steve roberts

Is the book available as a hard back?

...no better or worse than football fans (often grown men and women) chanting banal songs!

...of course in my youth we used to do 'War Cries' use rattles and later air horns to generate an atmosphere and before people suggest that today's youth would find all that 'un-cool' it doesn't stop them from participating in banal chants at football matches and the like.

I used to follow Oxford City 'Stars' Ice Hockey team and I have to agree that it used to create a great atmosphere (especially The Town vs. Gown matches) however it's much easier creating an atmosphere within an enclosed inside arena rather than an open stadium whereby the weather will always be a factor as well as other issues.

Garry 'Cassius' Middleton....what a character! The infamous incident when he pulled a gun on Roy Trigg in the pits after a race at Dudley Wood. Read an interview with Finn Thomsen who commented that he used to have problems with Garry on track but, then again, Finn was never a shrinking violet and there was no love lost between him and the late Billy Sanders.

I recall that speedway adopted such a measure many years ago and would be interested to learn why it was dropped? I can only assume that a rider when passing over the concrete section picked up extra grip causing the bike to rear (?) or too much grip whilst waiting for the tapes to rise in that it didn't allow the rear wheel to spin? When I had a go at speedway at King's Lynn it amazed me the depth of grooves at the starting area and passing over them was like hitting a 'rumble strip' causing the front wheel and forks to vibrate!

I've said it many times before. I just wouldn't consider traveling to a meeting (York my home town to Sheffield for example) that consisted of only 15 heats. Can't see how that's value for money. Unlike some on the forum I used to enjoy the old second half/junior match etc as it gave a chance to relax after the main event chewing the fat with mates.

Ivan Mauger and Ivor Brown. Ivan talked of a deep hatred in his book "Triple Crown Plus" without naming the rider although years later he did.

Remember the incident at Cowley well. Karger just took Dugard's front wheel away and Martin, after the race had been stopped, gave him a right hook and knocked him off his bike! I think that I may have it on a DVD? I did think that there was something between Gordon Kennett and Steve Gresham but when I put the question to Steve he denied it.

...when I used to go to speedway the music played was more often than not contemporary chart music and something that I personally couldn't equate with. However whatever music was being played was often lost on me as we were too busy discussing the last/next race pre-empting the next move by the Team Manager (when they had an input!) Agree with much of what you say however.

Jack 'The Villain' Millen and Frank Auffrett. Their 'dust ups' were apparently legendary!

...I would have thought having to listen to Wham and Duran Duran would pretty well put off anybody anywhere anyplace! Some good old 'Rock 'n' Roll' is what's needed! I used to watch American Football on Channel 4 when it first transmitted (1983/84?) and used to enjoy the highlights programme. I decided to go to Wembley on a couple of occasions to watch the pre-season matches and I have to say all the off-field distractions used to irritate me (never mind the mexican wave that was all the rage back then) and it struck me that it was the event rather than the game that used to excite the fans. The constant stop/start of the game (to take in the adverts back home in 'The States') also proved a personal annoyance. I went back to watching highlighted matches...watching live either at the actual event or on TV was a massive undertaking and I eventually grew tired of the spectacle with all the hype involved and over analysis by the 'experts' pontificating over the game and moves.

Never saw him ride but tragic news...seems especially poignant in that a number of Polish riders have taken their own lives over the years. RIP

I was fortunate at Oxford that during the middle late eighties we had a team that was chasing honours and that was reflected in good crowds at Cowley. However the winter of 1984/85 whereby Newcastle, Wimbledon, Eastbourne, Poole and Exeter dropped out of the British League decimated numbers operating although when travelling away with 'The Cheetahs' I didn't notice that crowds were necessarily down overall. However from the late eighties early nineties it started to become noticeable in my experience. Attendances fluctuated at Cowley during that period with highs and lows. Whenever Oxford operated in the lower league attendances were never very good whether it was during the seventies, eighties or nineties.

Briggo mentioned it in an interview he gave in 'Backtrack' some years ago.

Trouble was/is with 'fixed gates' is that they allowed an advantage to whatever team when gates didn't alternate (successive inside or outside gates) and as dirt moved outwards it proved advantageous or disadvantageous or those with successive early inside gates before the dirt moved out...whatever the scenario. I seem to recall that a team were programmed to ride three inside gates out of four and which obviously worked the other way.

...never like fixed gates. Took away a certain amount of tactical ploy. It was also a bit of a myth that top riders always took the best gate because when one reads accounts and/or interviews it wasn't always the case as many would have us believe.

The League Cup was a good competition in my opinion also...except some teams used it to manipulate their averages before the league campaign started. Oxford headed the League Cup table in 1987 but suffered once the league started...and I agree, why was final held during October? Oxford missed out on a clean sweep of trophies during 1986 because they ran out of dates and the weather closed in...although they morally won in my view having done the hard work at Cradley having drawn and won in the KO Cup and League Cup first legs!

...Personally I always felt that it was a bit of a Red Herring. In reality most fans realised that race 'manipulation' was always present going right back to probably when speedway first became known. 'The Sunday People' always used to thrive on gutter/smutty journalism and/or articles and then by writing an article supposing to be investigatory journalism they then assumed that we should all sit up and take notice and take the paper seriously. Ivan Mauger once said when asked what he thought about the stories (and some were quite laughable) by one of their journalists he replied "Who f**king cares...nobody reads your paper!" I guess those not familiar with speedway having read the stories saw the sport as being flawed but then many sports before and since have had uncomplimentary articles published regarding many issues (drugs in particular) and don't appear to have been damaged to any great degree within the public eye.

...nice to see 'Mad' Malc Ballard in your list Sid! Wonder whatever happened to him? Retired far too soon after a move to Leicester via Poole in 1974.

Interesting article in a recent edition of 'Backtrack' when one-time SRA Secretary, Colin Gear, referred to the rising drug problem in speedway. He invited a representative of the Sports Council to attend an SRA AGM to talk about drugs in sport and speedway in particular. It was met with negativity by some of those in attendance but Hans Nielsen said "About time". Colin quotes that "Hans actually had words with an American star over it, telling him: 'If you're not taking drugs, you won't have anything to worry about'. Of all the world class riders around in my time, I found Hans one of the most supportive".

...I would add the disappearance of speedway in the capitol generally which must have affected it's stature within the mass media outlets.

I have to base it riders I have seen Mauger, Olsen, Briggs, Fundin, Moore, Michanek, Collins, Lee, Nielsen, Gundersen...but tomorrow the list may be different!

Agree as an earlier post of mine also indicated.

...Remember it well!