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Smallmead was a fantastic race track which was a credit to it's curator Doug Harris & Jeff Sealey. The size & shape of the track complemented the bikes used at that time, it might not be as exciting now as most riders use a very short stroke motor. The Stadium at it's best looked like a garden shed which was OK when it was tucked away at the end of Bennett Road over the river & onto the dirt track. It's sad to think that in the early days we had to wait to start racing as traffic would be queueing down to the Basingstoke Road & beyond. If only some of that money had been put into the up keep of the stadium. The writing was on the wall when the new by-pass was built followed by the football stadium then Kennett Island & the hotel. The Dore family sold their interest to John Posthlewhite who had very little idea of how to run the business & by the time Legg & Holloway stepped up it was only a matter of time. Even the return to the Racers name & dropping to a level that was more appriciated to the dwindling crowd. It was a blight on the landscape & the council would be easily swayed with the weight of investment from the surrounding area. Driving past now I'm not unhappy that the stadium has been destroyed, I know that I will never see racing in there again. conversely I feel sorrow every time I go past the Cowley stadium in Oxford it's still there & what would it take to get racing back on track their fan's must be depressed when they see their stadium

Unusually tonight the matches are on different Polish TV channels, so different links. I wonder if the 1st match runs over time will they hold the start of the 2nd match ? Monday June 22nd Zielona Gora v Czestochowa programme starts 4.45pm 1st race 5 pm N Sport http://spedway.ucoz.lv/ http://www.maniak.tv/mk7 http://www.drhtv.com.pl/drhtv-1.html Racecard https://wetransfer.com/downloads/7ed4bab84aed648bae8c5846d2c1a3fc20200620080148/e9c541 page 19 Monday June 22nd Leszno v Wroclaw programme starts 6.45pm 1st race 7pm Eleven Sport 2 and Freesports ( 7pm ) http://www.maniak.tv/mk2 http://www.drhtv.com.pl/drhtv-3.html http://totalsport.me/sportspecial.html https://daddylive.live/channels/stream-18.php Racecard https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:57020fcd-6f8d-46d6-9625-f3e124a8e2bf pages 24 and 25

Not boring at all. More action in this one than all the previous matches put together. Guys wiping out partners, all sorts of fun!

I agree. No other league racing to get some points and gain some confidence. Every heat is a GP. But if he wins a race or two it would be pleasant.

Rare that you see a rider nearly knock off his team partner, an opponent and ruin a bike in 50 yards. Pepe gets the black flag.

Pepe`s fault there- wasn`t satisfied in stuffing his team mate he did Freddie as well

Not sure why you’re so grumpy. Or rude. As I said, I have my opinion, you have yours.

How having 3/5/6 rounds in Poland have any less integrity than a one off World Final?

That would be entirely your own perogative, but as you have freely admitted you have paid precisely nothing, so how you expect any value from nothing I cant think. If you feel you wont subscribe after your free 3 months, as you believe that the channel is not worthy of the current subsciption fee, then that again would be your perogative. I myself took a reduced yearly subscription of £89. Quite happy to accept the speedway on offer and to be honest , quite a lot of the other sports which go with it for the next 12 months. Although it was the speedway which initially induced me to part with my cash.

We shall disagree but hope you enjoy the GP series.

The Tuesday match is not going to be broadcast I am afraid as there is no room to fit it into the schedule. I will advise as soon as I am told what is happening tomorrow. And as I have said on Twitter, I do not control what is shown on our channels, I am just the commentator, so kindly do not direct complaints and abuse at me when things change or are not as scheduled. I can only commentate on what is there and communicate what information I am given.

Moggo was worth the admission money wherever he rode, Great racer

Not if they got any sense, keeping gleb at reserve makes them stronger, they can put any pole in top 5 and not give him a ride as they did a couple of years ago with the pole who did half a season for belle vue Damian drodz, He turned up in the top 5 everywhere for Wroclaw but never got a ride

Far too one sided once more but some good racing, enjoyable meeting.

We called them the " cheaters "

Ride of the season that from Janowski. What an absolute belter of a ride that was to round things off. Cracker in heat 14 too.

When Smallmead was prepared right, it was excellent. When it was neglected, it was terrible. Attending the world cup final there in 2006 was a surreal experience. Coachloads of Poles parked in the Madjeski stadium car park, thought the meeting was being staged at the football ground!

Sadly he’s light years away from this standard yet and would have been far better off being ridden at No 8 like Lidsey is for Leszno, getting the odd ride every now and then to ease him into it. Riding in main body of team every week for 0 or 1 point is gonna smash his confidence sadly

MJJ must be carrying an injury, he's only had 2 heats.

Freesports SKY 422

yes

Extraleague will probably hold the start of next match.

Thank you. Although I suspect the money might come into it, too!

Zielona Gora v Czestochowa( i`m watching it at the moment) doesn`t appear on the Premier Sport schedule anywhere.Although as you say it is shown on the SKY guide - that might have been from yesterday`s original showing(delayed) which as they are now not showing won`t be repeated !!

Well done Tracy, how could I omit Poole-even worse I omitted Swindon of the NL-I must have Covid and its affecting my brain cells!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He rides for Cestachowa.

