Grachan

Yup.

Me too - plus when I got the front page once as Reading closed in on the league championship. I only ever did one "proper" interview, which was with Jeremy Doncaster for the World Final edition. Most of my quotes came from Tim Sugar or - in one case - Todd Wiltshire's dad. Other than that I relied upon what riders said over the PA and the tape recorder in my pocket!

It's true that the inclusion of Mondays results worked well for Speedway Mail, with Wolves and Reading riding on that night. I used to write the Reading articles in the early 90s. I would knock them out on a Tuesday morning on one of those old white Amstrad word processor things with the boot up disk and dot matrix printer. Then I'd fax it off to the magazine before going to work. Having Mondays even gave me a scoop over Speedway Star, even though I had no connection with Reading speedway and just started doing the articles for the fun of it because they was no regular Reading article in the magazine. I was told on the Monday that Mitch Shirra has signed for The Racers, so made that my story. When Speedway Star came out there wasn't even a hint of this happening. Reckon I should have got an "Exclusive" headline for that!

Man of the meeting and most exciting rider was always quite interesting.

Andrew silver looks more like Billy Duffy from the cult.

Thought I'd post it here rather than on the other thread so it would hang around a bit longer. Perhaps we could even have a sticky for it as people often come looking and asking about it. This just popped up randomly in my recommendations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fKZn5KzpiY

If you zoom the map out, you can see the runway at Greenham Common to the West. That is what Tsunami was referring to. I worked at AWRE (as it was then called) for many years and live in Newbury, so know the area well. They used to have trials riding along there too. With Greenham and AWE so close, perhaps we could see a return of "The Bombers"!! Would they dare?

Not any more. It's been reverted to common ground now for several years.

Yes. Greenham Common (the old US air base) to the West. AWE Aldermaston to the East.

They could even possibly get away with calling them Reading Racers? It's only about 10 miles out of Reading after all.

Leave ittttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!

Great number ones: Phil Crump Martin Ashby Leigh Adams Swindon Legend: Bob Kilby Greatest Entertainers: Shawn McConnell Andrew Silver That's 6 that pick themselves for me. Picking the 7th is not so easy. Briggo? A total legend but before my time so it would be cheating to say him. Autrey is always more associated with Exeter for me. Jason Crump was just one season, but a major signing as it concided with dropping dow to the second tier. Very much in tune with Sidney with these. So difficult to pick a seventh - one more rider that stands out above the others that remain from my own personal experiences. Jimmy Nilsen perhaps? Yes. I'll go with Jimmy as my 7th rider but might change my mind later. Or Brian Leonard, because he used to have a shop near me, his ex-wife is my mum's cleaner and he bought my book.

Really? I don't remember that. He certainly was going some. I remember him doing a lap of honour with a big grin on his facew and getting booed mercilessly though.

I remember Finn Thomsen getting 21 from 8 rides at Swindon that year. Four programmed rides, 3 R/R rides and a tactical substitute. A reserve could have possibly had 9 rides? Three programmed, 2 reserve replacements, 1 tactical substitute and 3 R/R? I'm not sure on that, but I think a reserve could have had that.

I was a heatleader for Poole from 1975 to 1981, winning two world championships during that time and also riding for Great Britain in the World Team Cup. I certainly don't remember anyone of that name being in my team at that time. The man is clearly a charlatan.

No it hasn't. Nobody really is disputing Chris nudged Nicki. It's whether there should have been an exclusion or not.

Er, I think the point was that Chris Holder is World Champion, not that Speedway Star matters. Good decision by the ref in my opinion. It wasn't neccesary to make an exclusion and he took the best option. Bottling it? I suppose some people could see it that way, but it made a lot more sense to have the title decided on track - and the differeing poinions on here show that it was far from a clear cut thing over who was at fault. As to whose fault it was - well if Holder had been excluded it would have been understandable and if Pedersen had been excluded then it wouldn't have been so I guess I'd say it was more Holder's fault. But all 4 back was the best call and, in any other race or any other meeting, there wouldn't have even been a debate about it. Craig Ackroyd clearly didn't want to be remembered in the same way as Tore Kittleson either. Can't say I blame him.

I thought you'd said your bit.

Hate to say it, but this is the only post on here so far that makes any sense! THJRacing. The voice of reason.

Strange times. Did it start raining or something?

Andrew Silver and Shawn McConnell. And Per Jonsson.

Guess what, Sidney. I remember seeing Mark Loram as a 16 year old at Hackney too. Hackney v Swindon when Simon Wigg was in the Hackney side. There was a "Yoof TV" station filming and it was on later on Channel 4 I think. Loram was featured because he was the youngest rider in the league at that time. I've probably still got it on an old video tape somewhere!

Didn't Hull win the National/Premier league once with a team of that sort of make up?

This is the World Cup though. I'm not so sure that Sky have much influence on that even if they do with league racing.

I don't think he was. It's the rule that's the farce. sky have constantly gone into a state of frenzied excitement at the prospect of Jokers and double-points ride while fans around the country cringe at the very thought of them. It was funny to hear Nigel getting indignant about what was happening. Seriously. Double points just for being behind in a match? Think about it. It's bloody stupid!!!!! And of course team managers are going to do what's best for the team to win a match. It's just so bleedin' obvious.