Andy Downes

No, it gives the outward appearance of wanting to be a trendy fun city but they only seem interested in building houses and more houses. A few years ago they looked at building a much needed large concert hall/sports venue (10,000+) by Temple Meads Station but changed at the last moment to housing. They have closed down the Ice Rink and show no interest in helping Bristol Rovers build a new ground to replace the antiquated Memorial Grounds. The plan to move the Basketball team to a new stadium has been put back again to 2025

Bristol Council - appalling record regarding closing sports and entertainment facilities and failing to replace them

Plymouth was in the West of England last time I checked ...

sorry but no rider who gave his life for our sport and entertainment should ever be forgotten

was arguable an even greater Kestrel; the team captain when I started to follow the sport in 1980 and probably skippered Crayford in more matches than any other rider. He had seen his best days before my arrival but was still capable of some good performances at London Rd.

Sorry for being a bit of a pedant here, Crayford Stadium was replaced by a much smaller Greyhound Only stadium, with about 75% of the land being sold to Sainsbury's. Absolutely no way of shoe-horning a track in there, in fact many of the dog owners complain the track is too small

Ah the 65-12 against Worky.... trying to remember which Kestrel it was who finished a heat with a flat tyre but kept the 5-1's going ... or is old age playing tricks with the old memory.

Martin Goodwin at Arena Essex 1984. I remember Martin as a junior at Crayford in 1980 - very hairy style(if you could call it that) and although a member of the Crayford junior team that year, there was nothing to suggest he could step up to NL reserve; if anybody looked likely, it was a lad named Tony Brooks but he sadly never made it. Martin disappeared from the Crayford scene from 1981 to 1983 before resurfacing at Arena as a 3.00 reserve and ended the season as a heat leader and went on to be the foil for Neil Middleditch/Andrew Silver before becoming the main man himself. I remember being told by a notorious story-teller (so probably true!) at the time that he asked to come for a trial at Hackney in '84 but was advised to try his luck at Arena. If he had had a trial, I'm sure he would have being given the reserve spot instead of Mark Terry and who knows, we may have finished higher than 4th that year.

I remember Billy Lellmann riding a challenge match at Hackney and he looked pretty decent - I heard he left as he was homesick

There was a meeting at the London Arena in winter 1990 (or 91, can't remember the exact date) - another former London Speedway venue that's bitten the dust. Seem to remember there was a problem halfway through - could have been a leaking roof but the memory is too hazy - hopefully someone out there can remind us more about that day

I think Toni Kasper Jr would have achieved more if he had had more than 1 1/2 seasons in the British League

England F ..........!

About 15 years ago I was working in Saudi Arabia and I was asked if I wanted to go back to the UK for a Thursday/Friday seminar at the Sandbanks Hotel in Poole. Now almost every flight from the Gulf to the UK leaves in the middle of the night and arrives in London about 7:00 a.m. so for a Thursday course, i thought aha! you have to be in Poole on a Wednesday for that and what happens in Poole on a Wednesday? Speedway!I I'll do it! Disaster struck though as for possibly the only time in their history, Poole decided to shift the meeting to Thursday for some reason - think it was a big championship meeting in Scandinavia on the Wednesday so they shifted the meeting back 24 hours so they'd get a full side out, or something similar So not a rain off (although after being stuck in Saudi you tended to view rain as something of a novelty) but definitely a case of travelling in the hope of seeing some action - of course Thursday was out as the after seminar dinner was compulsory. Flew home Friday night so no chance of seeing anything anywhere else.

I remember Vladimir Kalina at Hackney - didn't look too bad (although not much to judge against that year ...) a little surprised he didn't get picked up somewhere after Hackney folded.

Crayford - you never forget your first love/track Hackney Cradley Heath Only went to Ashby Ville Scunthorpe a couple of times but seem to remember saw two cracking meetings there Never liked Wimbledon although to be fair, most times I went were in the latter NL days when the track was as slick as hell