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I have tweaked the update a little, a few more "EL" transfer listed now have a "PL" average. Slight quirk in the game means that some riders with an 6.01+ EL average, it doesn't display their PL average, but there is also quite a few exceptions to this so who knows what is programmed there.. The new rider database file is uploaded here, and have updated the link from my previous post - https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxxywvs6cwn479r/Speedway Promoter 2020 Update.7z?dl=0 Also have uploaded the spreadsheet I used to assist with updating the riders. It has the full list of riders available in the game with filters etc. Might be helpful for people wanting to tweak it themselves - https://www.dropbox.com/s/6drtpzlycb23qu9/Speedway Promoter UPDATE.xlsx?dl=0

There's nothing wrong with using historical perspective but we could now re-learn a great deal from what was good practice then. That's not blind, sentimental nostalgia talking. We had our own stars, a hugely varied fixture list with the league supported by early-season contests, the fours and pairs. The fixtures were full and varied and the crowds responded.

Is there anyone out there who wants to talk about Speedway at Central Park ? I hear enough about Covid 19 every time I switch on the telly and am getting a bit fed up with it. It is serious of course, but none the less I'd like to forget it for the moment and discuss Speedway.

Several things worth mentioning (with the benefit of greyhound involvement as well as speedway) ... hopefully the following helps explain several bits of recent posts on this thread ... Firstly, of the 7 dual-usage greyhound and speedway tracks in either the Premiership (Sheffield, Swindon & Wolves) or Championship (Birmingham, Kent, Newcastle & Poole), it's only Poole that has separate home straights for each sport and, therefore, each sport's spectator accommodation set up very differently - the west side at Poole is the dogs' home straight with the indoor-dominated areas for that crowd whereas the east side at Poole is the speedway home straight with plenty of outdoor but covered seating - all the other 6 dual-usage tracks have adjacent home straights that lead to much more shared usage of the crowd facilities (albeit a far greater proportion of speedway's fans want to watch their action from outside rather than inside). Even if anyone ever thought before a few months ago about savagely-cut crowd capacities for social distancing, no-one surely went as far as reckoning indoor and outdoor capacity-cuts at the same venue could be regarded differently, yet that could actually now be the case at Poole given that outdoor sports crowds are likely to be welcomed back (eg, football, rugby or cricket) on an earlier and busier basis than indoor sports crowds (eg, snooker or basketball) - the logic is that any coronavirus symptoms disperse far more easily in an open-air situation than an enclosed one. Secondly, whereas tracks like Sheffield and Newcastle have had 4 greyhound meetings a week on the lucrative betting-shop schedule for many years, Poole has only had 2-&-a-bit greyhound meetings a week on that schedule - what's more, none of those slots have been in the prime territory of lunchtimes or mid-afternoons. Instead, all Poole's had are Sunday nights and Tuesday nights all year round plus mid-winter Saturday tea-times as a means of filling the gap left by UK & Irish jumps horse racing finishing well before 4pm darkness at that time of year. That's why Poole's greyhound management reckon the scraps of closed-doors greyhound action they'd be likely to get when that sport resumes (probably but not yet absolutely guaranteed next Monday on 1st June) won't be enough to justify re-opening for that sport until they can welcome their crowd back (not just on those Sunday & Tuesday nights but also their Saturday night each week for a meeting that's only for the local crowd rather than the betting shops) - hence, just a couple of days ago, they've directed their greyhound trainers towards helping to fill the racecards at sister-track Swindon (who do have a wealthier lineup of betting shop meetings). Where this has already caused great controversy and scepticism among greyhound folk is the dismal past record of Poole's parent company for falsely promising new stadiums given the closures of Milton Keynes and Reading (plus the many years of Swindon's redevelopment very lengthily discussed elsewhere on this forum !!) - until trackside crowds are welcomed back and then Poole's greyhound management resume their action, most greyhound folk (Poole or further afield) will inevitably reckon last Saturday's announcement effectively marked the end of Poole greyhounds - already some of Poole's trainers have begun looking to sell at least some of their dogs, suggesting an initial shortage of available greyhounds even if the Poole management surprisingly do seek a greyhound resumption in due course Goodness knows where this leaves the Pirates for any speedway in either late-2020 or 2021-&-beyond - I note their website has yet to make any announcement or comment about the greyhounds'' decision and its potential knock-on effects. = = = = = = = = = = = As for greyhound racing's resumption in general, like horse racing it's set itself up to resume next Monday as that was the target date set by the government just over a fortnight ago for closed-doors professional sports with broadcast audiences to resume - however, it was just that general category of sport that was mentioned by the government rather than specific sports and, yesterday, the British Horseracing Authority admitted that while it's still very confident next Monday will be resumption day, it reckons there will still need to be a positive review of the current 3-week lockdown spell by the government this midweek followed by specific sports being told that the 1st June target date can then be activated. Of the other 6 dual-usage greyhound and speedway tracks, all of them have been staging fitness trials for their dogs in the past week and will carry on with that this week, ready to resume racing next week. Four of them are on one side of greyhounds' media rights schism (The Racing Partnership quartet of Birmingham, Newcastle, Sheffield & Swindon) and that side has already published its full day-by-day resumption schedule pending any government go-ahead - however the others (the SIS pair of Kent & Wolves) are still awaiting a similar day-by-day schedule being published by SIS.

