Parsloes 1928 nearly

Yep fair point - that at least shows some details of events (though not line ups..)

Indeed, Jack, for a fan of semantics like I am, that link is almost enough to mass-debait over!!!!

Oh dear, such interest... NOT! Have to 'answer' myself in the end as have just found preview on speedwayextra and riders in the 500cc class include: Kent Grasstrack legend Mitch Gooden former Sittingbourne Crusaders: Mark Baseby & Danny Warwick One-time Wimbledon Don, James Theobald plus: Adam Filmer & Dave Mears There's great sidecar action and also a combined 250/350cc class 1pm start time! I'll be there!!

Oh dear, first Blazeaway now another critic of the spelling errors, manages to spell a word incorrectly! It's "bated" breath of course!!

Hmm, not sure I really understand the question! People start up websites for all sorts of things - and certainly perfectly normal thing to do so for a sporting league competition or similar..: however 'junior' that may be.. One could argue the more junior or amateur something is, the more a website devoted to it is needed. After all, one can find out info. about, say, a major Premier League football team easily enough in all sorts of printed & TV media but if you wanted to find out about Bethnal Green United in the Essex Senior, a website set up by that club or its supporters would be almost the only accessible place to get that info.! And thus it is with these junior leagues. Can't imagine the BSPA site giving info. on riders or results or stats so Michael's website should be warmly welcomed...

Riders announced by Stoke as first members of their Spitfires squad for 2012: John Markham, Shaun Tedham and Andy Mellish. Er, yes I know...!

Hmm, with a rather pedantic posting that Rye House & Lakeside shouldn't be called 'Anglia' but 'London ' instead!! Crickey! Actually neither are in London boroughs (and London expands way out these days) so don't think that's accurate and in any case a 'London Junior League' would not get very far!! I think Michael's idea of a web site should be welcomed.

Absolutely, Jerran not riding in anyone's team says ALL that needs to be said about what's wrong with the sport..

Jack Bibby was a regular at Iwade a couple of years back with his son Mark who did well in the amateur racing there. Would LOVE to see if Mark could get a berth in an AJL side though am not sure if he's still riding..

tbf, it was Bryn who told us this and as he's the co-ordinator for one of these leagues, the AJL, I think we can safely conclude that this desigination is indeed correct! AAMOI why do you seem to be questioning it..?!

Gosh, many thanx John - and must be close to a BSF record picking up on a thread dormant for and a question asked five years ago!! Very glad you did though!!

Bryn's the AJL co-ordinator..?!! Oh blimey, I'm gonna have to start giving him lifts again!! Challenging enuff to find out what's happening THIS year!! Though I'm sure Michael would be grateful for the history stuff if you can provide it..! Worth mentioning (er, again!) at this juncture that the last winners of the AJL (in '83, so certainly qualifies as 'history'!) were Crayford!!

Reigning British Dirttrack Champion. From Medway in Kent. Appeared at Wimbledon's 2003 P&P Day but then stuck with Grasstrack until riding for home county club Sittingbourne in 2008. Then rode for IoW and Plymouth. A fair bit of experience and plenty to offer.

Ha, ha, ha..! I DID say I hadn't checked!!!! Yes Rembras (then also with Leicester) lost a run-off for third in the 1978 WF. Marek had been a very important part of the Rebels' BL winning team of the year before.

That makes a lot more sense! Couldn't see any way a club called Beckton would be based in Poplar! I take it there was a track on Elleseme St., E14 as well though .? You're right about what they call the Beckton Alp (though sadly the one time dry ski slope there has long since now closed down). Incidentally the 'alp, was created to bury underneath it a second world war Gunnery site..: one very similar to the one used now as a Speedway track in Iwade!

Not checked to see if he's been mentioned but in 1976, Leicester had a Pole: Grzegorz Szczepani.. Reckon he was the only Pole ever to ride at Crayford (in the Lions' 40-38 win in the Inter League Cup that year..)!

