tigerowl

Oh yes, silly me. Of course they are listening. We all love watching teams operating rider replacement and with a couple of guests in every week, watching our team lose despite scoring more race points than the opposition (I bet Rye House fans were thrilled last night), seeing our favourite riders sidelined because they have an average 0.01 points too high, watching 15 heats take 2 hours to complete with no second half and no other entertainment other than Now That's What I Call Music 46 being played on repeat. Having meetings called off because it might rain (happened twice at my local track last year), seeing our own riders destroy our own title ambitions by riding for our closest rivals, not being able to make team changes because the riders haven't ridden enough matches - by the middle of June. We love it so much that I can turn up to a meeting at 7:44 p.m., park in the car park, walk in through the turnstiles without queuing, stand in the same spot every week amongst the same faces, never see anyone new at the track more than once and wonder if I will have a sport to watch next season.

Rob Godfrey might listen but I can think of a fair few that won't.

If we had a proper programme we might have been able to advertise it a bit better.

That's fine then. It was announced last week amongst the bikes warming up, people talking, etc. The publicity machine is clearly running at top capacity. If the promoters either can't be bothered / can't get organised to get together a line up of 16 juniors and announce it in plenty of time, why should the public be bothered enough / get organised to go and watch?

Typical speedway. One day to go before a meeting and people don't know what the line-up is going to be. It's not too bad for us Sheffield folk but would you blame anyone from outside the area to decide to make other plans. Another example of speedway fans being taken for granted.

And it's another Thursday without a home defeat. Looking forward to it.

Yes, it was a good race and a good meeting. Which proves the point that several people have made on the thread. The fact is that speedway is four riders racing on an enclosed track on 500cc bikes with no brakes and that is the product that should be promoted. Tinkering with rules so that the sport loses credibility, messing about with the minutiae of averages so that fans lose their favourite rider needlessly, only serves to turn people away.

David tells us that the team is fine when we have been hammered at home by a five man Rye House!

What a superb and long overdue article by Philip Rising in the Star this week. The efforts of Neil Machin to keep the sport going at Sheffield for over 20 years deserve a knighthood but nowhere can the article be more applicable than at Owlerton. In the sport generally there seems to be an obsession with rules, regulations, points limits, rolling averages (whatever they are), double tactical rules etc. whilst the fans drift away and the sport falls apart around the promoter's generally deaf ears. At Sheffield the 'opening of the gates and hoping the fans come in' attitude seems to prevail. When I met my wife, she had lived in the heart of the city for over two years and had never heard of speedway. The only time I see any reference to the sport as I am moving around town is a picture on the back of the Sheffield Window Centre vans and a board outside the stadium when I drive past. If there is any advertising, I certainly haven't seen it. Once inside the stadium, there is a general tired feel to the proceedings. The free programme / race card is bloody awful. There is nothing to read, no statistics, no gossip, no information on the visiting team and crucially, no information for the first time visitor as to how the sport actually works. I accept that programmes cost money to produce, but if the admission charges were reduced by a quid and a charge made for the programme, the club would at least break even and the benefits of having a programme would be massive. When Dave Beresford used to write his gossip column in the old programme and gave stories about the riders and what they got up to, you actually felt part of the club. Now, I don't feel part of anything and possibly wouldn't recognise half the riders if I bumped into them in the street. This is not how it should be, The presentation is terrible. Reading out the rider's names in reverse order whilst they stand with their helmets on in front of the stand is not good enough. There is no build up, no information about the riders, just "at number 7 is...etc". Again, nowhere near good enough and, yes, I could do a better job, The racing is OK but there is no second half. 15 one minute heats, no other entertainment apart from the same music every week then a bit of free practice. Not good enough. Fans are taken for granted, expected to come back the following week and not enough is done to attract and keep new fans. I'm 44 and I think I help to bring the average age of the crowd down to about 66. Even Squall's dad looks young on the first bend!! *Edit* I ought to add, if I was a first time visitor to Sheffield Speedway Would I have a clue what was going on? - No Would I feel that I had value for money? - Debatable Would I go again? - No. I would feel part of anything. People need to feel part of a club, an affinity to the team and I wouldn't have experienced that at all.

Thanks for the kind words. The site is now up and running. www.speedwayatoz.co.uk I have made a start on the A riders. The Jim Airey button has been enabled but I haven't put the profile on. Any problems please let me know. Matt

Just read on the old time speedway message board that Henry is still alive. I think he was born in 1925 which would put him 6th or 7th on the list.

Wells was publicly blasted in the Speedway Star track review in the winter by the team manager due to his attitude and yet he was back in the side this year. If the stories are true I have no sympathy as the management only have themselves to blame. It is systemic of a once proud club that is slowly falling to bits.

My god, do we need some new riders. This team is worse than last year and that is saying something. Six new riders might just see us right.

But why use Knight in heat 12 and Koppe in heat 13. They had an interval after heat 12 anyway.

Some strange moves by the team manager tonight. The people I was stood with were all complaining about the way Koppe and Knight were used. Not sure if things were going on in the pits that we were unaware of but it did seem odd to give Jake five rides.