Great post Grachan his final efforts in 1980/ 81/ 82 left alot to be desired and my opinion of him then would be that he would always come up short.How wrong was i as usual his move to Oxford did the trick he had a couple of years that he made mistakes in Finals and in 1986 he was lucky in the Knudsen incident but he got there.Hans reminds me of Jason in that respect he hung on in there and once he got his first title ( which is the hardest) he moved on to the second.Cerainly in the top five riders of alltime for hard to know where to place him but the frightening thing was he could of won 7/8 titles great rider also did not always get the backing of Ole along the way.

Sadly, mine too. There are some posters on here who lose the plot occasionally, and come back after a couple of days to opologise and all is good. Others who could start an argument in an empty room, and wouldn't stop until the walls had agreed with them. Others who are wind up merchants, who spit the dummy now and then and take off to Rome, or go back to their parent's basement to think about their plastic girlfriend in Leicester who ran off with their best mate. Others who are bigots, plain and simple. But all of the above add some kind of value to the forum, and contribute to the place of varied viewpoints it is. Then there is one poster, who could contribute a lot, but instead seems determined to prove that he is not just a cockwomble, but is determined to scale new heights of cockwomblery...

He wasn't very good. One might even call him a 'Mickey Mouse' type of rider!

Apologies...the name Nielsen only conjours up Hans in my mind!

I think that for a while Nielsen knew he was the best in the world and it got to him. He over-rode in a few finals and it cost him. He was even guilty of it when winning his first title and was lucky to get away with it. I think a GP would have enabled him to settle a but, although Gundersen might have been the master of the GP when they had the KO system instead of regular heats. It's weird to say it for a 4 time World Champion, but I think he under achieved. I've never seen a rider anywhere near as good a Nielsen. He should have been the undisputed greatest of all time.

So true but millions use Ryanair as they are cheap and fly to places other firms don't. Plenty who moaned about the Wetherspoon boss not paying his staff and vowed never to use his pubs again will be back in them as soon as bars open.

He was in a Middlesbrough jail in about 2004 and on release was sought by many teams, including Newcastle. They were all after him with his performances on the Sheffield training track before he got put away.

That's awful!

