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steve roberts

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Everything posted by steve roberts

  1. ...your comparison with Play Offs was primarily about football. Totally different scenario. Football will always be successful due to the massive media attention it receives and constant brainwashing. Whatever speedway comes up with it will never be able to compete on equal terms. Interesting your comment about rule changes but speedway ran along quite successfully with little manipulation and/or changes to the rule book. The constant changing of race formula, points limits etc etc during the late eighties was one of many factors that caused the gradual decline of the sport. It's obvious that changes haven't brought the necessary crowds back to speedway despite suggesting that times have changed and speedway needs to move on. Personally I feel that the sport has reached a level that is unsustainable and all the tweaking will not alter that.
  2. ...yes the seventies when speedway enjoyed coverage in the mass media and terrestrial TV and attracted thousands of people instead of hundreds and England ruled and teams filled with British riders and the Second Division was a conveyor belt for developing talent. Comparing speedway to football and the Play-Off system as your earlier post highlighted is a totally different scenario as has been pointed out. Tweaking and playing about with rules and the unavailability, or indeed unwillingness, of some riders from competing in Britain won't encourage new fans to the sport hence the continuing decline. Not forgetting the impact that the GP's have created regarding the domestic programme over the years despite it's good (?) intentions.
  3. Sad news. Remember him turning out for White City when 'The Witches' dispensenced with his serivices. RIP
  4. Yes I think you are right...used to follow the Ice Hockey scene in the UK (Oxford City 'Stars') but can you imagine the uproar in footballing circles if the team that finished top didn't end up as champions!
  5. ...just read your post and duplicated your view! Always amuses me when people compare the Play-Off system in speedway with football in particular. Not sure how other sports decide their champions however.
  6. Sad news indeed. Promoter at Oxford, White City and Eastbourne and was always passionate about the sport. Remember when 'The Rebels' signed Tony Lomas and Bob took to the track at Cowley to demonstrate the best way of riding the track and promptly broke his ankle! A great servant and a great loss to the sport. RIP
  7. ...but am I correct in saying that Play-Offs in football, for example, decide who is to be promoted and relegated? Those teams that finish top of the table (whatever the league) are crowned champions unlike speedway.
  8. Yet another stadium apparently under threat. What with the demise of Coventry and my team (Oxford) as well as Reading plus Dudley Wood and the recent demolition of Plough Lane speedway's future looks bleak to say the least.
  9. Ah yes! Respect...something that occasionally goes amiss on this forum whatever the subject and/or discussion and/or opinion and continual discrediting of some posters. To my knowledge I've never shown disrespect to any comment that you may have made...disagreed perhaps...but never disrespected. ...now we're both guilty of going round in circles!
  10. ...constantly and without fail although I am sometimes selective in what I read personally!
  11. Interesting observation and suggests that nothing can be taken for granted...even football with all the media hype that exists!
  12. ...I read this book back in the seventies and recently bought a copy off ebay. A fabulous read and compliments his much later book 'Will to Win".
  13. ...the difference, of course. being is that I only engage with areas of new technology that I find useful rather than allowing technology to dictate which often involves having to spend hundreds of pounds on something that you may never use, or indeed, require but it's all about "Keeping up with the Jones" Thankfully I'm above all of that. It was interesting to see that books sales are up depite the advent of kindle which many 'experts' envisaged would bring about the demise of books....and I have hundreds of books which I consult.
  14. ...it's the same when you phone a utility company and all you want to do is talk to someone direct whilst the introductory waffling message gives you a hundred and one different options and messages it's cost a tidy sum before you've got to where you wish to be.
  15. ...I watch Laurel & Hardy and Chaplin movies and have a collection of Super 8 movies, Video and DVDs featuring both and others. Doesn't mean I don't accept modern technology as I have just re-found model railways and enjoy the new improvisations and as a very keen photographer I am about to upgrade my digital camera.
  16. ...Personally I've never totally gone along with the music played argument. In all my years going to speedway the music was often of the latest chart selection which is what the younger generation (those very people the sport needs to attract) tend to listen to anyway and, therefore, able to relate to same...which is more than I could half of the time!
  17. ...This is an area that the late John Berry used to raise. Whereas once upon a time the one-off World Final when staged in this country would provide a divided income for British tracks (as well as other FIM and shared BSPA events) when the GPs came along the whole scenario changed and with little interference from the BSPA who allowed the circus to dictate it's own terms.
  18. ...Can't wait to get my hands on the recently released London Speedway DVD.
  19. ...I seem to recall Oxford giving this a go when Steve Purchase was the promoter?
  20. ...not if I can help it! Getting thru' the World Cup was challenging enough!
  21. ...good point shale. Often overlooked. I recall conversations over the years that it was becoming increasingly difficult in obtaining a good quality shale. Inferior shale obtained too much clay and that used to reflect the quality of the racing. May have been a discussion that I once had with track curator Colin Meredith (?) when I helped out at Cowley prior to one particular season.
  22. ...or Oxford Team Manager Bernard Crapper who used to have a go at the ref on the start line phone and when I questioned Bernard many years later he said he was only passing the time of the day with the ref but felt that the meeting needed spicing up!
  23. ...some great images although I would question Wolves. Too much like a hairpin with long straights and tight bends (Kirky Lane similar) Recall John Berry saying that to get round Wolves a rider would have to put a high gearing on which would compromise circumnavigating the bends which caused the bikes to rev too hard. However it would sort out the serious contenders and one can't argue with the greats who excelled at Monmore Green...in particular Ole Olsen, Hans Nielsen and Sam Ermolenko. Not one of my personal favourites however although Oxford's record there was second to none.
  24. ...Oxford was a perfect shape (but I would say that) except I would say that the exits from the bends were a bit narrow and widening of same would have been advantageous.
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