E I Addio

I think that Laurence is actually about 27 but it makes no difference. We still have a rider who has been riding ten years and has hardly improved at all. I agree he is not really good enough to ride as reserve. It's only a matter of time before drops back to reserve and Couzins come up, which unfairly puts more pressure on Couzuns. Laurence is just not doing his job. He is probably the worst rider I have ever seen in the number 2 race jacket, The results show they did the right thing in getting rid of Mason though.

I can only suggest you change the place you stand at Lakeside. I have stood at different points around the track and never had any trouble viewing. As for saying there is no banking that really is complete nonsense. If you stand on the straight the track is level with the stock car track, if you then move to the apex of the bend it can be clearly seen that the Speedwáy track is about a couple of feet higher than the stock car track due to the banking .which is pretty much the same as Rye House. Whilst I have only been an occasional. visitor to Rye I have never seen close racing there other than odd heats. The attraction of Rye for me is that you can stand very close to the racing, more so than Arena. I agree that nothing can or ever will come close to Custom House or Waterden Road,

That more or less sums it up for me as well. The racing in the Kent match was as good if not better than you will see anywhere but it was a bit of a one off. I agree the adrenalin rush doesn't seem to be there when they come to the tapes in the NL, I see the attraction of NL for some but it's not really for me. I thought I would be going to Rye House a bit more but haven't been able to motivate myself so far. Rye House itself is in a very watered down league. As a life long fan who hardly missed a match when Lakeside were in the top flight, and an occasional visitor to Rye House I seem to have lost motivation these days.

Alan Hunt. From all that I have read about him it seems he was not only a hell of a nice bloke but a real tough rider and, according to his wife he was a rubbish mechanic so would have had to score all his points by pure riding skill. Incidentally does anyone on here have any first hand memories of Alan, who sadly died 60 years ago this year.

Rosco doesn't like Lawson for some reason, that's been made clear in the past. Rosco is a complete and utter plonker, always had been , always will be.

I agree. Speaking as a self confessed Elite Lite league snob it was by far the best NL meeting I have seen ( not that I have seen many) and there will be a lot of meetings at Premier and Championship league track were the racing is nowhere near what we saw last night., especially heats 13 and 15. It wasn't just the racing but the score line was quite exciting from a spectator point of view with nothing in it for the first half of the meeting before the home team established their authority in the closing stages. Both teams rode well. Apart from the big scorers, Nick Laurence and Jamie Cousins are looking a bit smother and more confident and both has some good races where they held on for vauable points. Connor Locke struggled at first but eventually came to the party and chipped in with some well earned points on a track that was new to him. Most impressive was Alfie Bowtell, really coming on, really showing some improvement and absolutely fearless. A great performance from him down in the engine room at.No 4.

The standard formula that knocks a percentage off the average for each year out if the sport. Hurry was given the average during the winter and wasn't named in the Lakeside squad at the start of the season so he was available for Kent ir anyone else to sign if they wished. None of the other clubs wanted him now they are moaning because Lakeside have him.

Then he is only saying what the BSF have been saying for years.

Most of Laurence's points have been gifted, finishing third in a tree man race, or riders falling off.There is nothing I have seen in Laurence to suggest he is ever going to progress even to a half decent second string. Couzins just about gets the benefit of the doubt but not showing much star quality so far. Hunter has never really lived up to expectations. I hope Locke does well, but the fact remains that Lakeside will always be overly dependent on the top three.

Unfortunately top tier in British Speedwáy no longer means top quality, far from it. Plenty of people object to paying£18 for top tier gating. You pays your money and takes your choice. Unfortunately in Claret 73's case he doesn't pay his money but just sits at home moaning instead of getting a life. I can well understand people giving up on modern Speedwáy. I just can't understand why they constantly moan about it instead of finding something they do enjoy.

Can you just tell us whereabouts on the clip we can see the blue groove you were talking about because I caluldnt see one? I wasn't there but apart from dust in the latter part of the meeting and a very dry patch going into bend three it was almost impossible to tell what the track was like. It's almost always a given that the track will not be as good in daytime meetings as others have said bug it's virtually impossible to comment further from these camera angles. As usual you are having a moan for the sake it. What I saw, as most weeks was Lakeside with a strong top end that could hardly be touched and reserves that were not up to the job, especially Laurence who is still no better than he was 10 years ago. That's not so much to do with the track as the riders

Bil Longley , (New Cross and Odsal pre 1948,) captained the Australian test team for a while so deserves to be in.

Well, there is a meeting on Sunday so Lakeside should have declared their team to their opponents by now. I suspect we would have heard if for some reason Hurry is not included. I doubt whether Lakeside would have made a public statement saying that David Mason is no longer with them if they weren't certain of having a replacement. EDIT there is an away meeting on Saturday as well so I guess Hurry must have been approved.

