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No matter what horrendous problems this virus and lockdown has caused for Sport ... One thing is for certain ... None will be answered by planning for UK Speedway in November.

Think someone on another thread mentioned a very important point. Not about the riders, who are fairly young and fairly healthy. But a lot of people behind the scenes who help speedway run, and a lot of the fans are in the vulnerable group, who are the ones who must stay out of the way of contact with others, and are probably the last people who will be allowed out/and or attend large gatherings...

I think there will be some major problems when the lockdown is eased regarding unemployment and social unrest, it was also mentioned on the news recently that there will be a big increase in cancer cases because of missed screenings and the lack of early interventions.

Have I made it?

I know. I looked at a thread entitled "Years Gone By" thinking it would be an interesting thread about the sport in yesteryear, but it turned out to be about thread titles being too long and had nothing to do with "years gone by".

Nothing wrong with Kemp think he is in our Top 5 "young guns" well on my list he is anyway

The 31st October has been the final day of the speedway season for many years for various important reasons, most notably as the final day for at least some of the sport's insurance policies and as the marker for Australian & New Zealander riders arranging long-haul flights home for their summer Down Under. In this coronavirus-wrecked season, it ought to be possible (definitely worth checking) before any fixtures are revised to see if the final insurance day can be reset (for this year only) to a later date to permit more fixture flexibility - meanwhile, the Australian & New Zealander riders who headed home in a hurry mid-March to beat any coronavirus travel shutdown need to know first when they should try travelling back into the UK, never mind sorting out what marker date this autumn to use for arranging their next UK-to-Down-Under flight home !! Answering your question about the availability of Newcastle's stadium into November, it hasn't needed to become an issue previously simply because of speedway's general 31st October deadline rather than any specific rule about whether Newcastle's track could be used so late in the year - therefore, in the current circumstances, checking with the greyhound landlords whether it could be used in November pretty much sits alongside the re-setting of any insurance dates. But ... and it's a big but ... any attempt to extend UK speedway into November greatly increases the risk (especially for the Anglo-Scottish group of tracks from Redcar northwards) of the tracks becoming too permanently sludgy heading into the winter to have any realistic hope of staging fixtures even if they've been scheduled with the best of intentions to catch-up a little of the missing coronavirus months - once even the highest daytime temperatures aren't even reaching about 12-Celsius, you're into proper sludge territory with only any wind rather than any warmth helping to dry out the track surface. Looking at this year's calendar & Newcastle's home day on a Sunday, there's an obvious case for having November 1st available if possible given all the other tracks will have just had their final October home date anyway and it would be harsh for just Newcastle to miss out on that week of fixtures as an option. But sludgy weather-wise, even November 8th would be pushing it, the 15th certainly worse than a 50-50 chance of going ahead regardless of dry weather that day and anything after that would be totally risking a lot of pre-meeting effort for little chance of seeing any action - it's very easy to remember just the odd freakish warm spells in November and December while forgetting what the weather's like for the majority of those months. Don't forget, one of Workington's late October meetings not too many seasons ago was abandoned when it became clear any water being put on the track was actually freezing the surface rather than helping to moisten it !! At the moment at Newcastle's stadium, the greyhounds are awaiting their whole sport getting any go-ahead to resume closed-doors racing (something they did successfully at Newcastle in the week of Wed-18 to the afternoon of Sat-21-March when they still raced all 4 of their meetings shown via online betting/streaming and just scrapped the Saturday night card that's for the stadium crowd only) - rather like the SCB & BSPA awaiting any general motorcycling news from the Auto Cycle Union before deciding how the sport of speedway should pick up, the dogs are reliant on decision making by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain who answer to 2 different government departments, DEFRA (for greyhound welfare) and DCMS (for the betting side of that sport). Once the ACU and the GBGB update their respective stances for their whole sports, we'll have a much better idea what's going on at Newcastle's track whether it's on 2-wheels or 4-legs.

Think a fair percentage of promoters do come on the forum and read.... but in their arrogance ... they take nothing away.... after all what do we know!

Taffy was a good entertainer and was always a regular at Hyde Rd, another one I just remembered from Rochdale was Ken Moss, similar in stature to Taffy.Me and my dad used to go to Rochdale on Sundays, saw PC's first meeting there, I think he got double figures from reserve, we had already seen him plenty of times throughout the winter at the Saturday training schools and knew he was going to be good.

Been that way for donkeys years though hasn't it? All to try and win something that hardly anyone gives a monkey's about, with the vast majority, who still attend, there each week whether you win or lose because they are die hards of the sport. Spending an incredible amount on riders who spend an incredible amount on their machinery, with hardly a penny spent on marketing and publicity? An incredible business model..

