customhouseregular

Do we want a Gp with class acts or riders who may not be as good but who are exciting to watch?. Ideally we want riders who are good and exciting. My memory tells me Mauger was not particularly exciting, but boy he was good.

Back in the day the National League and Provincial League amalgamated to form the British League. If the EL is going down to 8 teams maybe it is time for history to repeat itself.

Hard to see any one other than Sayfutdinov the form he is in at the moment.

Others have posted on this forum about the decline/demise of speedway in Britain, with falling attendances and the unwillingness of top Overseas riders to compete regularly for British clubs. Back in the 60's every rider worth his salt wanted to ride in Britain. In fact it was almost mandatory if a rider wanted to progress on the World stage. We had a league that meant something with the chance to see the World's best each week...not a 9-team affair with teams meeting each other 4 times a season. We had great local competitions, e.g. London Cup, London rider's Championship etc. with enough teams to give us eagerly awaited local derbies. During each season there were Tests against Australia, Sweden, USSR and major Open events like the Internationale and Laurels at Wimbledon and the Brandonapolis at Coventry. Then there were the World Championship meetings...various Finals on the way to the big one. Most speedway venues, though far from "state of the art" were not too old or too shabby. Hyde Road, Custom House, Glasgow White City etc. were atmospheric stadia. Plough Lane was considered luxurious in it's day. Compare the above with the situation currently being seen it Britain. Some may feel that as I no longer attend speedway meetings, for a variety of genuine reasons i might add, that I have no right pontificating on the subject. However, as an impartial observer I believe that without the meaningful meetings, with the World's best riders competing, and on tracks in stadiums that are welcoming and comfortable, the decline will only continue. Yes, I understand the money is not in the sport here and top riders can earn more in Sweden and Poland and yes, I know we can not afford to build speedway-specific stadia like Torun, so I do not have an answer.All I do know is that if you don't give the public what they want, they won't come. All comments gratefully received.

Naughty!...I hope I'm as active in my 80's.

Enough...I admit defeat.

I surrender. I am going to contradict myself here. I have said several times how I used to love Rye House, and I always looked forward to visiting Plough Lane. So...I can appreciate speedway on smaller tracks. At the end of the day, close exciting racing is what we all want wherever it may be.

Len has Methanol running through his veins.

I fully agree Bryn that close racing is the ultimate which actually makes race times and track records irrelevant. I was just reflecting that today's racing is faster, on big tracks anyway and that on small tracks it is not really SPEEDway. I love to see really close wheel to wheel racing but like it to last more than 50 seconds. I know it is only a personal opinion but a short race on a tiny track like Lakeside really does not do it for me...hence my great memories of West Ham.

I have been calling for this for years.

I found it quite interesting comparing big tracks Berwick, Exeter and Sheffield with my sadly lamented West Ham. All four tracks being somewhat similar in size as I think West Ham was c. 383m.. My memory (sometimes failing sadly) tells me race times at West Ham used to be around the 72 sec. mark. We thought that was fast but seems slow compared to Sheffield. A contentious thought...why watch SPEEDway at Lakeside with an average race speed of 39mph?. Sorry if this old Hammer offends the new Hammers.

Occasionally one needs to be a tad contentious to get a discussion going.

One would have thought with the legends that were Moore, Briggs and Mauger and a host of other one rung down...Shirra, Ross and Stapleton come to mind, NZ would have gone from strength to strength.same goes for USA with Penhall, Sigalos, Schwartz, Ermolenko etc..

Really enjoyed your post Penny...brought back vivid memories of my BLRC visits in the 60's.

Being a fan from the 60's/70's I can remember some great Norwegians...Sverre Harrfeldt being the greatest (obviously biased). Riders such as Dag Lovaas, Reidar Eide and Odd Fossengen come to mind. I can recall Denmark being Norway's poor relations in the speedway world...sad to see their demise.

Who a rider has in his personal pit space is a matter of choice for him alone and nobody else's business. Unless it is dangerous or illegal what a rider does or says in his pit bay should not concern others. TV cameras and microphones have no place intruding in rider's personal space immediately follwing a race, or as he is preparing to go out for his next race. Pedersen's temperament is suspect and his on-track tactics sometimes suspect, but the man is a winner. Yes, where there's trouble there's Pedersen but let's keep criticism for what happens on track, not in the pits.

Would the NEC be really feasible?. Central location, good road, rail and air links, under cover...I like the idea.

They may be a week after the event but Quest's hour-long highlights programme of GP coverage is actually very good. For someone like me who does not have Sky and can only watch Eurosport via a pc, this is welcome coverage. It would be nice if Eurosport and Quest were to show the Ice Speedway World Championship as I can't get Motors tv.

I remember Tyburn from West Ham second-halves but I can't recall him from Rye, though sadly I don't remember everything from those days. Rye House was a great sunday afternoon out...you could stand right up against the fence on the first bend and had to duck when the riders passed to avoid getting covered. As a 12 year old I loved it.

Arnhem is a great place for a weekend.

I was not necessarily talking about British World Finals or Finals I had personally attended. But I am talking from memory without recourse to stats so I may be talking b...s. I suppose massive is a subjective adjective but if one disregards Cardiff, what is the average GP attendance?. The Polish rounds will help keep the average up I guess. I can remember Wembley finals where to all extents and purposes there was no prospect of a British winner, but the attendance was still over 40,000. It still begs the question...If Cardiff fielded the World's top 16 and none were British, would they still attract 40,000?.

I remember hitching a lift from Upminster to Rayleigh to watch an Easter Trophy meeting. This would have been 1963 I think. My friend and I sat on the grass overlooking the 3rd./4th. bends to watch lower order riders, presumably Provincial League competing in the Spring sunshine. I believe this was Easter Sunday afternoon. As I recall the meeting was won by Jim Heard with Malcolm Brown second. My word it does not seem 50 years ago.

Anyone who watched speedway at Rye House in the early 60's will remember Mike Broadbank being invoved. Riders I remember wearing the red Devil race jacket were Geoff Mudge, Clive Hitch, Tommy Sweetman. Bob Andrews and the McGillivray brothers. I've forgotten the rest but no doubt someone with a better memory will remind me.

In the history of speedway it's a sad truism that we don't always get what we want.

Many thanks for your informative reply.