It depends what you mean by crooked. The BSPA have for years frustrated and confused the fans by what appear to be contradictory rulings, but am not sure how you make the jump from there to saying as a fact there was some kind of favouritism/backhander/ corruption even though some posters will draw that inference every time whether it is fair or not. I do think we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions until we first know whether the team change has been approved, secondly what Hurrys official average is and thirdly how that figure was reached. Having an explanation from the BSPA is perhaps to much to hope for based on past experience.

Absolutely, IF enough evidence is gathered, but if no evidence , there is no reason for the rumour mill to be given credibilty. We don't yet know what averaged Hurry comes in on or why, but ultimately it is for the BSPA to aprove or not aprove the team changes so any complaints should be at their door night Lakesides.

Tiger Stevenson, captain of West Ham and England.

Well said. It's the old story, some people go through life looking for the positives and others go through looking for the negatives. We all know where Moxey fits in.

He did indeed. Three riders involved in first bend bunching and Mason came off worst, head first into the air fence. Did well to walk away from it. Concussion cane be a funny thing as has been seen many times. A rider can complete his rides but the effects follow the next day or days later. Mason might not like the big tracks, Hunter is out of form at the moment and the reserves are not setting the track alight so the Hammers will be weakened slightly without him.

There goes another poster who never attends but still latches onto a bit of unsubstatiated BSF gossip to put the boot in. The figure of 250 for Lakeside -v- Belle Vue last Friday was someone's guesstimate . Someone else guessed 350. The point you chose to ignore was that several posters on here correctly pointed out that it was one of the coldest nights they could remember and it clashed with a West Ham game on TV which woukd invariably hit the crowd. By comparison the lowest ever EL attendance was 400 for a match against Wolves on a cold wet night that was being broadcast on Sky anyway , the point being that you can't take the rock bottom attendance figure and suggest it is the norm. The crowd for the local derby against the old enemy Eastbourne on Good Friday looked to be to bigger than a lot of EL meetiings but the season opener against Eastbourne has always traditionally pulled a good crowd. That's the way it works, the meetings with big crowds subsidise the small crowds. You are not in a position to dispute it.

Lakeside was the fourth best supported EL club until the traffic problems of 2016. It makes you wonder what his agenda is. He admits he never goes, and is never likely to go again, but just likes to sit on the sidelines trying to put the boot in.

The picture looks definitely post war to me judging by the bike and the shape of the handlebars, probably the Jack Young era I would guess when most were by that date riding foot forward. Wasn't Oliver Hart the last of the fairly good riders to stick with leg trailing ? It was before my time so I am basing my opinion on other old photographscofvthe early '50s. Great picture though, possibly the best shot of Oliver Hart Inhave seen. I guess towards the end of his career ? What happened to him ?

Credit to the referee Chris Gay for keeping the meeting moving on a freezing cold night. As soon as the riders were off the track for one race he was putting two minutes on for the next. Credit to the new trackman Ken Driscoll for a superb track that had only one fall all night, apart from the first bend bunching in heat 9. The combination of a referee who kept things moving and a good track meant that the meeting was done and dusted in one hour twenty minutes. Much appreciated by the fans standing out in the cold.

I didn't realise that was the same race in which Gary Hocking was killed. Gary was previously a top motor cycle racer. He took over the lead role in the mighty MV Augusta works team when John Surtees retired and repaid their confidence by winning the 1961 350cc and 500cc World Championships. He retired from motorcycle racing, claiming it was too dangerous after his friend Tom Phillis was killed in the 1962Isle of Man TT, only to be killed himself car racing six months later as the above post states. Tragic.

Sorry to see him go but all good things come to an end. I loved having him at Lakeside both as a guest and as the three years he a team member. At his best, a great stylist and formidable second heatleader. Best wishes for the future Davey, wishing you success in whatever you do.

What a load of old tosh. The remit of the BSPA is to run British Speedwáy on behalf of the SCB who in turn manage the sport on behalf of the ACU, who in turn are affiliated to the FIM. As has already been posted on here there is a comprehensive report on the Speedwáy GP site . Speedwáy GP run International Speedwáy on behalf of the same FIM to whom the BSPA are affiliated via the ACU. The SPeedway GP site is the appropriate site to report the case. What exactly are the BSPA supposed to post apart from a link to the full report on the Speedwáy GP site ? A rider has been seriously injured, it is common knowledge and an appropriate report has been posted on the appropriate site, but still,the usual suspects try to twist the tragic situation for an erroneous pop at the BSPA. Poor.