moomin man 76

Far stronger fields at both Kings Lynn and Slangerup than Terenzano and Abensberg. I'd still be surprised though if Timo Lahti didn't make the cut at Slangerup. At Kings Lynn, aside from the French and Norwegian riders, there are plenty of spoliers, but at a push I'd go for Lindgren, Cook, Kasprzak, Andersen, Lambert, Kylmakorpi and one other.

I'm admitedly late in hearing of this story. Maybe I am missing something, but does not BSPA stand for British Speedway Promoters Association? If so, I fail to see how providing racing opportunies for two British riders (Cook and Stokes) and removing two mediocre Danish riders (Palm Toft and Porsing) is not in the best interests of the sport in Britain. Ironically, at the same time as announcing the blocking of Cook's signing on their webpage, they are trumping Cook beginning his quest to gain a place in the GPs at Kings Lynn. Their whole standing in this issue is riddled with contradiction.

Very weak lineups at both Terenzano and Abensberg. I can't see many qualifiers from either round surviving the semi-final stage.

I'll keep you informed. The only ones I have in my collection at present are all from World Championship Meetings and the World Team Cup in 1985, where the authenticity can be verified.

Looking at the line-up distribution for each of the qualifiers, it seems noticeable how much weaker the qualifiers in Abensburg and Terenzano are compared to Kings Lynn.

I would imagine that Fred Brand would be very much near the top of the list.

I realise that this is a bit of a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone had any Finnish Race Jackets they no longer wanted. All items considered - Individual, World Championship Qualifiers, Test, World Team Cup or Club. If you have anything to sell, please feel free to send me a message.

Speedway Star is reporting in this weeks issue that only four riders will qualify for the GPs from each qualifier, to be supplemented by three permanent wildcards and one local wildcard.

Many thanks - you've supplied far more information that I could have hoped for! I followed the hyperlinks and although my Russian is non-existant, it did seem as if they were in the preliminary stages of marking out a track in some photographs. Talk of 'tracks' is intriguing though. Hopefully it will lead to some resumed speedway activity, as all the current videos on their webpage seemed to consist largely of motocross.

I was just watching an old film on You Tube of speedway in Leningrad c.1977 and was curious when the track ceased to be operational. I know that they left the old Soviet/Russian League at some point in the late 1990s (presumably due to travel costs) and began to ride in the Finnish League even winning it on one occasion. Any information about the history/closure of the track after that point would be of interest (for instance does the track exist, but is no longer used, or even if the site was built over).

Apologies for any confusion caused. Does that mean that Finland have picked up an extra place in the qualifiers, or have the allocations been changed around?

Finland will be represented by Timo Lahti at Kings Lynn.

People may have mixed thoughts about Tero's ability as a rider, but he is a whole hearted trier, who will not duck out of meetings unless he genuinely is injured. If he doesn't appear, he doesn't earn and unlike others, he hardly has an extensive list of other fixtures to fall back on to ride in and earn from.

As far as I am aware, Nike Lunna is the only Finnish representative in the qualifiers and he will ride in the semi-final at Belle Vue.

The concept in itself could work, but it is the execution of it that is wrong. Aside from 'Monster Energy' the actual 'trade teams' appear to have no immediate recognition outside of Poland and perhaps Germany. After all, what exactly is 'City Team?' As a result, any initial attempt to spread the speedway gospal outside casual observers; especially outside of Poland is doomed to failure... In my opinion, the concept could work but it would also need riders of a consistently high standard, rather than those representing 'City Team.' At present, it seems as if I had enough money, I could recruit any riders of some standard to buy my 'team' into the series. For instance, I could recruit three Finnish riders, make up an artificial team name and have my own 'Team Finland' in all but name...

I'm sorry but I can't really summon up any real interest for this new format. I could just about swallow One Sport's 'Best Pairs' format when the teams represented countries, but not with artificial 'trade teams.' There are some decent riders competing, but they are spread across the teams; aside from 'City Team' which maybe is a vehicle for German riders, but is woefully weak at this level.

Great to see this feature on the BBC, but as you have already partly intimated, it is not 'new' news. For instance, I still have an article about the same gentleman that was in the Norwegian airlines in-flight magazine in July 2015. However, he should definitely be applauded for his age not proving a barrier to participation.

I guess that there may well be 'good' people involved in the 'Night Wolves' in Ufa, as I wouldn't wish to tarnish everyone in a group with the same brush. Some may even have good intentions regarding the development of the Ufa club. Unfortunately, it runs contrary to their wider image in the west and presumably in Russia too. The image of Krasnikov in his 'Night Wolves' jacket on the Winners Podium on Saturday was dubious at best. Some would even accuse him of bringing the sport into disrepute by wearing an overtly political symbol. I know that the 'Night Wolves' are an illegal organisation in Finland and I can't image that Finland is the only country where they enjoy such status...

I would definitely agree. There were always one or two, but I cannot see the likes of Ledstrom having the same impact as either Serenius or Svensson in their heyday, or even Hirvasoja. The number of non-Swedes riding in the Swedish League is symptomatic of the problem. The likes of Harold Simon managed to rise to some level by going to Russia to ride, but you can hardly see the Russians allowing their pre-eminence to be challenged by allowing significant numbers of non-Russians to ride in their league. However, I wonder how much the lack of an international dimension to the sport is slowly killing the sport in Russia, even before polarising groups like the 'Night Wolves' got involved?

Indeed, but what is to be expected. None of the non-Russian riders could be considered to be full-time professional riders unlike their Russian counterparts. Equally, they don't have access to the same training/practice facilities; even more so with the succession of mild winters. Unfortunately, I can't see any further than the sport continuing to decline at international level. There are a handful of riders coming through, such as Ledstrom and Seifter but I simply can't see them progressing to the next level to challenge the Russians. The reality of the 'Ice Gladiators' series is that it is a World Championship in name only, as the Russian Championship is of a higher standard, which very few of the Western riders would realistically quality for.

Many thanks for your reply. At least, I know that my search for these programmes, as well as those on my 1960s 'wants' list is not futile, as can sometimes be the case with rain offs!

I was wondering if any forum users, either had copies they would be willing to part with, or any information ascertaining to the existence of the following programmes; Cradley Heath Homes: 15/3/75 v Sheffield (Challenge Match) - Rained Off 9/10/76 v Birmingham (British League - 30) - Rained Off Cradley Heath Aways: 10/6/71 v Wimbledon (British League) - Rained Off 12/8/71 v Oxford (British League) - Rained Off 18/9/73 v Leicester (Midland Cup) - Rained Off (The Match was a Double Header v Kings Lynn) 28/2/76 v Coventry (Training School Challenge Match) 6/6/77 v Halifax (British League) - Rained Off 30/10/79 v Nottingham (Challenge Match) - Rained Off These are the only 1970s Cradley programmes that are missing from my collection, so I would be delighted to hear from anyone.

Since my last posting, I have managed to obtain a copy of Poole v Cradly on 21/9/60, but if anyone has any other programmes that they wish to part with, or any further information I would be grateful.

Yes, Each of those three programmes were issued as I have them in my collection, but I do not have any duplicate copies of them. I've seen several copies over the years of 8/7/63 v Edinburgh, but the two programmes from 1968 are rarer (at least in my experience).

Many thanks for that. I do recall seeing the Neath programme on Ebay some time ago, but it is good to know that the other programmes are in circulation and potentially the Halifax programme exists too. Any further information would be much appreciated!