Bruiser McHuge

Cradley..that was still the best team I've seen..Ravn was struggling at Belle Vue..going nowhere..and Cradley signed him...when he came back to Hyde Road layer in the season with Cradley he just looked a different rider..fast and confident...and was the Danish match winner in the World Team Cup final that year as well....

Loved Wiggy ..he was a great team man behind the scenes and would do anything for a teammate ..and a far more outgoing flamboyant character than Tatum But...purely on speedway I'd say Tatum eas better..better on a range of tracks and more consistent.....I'd sooner watch Wigg though..

They used to have race commentary at Claremont in Perth and I.must admit it was good and added a lot to the night...Wade Auger did it and it added a lot to the meeting...good weather..great track and lots of beer sold..it all added up to a good night.....and you had to remember a lot of the crowd were not die hards like here..they wanted the commentary to add to the atmosphere...and all riders had their own name...The Master of Going Faster etc....not sure it would work as well over here though?...and I've never seen it actually done.

I don't know how much weaker the league is in comparison to last year...but I do know it looks weak....when I first started to go it was the big names that I wanted to see..those were the names I wanted to see..the names that made me go back every week....I went to Ellesmere Port some weeks as well and it just wasn't the same..nothing to do with racing quality ..it was just a feeling that I knew the riders were not as good...I would see Steve Finch go through the card and be a hero to the fans there knowing I would see him riding for Belle Vue the next night and score a couple of points ...so I liked the fact I was watching the big names..the stars of the sport. Looking at today's teams it doesn't excited me...it doesn't make me want to make the effort to actually go to meetings any more. How much are entry prices at the moment ?..I honestly don't know....I can get a season ticket at Lancashire cricket for every T20 and one day match for my son for £30..or a fiver per match for T20'sale .great value...I would suspect that speedway doesn't give quite the same value for money for the standard of riders currently on display.

So I've finally found out who Tony Rice is...has he been involved since initially been named as a backer for the new stadium a few years ago ?....obviously the 2 promoters are Mark Lemon and Neil Machin...

Too many people being clever and posting in a style of I know something you don't style....what a load of crap....I'm past caring who the new owners are..fans are being taken for mugs....I won't be visiting there this season for sure.

Curzon Ashton's Tameside Stadium seems to survive very well in football as a council buit and owned stadium ..and that gets crowds of 200-300 most weeks... However they do seem to attract good sponsorship ..they have an excellent 4G football pitch attached which is booked out all the time...there are always plenty of birthday parties booked there..it's used regularly for ex players taking their UEFA coaching badges...in short it's a council owned facility that is in constant use.... But I don't think any Curzon Ashton player will earn what Mates Zagar earns ! The location of the Belle Vue stadium doesn't lend itself for regular functions..the area is not great..there isn't a shortage of venues for parties round Manchester ..better areas than Gorton ...loads of hotel venues in the city for weddings and receptions ..we had ours in a city centre hotel...can't see a place in Gorton competing with those.. Concerts are a no go...there's loads of concert venues in Manchester..and if it's an outdoor concert then it's not big enough for a top act ..there's venues every year for those acts.. So realistically I can't see a regular income for the stadium outside of speedway..so I'm not sure what they can do about that.. The schedule doesn't help...in the good old days you knew Belle Vue was Saturday night..you got into the habit of knowing that was race night...this season there were plenty of nights I didn't even realise there was a meeting..it was very random..albeit by necessity at times..but not ideal...on top of that there are lengthy gaps between meetings which cannot help with cash flow when you've got rent deadlines to meet.. All in all its a tricky one...I hope it survives and I'm sure a compromise with the council will be found...it does the council no favours to have a new stadium sitting unused in its area...that doesn't look good on them..so I'm sure the Aces will run and then everybody needs to pull together to try and make the thing viable...a lot of people seem to be happy if this venture fails..the I told you so brigade ...we'll if it fails then it's anot her tail in speedway coffin in this country so ALL speedway fans should be desperate for this to be a success in the long term Curzon Ashton's Tameside Stadium seems to survive very well in football as a council buit and owned stadium ..and that gets crowds of 200-300 most weeks... However they do seem to attract good sponsorship ..they have an excellent 4G football pitch attached which is booked out all the time...there are always plenty of birthday parties booked there..it's used regularly for ex players taking their UEFA coaching badges...in short it's a council owned facility that is in constant use.... But I don't think any Curzon Ashton player will earn what Mates Zagar earns ! The location of the Belle Vue stadium doesn't lend itself for regular functions..the area is not great..there isn't a shortage of venues for parties round Manchester ..better areas than Gorton ...loads of hotel venues in the city for weddings and receptions ..we had ours in a city centre hotel...can't see a place in Gorton competing with those.. Concerts are a no go...there's loads of concert venues in Manchester..and if it's an outdoor concert then it's not big enough for a top act ..there's venues every year for those acts.. So realistically I can't see a regular income for the stadium outside of speedway..so I'm not sure what they can do about that.. The schedule doesn't help...in the good old days you knew Belle Vue was Saturday night..you got into the habit of knowing that was race night...this season there were plenty of nights I didn't even realise there was a meeting..it was very random..albeit by necessity at times..but not ideal...on top of that there are lengthy gaps between meetings which cannot help with cash flow when you've got rent deadlines to meet.. All in all its a tricky one...I hope it survives and I'm sure a compromise with the council will be found...it does the council no favours to have a new stadium sitting unused in its area...that doesn't look good on them..so I'm sure the Aces will run and then everybody needs to pull together to try and make the thing viable...a lot of people seem to be happy if this venture fails..the I told you so brigade ...we'll if it fails then it's anot her tail in speedway coffin in this country so ALL speedway fans should be desperate for this to be a success in the long term

