What about Northampton?

[Hamish McRaker]

Northampton Cobbledtogethers have announced their exciting new team to take on the 2026 Premiership.

Spearheaded by the new Norwegian sensation, Redd Herring, the Cosmopolitan line-up will also include;

Nevva Urdavim

Legg Traylor

Lass Tagane

Myles B. Hind

Novvi Swobbla

Ove Andout

Edited 21 hours ago by Hamish McRaker
Spell

[Youhave2minutes]

22 minutes ago, Hamish McRaker said:

Northampton Cobbledtogethers have announced their exciting new team to take on the 2026 Premiership.

Spearheaded by the new Norwegian sensation, Redd Herring, the Cosmopolitan line-up will also include;

Nevva Urdavim

Legg Traylor

Lass Tagane

Myles B. Hind

Novvi Swobbla

 

Number 7 is Jack Off. ( who often comes from the back )

Edited 20 hours ago by Youhave2minutes

[Phannan]

5 minutes ago, Youhave2minutes said:

Number 7 is Jack Off. ( who often comes from the back )

Don’t forget Lenny Late . Who comes … eventually 

[mikebv]

29 minutes ago, Hamish McRaker said:

Northampton Cobbledtogethers have announced their exciting new team to take on the 2026 Premiership.

Spearheaded by the new Norwegian sensation, Redd Herring, the Cosmopolitan line-up will also include;

Nevva Urdavim

Legg Traylor

Lass Tagane

Myles B. Hind

Novvi Swobbla

Ove Andout

And that other Norwegian, Reidar Replacement....

[Youhave2minutes]

38 minutes ago, Phannan said:

Don’t forget Lenny Late . Who comes … eventually 

Yeh once the meetings over.fat lot of good that is.

Edited 20 hours ago by Youhave2minutes

[ouch]

1 hour ago, mikebv said:

And that other Norwegian, Reidar Replacement....

Or the other, Dag Lovaas. He won White City the league without turning a wheel in ‘77. Why can’t we get back to the good old days when speedway was riding high and everything was wonderful?

[mikebv]

23 minutes ago, ouch said:

Or the other, Dag Lovaas. He won White City the league without turning a wheel in ‘77. Why can’t we get back to the good old days when speedway was riding high and everything was wonderful?

Get in on mainstream free TV...

Ideally. Three channels only, and on prime time Saturday afternoon viewing...

Oh. And have prime Peter Collins beating the best the world has to offer, from the back, in what seemed to be every race..

Well, joking apart...

Getting it on free TV could definitely help given the tiny amount of followers the sport has..

Which only needs 20,000 extra or so at the 14 tracks to see a 100% growth...

C5 being the biggest opportunity..

A regular magazine programme using BSN and track streaming footage, and having riders in the studio being interviewed could create some interest...

With the beauty being, given the low, low, starting point, you don't need much interest to see big growth...

[ouch]

I do get frustrated by the rhetoric continually posted on here. There’s a fallacy that things were different in speedways heyday and the problems blighting our sport are of the modern era. 

The other week I posted about the excessive use of guests on one Saturday night in ‘74 and the fact that most teams did NOT ride at the weekend, yet people will still point the finger as these being the failings of modern speedway

Taking the now famous ‘73 KO Cup final as an example. Belle Vue used a guest and Reading ran R/R. The 2nd leg wasn’t run until the last week of the season, some 3 weeks after the 1st leg as due to the late running it was hit by the bad weather. Sounds familiar? Jim Mcmillian had been knocked out in an earlier round but enjoyed his “winners” medal as a guest for the Aces. We had been running a guest since June. The rules stated in the event of a draw it had to be re run but this was jettisoned in favour of a run off. All this was carried out on a cold Wednesday late October night. 

All those people who attended that night and in ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, 77 etc did not suddenly experience amnesia, they DECIDE not to attend. 

During its heyday we had ALL the ills currently affecting the sport, the big difference is that of the customers - they have changed massively and we need to find the holy grail to attract them back. 

The league is as meaningful as ever. The guests & R/R as prevalent as ever. The UK FIM golds are pretty much as regular as in our heyday. Our “gaters paradise” tracks are still here as they were back then, etc, etc.

If we keep kidding ourselves that the sports ills are new then we will waste an awful lot of time and energy trying to fix the bits that are not the reason for our downfall. 

Speedway is primarily populated by old blokes who think the old days were better, but the reality is that’s not the case and it is to our peril that we get bogged down by this dogma instead of looking to the future and how we engage with modern customers in the modern era. 

[mikebv]

15 minutes ago, ouch said:

I do get frustrated by the rhetoric continually posted on here. There’s a fallacy that things were different in speedways heyday and the problems blighting our sport are of the modern era. 

The other week I posted about the excessive use of guests on one Saturday night in ‘74 and the fact that most teams did NOT ride at the weekend, yet people will still point the finger as these being the failings of modern speedway

Taking the now famous ‘73 KO Cup final as an example. Belle Vue used a guest and Reading ran R/R. The 2nd leg wasn’t run until the last week of the season, some 3 weeks after the 1st leg as due to the late running it was hit by the bad weather. Sounds familiar? Jim Mcmillian had been knocked out in an earlier round but enjoyed his “winners” medal as a guest for the Aces. We had been running a guest since June. The rules stated in the event of a draw it had to be re run but this was jettisoned in favour of a run off. All this was carried out on a cold Wednesday late October night. 

All those people who attended that night and in ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, 77 etc did not suddenly experience amnesia, they DECIDE not to attend. 

