Grachan

In 1974 it was the Second Division In 1975 it was the New National League In 1976 it was the National League. I know this is correct. I'm a genius on 1974 to 1975 speedway.

Not sure exactly. I remember watching Lee Complin and thinking he was so good, then went to Reading to watch him. I expected him to be brilliant, but he just struggled at the back all night. By the way, wasn't Michael Lee NNL, not NL?

I don't think its as simple as low admission price. I think it's a dual effect of low admission plus promoting that too and publicising the event. It does seem that, without these, people don't bother to go and stay at home. So it's quite surprising how this can turn things around completely and result in some of the best crowds of the season. Some people say it proves that admission should be cheaper, but just doing that along would, I reckon, not make enough impact long term t ocover lost revenue. But promoting Sky matches as one off events with low admission means people like myself who tend to pick and choose are likely to choose those matches. I see Lakeside are doing a £5 admission too. Be interesting to see how it compares to Swindon's matches and Lakeside's own "Free Admission" match a few years back.

This is one thing we have in our favour. The council have said that the current stadim cannot be demolished until the new one is built. Without that being put in place, Swindon would probably have closed down in 2007, never to be seen again. Like Poole, Speedway has quite a high profile locally, which is a good thing in situations like this. But it's still all a bit 'fingers crossed'.

I used to watch PL speedway regularly at Sheffield. Watching it, you form your own ideas of who are brilliant riders and who are not so good. It was a shock to see how different the levels are, when riders at that time I thought were brilliant would ride in the EL and suddenyl be completely outclassed. EL was a lot stronger in those days, mind.

12 from 6 at Leicester 11 from 5 at Swindon 23/11 x 4 = 8.36 To be honest, if riders are prepared to do it, I'd get them to drop their averages every time once a match was won if I was a manager.

I think it's fine because it gives you a more constant view of the race to the first bend. Better than switching view in my opinion. Any moves and so on can be seen clearly in replay.

Swindon were crap in 1975. That's probably the real reason if they didn't want to ride against Boston.

I went to a few at Bristol. I seem to remember that Bernie Leigh was brilliant there.

Yes. Smallmead opened in 1975.

If you lot really want to avoid discussing Darcy Ward, may I recommend the Darcy Ward topic in the Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup section. He barely gets a mention in there!

A discussion on Darcy Ward populated by people who are fed up with people discussing Darcy Ward. Great stuff.

If we had a 16 team EL and the same riders that are riding here now, then, by default, every rider in the current EL would immediately be a heatleader. Number ones would be the current top twos. Second heatleaders become the current 3s and 4s Third heatleaders become the current numbers 5s plus 8 from the PL. Put that lot through the old race format and you get 10 point riders aplenty.

I did answer it. Riders of NL standard today would have been NL then, too. Plus riders slightly above them in standard too. I said, somewhere between the current NL and the current PL in standard. The top PL riders of today would have been riding in the top league. It's not a yes/no answer because I feel it needs more than that. But, yes, todays NL riders would have been in the old NL too.

Where do you think riders of the standard of the current NL riders rode in those days? They rode in the NL. There were also some more regular journeymen riders too, at the top end of the sides. I'd say it was somewhere between the standard of the current PL and the current NL. But certainly riders of the standard of the current NL would have been in the NNL/NL, yes. It would have been of the standard of current NL and current PL full timers that don't double up. Plus a couple of big prospects - say Robert Lambert standard if they got lucky (eg like they did with Collins and Lee). There were more decent British prospects around there, but it was just a feeder league to them.

Because they were 16. (Lee was above 9, though, even at that age, and Peter Collins' 1971 Rochdale average was 9.80) http://wwosbackup.proboards.com/thread/678

Won with Reading in 1973 too. He was in the Swindon side during my first season watching in 1974.

Not in the Swindon team, anyway!

Bob Humphreys. I've changed it now.

