moxey63

Yeah, and forgetting which way speedway bikes raced!

Go on.. was it Father Christmas!

I wish I was there for the sixties too, but arrived in time for the seventies. I'd be dead now, if I got all the decades I want from speedway. Then again, I'd not be around now for its sad demise.

Let's not take anything away from the modern boys though... they have to live up to our memories of the 70s, an era that spoiled us.

Scott Nicholls a British champion about seven times as many as Peter Collins, signifies that PC had more competition than Scott has. To me it does anyway.

Once again... and it's either my age, the fact I can't be bothered, or that the sport really has too many rules that are as difficult to keep up with (like an obese fella chasing his runaway mobility scooter down a hill), that I can't even be arsed reading them sometimes. Just when you think you know the rules, after 40 years a fan, some student on the terraces smacks you one, asking "can they do that?"

In my day (sound like uncle Albert now), top men were top men. You had your Maugers, Olsens, Collins, all grade A boys... then you had Billy Sanders, Chris Morton, Terry Betts. Indeed, the BLRC used to be a real pride event. It was worth qualifying for, some boys that didn't make it had ridden out of their skins all season, just to be at Belle Vue on those chilly October nights. Fast forward to now... and, as Larry Ross stated recently in the Star, a world champion never scored seven points when he was riding (referring to one of the matches he'd seen while over here last year). It says it all really. All the old boys having long retired, their expected replacements, when they can be bothered committing to Britain, they don't really command the pulling power, the force or presence of 11.74 averages... and can run a last at the drop of a hat. Is this why crowds began declining - the standard of top men in speedway 2015 compares to.. I don't know... perhaps JedWard of the pop world, trying to fill The Beatles' boots? When the sport has sunk this low, all the real stars have left the stage, I laugh at people worrying about all the top stars not wanting to ride here. Speedway has slumbered through decades losing its real class. Maybe it's just coincidence that crowds followed them through the exit doors of time. But, in my view Jason Crump was the last genuine STAR of Elite League racing. I could imagine him attracting an audience, should he ever come back to Britain. The top names, the pulling power of the past decades, nobody has replaced them.. and nobody has replaced the missing fans. Am I making sense today.. or should nurse up my meds?

Matt Jackson has done/is doing tremendous work on attempting rider records and biogs. As Steve19620 has said, speedway has failed to really keep records, which is annoying, and "official" yearbook are sporadicly published and the sport really falls by the wayside in terms of how it treats its statistical, history and record-keeping side. Another frustrating thing with speedway, speaking from someone who has tried keeping season records, is that you never know for sure at the start of a season if a yearbook will be published at its end. I am sure many people, sad individuals like me, would attempt to keep records of the current season on a weekly basis instead of relying on someone else doing it. It'll be easier to compile yearbook stats on a weekly basis during he current year than play catch up at the end of year, after having found out no one else is doing one. Peter Oakes has done a few successive yearbooks for recent years, Robert Bamford before him. But there are huge gaps on the shelves of missing seasons. Perhaps Speedway Star could provide some form of section on a website of past years, team aves and scorers - they have been doing the winter reviews forever and the team scorers for about 25 years. I did a yearbook for the 2011 season, when I thought there would not be one printed. But then Peter Oakes went and published one! I felt all the hard work was wasted and it put me off doing another on a weekly basis. By the time you realise a yearbook isn't in the offing from anyone else, another season has gone and the sport's efforts for any credibility (for having a yearbook) has been wasted. I am boring... but I know I am.

Am I the odd one... who actually would cancel my Speedway Star during the season and re-order in the winter months? Only kidding of course, but I love the old stuff, track reviews and stats. Apart from the scores during the season, the winter ones are my faves at the moment.

Speedway's record of keeping records is a shambles. It is left to diehard fans to try and delve into various publications (which were often unreliable) and form some sort of conclusion of things. Having pieced together stats for various yearbooks, I doubt there'll ever be a complete and accurate reference and often anomalies will remain. A professional sport should have its own yearbook, year on year. I've been at matches where even the referee has awarded a wrong place... and I recall a piece about Chris Morton saying he knew for sure he got a third place point in one of the 1973 KOC Final matches, records tell that he was pointless in both!

