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Get a grip man ! How is it possible to run 12 home matches between March and September. Some people eh..............

Thrilled we've made the final . The updates were pretty biased , though it seems the ref in both meetings were happy to let things go at the starts . Personally if a rider doesn't break the tapes then all is good if he makes a good start . Leicester or Redcar to come , I'm really not bothered which one it is

To be fair, you did identify 7 (of 11 in total) sides who could be play-off contenders - hardly Derren Brown!

Well done to Glasgow and good luck in the final. Another couple of good meetings for Rowe. Interesting that you often get riders who spend a month or two at reserve hitting big scores and then seem to struggle when they move up whereas in his case he was doing a solid job, forced to move up because of the team changes and has responded really well. Looks like a good sign for his future that he's able to adapt to that challenge quickly.

Some good news reported in the local news today. Truckfest has signed an agreement to hold its festival at the Eoes for the next five years. If that’s happening no reason why speedway cannot continue imo.

Dead right, only the losers should start one. Now where's that Poole 2020 thread...........................

Can we now agree the following :- 1. Swindon have a "massive advantage" by hosting the 2nd leg. 2. If Wolves progress to the final, it will be a huge backs to the wall performance against all the odds, especially as Swindon finished above them in the table and nearly topped the league ? 3. If Swindon fail they will have "massively" underperformed and let themselves down ? Of course everyone is expecting Swindon to progress because of their "massive advantage" aren't they ?

They can get lost with that idea! Josh and Nic in first, and if that means not being able to keep Brady or Jack, then tough. They should go.

Probably none but it’s easy to lose track I admit

As well as the limited number of home fixtures, Frank MacLean also reported that Peter Craven had to turn down continental engagements due to being unable to reach airports in time following Aces home meetings, hence his desire to be based further south. In fact, following an interview with MacLean regarding his transfer request, Peter flew to Austria in early April 1963 to ride in a series of meetings before returning to take his place in the Belle Vue team in the opening meeting. Although 20 scheduled meetings at Belle Vue were referred to as a contributory factor it was also considered likely that Craven would miss some of these due to a clash of dates with international matches and world championship rounds. However, Craven subsequently only missed a challenge against Wimbledon when he was representing Great Britain in the World Team Cup Final in Austria.

Any people enjoy us running matches in October...…..The season should finish by Mid September & I see no arguments to go against that.

The play offs will be cancelled as this semi final will never happen and Poole will be crowned Champions as they finished top.

Sorry you can't I'm afraid , your still a witch this year as well .

Which just shows a rider who is given a reserve spot with no pressure for a season, and a rider prepared to travel around the country picking up scraps week in week out, with many 0s whilst he hones his skills. Can really reep benefits the following season. I think the key thing now is that the young riders have had better schooling off of the track, and many have heads on thier shoulders well beyond thier years. I can think of about a dozen or so riders under the legal age of drinking that not only have the ability but also the mentality to reach the top. What British speedway should do is build from the bottom and build up speedway with this new breed of cool young kids making thier way up through the ranks.

Funny that, am pleased for the fans, particularly for that reason.

Pleased for the tigers fans , but still got a bitter taste from the "ban no ban" without explanation for cook .

I worked damn hard for it, having played a leading role in getting it televised from 1984. Having effectively two BSPAs at the time helped the situation. The British League couldn't accept an offer from Screen Sport to cover their league matches because they felt it would conflict with their deal for ITV's coverage of international events,. I lobbied hard for us to go for the NL instead and it paid off. Luckily our boss was Chris Fear, formerly with Westward TV, the ITV station for the south west who used to televise the odd event from Exeter. He knew that NL racing was just as watchable as the BL and as for lack of names our audience probably didn't know any names anyway. We went to the NL management committee and understandably they leapt at the chance. There was one technicality. The deal with ITV specified they were broadcast rights. We argued that at that dawn of cable and satellite (five years before the Sky multichannel service launched) we were not broadcasting but 'narrowcasting'. That won the day and we commenced weekly recorded match coverage plus open events recorded during the year to fill the close season until the ice racing coverage started in February. 52 weeks a year speedway was the result. I know strange things can happen in speedway. First you have to try. Within a year BL tracks were queueing up to join the NL, tempted by lower costs, a still high quality of racing and regular TV coverage. It grieves me to see today's speedway with pathetically short seasons for many. Back then if a track closed in September you knew they were in serious trouble and were likely to be goners. It was fun. It isn't now. How do we get back to enjoying ourselves? That 21 team NL meant that apart from the KO Cup and 4TT there were 20 losers. Now winning is all and anything that doesn't contribute to a possible league title is written off as meaningless. The fun's gone. Winning is far too important and if you try to make a meeting fun you'll probably get hit with a hefty misconduct fine from the BSPA/SCB for improper comment that would write off an entire season's fees or worse if you were doing it for free. At times it's hard not to despair. How DID we let that all go? Speedway - a great idea ruined.