Heat 8 Proch, Jansson, Anderson, Hunter (ef) 71.4 1-5 21-27 Into Tactical Territory now!! Come on Swindon. You can do this. Reading boooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Heat 9 - Ashby comes in to replace Bobby McNeil Ashby, Bouchard, Bell, Davis 70.6 (Programme note by me: Ashby team rode) 5-1 26-28 Not over yet, by a long chalk! Heat 10 - Jan Andersson comes in for Norman Hunter Ashby, Leigh, Andersson, Humphreys 71.2 4-2 30-30 Heat 11 - Jan Andersson comes in for Cliff Anderson. Kilby, Jessup, Andersson, Jansson 70.0 4-2 34-32 YES YES YES YES!!!! Heat 12 Ashby, Davis, Bouchard, Proch (Humphreys ex tapes) 70.8 My totally unbiased and thoroughly objective programme note - in big letters - "NEVER. Geoff beat Davis. Wrong Result) 4-2 38-34 Heat 13 Jessup, Kilby, McNeil, Leigh 69.8 3-3 41-37 Racers sent home weeping, with their tails between their legs!! Get in!!! Swindon Mighty Robins 41 Martin Ashby 3-3-3-3-3 = 15 Norman Hunter 1-ef-ef = 1 Bob Kilby 2-3-3-2 = 10 Geoff Bouchard 2-1-2*-1 = 6+1 Bobby McNeil 1*-0-1* = 2+2 Jan Andersson 3-1*-0-1-1 = 6+1 Cliff Anderson 0-1 = 1 Reading Rubbish Racers 37 Dave Jessup 2-3-2-3 = 10 Bengt Jansson 0-2*-2*-0 = 4+2 John Davis 3-2-0-2 = 7 Good old Bernie Leigh 3-1*-2-0 = 6+1 Bob Humphreys 0-2-0-Ex = 2 Mick Bell 2-1*-1 = 4 Bolek Proch 1*-0-3-0 = 4

I wouldn't have put the result if I'd known Heat 4: Davis, Kilby, Andersson, Proch 70.4 3-3 13-11 Come on the Robins!! Ht 5 (re-run) Jessup, Jansson, Bouchard, McNeil (F-Ex) 70.2 1-5 14-16 Ht 6 Ashby, Davis, Bell, Hunter (ef) 69.8 3-3 17-19 Heat 7: Kilby, Humphreys, Leigh, Andersson 69.4 3-3 20-22

I have a programme for this. not always guaranteed accurate! It was 41-37 to Swindon. Hurrahh!! Ashby 15 Hunter 1 Kilby 10 Bouchard 6+1 McNeil 2+2 Andersson 6+1 Cliff Anderson 1 Jessup 10 Jansson 2+2 Davis 7 Leigh 6+1 Humphreys 2 Bell 4+1 Proch 4+1 I'll post my heat details later if nobody else does. Heat 1: Ashby, Jessup, Hunter, Jansson 68.8 4-2 Heat 2: Andersson, Bell, Proch, Anderson 70.6 3-3 7-5 tbc Heat 3: Leigh, Bouchard, McNeil, Humphreys 70.4 3-3 10-8

His recent interviews are quite interesting for me. He seems very open and just talks from the heart regardless of who he is talking to. Take Matej Zagar, for example, or Seb Ulamek. Both were brilliant at saying the right thing to the Swindon fans and sounding like they truly love the club. Darcy just says what's on his mind and half the time he's talking about Poole to Swindon journalists! It's actually quite sweet. I don't see it as arrogance.

I think the PL became a lot stronger in the late 80s, after the top flight started to struggle and the NL began to sign foreign riders. Instead of just a league for those on the way up or the way down it became a proper, competitive league - just at a lower level. By 1988 (the year of the Poole footage), the top flight was down to about 12 clubs and teams began dropping down for econmic reasons. I'd say the PL is definitely tougher than the old NL for those very reasons. The old second division and NNL wasn't much different to the National League now. That's why genuinely talented riders like Peter Collins and Michael Lee could come in and straight away be heatleaders in much the same Tai Woffinden could in the third tier recently. One reason there are so many PL riders in the British final now is because of the lack of clubs in the EL plus the doubling up. If we had 18 clubs at top level and no doubling up, then the British Final would be pretty much full of EL riders. It's funny that people call doubling up riders "Premier League" riders all the time, when they are just as much EL as PL.

After the green light comes on would be my guess.