brianbuck

One big league is not going to happen at least in the immediate future. The BSPA made a terrible blunder when they allowed riders to race for more than one team, and the riders will now never give up what they regard as the divine right to sign for two teams, unless they are paid substantially more in prize money - which the promoters cannot afford! Doubling-up has become a monster out of control - and a five year old child could have forseen that this would happen. More likely I think, is the probability of Premiership clubs looking to drop down a division - and if this happens, then the top league would quickly become unviable.

Could have been even more ridiculous if Cradley had chosen to use rider-replacement for Kemp! Had Danny Ayres not been injured and Jordan Jenkins not been injured at Birmingham earlier in the season, there could well have been three riders riding for both teams!!!!

The problem with 3 point newcomers who are actually worth double or more, just highlights the fact that a better grading system is needed. We can all see that whichever club gets Dan Gilkes and another 3 pointer who is going to make a mockery of his average, is virtually being handed the league championship (as was the case with my team Birmingham, when we took on Jack Smith and Jack Parkinson-Blackburn as 3 pointers, and as has been the case with Mildenhall this season.) It surely wouldn't be too difficult to have a couple of independent assessors who could monitor the progress of up and coming under 15's and then give them an assessed average based on their obvious ability. This average could stay in place for say, the first month of the season, and then be re-assessed upwards or downwards as their performances merit?

George Formby and his wife Beryl used to own the land on which the Tamworth track at Fazeley was built, and I believe that Formby was the guest of honour at the opening of the track in 1947 and rode round for a lap. Honor Blackman also attended a meeting at West Ham and she also had a couple of laps. Peter York persuaded Suzie Quatro to come to a meeting at Perry Barr in the late 1970's. She was so impressed that she told the crowd that she would give £100 "to the winner of the next race" - which happened to be the Junior Jaunt! Whether the winner ever got his £100 I wouldn't know!

In my opinion, the 6-man format seems to have possibilities - but with all of the riders having five rides, it would be very difficult to work out a fair method of applying rider-replacement if it was needed. Not that I would be sorry to see the rider-replacement rule scrapped!

Sorry to report that Mrs Cera Bulpit has not responded to the message I left for her, so I obviously cannot try to pressure her into doing so.

Ronnie Moore was the finest and most skillful rider I ever saw. In an era when there were so many outstanding riders competing in British Speedway, he was head and shoulders above all of them. I am saddened to hear of his passing and send my sincere condolences to his family.

This proved to be a much more entertaining meeting than had been expected and considering their obvious weaknesses, I thought Buxton put up a decent fight. Danny Ayres was a great choice as guest and although he was beaten in four of his six rides (and had a stroke of good fortune when he won the last heat after Tom Bacon had shed a chain) he was excellent value for entertainment, and Tom Woolley and Connor Coles both worked hard for their points. Their reserve, Corban Pavitt looked fast and confident in winning heat two, but strangely, didn't manage another point after that! Tom Bacon was in awesome form, looked unbeatable and was unlucky to shed a chain when he had the last heat sewn up. James Shanes was his usual spectacular self and both Leon Flint and Danyon Hume picked up from where they left off - Danyon having problems with his bike and having to borrow Callum Walker's for one race. Walker made a steady return, and both Birmingham reserves battled well from the back. Overall, a very enjoyable night's racing and a quite decent crowd.

Many thanks for this useful information. I have messaged Mrs Bulpitt and asked if she would contact me. I will let you know the outcome.

That's very decent of you. I will be affixing the plaque to the wall this Wednesday.It is just a small plate of about 9" x 2" so what we would really like is a photograph to go with it. If you can trace a relative who can supply one, that would be very useful. We know that he was born in West Ham in 1920, that he lived in Essex at the time of his death, that he is buried in Newham Cemetery and that the grave also contains the remains of his parents. The plaque is a small brass plate and is inscribed: "In memory of Hugh Watkinson of Essex, sadly killed training at Birmingham Speedway 16th November 1946" You can contact me at 07526 213031 if need be. Very many thanks.