Huge congratulations to the Tigers. A thoroughly deserved win. After the shock of Cookie losing out to Bomber and Rowe in Ht1,it was never an easy ride for Somerset after that. Razzers Ht13 ride to go round Bomber and inside Morris was fabulous. Both Kelvin and Nigel would have had a heart attack with the blistering speed. of it. Sensational ride. Despite 3 Tigers getting more warnings for starting than the local weather forecast, they never let the Rebels get away from them First time Ive seen Sam Jensen, very impressed. Now go finish the job and win the title.

The National League in the 80s reached 21 teams at one point. Goodness knows how we coped! (Well, we enjoyed every minute.....20 league matches plus KO Cup ties, 4TT qualifiers and a load of support meetings now cynically dismissed as 'meaningless') We were far too busy enjoying what we had. Tracks like Hackney used to stage over 30 meetings a season. Goodness knows how today's "Less is more" snowflakes would cope ;-)

The issue for finding a new "Brandon" is that you have to find a location suitable to have 40 add coaches running through a village when the stox are on, and finished. The current location is perfect. I went not long back and it's a mess but on what scale is expected to be refurbished too? The stands are good, the tracks still there and a few mobile bars and it's a start. It would need sizeable investment for lighting and the repair work for fencing then there is the electrics that have been ripped out of everywhere you can imagine. The land has opportunity for other local and community projects and trying to find land to build a new track on is a needle in a haystack. It will be intresting to see the response if any though from Brandon Estates. Where does this leave them? How far will they go before thinking lets just sell it and move onto another plot of land elsewhere. My saying all along is that they purchased a viable Motorsport stadium, not a housing estate to be. There must be easier and less challenging avenues for them to look at, save coventry speedway team have given them a fight they never expected and Jeff, David and co won't give up now ...Can't wait to get back and help tidy the old place up....

I can safely predict that this will be the most important AGM for years and that major changes are needed to ensure speedways survival..... Then on the Monday we'll find out nothing has changed and that the same crap will continue and be allowed to ruin this sport further still. That's until the AGM of 2020 which will again be the most important one ever.

It`s come out at the last minute but here in Polish is the guide to everything happening around the GP in Torun https://www.torun.pl/sites/default/files/pliki/informator_kibica_sgp_torun.pdf Trams are free to ticket holders between 1500 and 2400 on Saturday.

If only Gaz if only.... If I could predict the Euro Millions numbers mate I would happily share them with you; after all; I'm sure you could manage with 85 million just as well as the full 170 million (I think I could that's for sure... it would be a struggle though... but I would bear the responsibility with modest humility) (Would I... Modest Humility? NAH not a chance) Also I would bring back Workington and not give a monkey's how much money it lost.... However if it helps I have had some success with a "Balance of Probability" method for the lottery that has had some near misses. This concept works on a given axiomatic mathematical formalisation in probability theory, and will bore the breast plate off you; so its lucky dips all the way mate and fingers crossed... (Good Luck Me Old Pal) Oh and on your five fold if you cant pick five teams in the Scottish leagues to win you're just not trying however here are some English ones to have a go at Bristol City to beat Reading Preston to beat Barnsley Sheff Wed to beat Wigan Swansea to beat Stoke Northampton to beat Leyton Orient Oh and here's another tip "never pick Newcastle United as they are renown coupon spoilers" Or how about Man City to beat Wolves over 2.5 goals (3-0 or 3-1 or more) Arsenal to beat Bournemouth over 2.5 goals (2-1 or 3-1 or 3-2) Norwich vs Aston Villa over 2.5 goals (3-2 or 2-3 or 4-4 or anything else? doubt it will be 0-0)) West Ham vs Crystal Palace West Ham to Win or Draw over 1.5 goals (1-1 or 2-1 or 2-2) Liverpool vs Leicester Liverpool to Win or Draw over 1.5 goals (1-1 or 2-1 or 2-2 doubt it will be 0-0)) There you go...and while I am not doing much at work here are some Scottish predictions Aberdeen to beat Hibernian over 1.5 goals (2-0 or 2-1 or more) Motherwell to beat St Mirren over 1.5 goals (2-0 or 2-1 or more) Ross County to beat St Johnstone over 1.5 goals (2-0 or 2-1 or more) Livingston vs Celtic Away win for Celtic (sorry) over 1.5 goals (2-0 or 2-1 or more) Rangers to beat Hamilton Academical over 2.5 goals (3-0 or 3-1 or more) I will be watching these with interest (although not putting any cash where my considerable mouth is) Correct there were a few caveats however I held my nerve on the top two of Leicester and Glasgow from the start and the only disappointment was my home town team of Newcastle who looked strong on paper but have been a total enigma on the track; and to be fair with some good individuals in the side they just have not gelled as a team. However as often is said it ain't the team on the sheet of paper that does the business its the team on the track. Finally I have seen Derren Brown and to be fair its all he does (run the options) however you don't connect with it because it isn't written down... (so you don't see the methodology; or the con) and as said don't write off Redcar yet as they look really strong with Lawson now in replacing Toft in that home leg!!! it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in the Leicester/Redcar clash and I ain't predicting anything on that one... Good luck to all concerned Regards THJ

