Grachan

I'm working in Sandwich for a couple of weeks and staying in Canturbury. Never went to the Speedway. The only time I was here before was in a time that I never went to speedway, although I did go to the Cricket ground and, as I'm staying close to it, I took a wander up the other day and had a look. Brought back some wonderful memories of my dad and of people like Alan Knott, Derek Underwood & Asif Iqbal. No interest in Cricket apart from that though! I hope to take a look at where the track was while I'm here. I saw where it was on a map at the hotel, and on a newer map it says Kingsmead Redevelopment area. What is there now? Is there any sign of the stadium remaining or has it all been built over now? I can't let the two weeks pass without a look though.

Quite a few league tables (1963-1983) on the Hackney site. hhttp://www.hackneyhawks.co.uk/ I'm not sure the 1974 table is correct though. It has Hull bottom and Oxford above them, but I'm sure that the Hull v Oxford result was reversed after the season ended and Oxford eventually came bottom.

I don't think you're taking this seriously, Sand Racer. Egon Muller

As Falcace says, Kenny Carter always provokes a reaction, and that being the case I don't see why people should avoid discussions about him. Sure, it's a speedway board, but, whatever he did, Kenny Carter was a speedway rider and his life and death had a big impact on anyone who was around at the time. In all my time as a speedway supporter I can think of only 3 occasions when the sport has made the front page of the national newspapers. One was Peter Collins winning the World Championship, another was a bizarre race fixing 'scandal' reported in the Sunday People (eg, did you know the Bruce Penhall only won the 1981 World Championship because Jiri Stancl let him beat him in his final race?). The third time was the Kenny Carter incident. It was a big story and I see no reason to avoid it.

Try here: http://www.leisurecollectables.com/speedway/ It's listed in the Books section for one and a half English pounds, but I see no reason why they wouldn't send it to Aus.

There hasn't been much response to this, Dublin Duke, probably because there was a big Kenny Carter discussion on the old forum fairly recently. I understand the old forum is to be archived as read-only so you should be able to read that in the future.

He he he. You're not wrong there. I noticed that they never had anything on Reading every week in Speedway Mail so I thought I'd write something myself and fax it in. Couldn't believe it when they started printing it! I had a problem though - no access to the riders. Therefore I used to get my rider quotes by writing down what they said over the PA during the meeting. I often wondered if anyone ever actually noticed this. I did do a proper interview with Jeremy Doncaster once though, when they gave me his phone number and asked me to call him. I felt such a charlatan!

I remember Speedway Now. Russell Lanning took over Speedway Mail at one time too, but he wasn't there very long. I also remember Speedway Mail going the same size as Speedway Star for a while. I think they were trying various ways of increasing the readership. It was always more difficult to obtain, though, other than at the tracks themselves. I could always find Speedway Star in a newsagent somewhere, but never Speedway Mail. That can't have helped.

Thanks Liontamer & Madbiker. I received the following e-mail from Jamie yesterday: "Thank you very much!!! I enjoyed reading that immensely. I was just bored the once and thought I would try searching on him. I live in Sutton Coldfield now and my father and mother are divorced. Unfortionatley he never encouraged me or my other two brothers to try speedway. I don't know why. My mom said that if he had a competitive bike he would have done better. Still he has his own building company now called M.S Builders and still rides bikes but for pure pleasure. I really do appreciate what you did for me ,thank you very much! Yours sincerely Jamie Shakespeare"

Somebody placed this message in my Guestbook and I wondered if anyone had any memories. All I can remember really is that he rode at the first meeting I went to, which is presumably how Jamie found my website. Name: Jamie Shakespeare (Homepage) Country: UK Date: Sat Feb 8 00:47:11 2003 Comment: Hello,im trying to find things out about my dad, Malcolm Shakespeare.Anything? I know he raced for wolves and weymouth.Was he any good?

Ove Fundin did win in 1963 though, so maybe it was after that.

I wrote for Speedway Mail for a while. Crap payers!