25yearfan

I know what riders I have put into the categories I stated but that would be unfair to name which riders go into each category cause I respect anyone that has a go but people watching Scunny could probably work it out! Like I said I respect Scunny for trying to be totally ethical about bringing on young Brits but the reality is half the Stags team are riders who wouldn't get in any other team apart from maybe the bottom end at Buxton and will struggle to get any better! If my local NL team, Mildenhall put out a team like Scunny Stags have they would lose over half their crowd and struggle to be viable. That's the perennial problem with Division 3 racing in this Country in that you will always have teams with different outlooks. Scunthorpe have taken their outlook to the extreme which in fairness Rob Godfrey said before the season started was exactly the idea behind the project! Yes King's Lynn have got a number of journeymen who'll go no further but like Mildenhall they have to try a put together a competitive team or otherwise they'd lose a packet running NL meetings at King's Lynn. I've been told Buster Chapman wasn't happy with the Stags line up being so weak! Another way to eleviate this problem would be to restructure the League set up in Britain with a bigger top flight featuring the stronger PL teams, a middle tier weaker than the present PL but with more Brits, EG the experienced old hands in the NL moving up along with the strong standalone clubs like Mildenhall, Kent, Cradley, Stoke and a more development based 3rd Division which would suit the Scunthorpe Stags ethic much better!

The ethics and theory behind the Scunthorpe Stags project this year are fair enough but in reality the team is made up of an old hand at no1 who isn't that experienced and is a 2nd string at best, 2-3 at the very most young inexperienced riders with potential and the rest journeyman, development League/amateur riders who no one else wanted with virtually no hope of ever getting better! I can see some standalone NL clubs reducing admission prices unless the Stags beef up their line up, just like Bob Dugard did in the late 70's at Eastbourne when ironically the visitors were Scunthorpe in the 1970's National League! As for King's Lynn, I'd agree the likes of messrs Mallett, Cockle, Hughes and Campos are journeyman National League guys who aren't going to get better but messrs Rose, Bailey and Owen will likely get better and like a previous poster says quality is better than quantity! I'd rather watch the likes of Cockle Mallett, Hughes and Campos than what I would no hopers trailing round at the back! Maybe if they were so interested in giving rides to inexperienced development riders Scunny would of been better of running two/three development teams in the Midland Development League calling them Scunny Stags, Saints and even maybe Hull Vikings?

I hope Stoke speedway sorts out its many problems and returns to being a decent sustainable set up! Its been proven in the past that when run properly Stoke speedway is a viable middle tier club. Running 3rd Division level racing there is always going to be difficult even when ran well because most of Stokes history has been spent in the middle with even one season in the top flight in 1996 when Cradley moved there so long term fans find that level hard to accept. Although Cradleys spell there in 1996 ended cause the crowds wern't that great and in my opinion in present times National League speedway is often better value for money! From what I've heard from many people in speedway and Stoke fans, the recent years have seen the standards drop big time and anyone constructively criticising the promotion (which the paying customer in particular those who've been going there for a lot of years have every right) have been met with abuse. The current problems epitomise this.

Somebody should get the petition online and on this site so we can all sign it to fight against this nonsense!

Excellent piece by someone who has certainly been a commited Glasgow speedway fan! Glasgow speedway has certainly had a colourful and chequered past! You should count yourself lucky that beings Glasgows such a big City, you've had other venues available after losing a previous track! I often wonder had White City near to Glasgow Rangers FC survived then would speedway in Glasgow be more popular? I loved going to Hampden Park, what a venue, particularly when speedway was there with its huge terraces. Unfortunately this venue was too big! The 1980's were mainly a very lean period spell for the club. The 2nd Blantyre venue would be a poor 3rd Division venue. Glasgow have done well to keep going. I'd love to see a National League team open up somewhere in Scotland to help produce some Scottish riders something of which we haven't seen much of lately! Any potential venues in Scotland for a National League team?

Telstar by the Tornados always reminds me of the last last few years at the Firs stadium, home of the great Norwich Stars!

Very true unfortunately! The same as anything thats loss making, how ever much you may enjoy it there will come a time when you think I don't want to keep burning money! Easy to critiscise when your not putting your own money in! The only hope now is some tycoon comes in last minute or one of the IOW few regulars win the lottery!

