BigFatDave

Courtesy of Gavin Elmes via Duane Dennis, Team Oz scores: Damien Koppe 6, Steven Reid 3, Scott McKenna 2, Clinton Dennis 13, Hopalong Josh Grajczonek 13, Michael Penfold 5, Hayden Barr 1. Looks like Josh G is recovered from his busted leg, although I'll bet he'll be sore this morning.

I've given up on him, Ian - anyone who dares to disagree with him, including one person who actually took part in the 1923 meeting, is either senile or deluded - just ask him.

Result of the first meeting was a 47-43 victory to the Poms; Kyle Howarth 7 Ashley Morris 5 Richie Worrall 6 Steven Worrall 4 Josh Auty 11 Tom Perry 8 Robert Gottardi 6; when I find out the Aussie scores I'll whack 'em on.

Easy cop-out again mate, answering statements with questions. You can twist your words around as much as you like, no-one's listening to you any more, ol' feller.

About as smart as calling people schoolyard names.

Let me get this straight: who introduced Religion into this thread - why it was YOU, in response to no-one but your own ego. Must be awfully lonely up there on the High Moral Ground. Once again you make an untrue statement, then follow it up with a question. I'm still waiting for my apology and your reasoning behind your statement in post #132 that what I said in the first post on this thread was untrue, when in fact it wasn't. You might be happy rewriting history in your own image, but until you can back up your grandiose sweeping statements and blatant lies you can poke your constant nit-picking questions where the sun doesn't shine. Are you sure you're not Impartial One in disguise?

I'm sure if you have an idle moment this Northern Winter you can look up each club on the internet and add them all up, but the main bike venues run every fortnight through 'til end of March. Don't forget some tracks, like The Alice, run mixed meetings with Solos, Sidecars and Four-wheeled classes as well. I'll be doing about eight or nine meetings including Auckland GP, Senior, Under-21 and Junior OzChamps plus Longtrack and the final of the Sidecars Grand Slam; venturing out, armed only with several jars of highly volatile home-made Mango Chutney, from my Fortress of Ineptitude in the Northern Territory to invade SE OZ & UnZud! Just out of curiosity, Cockney Rebel, how close is your nearest bikes-only track? Mine's 3000km away.

