Jeff.

It is now covered by an Asda superstore but played host to Halifax RLFC right up to 1998 although it was in a very poor state of repair by then. Type postcode HX1 4JT into google earth and you will see the stadium partially still there although in the throes of being demolished

What regulations are these then Kevin. As far as I am aware an EU citizan has right to work over here, but it is not compulsory to employ them. A promoter can employ seven English riders if he wishes although of course it could not be a written rule that they will only employ English riders. It would only take an informal chat at the AGM and teams could agree to not employ less than a certain amount of Brits.

33 53' 36.04" S, 151 13' 36.47" E Takes you to the Sydney Royale. It is actually long since demolished but Google Earth appears a few years out of date and it is still there on the picture albeit part demolished you can clearly see the egg shaped track and much of the stadium is intact. Right next door are the sydney showground and telsra stadium

Pretty sure you are right. On opening day the M32 was blocked with cars trying to see into the stadium, which as you can see was right next to it.

Thought some people may be interested in some sites where speedway tracks used to stand. A few to start. Copy and Paste into Google Earth Try 51 30' 49.91" N, 0 02' 07.24" E for West Ham. Note the names of the streets Or 53 50' 20.93" N, 2 13' 26.21" W will take you to where Nelsons Seedhill Stadium Stood Both New Cross and Millwalls original Den were here. The parkland area was occupied by the "frying pan" 51 28' 54.98" N, 0 02' 55.16" W Belle Vue,s old Hyde Road was here 53 27' 49.12" N, 2 11' 40.93" W if you put the roads on then just to the left of Boundary Street was the Hyde Road Ent and where you see the orange A6010 was the redgate lane Ent. The complex actuall covered the triangular area between the A57 Kirkmanshulme Lane and what is now the A6010

Peter Collins was World Champion at 22, Mike Lee was 21. They would have made good reserves. John Louis on the other hand didnt sit on a speedway bike until he was 28.

In 1987 when Belle Vue raced their last season at Hyde Road admission inc programme was £3.10. Less than 20 years later we now pay £17.00, an increase of 450%. That means for every £100.00 earned then you would need to be earning £550.00 today so you can see there is no parity at all cost wise.

More to the point, why when it is only 2 years old is it having a 3rd birthday

Well of course the sport evolved, no one is trying to say that High Beech or Droysden were the first time men had raced bikes round a track, but it was the first time they raced round a licensed track under specific rules and in front of paying spectators. Norbold Wrote Nothing happened afterwards? High Beech did

Thats a matter of opinion. One school of thought is of Droylsden being the first recognised speedway meeting, and their is certainly merit in it

30th Anniversary Tony

I t is ridiculous to suggest Tony Rickardssons' GP World Titles are devalued because the series is invitational. The exact opposite should be true. There are no Continental Final qualifiers anymore who apart from when the Final was in Poland were purely making up numbers and most, not all I hasten to add, were not fit to be in the final yet there were years in the 70s when Olsen, Collins, Michanek all failed to qualify for whatever reason when they would have been real contenders for the World Title. No one riders World Title is worth more than any other, they were all achieved under the system prevailing at the time and each had to be the best under those conditions In my opinion the GP system in its various guises is the best means of finding the best rider in the world for a specific season

World Champion Five Time?

Andy PC published 4 books, in 1976, 1977, 1978 & 1979. The Peter Collins Speedway Book No 3 (1978) has the article in it that Falcace refers too

It was late 1984. The main allegation against Wigg was that he paid riders in the British Final not to beat him in important races. The riders in question were already out of the hunt anyway. It was nothing that wouldnt go on anyway only Wigg made the mistake of telling this to someone who was pretending to be a friend but was in fact an undercover reporter, and also the fact that money changed hands made it suspect The following week Chris Pusey who at the time was somewhat down on his luck had "sold his soul" for a few quid although this didnt have quite the effect of week 1. When they questioned Penhalls; 82 world title win because he supposedly asked Jiri Stancl not to beat him in a decider the stories had lost any credibility they may have started with. Unfortunately the effects of this nonsense did impact on speedway for many years and it is impossible to tell how much they contributed to speedway's decline.

