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Hang on , are people honestly classing riding a motorbike stoned just as bad as robbing two vulnerable people with a blade ? Jesus Christ.

I suspect the other thread got closed down rightly so IMHO by the venomous personal insults being thrown around - not connected in anyway to JG!

I once asked the late, great Ivan Mauger, who knew a thing or two million about the Brough Park / Newcastle Stadium track, why he chose Newcastle for son Kym's first club. He replied (words to the effect) "it's a bit of a tricky track but if you master it you should ride all tracks better or at least you will improve as a rider. Plus the Geordies up there are great, friendly people and if they can see you are trying your best, then they will support you all the way which is very important especially when you are starting out". Couldn't have put it better myself....

Anyone who thinks what was working 30 - 40 years ago is the way forward is deluded. However, the way things are now is definitely not working. The answer? No idea.

I’d imagine IF the season was running the press release may have been different. However I still think it would include the line ‘we will not be making any further comment’. Some people quickly forget when something like this happens. Ward abused chance after chance and must rank as one of the worst regular offenders but some people forgave or forgot because of how good he naturally was on a bike. Garrity should be treated no different as it was no worse than Ward’s involvements back then. No doubt the moral police will continue to attack Garrity and defend Ward in equal measures because time elapsed. Just to be clear I am in no way defending the behaviour of any one of the individuals.

I fully believe that in order to save British speedway something radical has to be done and starting with standard engines is what I would do and yes they would be uprights. Having watched racing from the 80s and 90s on you tube recently it's clear that the current bikes do not work on UK tracks. With the uprights riders Were riding the inside middle and outside of the tracks. The same tracks these days with the current equipment and the line is mid track to the outside so inside half the the track sees very little traffic. That can't be good. Seeing the reports this morning that the Poles are asking riders to take a 50% paycut so they can operate behind closed doors maybe it's time to reduce costs across the board for the greater good.

I honestly don't believe that you need the top riders in the world in the UK. If you're trying to attract new support to tracks then the top riders make little difference the likes of Nikki Pedersen Chris Holder etc etc are not known outside of the speedway world. However the entertainment level needs massive work so the place to start is with the bikes that clearly do not suit the vast majority of UK tracks and cost a fortune to run a cost that UK speedway can't support.

No what needs to happen is to look back then and see if we can make it happen today , no one is advocating a league of regression merely hitting the reset button

One of my abiding memories of the summer of 76 was the great ladybird invasion. We had a caravan down on the Essex coast and when we arrived we thought that somebody had painted the sea-wall red..but we didn't let it bug us!

Dicky Case Memorable for me for two things First his failed attempt with Max Grosskreutz to promote speedway in Hamburg And secondly for his part in the Harringay riot when he was part of the Hackney team that beat their local rivals and both himself and his wife were attacked by local fans

No their is a nice piece about him on the local paper website with pics, he was part of a group who put money on a race in memory of a friend who died young ..

Fasinating stuff, Mr Ore. Oops, turnpikes, standpipes, any kind of pipe really . Point taken, my bad, '76 was a long time ago . There has been the odd water leak in Hull with water gushing powerfully into the air, like you see in American movies with kids playing in it til the Fire Dept turn the water off, often gushing many gallons for a full day creating a stream flowing along the road....

BASICALLY not enough revenue from one issue as opposed to four (or five) to cover costs, especially salaries, National Insurance, etc, office rent, rates and we wouldn't get into supermarkets and many newsagents. Plenty of other reasons too.

I can see sponsorship or indeed the lack of it being a huge issue. I get the point of showing events on tv, even on a pay per view basis. However if or when we get through this then thousands of companies will be reliant on trying to survive the aftermath and keep afloat. Sponsoring sports events will probably be last on the agenda.

Ward didn't steal the motorcycle. His conviction was for driving/riding under the influence, evading police and having the incorrect license. This was an offence punishable only by a fine. If Garrity is found not guilty, then i would agree he cannot be punished by speedway authorities, in the same way Darcy was not for the offences he was found not guilty of. If Garrity is found guilty, i would imagine there is no way he avoids jail time. On release however, i would assume he is free to continue his profession in the same way anyone else released from prison is. Though i would be very unhsppy to see him signed by my club.

COMMENTS like yours have certainly made us think. There was a furore amongst some when we dropped actual match reports (a financially based decision) and race times. Have said many times that we cannot please all of the readers all of the time but we are taking stock at the moment about content of SS going forward.

As the lovely weather continues week after week, a lot of speedway people must be thinking 'if only', i know i am. I know it's not important in the present climate, but this exceptional spring could have been a real shot in the arm for british speedway. We can all dream, can't we?

Perhaps he's not the Messiah (He's just a Very Naughty Boy)

There little we can do with the tracks most of which do date back to the 60's /70's so the only alternative is do something with the engines this is more than possible with the right input.I would set up a body of newly retired riders or one's who are nearing the end of their careers( they would be much more open minded ) and get to experiment with for example 2 valve uprights ( just as a baseline to start from) or alike. Take them to every track in the country and test them out under friendly but competitive conditions ,this could be done now behind closed doors and take advantage of the lockdown .

It is all doom and gloom at the moment, but a lot can change in a few months time. Fingers crossed!

Keep reading threads and a big point keeps coming up about standard engines. Think the biggest mistake was they didn’t make the gerhard engine compulsory for the national league within two years of the time the got involved with them.

Thank you - and welcome aboard.

