that work but not for speedway. Getting sound levels right was a nightmare. You'd turn then up so people could hear on the terraces then a few minutes later you'd have someone from the landlords storming into the box and screaming at you yo turn the levels down because they were too high in the bar. Very civilised. You couldn't turn it too far up or it would trip out anyway. One day we had a testimonial and the rider concerned decided to have another team of presenters in - very kind of him. So they turned up with their fancy equipment, brushed aside my comments about the weakness of the p.a., plugged in the gear and blew the system completely. The senior character who now bores the pants off people at Coventry and who I previously had respect for then stomped about like a spoilt child accusing us of being "Fred Karno's Circus" because we didn't have a blackboard to carry round the track to put the race winning times on. The rider subsequently apologised to me. Frankly I couldn't give a damn by then. People wonder why I'm glad I'm out.......

Agreed. They're still not as bad as the Danish captions on their league matches, welcome as the coverage was. I expect Dackarna and Piraterna will be relieved given Rospiggarna's start. In a way though the points will count ultimately as usual if there's a tie on match points. With such a short six match schedule every away point and race point I suspect will be vital.

Thanks. We two against the world?