Bagpuss Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 I'm going this Saturday and for some reason it'll be my first ever British Final, did plenty of Commonwealth and Overseas Finals in the 90's but no British finals. Would agree with Aries, the Fours at Peterborough were great, did plenty of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Aries said: The Coventry British final days will live long in the memory. Fantastic occasions, fantastic line ups, and the title meant far more then (or seemed to) than it does now sadly. Great day out and the only day out that came close for me, was the fours finals at Peterborough. Great occasions... 30+ teams meant a big catchment of fans who could attend... With the vast majority of teams, if not all, getting four figure attendances... Some of which were 5,000 plus... Now we have 15 teams, with a large percentage of them getting three figure attendances, and even the top attended clubs being much less than 2,000 regularly... Maybe moving it around the country would "freshen up" the event?... The main protagonists are Championship riders so taking it to a Championship track with a few top tier only riders providing some novelty value, may improve attendances?... Last night at the NSS, four of the finalists that rode, scored (excluding Ht2 when they all rode against each other), six points from a collective 13 rides... And another more experienced finalist got three points from four rides.. Sadly. Long gone are the days when this title had a good number of some of the best riders in the world in attendance, with 2nd tier No1's and decent top tier SS's making up the numbers hoping to do well against them... £27 to stand and watch too... Edited August 11 by mikebv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulnolan Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 The NLRC at Coventry was my highlight of the year - something like the coach parade seems like it's from another world now! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aries Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 Going off topic apologies but while we’re reminiscing, can anyone remember the ITV programme “Wheels” presented by Gerry Harrison? Think it was Thursday late evenings and Speedway used to feature heavily on that programme from National League to top flight and even individuals. For some reason Henka cleaning up at Lynn in the Barham trophy on one occasion sticks in the old memory. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagpuss Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 (edited) 2 hours ago, Aries said: Going off topic apologies but while we’re reminiscing, can anyone remember the ITV programme “Wheels” presented by Gerry Harrison? Think it was Thursday late evenings and Speedway used to feature heavily on that programme from National League to top flight and even individuals. For some reason Henka cleaning up at Lynn in the Barham trophy on one occasion sticks in the old memory. And the one where he and Brian Karger had a dead heat in the final and had to have a run off? Remember Wheels clearly from the 80's and 90's, an Anglia TV production on quite late at night; they used to have motocross, truck racing and all sorts. From memory the three speedway offerings were the 4TT from P'boro, the 16 lapper from Ippo and either the PotE or the Barum Trophy from Lynn. Dave Lanning on comms. Had years worth of them recorded on VHS that we wore out from watching! Great memories. Edited August 11 by Bagpuss 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralMelchett Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 1 hour ago, Aries said: The Coventry British final days will live long in the memory. Fantastic occasions, fantastic line ups, and the title meant far more then (or seemed to) than it does now sadly. Great day out and the only day out that came close for me, was the fours finals at Peterborough. I went three years running 88,89 and 90 and they were all wonderful occasions! The racing could be frantic at times also! Well done to Lynn best performance at the NSS by a visiting team so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie456 Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 12 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said: I went three years running 88,89 and 90 and they were all wonderful occasions! The racing could be frantic at times also! Well done to Lynn best performance at the NSS by a visiting team so far. Think Lynn might be the only team to push Belle Vue close on the play offs if they get there of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavan Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 1 hour ago, GeneralMelchett said: I went three years running 88,89 and 90 and they were all wonderful occasions! The racing could be frantic at times also! Well done to Lynn best performance at the NSS by a visiting team so far. Lynn will always be the best visiting team to the NSS they have 3 riders in particular who go very well there with Sheffield a close second Some teams can ride some tracks and some can’t Us at Ipswich are the weakest 1-7 for years with riders that can’t ride Belle Vue so we will get battered there with no Doyle and Emil But Belle Vue can’t ride Foxhall though with Doyle they should do better so are obvious favourites for once over 2 legs against Ipswich Though I have noticed we ride then the Thursday at Foxhall before the penultimate GP…. Kurtz might be an issue lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinh88 Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 (edited) Double post Edited August 11 by Robinh88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinh88 Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 9 minutes ago, Gavan said: Though I have noticed we ride then the Thursday at Foxhall before the penultimate GP…. Kurtz might be an issue lol World number 2 no issues I would think his average will drop between now and the end of the league campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 14 minutes ago, Gavan said: Lynn will always be the best visiting team to the NSS they have 3 riders in particular who go very well there with Sheffield a close second Some teams can ride some tracks and some can’t Us at Ipswich are the weakest 1-7 for years with riders that can’t ride Belle Vue so we will get battered there with no Doyle and Emil But Belle Vue can’t ride Foxhall though with Doyle they should do better so are obvious favourites for once over 2 legs against Ipswich Though I have noticed we ride then the Thursday at Foxhall before the penultimate GP…. Kurtz might be an issue lol I am sure Brady will prioritise the meeting at Foxhall.