Little Thumper

Friends, those of us who go back a few years and live in the region now described by that lovely Mr. Osborne, as the Northern Powerhouse, will perhaps have fond memories of visits to Thornton Road in Ellesmere Port to support the Gunners. The tapes went up for the last time in 1985 and over the years there has been wishful speculation that one day the sound of the snarling 500 single would again reverberate around this hallowed arena where the local heroes such as John Jackson, Steve Finch, Geoff Pusey, Louis Carr once plied their noble trade. In those days, speedway heaven for me would be a trip to watch the Gunners on a Friday night and then the following night would be our weekly visit to the Cathedral of Speedway, Belle Vue. If for some reason, Belle Vue were not at home on a Saturday night, then we would have to troll down to Loomer Road, Stoke for our speedway fix. In those days, Loomer Road was a pretty smart place. Anyway, for various reasons, mostly involving local politics, the chances of dirty, noisy, anti-social speedway thuggery ever returning to this rather unfortunate area of the world were always slim to nil. I was in the area a couple of years ago and popped my head in the gaff to see what was going on and to my amazement, gangs of workmen were beavering away getting the old place shipshape and ready for action! Wow, the return of speedway at long last? Sadly not. Enquiries revealed that refurbishment was for the benefit of the WoofWoof racing fraternity, as some guy was taking a punt on the the sport being on the up! As I was in the area dealing with another matter, I have today re-visited said establishment to see how it is all panning out. It would appear that the optimism in the future of dogging may have been a little bit misplaced. I have seen better turned out war zones than the shambles that I viewed this morning. The place was totally smashed-up, burnt out, vandalized, looted and totally overgrown. What a sad, sad sight. Enquiries revealed that the land was going to be used for a housing development but as to who the potential customers might be, I know not. Thornton road used to be such a vibrant, action-packed place to go and it is upsetting to see what has become of it. Sorry for rambling on.

Col, my friend, thank you for your words of wisdom. I can understand your depression - even the best of us would be depressed if we had to watch Sale Sharks for years! The reason it appears so GRIM up here in Mancunia is because we are surrounded by dark, satanic mills which cast gloomy shadows onto the heads of the poor peasant folk below. But hey, you will not hear complaints from the stout-hearted fellow who is the Mancunian. No, he will soldier on, shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone whilst tugging his forelock and doffing Keir Hardie's cap as he strives to further increase the wealth pile of his beloved masters in Londinium and Beijing. Col, if you are coming up for the meeting, I was going to advise you to allow a little bit of extra time for your journey, as I am sure that you will remember that the motorways up here are cobbled. But I note, that your escape from the grimness of Manchester only got you as far as Wolverhampton, so a couple of day's brisk walking should get you here in plenty of time. On a more serious note - it will be an easy win for the Aces as Poole are yesterday's news. On a more serious note - it will be an easy win for Poole as the Aces are yesterday's news. I'll certainly be tooting my horn for the Belle Vue Crew (in the privacy of my own home, obviously). Just my opinion, for what it might be worth.

Well you know what they say - the beatings will continue until morale improves. I think that must be right because I seem to remember it was in the Tory manifesto at the last election and politicians never lie.

Yes Hot Shoe, those are two very well-made points. I thank you for your insight,

I think if you go back a few posts, bigred, you will find this information.

I'm not entirely sure that posters portraying dudes brandishing weapons would be too well received in some areas of Manchester. I think the city elders would have some kind of regulation to prohibit such an occurrence. Obviously, if you can get Hugh Noon on them it might help win over the mums and dads. Just my opinion, obviously.

I don't do Twatter of Farcebook so that doesn't help me much. But thanks all the same, Islander15.

Well, that's a nice idea but can you think of any other authority which might be open to this idea? Manchester has always been a bit of a pioneer when it comes to spending it's money on sporting facilities but I'm struggling to think of anywhere else in England that this idea might gain traction? Perhaps you know something that I do not.

Gun Totting....is that a new Olympic sport? Been drinking?

Ouch, my friend, I think you will find yourself more than adequately qualified and I hope you come to enjoy the world of work.

Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because I might not have noticed that. Sometimes it's hard to keep the faith.

Stadium Regulations Paragraph 16 put a stop to that idea.

The trouble is, Hot Shoe, there is only so much money to go round whether it be in the form of corporate/tv money or Joe Public money. Football sucks up so much that there is not much left for the less favoured sports such as speedway. There comes a point when something stops being primarily a sport and instead becomes a money-generating business where the bulk of the money flows upwards to the few rather than downwards to the many. Football and Formula 1 motor sport are probably the worst offenders and I suppose that is why I have no interest in either.

Wow! Good job he wasn't a cigar smoker.

My friend, you are so very correct in your assertion. My loathing of football is immense. Just my opinion, obviously.

Yes, I’ve got a lot of time for Buxton Speedway. On a nice, sunny day it is a great place to watch speedway action. Some of the facilities are a bit lacking and I am not sure that the place does enough to promote itself or even keep it's followers informed but resources are obviously limited. With regard to Jason Pipe, I do not know the man and am in no position to pass judgement on him. When I have spoken to him, he has always appeared pleasant enough. What is rather irksome with Buxton is the short lifespan of so many team members! You are just about getting used to who is in the line-up before the musical chairs starts again and riders move up and down and sideways or disappear altogether. Obviously, injury plays a part in this but it cannot be the only reason. Now whether this churn of riders is the fault of the aforesaid Jason Pipe, I know not. Perhaps there are forces in play of which we know nothing and the team manager has to go with the flow. I was sorry to see David Speight disappear from Buxton, as I always thought that he was a pretty decent rider and the way that he was flying at the recent grasstrack meeting at Kelsall confirmed my opinion. I hope that Buxton can find the resources to hang on in there because despite their limitations, they would be sorely missed. Just my opinion, obviously.