90,000 plus crowds only happened 3 times at Wembley (1949,50 & 51) Despite the myth that has developed over the years they were the only 3 years of a sell out Wembley. Even the Penhall final of 81 was watched by only 72,000 although a lot of quarters quote 90,000 plus for that one. Some of the late fifties finals were held in front of only 50,000 crowds so in that context 40,000 at Cardiff isnt too bad.

In reality Andy the sharing you refer to lasted little over 10 years. The first fifteen World Finals were held at Wembley before the success of Ove Fundin got Sweden in on the act with the 1961 Final at Malmo. The late sixties saw Poland get in on the act and the three year cycle continued until 1981. After then the final was held anywhere and everywhere from olympic stadiums like Munich to fields like Norden & Pocking

No, Scott began in 1973 at Exeter

1976 Inter Continental, what a meeting that was. In front of a pretty poor (by the standards of the day) Wembley crowd, I believe it was around 30,000 who were there, PC pulled off the most amazing victory. He ran a lst first time out to give all his fans a bit of a fright but won his remaining four rides to force a run off with Ivan for the Inter Continental Title, which PC went on to win. Anders Michanek had virtually booked his World Final ticket with two wins out of two rides and looked a safe bet for the title and yet in the final reckoning he didnt even qualify for Poland losing out in a run off for the last qualifying place to John Louis. The defending Worl Champ Ole Olsen started with an exclusion and an engine failure and he too failed to make the cut. Not totally sure but wasnt this the year the Inter Continental Final came ino being, replacing the old European Final

No he was never third, Todd Wiltshire was third on the day and remains so as the FIM decided to remove Shawn Moran from second place but not to move all subsequent riders up a place. As a consequence there was a winner, Per Jonsson, a third, the afformentioned Mr Wiltshire, but the record books will show that there was no second place

It was the clutch that he moved Andy and operated them both with his right hand

SCB of course YOU can't compare the two eras, being little more than a child you will never have seen Ivan race. Those of us who did can compare. Of course it isnt a precise science, just opinions based on what we saw, not read in history books.

And for me Nielsen beats the pair of them ! The GP argument is blown away with Nielsen. NOBODY else would have won a World Title between 1985 and 1995 had the GP format been in during those years. For sheer consistency Nielsen was the absolute master, was it 4 wins and SIX 2nd's in his time. The other thing Nielsen had that Rickardsson certainly has NEVER had was the ability to team ride, apart from Bobby Schwartz nobody was in his class in this. Nielsen also done it at Longtrack level. His ability to help his team mates was 2nd to none. Add to that the fact that when Nielsen was at his prime so were Gundersen, Jan O Pedersen and Tommy Knudsen. The strength in depth at the top was far far higher than today. For me Nielsen stands out as the greatest all round speedway rider. Mauger is up there with him but sorry, Rickardsson is a great rider but not even in the remote same class as Hans <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That is a post from someone who obviously wasn't around when Ivan was in his prime, mid sixties to mid seventies. In that era there were lots of riders capable of beating each other in world finals, the eastern europeans were especially dominant when riding on their own tracks, add to them Briggs, Olsen, Michanek, Collins etc ets and you can imagine the difficulty of winning finals back then. In Hans era the world final generally was about 1 race, Nielsen v Gundersen, the winner the likely champion. That said I believe Hans to be almost the equal of Ivan and with just a little more luck on the nights could easily have been champion in 1984, 1985, 1988, 1994 and 1996

The difference between the crash and what happened a lap earlier was that in the previous lap Andersen realised he had left the gap and that Holta was coming through, Hans correctly raced in wider and didnt try to close a gap that was really already gone. On the next lap the situation was reversed but Holta didnt concede the corner. On the whole it was probably fair to exclude Andersen but I would not say it was a dirty move, just very hard riding.

I don't know if you remember Gothenburg 77 but it was possibly the worst conditions ever where a meeting continued. Referee Kittilsen used common sense by making allowance for the dreadful conditions and cancelled the two minutes, which in reality he should not have put on anyway. It would have been extremely unfair on Olsen who had to lay his bike down when Boulger fell.