Hugh Stanley Watkinson was born in West Ham London in 1920. After being demobbed from the Army after the end of the war, he invested his army severance pay in a speedway machine and enrolled in the Training School being run by Harold "Tiger" Stevenson at Perry Barr Stadium, Birmingham in 1946. The opening day of the school was spent in the classroom discussing engine maintenance etc, and Watkinson was one of the first of the trainees (he could possibly have been the first) to take to the track on the second day. Stevenson's assistant was the then Birmingham captain Stan Dell, and Dell instructed all the trainees to ride slowly round the track for a few laps and to then gradually increase speed on receiving the signal from himself.Dell positioned himself on the track in the middle of the first bend in order to signal to the trainees, but Watkinson ignored the instruction to ride round slowly, and opened the throttle to its fullest extent, causing Dell to jump over the fence to avoid being struck by Watkinson's out of control machine. Watkinson then ran full tilt into the wooden safety fence and was taken to Birmingham General Hospital where he died from a fractured skull, in the early hours of November 16th 1946. Birmingham Speedway Supporters' Club have made numerous attempts to trace any of his family but without success, but a small plaque is shortly to be affixed to the wall on the landing at the stadium to commemorate the memory of the only rider to have lost his life at Perry Barr. The plaque reads: "In memory of Hugh Watkinson sadly killed training at Birmingham Speedway on 16th November 1946."

I sincerely wish Lakeside every success in their efforts to find an alternative venue. We certainly do not want to lose any more tracks to the developers, and when things looked so bleak at Birmingham, we were showered with good wishes from Lakeside supporters in particular and one did send us an anonymous donation of £100 with the message "from a Lakeside Supporter" - and these gestures are remembered.

Can see no point in issuing "warnings" for any reason. These serve only as an encouragement to riders to "try it on." A rider has either committed a foul or he hasn't - so if he has then he should be excluded with no reserve replacement and no handicap. Rigid application of the rules is the only way to ram this home.

This seems to have been the same problem that has prevented Chris Holder from riding for Poole all season. Reality is that the Home Office has no sense of urgency and doesn't regard Birmingham and Poole Speedways problems as of any importance. As far as the Home Office is concerned, we just have to await their pleasure!!!

The entire starting procedure needs to be re-examined and the rules applied rigidly. If the referee stops a race, then the rider who caused him to stop it should be excluded. The rider concerned has either committed a foul or he hasn't - and if he is excluded there should be no reserve replacement or 15 metre handicap. These two alternatives only give an incentive to riders to try it on - and to team managers' to encourage them to try it on! There is a need too, to quantify exactly what "2 minutes" actually means. This should be two minutes to reach a rest line 2 metres behind the tapes and remaining there until directed by the starting marshal to move up to the start line (ie no turning round and doing half a lap in the wrong direction.) Riders who mess about spinning their rear wheels or fiddling with their goggles, should be excluded for delaying the start. Yes, there would be chaos for a couple of weeks but once the message got through, then meetings would run at a much better rate.

Amazing how many "supporters" will say that they will support their team "through thick and thin" but who really mean "as long as there is no thin." Birmingham's performance against Plymouth was a poor one - probably the Brummies poorest display since we lost 63-27 to Cradley Heath in our first fixture of the National League era. There is no other way of describing it, but at the start of the season, pretty much everyone was more than happy with the team we had assembled and no one could have foreseen the injuries suffered by key riders and the loss of form of others, and it's totally unfair to try to suggest that the Team Manager ought to have known it was coming, so this is surely the time that the team does get real support?

As far as the situation with Gary Flint is concerned, according to the Speedway Star, it seems that the BSPA initially issued a Press Release highlighting the prospect of Birmingham's team featuring a father and son combination, but shortly afterwards, withdrew it. Clearly they initially approved Birmingham's application to track Flint the Elder, but later decided (or were persuaded) to rescind this. If this was the case, then you could say that both party's were correct - Birmingham to name him in their team, and Buxton to object to it!

When I first started following speedway in the early 1950's, teams consisted of 8 riders - 6 in the team-proper and 2 as reserves. The top 6 men each had four rides and the reserves two with the reserves allowed two extra rides each as a replacement for any of the top six who were out of form. The criteria for selecting the reserves was not based on averages though - any rider who had failed to achieve more than 50% of possible points over the previous 6 matches could be named as reserve. This gave considerably more scope to team managers' who to a degree could pick his reserves tactically. This was surely a much fairer and better way of team selection - reserves could still be match winners without the nonsensical situation of taking part in nearly 50% of the heats, and a clever team manager could pick his team according to his knowledge of his own riders' like or dislike of a particular away track? An in depth re-think on both team selection and of the race formula wouldn't come amiss in my opinion.

I see in the press that Football League Clubs have now dispensed with the rule that all of them MUST produce match-day programmes and Exeter City have already announced that they will no longer have programmes on sale at their home matches. Other clubs are expected to follow suit, so I wonder whether Speedway Clubs might eventually take the same step. In these times when so many supporters print their own score charts, is a programme really necessary these days?