It's all about opinions but mine is Carter was way better than most on that list...he might not have been as naturally talented as Loram or Screen but I've have him above ..also I'd have him higher than Wigg and Havelock and Jessup and probably Simmons and Louis as well ..but I expect southern fans may think different as I probably saw Carter at his very best at a Hyde Road, the Shay and Owlerton

As an Aces fan who attended every meeting at Hyde Road from 1978 to its closure I would definitely say Carter was better than Morton round Hyde Road..and I would say Carter's peak was also Morton's peak..he was also better than Collins in this era as well but Collins peak was way before Carter's so that's not as fair a comparison... I would say in that Carter was probably the second best rider round Hyde Road in my time...the honour of the best goes to Gundersen...but Carter was definitely a great visitor even though Halifax were generally poor visitors the races between Carter, Morton and Collins were usually wort the admission despite Carter winning most of them !

Well what a load of rubbish that statement was..you could clearly see Hancock looking for Holder all race... If he was that worried about the bike then why ridea it..after all he's probably the most equipped rider in the world equipment wise..surely he wouldnt ride a bike that endangers himself and his other riders would he...not such a nice man as Greg !!....he's never been shy about changing bikes in other rounds... The worst part about it though is pulling out ..without fans he is nothing but he forgets that ...just like he wasn't bothered about British fans who wanted to see him at Belle Vue earlier in the year ..his Grin is fake ..Mr nice guy ...I think not ..

I haven't seen this yet..so what was Nigel and kelvin's take on it ?...and what did Hancock actually say about it ?

Not convinced it's too many meetings..the fixture list is hardly overloaded really...the size and preparation of some tracks might put some Europeans off maybe.. But...the main reason is money...end of !!....if the money was greater than Poland and the best paid league then riders would definitely ride here..without doubt , regardless of race nights and the number of meetings.

When my brother in law rode he signed a contract with the club for that season which gave hime an agreed pounds for points and other bits like if he wanted reduced money but a bike and van provided or extra money but no bike and van...once that was signed it was completely up to him to sort out his own tax and everything ...so I'd say they were totally self employed ..but I guess each contract is different... As for being an asset...not sure how that works..when there was talk of him riding again there was talk of hin being owned by a certain club but I'm not sure how that could be enforced if you only ever signed season by season...it's a very grey area that one I would say

I never said Tai shouldn't ride in Britain..after all my brother in law was a rider so I know that speedway is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport and a rider should do what is most beneficial to them ..no problems with that....he should ride for GB though !!!.. But he can't complain that after making those decisions he gets a lot of stick from the crowd..that can't come as a surprise to him surely.. But I was saying that it's good for speedway to have a villain character ..it's been lacking for years ..Tai doesn't have to be popular ..he just has to be a rider that fans want to watch whatever their reason ..and that's got to be good for the sport I never said Tai shouldn't ride in Britain..after all my brother in law was a rider so I know that speedway is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport and a rider should do what is most beneficial to them ..one problems with that....he should ride for GB though !!!.. But he can't complain that after making those decisions he gets a lot of stick from the crowd..that can't come as a surprise to him surely.. But I was saying that it's good for speedway to have a villain character ..it's been lacking for years ..Tai doesn't have to be popular ..he just has to be a rider that fans want to watch whatever their reason ..and that's got to be good for the sport

