Parsloes 1928 nearly

Surely not Tai. Both his parents are British....

A couple of things. One, Heeps is an Aussie..: and for a long time Speedway's lower divisions have allowed riders from the 'Commonwealth' to compete as if British nationals. In that sense I dispute entirely the notion that Cameron was 'foreign' And secondly, there have been a very large number of riders who have competed in the CL/NL under such terms. Andrew Bargh and young Alex Cunningham are two Kiwis as examples. Byron Bekker a South African who I'm not sure had the patriality that others had..? There was even an Aussie from a Latvian background called Karlis Ezagalis (excuse the likely spelling error!). So why this concentration on rules being broken over Heeps..? I can't personally see that any were... Also I'm sure young English riders benefit from riding against and/or with young Aussie talent like Heeps..

Clutching at strawsa now... Anyone who was of a good league-racing standard in the British Leagues did indeed get a chance to progress in the World Championships... A novice in his first year in the top division in John Louis in 1972 went all the way to 4th. spot in the overall championship...

I agree there's a lack of glamour but don't equate that with it needing to lose its working class roots. If one looks back to the sport's heyday it was attended by the masses but was served up with plenty of glamour.. Film stars invited to present trophies; much razzamataz, showbiz-style stunts etc. What happens now is promoters don't really promote nearly enough and too much time spent on rules and less on excitement..

Hmm, how can you say Darts is pointless..? How do you think they stick in the board then..??!!

Hmm, the day we want to be compared to Formula 1 (which though i don't doubt its popularity is an exclusively rich man's sport) is a sad one imho. Speedway has always been an intrinsically working class sport and one, motorsport-wise, based more on skill than on pit staff... Fair enuff if you want it to be different but can I suggest that nothing will hasten our sport's decline more than trying to compete within the big money terms of other (I'd argue) inferior from an entertainment point of view motorsports products...

One in which anyone with the ability to do so has a chance of competing in, in the year in question (obviously something like the FIFA World Cup, qualifying starts in the year before...); and is not kept out of it because it's a 'closed shop' or entirely dependent on money... Rather like the World Championship Speedway had for decades...!

I agree with this. I despaired last year at how much bandwidth on this Forum and column inches in the Speedway Star was spent on arguments about team compositions and the finer detail of how team building could or couldn't be interpreted. Back in the days of Rider Control (far more controversial as a concept..) riders were moved on [like Mauger to Exeter for eg] there was a little bit of gnashing of teeth and then everyone got on with it... Now it's all that seems to bother some people. We need to settle back and enjoy the sport for what it is and to have a young talent like Cameron gracing our tracks has surely only to be a good thing...

Yes by then Tom Owen was really popular as a visiting rider to London Rd. More than can be said for the rider third in '75... Mr. Mullarkey!!!! Derek

This is plain daft! My father-in-law and several friends come down from the north-west every year to Wembley for the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley... They have stayed in a range of hotels across all parts of London over the years (their annual trips down date back to the '60s [obviously there was a gap when the stadium being rebuilt..]) and have NEVER walked from the hotel to the ground.. You know why..? In this city there is such a thing as the 'London Underground'...!!!! Takes you from any direction/route you need/fancy to within a five minute walk of the stadium...!!!

1977 KTT 1st. Tom Owen (Newcastle) 15[M]; 2nd. Colin Richardson (Eastbourne) 13; 3rd. Martin Yeates (Oxford) 12; 4th. Alan Sage (Crayford) 12; 5th. Rob Hollingworth (Boston) 12; 6th. Laurie Etheridge (Crayford) 9; 7th. Kelvin Mullarkey (Rye House) 8; 8th. Steve Koppe (Canterbury) 7; 9th. Barney Kennett (Canterbury) 5; 10th.= Alan Johns (Crayford) 5; 10th.= Roger Abel (Eastbourne) 5; 12th, Richard Davey (Crayford) 4; 13th.= Vic Harding (Crayford) 3; 13th.= Colin Gooddy (Crayford) 3; 13th.= Mike Bessent (Crayford) 3; 16th.= Bob Garrad (Rye House) 2; 16th.= Ted Hunbbard (Rye House) 2; 18th. Garry May (Crayford) 0 By the way can't explain why each time I'm posting these they're coming out in a smaller font!!!! 1978 KTT 1st. Tom Owen (Newcastle) 14; 2nd. Eric Dugard (Eastbourne) 12; 3rd. Steve Koppe (Canterbury) 11; 4th. Dave Gooderham (Peterborough) 10; 5th. Alan Sage (Crayford) 9; 6th. Kelvin Mullarkey (Crayford) 9; 7th. Melvyn Taylor (Mildenhall) 9; 8th. Alan Johns (Crayford) 8; 9th. Les Rumsey (Canterbury) 7; 10th. Laurie Etheridge (Crayford) 7; 11th. Ted Hubbard (Rye House) 6; 12th. Bob Coles (Mildenhall) 6; 13th. Pete Wigley (Crayford) 5; 14th= Ian Clark (Peterborough) 3; 14th.= Tony Featherstone (Crayford) 3; 16th. Richard Davey (Crayford) 1

