Canadian Star

It still irks me to think about how Bernie Russell hijacked the tv deal and did a Bernie on the rest of the promoters In the good old World of Sport days, the tv money was shared amongst all tracks, and helped to keep some of them in business. Very soon speedway will implode I hope, it will return hopefully with a new and independent governing body, and perhaps a semblance of fairness might break out, we live in hope some of you might say be careful what you wish for, but the end of the day speedway in its current format will not survive, I am grateful to each and every one of the promoters who continue to dip into there own pocket to keep the sport going. Most of those same mugs will come back for more, under the new administration, whenever that happens....and it is going to happen.......sooner or later. In the meantime I have a few "friends" eyes in the sky who lend me some speedway, not a penny to Bernie from me.

No good hoping to get any sense from that tart from the South Coast, the attitudes emanating from down there are exactly what is ruining the sport. I was in favour of keeping the turbo twins intact, simply because they were draw cards in a product very much devoid of any other interesting fayre. The fact remains that there is a need for a degree of equality, within the League and certainly we need the top riders to be here if possible. Once we have decided we either can or cannot afford the best, by that I mean the league or the sport as a whole. Then we must go forward and somehow make speedway attractive again, we need to find a way to make speedway the close racing spectacle it once was, don't ask me how, but that is the basis point to which we must return, or we might as well put the shutters up. As others have said, 15 minutes of racing featuring a smattering of world class riders duelling with Premier League reserves who are about half a lap behind, doesn't seem to be working. We must have equality of some kind. We must have a quality that enough people are prepared to pay to come and see. I agree that in an ideal world, every club would have the riding staff and financial clout that Poole have at there disposal. it would make for an attractive League, and you cant knock them for trying, but it isn't in the best interests of the sport. Sadly the best interests of the sport have been neglected badly both here and throughout Europe since 1978, but for a few brief years in the early 80's the sport has continued its serial decline in this country especially. We now have a new English World Champion, this presents both an opportunity and a risk, lets hope the promoters take advantage of the first option.

Rob you and i have often disagreed, but i absolutely agree with your every word on this one Chris Gosling

Apparently yes

There is a sum of money that Sky pay for the rights to screen UK Speedway. In the good old days this TV money used to be shared out at the end of the season amongst all the clubs, including any profits from shared events. Nowadays a company called Gospeed own the media rights for UK Speedway, they collect all the money and hand some of it back to the promoters as they see fit. I could make an educated as to how much that could be, suffice to say that if it was all shared out to the tracks, as in the good old days, perhaps most of them wouldnt be losing money as seems likely

Well some pretty interesting times we live in eh ? Do i have sympathy with BSPA, no not at all, this has been coming for a while. This has been coming ever since the BSPA allowed one of its members to cream off all the money that previously had been shared between all tracks. The cartel (there's a pun in there somewhere)now have a bit of a problem, and they now have to beg there problem child back into the fold. There never has been more revenue in speedway, than now, it simply isnt being distributed on a fair and equitable basis. There was a time when Keith Chapman had to conceed to whatever punishment the BSPA decided to dish out to him. Now the shoe is on the other foot, Keith holds all the cards. I admire Mr Sandhu, he has been very badly treated by the BSPA for a while now, finally he has said enough is enough, good for him. When he owned Hamill and Hancock, he was forced to give them away when he should have been paid for there services. He is a good man, whom the authorities should have welcomed into the fold, instead he has continually been treated with derision, quite wrongly in my opinion. Dont know much about Mr Frost, but my sources tell me he is a decent fellow, he must have very good reasons for taking the stance he is currently taking. What would i like to see happen now ? Obviously seeing Kings Lynn back in the Elite League is an exciting prospect, and only Buster knows what are the right circumstances for this to happen. I have every reason to trust his ability to make the correct decision for the club. Do i personally care what happens to the sport should Kings Lynn refuse to go up, or if the Elite League fails because of the actions of Coventry, Peterborough or any other club ? Not really I hope that the current situation leads to a new administration being set up to properly run speedway in Great Britain. The BSPA as is simply is not working, not for the clubs, the fans , or for the future prospects of having a successful Great Britain Team. Despite the best efforts of many, we are no closer to developing new young riders for the future now than we were twenty years ago. There is lots of evidence oversea's of what is needed to bring on young riders, but we continue to bury our head in the sand. I do not criticise Rob Lyons or any of the previous Team GB managers for the current lack of International success, we simply are not putting enough resources into training and encouraging youngsters into the sport. With the amount of money Sky has paid for the TV rights over the last few years, some money at least should have been put into youth development. Instead we just continue from one crisis to another

Andrew - if you really hate Kings Lynn why do you go at all ?

