E I Addio

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.

As I said its to do with the balance of the team. We have one reserve who shows no signs of making any progress, then we we have a reserve and two second strings who all have potential and deserve to be given a chance but they are all young and inexperienced and cannot be relied on for consistency. This puts a lot of pressure on the top two to consistently score bid points week in week out and to do it in heats 13 and 15 which is no easy task. I would have liked a third heatleader who could give the top two more support, to occasionally beat better riders than himself to take some of the pressure off the top two, not someone who basically only takes points off opposing second strings. In a way the structure of the team reminds me of the 2013 side where almost every home meeting it was down to Peter Karlsson and Davey Watt to go out and win heat 15 to seal the match because the rest of the side were under performing. I think the best we can hope for from Mason is to hold the fort until Hunter, Bowtell and Couzins come on a bit but I really don't see him as a key player.

Mason is in the side as third heatleader. He has ridden in 16 races and has only beaten four opposing heatleaders. Most of his points have come from beating second strings. The problem is that Lakeside is built in such a way that that there are some young riders that have potential but don't yet have the experience to be consistent. The team needs a third heatleader that can give proper support to the top two and is capable sometimes beating the opposing big guns, particularly on his home track, and capable of taking an effective heat 15 ride when the occasion demands it. Not wishing to keep on about Mason, and admittedly it's early season but everything the Kent fans were saying about him last year is proving to be true so far.

There is something he can do and that is ride like the third heatleader he is supposed to be. Four second places without beating an opposing heatleader is not good enough. Ok perhaps for a warm up meeting but he is not really pulling his weight at the moment. Let's hope he improves before the league starts in earnest, but unfortunately he comes with a bit of baggage and has done very little thus far to shake it off. As for Nick Laurence I can only endorse what others have said. Nice to see Alfie Bowtell and George Hunter getting in the points which should boost their confidence but both need some more polish to reach their potential. Early days yet though.

Agreed. It is just a challenge match and thre is a lack of decent heatleaders in the NL. It's. Not as if Hurry is doing some quality youngster out of a worthwhile ride, and although we wouldn't want it on a regular basis it's going to be far better for the crowd than to have r/r or some inadequate guest. I do agree though that with Hurrys injury record he must be mad, but that's a decision for him.

That's only part of hit. The stock cars get precedence in the fixture list and their fixture list which is made first and the Speedwáy club have to build their fixture I list on what's left. When the AGM was brought forward this year the stock car season was not finished so their 2017 fixture list was not completed which meant the Speedwáy club could do theirs which in turn meant they coukd to book a team without being able to tell riders what dates they woukd be needed. The question of traffic was discussed at the fans forum in January and it seems there were 5 traffic affected meetings where a lot of money was lost . As Jon Cook put it, it costs far more to run an EL meeting and when there are problems the loss is thousands of pounds. When the same problem hits an NL club the loss is hundreds of pounds, and is much more sustainable. Finally, and this is just me reading between the lines, so might not be right, but based on odd comments Cook has made I think he knew which way the wind was blowing with a watered down EL League and even more watering down next season and wanted to get out early and start building something sustainable in advance. I don't know, just guessing but Conner Dugard was sayin over the mic on Good Friday that he understands why Jon has done it, and it is about money so maybe there is more to it than meets the eye. Don't take this as gospel though., just my reading of it.

Quite honestly mate you must sit in front of Twitter looking for something to find fault with. The EL meetings used to take 1hr 35- 1hr 40 min on average if there were no stoppages , which of course there sometimes were. Today's meeting took a little over 1hr 50 min. The first four heats today took about 30 min with stoppages (which we have all seen in past in the EL) , but after that the ref really got on with it and put the two minutes on as soon as the riders were off the track from the previous race, Also one of the good things about the NL is that there is no gardening or messing about with clutches on the start line for several minutes before each race. It's straight out, green light on, tapes up and gone, so although there were stoppages the time is made up in other ways. There are some disappointments with NL racing, and the poor performance of Lakeside's bottom four is very disappointing but there is nothing wrong with the overall pace of the meeting compared to the old EL

That's a pretty fair assessment sid. Pratty was a bit of a perfectionist who understood the importance of gating in speedway . His bikes were well prepared and his clutches were apparently completely stripped, cleaned and reassembled before every meeting. He always liked to get to the track early for home meetings to make sure his favoured inside line was prepared as he wanted it so he was a pretty good gater who was rarely beaten if he hit the front first. Not surprised he beat Bjorn Knutson on a tight circuit like New Cross if he made the gate. Never smiled though, even if he banged in a maximum.

