Parsloes 1928 nearly

What a fantastic picture - and many thanx for your PM too. I shall of course be replying to you. Best wishes and fraternal greetings, Derek

What a crazy comment... You Elite League fans stick to your diet of processional Poles, anonymous Aussies, sleep-inducing Swedes and dormant Danes, for me I'd rather watch Britain's young talent anytime... And I don't just mean the start-line gals!!!

Just got back from Lakeside.. A massive well done to Joe. To beat Tai twice was an awesome effort. And had to do it the hard way having lost out in the 'ballot' for the two automatic places in the Final, which also, by a double whammy, meant he had only third choice of gate in the Final... And I got some stick before for commenting on the Mildenhall semi, so to redress the balance can I saw how impressed I was tonight by Steven Worrall - five points in the GB U-21s Final after less than a handful of senior meetings is an amazing achievement... A big well done to him...

Hold on - read my posting. I make no adverse comment about Steve - it is indeed a great achievement qualifying for the British Final after such a brief time in the sport... Well done to him and Scott and all the other qualifiers... So kindly don't put words into my mouth...

Hmm, well as someone (! ) wrote in the programme notes, this Mildenhall semi with a very evenly-matched (and for that read, let's be honest, far weaker than the other two qualifiers...) line-up, always had the potential to throw up some surprise qualifiers and so it has proved... Fair play to the lads concerned.. I have to go back to a point I've reiterated a few times on this thread though...: if Marc Owen had ridden in this round (IMHO ANY of the three semis..) he'd be lining up at Lakeside next Friday. No criticism of course to any of those that are but a simple question - to which am not expecting a reply... - why WAS he left out..?

Echo the sentiments about Bren,of course. But forgive me if I'm cock-a-hoop this morning at just hearing that Aaron is the GB U-21 Final!!! FANTASTIC news!! Well done Asbo! Really looking forward to Friday!! D.

It's a 13 rider, 13 heat format... details of which posted on here have been consigned to oblivion due to the lost Easter weekend!!!

Yes sorry got my Mark's and Martin's confused.. He IS Mark's son!!! Martin's his uncle!!

No, Luke is Martin Chessell's son. Martin rode for Arena Essex among other clubs. Gary is his (ie Luke's) uncle...

One of my all-time favourite riders. And holder of the greatest set of appearance records ever surely... From making his debut (in the top division) with West Ham, Sagey was ever-present in Division One with the Hammers and then the Witches for four consecutive seasons: then, as you say, when he moved to Crayford he carried on the record through 1975 - 1978 completing an incredible 327 consecutive appearances in official fixtures before breaking his leg in July 1979. Even then, when he returned to the saddle mid-season in 1980, he never missed another match for Crayford; and was ever-present again for Arena Essex in ’84 and ’85 and then for Canterbury in his final season of ’86. So, in 16 seasons from 1971 to 1986 Alan was to be ever-present in 14 of them: an incredible record!

That's right. The GB Under 15s the other year at Buxton had this sort of format. And most infamously of all was that shocking format for the Bronze Helmet in '08 at Weymouth... The more one thinks about this and looks at the line-ups the clearer it becomes that there should surely have been just two semis - which then could've been proper 16 rider 20 heat meetings...

Could be wrong but I think I remember George Barclay telling me a year or so back that Sagey had just fitted a boiler for him, so assume he's working as a plumber/gas fitter..? Fairly sure he's still in the Kent area...

There appears to be an amended list on the BSPA site posted today but the Mildenhall field hasn't changed. FIVE KLYS in that field of 12, btw... The bigger question to me (with a personal interest in terms of getting the race card correct..) is: what's this 12 rider format all about and what is it..!!! Also have asked before but why on earth isn't Marc Owen named in any of the semis...? There are a number of riders with far less experience...

Hmm, I'm sure that as a devoted atheist our norbold must, in the deepest recesses of his brain, fear somehow meeting his maker at the pearly gates... It can't make it any better: the prospect of Johnnie Hoskins turning out to be his maker!! BTW, I have personal experience of the time norbold was indeed closest to death... You MUST remember that lift, norb..?!!

Wise words. Being wrong is my speciality. At least that's what 'er indoors has been telling me for, er, too many years now!!

Sorry! I was wrong about 6pm. Me being wrong is NOT an unusual thing, before you say!!! :oops:

Well you COULD do.. But sadly not just East London but the WHOLE of greater London has produced hardly ANY riders for years and years now... I think the only three riders currently riding born in the London area (and even then in a couple of cases moved away before pursuing a Speedway career) are James Cockle, Karl Mason and Jon Stevens... Before them there was Ray Morton and reaching the end of his career was Moggo but really I can't recall any other at all recent Londoner riders... Very sad... PS no I'd not forgotten my old mate Cecil Forbes...!!

Hmm, but a SHOCKING error repeated by you again there norbold... Parsloes Park is most certainly NOT in Ilford..: it's in Dagenham... And, er, always has been...!!

Not for the first time my local rag, the Barking & Dagenham Post has re-visited the story of the old Ripple Road track to come up with this, for its really rather impressive local history series: http://www.bdpost.co.uk/content/barkingand...3A53%3A36%3A900 The esteemed Mr. Jacobs gets an honourable mention...: why that geez is almost as good as our norbold (! ) though perhaps without the 'local legend' status around these parts of Dr. Belton.. Far be it from me, whose stock in trade is the hyperbole ( ) , to say...but is it not perhaps somewhat over-stating it to claim, "the Dagenham track was the biggest hotbed of speedway talent in the UK before the war..". Discuss!!!

Hmm, that appears to be Van-Praag with a hypen! Back to the drawing board!!!

Not sure if that's the case or that there are slots to fill still... One extremely notable absentee is Marc Owen... Surely Marc MUST be included in one of the rounds...: hopefully the Mildenhall one...

You must be thinking of your fellow Tottenham fans - they, of course, have to drink to forget!!!

Hmm, BBC site says they'll be the odd shower. Am sure that won't cause a dawn call-off. Can we be so sure that the same will apply to NL meetings scheduled for the track later on in the season I wonder though....!

Does anyone pay..? When I 'worked' the Rye House turnstiles for our STUK meeting there end of last season a good 80% of those turning up tried to blag their way in..!!

Er, okay. But TBF, it wasn't me who opened this thread in the NL section. It was a very experienced and sensible poster, PhilK. Phil ain't daft. He knows where respective postings are meant to go but, I'd imagine, he felt that a QUESTION about when this meeting might be staged was likely to attract attention and get a response in the NL section. Over the last couple of years it's consistently been shown that ONLY when such threads are opened in the League section does anyone notice or respond to them. You were 100% right , Rob, back in the day when you made this exact same point. The decision to tag on Shared Events to the, er, Testimonials section (what's the connection between the two...?: search me..!) was, as you say, in reaction to your earlier moan. That doesn't make it a sensible decision... Just a suggestion here but have the Mods not considered for the sake of clarity, as they clearly want to separate and group threads in this way, renaming this section 'Shared Events, Testimonials & Individual meetings'? Only, to me the Super7 and the NL 'shareds' are really the highest profile of the three distinct 'types' of meetings in this section, so it would perhaps aid use of and understanding of this section to just carry out that simple re-ordering in the title...