Thanks to Martyn from Australian Speedway Forum: A fine field of Solo stars will be on the card at Mildura’s Olympic Park this Saturday night when the Mildura Speedway season opens in earnest. A great field of Sidecars too, will explode onto the track; to start off hostilities in the right vein in a meeting which will have great interest for Sunraysia speedway fans. Both solos and sidecars will be very competitive and the format to be used on the night will showcase that competitiveness. A “new look” race track, with resplendent, freshly painted new fence panels, will greet all competitors, in what will be a fascinating start to the Mildura season. Improvements are always on the Olympic Park agenda, with the fence being part of the constant refurbishment. Further plans are afoot to continually upgrade the facilities, as the Club progresses a master plan for change. The turn out on Saturday will include twelve top sidecars, which include the top line up from Mildura with Byren Gates, Jason Bradshaw and Wazza Monson heading the bill. The top three will be combined with Chris Holmes, Clint Mayes, Dale Milner and Simon Cohrs, along for good measure. Visitors will include Broken Hill Star, Ricky Stephens and from Albury, Lindsay McGregor, as well as Adelaide’s Tim Bichard and Aaron Silvy also with former local Rob Patterson, who is back in Mildura for a spell. The three wheeled brigade will line up in a round robin test, where each team will be trying to gain as many points as possible to get them through to an all important semi final and a cut throat Final on the night. Track space will be at a premium, especially at turn one of lap one, where all riders seem to want to have their front wheel on such a tiny piece of territory. Passengers have been swapped temporarily, in some cases; most notable being Mick Powell, who is replacing Byren Gates’ regular swinger, Mick O’Loughlin and Dale Knights who will swing with Tim Bichard. Amongst those more settled combinations are Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann, Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock, Warren Monson / Deven Gates, Dale Milner / Jamie Knudsen, Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes as well as the Cohrs brothers, Simon and Mark, who will flash out the new kevlars this week. A sharp and most colourful design will attract even more attention to the usually humble team leader, Simon, who, since his success with Adelaide’s Chris Pascoe at last years Australian Championships at Gillman, has realised that he is a serious contender whether steering his machine locally or swinging with Pascoe as part of the Sidecar Grand Slam circus as it travels around Australia. The Sidecar Grand Slam will come to Mildura on Saturday 14th January 2012, right at the peak of Mildura’s season. Solo action will be among a most even field where we will see the Sedgmen brothers, Ryan and Justin, Brenton Barnfield, Brock Gates and Chris Ferguson riding hard against each other. Justin Sedgmen returned home from England about four weeks ago and has settled into his local regular work, however he will be looking to sharpen his skills after the “freshen up” time he has had, as he will want to do well in the 2012 Australian Championships series, which will be held during the second half of January. It is pleasing to see such a competitive field of solos in action so early in the season, with some more locals expected to front the tapes at the Victorian Solo Title, which will be held in Mildura on the 3rd December. It is understood that those locals yet to return, will ride in the Victorian Title meeting, which Sunraysia patrons will look forward to with some delight. The biggest and hottest news for Sunraysia speedway patrons however, is that the next meeting which will be held at Olympic Park will be a fully fledged International Sidecar Challenge meeting, which will take the form of a “Four team tournament”. Four teams of Sidecars, each with four machines apiece, will contest the Mildura Sidecar Four Team Challenge on WEDNESDAY 16th November. The meeting is being staged at Olympic Park on a Wednesday, just four days after the 2012 World Sidecar Speedway Championship is held at Murray Bridge on Saturday 12th November. The Wednesday meeting allows the International guys to travel and get a second meeting in the week. Club President, Gavin Sedgmen said, ”We know that Mildura fans will turn out, even for a mid week event, as locals understand that the Club is always looking to be innovative and opportune with its promotions. Sunraysia speedway folk know that the Club will always try to put on a show at the best available time”. Sedgmen added, “This is the only available time for an International Sidecar meeting – and patrons will be excited to see how the Mildura boys go against such talented competition from overseas”. The four teams to contest the Challenge will be representing England and New Zealand, with a team representing Australia all racing against a team all from Mildura. An International permit has been granted for the meeting, which delights the Mildura Club as the meeting will fulfill the dreams of many of the International Sidecar stars who have always wanted to ride on the tight and tricky Olympic Park circuit. All four teams who will ride for NZ and England will be engaged in the Murray Bridge meeting. Our Club has been gratefully assisted by both Mick Headland and Mark Mitchell, who are great supporters of Olympic Park and have been working with Mildura Club officials behind the scenes to make the meeting come to fruition. The four team tournament format will give Sunraysia fans a great look at all the International stars as well as the guys who will represent both Australia and Mildura. It will be a great feather in the cap of Mildura when local fans will be able to measure the strength of Mildura’s home based riders against the very best in the World.

Qld Under 21 Solo Championship, Ayr MCC, Brandon. 19 November @ 6pm. No qualifying races necessary. Competitors in alphabetical order:- Jake Allen, Hayden Barr, Harley Brigden, Clinton Dennis, Michael Detenon, Ryan Douglas, Robert Gottardi, Kyle Howarth, Guy Mallett, Ashley Morris, Tyson Nelson, Michael Penfold, Tom Perry, Tyson Snow, Richie Worrall, Steve Worrall. (Res) Scott Schofield. Queensland Junior Solo Championship at North Brisbane on 26 November: Jarrod Bates, Bryce Brigden, Brandan Coglan, Billy Van Eerde, Brody Eves, Max Fricke (Vic), James Gauld, Seth Hill, Jimmy Jones (NSW), Declan Kennedy, Zaine Kennedy, Hayden McCloskey, Keynan Rew, Cordell Rogerson, Elliot Schultz, Jackson Sinclair. Reserves: Broc Hall, Jedd List (late entry). You'd have to put Tyson Nelson as favourite for the Under-21s with the no show of Nick Morris and Kyle Newman still not 100%, while in the Juniors Max Fricke is the standout - lovely to watch is young Max - a graduate of several Leigh Adams clinics. We're lucky we've got a few Poms out here making up the numbers otherwise there wouldn't be much of a field, although if the Under 21s had been held in Brisvegas it would have attracted a few more border hoppers from Northern NSW.