Peterborough speedway has been bankrolled for a number of years now! I'm convinced the problems there started when the traditional Friday night racenight was changed! The two tracks I spectate at the most Ipswich and Mildenhall both have long standing traditional racenights and are both well supported compared to most other tracks in this day and age. If both moved to another racenight or had the infrequency of irregular racenights like Peterborough have had then both would see reduced crowd levels and in Ipswich case, it has nearly always had bigger crowds than Peterborough! Regular Friday night speedway at the EofES and Peterborough speedway would hold its own, maybe even without a rich benefactor propping it up!

While its great to see another team in this years NL, its bewildering why Poole couldn't of come to some arrangement to prevent the IOW from folding! Even more bewildering when Pooles not that far from the IOW while its a mighty distance to Scunthorpe! Still fingers crossed the IOW can sort something out! I'd rather the IOW were saved and Scunny didn't have a NL team cause British speedway would still have 1 more track! Being greedy lets hope the IOW can keep going!

Peterborough speedway ran sucessfully for 30 years on a Friday night! Therefore Friday night remains the best night for speedway at the Showground when many people don't have to get up for work the next day and there is no school! Like others have said, speedway ran successfully for many years on Fridays including times when events were being set up for the weekend. Why it became a problem all of a sudden is crazy, although I suspect new management with different ideas probably had something to do with that! Premier League speedway on a Friday night with the club being ran properly will in my opinion see the venue become viable again, but running midweek at Peterborough is the main reason why the place has struggled for the last 13 or so years!

I agree Malcolm Vaseys got his faults like we all have but what you can't fault is his enthusiasm and dedication to the sport and particularly the 3rd Division. Dave Tattum holds the reins at Stoke and from what I can gather Macolm Vasey only works within Tattums constraints! Haven't been to Stoke for quite a while but it seems theirs problems there and the place needs a change of speedway ownership to give it a necessary shot in the arm! When an established Premier League track drops its 1st team into the next League down theres bound to be quite a few fans who won't take the drop down lightly and stop going. This is why when a club does drop down it has to run really well and progressively with strong team and a reasonable investment in trying to improve or at least maintain track, facilities and presentation standards. From watching from afar this is what seems to be happening at Stoke.

Combining all 4 sports there would be the best outcome but would there be room for the lucrative housing? Maybe a stadium featuring dogs, greyhounds and stock cars thats a bit bigger than the new Crayford track could be possible beside a bigger football ground? And yes I've been to the new Crayford and I've always maintained that dinky little stadium could accomdate a tiny Plymouth like speedway track! I don't get all this WImbledon stadiums now poor talk. Yes its needs some TLC (we all know the reasons why that hasn't happened!) but it would still be better than most other speedway stadiums in the UK! I fear that football will win the day unfortunately cause they could guarantee 4000+ crowds and would get more if they climbed up the Divisions. Speedway if they reopened in at least the Premier League with a good track would at best average 1500-2000 for a start but this would drop after the honeymoon period had gone! Hopefully the fact that Wimbledons the only place with a London postcode that still stages greyhounds and stock cars (and could stage speedway) will be given serious consideration.

Multi track promotor Cyril Crane was behind the plans to stage speedway at Watford! In the late 60's British speedway had developed into a boom period and people were trying to open up tracks everywhere cause back in them days you could almost open up anywhere and be guaranteed viable crowds! Cyril had many attempts at reopening Norwich speedway even going as far as opening a black licence track just north of the city in 1976 that ran one meeting. Around the time of the Watford attempt he also tryed to open a track at Colchester but nearby Ipswich who've always attracted a sprinkling of fans from that neck of the woods protested and nothing came of it! We'll never know but I think its likely that the combination of Cyrils nous, speedways popularity at the time and Watford being a biggish place not far from London that speedway at Vicarage Road could of done well for a while. Probably had this happened then Watford speedway could of ticked along nicely until the early 80's until speedways popularity started to fall away and the football club would of had enough??

