False dawn

I am told that the Welsh Tourist Board pay a large sum to ensure Cardiff is the only GP held in Britain.

The issue is simple once people get the right mindset. Under the "every point counts" system, heat 23 was nothing to do with the World Championship (beyond the race points scored). It decides who is the winner of that GP. That's it. The race points scored throughout the series decides the WC. It is very indicative when in commentary it is said, "It doesn't matter what happens here [early heats] as long as you make the semis". What more damning comment of the current scoring system do you need?

If you'd been "selling" speedway over the past several decades, Colin would have been one of the fixtures and fittings. A stalwart by any definition. We're worse off without you Colin. Rest in peace.

Should ask a referee. According to most fans I know, all referees should have Specsavers on speed dial.

You may have had to wait a while last Saturday, but heat 15 of the second meeting (NDL) was the best race I've seen this year (and this year I've been to every CL track plus the NSS and Mildenhall). With respect, a lot of folk say they've been to Leicester and it was crap. Well it was crap, was being the operative word. The current team and the current track curator (Stuart Dickson) have worked very hard to prepare a track with more shale and better overtaking opportunities especially around the outside. I would make one qualification. The forecast for the weekend looks rubbish. In such conditions, like many tracks, the management tend to go for a slick track to increase the chance of completing the meeting.

Wow, you've revived a memory from a few (!?) years ago. Brandon experimented with a raised platform in front of the stand once upon a time. Only problem was that the nearby fans could climb onto the outer edge of the platform blocking everyone else's view. I sent this to Mr Ochiltree "When watching the MRC and hoping the winner's a Bee, with Ole on top, the presentation's a flop, 'cause the fans on the terraces can't see". I'm not sure if my foray into prose had any effect, but the platform never appeared again.

I found myself at the Edinburgh Kent match recently (don't ask). There was some weather concerns but they managed a 74 minute meeting, including 4 lots of track grading! I ended up in a bar in Glasgow at 21:20 with my head spinning and that was before a pint or three.

Funny that. I guess you always remember the riders in your first year. Ken rejoined the Bees in 1970 for one season. I remember he was a super face gater and it was said that he mentored Tony Lomas who was also hot from the gate. In fact, I remember that Tony worked for Triumph Motorcycles as some sort of test rider. He reckoned he was constantly sharpening his gating at traffic lights.

As you're not on the doorstep, I'll forgive you 1967 Midland Riders?! Crikey, you go back farther than me (well sort of). I count my support of the illustrious Bees from only 1970. But that's not the entire story. I'm reliably informed that my late Dad took me to Brandon at quite a young age. I do vaguely remember a rider on his celebration lap coming down the back straight where we were standing and he had both arms in the air. I remember thinking, "How can he ride a motorbike with no hands on the handlebars?". No spring-loaded throttles or cut-outs in those day eh? Anyway, near as I can tell, that must have been in the 50's. Might be time to grow up soon. Footnote: According to my records there were 13 (contracted) riders who rode for Coventry in 1965.... NIGEL BOOCOCK (England) 1959-1976 LES OWEN (England) 1957-1973 RON MOUNTFORD (England) 1957-1968, 1970-1972 JIM LIGHTFOOT (England) 1953-1966 RICK FRANCE (England) 1960-1972 ROGER HILL (England) 1965-1975 COL COTTRELL (England) 1962-1971 HOWIE BOOTON (England) 1962-1965 CHRIS HARRISON (England) 1965-1968 COL SMITH (England) 1960-1961, 1965 FRED HODDER (England) 1965-1966 RON BAGLEY (England) 1965 PETER GAY (England) 1965

Glasgow On a slightly lighter note, I did a few meetings in Oz in 2007 when I was racing sidecars. The Aussies did their level best to get as many meetings on for the visiting Brits (plus one Dutchman) and to our great delight, one of them was at Mildura. Well the meeting did start so it doesn't strictly qualify for this thread but due to torrential rain the meeting was rained off. Beat that for the longest distance from home you've been to a rain off!

