Bruiser McHuge

I'm of that certain age !....my old favourite when I was at school........showed him to my kids via YouTube and they were horrified....something out of a horror movie they said !......I never felt like that back in my childhood ! It used to count both as a ride and a zero for averages purposes, even if a reserve did replace them......obviously it doesn't now but I'm going back at least 20 odd years to when I know for certain that they did count

This explaining things to new fans seems a regular issue !........I really don't think new fans give a monkeys as long as they are entertained....that's the be all and end all at the end of the day... As a fan I would certainly not be against a one off world final at a venue like Cardiff and the like....it would be incredibly exciting to have the old qualifiers back again from the Aussie Final and all the national finals through various knockouts through the season ending in a big meeting with live TV and properly hyped .....it could be our Champions League Final or Super Bowl ........I think it's one retro step that would work and would be exciting.... But back in the real world it will never happen......the riders wouldn't let it happen...the FIM and the organisers wouldn't let it happen and it would be a non starter...the GP series is a great advert for the sport really...it looks good, it looks professional and comes across well on TV which is always a positive , and it's here to stay

I was a big fan of the old world finals ...I went to ones at Wembley, Gothenburg, Vojens, Norden, Amsterdam and Bradford .....Wembley was great...I even enjoyed Norden in the field ! But by the very end the World a Final was a pale shadow of its past...crowds had fallen, very little media interest or TV coverage....Havelock's win must have been one of the lowest profile wins ever and a Brit won it......it had had its day and was fading fast...and if you look back a lot of riders did give up the ghost after 2 or 3 rides and many heats became very predictable outside the tension of the 3 or 4 still in contention of winning..and the fields were often unbalanced with riders often out of their depth from the start. I loved the early world finals I went to and I'd say they had more drama and more tension than most of the GP's , but they were very much of their day and they were dying a slow death at the end.....it was time to move on and the GP's have moved the sport on and look more professional than the last world finals ever did.

Sure he can.....he's good enough and he's fast enough...my reservation would be his gating and I believe this would be a major drawback if it was still a one off world final as everything would have to come together on one night , his gating would have to be top notch and he'd have to win the meeting.. With a GP there is more leeway....if he stays fit and rides every round then his natural ability will get him to the top 8 in every round I'd say.....he's then we'll capable of battling a top 2 spot in a semi final and then it's a one off race.....if he constantly makes semis and finals which he should do with all his ability then he will keep gaining points which will automatically sit him near the top of the rankings ....his speed and ability will always be a threat come one off races in semis and finals.....so yeas he definitely could win a title if he stays focussed and fit

There are not many of that field that would be great assets to improve the GP's....most would significantly weaken it, the odd few would be ok, hopefully those will get through.

Rally cross has a joker lap I believe........he'll be right at home then

It's all right saying make it a £10 sport but I honestly think if you get rid of all reasonably top riders and go with teams that charging £10 can justify then you are going to get less fans, not more....and speedway is going to be in an even worse mess than now

Is speedway a £10 sport ?.....what do people reckon. My local football team , Curzon Ashton, have been promoted to the National League North...a couple of rungs outside League 2 and they charge £10 for an adult and £3 for pensioners, students and under 16's......but their players won't earn what a top speedway rider earns.....so can speedway survive as a £10 sport ...I doubt it could as it is and pay the riders ......it would have to become a virtual amateur sport with riders doing it as a hobby and stadium rents would still have to be paid. So a £10 sport would reduce wages paid to riders but the rents would be the same and would attendances increase a lot ?......I don't know

Surely when you've been riding at the very top for as long as Pedersen has then you'd probably expect a list that long.....he's no angel but basically every race he does is televised so is under scrutiny.......I've known dirtier riders over the years but they would hardly ever be filmed....there have been plenty of ruthless riders out there over the years....Pedersen is nothing that much out of the ordinary really

Yes it officially is... Freddie Flintoff visited it on his Lord of the Fries programme as he's from Preston.......there was a plaque there from BT saying it was the centre of Great Britain.

Ridiculous that somebody has to file a complaint before any action is taken...so if Pedersen hadn't done that then Hancock would have got off scot free...as it is 1 match isn't that severe anyway........it shows that authorities maybe do have one law for one and another rule for others and they really didn't want to punish Hancock at all because of who he was and that can never be right

I've had the dedication debate about football...a single friend of mine attends every single Man City match home and away ...Southampton away on a Monday night..they are there.....some Ukrainian town on a Wednesday night...they are there....then he has a go at people who don't attend and says their opinions aren't valid as the don't attend..... My response is always...you are single, you have no commitments , you have money to burn as a result....that's your choice..it's allowed you to attend everything you want.....others have chosen to get married, to raise a family , to support kids through uni , whatever......all this might have an influence on their non attendance....but it doesn't make them actually less of a fan .....but it does show there are many reasons that affect somebody's level of dedication...in all sports.

When I last went most fans parked on the Showcase cinema car park across the road for free.....easy access in and out.......do people still park there ?.......there's not many spaces actually in the official Kirky Lane car park aren't they ?

No problem with a 10 day ban for that....I think that's probably the least he deserved and the least that could have been expected. I don't particularly like Hancock's statement as it is basically an open invitation for riders to take revenge on Pedersen on the track and that is very dangerous ground to enter .....Pedersen was excluded as many riders have been...not sure what else the ref and the authorities could do to Pedersen but Hancock's reaction was definitely worthy of a minimum 10 day ban and his public statements since have been very disappointing . Just judge all this on the incident and aftermath and not the riders involved because people are judging this because they like Hancock and dislike Pedersen and that's just unfair.