If you deduct a point from his score, the rider couldn't care less. Part of the problem is that in the first instance the club pay the fine and are supposed do deduct it from the riders pay but most of the time they don't, especially if it's a top rider they don't want to upset. If the rider is excluded from the race the fans pay in the short term but in the long term it drives the message home. These riders are supposed to be professionals and that means knowing the rules. If you or I made a fundamental mistake at work it's no excuse to say we didn't know. No point in having rules if you don't enforce them, and as others have said they are either not enforced or not enforced vigorously enough

At 36/37 years old he had a decent innings but it's always a shame when injuries force retirement. it is unfortunate that his career has been held back by a couple of bad knocks that needed surgery and took an extended recovery time but over the last few years we saw glimpses of what might have been. Best wishes for your retirement Joonas. You have been a good servant to the sport.

I loved having Lewi at Lakeside last year and hope the Poole fans get behind him. Don't expect too much too soon but he his full of enthusiasm and will give it 100%. I wish him and Poole well and hope it leads to something more permanent. He deserves it.

Slightly off topic but hopefully of interest, I remember Nigel Boock at one time experimenting with a V-twin JAP but nothing came of it. The Gold Star was one of the most of iconic motorcycles of all time. It had moderate success in trial and scrambles in the 1950's but apart from road racing at clubman level I don't think it ever achieved much in serious competition. I would imagine that compared to the speedway JAP of the same era the Goldie engine was far to heavy for speedway.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We will soon find out. It's just that it seems uncomfortable to me to have two three pointers at reserve with not much of a record to work on. It doesn't seem a balanced team at at all to me on paper , although as we all know, Speedwáy matches are not won on paper so I'll wait and see , and hope that those who say NL racing is exciting will be proved correct.

I see the Hammers website are inviting any unattached 3 point riders who want a team place to turn up at press and practice the day before the first match against Eastbourne. Doesn't seem very inspiring. Two three pointers at reserve, one of whom will be Nick Laurence who has been 3 pointer (or de facto 1 pointer) for his whole career, and the other will be someone who couldn't get a team place anywhere else a possibly may never have ridden the track until the day before. Two three pointers at reserve is not great at the best of times. I don't see many heat advantages in the reserve heats. I hope what others have said about NL racing being exciting proves correct but I don't have much confidence at the moment

We shouldn't be too quick to be judgmental about Tai. It might be that there are contractual reasons to do with sponsors that prevent him riding in this type of meeting. A similar situation prevented Nicki Pedersen from riding at the Lee Richardson memorial meeting. He came to the track to give his support but for contractual reasons wasn't allowed to ride.

I can only repeat the way Stuart described it at a fans forum some years ago. Stuart found himself sitting next to Jon at some sort of meeting ( I can't remember what it was) in the days when Stuart was just a sponsor and they just hit it off very well on a personal level (and they clearly still get on well on a personal basis) Stuart later bought Lakeside and had interviewed various applicant for the job and was about to offer the job to someone when he got a call from Jon and the deal was done. Apart from that I have heard from another source that Cook was basically getting fed up with being Bob Dugards bag carrier at Eastbourne and wanted to have a bit of his own responsibility. It's fairly common knowledge that Eastbourne wasn't a happy ship at the time hence riders like Adam Shields came across with Cook.

When the website says they are promoters I think it probably means they each have s promoters licence, not necessarily that they are joint owners of the club. According to. Jon, Stuart is still very much in charge and involved in all the decisions.

Where is the evidence that he only came because he saw the pound sign ? I have never seen that account in the public domain. Is that true or something you made up? If you can't back it up it is slanderous and should be withdrawn . Stuart Douglas account is that he imterviewed other applicants for the job and Cook was, in his opinion, the one best qualified for the job. You seem to overlook the fact that at the end of 2006 Arens was on the point of closure and Cook was taking a leap in the dark because it meant increasing the crowds and balancing the books, otherwise he would have been out of the job. I get it that some people don't like Cook and he is not my favourite person but I don't get why people seem prepared to make things up.

How do you know that ? According to what he said in a fans forum a few years ago it is.

It's obviously more than a pipe dream when you consider they have turned down a move to Kent, and Jon Cook turned down a BSPA offer to run Belle Vue on behalf of the BSPA. Bottom line is Cook needs to have an income and I doubt whether he would have turned down the Belle Vue offer if he thought Lakesides days were numbered.and he would be out of a job at the end of it.