Liontamer

Thank you for the Ray Wilson interview. I'm not ashamed to say he was my first real sporting hero. He was the sportsman who I most wanted to emulate & he inspired me to try my hand at speedway. I bought the leathers off him that he wore when he lead England to victory in the world cup at Wembley & I wore them with pride as I wobbled round trying to be a proper speedway rider even when I used to get booed at Coventry lol. My biggest regret is selling them. Thank you Ray for being my hero & an inspiration, you are a true legend & you are still my hero.

I remember sitting next to Arthur in the Long Eaton changing rooms after a meeting. He showered, ran out to his car, & brought back a crate of beer for everyone.

Don't know what all the fuss is about to be honest. Fay was an ok rider, but I much preferred her in King Kong.

Happy happy days when you could hang over a fence & watch the riders flash past inches away. I remember riding at Crewe & watching the crowd lean back as you went past down the back straight...awsome.

I posted this on the Plymouth thread but it's certainly appropriate here.. Leicester Public: Can we have another mosque please? Leicester Council: Of course you can, here, have two. Leicester Public: Can we have a speedway track please? Leicester Council: No, but you can have a mosque. Leicester Public: But we don't want anymore mosques, we want a speedway track. Leicester Council: Well we've listened to you, & we're here to represent the people who voted for us, & give the people of Leicester something that will guarantee we get voted in again at the next elections, so where would you like your new mosques?

I'm here Gem, & I, like all the other Lions fans live in hope. After seeing what's been achieved at Scunthorpe, Redcar & Plymouth I never say never, but having been involved with trying to get speedway back in Leicester, I can only assume that the three aforementioned places have councils who wanted speedway back. Sadly that isn't the case in Leicester in my experience.

Great day, really enjoyed it. Thanks to the few people who spoke to me at the PoW. & the many who didn't including one in a pink hat who ignored me when I said hello. Other than that a fantastic day.

Which is all very well, but not much use when the great dane is standing on the podium. Come on Nikki P.

No, you have to bring it to my seat...it's in the smallprint.

See this is what irritates me. People constantly come on here bleating that "speedway isn't being promoted" & "you only get 15 minutes of entertainment", but when additional entertainment is laid on you resort to insults & hoping she's drowned out with airhorns. You're damned if you do & etc etc.

I've got a spare room, but it's a bit of a hike to the stadium.

My kitchen's the same. Anyway, it'll do you good to get out for a few hours...bless.

Not me. My Lions scarf is folded away in a drawer along with my horse blanket & giant slipper ready for winter.

I'll be there. 4 of us travelling by car. Come up & say hello if you see me lying outside the Prince of Wales, or failing that just chuck a bit of odd change in me cap.

Sheep.

I agree with everything you've said.

Funnily enough when I was moving house in January I found a Leicester Lions t shirt in my shed. I've got loads of memorabilia up in my loft, & I chucked a folding footrest & one or two other bits away when I moved.

Never heard of him. Seriously though you are quite welcome to have a browse through my race jackets, I live in Syston if you want to pm me, & I found out this morning I am going to Cardiff, thanks to a mate I do work for in Wales, who gave me 4 free tickets. I bought a pair of leathers off Ray Wilson because he always hated them (red ones with black & white pattern as seen on front of one of the history of speedway tapes), & I always used to get booed when I rode at Coventry in them . My biggest regret is giving them to a young rider when I packed it in.....DOH !

Over 70 race jackets including Leicester, but they aren't for sale I'm afraid. Favourite riders were Ray Wilson & Johnnie Boulger (who my two sisters were mad on). Happy days.

It was at Taff Vale Park.

Which only goes to prove that Ray Wilson was to speedway what the late great Georgie Best was to football.

I remember buying the chequered leathers of Willy, & picking them up from his mechanic's house one Saturday morning. In the afternoon I answered a knock on the door to find Ray standing there asking if he could borrow them back because he'd forgotten his own & was on his way to Kings Lynn. If I recall correctly he scored 10 points in his last meeting in them.

Is it Albert Steptoe to the right of Stan Stevens?

Certainly can. The riders foot belongs to Malcolm Brown (Leicester) & the rider in fourth place (that's last) was, I believe Rick France (Coventry). 4-2 to Leicester I think you'll find.

Do you mean these? http://community.webshots.com/photo/153283...472389766xKENtK <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Just in case my old mate Howling Gorgon can't identify the riders in Gem's picture, it's Ray Wilson (Leicester) LEADING Nigel Boocock (Coventry). No don't thank me, it's a pleasure. Where is HG anyway?