25yearfan

There must have been 3-5000 at the dog meeting at Romford when I went and we parked although it was difficult to find a space. Now in current times I doubt if hardly any team meetings in British speedway get more than 2500 at the most! Speedway at Romford Greyhound stadium could work I think!

I've been to Romford greyhound stadium and there is lots of noise and the main London, Liverpool St to Norwich is right next to it. I can't imagine one night of speedway a week 25 times a year in the summer with strict time limits, acoustic barriers and the pits area situated in a position in the stadium where its noise is kept to a minimum like Birmingham would be a problem?

Len Silver got the bug again after the 1999 homeless Rye House Rockets rode in the Conference League, racing their home matches at Mildenhall and Eastbourne. Without the initiative of the fans who decided to do this, its doubtful Rye House would of got going again! Yes they maybe a futile exercise but Cradley for instance have been a major pull at 3rd Division level, pulling in big crowds home and away, bringing on up and coming young riders and keeping the clubs name alive!

In a perfect world we'd have no homeless teams competing in Leagues but if allowing these teams to run eventually leads to them finding a new track or in Rye Houses case in 2000 a return to their stadium then their existence is justified!

Yes it was a scandal that such a well supported sports team, the Romford Bombers were forced to close cause of one blokes campaign. Ironically, the blokes son was a "Bombers" regular and the guy moved soon after winning his campaign. I'm convinced that had Romford speedway been allowed to continue, the Bombers with their huge support would of eventually gone into the top flight and become one of the biggest club sides in the Country, probably much the same as Ipswich speedway did who opened the same year as Romford in 1969! I believe the stadium was knocked down in the late 70's because the football team were struggling and couldn't afford to keep it open, how ironic again! I also think that reopening Romford speedway at the Greyhound track would also be viable even in current times and would be the closest thing we'd have to a London track!

Like others have rightly pointed out Ron Bagley along with John Berry and John Louis are the names that spring to mind when casting your mind back to the formative days of the current incarnation of Ipswich speedway which began in 1969 on a new track inside the stock car which was the old original speedway track! Indeed while John Berry is correctly credited with being one of the best promotors ever, the assistance he received from Ron helped him achieve this! Ron Bagley was one of the few riders who rode on both the outside and inside Ipswich tracks, indeed he rode for the Witches in both eras which I'm not sure anyone else did? He was instrumental in helping to nurture the careers of Witches legends John Louis, Billy Sanders and Tony "Shrimp" Davey as well as many others in them wonderful years in the 70's. His team riding with Louis in 1970/71 at Foxhall was masterful! I recall him starting out at Caister Road, Great Yarmouth riding for the Bloaters alongside Geoff Pymer. He will also be remembered by older Mildenhall fans cause he was team manager in 1979 when the Fen Tigers won the National League. He also had a short less fruitful spell trying to turn around the fortunes of an ailing Workington speedway in the early 80's before drifting away from the sport. Alongside another Ipswich speedway legend, "Noddy", Ron should have a spread in the 1st meeting programme! If there was an Ipswich Witches speedway hall of fame, then Ron Bagley would be most definitely in it!

In fairness Joe Jacobs was never going to be more than a 6pt 2nd Division rider at the very most! But he's had less chances than many 2nd/3rd rate foriegners! If he'd of been about in the 1970's Joe would of had more rides for teams!

Henny Kroeze by a proverbial mile! Held a regular place in the top flight and was a half decent rider around Halifax! Even rode in the 1987 World Final in Amsterdam when he was seeded in being the best Dutch rider even then, when he was way past his best!

Silly question when you look at the results! Armando Castagna by a preverbial mile!

Noddy always said he started watching speedway when John Berry and Joe Thurley reopened Ipswich in 1969 which is now 48 years ago, so I'd say he was in his 60's? I well remember him from the 1970's and he must have been in his 20's then? A unique character!

A great character who you'd bump into all over the place at various speedway tracks especially his beloved Ipswich and nearby Mildenhall! One of his greatest achievements was hitchiking to the Ukraine in 1990 for the World U21 Final fittingly won by Ipswich's own Chris Louis! Yes at one time he was a cobbler amongst other things. I believe he often worked at shops where he knew that someone, either a rider, promoter or a fan lived nearby so he could hitch a lift to the speedway! He can't have been any older than late 60's? Speedway's much the worse without this one- off character!

Mauger went home at the end of 1958 and didn't return to British speedway until 1963 I think! Ivan didn't ride League speedway in 1982 and 83. He only returned in 1984 to help out a desperately shorthanded Exeter on their return to the British League where he managed to blackmail the authorities into allowing him to ride home meetings only!! Simmo didn't ride in 1988 when he was co-promotor at King's Lynn! Scotty had his first League rides in 1994 for Peterborough and has been going ever since apart from a brief spell at the start of one season where he tried missing Britissh speedway in a failed attempt to enhance his GP career. If you count complete years of racing then Scotty I think started racing in junior grasstrack in the mid 1980's! Rob Hollingworth retired in 1986 and came back via amateur speedway in late 1998!

Les Collins' last League season was in 2003 for Glasgow!

I was a Mildenhall speedway regular in 2001 and can definately confirm that Simmo didn't ride that season for the Fen Tigers. I'm sure his last League season was in 1993 when he had a few meetings for an injury hit King's Lynn. I saw a few of these last appearances where unfortunately he was miles of the pace.

Simmo rode League speedway from 1963-87 then had one season spells in 1989 and 1993. Can't recall him riding in 2001. although I believe he spoke to Mildenhall but certainly never rode for them! I know he rode grasstrack into the 2000's!

