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I always thought that Alan Wilkinson, like Bob Kilby, was the epitome of what a speedway should be. A hard solid but fair rider,

My first hero... A true giant as a leader of men.. He rode in the days when it truly meant something to follow a speedway team in the UK.. But whatever it meant to follow the Aces as a passionate fan, you always felt that somehow Wilkie felt that passion even more... Not been many like him, (if any at all).. The incredibly positive way he handled that tragic nights legacy through the rest of his life, and the perspective with which he viewed it, should serve as an inspiration to everyone. Gutted tonight to be honest.. RIP Wilkie, God Bless..

I saw Alan ride at Ellesmere Port the night before the crash, putting on his usually robust performance for the Aces. The memory of a fine performance was still fresh as the awful news came in the next day. He deserved better. Rest in peace Alan.

Everyone has things in their life that as they get older they remember 'as clear as day' even as the years advance. . Wilkie's crash that night is one that I can still see unfold to this day.. One that even as a young kid I had seen happen dozens of times before... One that 999 times out a 1000 the riders get up from and walk away.. Truly tragic that Alan never did walk again following that crash.. But truly inspirational the way he reacted to it, and lived with it. I suppose you either have that strength of character, and the courage needed to go with it, or you don't... And as he proved over his racing years, and the many years since that night , he had both in abundance..

A few refs certainly had to ensure that the locks were secure in their boxes... My over riding memory of Wilkie was of him standing on the fourth bend, inside the track where the tractor parked, wearing his Red, White and Black leathers, arms folded tightly, back ram rod straight, watching the racing intently as Captain of the team. He would then march across the track back to the pits at the end of the race to either pat his team mate on the back, or, if not succesful, and he felt it not a good enough effort, issue some 'motivational feedback' to his colleague... A proper Captain in every way... For some this might be a cliché, but not for Wilkie.. They truly don't make them like him anymore. .

Devastated to read this on the same day as another of my heroes, Peter Green died too. Condolences to Jean, a special lady indeed. RIP Wilkie, the ultimate Team Captain.

Sad news ,have just read his book last week ,great read.Certainly typical no nonsense type of rider and person.Who knows how far he would have went in sport but was certainly a great Team Person.Saw his first ever match at Newtongrange when he got a maximum riding at No 1!!!!! Nobody knew he was!!!.Condolences to his wife Jean she was his rock ,a special woman IMO. R.I.P . Alan.

We move on to tomorrow`s 2 matches Sunday July 26th Grudziadz v Gorzow programme starts 3pm 1st race 3.30pm N sport and Premier Sport 2 ( 3.30pm) Sunday July 26th Czestochowa v leszno programme starts 6pm 1st race 6.15pm N sport and Premier Sport 2 (6.15pm) Links http://spedway.ucoz.lv/ https://daddylive.live/embed/stream-75.php http://www.drhtv.com.pl/drhtv-3.html Racecards Grudziadz v Gorzow pages 18 and 19 https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:2cac2bff-db69-4e97-98ff-7fb71964e015#pageNum=1 Czestochowa v Leszno pages 30 and 31 https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:8b3be8dc-8f4d-4574-ac18-f395ca5e2dde

I was so sorry to hear this news. I did not know Alan, but what a great Rider he was. My condolences to his family and friends. R.I.P. + Alan.

Rider in yellow leg injury ,white collar bone but both went to hospital for further testing. Rider in yellow was unconscious for quite some time but regained it before being taken to hospital. Once ambulance comes back from hospital the meeting will resume.

Best meeting i have ever seen from Gdansk- and i have seen a lot !!

Congratulations to Scunthorpe`s Tero Aarnio on becoming Finnish Champion today.

Panthers management should reflect that screwing BB holders will not be forgiven or go away. Decency and integrity is such a small ask.

Not helped by this : https://news.expats.cz/coronavirus-in-the-czech-republic/czech-republic-coronavirus-updates-july-22-212-new-cases/ “More than 120 people are in quarantine following a party at a nightclub in Prague 2, where 59 people fell ill with coronavirus, according to a report in Seznam Zpravy. Several football players from Prague’s Bohemka, Sparta and Dukla were at the party and became infected as well, interrupting their summer training. There are more than 600 cases of coronavirus in Prague.” Heaven knows what they were (not ?) thinking

Sad news read the book when it came out a good read , a storey about the bikes but what came across was the love of his wife for alan after his accident, i wonder if he and alan cowland will make up if they meet upstairs lol

Strangely premier sports coverage doesn’t capture the atmosphere of the meeting, even though it’s the same feed the noise of the bikes/crowd is turned down on premier coverage, and after the 4 races it keeps repeating the footage while dave Goddard fills in,on the original polish coverage you get interviews and chat with the presenters all be it in polish, at the start of the meeting the studio is in the pits and the noise of the bikes warming up is full on and it’s great, we don’t get that on premier, I’m not knocking premier as I’m greatfull for their coverage but as a choice I watch it in polish as the atmosphere comes across better

While I'll watch Speedway on the telly all day long, no matter how good it is... I've got to say from what I've seen of this Polish league it's pretty cr@p. I've sussed it out and unless it's Leszno riding away or Rybnik riding at home the match is going to be an easy comfortable home victory. Great for the promoters as most fans attending want to see their team win but a bit of a borefest for the neutral watching on TV. Obviously there's a sprinkling of good racing in most matches but for the most part the result is a forgone conclusion after the first 4 races. It's surprising really as most tracks seem to be the same size, shape and surface.

be grateful you have speedway to watch this year!!

