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well said, Steve has a right to post and is a valued member of the forum.

Absolutely! I’ll set up the thread shortly now all the teams have finally been completed.

Slightly different angle...... My eldest daughter lived for some time near Wareham in Dorset so whenever I visited from Belfast I often tried to take in a meeting at Wimborne Road. One May the Pirates were due to ride on a Bank Holiday Monday, so I arranged my flight back from Southampton to be on the Wednesday (no Tuesday flights from memory). For some reason the Wednesday flight was quite expensive and it also entailed me pulling a sickie for a couple of days. So imagine my annoyance when the meeting, against Lakeside I think, was postponed at fairly short notice, not because of bad weather, but because holding the meeting would have caused difficulties with averages for Poole to make some planned team changes. At least I got a couple of extra days with my daughter, but it was an episode that me realise that domestic speedway was going down the tubes.

Anyway I am sure when this meeting is rerun it’s going to be a sellout and very enjoyable for both sets of fans, whether Oxford or Swindon. It’s a travesty that Swindon are not currently running and have the fan base to easily be run at a profit. The MP for Swindon Tomlinson was next to useless and offered no more than thoughts and prayers. Swindon Council should step up to the plate and allocate a slice of land. What the point of living in a conurbation with 200,000 others if all they have is restaurant chains, a few multiplexes and STFC (who I support). The citizens of Swindon deserve a speedway team.

Your like a broken record,give it a rest.

So a bit of Dorset/Wiltshire rivalry scheduled for May 10th to help keep the Robins name alive.

Think you be replying to yourself soon on this forum.

I'd just ignore him, or better off block him altogether like I have Steve. Life is better when you don't have to listen to somebody who would argue with his own shadow. I, for one, have always enjoyed your posts. I'd rather talk about the fact that it's a shame you're so far away and can't attend the meetings anymore, instead of you having to justify why you haven't (which makes no difference to anything).

The last couple of weeks... I really wanted to see Emil's first meeting back in this country so I booked Ipswich vs Peterborough last week (hotel booked, traveled down just for it to be called off as I was reaching Ipswich and about 10 minutes too late to cancel my premier inn... It was only being advertised that morning, surely the track must have been waterlogged all day as it wasn't really raining that much?) I was gutted by this so I stupidly decided to book this week up as a little speedway tour (I've been missing it greatly since mid last season when the Diamonds folded ) So I planned this week... Monday - Peterborough (on but a very delayed start with Nicki's crash, stadium issues, track issues, but was an ok meeting in the end) Tuesday - Day in Cornwall (p!ssed it down the whole time, expected) Wednesday - Poole (Off)/Thought about popping up to Oxford (Off) Thursday - Leicester (Off)/King's Lynn perhaps? (Off) Friday - Back home, across to Redcar (Off) Can't tell that the season's just started can you? Who's betting that Berwick will be off tomorrow also I will point out though because I know people will have a go at me, that I know all of these meetings were cancelled for rider safety, and I completely understand that, it's the most important part of speedway... Just typical though ain't it, driest winter on record followed by the wettest March

You clearly rate Harry McGurk more than me And I'd put Luke at 7, being the strongest reserve, but Elliot is still well capable of being at 6, it'll only be a matter of time before one of the McGurks (imo) move to reserve

Am sure Mr Godfrey will sort some rule to suit his needs !!

Don't see the issue with practicing on your home track whenever you fancy personally. Even on the day of a meeting.

In fairness Luke isn't concerned what number he rides at but is hoping that he can ride as a pair with Sam . They have such a good understanding of how each other rides stemming from grasstrack then the 125s and 250s.

Can't do a link, but if you look on Poole-speedway.com/club history you will see the incident mentioned in the review of 2013. Too detailed to relate the full details here, but it is much as I said earlier and was to protect their ability to make team changes.

With one midland club and the help of a NJL club.

Excellent fixture. Just imagine if this was the Swindon team in their prime. Place would be heaving. Doyle Batchelor Gjedde Morris Nilsson Karger Ashby But whatever team represents Swindon I am sure it will be a very competitive fixture.

9th of April 1993 King's Lynn v Ippo Ippo v King's Lynn Arena v Cradley Peterborough v Oxford Other matches washed out that day: Oxford v Peterborough Belle Vue v Wolverhampton Glasgow v Rye House Sheffield v Middlesborough Poole v Swindon Swindon v Poole The only match that started was Edinburgh v Middlesbrough and that was abandoned after heat 8. I wonder if this was the most weather affected day in Speedway history? And why didn't they call them off a couple of days before based on the weather forecast These were the days of course that you had to stop and find a phone box to phone the track if you wanted to know if it was still on or not, maybe give clubcall a ring if you were rockerfeller... no websites or weather apps to check and no BSF!