Most of what passes as 'news' these days, starts off with someone filming on a phone and putting it on to one of the various media outlets.. You often then find a local journo asking for more photos to be sent directly to them or requesting permission to use the original footage.. They then report the story via their paper.. No longer do they have to even arrive at the scene to send out their reports and often just quote Twitter updates from any potential eye witnesses. Often using the caveat of 'unconfirmed reports'... Certainly a very different world is 'journalism' today..

Can`t believe we wrote that at the same time

They certainly couldn`t use the Polish commentary- no way would the contract allow that.

I wonder Dave if you would be able to ask a question of Premier Sports on behalf of Premier subscribers? Maybe they might take more note of something you bring to their attention rather than a subscriber sending an email? You mentioned on more than once occasion in commentary on Sunday - and again in your post - that there is no room on the schedule to show the Tuesday match Grudziadz v Rybnik. I wonder if you might be able to enquire of Premier Sports if they could use the Wednesday 12 midnight broadcast slot on Premier Sports 2 to show a different match? It is scheduled to be Lublin v Gorzow, which has already been shown live on Sunday afternoon and was repeated on Sunday night at 10.45pm. Even if we have to watch it just with graphics and no commentary (or even with Polish commentary) could they show either today's Zielona Gora v Czestochowa or tomorrow's Grudziadz v Rybnik in the Wednesday 12 midnight broadcast slot on Premier Sports 2 rather than showing Lublin v Gorzow for a third time? Thank you if you can bring this to Premier Sports' attention.

You can bet your life on when the pubs are due to open and it's beer gardens only, Its going to rain for 40 Days & 40 Nights.

Steve your post got me thinking about the tracks in my first year -1964. There were 7 tracks that year in the old National League-they've ALL gone (Belle Vue of course continue to operate but not at the 1964 track). There were 12 tracks in the Provincial league-only 3 still operating at same venue- Sheffield, Wolves and Newcastle )Depressing thought ain't it!!

As I said, I am giving my opinion which has as much validity as anyone else’s. Citing two additional races and referring to one as “decent” isn’t going to change that, anymore than my responses to you will change your opinion. And, while I accept your point about decent juniors, is Wiktor Lampart, for example “decent” or just someone who gated quickly on a track not prepared for passing?

It`s not a few days later on Freesports tonight and Friday`s it`s LIVE

You obviously have never watched Polish Speedway before. Plenty of passes yesterday.

I have been saying that for days- i Wouldn`t go by that list too much as they have matches listed wrongly in round 4

I have only just found out that he was given a yellow card- some commentators are saying it should have been red.

Changes are being made to Freeview (& therefore Youview) today so you may need to retune to continue watching Freesports https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/22-jun-2020-channel-broadcast-changes#

Not too many pictures here unfortunately http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/reading Tilehurst.htm Interesting info/pictures here https://greyhoundracingtimes.co.uk/2019/01/30/reading-tilehurst/

I'd love to see some pictures of the stadium from a bit further back to get an idea of how the whole are looked. I've seen many from inside and of the entrance but some shots from further back would give a nice perspective of how the area looked in those days.

If you expect 15 decent races per meeting you are living in cloud cuckoo land !! Yesterday had some decent action- weren`t you watching ?? Plus you will not find a better race anywhere than the Zmarzlik/ Piotr Pawlicki race.

That’s because they’ve done much less testing. As Trump said on Saturday, the less testing you do, the fewer cases you find. They’re not treating it seriously so they might as well not bother doing anything. There was no social distancing in the crowds, the start girls were taking their masks off between heats and plenty of those in the pits had the mask only covering their nose or even just over their chin. And, let’s face it, since the Ekstraliga restarted, there’s not been a single decent meeting. In future, I think I’ll reverse Phil Rising’s advice and fast forward through the racing

I regularly go past the stadium site on my way to get my noodles at See Woo. It still feels strange that it's no longer there, and it is still sign posted, which must confuse away football supporters! When it was first built it was hidden away at the end of an industrial estate, but the new road system put it at the side of a major route. I believe the stadium was never even finished. The portacabins on the home straight were supposed to be temporary but were never replaced. When it first opened, the place was packed and the atmosphere there was amazing - particularly on the back straight. It was definitely neglected over the years, though. The back straight was eventually closed off, and the terracing around the stadium eventually collapsed and became grass banking. Smallmead had the best pits view in the UK. You could see both home and away pits clearly from the top of the third bend. People would stand there to watch races, then all make a dash to the back to get a good view of what was going on between races.

Might have it's Sun and I am enjoying some alcoholic beverage.

This happened with Premier in previous years. Why the shock in 2020. Mickey Mouse outfit who mess you about.

So they weren`t going to put it on at 10.45pm instead of a repeat of the lublin match- ridiculous !!!!!

Of course it would be a proper World championship- all the 15 riders know the Polish tracks as well as the Poles !!

Let's not forget, it's the Promoter who's chasing the plastic trophies, that agrees to pay the Riders what they ask for, can you imagine what Tesco would say if you went and asked for £25 an hour to stack shelves! Everyone knows the Sport is on it's knees, but still the Promoters are agreeing to deals that will drive them further into debt, there is no answer, as there will always be at least one Promoter in every League who has big pockets and an ego to match.