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldPitGate Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 3 hours ago, Aries said: The Coventry British final days will live long in the memory. Fantastic occasions, fantastic line ups, and the title meant far more then (or seemed to) than it does now sadly. Great day out and the only day out that came close for me, was the fours finals at Peterborough. Yes it was a great day out for sure and the getting out of the car park with the shoot out of 5,000 cars all heading for one gap in the hedge was always lively, I used to enjoy the rounds where the Aussies and Yanks were brought in also held at Coventry with faves from the day such as Lance King, Shawn Moran, Cowboy Cook etc from memory other than Phil Crump the Aussie's weren't much of a force back then until the young Crump jnr, Adams, Boyce came through a few years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDY69 Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 2 hours ago, Aries said: Going off topic apologies but while we’re reminiscing, can anyone remember the ITV programme “Wheels” presented by Gerry Harrison? Think it was Thursday late evenings and Speedway used to feature heavily on that programme from National League to top flight and even individuals. For some reason Henka cleaning up at Lynn in the Barham trophy on one occasion sticks in the old memory. I remember Steve Rider introducing the speedway? Gerry H definitely did stock cars. I can also remember the theme music! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldPitGate Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 3 hours ago, Bagpuss said: I'm going this Saturday and for some reason it'll be my first ever British Final, did plenty of Commonwealth and Overseas Finals in the 90's but no British finals. Would agree with Aries, the Fours at Peterborough were great, did plenty of those. That's the one I was thinking of Bagpuss, the overseas final when the yanks were brought in, I was thinking Intercontinental but that was when Danes and Swedes also came in. As an aside whilst where going down memory lane does anyone remember a brilliant final heat race at Peterborough between Ryan Sullivan and I think it was one of the Karlson's (it wasn't Peter) when the Wolves rider just beat Ryan after a titanic race in the last heat ? if you do who was the Wolves rider was it Mikeal Karlson ? it was one of the best(possibly the best) races I have ever witnessed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouch Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 1 hour ago, Gavan said: But Belle Vue can’t ride Foxhall though with Doyle they should do better so are obvious favourites for once over 2 legs against Ipswich It’s like Pol Pots “Year Zero” with this guy. Speedway history didn’t restart the year you had a good season. Prior to last season and after you returned to our league, 10 times out of 12 we beat you on aggregate. Normal service has been resumed this year though I’m sure it will be erased from the record books should you have another decent year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 7 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said: I remember Steve Rider introducing the speedway? Gerry H definitely did stock cars. I can also remember the theme music! YouTube show quite a few of them... The ones I have seen had Harrison doing the programme presenting and Steve Rider at the track, and, I think, Dave Lanning doing the commentary... Central used to also do a few meetings from what I can see, covering the fair few Midland teams of the time, a mixture of league, cup and individuals... Regional TV companies must have got decent viewer numbers given some had a decent amount of tracks within their reach... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byker Biker Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 (edited) 3 hours ago, mikebv said: YouTube show quite a few of them... The ones I have seen had Harrison doing the programme presenting and Steve Rider at the track, and, I think, Dave Lanning doing the commentary... Central used to also do a few meetings from what I can see, covering the fair few Midland teams of the time, a mixture of league, cup and individuals... Regional TV companies must have got decent viewer numbers given some had a decent amount of tracks within their reach... At that time under IBA rules regional broadcasters had to comply with producing so many hours of local content which included some sport so 10.30 after the news suited with 1 or 2 ENG type cameras. Edited August 11 by Byker Biker 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normski Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 8 hours ago, paulnolan said: The NLRC at Coventry was my highlight of the year - something like the coach parade seems like it's from another world now! and before that at Wimbledon. Best Dressed Coach. Miss National League Speedway 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler42 Posted Thursday at 11:32 PM Report Share Posted Thursday at 11:32 PM On 8/11/2026 at 5:23 PM, Normski said: and before that at Wimbledon. Best Dressed Coach. Miss National League Speedway Plough Lane packed to the rafters👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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