steve roberts

Why not offer Swindon a ready made stadium...Oxford!

...but I think that you'd agree that even within speedway's standards this is one hell of a mess...considering that the farewell meeting was held the season before last! It has been handled badly and information lacking as regards development and /or progress of same.

Wore those leathers when he joined 'The Rebels' in 1975 but soon changed them to a red, white & blue design that were passed onto Tom Godel when Dag prematurely retired.

This really has been a public relations disaster and hasn't been handled at all well.

I agree with John Cook...but he could be erratic sometimes which I would have found frustrating if he had ridden for my team!

Yes he was a Leicester rider...I recall him riding at White City in 1978.

Billy Spiers and Chris Sully during their very short spell at Cowley.

Garry Middleton, Jack Millen, Hasse Holmqvist, Gordon Kennett, Barry Thomas, Eric Broadbelt, Marek Cieslak, Malcolm Ballard, Colin Ackroyd, Derek Harrison etc etc.

He did reasonably well at Eastbourne averaging, if I recall, a six point average...but never did himself justice at Swindon.

Klaus Lausch could have made it in Britain (I remember him beating Michael Lee at Lynn on one occasion) but the lure of the continent proved too big!

Don't you swear at me! Seriously he was the front man of Bristol Stadium Ltd. who owned Oxford Stadium back in the early seventies and attempted to sell the stadium for re-development until a committee of speedway and greyhound enthusiasts got together to save it for future generations.

If I recall the meeting involving Louis Carr and Hans Nielsen resulted in a last heat decider. Mel Taylor was on gate one (can't recall gate two) Hans on three and Andy Campbell on four...the favoured gate. Entering the first bend Hans took Andy very wide allowing Mel to take the initiative and Oxford recorded a 5-1 and thus winning the match...hope I've got that right from memory! As you can imagine we, the Oxford fans, went home very happy but it was a close shave!

I was there...if I recall Ivan Mauger ran a last in the same race?

Did okay for 'The Brummies' as well.

Strewth...did I really type that! Of course I should have written Hang gliding!

Ulf was one of my early heroes...took a while to get going but towards the end of the 74 season was really flying. Shame he never rode again in Britain after that (His wife gave birth to twins if I remember). Never saw Conny ride but remember my brother saying that he was less than impressive round Cowley but a revelation on some of the bigger circuits (Swindon and Coventry for example). Another rider who never re-appeared in Britain and I'm surprised some enterprising promoter didn't give him a second chance. He excelled at Ice Speedway and appeared twice (?) on the rostrum in the World Championship in that particular discipline.

Oxford signed Helge Langli who could have made it (he did beat Ray Wilson in one memorable ride at Cowley I recall) but he picked up an injury off track and never re-appeared...more's the pity! Of course his brother, Tormod, appeared at Newport and was more than useful when he, too, was injured off track (hand-gliding accident). Coventry signed East German Gerhard Ullenbrock on the recommendation of one Garry Middleton. Matti Olin (Finland) was also another 'Bees' capture.

To be fair Boley Proch wasn't that bad when he was forced to leave Reading and join Leicester. However Leicester were going thru' a bad phase during the late seventies (76 & 77) and signed a number of mediocre riders...remember Adi Funk? If I recall Pepe Teromaa couldn't commit himself to a full season (didn't he pick up a bad injury?) as he was a student at the time and was about to enter college or some such thing. There were a smattering of mediocre foreigners during the seventies. My team (Oxford) gave trials to both Henk Steman and Eddie Davidsson and both came to nothing.

Nothing of the sort. Just a passing reference that was discussed by Martin Rogers in a recent edition of the 'Backtrack' magazine when he was discussing his promoting days at Leicester and the events that led to its closure. it was your comment about 'harking back to the past' which I further commented upon which I took to be a general reference on your part and nothing to do with speedway? PS Charles Ochiltree was Managing Director of Midland Sports Stadiums just for the record.

Oxford once denied Wimbledon the R/R facility as they hadn't brought along with them a Number 8...it was the ruling at the time. Also the Number 8 had to be guaranteed at least two rides in the meeting if not in the main match but during the second half.

It's by 'harking back' that we are able to move forward...learning from the past and mistakes made.

...and I'm sure that Martin Rogers hasn't fond memories from back then!

Rather ironic considering it was the then Promotion at Coventry that caused the closure of Blackbird Road back in 1983!

I'd agree regarding attempting to televise speedway. I have a vast collection of DVDs and although enjoy watching them it does get frustrating when the cameraman tries to go all 'arty' and doesn't follow where the action is often just following the race leader...also I don't think that the race is best followed when filmed from the centre green. I've never thought that televising the sport 'live' does it much favours (too much padding and over analysis...something most sports suffer with nowadays in my opinion) and what would be better would be an edited version shown later in the evening and that would perhaps encourage more people to go and watch rather than sit at home (I knew someone who would rather stay at home and view a match at Cowley rather than walk the half a mile to watch it live). Has SKY improved the product? That's open to debate but what one thing is certain it hasn't raised the profile of the sport as regards attracting new punters and hasn't managed to attract a big sponsor which is something that is so important within sport nowadays. Interesting that I was watching a meeting between Oxford and Wolves from 1992 only last night and they were discussing the falling attendances even back then.. although Oxford suffered less than most because of the competitive team that often took to the track just prior to that period.

Superb image!