['rmc' timestamp=1376133100' post='2327039] One of the most nauseating aspects of online forums is the way very unpleasant personal attacks are made by people conveniently hiding behind false names. Have you ever actually met Steve? He's a decent, intelligent guy, straight in his dealings, which is probably why he's had so many problems dealing with the BSPA. I would far rather share his company than the vast majority of people I've met in speedway. It is incredibly difficult to discuss the true story of what happened at Wimbledon due to legal bullying by one of the participants. Indeed I cannot even state their name here for fear of causing Phil and his forum severe problems. Still, people will believe what they wish to believe and if nothing else this forum loves a hate figure to focus its sad little vendettas on whether it be promoters, riders or commentators, all conducted from the convenient safety of anonymity. To drag this back on-topic, if someone genuinely has a decent site for speedway in south Wales they should be encouraged and not met with this depressing example of forum members' needs to look important, or heaven forbid, even relevant. What the forum had said in response to the OP is: "Don't bother, we know better and it isn't worth it, and anyway someone we've got a problem with will probably bugger it up anyway. Now let's get the bile out for other matters". I do hope you're proud of yourselves. Now I hope the poison pen letters are going well.... Oh, just spotted a closing point - all is forgiven if Steve re-opens your club? It redefines moral bankruptcy.It's all okay as long as YOU benefit. Disgusting. Rob McCaffery 25yearfan We've been here before! Yeah yeah, if it wasn't for the big bad BSPA and the rest of the world for that matter Steve Ribbons would have turned speedway into the biggest and best sport on the planet and he's be in the process of taking over the whole sporting world!!! I'm sure, in fact pretty certain Steve Ribbons is no monster, probably even an "OK" bloke (away from his pie in the sky dreams) but like has been said on a Norwich speedway thread on this forum he is his own worst enemy and his previous track record is one of a guy whos gallantly stuck his neck out and tryed promoting but unfortunately has failed. He seems to me to let his emotions get the better of him, getting carried away, and ends up biting more than he can chew and getting himself into silly situations which turns many people against him! I consider his "episode" at Wimbledon a success in that without Steve Ribbons the place wouldn't have reopened to speedway but he ultimately failed in the longer term cause he bit of more than he could chew due to over enthusiasm and relyed to much on a character he should have stayed well away from! Rye House was the same in that its likely that without the nomadic set up of which he was a part of, its likely Rye House wouldn't have returned to Hoddesdon and had to date 14 seasons of racing. But again Steve Ribbons wouldn't have been capable of doing what Len Silver has done since the 2000 Hoddesdon return! Like everyone else in speedway we greeted the potential return of speedweay to Norwich with much enthusiasm which was dampened big time when we saw who was behind the plans. My only hope now is that someone capable like Tony Mole takes on the Showground plans cause Ribbons certainly picked the best place in Norwich to stage speedway! Rob you can stick up for the guy as much as you like but facts are facts and you make yourself look silly by trying to defend the undefendable. We'll have to agree to disagree where the much maligned one is concerned but I've certainly nothing personal against the bloke and nor have the BSPA. Anyone with his track record wouldn't be allowed to promote simple as! As for forgiving him if he reopens Norwich speedway!!! 1, Its not going to happen cause he isn't capable! 2, Even if he could, the BSPA won't give him a licence! 3, Like I've said before, Steve Ribbons could have set the wheels in motion for persons capable to reopen Norwich speedway even if he isn't the one to actually do it. If this happens then I'll give him credit for it like I did in the Rye House and Wimbledon revivals! As for accusing me of trying to look important and relevant on this speedway in South Wales thread!!!!!!! You couldn't be further from the truth! If I was trying to look important I'd reveal who I was and everything I said was relevant. I suppose I'm similar to the much maligned Steve Ribbons in that I love the great sport of speedway and nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing more tracks opening up. I certainly don't want any speedway track to fail as you seem to imply! Again I've mentioned facts like Carmarthen and Neath failing as speedway centres. Is this correct or not? That said the Meakins family done something most people haven't managed in that they built a speedway track from scratch (Carmathen Dragons speedway) and ran League speedway at the venue for 3 seasons! I've also disclosed my own opinions (whether they are right or wrong we'll only know if League speedway ever returns to Wales) on the potential of speedway in Wales which isn't it what these forums are about? I think your articles in the backtrack magazine are excellent but you really spoil yourself by trying to defend the undefendable. Anybody making the promises about Norwich speedway like Steve Ribbons has done in the last 2 years and not delivering would have been ridiculed and not taken seriously! Lets hope Norwich speedway, a new track in South Wales, Oxford, Wimbledon, Bradford and many other tracks reopen and are run properly by persons who can do the job!