The MDL is still running though - albeit with 3 teams. But it is still running.

Prob cos not many riders stay at one club for 10 years anymore.

...yes I did 32 years of it (I'll leave that for "toady" to work out as he obviously has a fixation?)

Better than replying to people like you and flip flop you deserve each other

We have worked fast to rearrange the KOC match against Berwick originally planned for tonight to now be in two days time Redcar vs Berwick Sunday 2nd of April, 5pm Ecco Arena, Middlesbrough Please share and make sure no one misses the

I think Lynn now tend to call off early after the Sheffield debacle in 2021. Once bitten etc

Already got my team ready Looking forward, NL racing is so much more interesting than the Prem

https://www.facebook.com/alan.mcfarlane.71/videos/773711230780072/?idorvanity=333162870090344 Link to Lee’s vault over the fence….

it's like a drug isn't it... my most recent one was travelling up to Glasgow for the play off final in 2019, left home around 10:30 had a nice drive up north in nice weather, stopped at Gretna Green for a coffee, decided to look on Twitter only to discover it had been cancelled about half an hour after I left home, another 400+ mile trip and a horrendous journey back in the rain through the Friday rush

Late 80's or early 90's can't remember exactly when... it was Good Friday though, travelled over from Leicester for the 11am King's Lynn meeting, was rained off when we got there so decided to head off to Ippo for their 4 o'clocker, rolled into the car park, the heavens opened and it was cancelled... off to Arena for their 6 o'clock (?) kick off, arrived, rained off... back home up the A1 in the hope of pulling in the 7:30 Peterborough fixture only for it to be called off just before we got there, so back home, a round trip of around 400 miles, over 8 hours in the car and not 1 lap of Speedway seen... madness

...well if you wish to be pedantic I did quote "17 plus years ago". Last meeting I went to was the very first meeting at Cowley in 2004 (Lakeside).

More like the ground hasn't dried out enough from autumn and winter yet, so it's softer at this time of year anyway, but this year it's worse than usual. Plus, at present the temperature drops steeply once the sun has gone and that produces dangerous track surfaces as moisture rises to the surface - like it was at Swindon a few years ago when Martin Vaculik had his early season crash. Once the ground is generally more dry as the weather (we hope) warms, rainfall should be less of a problem unless it's torrential of course.

They are meant to have ridden at least one meeting before you can do that.

I visited Wolves on a couple of occasions and Cradley the once when they were called off...particularly galling as neither were that easy to get to or indeed find! Took three attempts to see some racing at Boston and then only half a meeting as an earlier meeting at King's Lynn finished late.

Emil only over here as he can't do Sweden. Nicki only over here for his TV reality family show. Whether Tai meant it was to plug it or feature BTS stuff I am not sure!

1978 - I took a day off work at the local canning factory (which I couldn't really afford to do..) and took the Kings Lynn Supporter's coach to Coventry to see the British Final. When we arrived at the parking lot, the local parking attendant came on the coach and said don't bother getting off, it looks like the meeting is going to be called off. And it was. The only time I ever went to Brandon. Just a miserable day on an old coach.

It is not about now but the last 24/48/72 hours has done to the track(softened up too much) & getting the heavy vehicles on to prepare it rather than it is too soft & they rip it up like a ploughed field.

Yeah 5.20 I think.

From Oxford programme 17.08.22 under my name: The arrival of the Edinburgh Monarchs at Sandy Lane reminds me of one of my most epic journeys in search of speedway action. The year 1983, my destination Powderhall greyhound stadium, one of my all time favourite speedway venues. Our great adventure took us to Edinburgh by train. Leaving Leicester at 8am, five of us travelled via Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh Waverley. Unfortunately as the journey progressed it became increasingly obvious that we were in for a wet day. On arriving in Scotland's capital we stopped at a 'greasy spoon'; Bob got a tin lid in his portion of baked beans - slightly disturbing! Having established that the meeting was indeed off we decided to trudge through the rain to Powderhall. On the way we bumped into a car of Leicester fans, and briefly retired to a pub. Continuing on to Powderhall we were rewarded with the sight of a back-straight under water and an invitation to the Monarchs Supporters Club post-match disco (which had been brought forward in the absence of a meeting). I remember being told by Brett Saunders that we were mad to travel all the way to Scotland for a challenge match. When a speedway rider says you are mad it's time to doubt your sanity! The overnight return trip was a noisy one as we shared the train with hordes of Scottish rugby fans heading towards Cardiff Arms Park for a five nations match (note: not the Principality Stadium for a six nations match). After spending the early hours of the morning on New Street station we finally arrived back in Leicester at 8am on Saturday. So at a cost of £14 (£28 for Tony who was too old for a young persons railcard) we had 'enjoyed' the pleasures of a Monarchs disco, an eventful journey and the camaraderie created by our shared experience It originally appeared on speedwayplus website over a decade ago.