This whole asset situation needs looking at, any club in any League, if they "discover" or give "opportunities" to a "new" rider deserve to be compensated for there efforts. This 12 match rule appears now to be a situation being exploited by several clubs, its a grey area, that needs a little black and white adding to it.

You can expect to see more big time events at Kings Lynn. Keith Chapman has invested heavily in much improved facilities with a view to staging events such as tonights. Kings Lynn has always been a good race track, much favoured by many top riders for many years, that can only have been enhanced by tonights meeting. Other than its location what doesnt Kings Lynn have going for it ? For confirmation just take a look at the stuff on You Tube from 1980, there was nothing wrong with the racing then, there isnt now.

Maybe this will shut Shovlar up, but i doubt it. Vindication is the approriate word i believe.

As a Kings Lynn fan it would be interesting to hear a little bit more what Malcolm Simmons thought about Maury Littlechild, he was very popular amongst riders and promoters, but we have never heard much more than he was a good bloke, be interesting to hear a little more. Also Cyril Crane, Malcolm didnt appear to get along with him very well, neither did Dave Jessup it seems, did Simmo ever go to one of Cyril's infamous party's ? What was Cyril really like ? Kings Lynn were well supported in the seventies, but where were the biggest crowds ? Poole, Belle Vue, were Newport's the worst ? What was it like when the machinery changed, be interesting to hear Malcolms thought's on JAP,Jawa,Weslake, Godden and GM, he probably rode them all.

Why do you people buy a magazine you so clearly hate ? For my part i think that all of Retro publications are extremely well written and presented, and are largely unbiased. I just received a large bundle of books, magazines and DVD's all hastily dispatched for me to Canada at a very reasonable rate. I cannot speak highly enough of the excellent service i have always received from the people at Backtrack. They have allowed me to to revisit so many happy experiences from my youth, with interviews and articles from all of the tracks and personalties of the period. Thanks Tony, keep up the good work it is widely appreciated by many people all around the world and around the corner.

Gentlemen, whilst i am currently on my hols, i have had a little more time than usual to tour the forum. I have not visited the "Years Gone By" section for ages. How pleasent it has been this morning to read such a friendly, fact based and reasoned argument as has been this one. Apart from one small interjection of rudeness, it has been an absolute pleasure to read all of your opinions, they all made good sense. It just proves a point that it is still possible to enjoy a reasoned debate on here, without sinking to the levels of abuse, sarcasm and name calling we see so often on most of the main area's of this site. Thank You and a huge well done to all of you.

Not often you will hear a Kings Lynn fan sing the praises of an Ipswich rider, but Dennis Sigalos was a very stylish, classy rider who rode the Kings Lynn track as well as any visiting rider ever. I think he went something like 27 races undefeated there sometime around 1980 or 1981, remember both Michael Lee and Dave Jessup were virtually unbeatable around Saddlebow Road at that time.

My apologies Tony, in my haste to post i forgot that it was 1970 to 1990, thus excluding Dukie Ermolenko. I think your argument around Bruce Penhall is very reasoned. I don't think any of us could deny that he was a very skillful rider, i reckon he was better than Hancock, Hamill and Sam Ermolenko,who probably would have won more World Title's but for some unfortunate injuries. I think Bruce suffered from the British disease of building people up only to knock them down, in the United States they love winners, and so from there prospective, it's very hard to understand why Bruce got such a rough ride from the public and the press over here. Ivan Mauger endured such a relationship, very unfairly for many years, although i believe he is now appreciated for the true talents that he possesed. I think also in Ivan's case, many people during his riding career, were not as aware as they now are, of the great struggle financially and emotionally that Ivan had to endure, before later achieving all that he did to become perhaps the greatest of all time. Bruce of course came from a privileged background, although many people were not aware at the time that he had sadly lost his parents in a plane crash. So he became in some peoples opinions, this spoilt brat who didn't need the money, wins the world title twice, walks away from Cradley just as the League title is about to be decided, (can't remember if they still won or not), and then of course there was the infamous incident at White City. I think most people, given the passage of time, now appreciate what a great rider Bruce was and can perhaps understand why he did some of the things he did. Bruce cared about American Speedway, and wanted to see as many American riders make the final, as possible, all of which would help make the meeting a success and improve the future prospects of the sport in his home country. As for the acting career, well there is only a limited amount of time in which an attractive young man can hope to acquire some of the opportunities that came Bruce's way. Bruce decided to grab what was on offer with both hands, i think partly because he really had achieved everything that was available to him within the sport, he didn't need the money, and perhaps the delights of California were a little more enticing than Dudley Wood on a cold dark Autumn evening. Who could blame him for that ? Very sad to learn of the Moran Brothers, arguably the most talented of the whole group, struggling with there health and perhaps living out there lives in perhaps more modest surroundings, there abilities and the huge pleasure they gave us all, deserved a much kinder outcome.