Tigerblade

Definitely a case of once heard never forgotten I remember one time we had Belle Vue the day after PC had won the British Final and he went up the steps that overlooked the pits and yelled "'Has the British Champion arrived yet then?". I guess it was one of those things where you had to be there, but it made us laugh anyway. Shoddy as Soldier Boy - that conjures up an interesting mental image

Probably an obvious one, but Nicky Allott can be seen helping Adam. Phil White attends Owlerton now and again, although I haven't seen him for a while. Did Ian Jeffcoate ride for Scunthorpe? He still comes to Owlerton as well. Hope to get along at some time, it's only about 40 minutes away for me

1982 - how either of them wasn't injured further still amazes me to this day. We've had a few shockers - Carl Blackbird/Simon Green in 1991 and Roman Matousek/Robert Nagy in 1996 are both notorious.

No doubt then you also remember that Doug Wyer recommended him to Sheffield, and our then promotion held talks with him but decided against it...... Robyn - unfortunately never got to Hackney, which I now regret very much indeed. I am going off the subject a bit here, but did many people ever get to Skegness?

One of them used to play for Rotherham United, he sometimes gets mentioned in those "flashback" things in the local sports paper. Didn't Steve Schofield play football up to quite a decent none league level in his younger days?

Not sure if this one counts, but in the late 70's there was Steve Columbo, who's real surname was Rausa. He was around at about the same time as David East, must have been confusing for the other Americans.

Maybe I'm biased but I agree Obviously in my opinion Sheffield is great - people say what about all the wins etc. but any Tigers fan will tell you that we have to work for them! Halifax was the first away track I ever went to, loved the banked bends. I also like Berwick (Shielfield) and Exeter for this reason. This is probably the "old fart" part of me typing, but most of the tracks today seem small, I think that's why riders seem to struggle with Sheffield, when I began watching we were just one of many big tracks. I also liked Leicester the couple of times I went there, and although it wasn't always great racing I always enjoyed going to Shawfield for some reason. Despite my rant about little tracks, I also enjoyed the fast racing at Ashfield on my one trip.

Aah, dear old Phil... I don't know if it was because he suffered the fractured femur in one of the first meetings I saw (anyone remember the Gauloises Pairs tournament ??) and I felt sorry for him, or the fact that it was close to the end of the season and in winter it's speedway Down Under, but he and Billy Sanders (god rest his soul) were two early favourites of mine. Obviously by then Phil had left Newport and gone to Bristol then Swindon, but I would have loved to have seen him in his heyday at Somerton Park. Sandman made the point of a lack of self belief - the night before the 1982 World Final there was a meeting at Costa Mesa which a lot of the world finalists were watching as well. I think it was Bob Radford who was interviewed on the centre green during the meeting, and he said "the best rider in the world is Phil Crump - if he would only believe it himself". Due to the lack of a Tiger in the Final I cheered for him, and he only scored 4 and one of those was a gift from the re-run of the infamous BP/KC heat! In a way, though, I wish he hadn't made that abortive comeback in 1990 - I went to Bradford v Swindon (we were closed that year) and he was a pale shadow of what he was. I'm sure the fact that I like Jason is 95% because of him being Phil's son!

Top story Liontamer, you deserve a medal being the driver Sorry Phil, had to laugh at the thought of you dribbling - I heard you were "dribbling" in the wee small hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning as well (that's me with a warning bar against my name lol) A bit like this bloke in the waiting room of Cardiff casualty on Saturday night ha ha Lioness, I take it I must either be the A.N. Other, or you don't think I'm very nice

Although I didn't go on the block booking, I can echo Fd's quote here - I've organised a couple of functions for 30+ (amount, not their ages!) people in the past, collecting money etc. and so on, listening to various "it can't be that night", "that venue is crap" etc. etc. suggestions. So I'll say well done to Fd, as I know from experience that it is a thankless task. And NO, that is NOT me volunteering for next year

Hi Warleyone, welcome to the forum and also the world of speedway. I'm glad you had a great time, if you do go to any more places you'll have to come back on and tell us all about it. If you are ever in Sheffield on a Thursday night, come and see the Tigers! ------ Slightly off the topic, Woody-the-bee touched on the matter of publicity, I worked on a campaign group when my team, Sheffield, were closed in 1989 and 1990 and one of the biggest problems we encountered was getting decent publicity. As one of the other committee members said at the time "you can send 'em as much as you want, but you can't make 'em print it!"