The longer this lockdown goes on will it create even further long term problems for our sport? We all know that no one goes into speedway promotion these days to make there fortune and the longer this lockdown goes on the possibility the shorter the season (or any season) we will see and the bigger losses they could entail. I would have thought promotions have already spent many pounds in readiness for this season which is now on hold. The problem is when the lockdown is over it will not mean crowds will be allowed to gather together again at sporting or any other such events straight away, the crowd ban could go on for a while yet after the lockdown is over. Could the unthinkable happen and with the longer this goes on some promotions / teams decide to cut there losses and not operate this year, giving it a miss and coming back to the tapes next year? Could some stadiums / track owners with no income coming in (and the longer this goes on) be thinking about cutting there losses and possibly selling up? Could some riders think that a shorter season is not worth coming back for this year and sit it out saving there equipment for next year? If and when the season starts will the riders at home around the world be able or be allowed to travel back to this (or any other country) to continue there riding here?. Come to that will some riders be allowed to hop around Europe to several counties each week? Could some teams find themselves short of riders if / when the season starts? Could when all this is over and normality resumes some people not want to stand around mixing in crowds again, this corona virus is not going to totally disappear overnight. This I know is not a happy read BUT it is just some of the thoughts I have had about the possibility's this virus could cause to our sport. There are probably hundreds more problems to add to the above as well. Anyone else got any thoughts or am I just talking rubbish?

Quit whining! I've wasted a whole day, worrying about why gustix dragged me into the conversation!

Is this topic the name I saw on that train station just over the Menai bridge in Anglesey, North Wales?

https://www.speedwaygp.com/news/article/8231/lindgren-makes-polish-move

Steve Waplington was another rider with the same background Belle Vue Colts, The Aces, Rochdale.

Too late. I've already wasted two minutes of my life.

Brilliant, cabin fever is starting to bite.

Elastic bands and string

As well as riders you have got track curators and other staff to think about, I know a lot track curators are self employed so would some get other jobs if possible?

Can see some riders considering their future in the sport if this goes on for another few months or the season is abandoned, may look at other jobs now ( not that there are many about) and cut their losses.

I forgot to reply to this, But thanks Cyclone, I do not do E-Bay. Bad experience of it. Well more a family member did. ScunnyDan sorted the programme out for me. Did not have to. He chose to help a fellow Speedway fan out. Really does show there are good people out there. Yes there are some idiots about on the computer. This shows the good side of it. Scunny Dan you are a top lad.

With Ivan's love of Newcastle, every time he came back to this country, he used to plan his time here and then ring Joan English to advise her of his visit. I believe he used to meet a family he knew in the afternoon, and then travel on to us. His visit was never announced and he was often in the office at the beginning of the meeting but the fans didn't know. At some stage he would come out and stand in the office doorway and then the news went around that Ivan was with us. Another reason he used to visit us was to check on the progress of David Bargh and Mark Thorpe. He never forgot the New Zealanders. As soon as he arrived and met people, he was away and gone. Very low key.

You could be right, his name alone suggests he would have been a tough nut.

He did "karaoke" too.

He was Barrow promoter as well. It was at the re-union in June 2016.Did well to beat the disease for-just under 4 years.R.l.P George Graham

That was it, Shorne Speed Racing... was it just spares? Maybe just selling "luck"

Here’s a good comparison with flu: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/flu-vaccine-deaths-nhs-ineffective-crisis-bad-weather-illness-2017-a8660496.html

...and Paul Thorp and Peter Carr.

Yes i do remember that and i also have those iconic pictures of the Belle Vue v Leicester tear up when Wilkie and Alan Cowland had a big set to the crowds loved a bit of drama.

A similar thing happened at Hull in 2000. I found out too late but Ivan turned up unannounced (as was his wont) to the Hull's press day, with Peter Collins and Dave Jessup (though not 100% sure about DJ), and wandered around the pits talking to the riders about bikes, the track, etc. When Ivan spoke us lesser mortals listened, right ? Well one rider (name wittheld) asked "who is that bloke and what does he know about speedway ?" I intended mentioning this to Ivan at his Hull book singing / 'meet & greet' in 2010 as he was known for his wry sense of humour, but I'm afraid I bottled it as I'd already bent his ear for 10mins+ talking about my photos I took of of him which I gave to him, but I'm sure he would have laughed when hearing about the Hull pits episode ....

Was that re-staged as it was called off? Me and dad were going to watch the meeting,while my brother and mum went onto visit Stonehenge and Avebury. We'd got to Blundson after a wet drive from Bromsgrove where we were staying with family,only to find it was off.So we went on to visit the aforementioned plus we went up Silbury Hill and saw a couple of crop circles that were all the rage that summer!

all back in the days when riders weren't so keen to get out the country

Why drag me into this?