Two absolute rubbish meetings today. Has there been a good race? Terrible racing. Zzzzzz

I love it when the commentators break into English- " hold your horses my friend "

I don’t look forward to crashes but they are part of the spectacle of any motorsport and As with anything that offends you or you don’t want to see just turn away or just go and make a brew

Each to there own I suppose but I think that Sky and BT got it right in showing delayed crash replay coverage once the editing team knew that the riders were ok to a certain extent

Getting things back on topic, Swindon's 1957 league victory was astonishing when you look at the London domination post-war from 1946 to 1961, although sadly there was only one London track in the 1957 National League. Also, you wonder how good Bob Roger could have been, but for the fractured skull early in 1958. I think Bob and Arne Pander were the riders who could have really challenged the Big Four (later became the Big Five, after Knutsson's ascension) but for injury. Wimbledon had a big miss in Ronnie Moore that year who was having a go at car racing in '57 (he also missed much of '58). On the other hand, Swindon had three good heat-leaders from the side that won the 1956 Division Two and then added to the second string side department to give them a really solid side, with Roger an outstanding No 1.

Think Becker would have been a better choice

I most certainly haven’t watched Lee’s crash and never would. Neither would I watch any sport fatality clip online or nowhere else. I also have never watched darcy’s crash and never would. Crashes are part of the sport but other than catching it live, if I never of a fatality or bad injury I steer well clear. I don’t have a morbid interest in watching riders get killed or injured.

Very sad. Another real good'un gone...

So you was fine about Lee Richardson crash been showed over n over again on the tragic day he died..

I disagree, I think replays are fine no matter how bad the crash, nobody wants to riders to get injured but speedway is entertainment and crashes are part of it

Very sad news...a hard but fair competitor. Always recall when the "Rebels" won at Belle Vue in 1977 Alan insisted that they take a victory parade. RIP.

Not arf a bad meeting that great last heat decider makes up for yesterdays dull meetings

What a fantastic meeting.

great heat 15 !!!

A farce, And this is the bloke who runs the sport !

The tracks seem to have been a little 'off' from what has been the usual standard over the past few years that I have watched it.. Maybe restrictions to access or staff numbers are impacting somewhat? Usually a bit more grip around the outside at most venues, which delivers pretty good opportunities to pass. And that's even for the away team because, as you say, most of the tracks are of a similar vein, ie ridden flat out with plenty of space on wide 'open' bends.. Its still better than the Snooker though.. Or E bloody racing..

Google translate is rubbish, I remember reading one about the driver of the slag being a rabbit, I thought they were talking about gary ohare

Cradley 83 was the best team I saw in all my years attending speedway... They were probably too good if you watched them every week though I would say... Didn't they lose Wigg, Grahame, Ravn and Pedersen to the points limit the following season ? The Ipswich side a good few years later was very good as well with the top 4 of Rickardsson, Gollob, Louis and Nicholls... I wasn't actually attending reguarly at the time but did travel to the odd meeting just to see that Ipswich line up..... But Cradley 83 for me was the best I have known

Alan was a great servant to Belle Vue and a brilliant team man. Every successful side needs a Wilky my thoughts are with his family

The format above has been confirmed. Fixed gates for Heats 1-12 and as I understand it, the Home team has gate choice for the nominated heats. There is provision for a No.7 who has no programmed rides, but can take up to 4 rides.

Polish fans are very passionate about their own riders, I was at gorzow v leszno after Piotr pawlicki had said he wasn’t a big fan of Bartoz on the tv the night before, they booed and whistled him every time he came out on the track, made a great atmosphere

This track is awful. I'm realising that Polish speedway isn't all it's hyped up to be. Give me a meeting at the Showground any day of the week.

Whose the ref? Frank Ebdonski?

The standard gets worse year on year. And it isn’t watering the product down. At the start of the season there would be four qualifiers. The top four riders from each of those meetings would then move on to the championship series. The standard of Speedway here all riders should be competing as a hobby and working a real job anyway. The sport cannot support giving riders a full time living but rather than accepting that we let them double up so they don’t have to face the reality that Speedway isn’t that popular. And why should riders be paid to compete in their national championship too? Expenses yes, but they should do it for the opportunity to be national champion.

If the ref is looking for the one replay that shows Janowski not touching the tapes we are going to be here all night.

Tomorrow we have 3 live matches to watch Saturday July 25th Torun v Lodz start time 1pm N Sport Saturday July 25th Gdansk v Gniezno start time 3.30pm N Sport Saturday July 25th Tarnow v Bydgoszcz start time 6.15pm N Sport Links http://spedway.ucoz.lv/ put it on full screen and if you put curser on bottom right hand corner it brings up a playing menu along the bottom, had to change it to N Sport and worked fine. http://www.maniak.tv/mk7 http://www.drhtv.com.pl/drhtv-2.html https://daddylive.live/embed/stream-75.php

I made some plans today for next year. Divorcing the wife as she is a pain in the a*se , that makes sense.

Hi Baldyman the track is in great condition .few little cracks in it but soon as you start watering/rain they will disappear thanks for enquiring bob

Well Godfrey is well placed to run an amateur meeting if his press release from in front of those curtains is anything to go by

Maybe Banksy could take it over as he did in Weston Super Mare, and turned a derelict site into a depressed theme park or something similar. Get some Bristolians to track him down.

I wont be getting any rushed, little tested, unproven vaccine for a virus that has no real effect on 98% of the population If that were to mean I cant go to Speedway then Ive seen my last meeting....

In your opinion.