Thanks Joanne, Robyn, LT and Nevsy for your best wishes to my mum - she wasn't ill when I was talking to anyone in the afternoon, she phoned me about 5.45 whilst I was in the Prince of Wales. We would have had to find some medical help somewhere anyhow, so decided to go into the meeting and see the St. John's. She went to the docs yesterday, and he has referred her for a cauterisation, which Cardiff hozzy said they couldn't do unless it was actually bleeding at the time! Had to laugh at your "who is this Strensham bloke" question Nevs - good job Michael Wood isn't on my way home

Well, I bet had a "different" GP to all of you folks:- Got to Cardiff Friday afternoon, all settled in the B and B. Went to Newport v Newcastle Friday evening, I guess the Wasps also needed the result however the only time they were ahead in the meeting was when Kevin Little slowed down in the last heat! Got into Cardiff centre on Saturday morning and was yelled at as mum and I were walking down the main road, turned round to see Joanne Went to Sam's bar and also the POW (with a bit of wandering around the city centre in between) and met loads of lovely websliders, lovely to see you all again and also to meet nearly 20 people for the first time, even if it mainly consisted of "Hello, I'm Tigerblade" and a handshake. Unfortunately - my mum had a nosebleed as she was setting off from the B and B in the evening. As she is on Warfarin it doesn't stop bleeding as quickly as normal. We decided to go into the meeting and see the first aid, and spent about half an hour in there, and they sent us to the medical rooms below as it had been going for 90 minutes by then. It stopped once the nurse applied an ice pack and we were watching Heats 3 - 8 on the tellies in there. We went up to our seats and were enjoying the meeting - like most others have said, it seemed a much better standard of racing. Unfortunately mum's nose began spotting again before the semi's and we went down again, and this time they decided she ought to go to hospital as a precaution. So we missed the two semis and final. All was okay in the end, but we had to wait 30 minutes for an assessment, another 2 hours for the doc and another 90 minutes for the results (which in the end turned out to be fine). Cardiff Casualty is an experience on a Saturday night as you can imagine! Got back to the B and B at 3am!!!! Went to the Welsh Open, and it was the best thing we could have done in the circumstances really. Again met up with some lovely websliders. Got back home okay, but I had to pull into Strensham so's I could have a kip! From what I saw, Greg was the most impressive rider, Trick didn't look at his brilliant best, and Floppy was excellent as well. Gemma, I agree with you - if you dislike a rider fair enough, but a child won't understand and be able to ignore insults like us adults.

One or two of these have ridden for Sheffield, ie. Eric Broadbelt (no I've never heard that name anywhere else either Beowulf), Randy Green, and Rene Aas. My mum and I were at Hull one night when he finished last and the announcer said "and Rene Aas brings up the rear" without realising what he was saying. Can't believe nobody has mentioned the ex Weymouth and Scunthorpe New Zealander Mark de Kok His brother Greg rode in our juniors/second halves in the early 80's and I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread at the time.. He returned to NZ never to be seen again (That's the problem with Anzacs, they all go home eventually ) Can't remember who posted it now, but yes, I do remember old Deccy Eccy!!

I would have never thought of that description, but yes, that fits him perfectly. Christer Sjosten was killed in a crash in Australia in December 1979, I only really remember him riding for Poole though.

Glad you are back safely Joanne, Prague always sounds lovely when I hear about it, I will have to get my finger out next year. Sounds like an Australia reunion what with Discoll, Ballinger and Hotshot Hello to you all xx (I met someone called FT on Saturday as well, but I think the forum FT had a more enjoyable weekend :roll: )

There was a silence at last night's conference meeting to mark the passing of the former Halifax, Sheffield and Hull (and no doubt others) announcer Doug Adams. I thought I would mention it as there's a few ex Dukes on here who will remember him, no doubt others heard him whilst on their travels as well.

He was a lorry driver (even whilst riding, although obviously not simultaneously lol) for donkey's years, might still be. He originates from the same village as me, and when I was at Gosford the day after the Aussie GP last year, Dave Cheshire senior who is a big pal of his came over to talk to Tina and her sister and got talking about him. Couldn't believe it, I was 10,000 miles away from home and talking to an Aussie about my own village!! Although I would say I know his sort of nephew Paul better, he had a dabble at riding a few years ago but never got above Conference level.

I think I must be the only speedway fan in the world who hates "Who Let The Dogs Out" God, there's loads of songs that remind me of speedway, probably stuff in the charts when I first visited. Sheffield ones for me are Tiger Feet, Kung Fu Fighting, Hey Rock n Roll, many others as well. When I first began going there the teams used to come out to the "Entry of the Gladiators". As much as I like Simple Minds music, "Belfast Child" upsets me sometimes as it reminds me of when it came out that we had closed in 1989. I never realised "Blaze Away" was the music it was until I went to Wimbledon this year. Berwick's always tickles me ("Wheels" by the String-a-longs), it makes me think of the muscle man on Opportunity Knocks!!! Did any other places have songs for particular riders? We did in the early 80's, Shawn Moran was stuck with "It's A Miracle" by Barry Manilow due to his US nickname the Miracle Worker, so we would sometimes have that played 4 times in a meeting!

That goes for me too, have a wonderful time. Hope to be on some Cardiff pictures myself next year lol

Couldn't they find you a seat Have a brilliant time out there xx

Been into town earlier and I am going out for a bar meal with my pals to Castleton in Derbyshire tonight. No doubt I'll find out who has won etc. by text messages.

Not at all Maggie, I'm not overkeen on them either and I am always very pleased when I have gone across them.

Me too, it was heartbreaking to hear booing from the terraces in only the second home meeting of 1994 when he made that disastrous comeback. If ever one rider was above being given stick for the efforts he made for us, it was him. He was the best we've ever had in my time of following the Tigers and probably the best we're ever likely to have. Like I said on another thread, I'm not sure about Kelly making a comeback, I would prefer to remember what he was like in his heyday.