During its heyday we had ALL the ills currently affecting the sport, the big difference is that of the customers - they have changed massively and we need to find the holy grail to attract them back. 

The league is as meaningful as ever. The guests & R/R as prevalent as ever. The UK FIM golds are pretty much as regular as in our heyday. Our “gaters paradise” tracks are still here as they were back then, etc, etc.

If we keep kidding ourselves that the sports ills are new then we will waste an awful lot of time and energy trying to fix the bits that are not the reason for our downfall. 

Speedway is primarily populated by old blokes who think the old days were better, but the reality is that’s not the case and it is to our peril that we get bogged down by this dogma instead of looking to the future and how we engage with modern customers in the modern era. 

Speedway was on prime time TV...

England won lots of world titles...

And, in Peter Collins they had a "Golden Boy' who was as recognised as much as Div One footballers..

Domestic Speedway lived off the back of what the World of Sport served up many Saturdays during the summer months...

Domestic Speedway wasn't as quite as "Mickey Mouse" then, as it is now, (196 Guests last year in fhe top two leagues), but still had plenty of "nonsense" going on.. 

The huge difference being that you only found out when you were at the track that Larry Ross was guesting for PC who had a Long Track meeting in Germany the next day, whereas today you know the meeting in two days will be a "Guestfest" and the main crowd puller will be absent..

Add in the much greater percentage impact to disposable income that attending Speedway has nowadays due to "modern living" and there is no doubt what back then worked, doesn't now.. 

How is it fixed?..

Not a clue, but, one million percent, doing the same thing ad infinitum, like they do, definitely won't improve their lot...

[ouch]

 

World of Sport served up the big names! but even back then I was in a real minority liking speedway when at school. What’s that, my football loving mates said. I use to like knowing about my niche sport back then and being different from the sheep and their football. After the post war boom in the sport, by the time it got to the halcyon days in many fans memories of the 70’s, there was still people saying “is that still going”. 

We absolutely need something new and I don’t mind admitting I’m (we) are not the solution. There is a whole new world of social media that I (we) cannot get our heads around. We need the fomo effect and need to abandon the continued old school approach of leaflets, newspaper ads (young people at my partners work asked her what a newspaper is)  and all the other old school techniques. 

My daughter has worked with Molly-Mea and sport personalities in her role with a major sports brand and it’s all French to me no matter how she tries to explain it. IMO that’s our last hope, Joe Wicks, KSI, Steven Bartlett and all the others old farts like me have never heard of. What they will also bring is a sensibility of what modern customers want. Just hope we like it too. 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

13 hours ago, ouch said:

 

World of Sport served up the big names! but even back then I was in a real minority liking speedway when at school. What’s that, my football loving mates said. I use to like knowing about my niche sport back then and being different from the sheep and their football. After the post war boom in the sport, by the time it got to the halcyon days in many fans memories of the 70’s, there was still people saying “is that still going”. 

Speedway was a massive sport in my school even in the early 80s, we had a huge 15ft speedway painting on the wall above the science block that was painted by a pupil years before, 2 of my teachers were speedway fans, we had quite a few cycle speedway riders  as pupils who raced for the Wednesfield aces and pretty much all of my mates rode it, although we had a couple of lads who dabbled in either speedway or Grasstrack I think I was the only one who went on to actually race it, we also had a few motox riders too,we also had a school classmate who went on to play basketball in America, his name was Spencer dunkley he went on to have quite the career over there ( Wikipedia’s has his career )though but on the whole I would say speedway was massive in my school and although I played football for the school I didn’t really notice that football was really big but maybe I was slightly blinkered by bikes and I have told this bit before but on my last school report it actually said Dean could do a lot better if he learnt that there is more to life than 2 wheels, oh how wrong they were 😂

Edited 3 hours ago by THE DEAN MACHINE

[Phannan]

2 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Speedway was a massive sport in my school even in the early 80s, we had a huge 15ft speedway painting on the wall above the science block that was painted by a pupil years before, 2 of my teachers were speedway fans, we had quite a few cycle speedway riders  as pupils who raced for the Wednesfield aces and pretty much all of my mates rode it, although we had a couple of lads who dabbled in either speedway or Grasstrack I think I was the only one who went on to actually race it, we also had a few motox riders too,we also had a school classmate who went on to play basketball in America, his name was Spencer dunkley he went on to have quite the career over there ( Wikipedia’s has his career )though but on the whole I would say speedway was massive in my school and although I played football for the school I didn’t really notice that football was really big but maybe I was slightly blinkered by bikes and I have told this bit before but on my last school report it actually said Dean could do a lot better if he learnt that there is more to life than 2 wheels, oh how wrong they were 😂

And we had Kenny Carter . I know he turned out a wrong un but what a talent and character who loved nothing more than racing and winning for his country. Nationally known aswell as Peter Collins , Michael Lee etc . We could do with a few more like him but without the dark side. 

[Youhave2minutes]

3 minutes ago, Phannan said:

And we had Kenny Carter . I know he turned out a wrong un but what a talent and character who loved nothing more than racing and winning for his country. Nationally known aswell as Peter Collins , Michael Lee etc . We could do with a few more like him but without the dark side. 

 

Heres a torch for the dark side if required.

[Derrickn]

27 minutes ago, Youhave2minutes said:

 

Heres a torch for the dark side if required.

Can't help thinking that that is in bad taste.What Kenny did was nothing to make fun of.

[Youhave2minutes]

7 minutes ago, Derrickn said:

Can't help thinking that that is in bad taste.What Kenny did was nothing to make fun of.

Good rider but liked Cartwright the best