Parsloes 1928 nearly

The titles in this series still available are: Doncaster, Paisley, Rochdale, Nelson, Sunderland, Romford, Castleford, Belle Vue II, London White City, Glasgow Hampden Park, Wigan, Bristol Eastville, Fleetwood, Liverpool, West Ham, Crayford, Canterbury, Hackney, Wembley. They are a range of different prices depending on when published, size etc.. To get details and order please contact Speed-Away promotions, 19, Arundel Road, Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire FY8 1AF. Tel: 01253 733288 or e-mail at: oriolecy@btinternet.com Also Stoke book available (last 11 copies in stock on offer at £5) and Cradley Heath book due out 8 Dec 07... Leicester Defunct is out March ‘08. D. PS can recommend the Crayford one..: as I wrote most of it!!!!

Saw Filip storm to his second successive national Under 19s title in Prague last week. Details at: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...showtopic=37899

Here's the full results from last Thursday's Under 19 national championship from the Stadion Marketa. Many, many thanks to iris and tommy for letting me know this was on..: it made my trip to Prague to get to see some Speedway at this fantastic and famous track. Qualifying scores: 1) Filip Šitera 3 3 3 3 12 2) Dominik Jech 0 0 1 0 1 3) Petr Babicka 2 2 1 1 6 4) Michael Hadek 1 2 2 3 8 5) Martin Gavenda 2 1 3 2 8 6) Pavel Fuksa 1 3 2 2 8 7) Jan Holub 3 3 0 2 8 8) no rider 9) Matěj Kůs 3 2 3 3 11 10) Michal Dudek 1 1 2 0 4 11) Pavel Pucko 2 0 R 1 3 12) Patrik Doubek 0 1 1 1 3 Heat 1: (rerun) Šitera; Babicka; Hadek; Jech Heat 2: Holub; Gavenda; Fuksa (3 riders only) Heat 3: Kůs; Pucko; Dudek; Doubek 66.22 Heat 4: Šitera; Kůs; Gavenda; Pucko 65.70 Heat 5: Fuksa; Babicka; Dudek (3 riders only) Heat 6: Holub; Hadek; Doubek; Jech 66.07 Heat 7: Šitera; Fuksa; Babicka; Pucko (EF) 67.49 Heat 8: Gavenda; Dudek; Jech; (3 riders only) 67.74 Heat 9: Kůs; Hadek; Doubek; Holub 65.99 Heat 10: Šitera; Holub; Doubek (3 riders only) 66.29 Heat 11: Kůs; Fuksa; Pucko; Jech 66.40 Heat 12: Hadek; Gavenda; Babicka; Dudek 66.76 Semi-final 1: Šitera; Gavenda; Fuksa; Dudek 65.79 Semi-final 2: (rerun) Hadek; Kůs; Babicka; Holub f.exc. 66.75 ‘C’ Final: Pucko; Jech; Doubek (3 riders only) 70.74 ‘B’ Final: Fuksa; Babicka; Holub; Dudek 68.99 ‘A’ Final: Šitera; Kůs; Gavenda; Hadek Final positions: 1st.: Šitera; 2nd. Kůs; 3rd. Gavenda; 4th. Hadek; 5th. Fuksa; 6th. Babicka; 7th. Holub; 8th. Dudek; 9th. Pucko; 10th. Jech; 11th. Doubek Under 15s championship: 125cc [3 laps only] Qualifying scores: 1) Jaroslav Hladky 3 2 3 3 11 2) Roman Cejka dnr 3) Miroslav Machek 2 1 2 2 7 4) Miroslav Horak 1 3 1 Fx 5 5) Jakub Fencl 2 2 3 3 10 6) Zdenek Vrba 1 1 1 2 5 7) Ondrej Veverka 3 3 1 1 8 8) Michal Prucha dnr Heat 1: Hladky; Machek; Horak 63.52 Heat 2: Veverka; Fencl; Vrba 64.31 Heat 3: Veverka; Hladky; Machek Heat 4: Horak; Fencl; Vrba 63.91 Heat 5: Hladky; Horak; Veverka 62.91 Heat 6: Fencl; Machek; Vrba 63.57 Heat 7: Hladky; Machek; Veverka 62.51 Heat 8: (rerun) Fencl; Vrba; Horak (f.exc.) 64.26 Semi-final: Machek; Vrba; Veverka; Horak 63.46 Final: Fencl; Hladky; Machek; Vrba 62.39 Sorry I missed a few times. Score-board wasn't on 'til heat 3; missed a couple of others by being too slow looking(!); and then had to rush away at the conclusion of the Grand Final to get in our cab. Many thanks to the person at the Auto klub Marketa who called us a cab. We might still be there otherwise!! Fantastically-run meeting: with thorough track grading by two tractors between every set of five races and yet still got through 27 races in exactly 2 hours! And they've a water bowser to die for!!!

