salty

Everyone kept telling us on Sky that it was the best Cardiff ever. Not so sure myself, but at least the track was smooth and there were no ruts and holes like in the earlier years. Unlucky for Gollob that his bike packed up in the semi. If he'd gone on to win that then he and Hampel would have got red and blue in the final leaving Holder with white, which would have been difficult. Having said that Holder deserved his win, he rode his backside off all night. Disappointing from all 3 Brits, Woffinden the only race winner, helped by two Danes throwing their bikes at each other. Already starting to look like we will be relying on nominations again for next year.

Only ordered this book yesterday morning, so amazed to have it land on the doormat in Belfast this morning. That's what I call excellent service - nice one!

Ok. I'll have another go then. 1. P.Collins 2. J.Louis 3. M.Simmons 4. Ray Wilson 5. D.Jessup 6. M.Lee 7. C.Morton 8. T.Betts 9. G.Kennett 10.E.Boocock 11. M.Ashby 12. J.Davis 13. N.Boocock 14. D.Wyer 15. J.McMillan 16. T.Davey 17. Reg Wilson 18. C.Pusey 19. B.Kilby 20. T.Hedge

Ok, I'll have a pop at this 1. Peter Collins 2. Michael Lee 3. John Louis 4. Malcolm Simmons 5. Kenny Carter 6. Ray Wilson 7. Dave Jessup 8. Simon Wigg 9. Kelvin Tatum 10.Jeremy Doncaster 11. Chris Morton 12. John Davis 13. Les Collins 14. Terry Betts 15. Gordon Kennett 16. Martin Ashby 17. Eric Boocock 18. Phil Collins 19. Nigel Boocock 20. Simon Cross Though I wouldn't be at all surprised to see JB got Tony Davey in his top 20.

With the results in I make it ... 4 Swedes - Lindgren, Lindback, Zorro, Jonasson 4 Poles - Gapinski, Kolodziej, Walasek, Ulamek 2 Brits - Bomber, Steady 2 Russians - Laguta brothers 1 Ukrainian - Karpov 2 Danes - Puk & Madsen with another Dane to be added as a Wild Card. Of the 15, three are currently in the series and another four have been in the past.

Two wins out of two for both of them!

Why was Madsen after a visa for Russia? He's down for the Lonigo qualifier.

First point - it seemed to me every rider offered a shoe but Zorro quickly moved on when he realised they didn't fit - touch of the Cinderelllas. Holta - an accident waiting to happen? Sure he rode a bit hard last night, but I would argue that to often he has been on the recieving end. His race with Crumpy tonight was a good example of two riders giving everything but still allowing each other enough space. Great GP - looks like everyone has come through it unscathed which is great news. Crap decision by the ref to exclude Miedzinski. Is it time to invest in some decent photo finish equipment?

Don't know whether Kenny would have beaten Jarek, but at least he would have had the opportunity. Wouldn't say the rolling was limited to the Poles, everybody seemed to be doing it once they realised the "best ref in the world" was letting them get away with it.

Glad to see Hampel finally win a GP. Pretty good racing in the second half of the meeting.

I can certainly remember Kennett not riding in the World Under 21 Cup because he wanted a Saturday at Rye, not so sure about the individual. Surely riders like Bridger should be trying to widen their experience of international competition if they intend making an impact at a high level in the sport? Shocking that GB have only 1 rider in the semi's.

You "heard" Pedersen took him out. Then advise people to "watch" the semi a bit closer! Quality.

Good start to the season, plenty of overtaking and certainly better than any of last years GP's. Slightly spoilt by the massive imbalance in the gates - total points from 1 & 2 = 91, from 3 & 4 = 47. Only one win from 3 and just two from 4.

My Team is... 1. J. Crump £50,000 6. N. Pedersen © £45,000 7. R. Holta £35,000 12. C. Holder £35,000 15. T. Woffinden £25,000 Ta

If you look at the form from the last few GP's of last season then Holta is a stand-out bet. Over the last 4 events he outscored everyone bar Emil (who beat him by 1 point), so at odds of 35/1 he appears massively over-priced. However, Rune is a notoriously slow starter of a GP season and never seems to hit his straps until the second half of the season. My e/w shillings will be on Holder.

From memory the lyric goes something like "the last night of the fair and the grease in the hair of the speedway operator". Suggests Morrissey is talking about a traditional travelling fair rather than the permanent feature at Belle Vue - just a thought.

Regarding this discussion about when a decade begins, does this mean 1970 was in the sixties?

I for one fully endorse Tony Mac's comments above. It would have been easy for Bruce to have sat on the fence and made bland comments about his feelings for Kenny, but to his credit he has been honest and I think should be praised for that. There was clearly a lot of mutual dislike between the two of them and it would be hypocritical to deny that. Future columns... As a Cradley fan I would obviously like to hear as many stories and anecdotes from Bruce's time at the 'Wood. I also watched Simmo during his time at Plough Lane and would like to hear more about his time there. Simmo covered a lot of his career in his book so I would be interested to hear more about what he thinks about the state of the sport today and what the future holds for domestic Speedway.

Do you want to try and give any reasons for your hatred of Penhall and why the book is such a "disgrace"? Can't see there is enough in it to justify such a reaction...

Have enjoyed reading this thread. Interesting to see so many different views on Kenny, which I suppose reminds us how, when alive, he also inspired such ranges of opinion. I reckon the loss of the title in 1982 was something he never really recovered from, he certainly wasn't so dominant domestically in 1983 as he had been in 1982. Would he have gone on to win a World Individual Title if he'd lived? I doubt it, because the frailties of mind that caused his final actions were already affecting his performance on track. The broken legs in 1984 and 1985 effectively scuppered those hopes and we'll never know if he would have been able to cope with the pressure of being a home favourite at Bradford in 1985. Was he good? He certainly was. I saw the two BLRC victories and he was brilliant on those nights against very strong fields. Perhaps he would have grabbed a title in 1983 at any other track than Norden, but unless my memory fails me he was only one of many riders who had a shout, whereas in 1982 I saw it as between him and Penhall.

You're getting mixed up between the GRA and the Greyhound Board of Great Britain. The GRA are a commercial organisation who run 5 tracks - Belle Vue, Oxford, Wimbledon and the 2 in Birmingham. The Board are in charge of the organisation of the sport. Agree that the GRA have played a major part in the destruction of the sport.

First programme I have for that season is Saturday 28th April against Hackney, with howard riding at number 3. In those days the programme didn't have previous results, only the next few fixtures. According to the Peter Foster book they rode Halifax at Dudley Wood for the first home league match and lost at Monmore the night before they beat Coventry at our place. As you mentioned before they also beat Swindon at home. So that makes the matches he rode at reserve - Home - Halifax, Swindon, Coventry Away - Swindon, Wolves and Coventry Howard crashed in the second half of the Hackney match (having scored 8+2 from 4 in the match) and was out injured from then on for a large chunk of the season.

I always remember in the Cradley programmes of the early 70's in the "Murmurings from the Management" we were never referred to as fans or supporters, but patrons! As in "patrons are reminded to desist from crossing the the greyhound track during the after match tractor ride"

Well you learn something new every day! I'll have to look in my 1973 programmes to see if I was at a match when he rode at reserve. Strange for Cradley to be the beneficiaries of "special dispensation" - we always thought we were on the wrong end of such decisions! Apologies to Andy M for doubting your memory!

To be fair Kelvin rode for a few more years didn't he? Carter was only really operating at the peak of his powers for 3 seasons (1981-83) as his last 2 seasons were ravaged by injury.