keepturningleft

There is a feature in the current edition of Classic Speedway about riders from yesteryear and their other jobs.

Croquet.

Despite the all the problems - watching riders power full speed round the boards at Belle Vue...wow! - it's still the 2nd greatest thrill on earth...!

As a occasional buyer of speedway star, I was keen to obtain this weeks copy after reading above comments, but, amazingly, the speedway star is not available at the NSS at Belle Vue...

I am not a regular in the way I used to be, but I had every intention of going to Belle Vue last Monday for the Rye House match. On finding out that Chris Harris - always a favourite of mine - was going to be absent I decided to save my money. How many hits can speedway keep on taking from the dwindling, disgruntled fan base until something is done about the catastrophic doubling up debacle?

The Dean Machine is absolutely correct. Speedway is not a 'motor sport' and most fans couldn't give a monkeys about the mechanical element. Back in the 60's and 70's, most fans were probably aware that there were 2 types of bikes -Jawas and Japs - but that's probably about it. In those days 'tuners didn't exist'. You could listen to a hundred of hours of commentary from Dave Lanning from that period and you will almost certainly hear no reference about the mechanical side of things because Lanning, in common with most of his audience, knew full well that there was no interest in it. Speedway bikes were just speedway bikes and that was it.

Any theories as to why the attendance was so poor?

Incredible final race. In my opinion, (international) speedway is on another level now from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Races such as the ones Bruce Penhall was involved in at the much talked about Wembley Final of '81, are two a penny in this years GP series. Incredible standards of ability, skill and courage on display at (almost) every GP these days.

World Final Wembley 1975 - track not watered properly, so fans decide to do it themselves with a hosepipe, resulting in a swimming pool on turn one which possibly cost Peter Collins the title.

Bit puzzled here because Nat and Scott do confront the issue head on after heat 16 - ok, maybe avoiding being too controversial, but they certainly don't entirely duck the issue. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Sky invent or at least promote the Joker? If BT are happy to maintain, or have some say in the continuation of this abomination of a rule, then all the presenters are in pretty much in an impossible position. How can they be seen to be criticising policies promoted by the people who employ them? My take on the presenters - Nat is wonderful, a breath of fresh air! Scott is good, articulate, just a tad bland.

Did anyone notice (at Kings Lynn), that the exclusion lights were covered in cobwebs early on but later, suddenly, they weren't!

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.