Brilliant!! Thanks for all this info.! Provided my flight arrives on time, will have time to make it for the 6pm start-time. Only thing that worries me is that the Under 19s event is not actually on the Calendar of Events on the Marketa site..

Blimey - thanks for tracking this down iris; and for tommy confirming. Any chance of a start-time and location..??!!

How stupid am I..??!! (they’ll be no shortage of responses to that question..: but it was posed largely hypothetically..!!! ). Am going away with a couple of mates to Prague from Thursday 11th. to Sunday 14th. of this month. Yes - a whole four days after the trio of big Speedway meetings this coming weekend!!!! So...: am wondering, does anyone with knowledge of these things, know by any chance..: is there any Speedway in Prague on those three days I will be there..?? Here's hoping!!!

I think you badly under-estimate how many people interested or involved with Speedway see a GP 'Rround' as a GROSSLY inferior product to a proper World Championship Final... I am very confident that IF a proper World Final was being staged at the new Wembley it would indeed sell out: it would be, as the World Final always was, a hugely exciting event. A British GP round always held in June and so, early in the series is totally without immediacy and relevance to the overall world championship outcome; and therefore has to rely on being a stand-alone event - which only has limited appeal. I know it's a matter of opinion, but in all honesty I don't see how ANYONE who ever attended any of the titanic World Finals across Europe (and indeed in the US) when the title was decided that way could possibly think that the GPs even come close...

The proper World Final used to sell-out Wembley.. Does anyone seriously think that the GP nonsense could ever do that..?! Those who harp on about Sczakiel & Muller are admitting by default that those are - arguably- the only two dodgy WF results in a long history of one-off Finals. The GP will ALWAYS, though, be remembered for the year when the World Championship was won (sic) by a rider who never actually won a meeting. THAT could never have happened under the proper WC system... I note that a few posters are saying that the GP system will go on for ever..: hmm, only as long as there's a sport to have a World Championship of.. IMHO, the GP system is the BIGGEST single liklely contribution to the end of international Speedway...

But why would Gollob winning be a problem. There's no rider in the history of the sport who more deserves to be World Champ. Empirically, that's the case as he's the ONLY rider in history with as many as THREE World Championship rostrum positions but never a first place on that rostrum. Also he's been - and unlike some others..: Mr. Hancock springs to mind! - he still gives his absolute all in the GPs and is still the most exciting rider in the series. Also as you allude to, no-one has lost out more than Gollob by the change to the season-long GP system..: if there'd been a one-off World Final in Poland, what, three or four times in his top class career he would surely have at least two World titles by now and may indeed have won at another venue out of Poland too..

Hmm, surely EVERY Speedway meeting is, to some extent, only for a "select", "invited" few.... Indeed one could say the same about any sporting event one goes and sees!! Sadly I can't make it Friday - good luck to everyone taking part but especially to young Marc. Well down to all at Lakeside for putting this on..: the club's commitment to young riders this year has been much improved, getting back to the good old days...

Absolutely: an excellent example that shows how completely unfair the current GP system is. For most in the so-called GP series, it it's just a pay-day - they've no intention of winning it, just staying in it. Greg Hancock is the perfect example..: is there honestly anyone out there who believes he’d have let Chris Harris past him if that was the final bend of a World Final with the title up for grabs..? Another good example which compares the meritocracy that was the proper World Championship system with the tired monopoly that is the travesty masquerading under that title today, is the rise of Michael Lee. A raw 16 year old newcomer to the Second Division (NNL) in 1975, by September of 1977 and aged just 18 he was able to ride in the World Final (and indeed get into a run-off for third place in that Final; could have even won the title but for the reinstatement after 2 minutes exclusions of Olsen & Mauger.. ). Now fast-forward to now. There are young talents around as good as Lee was in '75 as a 16 year old in Tai Woofinden and Lewis Bridger. Now let's estimate how many years it'll be before those two will be 'allowed' into the GPs..?? Perhaps by the time they are, they may have lost interest: the opportunities to excel and achieve having been denied them in their early prime…

Gosh, Tony.. I do sincerely hope this goes okay but you know my reservations about the Kenny Caret business; and I do hope that the piece doesn't dwell on the tragic circumstances to the (possible) detriment of the sport .. TBH, though, I really can't imagine that the journalists won't pick up on this..??

Roger rode for the Dons in 2002 NOT 2004..... But yes, he's the same fella who'd made that appearance for the Witches all those years earlier...

True the Brits did poorly (seemed SO down on speed/power!!??) but what an awesome track, great racing and superb excitement. This was more than a million times better than ANYTHING any GP round in ten years has served up!! Proof to me that we MUST for the sake of the future of our sport return to the old individual World Championship system without delay.. Would a Brit win under such a system though..?! Currently hardly any chance, I'm afraid...