You can quit your whinging, you've got the second leg now. Shall we say that whoever wins on aggregate deserves it ?

I'd love to see racing back at Brandon, I cannot believe it was allowed to disappear like that with the history of the club.

In reality no and I think if he tried it would be the end of this whole ridiculous asset system we have, Riders will ride where riders want to ride and rightly so, sooner we have a system where riders are treated as self employed who can sign contracts year to year and are free to move outside of those contracts the better

Of course, any promoter interested in CH, or any Poole asset, should just invoke Miedzinski’s Law, which I’m sure you recall was a Swindon asset, wanted by his own club, however, Poole rode roughshod over that promotions wishes because he was on an extremely attractive average. By the time you’d used and abused the asset, with Poole paying only a loan fee, he was more or less worthless and rode part of a season on an over inflated average never to be seen in the UK again. I respectfully would argue if CH, or any Poole asset, can agree a contract elsewhere, then all you’ll be entitled to will be a loan fee. If Poole wanted to challenge a self employed riders status, as an asset, I look forward to Matt taking it to the relevant authority.

Pm me the euromillion numbers for Friday , also my five fold for Saturday send me the teams you would pick. Thanks in advance THJ will give you a winners fee .

From Brian Burford's book, "Peter Craven The Wizard of Balance": "In what would prove to be his final season, Peter Craven seemed to be riding as well as ever. However, it was said that Peter wasn't very happy with the reduced number of meetings at Belle Vue, and he was considering a move. In the issue of Speedway Star dated 13 April, it says that Craven wanted a move because there were only scheduled to be twenty home meetings for club riders that year. In the following week's issue, Frank MacLean reported that the Aces' management had turned down his request. Norwich were said to be keen to engage his services if he did decide to leave the famous club. "Although Peter began the season with the Aces, the transfer saga eventually went into arbitration. A court of arbitration met in London where they heard the points of view expressed by both the Aces' manager Ken Sharples, and the rider. The court then ruled that it wasn't in the best interests of speedway that PC's request for a move south was granted. "There was also talk that he had planned to make the 1963 season his final one, and one source - who was close to Peter - revealed that it was felt he would make it his last year. After all, what was there to prove? "Talk of his possible retirement is given credibility when Brenda confirmed reports that he had been in negotiations with Charlie Oates about possibly buying his business from him.....John Gibson, who was a sports journalist for the local Edinburgh paper, said that Peter had confided in him when he was in the pits during that fateful night at the Old Meadowbank Stadium that he was considering buying a motorcycle business in the Lancashire area......The Manchester Evening News sports journalist, Duncan Measor, also said that Peter had confided in him that he was considering his future., "I believe that in a year or two I will have to think about another job. I never want to go on until I am a has-been", he told Measor."

Honestly Newcastle apart it wasn't very far away was it; (and not to blow ones trumpet too hard) I still haven't changed my mind and think it will be a Leicester/Glasgow final; although I would love to see our nearest and dearest in Redcar upset that form book and do it for north east speedway, however; and IMHO whatever the outcome it is building to be a good finale to the end of the season Regards THJ

I bagsy the Scarecrow , I was a Witch last year so that would be a nice change

You tell em Sam , I was starting to feel that Peter Craven was being overlooked on this thread. My take on the Wembley '62 final, (my first time there) is that Peter was an exceptionally popular winner for both fans and riders.

Agree Fogo are rapidly expanding but not really interested in the UK, as it’s predominantly a ‘stand by’ market. They have a UK Distributor but it’s very low volume. The real business is prime power and Aftermarket / Service territory . The majority of UK Genset manufacturers also focus on export.

Bickley last year was averaging well below 2 points a meeting at Worky before the last month of the season.He has probably nearly doubled his average at Championship level this year and has made progress

Ain't finished this season yet. And where have you been since Feb? Only recently started posting. Not another of the multi alias clown?