I'm not sure whether he did ride at Rochdale at all, but his one appearance for the Hornets was away at Berwick. I would suspect that he may have had rides at Berwick, and that he was pressed into service by Rochdale who were short-handed. I know that the one appearance he made for Rayleigh in 1972 was at Workington, and he was listed as a guest.

Does anyone!

I actually do a lot of the cooking, I value my health. Stepson would eat my Thai curries every night if he could, just hope her indoors never clocks these posts

Hope you recover fully soon. It is this sort of real life experience that is not reflected in any stats at all. Whilst all the talk is of death rates; there is a 'success' being ascribed to every 'non-death' that does not seem to reflect just what level of suffering has been experienced by some/many of those who have been through it and survived. My anecdotal experience locally is that for quite a few this ranks as the worst experience of their life and nothing like a dose of flu. They are not getting back to normality quickly at all. As one of the high risk people who are under 60 but will HAVE to return to work at some point. I will not be in a position to totally destroy my business by being shielded for longer than the 12 weeks and once the business grant is spent. And that will be scary.

Good for you. Pleased it didn't hit you too hard. Im also over 50, I'm not obese and no underlying health problems. But I was in hospital 5 nights. It's now 5 weeks since I was discharged and still having side effect health problems. For example I still can't walk properly. Very little is yet known about this virus in terms of individual biomedical factors causing it to effect some more badly than others. Broad patterns have emerged, for sure, but at a far more nauanced, micro level there's a long way to go. There's also the possibility that some people are just unfortunate enough to cop a big dose of virus, and that this has an impact on severity. So count your lucky stars!

Eastville Bristol- pathetic track !!!

‘’for me, the UK does miss a huge trick by not ring fencing U21's at Championship level. Each 2nd tier team should have been made to have two U21 reserves for the past two decades...’’ This doesn’t mean you will produce stars just maybe league standard riders, which would still be a requirement. The old saying stars are born is I’m afraid true Woffenden Ward Lambert Bewley are examples of this. As were Collins and Lee. Mauger is the obvious standout exception who got where he did through total dedication which is pretty rare in speedway. Today I can think of Madsen and Doyle.

On Ivan's last visit to the UK to promote his book around 2010/11 "Ivan Mauger: The Will to Win: The Autobiography" I bought myself a copy and in there he said "if you can ride Brough Park you can ride any track in the world" and that was when the track was not only longer than today's track but approximately a whole lane narrower and the bends didn't really open out as much as they do now... so much more of a trick track back then I would say. The best laugh was I was standing in the pits with Kenni Larsen whilst Dalbers was interviewing Ivan on the centre green and he asked "Well Ivan what do you think of the track these days" Ivan's response was "you've ruined the place! you've made it far to easy to get round now" and Kenni turned round and said "whose this old nutter who thinks this is an easy track to ride" and when I explained who Ivan was and what he had done winning six world titles and when at Newcastle had an average of over 11 points... Kenni who had never heard of him previously was in awe of the guy and by the end of the interview was well impressed... Kenni even had a chat with him later on in the meeting and Ivan said he was impressed with Kenni's starting ability and his style on a bike. (which I think was fair praise indeed) Great talent Ivan and a true speedway legend sadly missed (and on the track side of things at Newcastle you could say the same about Kenni) Regards THJ

It’s could but it have little credibility in my eyes and would have be a loss maker without a major sponsors .

Has had two spells as a witch and on the track was absolutely brilliant especially his passing and team riding. But other off track issues hold him back. I feel if you could do a deal where the club provides the bikes and a mechanic who cleans and maintains them with Ben just turning up and riding them before returning home with the bikes going in the opposite direction with the mechanic. then I think you would see a even better version and if he could lose a stone or two then he would really benefit imo.

I'm sure i have an extra Somerset v Glasgow playoff prog... PM me

Here's two currently on offer on eBay starting @ £1.49 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Somerset-V-GLASGOW-31-7-2019-BLANK-SPEEDWAY-PROGRAMME/274343493416?hash=item3fe0257f28%3Ag%3AdxkAAOSwp2xenvME&LH_Auction=1 or Buyi It Now for 99p + £1.45 p & p http://ww.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOMERSET-V-NEWCASTLE-7-8-2019-BLANK-SPEEDWAY-PROGRAMME/362951806209?hash=item54819d0d01:g:X~AAAOSwbRFed2~h

If the season does not restart in time to get the gp’s under way, what is the chance of a one-off World Final in Cardiff or Warsaw, with the 15 gp riders and the first reserve making up the field. None of the field have ever ridden in a World Final and this could be one spectacular meeting. Over 20 heats’ top scorer to be crowned World Champion.

Bring it home and have it at Wembley

As a last resort one final would be better than nothing.

Thanks, but i only want the one for cardiff, and they are £8 if i remember rightly. I want a free one if poss.