Canterbury Results from Speedway Star Match Reports 1987 NJL - South 4 May - Rye House 14 Canterbury 25 Rye House: G. Thompson 7, D. Clements 4, M. Bradbury 3, S. Bailey 0. Canterbury: S. Hone 8, J. Goodsell 8, S. Masters 5, I. Cox 4, W. Mowat 0. 12 May - Poole 27 Canterbury 15 Poole: P. Read 9, B. Hussey 6, S. Leigh 6, M. Phillips 4, B. White 2. Canterbury: J. Goodsell 6, S. Hone 4, I. Cox 2, W. Mowat 2, S. Masters 1. 13 May - Wimbledon 22 Canterbury 20 Wimbledon: M. Fordham 7, P. Vance 6, C. Pullen 5, C. Standen 4, J. Constable 0. Canterbury: J. Goodsell 7, S. Hone 7, I. Cox 3, S. Masters 2, W Mowat 1. 7 June Eastbourne 19 Canterbury 23 Eastbourne: S. Chambers 9, K. Pitts 5, Darren Standing 4, J. Cook 1, I. Brett 0. Canterbury: J. Goodsell 7, I. Cox 4, S. Hone 4, S. Masters 4, W. Mowat 4. 27 June - Canterbury 27 Wimbledon 15 Canterbury: I. Cox 8, J. Goodsell 6, W. Mowat 5, S. Masters 4, S. Hone 4. Wimbledon: M. Lyndon 7, M. Fordham 6, P. Vance 1, C. Standen 1, C. Pullen 0. 10 August - Exeter 23 Canterbury 18 Exeter: J. Gould 9, S. Brennan 6, L. Ingham 5, N. Carter 2, K. Newman 1. Canterbury: S. Masters 8, S. Hone 5, W. Mowat 5. 15 August - Canterbury 24 Arena-Essex 18 Canterbury: M. Lyndon 7, S. Hone 6, I. Cox 5, S. Masters 4, W. Mowat 2 Arena-Essex: S. Wolstenholme 8, P. Muchene 7, L. Paine 2, R, Paine 1, G. Wilson 0. 5 September - Canterbury 23 Eastbourne 19 Canterbury: W. Mowat 9, I. Cox 6, S. Masters 5, S. Hone 3. Eastbourne: J. Cooper 9, Darren Standing 8, J. Cook 2. 17 September - Arena-Essex 30 Canterbury 9 Arena-Essex: P. Muchene 9, S. Wolstenholme 7, G. Wilson 7, L. Paine 6, R. Paine 1. Canterbury: W. Mowat 5, S. Masters 2, I. Cox 2, S. Hone 0. 19 September - Canterbury 21 Exeter 21 Canterbury: I. Cox 8, S. Hone 5, S. Masters 4, W. Mowat 4. Exeter: P. Jeffery 13, J. Gould 4, S. Brennan 3, K. Newman 1, L. Ingham 0. 26 September - Canterbury 25 Poole 17 Canterbury: M. Lyndon 9, I. Cox 6, W. Mowat 5, S. Hone 3, S. Masters 2. Poole: P. Read 7, J. Blake 3, B. Hussey 3, J. Smith 2, S. Leigh 2. 31 October - Canterbury 22 Rye House 19 Canterbury: W. Mowat 15, I. Cox 4, S. Masters 3. Rye House: J. Wainwright 8, G. Thompson 5, M. Wells 4, M. Cobbin 2.

Blimey, that's response you got from Nodlew, very impressive.

