pandorum

Just watched it again and it was a very tough race. Bruce did what he had to do and was probably to blame. I think I thought the same back then and I was no 'fan' of Kenny Carter. But it makes me smile when people defend Kenny who was not a stranger to those type of situation. As a regular at The Shay I saw Kenny go in hard many times. I would not call him a dirty rider but he would have made Nicki blush with some of his antics. But that's why The Shay used to get full on a Saturday night. But to me he seemed to be able to give it but not take it. His whine to the ref at the end was amusing. Of course he had to do it the same way Nicki does as one never knows. Whining does sometimes get results. Just look at #37. You mention his handlebar which does seem to be the point of contact but Kenny whined Bruce took his leg which I did not see in the video. Kenny The Saint got stuffed by the big pansy Penhall and did not like it. But of course Bruce was no big pansy but a tough speedway rider. If you wanted to play with the big boys Kenny you should have expected to eat a little dust. The idea that Bruce was some kind of disgrace and Kenny a poor little innocent is hilarious. Two tough characters going hammer and tongs at each other. I was lucky to see a number of Penhall/Carter clashes and they were always interesting. Like watered down versions of Mad Jack and Frank Auffrett without the extreme violence. It was a tough Mans sport back then as of course it is today but with more characters back then. I liked the Yanks. Bruce was always worth the admission. But then so was Kenny. Yes Kenny was probably dumped in the dirt by Bruce but if the glove had been on the other hand don't try to tell me Kenny would have given Bruce enough racing room to pass him as I would laugh in your face.

It's pretty obvious what I meant so I don't feel any need to explain it to you which will probably result in a further post by you but not by me.

Greg Hancock is a great rider and I never mentioned anything about his perfromance here. I do admit when I first saw the thread I thought it was about that woman off Benefit Street

I would imagine that after watching one meeting with it's interminable delays and dragging back the riders because one of them's nose twitched at the start the punter audience will go back to the more fun sight of watching dogs chase a stuffed rabbitt. There are probably more people waiting to bet on whether the next dove the Pope releases has a more than 50/50 chance of making it past the adjacent window. It's another rainbow speedway is chasing that will lead nowhere and achieve nothing for the sport.

It didn't help to lose such a star figure but probably NO! People found better things to do is the simplest answer. Once pubs were the hub of a community but now they are struggling to survive. Like speedway a thing of the past. The sport never changed and grew less VFM. People wanted more for their pound and speedway offered less. Once every pub had a dartboard and was full of people. Now it's a slot bandit with lots of flashing lights and a lot of empty chairs. Once my dad wore a flat cap and my mum an apron. I wear jeans and Iron Maiden T Shirts Once speedway was cheap had two good leagues with plenty of teams and heats and with local riders. Now ..... Look at it now compared to the days when The Shay or Hyde Road used to be full of people watching speedway. Sad really but the sport has declined every year for a long time now and continues to do so even with an English world champion. If speedway was your pet dog you would take the poor mite to the vet.

And how many of them will NOT be in the GP the season after. I can think of ONE banker. I think Pink Floyd did a song about him. Come in #37 Your Time Is Up. Bears are very complicated animals and have been known to do the craziest things. Maybe falling out of trees is their equivalent of Neknomination?

Talk about stating the bleeding obvious. The sport has been in a mess here for years due to ineptitude, greed and spite but nice to see Poland has finally cottoned on to that. We should thank them for their concern but at the moment the last thing the sport needs here is the so called stars. Riders like Hancock just used us as a convenient bolt hole when his Polish team dumped him. We can do without his ilk. I don't think we need to do anything to pander to that lot. We need to go back to both leagues racing on weekends and developing a solid base on which to build by investing in our own for the next decade.

Imagine if somebody had a bet on a rain off and a water pipe burst under the track. Or has that already been done

Will the coverage include a parade of the bikes and jockeys so punters can make thier selections based on the shininess of the bikes coats and will the jockey incur penalties for whipping their mount. Does the Far East know about this as they love a bet. Or is that a betting scam

They should go for honesty and call it 'Thereasonablydecentleague(comparedtoEurope)thatisBritishthoughcompletelyheldinEnglandbutconsistsmostlyofforeignersmostofwhomrideforotherteamsinEurope' League. Then TWK would find nothing to fault that description. Although they might have trouble with the captions and race jackets. Also they should call Team GB England for short

Best I ever saw. Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs, Tommy Jansson, Anders Michanek, Hans Nielsen, Bruce Penhall, Peter Collins, Ole Olsen. And out of that lot the best speedway rider I ever saw was Tommy Jansson.

Yes but Manchester is not a country And we all know it's 'England' really. We just call it GB so the other three very very minor partners don't feel left out. Good luck to Tai and frankly he will need it as he will be carrying 3 riders on his back throughout the whole week.