Looking back at old magazines, picture, matches on DVD, the images prod a magical time that from our sleeping pasts and, let's be honest, they are feelings we will never ever get back. The recent Speedway Star pieces on the olden days, for example, the Ipswich piece, the Larry Ross tribute, they are great stories because it was a great time for the sport, even though at the time it was possibly not as great as it once was before (if you compared it with 30 years before). The Ipswich feature in this week's Star, the photo of proper team unity will be something that is hard to navigate back to. Perhaps we should burn all the old images and things of speedway's past; save the children that are coming up on the terraces today from noticing, it never gets better than those first few years.

Remember Freddie Lindgren was confused when he contested one of the Man On Man heats. Like pasty tax, no wonder the idea was axed. The tale of the Man O Man will be on TV's Horrible Histories one day.

I stopped attending speedway mainly because they got rid of the yellow and black helmet. Can't wait for next March now. Happy days!

Why do they wait till the season is over to announce such mouth-watering changes? No doubt they'll be hammering down the gates to get in every track come next spring, with "House Full" signs already being ordered. Best bet is getting your season tickets right now. The return of the Yellow and Black colour... what a masterstroke!

You had to be told it wasn't real... and actually thought it a great idea.

Just heard.. efforts to persuade those poor exhausted star names back to British racing, all tracks to have beds made up in available pit space and bikes cannot be warmed up, started during rest moments. Already clubs planning to open their 2015 season with challenge matches to raise cash for new beds. And a certain southern promoter has revealed, in a ruthless bid to cut out the use of guests, that rule will now be known as having a sleepover.

That was another killer for me - the Man O Man Race - that even the riders sent out to race in it were unsure what it was! And again chaps, these people heap their ideas on us.. and run (or is is ru(i)n?) the sport. I recall a KO Cup idea from about 20 years ago... in which the team with the highest losing aggregate would re-enter the competition at the next round - and actually ended up playing the same side that had eliminated them weeks before! Only in speedway folks!!!!!!!

Judging the SS content this week, which I can't wait to read, is it true... that speedway is best when it's 30 years old? Bet you fans today can't wait until 2044, eh?

The ethics of speedway - the 3, 2, 1, 0 scoring - the tradition that goes right back before any of us were thought of... that's what the Golden Double has done. It has altered the basics of what speedway has been built. When the normal scoring system gets altered so a match can artificially remain interesting, it does any credibility the sport strives for no good. We can argue the plus and minuses of the old Tact Sub, as we can the Golden Double, but I for one still cannot see why the old Tac Sub was ditched. If, as they say, it was to save money, surely it could have been altered... instead of doubling the points and making it pantomime speedway. That's all it's done in my opinion.

Then theirs them gramatciall and speeling misteaks...

And what makes you say that with such confidence?

So true. One particular substitute rule doesn't get a complete thumbs up from the forum and therefore, if us experts don't know what we want, how on earth can we criticise promoters?

The old tactcial rule had stood the test of time, more credible to the outer public, and kept alive many tedious matches that were all but over by a handful of heats. There was more scope for team managers back in the day of TS, you could use TS from heat four until the final race (usually Heat 13 - please bring back 13 Heats an' all). I have said before, my interest in attending live matches began derailing once the introduction of the Golden Double was implemented. There is only so much you can do with the Golden Double, and a time to do it. If the perfect moment doesn't arrive at that particualr juncture, that moment has gone and the direction of the league points faces no further test. People may argue that the old TS was better than the current GD, but I put forward the 2006 farce - the Grand Final Play-Off, in which Reading, much the ebtter team over two legs, were leapfrogged by Peterborough and the false extra points the Golden Double handed them. I know most fans wished the GD's death after that, but it was tinkled with, and is better than it was then (bread and water is better than anything when you're hungry)... but not as good as the old Tac Sub. Tac Sub every day for me. The GD should be used in novelty meetings, even during a rare Christmas speedway event or indoor one. It isn't a serious speedway rule - like a fella wearing lady cloths on one of those You've Been Framed videos. II always feel it's a lark-about rule. But that's just me.

Is that you, Brian?

The costs of your PC mag are probably kept down because, perhaps, more people buy it and therefore more profits are made. To raise its price may mean fewer people purchase it. I know the Star is expensive but it is the only mag speedway folk has, so you either pay it or a professional sport (ah ah) could lose a genuine piece of its history. Compared to match-day programmes, the Star is tops in every way. Bet you both prices are almost similar these days, though I can't imagine a programme containing 48 pages.