keepturningleft

There are, of course, the books from from Jeff Scott which are probably the only books about contemporary speedway. How well do the books by John Chaplin and Philip Dalling, do??

Sad news - his stats column in the halifax programme was headed - Halifacts!

I'm with you -expectations are too high. This meeting was well entertaining and had more interesting racing than the much revered 1981 world final - fact.

A lot of negative comments but even so, a bigger crowd than any event in the UK could currently ever attract outside of Cardiff and a World cup Final, and in a country that is/has never been a major speedway nation.

Anyone who saw last years SEC round from this venue will remember what a truly incredible meeting that was. Multiple passing in almost every race - one of the best meetings I've ever seen in 40 years of watching speedway!

Back in the day, riders would fall off, the race wouldn't be stopped and the other riders would come round and spray shale not just over the stricken rider, but also over officials who had run on to help!

I'm pretty sure this is a one off. These are the publishers: http://www.mortonsmediagroup.com Just flicking through it again - there's no hint of any follow up editions, so Tony Mac can rest easy! There is a lot of info and history about the bikes, so it looks as if it is half aimed at the bikers and mechanically minded which may count against it as I'm sure most general speedway fans have little or no interest in that side of things. Still worth checking out 'though.

Stumbled across a new speedway magazine special today in WH Smiths titled 'Broadslide'. Clearly from a 'biker mag' stable owing to a substantial amount of mechanical info but well worth checking out at only £6.99. Nothing really new for us scholars of the past but some great photos and hopefully will be seen and bought by the 'used to go-ers' and casual speedway tv watchers.

How many times in match reports over the years have we read, 'If we had racing like that every week, stadia wouldn't be big enough to hold all the crowds'. Well, at Belle Vue we do get racing like that every week but still we are struggling to get even a fraction of what we used to get at Hyde Road. Best track, best racing, best stadium, a population of 2.5 million but still we struggle. Hopefully things may improve but the 'young' just don't seem to be interested in speedway in any significant numbers.

On the plus side - I haven't been to Owlerton for a couple of years, but it looks as if the track lighting has improved, which is good. Also, and I don't know if I am imagining this, but there seems to be some banking on the turns when previously there wasn't. Am I right? As already mentioned by another poster, the riders seemed unaware or didn't care about the significance of the meeting. I didn't see a single rider making any attempt at looking for his partner and maybe slowing the race down which could have resulted in closer racing. This was supposed to be a 'showcase' meeting but gate and go indulgence on a poor track destroyed the spectacle. Sheffield should have produced a questionnaire to gauge reaction from the newbies - it would have been very interesting.

So, would the newbies have been impressed by what they saw tonight? A warm evening, a great crowd - but this is speedway so something is bound to come up short. Riders were busting a gut to find some grip around the outside but there was none to be found, so it was follow my leader for just about every race. Long gaps between blocks of races with nothing happening except a tractor going round and sometimes long gaps without a tractor going round. Not much in the way of presentation. A competent, but flamboyant free centre green mic man. Hundreds of people were drifting away from around heat 12 or so. It could have been much better.

How the heck I am going to find the time to read the preview SS special edition? War & Peace is a shorter read!

I'm sure the late MP has been a friend and champion of speedway (in Manchester?) in the past. Can anyone confirm this?

Didn't Steve Davies used keep himself fit and healthy in a sport where that wouldn't necessarily seem to be much of a requirement? Fit body, fit mind.

I was in the south stand overlooking the entrance to turn 3. At the pre meet practice, riders appeared to be going into that corner at full speed with no obvious concerns or hesitation whatsoever. Curious.

Shortly before Christmas, my local paper, the Huddersfield Examiner, carried an advert on the front page advertising a stock car meeting at the Belle Vue dog track. This ad was in the form of a long strip stretching the width of the paper and covering about a fifth or so of the entire front page in a newspaper advertising an event that wasn't even happening in the same town/city. Perhaps speedway just needs to similarly start banging the drum with more basic tactics.

Just been watching this on Motors tv and - it's boring as hell.

Great musician and former Poole speedway fan

The smell of the paper, the feel of the book, the design of the book - no electronic twaddle can beat the physical experience of a proper book, but I'm on the wrong side of 60 and therefore old fashioned.

Must admit having a 'best of' in book form kind of appeals to me rather than storing 'thousands' of mags on the shelf, so I will probably dip my toe in and buy the first volume. Tony, amongst my favourite features in backtrack are the 'opening times' articles - do these feature in the books? It seems obvious to me why there are many books on speedway's past and few on the present. Tens of thousands watched the sport back then - many still alive - so there are simply more fans and potential nostalgic customers than now! PS Don't forget Jeff Scott's collection of books on modern speedway.

Regarding the opening meeting abandonment and subsequent financial consequences, it occurs to me that the meeting could just have easily been rained off. What would the difference have been?

Maybe significant or not, but during all the interviews they have given on local TV from the start of the project to the completion, Mort and and Gordon have never looked really happy, as if something was constantly troubling them...?

Just watched the 1969 world final at Wembley. Mauger threw a race there to allow Belle Vue team mate Sjosten to get on the rostrum.

"It looks like he's on his way to a wedding" (Russian rider tangled up in the starting tape). A sad day for speedway. RIP Dave.

Just finished watching the Melbourne GP and I am dumbfounded by the actions of Greg Hancock. Throwing a race is one thing, but the big, big issue here is walking out of the meeting. We might expect a petulant youngster to do such a thing but a man like Hancock with his reputation, age and experience?? What an insult to the paying public, especially Aussie fans who only get to see these people once a blue moon. His snubbing of fans at Belle Vue shouldn't be forgotten either. Watch that race closely and you will see that Hancock has at least 5 quick look rounds, but he's a mile in front initially and easily looking likely to win, so exactly who is he looking for? This is not team racing so he can't be looking for a team mate...oh, hang on, sorry, he was looking for a team mate. It is now becoming cringe worthy to here commentators describing Hancock as this great ambassador. It is clear that Hancock is only a great ambassador to himself and the green monster. Acting like a 6 year old child and cheating people who pay hard earned money to come and watch you is an action taken by Hancock which should be punishable.