Had a big downpour in town about two ish but came through Hillsborough about 4:30 and it was dry. The sun is out now and it's looking good. I predict a close one tonight. If Joe and Damien ride like last week we could win but the key men for me are Schrammy and Jake Anderson. If they outscore our reserves, we could be in a spot of bother.

Hi, I am aware that some of you have bought the 1940s and 1950s editions of the Speedway A to Z series. The last disc came out about four years ago and I have had some e-mails recently wondering when the 1960s disc will be ready. It has been about ready for some weeks now but there has been a problem which i will not bore you with that prevents me from selling it and publishing. It has nothing to do with the speedway side at all but is more to do with issues at work. Anyway, in the absence of a disc, I have decided to upload all the information for free onto the website which is being redesigned at the moment. I will be uploading the format gradually over the next few days and will start uploading the rider profiles shortly afterwards. I am going to include the pre-war riders as well and there is scope to eventually have a profile for every rider to have ridden in a league or cup match in Britain since 1929. I hope this is OK for everyone but, at the moment, it is either the website or nothing I am afraid. I will post the 1960s riders as a priority and John Somerville has kindly given permission for me to use his photos. Please keep checking www.speedwayatoz.co.uk for updates. Any issues, please let me know. Matt

It didn't seem to me like Eddie was taking the mick at all last night. He missed the gate off the outside in Heat 1 and couldn't make up the ground. Missed it again in heat 5 but battled past Richard Hall, won heat 11 easily, finished second to Simon in heat 13 which is no disgrace and won heat 15 easily. He was never going to live up to that average but appeared to be giving 100 %.

Berwick weren't bad to be honest. Sheffield have looked awful in recent weeks but Steady was back and in top form and they just happened to meet the Tigers when Joe Haines and Damien Koppe hit form. Eddie Kennett made a slow start but looked good towards the end of the meeting, Aspregren rode well, Smith and Wethers were unlucky and rode much better than their scores suggest, Barrett had bike problems in his last two rides and Starke was well on the pace. The main disappointment was Bellego for me. I would echo DukesGreg with his praise of Koppe. I was convinced that he wasn't going to cut it in the Premier League but I take my hat off to him and if he proves me wrong I will be more than happy.

Ron James was a former Rye House junior. He made four appearances for Ipswich in the Southern League in 1952, Hope that helps.

Thanks for that - and he would have been number one on the list had he appeared in a World Final.

Good luck to the boys tonight. However, the Star quotes our team manager as having thought long and hard about moving Facu to number 5 as he will be alongside Richard Hall who is a great team rider. What a great idea. Except that Richard rides at number 4 and Facu lines up with the reserves in three races and Steady in his last race. Numbers 4 and 5 haven't ridden together since god knows when. Good grief...

With apologies for any riders on the list who are no longer with us I reckon the list would now read: 1. Cyril Roger - 91 - born 27.12.1921 2. Split Waterman - 89 (27.7.1923) 3. Danny Dunton - 89 (13.5.1924) 4. Arthur Payne - 88 (30.8.1924) 5. Dick Bradley - 88 (28.11.1924) 6. Fred Brand - 88 (3.2.1925) 7. Chum Taylor - 86 (4.4.1927) 8. Eric Boothroyd - 86 (26.4.1927) 9. Derick Close - 86 - (13.5.1927) 10. Geoff Mardon - 85 (24.11.1927) 11. Billy Bales - 84 (6.6.1929) 12. Olle Nygren - 83 (11.11.1929) 13. Rune Sormander - 83 (29.11.1929) 14. Jack Geran - 83 (10.12.1989) 15. Bryan Elliott - 83 (12.4.1930) 16. Ron Johnston - 82 (31.12.1930) 17. George White - 82 (24.5.1931) 18. Ian Williams - 81 (4..8.1931)

Just read the match report on the website and it states that the meeting was pulsating. Well, if half a dozen passes in 15 heats is pulsating then I am watching the wrong sport. Full credit to the Lions on a much deserved win and thanks to Olly Allen for 100% effort. If only the 'real' Sheffield team men had followed his example we might have got something out of it. I don't want to harp on about Ricky Wells - but - yes, he might be good on away tracks but we are spending £60 per month each of hard earned wages to watch him at home and he completely infuriates me. I don't care what he does away to be honest but I want to pay my money to watch someone give 100% effort and I don't think we are getting that. As for the rest, well, Richard does work hard, Joe hasn't got a clue if he misses the gate, Facu is great at following back wheels but rarely looks like making a pass (and punching the air when conceding a 4-2 against James Sarjeant and Robert Branford isn't going to change my mind), Jake is not ready for this level and Damien isn't going to be good enough. There are loads of grumbles about the team and loyalty to rides is all well and good, but it's time the fans were shown some loyalty. When we were crap in early 90s, we had good racing, now we are crap and the racing pretty much matches the results.

I have updated the site now with the amended results. Robert - thank you for sharing the file with us all. Matt