Tickets go on sale TODAY!!

You'd hafta make it out of the Changing Sheds alive first, you skinny young whipper-snapper - never underestimate the twin facets of old age & treachery amongst your elders and betters.

One of the many joys of Individual meetings is that you don't know the winner until the ultimate event, plus of course you've usually had at least twenty races by then: compare that with the average league meeting - done & dusted well before the 15th heat. Which do YOU feel offers the more value, Trees? Of course I still support my ol' home town team the Mighty WASPS, so it's not as if I'm totally bereft.

Your opinion, and you're entitled to it, but personally I, like many others, prefer Individual meetings such as the GP's, ELRC, Aussie Championships etc.

Just one question Norbold; any chance of you replying on topic for once?

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Gavin Elmes for the info: Solo racing with an international flavour hits North Qld this weekend when the Young Lions team of the Darren and Sharon Boocock Scholarship take on two strong home sides at Brandon - 6pm Saturday and on Sunday afternoon at Pioneer Park -4pm. These will be the regular 7-rider teams racing over 15 heats. Five of the English riders arrive in Townsville just as the Melbourne Cup is lining up, and Josh Auty flies in on Thursday. Taking the place of injured Kyle Newman is local Scholarship member, 16 year-old Robert Gottardi. The Young Lions team consists of Josh Auty, Kyle Howarth, Tom Perry, Ashley Morris, twins Steve and Richie Worrall, plus Robert Gottardi. A strong home side at Brandon is made up of Damien Koppe, Steven Reid, Scott McKenna, Clinton Dennis, Josh Grajczonek, Michael Penfold and Hayden Barr Riding for the North Qlders at Pioneer Park next day are Damien Koppe, Kurt Palmer, Michael Penfold, Steven Reid, Josh Grajczonek, Hayden Barr and Michael Detenon. Two meetings not to be missed! The next Saturday night (12th) sees the Poms and locals riding individually in the Pioneer Park Championships, following the previous night's Gary Moon Tribute Dinner at the Brandon Tavern. I'll be heading over for the Gary Moon Tribute Dinner & Pioneer Park Championships - should be a Ripper!

Never have, Ross: I believe 'Speedway' had been evolving since the invention of the Motorcycle; Maitland was where it started getting it's act together, and Hoskins was the major catalyst in Speedway as we know it today coming together; by this and his subsequent actions he could however very easily be dubbed the 'Inventor' of Modern Speedway.

Nigel, I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public; I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you, but I like you: you remind me of when I was young and stupid; with every post you're validating my inherent mistrust of strangers and I’m already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental, although you may be right in some things: for instance, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties these days are largely ceremonial and my powers can only be used for good. I'll tell you what, in future I’ll try being nicer, if you’ll try being smarter.

Goodonya, olddon, for having the intestinal fortitude to apologise when in the wrong - an example a few others on here would do well to take note of, particularly the person who first introduced religion into the argument, and later assumed omnipotent status by re-writing Wikipedia in his own image. As for me, I'll stick by my beliefs: Maitland was a watershed in our sport, and Johnnie Hoskins is the Godfather of Speedway as we know it.

Another brilliant contribution to the debate.

Joe Screen's re-signed for the Tiggers.

2004 was full of interest and excitement, but I suppose you had to be there, and I take it you weren't. I must admit I enjoy the GPs almost as much for the party atmosphere and bonhomie amongst Fans, friends old and new meeting up in foreign lands etc, as the racing, but then my glass is invariably half-full.

Maybe you should revisit my post and see what I actually commented on, rather than going down the red herring route once again, then you wouldn't be surprised at all.

Have you ever spoken to Dave Lander re the Sydney GP, Philip? A fair few FIM Snouts in the trough for that one; one of the reasons for Dave taking a financial bath. Good Post.

So it's not an article by Ian Hoskins?

Buy yer own!