keepturningleft

Does anyone know if there is a contingency plan in the event of a rain off for the opening event? A possibility in March, in Manchester, in England.

Harsh perhaps, but you have to wonder what Greg is trying to prove at the age of 45. He can never seriously be considered as America's greatest ever rider. It's taken him 28 years to win three world titles. It took Bruce Penhall 4 years to win 2. Considering the awful the situation with Darcy Ward, why would you still want to take these risks not just late in your speedway career, but relatively late in life. I've just had a word with my wife and apparently I do exist, so the answer to your question is yes.

Tai is the cleverest rider I can remember seeing for a long time. You can see his brain working and figuring things out with every lap. How many riders have come from last to first twice in one meeting? Incredible stuff. I know that this is not really a very nice thing to say, but Greg on the other hand has to be most boring rider in the entire history of speedway racing, who has overstayed his welcome in the sport by at least 5 years. I always record the GP's and watch, 20 minutes or so behind so I can fast forward through the commercials - and all of Greg's races. For goodness sake Mrs Hancock, demand that your husband retires after this season.

Compared to this, speedway is tiddlywinks. http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/31/isle-of-man-tt-the-worlds-most-dangerous-sporting-event-3816587/ I urge everyone to read the article as I'm certain the sentiments expressed from the road racers apply equally to the mindset of speedway riders.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/justin-wilson-crash-video-british-former-f1-driver-in-coma-and-in-critical-condition-after-freak-accident-during-pocono-indycar-race-10468784.html Another motor sport, another awful Darcy Ward type situation. It would be useful to comision someone with the stats and information, and with time on their hands, to go through the records over the years and determine once and for all whether speedway really is more dangerous now than in years gone by so we can put this never ending debate to bed.

Was in the Manchester area today and decided to take a trip to Kirky Lane to see how things are going. It's looking good - all we need is a funfair and a zoo and we will be back where we were!

god, I hope Greg Hancock doesn't see this!

Worth pointing out that many people will be reading the book having borrowed it from the library. I counted 20 date stamps over a three year period on the copy in my local library.

A fabulous GP, thoroughly entertaining. To witness the riders fearlessly attacking the track when it was a bit rutty early on confirms my view that there is is no more exciting sporting spectacle in the world than speedway! Just one thing - in the race summary section, Scott Nichols always clearly identifies the riders by referencing their helmet colour. Only occasionaly do Nigel and Kelvin do this. For casual or new fans, all riders look exactly the same, so I wish our two friends in commentary would follow Scott's example during the actual race.

Has anyone noticed the physical similarity between Peter Craven and John F. Kennedy? And, they died in the same year within couple of months of each other!

I too made my first visit to Owlerton for some time and was dismayed by the amount of long gaps there are particulary after every 4 races for track grading. I am certain that in the 60's and 70's when I watched the sport at Halifax, fans were not subjected to these tiresome delays. The meeting lasted 2 hours and the racing lasted 15 minutes - that's 1 hour and 45 minutes of staring at the hoardings on the back straight with absolutely nothing happening. And then we get an interval. There is no way speedway will atract a new, young audience if this is typical of an average speedway meeting today. Youngsters today have short attention spans with limited amounts of patience, and they live in a totally different world to those of my generation. There is no chance whatever that they will tolerate a sporting event where for most of the time you are in the stadium there is nothing happening. The main meeting should be run slickly, be done and dusted in an hour or so - and then we should have a second half. Sorry to be a misery, but the future looks bleak because the sport just doesn't seem to get to grips with the modern world.

Nothing new under the sun - for Nicki P, read Ove Fundin

There's nothing new or unique about one particular start grid offering a huge advantage, not even in the 'great old days' when of course very single race featured so many overtakes, you couldn't keep track.

As a fan of old school horror films from the 50’s & 60’s, I recently purchased an updated version of the book ‘English Gothic’ by Jonathan Rigby and was surprised to see a speedway photograph from New Cross in 1948 and reference to the film it came from. This is not from ‘Once A Jolly Swagman’ however but a film called ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ This is a new one on me – anyone else aware of this? Check it out here, speedway scenes start at approx 46 mins (If you can get past the ads). ▶ The Monkey's Paw (1948) - Video Dailymotion

A secondary dilema is that NP being the token villain and a brilliant rider, is therefore box office. GH is one of the worlds least exciting riders and therefore anti-box ofice. Speedway needs the Pedersen's much more than the Hancock's. Incidentally, what's to stop NP going to the police and bringing an assault charge against GH?

Was Ove Fundin there?

Blimey! - I believe I would now actually prefer a recorded, well edited programme to a live transmission for the same reasons other people have mentioned - the lack of the totally pointless and tedious interviews and a smooth flowing, delay free meeting. Remember, the old World Of Sport coverage was never live except on odd occasions, and that was in major boom times.

Who would you rather watch, Bomber or Greg Hancock?