Canterbury Results from Speedway Star Match Reports 1986 NJL - South 30 April - Wimbledon 18 Canterbury 6 Wimbledon: J. Pleece 6, T. Mussett 5, P. Vance 4, I. Hunter 3. Canterbury: G. Hopkins 4, D. Mears 1, P. Hilton 1, S. Hone 0. 5 May - Exeter 12 Canterbury 11 Exeter: T. Mattingley 5, A. Sell 3, S. Williams 2, S. Brennan 2. Canterbury: P. Hilton 3, G. Hopkins 3, S. Hone 3, D. Mears 2. 6 May - Poole 16 Canterbury 8 Poole: W. Barrett 6, M. Libby 5, P. Read 3, G. Tutton 1, S. Leigh 1. Canterbury: S. Hone 4, G. Hopkins 2, D. Mears 2, P. Hilton 0. 17 May - Canterbury 17 Exeter 7 Canterbury: S. Hone 6, G. Hopkins 6, P. Hilton 4, D. Mears 1. Exeter: T. Mattingley 3, S. Brennan 3, A. Theobald 1, J. Gould 0. 26 May - Canterbury 12 Wimbledon 12 Canterbury: P. Hilton 5, S. Hone 4, G. Hopkins 3, D. Mears 0. Wimbledon: J. Pleece 6, T. Mussett 4, P. Vance 1, I. Hunter 1. 13 June - Hackney 17 Canterbury 7 Hackney: M. Fitzpatrick 6, G. Chalcraft 4, J. Goodsell 4, S. Smith 3. Canterbury: D. Mears 4, I. Cox 3, T. Hansford 0, S. Hone 0. 26 June - Arena-Essex 13 Canterbury 11 Arena-Essex: S. Barker 6, L. Paine 3, R. Paine 2, G. Wilson 2. Canterbury: G. Hopkins 4, T. Hansford 3, S. Hone 2, D. Mears 2. 12 July Canterbury 14 Arena-Essex 10 Canterbury: J. Pleece 6, T. Hansford 4, P. Hilton 2, S. Hone 2. Arena-Essex: P. Muchene 4, R. Paine 3, G. Wilson 2, L. Paine 1. 2 August - Canterbury 17 Rye House 7 Canterbury: S. Hone 6, I. Cox 4, G. Hopkins 4, T. Hansford 3. Rye House: C. Lambkin 4, G. Thompson 2, S. Bailey 1, D. Fletcher 0. 9 August - Canterbury v Poole Match postponed - Poole unable to raise a side. 16 August - Canterbury 15 Eastbourne 8 Canterbury: I. Cox 6, S. Hone 6, T. Hansford 3, G. Hopkins 0. Eastbourne: S. Chambers 3, K. Pitts 2, Darren Standing 2, D. Barker 1. 17 August - Eastbourne 17 Canterbury 7 Eastbourne: Darren Standing 6, S. Chambers 5, K. Pitts 3, D. Barker 3. Canterbury: P. Hilton 3, T. Hansford 2, S. Hone 1, I. Cox 1. 7 September - Rye House 15 Canterbury 9 Rye House: C. Lambkin 6, G. Thomsen 4, R. Payne 3, S. Bailey 2. Canterbury: P. Hilton 6, S. Hone 3, I. Cox 0, G. Hopkins 0. 18 October - Canterbury v Hackney Match postponed - rain. Canterbury were awarded the points for the postponed Poole match. I cannot find any details of the match between Canterbury and Hackney being held at a later date. Details for 1987 to follow, probably tomorrow.

To add to Dave Allan's post I can confirm from Speedway Star reports that all of the dates for the NJL (Central) matches are correct with the following exceptions. Long Eaton v Mildenhall was postponed on 26 August, 7 October and 14 October. The match was held on 18 October at Mildenhall. No junior match was held at Long Eaton on 16 September. Stoke v Long Eaton on 22 August was abandoned heat 4 due to rain with score of 14-9. The match was held on 26 September. Speedway Star did not report the result of the Mildenhall v Stoke match

got to be more than that , age wise .

Follow the video I posted then the instructions Marksman posted about the update.

I think its in quarantine with the rest of him?!

All I can help you with Steve, is the 27 June 1987, but I don't have any heat results though. CANTERBURY 27: Ian Cox 8 Jimmy Goodsell 6 Warren Mowet 5 Steve Masters 4 Yourself 4 WIMBLEDON 15: Mark Lyndon 7 Mark Fordham 6 Chris Standen 1 Phil Vance 1 Chris Pullen 0

True, but based on my sponsorship experience - a superb ambassador off track.

yes I definitely meant Stefan and not Hans....chalk and cheese to put it mildly.