Johnny Chamberlain made a decent contribution to the Norwich Stars teams of the 1950's! Many of ex Firs regulars still left will still mention his name when talking about the good ole days of Norwich speedway! Johnny Chamberlain made a decent contribution to the Norwich Stars teams of the 1950's! Many of ex Firs regulars still left will still mention his name when talking about the good ole days of Norwich speedway! Johnny Chamberlain made a decent contribution to the Norwich Stars teams of the 1950's! Many of ex Firs regulars still left will still mention his name when talking about the good ole days of Norwich speedway! Sorry for the messed up post, must be my general technophopia! R.I.P Johnny Chamberlain!

And also financing a rider wanting to try his/her luck at speedway racing is much more expensive now than what it was in the late 50's. A revival is not impossible but very, very difficult in this modern age of many other attractions and kids nowadays more interested in looking at screens!

OK meeting but Mildenhall are too strong on their home turf which made Lakeside with their 3 passengers, easy pickings! Unfortunately due to the large number of teams in the 3rd tier and the shortage of riders, journeyman tyre packers like Laurence are needed to enable teams to make up the numbers. I'm sure if their was better options about then Lakeside would of done something about it! Yes the whole Lakeside set up with dropping down the Leagues, the lack of meetings, Jon Cook not even bothering to go to away matches and the team not serious challengers seems very stale and just going to through the motions. This doesn't bode well for the future.

West Ham was a wonderful big fast track and the stadium was huge, although it still had created good atmosphere even if under a fifth full! I often wonder whether West Ham Hammers speedway team would have survived up to the present if the stadium had been saved from redevelopment?

Good luck to these latest plans to build a new track for one if not the best supported team in the Country! I'm sure a properly thought out and run Cradley speedway track would be successful!

Like all things in life, talking about something is the easy part, actually carrying out what your talking about is another thing! While undoubtedly Buster Chapman has his flaws, probably doesn't delegate enough, will minipulate situations in his favour and will try to deny/ cover up faults, all common traits of those in management, his overall his contribution to speedway has been very beneficial. I dread to think what state King's Lynn speedway, (indeed if there would even be a King's Lynn speedway now?) would be in without the hard working contributions of Buster! That said its obvious this season that all is not rosy in the King's Lynn speedway garden. Buster needs to look at things and realise things are not what they should be and if they continue as they are then the long term future of speedway at King's Lynn maybe threatened.

My team Norwich closed at the end of 1964 and haven't been back since. When you've experienced that at your track and at a track that was well supported you'd understand more! If we followed Mikes theory then when Eastbourne, Birmingham and Lakeside dropped out of the EL they were instantly banished to closure! IoW, Stoke, Mildenhall and Plymouth all dropped out of the 2nd Division in the last 10 years, they too would be banished to closure as well! I've long maintained that the more tracks the better as more interest is manipulated and from many who otherwise wouldn't be interested in speedway. I suspect that a sizeable % of a tracks hardcore support would stop going if the track ceased operations! Whilst King's Lynn's Young Stars demise isn't good news, at least they weren't a standalone team which would mean that speedway would lose a track. In present times the current NL has to many teams caused by the often unsustainable nature of the top 2 Divisions, combined with less riders available meaning that lower end NL teams are struggling big time. Buxtons big win yesterday proves that their is possibly light at the end of the tunnel!?

The bottom line is that without the 3rd tier, recent Elite League clubs, Birmingham, Eastbourne and Lakeside would all probably be defunct! The same goes for the likes of Mildenhall, IoW, Stoke and Plymouth. Buxton would of never even seen speedway! Cradley would be a name from the past! Unfortunately in these times of less riders competing in League speedway, this means that the present day National League has probably become to big in terms of team numbers which means that the poorer, less attractive teams struggle to put together a competitive line up! There has long been a conflict of interests in the 3rd tier going back to the early years in the mid 90's with the standalones needing competitive, trophy competing line ups in order to sustain viable interest with terms of crowd levels and sponsorship while the 2nd teams of higher League tracks won't be under as much pressure be viable cause the main team would subsidise the reserve whose main agenda would be to develop future higher League riders. The influx of teams that in an ideal world would be in higher League combined with less riders riding in League speedway has made this conflict more extreme and tougher for the poorer 3rd Division clubs cause riders naturally will go to clubs who can offer better financial rewards and more chance of winning. But the top 2 Leagues in present times only survive through riders doubling up so wheres the solution? It'd be good to see a couple of the stronger standalones move up next season but where are the extra riders coming from and why do they want to go from a viable League to one where they will likely lose money, struggle to get a competitive team and ultimately end up in the same situation that forced to them to take refuse in the 3rd tier in the 1st place? The solutions? - Top 15-16 higher League tracks combine and form a big top tier while the rest combine with the stronger 3rd tier teams and form a 2nd Division slightly stronger than the current National League while a new less competitive 3rd tier is created featuring the likes of Buxton, Iwade?, Northside?, reserve teams and ultilising many of the riders competing in the current 4th tier Junior Leagues? 6 person teams?

Brafield was looked at by wily multi track promoter and saviour Tony Mole a decade or so ago. For some reason(s) things never developed which I suspect would be good reasons as Tony Moles a shrewd operator! I've always said that National League (3rd tier) racing at Brafield under the Northampton banner could be viable, even as an alternative to the attempts to get a track in Milton Keynes again. Northampton Knights? Spedeworth have been landlords to Ipswich speedway for many years. In the past they have been against running stock cars on shale tracks (in my opinion the best stock car racing is on shale tracks!) but last year purchased West Row Stadium home of the Fen Tigers and want the speedway to continue there! I think there is room inside the big stock car track at Brafield for a smallish Lakeside like track which at 3rd tier level would be a good track to enhance raw skills!

Fingers crossed for a positive outcome Brian! A profit making leisure facility should be cherished! It would also be more profit making if the Cradley Heathens were allowed to race there!