What you don't think that the fact that Britain's top rider at the time did what he did and it was front page news in all the national dailies did any harm to the reputation of the sport and didn't have an effect on the shunning of the sport by that same media over many following years....??

Thanks for this Mauro. Don't suppose the wife would've been too keen on me nipping off to track down some Speedway whilst on our hols anyhow..!!!

Well, it depends in the setting in which they're promoted.. Obviously many books are written about awful crimes..: but one wouldn't expect the Yorkshire Tourist Board to promote the Ripper books by selling in their outlets with a smiling face of Pete Sutcliffe on the cover and a blurb that read "the full sensational story" etc. And ditto with books about the awful events in Soham a couple of years back.. Not that I'm comparing Kenny Carter to those crimes (it was someone else who made the Ripper comment...): but I personally have reservations about a biography being sold at tracks around the country and promoted the way it has, when - as Rob has pointed out on another thread - the awful circumstances of Carter's death and that of his wife was splashed luridly over the front pages in most of ours recent-ish memory bringing the whole sport and those of us who love it into a measure of disrepute and shame. I respect Tony very much and am sure he's written an excellent, well-balanced book and I think Richard Clark's review in the Star summed up the problems with the subject matter and did say it has been handled sensitively and expertly. Just my opinion really (and yes, maybe a touch puritanical on my part.. ) that this was an incident (and by association, a life & career) which I didn't in all honesty want to see promoted in this way.. Learning lessons is valuable from any incident (and yes, there's been tragic suicides of other riders including a great hero of mine, Billy Sanders..) but the case of Kenny Carter is an awfully dark one and sometimes darkness is best left alone..

Committing the cardinal sin of going away abroad on holiday during the Speedway season!!! Wondering if anyone out there in BSF-land knows of any Speedway, grasstrack, long track or short track meetings happening in Italy in the first two weeks in August, as that's where I'll be..! Sure Italy's a big place..(!!): but any details would be multo welcome!!

I would respectfully suggest that the whole concept of this book is insensitive to the Carter family.... IMO, Kenny Carter's life, bearing in mind the shocking way it ended and the terrible harm done to so many by him was NOT in anyway a suitable subject for a book.

Yes that's right. And Barry Sheene (Like Hunt sadly no longer with us...) was World Champ that year too..!! Just wanted to make another comment connected to PC. Someone posted on a related thread about Chris' victory that "it doesn't get better than this". That's nonsense though, isn't it..! It does get better and that's by becoming World Champ. I sincerely believe Chris can do this. No fault of Chris who can only win what's before him - but let's be brutally honest, a GP (even the prestigious GB one..) is but a solitary round in a world championship series and next step up has to be to go for that World title. Is Nicki Pedersen that much better than Chris? I don't think so, so let's get behind what we really need to see: a Chris Harris World title win.. Then it won't be able to get any better...!!!

Much as I have little time for F1 and, as you say, the privileged position they occupy in the national media, on this occasion I think the fact that there was a clash this weekend has helped us. Certainly, I believe that the Mirror has put the sizeable piece about Chris Harris' victory where they have (inside back cover..) because it fits in nicely with the rest of that two page spread about Lewis Hamilton. And because Hamilton is doing so well, there's a kind of symmetry in pointing out that in another traditionally British motor sport discipline, we have another young competitor starting to achieve notable results and victories: i.e. Chris Harris. And, of course, the Mail's piece did draw a parallel between the hugely exciting nature of Chris's Cardiff exploits with the often dull, predictability and thrill-free output of F1..: so we can actually gain much from the comparison too.. Interesting that you mention the '70s. This is because, IMHO, Chris Harris has a style which is very reminiscent of the great Peter Collins. I honestly think that when it comes to interest within the British media in Speedway, we actually need not just a champion, but one with a swash-buckling style. This is what Chris can give us and wins like Saturday's will, I believe, capture the public's imagination. A plea..: after this, can Sky PLEASE stop peppering their EL coverage with constant references to who gets out the gates wins etc. This has been proven at the highest level to be untrue and we don't need it said!!

Absolutely. Fair play to the Mail (not always or indeed EVER before my cup of tea!!) this is an excellent piece. Let's hope it appears as fully in print as it has on their web-site...

What about that fella called, I think, Marshall Pugh who came from Majorca. There was a burdgeoning scene on the sunshine holiday isle in the early '70s (whatever came of the track(s)!!??) and Johnnie Hoskins had Pugh over riding a few times at Kingsmead.. I suppose he was Spanish, was he..?

Roy Barwick who appeared for Crayford in 1975/6 (and had started as a Wimbledon second-halfer) was pretty tall as I recall...

I understand the 80th. birthday of one-time Wimbledon rider Jim Gregory (who was riding splendidly for the Men in Black recently at Peterboro') is imminent (or may have happened now..?). Does anyone know the date of his birthday..??