customhouseregular

Thank you Philip for the on-going dialogue. Signing off now to watch "Gunfight at the OK Corral".

Would Russian tv alter their mind-set if Sayfutdinov became European or World champion, or is it a question of Ice Speedway 2st., 2nd. and last?. I presume the 3 new venues refer to new tracks rather than new countries...interested to know more. Sorry about the mistake!.

Funny old thing memory! and yes Hyde Road, Custom House, Plough Lane etc, are sorely missed. I only saw Ronnie Moore in the twilight of his career but the magic was still there. The same goes for Ove Fundin though I did see him win his 5th. world title.

On that basis Philip can we expect Auckland to drop out, Australia and USA not to come in and apart from a little tinkering, the status quo to remain?. I do understand all the difficulties, truly and I appreciate speedway is not a rich sport, but stagnation is the death of any business. Out of interest, what was the official attendance for Auckland or for any GP's outside Poland and Denmark?. How much do Eurosport pay to televise?. Leaving Auckland aside how much do organisers need to make staging a GP profitable?. I can't imagine the gate receipts at Terenzano, Gorican etc. would have covered the cost of staging. On the question of Russian tv coverage, the Eurosport coverage of SEC from Togliatti was excellent.

Hmmm. I don't profess to have all the answers sadly...just throwing in ideas for discussion. For a supposedly World sport to rely heavily on Poland and Denmark surely diminishes the image. How many paying customers are needed to make a GP viable when one adds in the tv coverage and associated revenue. i was under the impression Auckland attracted around 20,000 this year...surely enough to make it viable.I may be a little naive here (given the current world situation) but would not Russia pay well for a major sporting event televised all over Europe?. Just thinking out loud given the Dutch love of anything on two wheels and their love of speed events.

If I remember correctly (I was there but it was a long time ago) Christer came out for his first home meeting, came last in his first race then rattled off 3 wins, breaking the track record in the process. I could have my rose-coloured glasses on mind.

Len's association with Rye House goes back a long way. I took a photo of him after he finished a race at Rye House in 1960 or 1961...he was wearing a Red Devils race bib. In later life he told me he had never ridden at Rye House and as I could not locate the photo, I could not prove him wrong. There are not too many tracks/clubs with a long history left...they have all gone the way of all the London clubs, so I for one even though I have not been to Rye House for 50 years would hate to see it go.

Too bad...you came in right at the end and missed Knutsson, Harrfeldt et al.

Does that mean we will not be seeing Auckland next year or has their contract time to run still?. What of other potential venues for 2015?.

I quite agree. Talent and ability are only halfof the equation, hence my earlier comment about Chris freezing on the big stage.

When an EL team or a PL team can field a side containing 0 British riders, we have very little hope of developing the next Tai Woffinden. Tai excelled in spite of British league speedway, not as a result. I hope I'm not being too contentious here as most of us would love to have the World's best riders regularly riding for British clubs. However, most of the world's best prefer to race regularly elsewhere and a lot of the foreign riders that do race here are second-rate. Scott and Chris are, as far as GP is concerned yesterday's men. They are still class riders and we all know that on their day they can compete with the rest but, Chris Harris is never going to make the World's elite. Tai hopefully has many world titles in him but we need to find British stars who can join him. It's not good enough to only have one man capable of winning a GP.

Will Rayleigh ever have speedway again?...what a lovely thought. I have fond memories of Rayleigh. My father and I helped Len Silver with work at the old Arterial Road ground prior to the Rockets joining the old British League 2nd. Division.

There we are then...I stand corrected on track size. If you ever visited Custom House Oldace you will be able to confirm or otherwise my thoughts on the two places being similar. Unless my memory is playing tricks West Ham was originally 440 yards before having the bends taken in.

Hard to disagree with that from a potential audience point of view, but with some countries having 2 or 3 rounds it holds back the development of the GP series.Auckland has proved there is a potential for new venues to be successful but unless the series is expanded from it's current 12 rounds, this can't happen unless each country is limited to one GP. Refer to my post of 1st. september to know my thoughts on this.

Unless I am viewing the past through rose coloured glasses (quite possible), I seem to recall Hyde Road and the old Custom House stadium and track being similar, though the west Ham track lenghth was c.415 yards. I believe the Belle Vue track was slightly shorter.

I for one would like my Club back to be concerned about. As I have been one of the "naysayers" I shall eat "humble pie" and say congratulations. Hopefully the stadium will be completed in time, on budget and be a credit to British Speedway. As all speedway fans know, 2018 is the 90th. Anniversary of British speedway. If the National Stadium hosts a Gala event I for one shall be buying a ticket.

He would not be the first rider to excel in domestic competition and freeze on the big stage, nor will he be the last. Cardiff 2007 proved the man can do it and the years have shown he can mix it with the best, but to me he seems to have "big night nerves". This is a pity as we currently have a dearth of World-class Brits.

Sadly I never got to New Cross. Although I started watching Speedway in 1960, it was not until West Ham re-opened in 1964 that I started going to meetings on a regular basis. I know there are quite a few old New Cross fans out there who miss "The Frying Pan" as much as I miss Custom House.

I can recall watching a sidecar event at West Ham around 1967 I think. From memory the racing was ok but it would need a big track such as West Ham to realise it's potential. I could not imagine Sidecar racing at New Cross, though if any of our older New Cross fans know better I would love to hear from them.

Unless my memory is paying tricks I can recall attending Grass Track meetings in Kent during the late 60's, and seeing Malcolm Simmons perform really well. I also recall watching John Louis in Scramble meets at Ramsden Essex, before he switched to Speedway.

I can remember World Finals with no or next to no British participation, but they still drew massive gates. But...would 40,000 go to Cardiff if there was no British interest?. I agree each GP should field the top 15 or better still top 16 riders, but in all honesty in the "good old days" there was never a World Final which tracked the World's top 16.

As an old West Ham follower I was devastated after Lokeren and not long after, the closure of Custom House. I could not bring myself to support Hackney so I limited myself to big meetings, Tests, World Championships etc. until 1985. Until the British GP this year I had not attended a meeting in 30 years but had West Ham never closed, I'm sure I would have remained an avid follower. I know technically Lakeside/Arena Essex are the Hammers, but after Custom House and McKinlay, Harrfeldt, Hunter, Simmons, Knutsson et al (yes i know, not all at the same time), Purfleet did not appeal. During the 60's/70's I attended meetings at West Ham, Hackney, Wimbledon, White City, Harringay and Wembley...now all gone. A couple of days ago a poster said we are a minority sport amongst minority sports. When I think of how many teams London once boasted I have to agree.

As a Londoner my trips to Hyde Road were once a year from 1965-1970 for the BLRC. It was a great day out and I thoroughly enjoyed each meeting. The track was good for racing and the atmosphere was great.

Thank you for that. Sadly I can only get Eurosport and that only on my pc. Makes watching a 3 hour GP broadcast hard work looking at a small computer screen, and sitting on a hard chair at that. The things we do to watch our sport!.

Hello Norbold. For customhouseregular read oldhammersfan. Nice to find you again and yes, I do miss the old site.