Parsloes 1928 nearly

.. to date was by my reckoning this. On 27/4/01 at Arena Essex in the Second Half following a 54-35 win by the home side over the IoW in the Premier Trophy. The second half saw an Arena Essex juniors side of Gareth Roberts, Tom Cooper, Matt Etherington and Simon Taylor take on a 'Crayford Select' side. Now I know who rode for 'Crayford' that evening it was my old pal,Andre Cross, fellow soon to be Wimbledon Don, Jon Stevens, Carl Downs and the late Vince Kinchin. Can anyone out there possibly supply the result (to my shame I left before this mini match ended..)heat details or indiv scores?

I'm all for allowing threads on any Forum to go with the flow but the Alf Hagon 'debate' has all but taken over a thread meant to be about this year's Kent SLYDE Kings.. Enough already surely now...

Just to clarify. The track/club at Central Park is Kent not Sittingbourne. Sittingbourne Speedway is a different circuit/club. Also Planning Consent expressly forbids ANY practice at Central Park, so home riders let alone anyone else have no options in that regard. Good luck to all at Arlington for what should be a terrific 2015 campaign.

Thanks to Peter Oakes the sport does still get column inches in the Mirror & Star (and perhaps other nationals too - Peter could confirm...). And that includes the National League at times, as Kent has received coverage in the two papers I've just mentioned this year alone. Too many people rushing to be massively negative, as ever.

The rules and the Oxford CL side of that era were not close friends!!

I've got a 12'' LP record of the 1974 European Final and 1974 World Final

And the supporters club would be run (as ever!) by Di Farmer...

This is intriguing... So this Grasstrack meeting seems to have taken place in 1972 in the stadium which three years earlier had ALMOST become a Speedway venue in the BL2. I wonder how they got around the fact that Planning Permission had been denied in '69? Or in those simpler times perhaps for a one off they felt it didn't matter over much. Being a schoolboy event and in Kent one wonders if any future Canterbury &/or Crayford riders appeared in this meeting..?

Many thanks MtheM - much appreciated! The Grass track meetings referred to above at 'Rochester Stadium' - was that at the (or rather was it..) the Dog track at City Way? Also do we know what sports took place at the stadium in between those two dirt track meetings in '32 and the Dogs taking over four years later..?

Hmm, with respect does it give any info. about the racing in the 1930s at the track?

Was this at the same stadium (the Dog track) which was mooted as the home for the 'Bombers' in '69 then, norbold?

I agree about Marc. He was the best young rider (when he was barely in his teens) I've ever seen at such a young age but obviously had that serious injury. Last year he showed he was well on the way back to fulfilling all that very early potential. I'd predict him to be the top rider in the division but my predictions are the kiss of death, so I'll just file that thought for now! But certainly with Danny Warwick and Marc Owen in the same side, Eagles fans will not be short of excitement out on track - and surely excitement IS what it should all be about!

Hmm, it depends on who you are in terms of whether it's more difficult to win now than before! If you're one of those constantly in the GPs (and in practice finishing in the top 10 of 15 each year will 'earn' you that right) then it is considerably EASIER nowadays to win the world championship! Outside of that few then it's actually impossible to win it!!

A World Final at either Wembley or - my preferred option - the Olympic Stadium would be a sell-out. Actually there remains a lot of interest in London (where I live and work all around the city...)in Speedway. Sure that's not translated into going to see the sport but then again like anywhere else Londoners are not the best at making that effort to get to places a bit out of town; Lakeside (a bit of a mission by train and traffic hit on Friday evenings..) or Rye House - though actually the journey by train to RH out of Liverpool St or Tottenham Hale is a piece of cake if people only tried it... But a World Final (NOT a pointless SGP round) would be a huge draw at the OS. And the way the new roof over the stands has been built MAY (not sure..?) cover the track area..?

Makes me chuckle when people say we'd only get a World Final only every six years.. Under the current system when was the last time a World Championship was decided in this country.. 1995 wasn't it..? That's nearly TWENTY years ago! And with a GB SGP in June/July when will the next time be? Er, NEVER..!! The GB SGP isn't even 10% of what a proper World Final would be... It's almost entirely meaningless in fact...

There were extremely few "crazy results". Indeed quite possibly '73 was the only one. The vast majority of champions appeared at least one other time on the rostrum and riders like Briggs, Mauger, Olsen & Fundin had numerous rostrum finishes in addition to their multiple crowns.. The World Final tested the mettle of the very best in a way the multi-round series format never can. To win in the white hot atmosphere of the World Final took a very special rider. For riders to do it multiple times like those four just mentioned, showed they were truly exceptional. If it was a lottery they'd have been a lot more champs than there were! And more than that it was a fantastically exciting night!! And isn't that what sport is meant to be about (especially our sport!): excitement!

There are SIX stand-alone tracks (and seven stand alone clubs) in the 2015 NL. If that doesn't make it a fully fledged Third Division then I don't know what will... As Dean says the notion that the NL is just there for the benefit of clubs in the higher divisions is a total nonsense.

Well Speedway used to and look at the difference it made. John Louis turned from 'Scrambling'to Speedway aged 28 in 1970 in the old Second Division - in 1972 he was fifth in the World Final. Michael Lee made his debut as a 16 year old in the NNL in 1975 and was 4th. in the World Final in 1977. Such fast progress to the top is now a physical impossibility - and that's what's so wrong about the modern version of the World Championship.

I think the fundamental principle of an annual World Championship is that there should be as wide a chance as possible opportunity for competitors in that sport to have a chance in that year. The current SGP system is flawed in the main because its entrance is so severely restricted (hence how so very gradually it's changed over the years) and the line up is determined on performance/qualification from the year before.

16th. November 2008 at Iwade: Dragons Club class championshiip: 1st. Benjamin Borgers (Netherlands) 14; 2nd. Mark Baldock 13; 3rd. TOM PERRY 11; 4th. Richard Andrews 11; 5th. Niall Strudwick 11; 6th. Mark Bibby 10; 7th. Wim Kennis (Belgium) 9; 8th. Ian Olsen 8; 9th. Jim Wannell 8; 10th. Sjors De Jonge (Netherlands) 8; 11th. Jamie Dixon 6; 12th.= Lee Lingham 3; 12th.= Steve Cook 3

With respect, I certainly wasn't aiming to do that! Just defending the honour of my old pal, the 'Huntsman'..!!

Hmm, perhaps tells a story! Criticising Chris Hunt for not knowing Statham's name will be a bit like criticising a future Speedway rider in 2040 for having never heard of Justin Elkins!!!! Have a great Christmas!

Good grief, you lot have very little patience! If gustix gets a little confused or asks a question which you might think daft or obvious, why not just correct him or answer him - yet all of you are just incredibly rude to someone you know is pretty elderly now. Funny how you criticise the 'moderating' on the FB page being discussed; but on the BSF there is clearly zero moderating if this is the kind of thing which is considered acceptable 'debate'...

The oldest debutant in the third tier might well have been Ron Jones riding for Wimbledon in 2003? He was 46 years of age

Never understand why everyone always lambasts the 'London Stadium' for offering a grandstand view behind glass! Dozens of tracks over the years had or have viewing behind glass - including Wimbledon which has had the majority of picks in this thread!! I used to take my kids who were little at the time to see the Lions that one season ('96) and we stood on the small terrace on the first bend where there was a small playground which kept them amused. Only Speedway track I've ever known which had slides and swings like that! The only problem with the London Stadium was they spent too much money making it too plush and with Romford & the 'Stow being more popular dog tracks, such over development wasn't sustainable leading to bankrupcy; but the facilities were undoubtedly outstanding.