davidba

Small world!

Cheers, looks like i will be going to Bydgoszcz v Lodz or Rybnik then!!

Always thought it was an odd choice of song for the movie, but hey i've seen 'Swagman' a couple of times recently so that was always gonna be in my head!!

Personally i'm waiting on where the following will be riding so any news will be appreciated: Mariusz Wegrzyk, Piotr Pawlicki(I know he's being lent out to a 1st division club), Matueusz Kowalczyk, Rafal Trojanowski, Slawomir Pyszny,Lukasz Jankowski, Joszef Tabaka,Marcin Jedrezjewski,Piotr Dym, Tomasz Rempela and if any of the young Slovenians are going to get a ride over there(Or Croats). Thanks

Really gutted i couldn't get out of family commitments to attend, but glad it went well Norman. I finally made it to the stadium site on Monday before the snow hit London, though it was freezing. The track is still vaguely visible from ground level and the old steps are stil there. As i walked away singing 'Ilkley Moor by tat' to myself, something magical happened, the sound of bikes came from the track area. I rushed back down Hernshay St and watched two men on scramble bikes ride around the area, though they soon dissapeared over the horizon, but as i left again i once more heard the bike noise and stood there for a few minutes imagining it on race night.It got too cold so i headed home but it did add some autheticity to my attempts to picture it all as it was,sadly my battery was dead on my camera by then though i have one blurry shot of a bike in the distance. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=302819&id=684042497&l=38f86e110b

Personally i would like to have seen the EL at 10 teams with no B fixtures, making these big events and getting rid of the repetition thats killing off the EL of late(Not reducing it even more)then the top riders could have been tempted back, as long as cllubs didn't pay OTT wages. Then these clubs would fill their blank weeks with NL fixtures by running a team in that division too. I know Poole lost money on running Bournemouth but thats because fans in hard economic times had to chose between which of 2 meetings per week to attend. If EL was once a fortnight and properly advertised it would attract good crowds, and on the off week the NL outfit would attract more than when in competition with EL fixtures, especially as the NL would then be a proper 18 or more team league with say 1 foreign rider per team, so massive opportunities for local lads to have a go and progress through the ranks. Nl racing can be just as good as any other level, i think if run properly most teams could attract 50-70% of their EL crowd for NL fixtures which should be enough to be viable. All this talk of law suits etc is self defeating madness, lets have a 10 team(Inc Cov+Peterbro) EL, keep 14 PL for now with view to going up to 18 in afew years once Bristol reopen and Sittinbourne bed in etc. Then have a big exciting NL with some sort of fixed costs system, standardised bikes whatever, with; Stoke, Dudley, Buxton, Weymouth, Mildenhall, IOW, Sittingbourne, Rye House, Kings Lynn,Scunthorpe,Newport, Bournemouth,Belle Vue Colts, Peterbrough 2(Boston?),Coventry 2(Tamworth, is that nearby?),Brum 2,lakeside 2(Arena Essex?), Eastbourne 2 (Hastings?)and Swindon Sprockets(Or Reading?). That's 19 potential teams, though obviously not all EL teams may choseto run another team dependent on their rental situation etc. Then we'd have 3 healthy tiers with good variety, plenty of opportunity for British riders and some controls hopefully in place too on needless costs in tuning and flights for riders etc. Oh and while i'm dreaming, El will be at least 12 clubs by 2013 as Wimbledon reopen thanks to a sugar daddy and the olympic site is used for an East London team(Stratford Olympians??)so there is a proper London rivlary to be enjoyed. Should i send this to santa?

Thats some good news at last, thanks!

Gonna be impossible for riders who ride in Poland on a Sunday to get to Uk meetings on a Monday!(That may not be a bad thing?). Weird that they cut all Monday flights from all Polish cities as each one i took last year was full(Half of the passengers being speedway riders!!). Is this another conspiracy against world speedway!!!

Looking at flights for next season to Poland and there aren't any listed back from Poland to Stansted on Monday(Ryanair) anymore? This is from allPolish cities, what isgoing on? Not seen any news that they are cutting routes, nothing on their website, and flights are available on dates further in the future so it can't be that. Some cities have Wizz air alternatives but Bydgoszcz and Lodz don't!!

It has been reported elsewhere that the Nl conference this year is in December, so half way between when it usually is and when it needs to be!!

Just seen that the Extraliga fixtures are out next Thursday(18th), hope the other divisions are out soon too as i want to get to Bydgoszcz and Krakow etc.

