Sidney the robin

Eastbourne that was an eye opener going there for the first time, i can remember them having a claxon there to.Crayford was even smaller a real frying pan.

Why would Kent make a rash decision after losing twice against Belle Vue.?? They will have a good season, they have some real talented lad's to watch everyweek. and another one in Mulford introduced tonight as well the Colts are the best side in the league so there is no disgrace in losing to them at all.

Potentially Shields would have to be near the top of the NL riders who rode for Oxford.Fast exciting he could of reached a higher level i have no doubt about that.Away riders odviously the same old suspect's Jackson, Etheridge, T.Owen were exceptional team men but hand on heart Oxford were two good a club to ever be in the N.L.

Going back through my Oxford NL programme's i would say Shields, Rumsey, Old George ( still good) Joe Owen, Rod Hunter, Sampson, Perks were riders i admired around Cowley.

Olsen cant remember him riding Oxford to much over the years? i did go to that meeting you mentioned the Champions Trophy in 1973 i remember a young Scott Autrey riding.

It is a vicious circle really you need to try to be successful to keep the crowds up to keep it viable.But on the other hand like you said you want to try to produce young new talent that go on and maybe go on and get into the senior side.Swindon have had a great tradition of producing some good young local riders over the years( Rosco included) so it is great to see young Rowe going great guns.What is the NL supposed to represent? is just the entertainment element or is it there to just produce the next generation of riders a fine line really.

Peter Craven set the Oxford track record on the 9th May 1963 in his Golden Helmet encounter against the great Ove Fundin in a time of 63 seconds.Did this record stand until 1981??? when Dave Perks set a record of 61 seconds, or was it broken in 1974/75? when the track was supposingly changed in the pre season.????

The NL has improved no end City a mix of different talent of all ages.Ledwith aged 46 was great value his gating was electric he would of scored even more but for a fall whoever said NL was full of wobblers.??

Going by a statement made by Lee Kilby the future of the Sprockets looks in grave doubt.500 was the figure mentioned to cut even and if i hazarded a guess i recon there were 3/400 there.Such a shame a bloody good day out and i would of paid 18 quid to watch it some good racing and a slick presentation of races in general.Some great young talent on show who give everything and you can ask no more.Hopefully Lee might not give up on it entirely but it has to be viable it really worries me that the crowds are dwindling a real shame.

Really enjoyed today some good racing, Palin for me looks a class act a great riding style reminds me of a young Joe Screen.The Thompson twins were great value different to Palin but tenacious give everything classy as well.Rowe,Palin Thompson (2) will be Premiership riders in the future i think young Ablitt to looks promising and young Sam Mcgurk in the 250 class.I don't know the crowd i recon about 3/4 hundred is that anough who knows??? a good day out.

Why can't Josh get it together away? he must be averaging ten plus at home in the last two seasons.A shame he does not get a chance at Belle Vue because at his best he is very good around there A terrific racetrack and it is not a coincidence that with Scunny both are brilliant racetracks for real racers to have a go on.

24/04/71 Swindon v Halifax 42. -36 Swindon. 1.Briggs 12 max) 2. Hitch 5. 3.Keen 4. 4. Munday ( 9/3 paid max). 5 Ashby 10. 6.Broadbank 2. 7. Facey. 0. 42. Halifax. 1. Boocock ( 11/1 ). 2. Kentwell 6. 3. Younghusband 7. 4. O' Neil ( 5/1 ). 5. R/R Jay 6. Mackay 1. 7. Lee( 6/1 ). 8.Durham 0 one ride in heat 3.

I would hang on Grachan for Tobi would you ? and let Bellego have his few weeks if it is a cruciate ligament i can't believe it will be two weeks a bast..... of an injury.

Ipswich have a great side a good balance but in heats 13/15 will they have the firepower at the end of the meeting in the toughest meeting's play/offs ( etc). Swindon i am chuffed with Ellis Perks and if we can get someone in with him who can pick up a few points ( that won't be easy) we might get away with it.With the way our side is built all I expect our reserves to try and get is 8/10 points between them a meeting.Our side with Tobi is all about the top five and with luckily bringing Rasser in that would of been awesome losing Tobi was a bitter blow but that is Speedway.

But Hyabb without Batch and Adam scoring you are not going to win matches anyway.Our side is designed as a top five with / Perks as a decent reserve if they ride to there potential they win matches.Batch and Adam have been great this year so i put no blame on them it was just one of those nights they both move on and they will be back.Even if Rasser gets a hatfull at reserve if two members of your top five especially (Batch) don't perform we don't win.The bottom line is Peterborough were better than us tonight they took over in the second half of the meeting they were stronger also again Rasser showed tonight double figures against HEAT Leaders he is our third best rider easily.

Well done to the Panthers a great comeback by them, in a way this result shows our limitations. I felt we were gaining momentum but we have slipped up again.without Musielak and a change at reserve we may now struggle to get a top four place.The fixture list planning well is something to be desired a real nightmare we don't have another league meeting until early July. A real stop start campaign which makes it hard to get consistency and get points on the board i was confident of a win tonight so it is disappointing back to the drawing board I suppose.

Having a laugh i know, i truly want Poole to sort there track out a great track in the past i just want it to be restored to the track it once was.

The surface will be like a billiard table come next Thursday.!!!!

Tony Atkin as well.??

We need to win this to keep the momentum going i am pretty confident we can get this needed away win.

You make some great points and i totally agree with nearly all of it.My take on it is young riders have to beat the older hands to get even close to competing at champs level the Champs now is a very tough league indeed.If say a Palin was beating only his own age group he would never progress so he needs to beat the older hands first on a regular basis.

Therefore after a month Douglas/ Bellego will always be at reserve with Ellis Perks .Without Tobi this looks pretty strong, but you have to say it is not as strong as Doyley, Rasser, Batch, Adam, Tobi.( another ?? ) Ellis.

For me Porky when the likes of Kemp can regularly beat the likes of a Roynon, Ayres type he moves on.Kemp has and to be fair he is not totally dominant at this level but is now in a hard top 5 at champs level.But for me the NL is certainly better now than when i watched the Conference league.It is great when a Kemp/ Rowe/ Palin / Bickley ( ect) makes progress the NL is doing it's job and with Vatcher at the helm of youth speedway the future looks bright Neil has done a great job.

I do see both options hyabb, and Rasser can't keep scoring points like he has done in the top five.I wondered would Douglas/Pickering ( fitness????) fit in at reserve.?

If you think about Monday hyabb we scored 6 points from 10 rides from reserve and only 5 for Tobi .Yet with Rasser scoring 13 in a tough riding position we ended up tearing Belle Vue apart.