Currently on the GP thread, and on countless other occasions on these threads, the issue of value for money at a speedway meeting crops up i.e. two hour meetings but only 20 minutes of actual action blah blah. During my main period of watch speedway which was in the late 60's and most of the 70's and 80's, not once did I ever consider that I was being short changed in the value for money department. The feeling and perception was that you had had a full and complete night's entertainment. I'm not sure why that no longer seems to be the case with many people. I'm sure the meetings must have run for two hours or so as now. I read the speedway star religiously in those days and cannot recall the letters pages ever being bombarded with fans complaining about poor value for money as far as the amount action was concerned. A speedway race lasts just over a minute, but with good races that minute is completely manic, intense, nerve wracking and exhilarating - and you get 20 (or so), of them. That always appeared to be enough, exactly right, and as much as mind and body could handle. When we had 13 heat matches, many fans would leave the stadium and not bother with the second half rider of the night stuff - they were happy with just 13 races! To completely fill 2 hours, you would have to have 120 races! Perhaps the packed stadia in those days added to the overall experience and buzz of attending a meeting and the perception of time was completely different.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31013387

We cannot go back to major speedway events being held in a field (Norden), or well loved but ramshackle stadia (Odsal). We have to get the temporary tracks sorted. The size of crowds generally at the mega stadia proves what can be achieved. The tracks is the one and only issue.

'If you can't add to the pictures - keep quiet!' So said Ritchie Benaud - sadly the likes of Sam Ermolenko will never learn from these legendary commentators.

My ideal would be to see CS and BT combined as one single magazine but I know that this idea was forwarded a few years ago and rejected. No matter, both mags are terrific and long may they continue. Going into the 90's wouldn't be right. Both mags are a celebration of speedway's halcyon days and that can't possibly include the period of decline which the 90's and onwards represent. Re the internet. You can't beat the physicality of a book or a magazine in your hands.

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, Eurosport and the like, we are now able to see speedway from tracks around Europe that we previously only read about. And what an eye opener it has proved to be. But first, let’s consider “Britain’s best stadium”, or at least that’s what is often claimed. Sheffields Owlerton is a dog track stadium so there is greyhound paraphernalia all over the place often getting in the way of the view as well as the dog track itself putting distance between spectators and the action. The view on turns three and four is inhibited by some mystery grill/mesh which appears to serve no purpose whatsoever other than spoiling the view. There is none of this grilling/mesh on turns 1 &2 so why is it there on 3 & 4? In” Britain’s best stadium” there is no spectator seating which is simply unbelievable for a modern stadium in the year 2014. I am not including the bar and restaurant area which I’m sure is not where the vast majority of speedway fans would wish to watch from. It beggars belief that with declining numbers through the turnstiles that people who are unable to stand for long periods are ignored and possibly alienated in this way. There used to be seating at Owlerton of course, along the home straight, but at some point (in the 80’s?), it was removed. Brilliant idea! This means that as with most dog track stadia the low level viewing is not that great with the afore mentioned greyhound clutter getting in the way also compounded now with a non-see through air fence. There is good viewing to be had – along the back straight terracing, but quite obviously this is closed off to spectators. Why would you want your paying spectators to have a good view? This leaves turn one as the only area where there is terracing offering relatively uncluttered views. The track lighting at Owlerton is very dim to say the least. Didn’t always used to be like this. Back in the day they used the old fashioned, but effective system of lanterns which literally hung over the track and which illuminated the action superbly. The track itself has always had a good reputation, but like most tracks in Britain, it’s still way too narrow. None of this is meant be a rant at the Sheffield speedway management because I know they are only tenants. At speedway tracks in Europe, all the stadia seem to have plenty of raised areas around the entire stadium (even if it’s only on grass banking), giving fans a proper view - and all appear have a seated grandstand, or two. At none of these tracks are fans distanced by a dog track, peering through grilling or standing on boxes to try and get a better view. Many of the stadia in Poland are clearly in another universe. There are no ‘cycle speedway’ tracks such as we have here like Eastbourne or Lakeside, pretty much all the tracks being big, wide and fast – proper speedway tracks, how it should be. Someone will probably throw some statistics at me to prove the opposite, but smaller track always seem to me to be much more dangerous than the big wide tracks presumably because of the tightness and lack of run off area. Clearly two of Britain’s best tracks and stadia are Kings Lynn and Coventry but the lush green centre greens which enhance the look of any speedway stadia have been replaced at those venues with concrete and it looks awful on TV. The new Belle Vue could be a ray of hope, and I haven’t visited every track in the country by any means, so can’t comment on the state of every stadium and track, but if Sheffield is indeed Britain’s best stadium, Cardiff not included, it only exposes just how far this country has sadly fallen behind the rest of the world and it’s difficult to see how this situation can possibly change in the short to medium future.

It's interesting to see Charlie in quite a different role from the one we usually see her in ie: the trifling pit interviews to now appearing fairly regulary on heavyweight politcal programmes, raising concerns of a very serious nature for which she clearly has intellegent, articulate and passionate views. Good for her.