Once travelled from Middlesbrough to Stoke to find it rained off, Speedway Star out, Belle Vue had a fixture. Hot footed to Belle Vue, rained off. Speedway Star back out, Halifax at home quick run on M62, meeting still on, junior 4 TT. Back home to Middlesbrough. Oh so miss all the Saturday options.

In the seventies traveled to Newcastle from Workington rained off twice before finally getting to see the meeting on the third attempt, Glasgow a few years ago against Leicester travelled up on the train booked a hotel got into the stadium , track work carried out for about an hour and a half only for the track to be declared unfit, traveled to Redcar for Robbos testimonial a few weeks ago got to the stadium an hour before the start only to find it was off.

Barker is just a wasted talent,his career could have been so much better if he wasn’t such a idiot at times.

Mine was travelling up to Aberdeen from London to see Celtic play I did actually travel to another country for a speedway rain off. Travelled up from Hamburg to, yes, Vojens for a saturday afternoon Division 1 meeting. Lovely weather the whole way uo. And i was riding a fairly small scooter, so it took me over 3 hours to get there. And as is typical about 5 or so miles away from the trak the first puddles started to appear, and gradually it all got worse the closer to Vojens i got. As i rode though the track gates, a German guy i knew came out of the cafe on top of the banking and told me it was off. Which i had in that instance guessed for myself anyway. So i just turned round and headed for home again........

I think this is how Speedway is heading nowadays. Clubs don't want to risk poor crowds in bad weather, or calling matches off just before / after start times - so the safest option is to cancel hours or days ahead. There's enough gaps in the fixture list to only race in good weather (well maybe). Biggest issue is holidaying fans, planning fixtures ahead of time (happened to me) but for the majority, early call offs saves time & money!

Apparently so, I did question it but got told by a rider that it’s actually quite common. You just don’t hear about it

Like Diamonds85, I am looking to pop over sometime when the weather is warmer, I have not been to Speedway for quite a while and found that as I'm now 75, I feel the cold very much and my legs are not great, so if I can find somewhere sit down using my folding camping stool and watch the racing, I'm willing to give it a go. Bob

Top riders are often paid a lump sum per meeting, what they score is irrelevant to their pay packet...

So just so I understand, we are now comparing getting 1500 to 2000 people into Cowley every week to a Silverstone formula 1 and the Cardiff GP and using those as a good comparison Well Rob. I call that comparing apples with pears. It's just not a credible discussion. Those are mega events trying to deal with tens of thousands of people as opposed to whenever you come to the turn styles at Oxford speedway there may be 6 to 10 people in front of you It's simply not a credible arguement but I am absolutely certain there is nothing you will accept is wrong with Oxford You didn't answer that question about how many other clubs you visited this season who often no facility to pay on the day other than with a pre-book ticket on an app. I suspect I know the answer why

Shock! Speedway mentioned in the Sunday Telegraph on the 26th complete with picture of the rider . Text stated as follows. ""Nigel Limb, a former Speedway racer who was left 90 per cent blind after a crash, on the track in Scunthorpe, Lincs, testing an electric powered speedway bike he constructed himself over the past year"

Your welcome... got fed up of fishing around trying to find it...

Yes... Keep an eye on the club web site... Regards THJ

It's pretty obvious who is telling the truth. On one side we've got a man on his own, claiming in his book (which contains many other errors and "misrememberings") that he didn't write the letters demanding free passes for 100 of his friends. Then on the other side we've got a number of promoters who received the letters, and many more who have seen the letters. These include the late Phil Rising, a fairly impartial journalist and self-confessed Collins fan. Then we've got the vitriolic scrawled message to a dying man who had only tried to help sort out the situation of the 100 free passes. Why would you be so nasty if you hadn't even demanded the 100 passes in the first place? Sorry, but you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve this one.

All now Completed. Thank you to you all, who have contributed to this thread. Wishing all supporters a happy 2023 Season of racing.