Aye, seems like that,,, according to the updates, it seems your lot had more rollers than Hilda Ogden.

No disrespect but Poles are highly unlikely to tune in to Eurosports possible UK coverage in great numbers given the amount of top level Speedway they get bombarded with each week, so I don't see how Polish companies will see a positive brand message for themselves by attaching their businesses to UK Speedway.. Bomber Harris v Charles Wright (for example) might mean something to us British fans but won't I would suggest inspire too many Poles to look in on match night.. I would think that Eurosports coverage in Poland would get a similar following like the saturated football coverage does over here for non league football.. eg Torquay v Chorley will get watched as you flick through for a while if nothing else is on, but not many other than the fans of those two teams will watch the whole match with any degree of interest as non league football is dwarfed by the Premiership and Champions League saturation.. And, as quoted often, the scheduling and production of Eurosport is often a shambles at times..

1. Kamil Brzozowski (Polska) 2. Kyle Howarth (Wielka Brytania) 3. Nikodem Bartoch (Polska) 4. Tim Sørensen (Dania) 5. Marcin Jędrzejewski (Polska) 6. Wadim Tarasienko (Rosja) 7. Andriej Kudriaszow (Rosja) 8. Andreas Lyager (Dania) 9. Brady Kurtz (Australia) 10. Sandro Wassermann (Niemcy) 11. Josh Grajczonek (Polska / Australia) 12. Jaimon Lidsey (Australia) 13. Ryan Douglas (Australia) 14. Dimitri Bergé (Francja) 15. Adrian Cyfer (Polska) 16. Mateusz Tonder (Polska)

Another breach of the rules..... I'm not suggesting Newcastle are at fault, nor that the precedent hasn't been set with Richard Lawson - but if the rule has been changed a supplementary regulation should be issued.

I reckon it wont have happened before you are back.....

Excellent change to the Topic Header

Norbold, all very interesting and further evidence that Peter Craven's plans for 1964 were much very up in the air at the time of his tragic accident. Maybe he would have stayed at Belle Vue, maybe he would have made a further attempt to move elsewhere, maybe he would have retired. No-one can know for sure, which is why I used the word "rumour" regarding the Oxford '64 move, because very possibly that's all it was. Although I was very curious when I heard it from a Belle Vue fan at the NSS, in addition from a few of the older fans at Oxford. It might be wishful thinking from Cheetahs' fans. But why would a BV fan also think that? Of course, the Brian Burford book comes down on the side of Craven starting off a handicap in his fateful race - something I just can't agree with. Especially as I have a copy of the tribute booklet published shortly after his death which states unequivocally that he started off scratch, something the Edinburgh Speedway historians agree with. As for rating the British World Champions, I consider the top three to be PC, PC and Woffinden, but can't decide on the order, as I never saw Craven at all, and didn't see Collins at his best. But those three stand above the others IMO - Craven for arguably being the second best (behind Fundin) during a very competitive era, Collins because he was unlucky not to be a multiple champion (especially in '77) and Woffy for obvious reasons (the only British triple champion).

I think you will find it’s Swindon v Wolves tonight and Wolves v Swindon on Monday

Accordingly to the speedway star today in two separate pieces jack holder has suffered a twisted knee in his crash/ slip off at foxhall. Must be concussed as well because on tv he was complaining of a injured toe. Nuff said I think

They have booked 2 ambulances & meeting starts at 5.30 , so hopefully should be ok this time. Fingers crossed.

He did his job then.

DOUBT that, most aren't even doing Sweden next year. Some riders in Poland rumoured to be on over two grand a point plus six figure signing on fees.

Let's be honest this time of year once Poland has finished no reason why the play offs can't be run on a Saturday. Ipswich always get good gates on a Saturday and tend to run the big end of season fixtures on a Saturday if they qualify.

What a wonderful evenings entertainment , different gravy to the drivel we had to sit through 24 hours later in Cardiff . Almost every heat had superb racing , culminating in a pulsating final , though I did fear Rasser had blown it , but he fought back to pip Nicholls on the line , sparking wild celebrations among the substantial Glaswegian travelling support . We even had Cookie and Rasser travel with us to Cardiff , on our bus , after the meeting . Poor Rasser was a sorry looking sight at 7 o clock the following morning haha . Best Pairs meeting , not just because we won , for many a year . And who cares if you need to queue for a slash when you get a track and racing like that .

.I like to see the bonus point back over two legs why that was dropped I never know lets be honest chapman saved the premiership this season cant see it happening again . one league must clearly be on the agenda .do I hold out of much progress im afraid no hoped to be proved wrong though