Parsloes 1928 nearly

Goodness: is your middle name 'Jonah'...!!!!

"Shovlar in Buccs meeting no good! Shock! Horror! Probe!" Least surprising headline of this (or last...) year!!! Come on Richard, slagging off the prog.: you KNOW I'm gonna respond to THAT!! Sure this prog. was published to cover both the second leg KOC match vs. KL (on 8/7) AND tonight's meeting and that IS a new departure for the Buccs; but we won the NL prog of the year last year and with seven pages of Buccs/NL specific material plus colour action photos of Buccs' action on a further two pages and then of course there being four pages (as covering two matches) of race-card, I really can't see that the prog. is as bad as you say. True, it's always gonna be tricky to second-guess an opposition team line-up when a prog. is printed so far in advance and THAT was a down-side: Plymouth have, though, made rather more changes than is common since the start of the month and one must assume that the line-up printed WAS as suggested by the Devils' management when this went to print...

To me Speedway is about the raw excitement of man and machine battling gladiator-style around a floodlight (preferably - though Sunday afternoons in the sunshine are fine..!) dirt track in no-holds barred pure racing. So my top seven (in a team-format, including reserves! ) based on watching the sport since 1972 are: 1) Peter Collins 2) Les Collins 3) Ole Olsen 4) John Louis 5) Joe Owen 6) Mark Burrows 7) Alan Sage The only riders who to me have ever come even close to matching PC in his pomp in terms of raw excitement and riding skill are his brother Les, Joey Owen in his NL glory days with Newcastle and Buzz, well more or less the whole time I've seen him ride... Tiger was to me the best Brit never to be World Champ; Olsen I loved to hate, but he WAS the complete package; and Sagey was my boyhood hero... A shout-out too for Mirac - who I only saw ride once (when over on his last riding trip to the UK in 1974) but I had the great pleasure of meeting in our Wimbledon CL days and the man is literally the greatest legend in the history of our sport...

The situation at Mildenhall is very sad but let's also remember that Ray has suffered a terrible loss with the death of Jean. Unless any of us have been in a similar position I don't think one could understand how traumatic things have been for him. I've no intention of commenting on the whys and wherefores of what's going on, as - even though I have a modest position within the club - frankly I have no knowledge of them; and of course I understand fully the frustrations and concerns of personnel who (as I understand is the case..) are awaiting payment, but I do feel that remarks like this about Ray show a degree of personal insensitivity. I know Ray (only a little bit) but well enough to know how crushing the blow of the loss of Jean was and I do hope people keep that in mind when commenting on here..

I'm astonished at how few people have included Peter Collins in their lists!! Of course some on here (even surprisingly lucifer sam!! ) are too young to have seen PC in his prime or at all; but for those who did, I seriously can't believe he wouldn't be in everyone's top seven!! Check out the clips you can see on YouTube of PC at his absolute prime in the 1977 Inter-continental Final at White City and tell me that there was anyone let alone seven better than PC!! To me the only rider to have come close to him in all round ability was Ole Olsen...

Hmm, well I don't know what the crowd was but I do know that IMHO the Telegraph is the best paper for sport in the UK and long has been so I'd go with them. The Times' take on things , one can define only in two ways. One that they got their facts badly wrong - which is difficult to explain as one presumes that attendances are facts in the public domain; or that they have deliberately written this incorrect, negative comment. Whuch is worrying. Oh, for a situation when our sport got fair treatment from the national media.. But let's be positive, big up for the Telegraph - an excellent newspaper...

Is there a date for this meeting at Newport yet..?!

You are NOT forgiven...!!!!

"...disarray" seems a tad harsh, does it not..? Recovered from a 13 point deficit to force a last heart decider...

So is the Scunny fixture on 6 August just the IoW then or is it to be part of a double header (with a PL match perhaps..?)

In fact the Guest for the YS's turned out to be Jake Anderson and seems he was the hero in a 50-40 defeat on the night but therefore 89-92 aggregate result and KL going thru'. Bad luck to the Buccs...

Talking of places that USED to have tracks - what about Zimbabwe? Under its old colonial name it regularly attracted touring British riders and there were a few tracks I believe. Crayford legend Laurie Etheridge was a regular visitor there.... And a lad who joined my Sixth Form (yes it WAS a long time ago... ) to avoid the Rhodesian army draft spoke of watching Speedway there.. And then there was Majorca..: in the early '70s Ian Hoskins ran a track there. I wonder if it still lies unused on that Spanish holiday isle..? A local rider Marshall Pugh was the star and he briefly came over and rode at Hoskins' Dad's track at Canterbury in the early '70s..

According to the Buccs' website, it's RH's Jamie Smith rather than Allott guesting.. For my part, my plans to go have been scuppered by a major incident at work... Let's hope there's a Buccs semi to follow which I CAN attend...

Day of the meeting and no thread yet - well at least not til, er, NOW!!! Am looking forward to this one - as I predicted back last month after the first leg, poised to be a thriller!! One-time KL man (and KL born is he not..?) Brundle makes his Buccs debut... Here's the story so far...

