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Imagine if speedway crowds took the knee, most would never get back up again

Instead of saying BLM and those endorsing the cause by taking the knee (which may have had a double meaning back in the 70’s and 80’s particularly if you were North or South of the border) why don’t those aggrieved and in particular those supporting BLM say ‘why don’t we all try and get along together’ rather than break it down to colour and race and create friction. Many people are tired of every Tom, Dick,Harry and whatever you wish to call those classed as black, Asian, South American, etc. who simply object to anyone that does not agree with the BLM or similar point of view. Through history groups be they religious, colour or otherwise have come in for criticism, derision, the butt of jokes etc. and in some cases certain people need to be held to account, but has it not gone too far? To read that someone complained about a 1967 episode of the BBC Radio programme ‘Around the The Horne’ being repeated on 4 xtra and the corporation apologised says it all about the society we live in. Those who complain, get a life, those who have views, speak out without violence and those who disagree respectfully object and move on. Everyone has a right to an opinion, not just the BLM movement or any other movement. If you want to live in a sanitised state, move to China, they have ways of dealing with Muslims and others and do not tolerate any nonsense. Where do the BLM supporters sit on this issue?

To be honest family values still exist in Poland,in Britain our new generation are out stabbing each other at 12 and admiring YouTubers going to get their nails done or pushing some cyclist off his bike,they just don’t have the time to watch sport and certainly not with their parents

ONE of the most striking features about Polish keague meetings, even with reduced crowds, is how young the spectators are compared with the UK.

I'd love to see Coventry back up and running and would throw in all the bits we used to do presentation wise and centre green wise for free as we did at Leicester to try and keep the name going. But that's purely because I'm a Coventry fan and have had the sport drilled into me from birth to now. The problem is anybody investing in speedway full stop in the UK would be doing it for the love of the sport and for the memories in the Bees case of years gone by. Anyone investing in speedway will only lose there money going forwards, speedway in it's current guise is not where the British public want to spend their hard earned coin. It's not moved with the times and the terraces are getting emptier and emptier as sadly followers of our beloved sport pass away. Just be glad of all the memories you have as future one's may be sparser to come by

True would it be wrong to say he left " under a black cloud"!

I know the photo is made to look like the kids are close but for all you who haven’t ever witnessed youth speedway it does get like this. To all the neigh sayers who believe there is no talent in the uk come along and watch and form a proper opinion . Personally believe the future is bright for a lot of our youth.

He would rather be watching at that superb racetrack Poole every week

think kubera is just as important as sayfutdinov, if they lose kubera they are in BIG trouble,

Big night for Pepe Protasiewicz tonight as he rides his 512th Extraleague league match breaking Tomasz Gollob`s record of 511

George definitely was a Top Man in 1965 ,and should have went further in the sport IMo.He walked out of a Wet meeting at Meadowbank in 65 and then seemed to take a dislike to wet meetings.Think the Craven situation was always at the back of his mind,and nerves seemed to affect him on the big occasion.He was a class act and a fantastic style and team rider.He had a good career in the sport if somewhat underachieving.A good guy.

Very Black cloud I’d say.

Looks like Gorzow will be back...

What I was really trying to say was that I don't believe there is any difference between trying to attract any different ethnicity to speedway than there is with trying to attract white people. If people are interested they will come. If the evening out is a good one they will come again.

Over here kids are brainwashed into Football. Total wall to wall exposure.

I know. But they think that Labour will win the next election as well. I'll get my coat

In 18 years of caravanning i have only once seen a coloured family doing likewise. Some things just do not appeal to them just as i am sure some of the things they enjoy dont appeal to us.

Berwick had a Black Promoter.

Do you really expect BLM supporters to turn up at "White City"

Some suggestions to get more BAME fans to be interested in speedway: Less restarts after someone makes a good start Less tractors going round for ages. More up to date music over the tannoy. More modern stadiums. Any other suggestions?

Black Lives Matter should have been All Lives Matter, everyone is equal.

I'm interested to know why you feel it is an issue that speedway in this country needs to address. I'm not saying it isn't, but I can't think of any examples as to why. Yes, most - if not all - the riders in the UK are white, but that's just a case of who is deciding to take up the sport. I don't see it as an equality issue. As for taking the knee, it should remain at the rider's own discretion. Personally, I find worthy white people taking the knee rather cringeworthy, although the intent behind it is probably a good one.

Trevor Redmond was top PL man in 1960, but his average with Wembley in Division 1 in 1956 was only just over 6.00 and in 1959 with Swindon it was below 4.00. Reg Reeves, the next best rider, had not ridden league speedway since 1955, when he was an 8-point man with Division2 Ipswich. Third best rider, Harry Bastable, averaged over 10.00, but had struggled with scores averaging around 4.00 in the previous two years at Leicester. The other top PL riders in 1960 were Brian Craven, Alan Smith, Ross Gilbertson, Johnny Hole, Tony Lewis, Tony Robinson and Ivor Brown. Gilbertson also rode a few matches that year for Southampton and averaged under 6.00. The most recent scoring levels of the others in the top league were generally of reserve or second-string standard. Brown had made sporadic appearances for Leicester between 1953 and 1958 with little success. The regular rides at Yarmouth in 1959 and 1960 facilitated his rapid progress to becoming a dominant force at Cradley Heath from 1961 onwards. In 1961 he had a league average of 10.14, compared to Bastable’s 8.88. In comparison with other riders of that era it is perhaps unlikely that Redmond or Brown, even with a regular team slot, would have risen to heat leader standard in the National League in 1960/61. The gap in standards certainly narrowed considerably over the next few years, which enabled the amalgamation of National and Provincial to form the British League in 1965 to be a success.

