iris123

The way it is going it might have been easier to just list those riders who fulfilled their potential

9. Adam Ellis (2,2,3,1,1) - 9 from last nights meeting in Germany,where Adam is I guess holidaying!!! No,i suppose this meeting was booked before the NL

You have a short memory Sid.Wasn't it only last week that you misread a post by the Doc and lost your rag???

I am pretty sure that someone once posted an article from a 1930s speedway mag that was alarmed that the sport wasn't what it once was,less than a decade after it was introduced into the country

Think,as Bwitcher has already pointed out that the actual standard of racing is still very good,it is just the whole feeling around the sport that it isn't very important any more because of the medias lack of enthusiasm and the lack of crowd enthusiasm....

I'd say Bwitcher has it pretty much in a nutshell A couple of other things that maybe haven't helped 1.I remember Terry Betts saying that the sport started to go downhill during the 70s as sponsors became important and It changed the mindset of the riders according to him.They went from being team riders to being individuals in a team.Their own performance was of utmost importance because they needed to attract or retain sponsors 2.The drop in rider numbers.Riders,instead of representing 1 or maybe 2 teams slowly started to represent 3,4 or 5 teams.This had the effect of taking team spots away from other riders,making it harder for youngsters to make the breakthrough and also as Tai recentlysaid(the latest of many) it led to burn out of the top riders.When riders like Hefenbrock are ,or in his case were, doing 80 or more meetings a season form has to suffer and there is less a feeling that any rider is really part of your team.He is just passing through on his way to another country and another team

Think Mark Courtney was helping out the Aussie U21 team when they rode a couple of seasons back at Teterow.Andy Smith was also there.

It is always the sad story if they don't make the grade.Remember Bjerre's father moaning to me about him only getting 1 ride in a meeting or two,saying they never had a chance to get the set-up right.......and Hauzinger telling me there was no way he was missing a meeting on Saturday to go to Poland for training and maybe not get in the team for sunday.......with speedway riders there is always an excuse and mostly someone else to blame

Most apparently are doing it for my/our entertainment i'll have you know

Esbjerg v Munkebo will also be shown tomorrow.This time with an added bonus of ht 4,so the gap is not so long from the start

The last German for today,i promise.....but Matze Schultz is the same age as Smolinski and won 2 German senior titles before Smolinski won his first.They were always neck and neck,with Matze I would say better on the northern tracks and Smoli better down south.But Matze didn't seem as determined to make a career out of speedway and concentrated on I think getting his engineering qualifications and generally rode speedway at the weekends.Again,speedway is a short life and you can't blame someone for trying tosecure a long term future,but think he could have been at least as good as Smoli

Possibly,sticking to the Germans,also add Gerd Riss to the list?Think he went quite well in his brief BL career. One who does stick out also is Mirko Wolter.Lot of people who saw him when he was a teenager rave about him.I only saw him at the back end of his career and he certainly had talent

Funny,as I was thinking the same today.I think the talent was there it was just the fact he saw Longtrack as his main discipline and of course why not,when at the time the money was there to be earnt.And I am sure Egon would say he had a great life out of what he did

Know you have dedicated your time to Facebook John,so what about a 9 point plan for the sport then?

Give us your 10 point rescue plan for the sport then

Can only assume that the questions are too hard for John in his advancing years and I am back on his pretend ignore list for the time being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZeRwuN68VQ

What is the warning,where is the sport going wrong and with all those decades of experience(obviously as you say far more than anyone else can manage,so we bow to your considerable knowledge)what do you propose to help save the sport?I am sure we are all waiting with breath baited

Nah,i'm sure he was having a chin wag with his mates from The Penny Illustrated Paper and Smithwick's Evening Chronicle,reminiscing about the day they saw W.G Grace make 134 for Gentlemen of the South at the Oval and then laughed out loud when John told them all about the rules of this motorsickle racing and so on.....

Glasgow was rocking today what with the 5th title in a row going to Paradise and this humping

You highlight a problem which will occur when Hancock retires,in that the GPs become an almost European championship with 1 or 2 Australians.No Americans,Argentinians or New Zealanders to make it more of a 'world' championship

There was also Lewis Bridger,who Parsloes I think hailed as a future world champ

Mentioned him on a thread before and Philip Rising mentioned Briggo said he was the best rider never to win a world title in his opinion,i think,Brian Crutcher.Could also mention Tommy Miller.Both seem to burts on the scene and blew out almost as quickly.But that may be down to my faulty memory

Now that is a blast from the past,wonder what Norman is up to nowadays????

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Individual_Speedway_World_Championship_medalists Look and weep,look and weep UK 11 world titles,Poland 2!!!!!

Have to say there have been plenty,but recently Arthur Sissis looked superb on 80cc,had bags full of talent I thought and then somehow it went all wrong both with road bikes and speedway..... Have to say I saw Anders Mellgren on 80cc and at the time thought Dennis Andersson looked a better bet and he also didn't make it