Fair point!! Have copy & pasted into said new thread which is - coz no International perspective - in Speedway General!!! Here indeed: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=55596&pid=1755815&st=0entry1755815

Hmm, even though clearly Hump has got it wrong (though won't admit it!!! ) it does raise an interesting side-thread...: Venues which have staged Speedway here in the UK and are still standing and where in theory they could again... Clearly Oxford and Plough Lane are at the top of such a 'list' but there's also the following I could think of...: Sunderland's Boldon Greyhound Stadium Hull's The Boulevard is also I believe still going as a dog track,, Odsal - behind Wimbledon, THE most famous stadium still available, though not sure now if a track could that easily be located around the Rugby League pitch..? Barrow - a similar question about fitting a track in now.. Ellesmere Port - this is still there isn't it? Long Eaton though may recently have bitten the dust..? Though not needed due to the superb site at Normanby, the original home of Scunthorpe Speedway, Quibell Park velodrome's still there I believe.. Milton Keynes - again not sure but is the newly revamped dog track not the same venue used as the Knights' second home..? In the Second City there's both Hall Green and the Bordesley Green Wheels Project sites - though obviously we all hope Perry Barr is kept. One here for our Malc: definitely an original venue: Great Yarmouth dog track - stages motor sport in the form of Stocks too... Also Stock Car venues, Brafield and Aldershot have both previously staged Speedway haven't they? Not sure if the ill-fated Skegness is still potentially available too (Cleethorpes probably a better bet up there - though that would be a bona fide new venue..) Carmarthen - of course! Nothing happened at the Showground to the old and much missed home of the Dragons... Portsmouth..? The dog track got sold..: for redevelopment I suppose..? Walthamstow also got sold for housing but that's yet to happen...!! The seats from the 'Stow are at a Speedway operation at least: Uncle Len's latest cuckoo-act to spruce up Rye House!!! I'm sure speedyguy would be on hand to point out that the sites of tracks at California and Hastings are still not built on.. True too I believe of Nelson in Lancs..? Though to include those three is pushing it a little...! Another fav of our trusty SLP scribe is Crystal Palace... The soon to be defunct National Athletics Stadium sits on the same footprint as the former Speedway track and FA Cup venue. And co-incidetally the same can, of course, be said of the new Wembley..!! Then there's Hove dog track - that's still functioning and I think once staged Speedway..? Now Scotlnd's always been rich pickings for these sorts of venues. I'm deffo no expert at all on what's left up there but maybe some of the following..?: Albion Rovers' ground, once home of the Coatbridge Tigers. Shawfield - is that still a dog track..? Blantyre..? One or both venues used by Glasgow..? St. Mirren's Love St. was home to Paisley...: I think this might be history now though. Cowdenbeath - though is still, I think, staging Stock Cars..? Edinburgh's famous Meadowbank...? Like CP, an Athletics venue now... There may well be others. And yes I KNOW this isn't what david asked!!!

Ah but it would be bloody great if they did though!!!!

David's list is only CURRENT Speedway tracks!! So you wouldn't be counting Hackney even once!! Though, as I sit here but a half-mile away from the magnificent looking new Olympic Stadium positioned in the same part of Stratford-le-Bow as the former Hackney Wick Stadium, who knows we may soon be able to list that as an occasional current British Speedway venue!!

And divorce is expensive m8!!!

Grrr! How bloody annoying that the BSPA website says it's a double header. The fixtures page on that site is truly awful!! Can't make the one you mention Rob..: it's Bank Holiday Monday that: a day designed only for tiling!!!!

Yes - I know it's a little way off but am planning trip up for this one... ATM can't get onto Scunny web-site. Blocked at work as the system there recognises it as a "porn site" (sic)..: legacy of that infamous four letter word in the middle of Scunny's place name! And at home I'm blocked out as it says the site is dangerous from a virus point of view... Don't know when this problem (noted by others..) with the Scunny site is gonna get sorted... It's a shame too, coz the Scunthorpe site is IMHO the best club website bar none... Anyhow, back to this thread! Can someone confirm what the BSPA site says that Friday 6/8 is an NL double-header: vs. IoW and vs. Dudley..? Ta.

And what about the training mini tracks..? There's a number very active in the UK..: certainly at Scunny, at Iwade and I 'm fairly certain at Arlington... These are seperate tracks in their own right.. Now there WAS some sort of training track facility at Burton-on-Trent until recently. It got almost zero publicity when it was there - and I wonder if it's still there but still largely off the radar..? This website gives details: http://www.burtonmotox.com/viewpage.php?page_id=19

Oh dear, what will the divine Ms. B. think if you - as I fear you appear to be planning - embark on visiting ALL of these tracks!!! My plans to blag a trip to Austria are going well, BTW...: the problem is that the only active tracks there are bloody miles from Innsbruck..!! And wot about Japan..? Are there not any tracks there anymore..?! With you being a soon-to-be big reality TV star in the Land of the Rising Sun, you might even be able to attend there as a guest of honour!!!

Great effort in particular by the Dreadlocked Dreadnaught, Danny Warwick!! Three heat wins including one six pointer... Denying Barrie Evans and guest Jon Armstrong their maximums along the way. Must be one of the best performances by a visiting rider to West Row this year!!

Go easy with those Bakewell tarts... Not good for you at your age!!!