A trained security operative can smell a trouble-maker at 50 paces.

Meeting postponed...................argh! Once again, I am thwarted in my attempts to watch some speedway racing by this country's unpredictable weather. I have no idea how National League operations such as Stoke survive financially. Nobody is going to get rich off Stoke's gate receipts and what with all the postponed meetings and people vandalizing your stadium, I assume that the good people at Loomer Road keep going because either they love the sport or they have masochistic tendencies. If there is some significant hidden income stream of which I am unaware, please drop me line and I'll pop round the corner to Thornton Road and start scattering shale. Just my opinion, obviously.

Very valid comments, mikebv. And surely the logical counterpoint to your reasoned assertion would be that the recipient of the food vendor's "investment" (i.e. the venue owner) would take all practicable steps to ensure that the food and drinks that were being served to the users of the venue were of merchantable quality and represented reasonable value for money. Due to my religious beliefs, I am a vegetarian. I contacted the stadium owner in advance of my visit to enquire whether i would be able to purchase suitable food at the catering outlets and was informed that there was no provision for vegetarians and that I would not be allowed to bring my own food into the stadium. Therefore, mikebv, I have not had the opportunity to sample the culinary delights at Belle Vue but have no reason to believe that the service provided is not perfectly acceptable to both the management of the establishment and the paying customer and I am hopeful that the investment that has been made will reap the reward that it deserves. My whippet is also vegetarian but as far as i am aware, she has no religious beliefs. Just my opinion, obviously.

Thank you for your words of welcome.

Strangely, there is nothing about this change on either the SGB or Buxton's sites. I wonder why people bother having websites if they can't make the effort to pass on useful information.

BBuck, you are so right - making a comparison with the great Hyde Road is a little pointless, but you know what it's like - you never forget your first love! I can still remember clearly going to the Zoological Gardens some 50 years ago and witnessing speedway for the first time - the spectacle, the sounds, the smells, the wonderful fans in all their strange clothing and most of all the charged atmosphere - the atmosphere that filled you full of anticipation that you were about to witness something thrilling. That experience is etched on my soul all these years later and whilst I might not recollect what I did yesterday, that day so many moons ago when me and my dad cheered for the Aces like our lives depended on it is indelibly inked on my soul. So BBuck, I apologize for pointless comparisons but I feel sure you will forgive me this once? Now with regard to the ban on horns of which you were unaware, I am taking the liberty of providing a link to the stadium regulations which pertain to this matter. Paragraph 17 will be the one that informs you of that which you did not know:- http://www.bellevueaces.co/terms.aspx Now as these conditions will form part of the contract between the customer and BV Arena Ltd, they will obviously need to be displayed clearly at the location where tickets are purchased at the stadium but hopefully, if you have read them in advance of your visit perhaps it may spare you some inconvenience. And finally, my friend, you talk about crowd levels that do not exist an more. My question to you is why not? The core ingredient of a normal speedway meeting is approximately 15 minutes of racing. If you were to stand in Kirkmanshulme Lane and offer potential customers the opportunity to watch 15 minutes of sporting action in exchange for 10, 15 or 20 pounds of their hard-earned money, you would likely be ridiculed. So speedway has got to offer so much more than 15 minutes of activity. For me the extra ingredient, that makes speedway worth the effort of hours of travelling and pounds in admission fees is the speedway experience. In addition, I want to be treated with the respect that a paying customer deserves and I do not expect to be poorly informed and taken for a fool. That is the feeling that I enjoyed all those years ago as a child and it is the feeling that I struggled to re-discover on my recent trip to Belle Vue Arena. But hey, times change and the paying customer probably wants something a bit different to what was served up to people like me, Soldier Boy and all the other FANATICS all those years ago. I'm not sure what this new speedway product could look like but judging by the shortage of spectators when I visited BVS last Wednesday, I think there is some considerable way to go. Only my opinion, obviously.

Perhaps they couldn't get a guest rider? Wouldn't think you could use rider replacement in this one.

Again, apologies if this post appears after the event but the moderators are keeping a close eye on me! I had hoped to make the journey across to Loomer Road tonight but I see that Stoke have made a judgement that the track is not fit for racing. Lee Geary was down at reserve for Stoke and although he has not been hitting the headlines, he has continued to make steady progress at Buxton and seems to have been a faithful member of their team. I guess he must be a bit disappointed to have been shuffled out of the Buxton team in the latest round of musical chairs but at least he is picking up some rides here and there. Could have been a close match if it been on and it would have been good to see Jon Armstrong back on familiar turf up against that other seasoned campaigner, Tony Atkin. On a positive note, at least the good people at Loomer Road had the decency to bin the meeting early enough to minimize the inconvenience for supporters travelling from wherever Apologies if this post doesn't appear till after the season has finished!

Reading all the posts on this unfortunate affair, it appears that a combination of circumstances produced this unacceptable outcome. As always in these situations, I feel sympathy for the visiting fans who will be considerably out of pocket and are far less likely to travel to away meetings in the future. Surely, the decision to undertake fundamental track work close to the start of a meeting should not be made by sundry riders and the bloke on the tractor. Is there not a Clerk of the Course who along with the meeting referee would decide the optimum course of action? Clearly, if the C of C was a former rider then there would be a greater likelihood of a good decision being made? Allowing spectators into a stadium to watch nothing more than bods operating sundry machinery is pretty unforgivable particularly when they are not immediately and fully refunded as they trudge back to the car park. Anybody can c*ck up once, but this is getting a bit farcical.