steve roberts

Many happy returns Dave! He was involved with Oxford Speedway for many years and was very pro-active on the Supporters Club front. He was at the forefront of the SOS committee back in 1975/76. My abiding memory was on a trip to Denmark (1988) when he took his "Aunt Sally" props along and bemused the watching Danes as he set up an impromptu game in the grounds of the hotel I found out some years ago that he is actually related to me (a very distant cousin many times removed) when I was researching my Family Tree.

...which is often the case whereby the speedway promotion only leases the stadium and any money generated thru' catering goes back to the stadium owners. With Oxford that was also the case with bar takings in the past.

I think it was known purely as the "Oxford Channel"?

They were based on the Woodstock Road in Oxford and was very local in its content...I knew some of the presenters (both speedway and otherwise). I have some DVDs of the meetings that they covered.

Yes I've read his book and to say that he was conventional would be stretching it somewhat...but was a tremendous all-round motor-cyclist.

We also enjoyed a local TV station who showed home meetings plus the occasionally away but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called? Don't think that it exists anymore? There was also the local commercial Radio Station FoxFM (think they sponsored the Junior Team?) which gave service to the speedway.

...I did some school talks pre-season and was promised a bike to take along but nothing materialised!

We were fortunate at Oxford that Track Presenter, Peter York, also had a regular programme on Radio Oxford so the speedway got lots of air time and interviews with riders and with Promoter Bernard Crappper in particular. The Oxford Mail, with John Gaisford, also gave the sport a high profile in the city and beyond.

Malcolm Simmons was another who favoured West Ham.

...recall one time Weymouth promoter Mervyn Stewkesbury driving round Weymouth with placards advertising the meeting due to take place that evening. I even remember seeing posters around Oxford/Eastbourne advertising the speedway...had one on my bedroom wall for years! Apparently Len Silver used to post adverts all around the Hackney area? I personally used to take friends/work colleagues to meetings in the hope that it would ignite a spark.

...and one wonders why speedway has become expensive for the competitors when it should be about keeping costs down.

Speedway continually shoots itself in the foot...tyres have been an issue for many decades (too narrow, too deep, different composition/manufacturer etc etc) You'd think it would have been sorted to everyone's satisfaction?

On another note, if I recall, the SKOL sponsorship that the "Cheetahs" attracted during the eighties/early nineties wasn't based on a monetary incentive but the stadium having their bar outlets supplied by the Beer Company and therefore of no direct benefit to the speedway and/or stadium? I'd be happy to be told differently but that's how it was explained to me at the time?

...to be honest I can't recall the outcome now or how it was resolved? The Stadium owners weren't that concerned and it wasn't treated as high priority because the stadium was managed by a Dog racing fraternity (GRA?) and nobody used to stand on the back straight during meetings...all residing in the grandstand.

I remember at Cowley on one occasion that the sound system had failed on the back straight and the fans were without public announcements for a number of meetings (?) because the owners were in no hurry to put it right and you can imagine the fans reaction?

I would generally agree...15 heats of racing isn't really acceptable in my opinion. However the biggest problem with speedway is that many promotions just lease the stadium and have no real control as regards the lack of facilities. Take catering for example. I learnt thru' Steve Purchase (nice bloke by the way) that all catering and bar sales went to the the stadium owners and he didn't see a penny. Many promoters have their hands tied and in a perfect world they would own the stadium in which they operated from and everyone would benefit? As a matter of interest how many stadiums are actually owned by the speedway promotion in this country? Buster Chapman comes to mind...any others out there?

Yes it was in PC's book and seems strange to me that there is an anomaly/inconsistancy as regards issue of passes? I've done a bit of promotion and in fact gave some talks/presentations at schools but I was let down as regards support. Steve Purchase (one-time promoter at Oxford) even invited me along to a pre-season discussion to hopefully come up with ideas to help promote the sport to the uninitiated. I even gave out leaflets at a local Tesco's branch but who's to say that sort of self-promotion actually achieves anything?...fortunately there's better people out there as I have no quick fix answers as regards getting the sport noticed!

If TikTok (whatever that is?) encourages new fans to the sport that's okay with me. Getting back to free passes it's funny that ex-ACU referees who apparently can enter any track as a "freebie" doesn't attract the same sort of reaction from posters as ex-riders appear to do?

...now there's a thought? I did submit some articles to the "Cheetahs Chronicle" many years ago. My uncle, who was the Oxford Track Photographer, published three books containing many of the images he took during the middle seventies.

Absolutely! Tony Mac has hinted at another book in the making...can't wait!

Good stuff!

Two tracks I would dearly liked to have seen!

...how dare we keep talking about "the good old days!" However the title of this particular thread is about a book which contains recollections/thoughts and therefore stimulates opinions and/or memories. Keep them coming...

Visited the Shay a few years back long after the speedway had gone. Found it difficult visualising where the track was but I believe the pit area was still in situ?

That was one track I never got to although I have DVDs of action there. Of course there was the infamous occasion that John Berry and Ron Bagley took a tape measure out to measure the width which caused all sorts of aggro and led to a hearing at the offices of the Control Board (?) in London which home promoter Ian Thomas never turned up to. Thomas later admitted that he had a specially "adapted" tape measure with the first foot or two cut off so that to anyone else the track was of the required width!