1975 Kentish Times Trophy Kentish Times Trophy 1st. Tom Owen (Newcastle) 14; 2nd. Laurie Etheridge (Crayford) 111/2 ; 3rd. Kelvin Mullarkey (Rye House) 11; Alan Sage (Crayford) 11; Les Rumsey (Canterbury) 11; Alan Grahame (Birmingham) 10; Barney Kennett (Canterbury) 9; Brian Foote (Rye House) 81/2;Tony Childs (Scunthorpe) 7; Alan Johns (Crayford) 5; Pete Wigley (Crayford) 5; Brian Clark (Peterborough) 4; George Barclay (Crayford) 4; Dave Gagen (Boston) 3; Tiger Beech 3; Bill Archer (Crayford) 2; Paul Gachet (Eastbourne) 0; Neil Middleditch (Eastbourne) 0 1976 KTT 1st. Tom Owen (Newcastle) 15[M]; 2nd. Ted Hubbard (Rye House) 14; 3rd. Hugh Saunders (Rye House) 11; 4th. Alan Sage (Crayford) 11; 5th. Kelvin Mullarkey (Rye House) 11; 6th. Steve Weatherley (Eastbourne) 9; 7th. Tony Featherstone (Peterborough) 8; 8th. Laurie Etheridge (Crayford) 6; 9th.= Pete Wigley (Crayford) 6; 9th.= Alan Johns (Crayford) 6; 11th. Mike Broadbank (Crayford) 6; 12th. Bob Coles (Mildenhall) 5; 13th. Les Collins (Stoke) 5; 14th. Steve Koppe (Canterbury) 4; 15th. Pete Jarman (Eastbourne) 2; 16th. Les Rumsey (Canterbury) 1; 17th. John Hooper (Crayford) 0

It's why the format does need to be looked at... I can't conceive of any other sport's world championship where a top young competitor would opt not to even enter it... Peple can (and no doubt shall..!) give loads of reasons why but tell us another sport where this happens before you start down that road of excuses!!! The SGP is NOT a proper World Championship within the definition of other sports' world championships... And that's a FACT..!

Bring back Tuff McBride in 2012! Tuff was one of my fav riders of this year!!

I will say that in the current format the same top eight is more or less inevitable... Of course IF the best young rider in the world Darcy Ward had felt it worth his while entering the series there would have at least been that change but sadly as we know not gonna happen...

Personally I'd be very surprised if Greg retained the title. A bit like Gollob the year before (though obviously there was the difference in that for Greg it was the unlikely dream of a second crown which inspired his 2011 efforts, for Tomasz it was that elusive first title) the effort of such a monumental season will be difficult at his age (sorry to mention the 'a' word!) to maintain... People can be fans of these older riders (I myself couldn't have been happier that Gollob finally won the year before last...) but surely anyone can see that for the benefit of the future of the sport a battle royale between young guns would be far better for us all... And don't know about anyone else but a Russian world champ at last is what I'd like to see!

My god, how the sport needs it to be Hampel, Sayfutdinov or Holder winning the title - preferably a battle going to the wire between the three of them...

There's no way that the local Travellodge type hotels would put their prices up for an SGP in London though..!

Geez, is that what happens..? In which case that's a total scandal... Surely big companies like that have fixed rates don't they..? Raising prices for a 'captive' audience like the SGP crowd is a total disgrace.. Anyone considered contacting the City' Council's Trading Standards dep't..?

Er, Wembley required a track to be laid - certainly in '75, '78 & '81. League racing there was no more and the football pitch had encroached onto it... There was enough fuss made at the time by both the FA and the Speedway authorities..

Think I'm right in saying precisely zero WFs were rained off....

You took ma woman, shopping...?! No wonder you ended up spending a fortune!!! LOL!

What's with all this, 'must have a roof' business..?! Speedway would be totally dead within minutes if only venues with roofs (rooves..?!) had be used to stage the sport!! And comer on, IF we could get a big Speedway meetying held in the Olympic Stadium, say, in summer 2013...: it would be a MASSIVE boost for the sport. I can't really believe that there's anyone who couldn't see that!

What was the signicance of norbold's comment..?

Good luck to Marc. Hope there's room for Gazza Cottham too!