salty

No mention of the end of the previous season at all other than the body blows of a serious injury to Mike Lanham and Mark Coutney's transfer request. Just to re-iterate he (Rogers) says they moved into their new house at Oadby at the end of the '83 season and one of the first items of post they received was a letter from CO "telling us that Midland Sports were selling the Leicester stadium for redevelopment" Goes on to say when the story became public knowledge "there were those who nodded their heads and claimed they had known, or that we had known. Maybe they had. We definitely had not."

In Martin Rogers book he says the first he knew of anything happening with regard to Leicester was when he got a letter dropping on the mat. The grudge was to do that lack of warning and that even though CO knew that Rogers had moved home during the close season to be closer to Blackbird Road there was never an inkling that closure was imminent.

Got my copy today - I was worried I wouldn't get it until after Easter - and as good a read as ever. Really enjoyed the "Hazy Heroes" feature - some great memories and names there. However,...... a couple of questions. Surely Klaus Lohmann suffers from ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) not MS? The Halifax team pic on Page 45 names Graham Plant as standing between the Lohmann brothers. Would love to know who it is (Paul Sheard?), but I'm fairly certain it ain't Planty.

Interesting definition of the word "help". I would be careful Gustix, there is a guy on this forum who is always moaning about threads being taken off topic, you might fall foul of him.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/11863958.Speedway__Ford_reveals_concerns_over_World_Speedway_League/ All about the money..

Any ideas why Poole pulled out? Surprising because last year Matt was effusive in his praise of the competition, calling it the "holy grail".

I know you are rarely wrong Sid, but I don't think you ever saw Loram riding at reserve for Hackney alongside Titman. Titman left Waterden Road at the end of 1983 and went to Wimbledon. Loram didn't start until later.

Thanks. To be fair you could probably build a replica version of the old Dudley Wood and all it's plush amenities and still have change from a grand!

Cradley? Wimbledon? Come on Rob, don't be selfish.

Middlo in last week's Star however feels "I really do hope Darcy gets a rapid return to the SGP for 2016.....I think he does deserve a wild card for sure" Hard to see any quantifiable reason why Darcy "deserves" a wild card. It might well be at the end of the 2015 season there will be 4 other riders far more deserving than Darcy of a nomination for 2016.

Pretty sure when I first started following Cradley at the end of the 60's and early 70's the clubs injury jinx was partly blamed on the green club colours. This was one of the reasons for the "United" rebranding in 1973 and the introduction of red into race-jackets/colours.

Thanks for the link - lovely memories. I agree with you Bobbath, loved the old CH.

To be fair to Gustix, he said he hadn't eaten in those two cafes. I'm guessing his dislike of that sort of food, might have come from another source? Mind you it is minging.

Good luck with the book, Norbold. Though it seems by the "customers who viewed this" list at the bottom of the Amazon page that it is quite a saturated market. Hopefully your superior prose will make it a cut above the rest of the herd! I've got interested in that era of life in the East End in the past couple of years. Ironically enough the FPO watching "Call the Midwife" sparked the interest again. Re Prefabs: the school where I work is adjacent to the "Tintown" of Taughmonagh mentioned in the link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29254528 Still known as Tin Town by the locals even though the prefabs went about 30 years ago. I used to work in an office just on the other side of the Broadway from Harrington's and can well remember the queues on a Friday morning. Used to drink in the Selkirk as well.

Quality, Gustix, sheer quality.

Given those re-iterated criteria I can't see past Penhall. But to generate those column inches you would probably need Kenny back as well.

Of course they only printed one side of the story. The FIM quite correctly kept quiet considering the legally sensitive nature of the case. You can't really blame the SS for that.One can understand people getting irritated by the weekly (or so it seemed) ramblings from Middlo, as it was clear he didn't really have a clue, but it is up to the reader to make that decision.

They could have replaced him in the 1-7? The offence (we don't have to use the word alledged anymore!)took place before the deadline for team changes.

The Berwick one was when he had Rymel, Makovsky and Franc all in on 9.00 assessed averages and wanted to bring Bentley in once their averages had gone down. As Bentley was in their previous years final 1-7 this rule was used to stop him coming in. Totally different circs with Ward, but will be interesting to see what happens. If their rumoured introduction of Gomolski on a low average comes to pass, one would imagine him having boosted it by the end of June which may cause difficulties for Poole.

Knew there used to be a rule (vaguely remember it was something to do with Berwick???) - wasn't sure if it still was in the book, but since my first mention had checked. So to sum up Ward can only be re-introduced if the MC approve.

Surely what you meant was - yes there is (such a rule) but they can be re-introduced subject to the MC's approval. Surely all team changes require this ageement? Therefore, I'm a bit surprised it is still in the regulations.

Where does this leave Darcy regards getting a team spot (and visa) when the ban is served? Didn't there used to be a rule that a rider who was part of a 1-7 at the end of a season could not be re-introduced into that 1-7 during the following season?

It it ain't broke, don't fix it. Tony seems comfortable with their current markets. Both current magazines complement each other well and though I only subscribe to Backtrack (since Issue 1) I have no problem with the focus on the 70's and 80's and I wouldn't find more recent times so interesting. Naturally there are plenty of riders whose careers have covered the 80's and 90's and I don't think anyone would begrudge their whole careers being discussed. Obviously, most of the major riders have now been covered and it is hard to continue to find fresh angles, but I find the stories from "lesser lights" just as interesting (if not more so) as those from the household names and I hope Tony and the team continue to unearth more and more tales from such riders .

Wow, that really is surprising. I always got the impression that the Sky twins weren't that fussed with Ward, I mean they hardly ever mention him or interview him.

Personal choice - Bernie Persson (1969 -72 vintage) Rider I never saw - Peter Craven For the good of the sport - Peter Collins (mid-70's version) or Bruce Penhall