moomin man 76

I was wondering if anyone had any copies of the programmes issued for speedway in Homburg (Saar)? I believe racing was held there in 1957-58 and 1960. Friends of my family live in Homburg and therefore I am interested if anyone could post a scanned copy of the front cover of a programme and/or would be interested in selling a copy of a programme... Failing that, any details of the venue would be appreciated...

Tamworth v Cradley 4th August - 2nd half results according to my copy of the programme; Heat 17: Reserve Scratch Race - Jack Baxter (R), Jack Ladd (B), Phil Malpass (W), Alan Hunt (Y/B) - result Baxter, Ladd, Hunt, Malpass - 80.6s Heat 18: Junior Match Race - Bill Dalton (R), T. Gibson (B) - replacing Fred Yates - result Dalton, Gibson - 80.6s Heat 19: Highest Point Scorers - Arthur Payne (R), Bill Harris (B), Jim Wright (W), Les Beaumont (Y/B) - result Harris, Beaumont, Payne, Wright - 78s Heat 20: Runners Up: - Jack Baxter (R), G. Dates (B), Geoff Bennett (W), Alan Hunt (Y/B) - result Bennett, Dates, Hunt, Baxter - no time indicated. I don't have a copy of the meeting from 8th October. Cradley v Tamworth 4th August 2nd Half Details: Heat 1 - Alan Hunt (R), Phil Malpass (B), Jack Baxter (W), Jack Ladd (Y/B) - result Hunt, Baxter, Ladd - 84.6s Heat 2 - Les Beaumont (R), Jimmy Wright (B), Steve Langton (W), Cyril Page (Y/B) - result Beaumont, Wright, Page - 81.8s Heat 3 - Geoff Bennett (R), Frank Evans (B), Bill Harris (W), Charlie Oates (Y/B) - result Harris, Evans, Oates, Bennett - 80.2s Heat 4 - Eric Irons (R), Ray Beaumont (B), Arthur Payne (W), Fred Yates (Y/B) - result Beaumont, Irons, Yates (Payne excluded) - 81.6s Final - Alan Hunt (R), Les Beaumont (B), Bill Harris (W), Ray Beaumont (Y/B) - result Ray Beaumont, Hunt (seemingly only two finishers) - 81.8

I will dig out my Cradley programmes from 1947 to see what I can find for you.

Always 'mysterious' how the landowners (in this case Brandon Estates) have no security on the site when such fires 'mysteriously' break out.

I can well imagine that this will be first of other leagues deciding that there will be no racing this year...hopefully there will still be some open meetings later in the year for German fans to enjoy...

In my humble opinion, I would place Jason Crump (1st), Jack Young (2nd), Leigh Adams (3rd), Vic Duggan (4th) and probably one of the pre-WW2 Aussies e.g. Grosskreutz or Wilkinson 5th. Darcy Ward could have achieved a lot more, but for his career being finished by injury. Unfortunately, he doesn't make the top five on achievement for that reason; not aided by some poor decisions/lifestyle choices earlier in his career. Chris Holder won a GP Series to be crowned World Champion, but having reached the summit, his career seems to have headed downhill. Others mentioned, such as Billy Sanders were never amongst the elite at the top of the sport in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I don't think he can be compared to the likes of Olsen, Mauger, Penhall, Gundersen, Nielsen and Lee, who were around in the same period.

Having looked at the photographs of the proposed venue in Patagonia, I have to applaud those organised in developing their facility from scratch. However, the track itself may be good, but there appears to be almost no spectator facilities. The only track I have personally visited, which has such basic facilities is at Haapajarvi in Finland - in fact, the facilities at Haapajarvi were superior. Grand prix standard it is not - another Castagna fantasy sadly...

Many thanks for posting the update. Just curious as to who the four Kazakh riders are likely to be; let alone how they are going to be making the journey to Kauhajoki or Örnsköldsvik? Alternatively are they Russians riding on Kazakh licenses?