Boris Johnson supported the retention of greyhound racing at Catford and Walthamstow? Catford shut 10 years ago and has to my knowledge been built on and Walthamstow shut 3-4 years back but hasn't been built on yet Wouldn't it be nice if Wimbledon stadium was bought by Mr Taggert and was redeveloped into a multi use venue staging dogs, SPEEDWAY, stock cars and other events AND AFC Wimbledon comeback to another site in the borough!!! I'm sure if a new Wimbledon speedway had all the right elements than then the venue could sustain Elite or Premier League racing!

In most cases a speedway track has to be near chimney pots in order to be a success! I know a big % of Ipswich speedways regular crowd comes from a 5 mile radius of of Foxhall and I suspect most of these wouldn't go to speedway if they had to travel much further. I'm sure this would also be the case at many other tracks and this fact is often overlooked. This why I think if Norwich speedway ever reopened it wouldn't effect Ipswich, King's Lynn or Mildenhall as much as what some seem to think it would! Mildenhall speedway is one of the few exceptions but they work cause they are in a speedway hotbed with Peterborough, King's Lynn, Ipswich and Rye House speedways not far of, the Sunday raceday is easier to attract fans and some other big population areas without speedway tracks aren't that far like Norwich, Cambridge and the capital! Running League speedway at venues in South Wales away from large population areas has been tryed 10 years ago at Camarthen who struggled to get crowds over 200 and back in the 1960's at Neath who lasted one season then closed cause of low crowds in an era when speedway crowds in general were at least double what they are now on a poor day! I think League speedway in South Wales would work at Newport or Cardiff if ran properly and maybe at a push Swansea but the further into South Wales you go the less interest in speedway there is. How many Welsh people go to the GP at Cardiff? - not that many I'd of thought? ['Parsloes 1928 nearly') Steve Ribbons btw achieved something which no promoter had managed to do for a decade and something which everyone else said would NEVER happen - and that was to reopen Wimbledon Speedway. So I personaly think he deserves some respect rather than the constant jibes... Noone who knows their speedway denys that or that the bloke has the best intentions at heart, but hes also proven hes a notoriety obsessed pillock and an inept, totally unsuitable speedway promotor! That said if he does for my old team Norwich what he done for Wimbledon then I wouldn't complain!

A great character who added much to the Ipswich speedway show back in the late 70's! Probably the most memorable flag marshall I've ever seen in my long association with this great sport!

All this squit about Robert Lambert on away tracks need to be cleared up! Hes ridden quite a lot at Rye House, one of the tightest, smallest tracks in the Country and had times on a par with the PL! I'd love to see him at Buxton where I'd suggest his PL level (at least) gating skills and speed to the 1st bend would see him win most of his races with maybe only Charles Wright able to seriously challenge him! That said after this year he won't need to worry about gettign around Buxton cause he'll soon bypass the NL! I've only seen 2 other riders like him at 15, Michael Lee and David Howe! Lets hope he gets to the same level as Michael Lee without all the bulls*it and has David Howes longevity and level headedness!

Very true Speigal regarding the likes of Lanham and co. Certainly the 70's were great times at Foxhall. I'm convinced with how speedway is nowadays regarding costs, chances to race/practise and opting for (in some cases!) ready made foriegners, riders like Lanham, Howgego, Dave Gooderham and even someone as good as Shrimp Davey wouldn't of gone as far in present times than they did back then! You aren't very complimentary about Chris Shears (WHICH IS UNDERSTANDABLE IF WE'RE BEING HONEST!) but then mention Castagna as someone who had status but the much maligned Shears signed him so credit where credits due! I know you don't go much on the present day Ipswich speedway but present times are different to the 70's early 80's with so much more things to do than in the past, and less disposable cash for most people. Yes I'll agree John Berry was a great promotor even though he was a moody so and so and very aloof unless you was in his inner circle but I think if the 1970's John Berry was transported via a time machine to present times I don't think he'd do any better than what the equally aloof Chris Louis is doing!