Well Gary was never going to get the full backing of the speedway public as no sportsman ever gets the backing of all in any sport. A victory for fairness regardless of who the rider was. That it was one of our rare world champions and the reaction of many posters here shows that Tai Woffinden has a lot to look forward to in his career. Poor Gary guilty of being human and condemned for doing something silly when young. I hope it all goes well for the guy and also the ELRC is a big success but the whole sorry affair shows how far this sport has fallen when we can't even acknowledge (begrudgingly or not) our success stories. World champions like Havvy, Tai and Tatters get temendous stick but they never killed anyone FFS. They just smoked dope, had a strop, got tattoos, lived in Australia or spoke in an annoying high pitched scream on TV. We don't deserve succes in this sport as we don't seem to appreciate it when we get it. Sad really

It's still good with Swedish and Polish commentry Paul mate. It's just depression cause Utd are doing a Liverpool this season you will get over it once the Swedish season starts Hell when Sudden Sam is involved in commentary it might as well be in Swahili so Polish, Swedish or Danish is a nice change after Sam

I picked him 4 hours before your post. I was a regular at Halifax during his era and he was awesome round there. Never liked the bloke and was shocked by what he did but a hell of a rider. His bust ups with Penhall were great to watch. I did not pick Tai as he has just started and will likely emerge as a great Brit. His dad certainly wasa great rider to watch so he comes from good stock

TV, sponsors and such like probably. Maybe the guys work cheap Makes you wonder how we manage with what we get in the UK with crowds that are not even sparse a lot of the times

I will just restrict it to people from the modern era that I either saw of knew about growing up. Peter Craven (never saw him sadly) Peter Collins, Doug Wyer, Gary Havelock, Mike Lee, Simon Wigg, Dave Jessup, Tiger Louis, Mark Loram, Kelvin Tatum, John Davis, Kenny Carter.

That's a bit unfair mate. Morten is a speedway rider and deserving of respect just for that. Any rider who puts in a long stint in UK speedway gets my respect even the ones I 'hated' back in the day. Of course Gary did more than Morty but he still deserves his due wether you like him or not. Those making silly arguments about under 21 meetings and such miss the point. Havvy has planned this date for over a year and riders have commited themselves to it. Fans have spent money they may not get back to be there. Some from around the world perhaps. The ELRC can be staged anytime as nobody has made any plans or commitments to be there. Riders in Havvys meeting will be in the ELRC nobody from the under 21 meeting will be there or Mortens meeting I assume. It's about common sense and fair play simple as that. The BSPA have Mickey Mouseified there own showcase meeting by holding it at the start of the season. That makes it just another early season meeting as nothing at all will be proved by the winner. The whole point of these types of meeting was to pit the cream of a leagues crop against each other at the backend of the season. I have seen plenty of these meetings and they were looked forward to all season long as they meant something. Now its just another meeting to try out an engine or blow away a few cobwebs. The BSPA devalued it not the fans. Now it's like Eurosports pairs meeting. Fun to watch on TV but meaningless. I think speedway fans should back Havvy not because he did what he did good and bad but simply as a matter of principle. It does not matter who it is or wether you as an individual like him or not. It's wrong, it's unfair and the BSPA are setting the sport, the fans and the riders against each other and the answer is simple. Move the ELRC as that is the meeting that affects least riders and fans who have made long standing commitments.

God Almighty Havvy clearly guilty of not being a saint and undeserving of having a long career in the UK recognised in a meeting at Poole. The ELRC or whatever it is now called is a Mickey Mouse early season meeting and could be run anytime. It was once a force in the speedway world when the top BL/EL riders after a long hard season would compete to see who is top dog. Now it's just an meaningless early season filler meeting which will leave the winner proving absolutely F### All. A bloke (and it does not really matter who it is) spends a year planning a meeting only to have it ballsed up by a bunch of useless idiots who are now trying desperately to blame someon else. Just from a sense of justice you would think speedway fans would side with the rider. But Havvy smoked dope and once had a hissy fit during his England career. The bloke should be tarred and feathered as nobody here uses drugs or behaves like an arce. Some mythical bloke once said 'Judge not lest ye be judged' so as mythical blokes go he was one with sense. So what if Havvy wants a second pay day from the sport. Surely he has a case as he was one of our few World Champions and was a stalwart for England. He spent his career as a loyal servant to UK speedway and helped a new venue take off and establish itself. It's not as if these lads are millionaires. But no he smoked dope and manages Coventry so is evil incarnate. What a shower of sh#t infest this place

Jesus I dunno what Havvy did to get so many here on his back. The poor sod organised the meeting a year ago so he has some moral ground on the BSPA idiots. Wonder if Phils SS will do an article in defence of Havvy

It would confuse a lot of Russians for one thing. Always a Mail fan myself but enjoyed reading the articles on the Brit World Champions in my local ASDA.

Jesus Christ is people begrudge a man like Gary Havelock a farewell meeting what hope is there for the rest. He was a Poole legend and the nice folks at Poole want to honour his riding career with a meeting but it seems a bunch of clueless idiots have put on a now Mickey Mouse meeting (that was once an essential meeting during a season it has to be said) on the same night just down the road. Why can't they just move it to another date? Gary spent a lot of time organising his meet and loads of people have plans to go which have cost them time, effort and money. Yes it might get rained off but thats speedway. Gary has to live with the weather but how galling that the f###wits who run the sport have thrown all the effort into utter confusion. Fair play to Chris Holder for saying he will be at the Havvy farewell regardless. The season has not even started and the sport looks stupid.

Have any of these people ever been to England in March? Great little idea wish it every success. I just hope China lets me get the normal streaming sites as I will be floating down the Li river when its on.

Read the thread mate because people here are doing just that sadly. Shows how far the sport has fallen. Hell I 'hated' Jack Millen but if he had lived to have gotten a testimonial I would likely have gone and actually clapped the old bugger because he made the sport enjoyable with his pantomome villain persona.

Mad Jack Millen just to see who would have the guts to punch him Emil Sayfutdinov certainly added to the crowd during his short stay with Coventry. Nowadays very few if any. Darcy maybe but thats all I can think of in todays PL+ league.