When I logged on yesterday, there were relatively few seats left in the grandstand; the family then decided they wanted to come, so I ended up booking the family ticket, for two adults and two children on the back straight for £85. Even with the booking fee, it still worked out at less than £11 per person for each meeting, which I thought was a bargain. In due course, I can well imagine that they will release additional standing/seating tickets on the 1st/2nd and/or 3rd/4th bends, as I would imagine that a fairly sizeable proportion of tickets that were made initially made available have already gone.

Tero Aarnio signs for Opole after spending last season at Krakow.

At Allsvensken level, Valsarna have announced the following signings; Tomas Jonasson - 2.421; Jesse Mustonen - 2.0 (assessed average); Kenneth Hansen 1.75; Jonathan Ejnermark 1.515; Lasse Fredriksen 1.303; Glenn Moi 1.154; Adrian Bergqvist 0.667; Benny Johansson 0.5; Emil Larsson Karlsson 0.5 and Oscar Larsson Karlsson 0.5.

I hope I am proved wrong, but I suspect it will be super hard to get hold of a copy from the 2014 event in Blagoveshchensk.

As has Kenneth Hansen.

For the record (if anyone is interested) none of those who bought a season ticket for Workington Comets were ever compensated directly by the promotion. I know of one season ticket holder, who received a refund because he bought it through PayPal. On the other hand, my wife paid by cheque. The cheque was cashed and no doubt disappeared in the miriad debts of the promotion. After speaking to a solicitor, we were told that the only likelihood of receiving any sort of refund was likely by persuing a small claim at county court level.

To get the topic back on track, I went out and bought a copy of the book on Friday evening in Asda in Carlisle (cost £9). Surprisingly it was in the best selling book lists; perhaps due to advance sales. After reading the book cover to cover, I found the opening three or four chapters interesting, but my interest started to wane with the meeting by meeting account of the 2013 World Championship win. Later on, the book picked up, as he discussed his working relationship with Peter Adams and his approach to representing 'Team GB.' Others may think differently; either it is very good or a pile of rubbish, but at least do so from the objective position of having read some of the book!

Good to see Jesse Mustonen qualify outright for 2020, rather than having to rely on the place gained through the World Long Track Challenge. A good end to the season after a tough start coming back from serious injury at Bielefeld in 2018.

No copies in Sainsbury's in Carlisle, but copies available in Asda for £9. I've read through the first half of the book so far and at £9 it is reasonable value for money, but I would have been more reticent if asked to pay the full cover price.

No Finland in the World Long Track of Nations this year -

Indeed, but it was largely a flag of convenience, which led to Chris Slabon was riding under a Canadian flag. As far as I am aware, he grew up in Canada, but learnt his speedway in Poland. To be fair, if I was in his position, I would have done the same, as it would have been far easier to gain a nomination as a Canadian U21 rider, rather than go through the Polish qualifying procedures.

The Estonians have been concentrating on youth development for a few years now, and in time, they will have some good prospects coming through. It will be interesting to see how Viljam Lappi goes too, after scoring 17 points from 7 rides in his SM-Liiga debut.

Smektala will have to ride an awful lot better than he did at Glasgow in the GP Qualifier, where in his first couple of races, he would not have been out of place in a NDL race. He came across as another Polish gating tart.

I thought so until I saw Bartosz Smektala at Glasgow the other week...

I've seen plenty of Klindt's meetings at both Monmore Green and Derwent Park over the years and can recall literally a handful of times, where he passed an opponent after the second turn. When he first signed for Workington, I pointed out to a number of friends that he was the type of rider, who would probably a near identical average in any division, due to quick equipment and strength from the gate, plus deficiency in doing pretty much anything else.

My impression was that his bikes didn't look quick enough (perhaps using his brother's bikes as was the case at SoN), rather than him looking uncomfortable.

I don't think that Timo Lahti would have been out of place at Glasgow and would have finished close to qualifying; after all it was generally considered that Pontus Aspgren was a surprise qualifier ahead of the likes of Chris Holder.