['waco' timestamp=1370163847' post='2291767] So Lambert has signed for Kings Lynn ,,Feel sorry for Len after all he did for Robert at Rye ,,Fortunately he is not riding on monday against the Kings..The young stars are now one of the strongest teams in the league ,if not the strongest . I'm sure its quite likely had Rye house still been running NL at Hoddesdon instead of decamping to Sittingbourne then Robert Lambert would of been lining up there! Hes only just turned 15 and is still at school north of Norwich. Riding at Sittingbourne on a Monday would of meant half a day of school at least! I'm sure if he shows up well enough for King's Lynn in this years NL then he'll likely be lining up for the Rockets in next years PL!

['sidney'] Did Kevin ride in amongst, A.Hines, Squirrell, Hunt, Fines? at Foxhall i see Kevin for Scunny a very good rider i am sure Tai,s dad Rob rode that day. Yes Kevin would of been around with them guys in the late 70's, early 80's in his early days in the sprt! Then again Kevins still going strong now so would of rode against countless numbers of riders spanning 35+ years! ['Vincent Vega'] Moggo was a good rider for Ipswich 1989 and 1990. Very true but around that time you had messrs Chris Louis, Mark Loram, Dean Standing, David Norris so Moggo didn't stand out like he would have done in a poor team! In fact throughout his career Moggo was good value for the vast majority of his time!

Yeah I don't want to be harsh but if a riders been riding adult speedway races (amatuer/junior league 2nd halfs and in the case of Woods riding abroad as well) ) for 3+ years and is still not NL reserve standard then its obvious that they will probably not get any better. I suspect one or more of the bottom 3 at Kent were only brought in order to accomodate the high average Boxhall, cause the new set up Kent understandably done their team building later than the other teams so had few options and cause they were also waiting for a certain R Lambert to complete their line up and be their trump card at reserve? As for Mason, hes not the rider he was and is on the wane but can still do a 2nd string job as well as pass on his vast knowledge to the younger riders. To drop him this early into the season is harsh to say the least. To replace him with a guy whos had a stop start speedway career to date makes it even more hard to swallow for Mason, though I'd suspect Compton (whos probably using this as a stop gap/practise till his home town team Bradfords likely return next year in the PL) would probably do better? Mason apparently brought a lot of people with to the speedway so this could have been handled better. Had he been struggling after 10 meetings then Mason himself would of taken it better and held his hands up not to mention others! But of course nobody can tell the now often niave and ignorant Len "I've been in speedway since the stone age, so I know more than anyone and I'm always right" Silver anything!! (Just to say that I respect Len Silver tremendously for whats hes done in speedway and he'd know more than almost anyone about speedway but he isn't always right which has been proved many times in recent years!) (I also hope that messrs Woods and Kirby prove me and many other people wrong and go onto have tremendous speedway careers cause afterall they are British, something which is an extremely endangered species in the sport these days!)

Very harsh on Mason who although struggling deserved more time than this! The problem is having 3 guys barely up to NL standard at the bottom end of the team is too much! Whilst I agree that the NLs about bringing on young riders, Sam Woods has been riding for a long while now without ever being enough good for NL reserve standard which says it all! Kirbys been knocking around for a while now as well, another tell tale sign! Hope things work out for everyone at Kent but moves like the one on Mason will not help things, particularly the PR side of things!

Anyone who really know their Ipswich Witches will see I made a mistake regarding the Ipswich Witches career of KevinTeager! I said he was never good enough to warrant a reular place in the Witches team which was true if your talking about the British League top flight glory years of the 1970's and 1980's! But Kevin was in fact a regular member of the Witches team in the 1989 National League (2nd Division in them days!) and the 1996 Premier League when the two top Leagues merged into one big League!

Guys like Mike Lanham, Ted Howego and Nigel Flatman were far better riders than they've been given credit for. Its just they were in such a good team at the time that they quite often went under the radar somewhat! Kevin Teager was a good 2nd Division rider who was loyal to the Witches but was never quite good enough to warrant a regular place in the team. The fact he dropped down into 3rd division racing when in his late 30's/early 40's and was a good heatleader shows how good he was. Hes still riding now and doing well in veteran events which is another example of his very good riding abilities. Shrimp Davey could have pushed for a world title win but for the bad injuries and maybe not wanting it as much as he could have done which was largely due to these horrific injuries!