He was my first hero in speedway, he was certainly the fans favourite in his rise to the top with the Monarchs.He certainly stalled after ‘65.and Persson and Eide became the top dogs.Had a good career.Definitely had the skills to reach the top but it just never happened.Drove his Uncles cattle lorry In between meetings while still persueing his Monarchs career.

George walked out of the meeting against Coventry on 7th August 1965 after one ride, complaining about the state of the track. Ian Hoskins was not best pleased. Hunter threatened he would walk out again if improvements were not made. Hoskins wrote a strongly-worded letter to him and George turned up to ride the following week, but the track had been extensively worked on and bladed during the week by former Monarch Dick Campbell. Ironically, the meeting against Swindon was rained off. Having escaped further action by the Control Board for his walk-out Hunter was then suspended for 21 days for failing to appear at Coventry and Exeter on 11th and 13th September. Edinburgh were able to use a guest to replace George for the home meeting with Belle Vue and so booked Ivan Mauger, although he only scored 9. If the suspension had started with effect from 14th September then Hunter would have been banned until 4th October, but he appealed and was allowed to defend his Scottish Open title on 2nd October, finishing runner-up to Arne Pander, with Mauger third.

Much better and closer match than I expected. Gate 1 was a bit too good tonight, but the match ebbed and flowed and enjoyed it.

Would you rather have no speedway at all?

As a New Cross supporter, I didn't see many Provincial League riders in its early days, 1960/61, but I did see some in Individual meetings and in second halves. Purely from memory, without resorting to record books, I seem to remember that I thought Trevor Redmond and Ivor Brown were head and shoulders above the rest of the riders I saw and were the only two I felt at the time could hold their own in the National League. Of course that is purely a subjective view of a young speedway novice (me) and without seeing all of the top riders. i'd be interested in hearing Provincial League aficionados from that period's views on Redmond and Brown.

Absolute garbage meeting. Really been poor entertainment in general from the Polish Extraleague so far this season. Thought it was utterly boring.

Will soon be Top Aussie .IMO.

Why is Vaculik not coming in for Jepsen Jensen or Dudek?

He was such an exciting rider a couple of years ago. It is so disappointing to see him in "the crowd".

That's odd, I usually find that that is the best link, have rebooted twice but still the same, I'll have to follow the updates site, thanks

Normal service resumed for Leszno.

George was a brilliant skipper during his twilight years at Oxford in 1978 & 79. His team riding skills were beyond question and he could dictate a race to perfection. Remember a classic second half final when he and Mike Sampson put in some tremendous laps passing and re-passing each other.

Changed his girlfriend from German to polish

Maybe they should have tried renaming the stadium.

Updates live from track side tomorrow at 6PM: https://live.baansportfansite.nl/event/419/ek-speedway-finale-5-torun.html

Playing the national anthem pre-introduction at Peterborough was bad enough via Horton & Watson. By the time most supporters had risen from their seats the anthem had finished.

I’d have thought meetings would be all ticket particularly for seated areas so people would know whether they ha e a seat or not before going.

Good one although the local community was heavily ethnic hence the action taken by the then promotion!

Went to Millwall last season, very few black faces in crowd, in area of large black population. I suppose The Wall have always been associated with right-wing, same as Chelsea. They dont do the knee down the Den. The Arsenal have a large black following, their one time hoolie leader called Denton, now deceased, was a huge black geezer. Dulwich Hamlet have black manager and mainly black players, very few black fans?

Do they generally partake in attending any spectator sport (other than cricket)? As I posted earlier do they attend football matches in any great numbers despite many of the players being of ethnic background? Was never really the case but has it improved over the years or are they just not interested in spectating generally? I really don't know.

So u think " lewis" is going to give up some of his millions to his " blm" friends after all he works for one of the worlds worst slave users during ww2, mercedes.i am no racist but in 50 yrs of going to speedway and having been to every track now in operation i have yet to see a " coloured" spectator , i know it reads bad but its true.i would welcome anyone to our great sport but it seems certain groups just dont get it

I wouldn't hold F1 up as an example of how to "take a knee" it's been a complete shambles for them. Football has had "the benefit" of "taking a knee" behind closed doors and the TV companies turn the sound down while they do it, it'll be interesting to hear the crowd reaction if they ever open the terraces up again, most crowds can't keep quite for a minutes silence for respect when somebody has died... hence the modern day 1 minutes applause. Personally I can't be doing with these grand gestures of taking a knee to demand equality and then driving down to the bank in their Ferrari's to deposit their £250,000 a week wages.

Surely most speedway stadia have an H&S maximum capacity?

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, in general, nor do the majority of white people. Speedway's main problem is trying to get anybody of any background to watch it. I'm sure all the promoters would be delighted if any ethnic minority adopted it as their sport.

"speedway in this country is a sport that definitely needs to address the matter of equality and diversity." Why do you say that? Have you any evidence that potemntial riders other then white have been turned away from a practice track etc due to the colour of their skin? Have you not noticed that certain sports are dominated by coloured persons, and other by white persons ie athletics/swimming. I have concluded that certain types of humans are not cut out for some sports but ok with other sports, for example cricket compared to motor sports. Moto GP doesnt have many/any coloured riders (though there are many asian riders. I notice certain countries are predominat in sport in general, but many dont really compete on the world stage ie Saudi/UAR/Qatar/Iran/Iraq/Afgan/Lebanon. So its each to their own, cant force competitors to do this or that, and IMO it would be wrong to spend a lot of money trying to coerce somone to do something they dont want just to satisfy some perceiced need.

https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/pge-ekstraliga/statystyki

Worrying lack of activity by "White Angel". Hope it's just a weekend off and not a case of him being "busted". The channel's still on You Tube.