But also even for spectator sports the post war years were a boom time despite it being financially difficult for business and life generally. It seems that when life gets difficult for people entertainment assumes a more important role.

They distracted him, as he couldn't seem to get it right, meaning if he started first he was usually third into the bend. Why did it work at KL but not Newcastle ?.

Hopefully Prague will be later on in the year

That was me

Nice...Drugged in charge / drunk in charge of a potential killing machine...the sort of offences that can have consequences just as lethal as carrying a knife. Lucky nobody actually got hurt in either case. Stevebrum has hit the nail straight between the eyes here. And like stevebrum I too in no way condone what Garrity did...simply examining a different angle to the "hang him high" approach that got another thread closed down.

No they are all in No1 genius Chapman’s lock up!

2012 grand final on you tube at 18:30 today and second leg tomorrow, in case any of you haven’t checked the robins website recently.

Have you any reason to believe that the Brummies will go bust? The season ticket is not likely to be much use this season, as there is likely to be fewer matches than originally planned. Or is this the usual BSF negativity?

My abiding memory of 1976 was me and my dad laying a patio in the back garden and having to place wet sacking on the cement to stop it from going off too quickly.

Awful joke but brought a smile to my face!

An iconic name from the past Ken Le Breton. I believe that Ashfield soon closed after "The White Ghost's" sad death?

Still missing are they??

No fish and chips this last 5 weeks and the thought of no speedway star every week omg stop the world i want to get off

Sadly, I think it is option 3, which fits the bill.

Phil, why wouldn't monthly or maybe fortnightly work? Surely better than shutting down for a few months

Garrity has the one conviction (it’s suspect whether either had more) also. I’d say stupidity played a part for both riders. Plenty of undercurrent activity for Ward such as his involvement/none involvement in the case that won’t be mentioned, the mysterious head injury prior to the night of the PO final for Poole (supposedly due to a fight). I guess the question of when does stupidity become more dangerous behaviour? Anyway I’m assuming we shouldn’t be discussing the case or any other cases so let’s try keep it a low key discussion. I think neither character are the brightest tools in the Speedway world.

Darcy only had the one conviction. It was only a very limited number of people who defended his actions. I see very little difference between how the two are being treated on here, with the exception of the absence of certain poole fans. Garritys offence imo is significantly more serious than that which Darcy was convicted of. One was stupidity, the other pre meditated and nasty.

Could possibly be any one of those things. His first couple of meetings, I thought, hold on we might have something here. That didn't last long for whatever reason,,, but did seem a strange signing at the time.

Keeping the non-speedway theme running, but being from the area, before making my millions elsewhere, I was totally freaked out, as a child, to see photos of Ashopton viaduct being constructed in the Derwent Valley of Derbyshire, where both Ladybower of Dambusters' fame and Derwent reservoirs service Sheffield's many breweries now. It was 100s of feet above the village of the same name and which, along with Derwent, was submerged once the dam walls had also been constructed. and the waters blocked by them. Now when you go across this viaduct the water is almost to the top of the arches. As I said as a child knowing how high above what is now the base of the reservoir, so how deep the water was/is really gave me nightmares. Guess how happy I was needing to get from Lancashire (wash my mouth out) to God's own for a family bun fight on the day of the first gale this year (now forgotten owing to the pandemic) to find that Woodhead Pass was closed owing to the winds and floods, so I had to use the Snake, which crosses this viaduct? Even now, as a strapping 30 something, this childhood memory of knowing how much water is underneath as I traversed the viaduct, put me in panic mode, and I was visibly shaking. The only consolation is that there wasn't a clown to greet me at the other end. . I find that no longer living in my birth area I bond much more with it and have dozens of books about how it was before there was any speedway. Some great ones of these flooded villages. Again, school legend had it that during one warm spell Derwent Village surfaced but, as so many people were going into the church, it had to be demolished as it could literally have collapsed around them.

The geniuses at the BSPA... they know what’s what about engines!

Am guessing either 1. No one else wanted him 2. No one could fit him in because of his average. 3. Newcastle offered him so much money that greed got the better of him and he chased the filthy lucre even though he isn't keen on the track... Just guessing like... Or as an edit 4. maybe he came to Newcastle to master a track that he has on occasions struggled at... and maybe he thought he would end up a better rider... Danes do have a penchant for making a name for themselves at Newcastle... maybe his reason for coming was totally honourable... Yep a like that reason better... Regards THJ

All the best Mimmo.. I am at the other end of the spectrum and only just getting days off again after a month or so, due to the tens of thousands of customers who have wanted serving.. Therefore I cannot begin to understand what such isolation must mean.. Hope you can stay strong for yourself and your good lady... Best wishes. .

Didn’t know Josh Grajczonek was THAT old.....10 Top League titles....Come back when Swindle have 11!!

To me the STAR has over the past few weeks become a truly brilliant magazine. Possibly all these highly interesting, and well crafted articles have been a sheer delight during troubled times. Some great journalism...well done you guys

tut tut Neil, & keep up. It is the BSPL now .............British Speedway Promoters Ltd.

It's so tiresome. He isn't just a negative speedway fan, he's a negative speedway fan who goes to the ends of the earth, and is often wrong, to attempt to prove his point.

Spare a thought for those who haven't got a garden. It's driving me mad (as I would imagine many others who have no access to a garden) and not being able to fish at my local lake (5 minutes drive away) which is the ideal self-isolating activity as regards good mental health. How people must be coping in high rise flats in inner cities I can't begin to imagine.

That would be the best option IMHO