So Phil disnae ride anymore !

He might have improved. Could've been a great "Cinderella" story!

In the Christmas issue of Speedway Star there was a lengthy "Where Are They Now?" feature on the 1972 Crewe Kings. 8 pages with detailed updates on the likes of John Jackson, Dave Morton, Dai Evans and Phil Crump. Only a small update on Gary Flood, says he went back to motocross Down Under and won numerous championships and awards as well as being inducted into the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame. Also says he's an introvert who shuns the limelight. In the Phil Crump piece he says he keeps in regular touch with Garry and talks about his expertise with motors.

Chris the best of luck to you, a real racer gave everything remember you riding in a Conference Final at Rye House Wright won it.

I think your thinking of the wrong Stefan neilsen - the one on this video is the ginger one currently still riding . He can win races but I'd say he's not the most in control rider I've ever seen.

We had it once Mike. We called it the National League. How it was allowed to be sold down the river in the name of amalgamation and the needs of one club in the nineties is still a mystery.

Some fair comments there. Interesting to think that he could so easily have won another four or so titles but it says something of the man that he was at the very top of his game but missed out on occasions which goes back to my earlier observation that one-off finals weren't necessarily easier to win than a GP series....in my opinion! As riders go I list Nielsen as the second best rider of all time (behind Mauger) based on an incredible domestic & international record over twenty years...but I would say that!

Fair comments and there are many examples of riders who were looked upon as a potential favourite in lifting the crown during a one-off World Final but one bad ride/crash/exclusion/engine failure eluded them...Briggs, Collins, Olsen, Mauger, Michanek, Penhall, Gundersen, Jessup, Carter, Nielsen, Knudsen etc. (off the top of my head!) The two systems require different approaches and personally I find it difficult comparing one with the other. Like any GP system it involves a steady level of performance over a period of time (which occasionally involves highs as well as lows) whereas one-off events require a sudden input which can occasionally catch out the unwary thru' all manner or reasons and requires a strong mental approach which is perhaps why so many good riders failed in becoming World Champion down the years? Put very simply one's a marathon the other a sprint! There was a very interesting comparison made in an edition of "Backtrack" many years ago now where Tony MacDonald and John Berry shared views...and not always agreeing with their analysis. I'm convinced that if the GP's had run during the eighties Nielsen would have won at least six but one-off finals obviously produced a different scenario whereby he had to contend with Gundersen, in particular, requiring him to win at all costs whereas a GP he would have been able to have paced himself better. Just my opinion.

OBVIOUSLY not at the moment ... the lack of speedway raises concerns for all of us but I have no doubt that if fans can attend SGPs in 2021 then TPT will be there to assist.

JAMES Easter has been a mate for more years than I can remember and both he and TPT have made a tremendous contribution (s) to speedway over the years. Unlike some of his predecessors, when thousands travelled to World Finals, James has remained loyal to speedway and puts his heart, sole and considerable reputation into his tours. No one is forced to go with them but hundreds who do come back every year because they like the itineraries, know that the hotels and travel arrangements will be perfect and that everything is taken care of. I make no apology for any favourable references to TPT.

The UK based riders could still earn some extra money by riding in the Swedish or Danish leagues (equally affected by the Polish demands of one rider one club) and would be more than welcome to race speedway and long-track here in Germany, as did nearly all of the top British League speedway riders back in the 1970s and '80s. Some co-operation between the UK, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, would strenghten our position against the Polish threat.

I see it has been posted on Facebook that Chris Schramm is struggling with mental health issues and has been hospitalised for his own safety. I hope he is OK and get the help and support he needs and makes a recovery. #mentalhealthawareness

I'd be content with the odd amateur meeting. I have three training tracks that are relatively close to where i live.