Ah, but I didn't say you WERE a bitter old man....I said you come across as on on this forum....which is all I can base my opinions on...

And why post that ?......it serves no purpose and just throws any credibility you had right out of the window.....you come across as a very bitter old man if you don't mind me saying so.

The old style Golden Helmet was great when it was a monthly home and away best of 3 challenge with the holder defending against a nominated monthly challenger....it was a great spectacle.......but totally unworkable today.......to get a top rider to travel to a track for 2 or 3 match races would be impossible ...to get 2 top riders to travel to a neutral track for a decider would be even more impossible.....those days have long gone.....and when they changed it to the holder defending it every meeting against the opposing top scorer just didn't take off and they'd be no point bringing that back.. And the new starting rules have been one of the better introductions speedway brought in...the starts are much fairer now than before...to go back would be ridiculous.... 2 valve engines ?......they haven't been around since the mid 70's.....no Motorsport goes that much retro ! There was a lot to admire about 70's speedway and yes the sport was in a far better state but the whole sporting climate has changed since then and certainly the whole speedway climate has and the world has changed with far more attractions to stop people attending......i.just re introducing all the 70's stuff that worked then wouldn't make a blind bit of difference in today's world.... The Elite League needs more teams and it needs more top riders , not less....it needs riders people see on TV all riding locally here somewhere...the question is , how can that be afforded ?.....it's a vicious circle......I think more clubs and more top riders are needed for more fans to be attracted but how do you get more clubs and more top riders in the first place ?....

i still maintain a squad system would be too expensive for most clubs....it would be mainly to cover for the top riders i assume so you sign a top rider and the expensive contract that comes with him and then sign another top rider as a back up in the squad.....that back up rider is going to want a contract for being tied to that club for a season...they will want to be properly prepared for when they are needed, which will probably be at short notice a lot of the time....they will want their own competitive equipment at hand to ride, not fly in and ride a borrowed bike........ teams cannot afford one top rider so to pay another or others to be part of the squad is going to be expensive...i cannot see a top rider signing a squad contract without a decent retainer....even more so if the team then operate a horses for courses policy.....it would be expensive .......and you'd still need double up riders and guests for lower order riders.......i can't see it working at all myself.

That Cradley side was still the best I've seen.....Gundersen, King, Wigg, Phil Collins, Alan Grahame , Peter Ravn and Jan O Pedersen.....with Simon Cross stepping in when Pedersen was injured... It shows its strength when you can remember every rider from a year and you didn't even support them ! Ravn did start the season at Belle Vue but he really stepped it up when he went to Cradley and it was the start of his career really.....I think the points limit for 84 meant they lost Wigg, Alan Grahame, Ravn and Pedersen for that season, although we know what Pedersen went on to achieve when he came back , and Alan Grahame came back as well...great team though.

There is no point in Belle Vue putting an advert in the Mirror for their opening meeting.....it would be a waste of money....there is so much natural publicity for this meeting and its selling fast....to spend a fortune on advertising in the Mirror and the like would be a waste and unnecessary. The Bank Holiday stock car meeting at Belle Vue is always advertised in the Mirror and the Manchester Evening News....the same advert has been published for a few years now and it does make the meeting look attractive....it's much easier to spend money to advertise one meeting though than a full speedway season and the only stock car meeting I ever see advertised is the bank holiday show,...it did catch my wife's eye though and we did take our children to it once but to be honest they found it very boring and never wanted to go back..with was a relief to me as it was awfully boring !.. It's one thing advertising a one off event like a bank holiday stock car event to advertising a full season of speedway....I've no doubt more advertising could be done but at the moment they don't need to spend that for the opening meeting , and closer to the event it wil get so much coverage on local TV anyway.

Can't say I'm a big fan of sidecars and they wouldn't entice me to attend ....but in this country they do seem to be seen as a total separate entity to the bikes whereas in Australia where I've seen plenty of meetings the sidecars are seen as much a part of speedway as the solo bikes......a night at the speedway is usually sprintcars , speedcars, sidecars and solos....it's all speedway., whereas here speedway is purely the bikes...unfortunately in Australia it's not usually the sol bikes that draw the big crowds in so they need the other forms of speedway on the bill. I don't think many UK tracks showcase the sidecars that well though, a bit too small and tight and I don't think adding them to a night on a regular basis would draw many extra fans in

Yes, I don't think Woffinden made too much of a fuss because the refs never change their mind , but mainly he looked like going out before the semis and then made the final and had already increased his lead so it was already an excellent night for him.........still a wrong decision though ! Kildemand is an exciting rider to watch though with his balancing style ..he always looks likely to fall with that style and must be a nightmare to try and pass on the inside

Well that was clear to me that Woffinden should not have been excluded.....just because a rider goes down when passed on the inside doesn't mean the inside rider HAS to be excluded....that was a clean pass and Kildemand has such a weird balancing style of riding that he can never withstand an inside pass and will always go down......only one exclusion for me there and it wasn't Woffinden !

There are massive problems in the sport at our domestic level.....I don't know the answers but like you said the promoters need to work as one and forget self interest ....it's not an easy task though

Well it shouldn't actually be Garrity's decision to be a fast track rider next season....he just shouldn't be allowed to be one.....if he was then it would be a farce....how long can a rider of that standard stay a fast tracker ? If he did move into the top 5 then what average would he come in on ?......he can't come in on his average from this season so how do they re assess a fast track riders average for next season......I'm sure there's a rule but I don't know what it is.