I wasn't saying that - we have all grown up knowing that claim! What I said was that earlier oval motorcycle racing may not have been quite the same as 'Speedway'. And I take your point that what was served up at Maitland in 1923 bears little resemblance to what Speedway's like now; nor indeed was what happened at High Beech behind the King's Oak in 1928 much like it either... But then that's like comparing early Football with the modern game. What there is are links and connections. And in terms of the sainted Johnnie, much of it is about how the sport was branded and promoted by him. He was after all (and they can be no denying this...) a great showman and publicist. Speedway is a highly stylised form of motorcycle racing and there clearly ARE links back to Hoskins in this specific regard...

Hmm, well I don't think anyone has claimed that Johnnie Hoskins' 1923 Maitland event was the first time motorcyle racing had ever taken place let alone ever at similar shows in Australia... But is it not possible the the style, type and distance of such previous rces were different and that Hoskins changed things to become what later was to be known as 'Speedway'..? You yourself quote that the races in 1906 were on oval tracks but over a two mile distance... That doesn't sound a whole lot like what became Speedway..

tbh, I was thinking of Churchfields which is more Beckenham than Sydenham... So many place names in South London - confuses even a 'native' like me! I see from a quick bit of Googling about that track that a current associate (well I know him from Lakeside...), Martin Jarvis was a three times in a row British Youth champ as a Beckenham rider in the early '70s. Martin's involved at East London now and informs me that the promised indoor Cycle Speedway venue as part of the Olympics site never materilised. It MAY, I suppose, still happen when Eastway/Temple Mills on Ruckholt Rd. is turned back into a cycling venue...

IMHO, the final slot should go to Tom Woolley.. Twice British junior champ at Short Track and won the Irish championship last year! Top rider on the Flat track and has toured USA...: experience none of the others in the frame have; and IMHO an excellent chance to make it big in Speedway! I guess I should've shared this with you 'privately, Malc, as someone else might after reading this come in and snap 'im up now! Though with my record as a tipster, maybe not!!!

Was this the club based at Sydenham or another one..? And what were the circs Ivan turned out for them?

And here's the latest: ONE heat of second half racing in the first meeting of the season, when everyone's finding their feet and this is is the snap conclusion...! My, oh my - one has sometimes to wonder why Uncle Len bothers!!!

Well yes - a 'Speedway' is indeed the name for a motor racetrack in the States. And here too sometimes (e.g Rockingham Speedway near Corby). Somewhere and somehow though somebody thought that a particular activity taking part on a Speedway, namely the form of dirt track motorcycling without brakes, should be called in itself, 'Speedway'. Personally I think it was a bit daft as it's led to a certain amount of confusion (certainly in some places, like the USA) ever since... Perhaps we should've gone with the branding used initially at good old Plough Lane: dirt track racing as Dracing!!

Who was it though, I wonder, who first termed dirt-track motorcycle racing as 'Speedway'..? We all know there was dirt track motorcycle racing before Maitland '23 (not least in the USA) but as far as I know it certainly wasn't called Speedway until sometime later into the '20s... It wasn't when it started here in '28 (or even '27 - ANOTHER debate) but soon a company called International Speedways was calling the sport by the name we know and love it by to this day... Maybe our Johnnie has a claim to the styling of the sport rather than its pure origin..?

Is this why you gave up the push bike and started travelling on the Streatham omnibus!!?? btw, thanks for that list of London tracks - a-maz-ing!!! Reckon our Tel mentioned half of these when chatting to me!!! One (well at least one...) missing though... The Arbour Atoms rode out of the Arbour Youth Club in Stepney - check out this: http://www.cyclespeedwayhistory.org.uk/2454.shtml Oh and ANOTHER...: a club which T. Stone esq. rode for along with Stan Stevens and I think quite possibly Gentleman George Barclay too... The Barking Park-based Longbridge Leopards http://www.cyclespeedwayhistory.org.uk/835.shtml