The thing is with Tai is that he turned his back on British speedway...didn't ride the British final..turned his back on riding for England...then turned up as a second string purely for the players offs ....fair enough..he's entitled to do all that..but he can't complain if fans give him stick...he surely wouldn't have expected to turn up at Belle Vue and be cheered throughout by the home fans...he should have just laughed it off...after all..he won ! Personally though I think that speedway needs it's villains ..it needs a bit of needle ..it creates an atmosphere that is lacking when it's all too nicey nicey...we don't want a sport full of grinning non entaties at top level.

Who is Annie gibbons ?....sorry for ignorance about him Arnie !!...predictive text !!!

It's been raining all day in Manchester..this could never have been on anywhere on a day like thid

That line up had people saying it's not like when it was Mauger, Olsen; Collins ,Lee etc...people always look at a by gone era and think riders ere better ..the current crop are good ..time just moves on..

She doesn't..that's somebody completely different.

The stands look pretty full to me now and the Olympics are my favourite sports event bar none...I'd take it over any speedway event any day of the week...I'm a massive speedway fan but definitely not a blinkered one who can't see the merits in any rival sports out there.. The stands look pretty full to me now and the Olympics are my favourite sports event bar none...I'd take it over any speedway event any day of the week...I'm a massive speedway fan but definitely not a blinkered one who can't see the merits in any rival sports out there..

Malcolm Simmons rode athe Belle Vue Kirky Lane as well...for Kings Lynn in 93.

It's true that nothing built will rival Brandon as a stadium but for me that doesn't really matter....one of my faves was Elfield Park , Milton Keynes.and that had nothing other than a track ! ...if the track is good and the viewing is good then that for me is what's important..you don't even need that many fans to create an atmosphere....but I know I may be in a minority as people ma prefer luxurious surroundings....anyway, either is better than no track at all !

To be honest I'm not sure how people on here seem to know Woffinden's intentions when he came over as a 15 year old...personally I just think he came over as a speedway rider trying to see how good he was and how far he could get..I would be surprised if he even gave a thought of riding for England or Australia at that stage...that was far further down the line. Personally I think it's inevitable that Tai feels Australian...my brother in law rode against Rob in Perth every week and Tai was in the pits from bdeing a little kid..he was brought up there.its his home so im sure he feels Australian ..but he was born.in England ton English parents so he is definitely entitled to ride for England....I think if he really wanted he could have become Australian..the cricketer Andrew Symonds was born in England to English to English parents and moved to Australia as a young child and he said he never wanted to.play for England as he was Australian....anyway for whatever reasons he didn't and came to England but I don't think he had a masterplan at 15 about his future..he just wanted to ride speedway ...I think.people look into it all too deeply...he is English with English parents who feels Australian because of his upbringing..that's about it.. I do feel though in many ways he owes the British public and British speedway and should ride the final...it's certainly nothing to do with burnout but the effort of bringing his full equipment and crewe over is obviously not worth it in his eyes which is a great shame but he isn't going to ride without his best set up and the timings probably make that very difficult ..but it's an individual sport and all riders look.after themselves but it's a shame for the fans that somehow something couldn't have been sorted ..after all despite many people's views Tai is currently a special case and should be treated as so bt the British authorities.

Who were TUSK in speedway ? I vaguely remember them sponsoring a couple of riders and weren't they then given.the role of pushing British speedway forward ?....and it didn't work out. Who were they and what happened to them ?

I think there is a big difference between a rider being excluded for a dangerous move that looked bad and your serial offender.. Some of the incidents referred to have been dangerous but not constantly repeated by the rider...show me any rider that hasn't been excluded for a dangerous move at some time...they all have......now the serial offender is different and there's nothing worse than a constantly intentional dirty rider ...hard riding and dirty riding are two completely separate things...top riders tend to be hard riders , average riders trying to be better than their ability tend to be dirty riders....