More to the point, who pays the away fans travelling expenses? It's a rhetorical question btw.

Great post about a great era in Coventry's history. But I have to take issue with your, "Can't believe the track is gone" comment. The track is still there and there are some persistent and talented people fighting very hard to get it reopened. There's even a potential buyer. And before anyone says that I'm living in a dream world, I know the odds are stacked heavily against ever seeing the Bees at Brandon again. But there is a chance and the faithful still believe we might just see that dream come true.

Not a bad time all things considered. I know the track record is 55.59, but a "usual time" in heat 1, looking at live updates, is generally in the 57's. Hardly unrideable eh? Actually, Dan can take a few accolades.... 1. Fastest time of the night. 2. A full maximum. 3. Only rider to broadside his machine. This would all be very amusing had I not spent 11 hours on the road yesterday to witness this one non race. Oh well, there's always the trip to Kent tomorrow.

The twins have to be in Edinburgh Friday as well.

From my perspective it was the home riders who didn't want to ride when they finally took the track. Cookie was all but lapped by Dan Thompson.

Having travelled up from the Midlands for this circus, I went to the ticket office and obtained a refund there and then.

Barry. There is much that you describe that will resonant with those of us that lived through the "golden speedway years". It's hard to accept that those days have gone but the closures and threats of closure can no longer be ignored. It occurs to me that the small number of clubs who's future is assured, in the short term at least, are increasingly the problem. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, despite the many clubs who are clearly clinging on by the skin of their teeth, financially. Maybe we need a two pronged approach. Let us continue with a traditional league structure among those clubs that can support it and at the same time create a grass roots rebuilding programme along the lines you describe. Some might say that this is what we have already. Well, in a way we do with the National Development League and the British Youth Championship. But, the thing that is missing is an approach to the high level management and development of the sport that is fully integrated. A plan that brings together all levels of the sport from the purely amateur (including grasstrack racing) right through to the international. Idealistic? Well maybe. But two things are clear. Firstly, if we don't do something the whole house of cards will collapse. Secondly, and more importantly there is the talent out there to solve this problem. The thing that's really missing is the forward looking mindset of those currently in control. The patient isn't dead yet but I guess it's in intensive care.

You, me and quite a few around me also. But then we went to Mildenhall yesterday and some of the talk was that the twins don't go all that well at Redcar anyway (?). So we might be better off.

But if it rains, will Poole take the safe option? You hate me, don't you?

Thank you for your kind words. If my enthusiasm diminishes, I'll no longer be around. 51 years, man and boy and counting...... I too have a contact in the Met Office. He told me it's going to be sunny on the 19th. Weather permitting.

To move the conversation on. Do you not think that meetings like tonight's (and no, I wasn't there) are more a product of the perennial poor fixture planning than poor track preparation? There is a complacency every year during the early months of the season and then late on we're almost forced to run meetings that no one in the right mind would run.

Sorry to say Steve, but you could have been quoting me after the Poole Leicester match

I did spot this change. You have to be eagle eyed these days to make sure that clubs are not making fixture changes without any kind of official announcement. We had already planned to go to this restaging. Yes, we mustn't forget that some of us went to Scotland for the original fixture that was rained off (after we'd crossed the border) on the strength of a forecast. Having paid for a hotel, we carried on and actually saw the match at Edinburgh (30 miles from Glasgow) without weather problems. But hey, that goes with the territory for the travelling fan, eh? We decided to head north again on the 19th but for all sorts of reasons we have to make the round trip on the day. A tough trip in a van but an afternoon start just about made it feasible. And then Glasgow pushed the start time back to 18:00. Well there can good reasons for such a change, I suppose, so I wrote an impassioned plea to the Glasgow management 3 days ago. I'll let you know when I get even an acknowledgement.......

I did wonder about that myself. I believe the twins will be at Redcar. Should Leicester release them (or have to?), Dan can be replaced by a rider up to his average (5.40) I believe, as he is not included in the team as a rising star, Joe is.

To think we once had both the World Pairs and the World Team Cup. That's a sad thought now I write it down.