tonyd

I think your right it was the crash that caused the end of the match in reality as the BSPA site quotes "lack of medical cover" for the reason. It was a bad crash and I hope both lads are ok and back on there bikes asap.

I also seem to remember that they had go go dancers as well to try and pull in the crowds. It was a crying shame about the lack of crowd as the houses and flats that made up the White City estate one would have thought that a lot more would have gone to support a local team. I also seem to remember that they were in trouble with the race relations board at one point when they offered any coloured male over 16 the chance to have a go and they would loan them a bike and leathers. Felt sorry for Bob and Danny because in 3 seasons they had a good team and won the league but still could not draw in enough of a crowd to run at a profit. AND NOW ITS A BLUDDY CAR PARK!!!!!!!

Leigh on a side note do you know what your uncle Tony Clarke is up to now a days? As a speedway mad teenager he was one of my idols when he rode for Wembley and Wimbledon in 1971 and 1972.

My daughter has several Vintage Speedway Magazines like below listed on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-speedway-Mag...=item4a9e62c5e1

My daughter has several old Backtrack Magazines like the one below listed on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Backtrack-The-Retro-...=item4a9e622d39

Speedway for me began in the 1960`s when a cousin of mine used to take me to wimbledon and my love was born, but that all changed in 1970 when the Wembley Lions were back and I had a track to get to under my own steam and there was no worry about a school kid wandering home through the streets of wembley after a meeting on a route that took him past every chip shop after starting at the Captains Table restaraunt / take away to see all the Lions having there fish and chip supper after the meeting.(The advert in the programe told us to eat where the lions eat ....... The Captains Table). For me 1970/71 was a greatest couple of years of my life. During the 70`s speedway was a must where a group of us would go off to as many tracks as we could and if one of us was short of the funds now and again the rest of us could normaly club together to get that person to and into a meeting. Also during the 70`s school finished, work began and driving cars started to happen .....the world was our oyster. What fun we had following speedway then with some weeks being... Wednesday..... White City Thursday........ Wimbledon Friday ..........Hackney Saturday....... Swindon or maybe Canterbury Sunday .......Rye House or possibly Eastbourne The close season was spent reading the speedway Star and saving every penny ready for the new season in march / April. As you can see the 70`s was my era and it included a lot of speedway and if it was possible to re-live any part of it it would have to be 70 or 71 to see that red and white lion racing around that half empty stadium and to hear the boom of that cannon again as the riders crossed the finish line at the end of the race. For me those were the days.

For me I always wanted to see the racing at West Ham but never managed to get there before it closed. The same goes for the other stadium I wanted to visit and that was the old Belle Vue track. I always wanted to get there and see the B.L.R.C. the line up used to be like a end of season world final with the calabre of the riders present.

I used to enjoy my friday nights at Hackney driving from Wembley to the stadium right across London. It might be my age but I seem to remember that every year they were the last London track to close at the end of the season and am I right in thinking that the last meeting of the season used to be the champions chase? The stadium has now gone but I bet in twenty or thirty years time there will be more people with more memorys and stories of Hackney speedway and Len Silver than these bl**dy olympics.

This is speedway and over the years I have learnt to accept the unexpected. On paper I agree that Slovenia should not be in the running, but be honest who who expected Russia to turn in that performance on Saturday to win round 1 ? This is the type of meeting that anything could happen.