When are the Polish fixtures out, need to get booking flights and i can't remember when they came out last year, before Christmas i think??

Can anyone attend this?I've just ordered Norman's book and intend to walk the old track site soon so would be very interested in attending. Are northerners who were born after the place closed welcome??

Got a copy of this movie now and watched the 'lea Bridge'part this morning about 8 minute long section very near the end of the movie(And a few second clip half way through).5 man races, very good action shots which include Tom Farndon, Gus Kuhn, Colin Watson and a few i dont know, Ron Johnson, Claude Rye and Arthur Warwick. There are some funny moments as they keep racing while a burning bike is on the track(And jump over it!) and a drunk steals a bike and races it the wrong way at another set of riders(The race having been flagged to start while someone else drunk on the track!!).Worth seeing, though i hoped for some outside shots of the stadium, or overheads, to place the stadium clearer in my mind. Still great to see it at all. I also got the 'Wall of death' movie with more great New Cross footage, though similar to 'Swagman' footage. If anyone wants these movies i suggest you contact the lovely guy i bought mine off, he's very cheap and threw in extra bits i didn't pay for! PM me and i will give his details.

If anyone cares i've now found someone selling a copy after a long websearch and have ordered a copy. I know the Lea Bridge Stadium was right next to the station but does anyone know on which side of it?Hopefully the footage on the film will shed some light on this as i used to work near there and always wondered where exactly it stood.

Would love to see the Lea Bridge footage from this movie from 1933 but unsure where i could find a copy,any ideas?

Is there any known footage of Liverpool Speedway thats come to light? Would love to see some!!

Interesting and unusually positive post! Where does the Crewe revival come from?Is there substance to this or just wishful thinking? Would love to see that happen on any level! With Bournemouth and Plymouth set to not be in the third tier for very different reasons, and prospective buyers for Mildenhall and Weymouth both understandably cautious about commiting to buying, (Being unsure of how the league will look and if there will be enough teams to make it viable), most people are being pessimisitc about the third tier right now! Hope you are right though, British Speedway needs a healthy 3rd tier, so hopefully your ideas about track sharing for former successful teams will catch on. Obviously Bristol have been looking for a home and run teams of late, as have Halifax(But as you say no open tracks that near to them). There is also some hope re Oxford again at present, though who knows what league any promoter would want to enter. Leicester being so central and having unlimited access to the track does offer a real hope for a track share. Just a shame that some huge areas have no tracks whatsoever to share around(London, Liverpool,Yorkshire come to mind)

So has it been confirmed that it was 'postponed' because the track couldn't cope with meetings on 2 consecutive days? Seems odd that it couldn't cope, what with the dry weather forecast? It was always 50/50 that they'd have a semi final to fit in. If they lose that i bet they will bring the Ace of Herts forward to the 24th and finish the season early, which would be an extra kick in the teeth if these important meetings never take place!

I've just got in an read about this, what a joke! So they cancel it for S aturday 'cos of the Young Shield, even though Rye i thought could run whenever they liked and had intended to run Sunday afternoons, then the Newport fixture is switched to Sunday anyway???So whats the real reason for the cancellation, i'm very confused?Is it still taking place? Like lots of other fans i'd made plans based around this event happening on Saturday!It better be a bloody good reason for such a short notice call off of an important meeting like this!!

Missed this 'last' Polish fest as i was at Rye House. Is there no chance that the second leg of the finely poised Rybnik v Lublin be televised? Or is third tier ignored by tv over there too? I know i'm probably dreaming, lets hope some of the Aussie title meetings makeit onto the net over the winter!!

Yeah what would we do without them. Wish one of our Polish friends did similar threads in the close season there, save me spending half my life on google translate for 'sportowefakty.com'!!Thanks again!

No streams for Golden Helmet then?

Fair play to Darcy, can't say he's one of my favourite riders 'cos he comes acrosss as very immature on his Sky interviews, but hay he is young and no one can argue that he can't ride a bike and showed bottle to win it today. What a shame that these meetings are never televised, surely they would get a good audience, and maybe the Brits would bother again if Sky cameras were there? What is strange is that Ward has struggled so badly in Poland, so much so that Torun are loaning him out in 2011 and keeping Jensen instead, possibly even dropping out of the top league and going to Bydgoszcz? Perhaps he needs a different club there to ride to his potential?