Last night's meeting was the most entertaining and competitive I have seen this season, and both sets of riders should be congratulated on their efforts. Birmingham deserved to win in the end, but it was never plain sailing, and the final scoreline does not fairly reflect the Coventry riders contribution to a cracking speedway match. It's a great pity that for so-called "political" reasons, so many Coventry supporters refuse to support this Bees team. I do understand the reasons, but I think Bees fans should set aside these and give their team their backing. They really don't appreciate what they are missing by staying away.

Armstrong always seem to have problems with his engines when he rides at Perry Barr, so I don't think we have seen the best of him in previous visits. Am optimistic about another Brummies win - but am not counting my chickens! Coventry do have quite a solid combination which is quite capable to springing a surprise - as witness their win against Cradley at Monmore which not many would have expected.

Well done the "Save Coventry Speedway" group. It will be a major achievement to turn over "Big Business" and there is still a long way to go, but if anyone can do it, then this group can. I wish them every success - and I really hope that Coventry supporters who have vowed not to support their team at Leicester, will think again.

Fantastic gesture by Craig Cook and by Josh Gudgeon. I can't come near to offering anything quite like that, but I do have four Stenners Annuals (1946, 1949, 1950 and 1952) that I can offer - with the cash going to the fund. I know that they are not massively valuable, and unfortunately, the 1946 and 1949 books both have the covers missing which will obviously devalue them for a collector, but if anyone is interested or knows of anyone who is, perhaps they would contact me via this forum. Anyone who is interested would obviously have the chance to inspect them first and change their minds if necessary.

Grateful thanks to the supporters at Berwick from all at Birmingham for their generosity in holding a collection to help Mitchell Davey even though he is not one of their riders. Delighted to report that the overall amount raised is now touching £7,000 -twice the original target. Thanks again to everyone at Berwick. Wonderfully caring people.

Most of the track seemed to be ok but there was a very soggy patch about 6' square on the exit from the second bend and a similar patch on the exit from the fourth bend. The riders expressed concerns about these after walking the track and the referee asked for some work to be done to try and harden these and agreed to delay the start to give Buxton the chance of doing this. The next 45 minutes or so were spent with a transit van being driven round the track to try to tyre-pack the soggy patches, but this did not seem to have been sufficient time to do this (if this had been an evening meeting, then this could probably have been remedied.) One of the riders I spoke to, pointed out that a rider starting from grid one would need to veer to the right in order to avoid the soggy patch, and that this would force any rider behind him to either shut off, or risk riding through the suspect part of the track. It was then suggested that one rider from each team should ride round the track for four laps to test conditions, Tom Woolley being nominated by Buxton and Leon Flint volunteering to represent Birmingham. Tom took the first lap at a fair speed but carefully avoided the two soggy patches. On his second lap, he tried to drive through the second bend patch only to have his bike lurch to the right and almost cause him to lose control. On his third lap, he tried to ride through the fourth bend patch with the same result. He then returned to the pits without taking his fourth lap, shaking his head as he did so. Before Leon Flint was able to go out for his test, the referee ruled that the track was unfit, and called off the meeting. This decision enraged the Buxton promoter who suggested to the referee that he had only postponed the meeting "because "they" (meaning Birmingham) had kicked-off." The referee replied that he had delayed the start time and felt that he had allowed every opportunity for Buxton to get the match on, but having watched Tom Woolley try out the track, he "did not like what he had seen" and had made his decision on the strength of this. The above is my take on the situation. The comments I have quoted were made either to me or within my hearing. They are not hearsay. I was aware of numerous other reported comments which I did not hear, so I have not included them. I appreciate that many of these were made in the heat of the moment and are probably now regretted. I think it is unfair to suggest that the problems were cause by poor track preparation by Buxton. The track had suffered from the atrocious weather we have all had to endure, and if the report I heard that a flat track meeting had taken place on the track the previous day, then that obviously wouldn't have helped, but I think Buxton did the best that they could in the time available to them. I never at any time heard any rider infer that he would refuse to ride, and when it looked for a time as though the meeting would go on, they all changed into their kevlars. I think most of them were relieved when the match was called off, but had the referee decided that the track was fit enough, then they would have accepted it. As far as the statement from another poster that the track was in better shape that Perry Barr was for our match against Coventry on March 20th, this is debatable, but on that occasion, the riders of both teams and the two team managers all thought that the meeting should have been postponed, but the referee decided otherwise, and all of them accepted this and got on with it. This is my own view of the situation and the developments of the afternoon. I realise that some may disagree, which of course they are fully entitled to do, but I don't think anyone can be blamed for what happened - the bad weather was the root cause of the problems and I think it needed more than just one fine day to get things shipshape.