keepturningleft

Dan has now replaced Tai as the main Brit.

Fantastic track yes, but even with a temporary stand in place, Belle Vue can only accommodate about 12,000, nowhere near a typical Cardiff attendance. Cardiff is an all day event with bars, cafe's and the fanzone all part of the experience. Belle Vue is in a dump of an area in Manchester called Gorton, well away from the city centre, which has absolutely nothing to offer travelling fans part from the meeting itself.

Wembley 1975. World Final. Track rough, bumpy, almost unraceable and so dusty that a couple of fans jumped the fence and watered the track themselves. And this was in the golden age of speedway. Nothing new under the sun...move along.

If Ellis does well at Cardiff, this thread will fall deafeningly silent...

It's shocking and depressing to see Belle Vue half empty most meetings.

I can thoroughly recommend watching the hour long highlights programme on Eurosport. The meeting cracks on at a pace, no interviews, no full race replays, no Sam. If I watched this as a first timer on TV, I would have been very impressed.

The Look at Life series is readily available on amazon and the feature on Southampton (Vol 4: Sport) is not the only speedway film. There is also a film mainly featuring cycle speedway, but which also includes some splendid footage from Hackney.

Can't quite understand the criticisms of the presenters with the very obvious exception of one of them Tatum, Louis & Nicholls are all excellent and although Abi presumably isn't a 'speedway person', she is never the less quite appealing and engaging and has obviously done all her home work. Sam however is simply beyond belief. Seriously, my 5 year old granddaughter has a greater grasp of the English language than this man.

This forum appears to be in a parallel universe from comments on the Sheffield Facebook page which are overwhelmingly positive about the quality of the meeting including from a couple of first timers who say they will definitely return for more despite the delays. And yes, the delays were annoying but there was thrilling racing to savour especially from Doyle who is worth the price of admission alone. With a curfew looming, why did the referee allow the further time wasting gardening antics from the riders to continue?

There are many things contributing to the general decline of speedway and the time wasting shenanigans at the start of races is one of them. Why did the riders not do this in the 50's 60's 70's and maybe most of the 80's? Possibly because the riders didn't have the power they seem to have now. It's pointless pleading for sanity and a return to the days when spectators seemed to actually matter because nothing will ever change and the sport will continue on it's inevitable course to oblivion.

Yes, in the1960's, 70's and 80's, every race featured multiple overtakes on every single bend in every single meeting.

Are the riders under strict instructions not to make negative comments about the GP's - the track especially - I wonder? Their relatively restrained reactions suggests they may well be. I am with those who enjoyed last night. The bumps and the bounces added to the entertainment and no-one got hurt.

If the magazine(s) do fold, you can take enormous credit for creating a huge body of work in terms of interviews and articles which will be there for ever as an important, permanent and entertaining record of speedway times past. Superb tribute to Nigel Pearson as well by the way.

Sadly Sam will be in danger of being remembered as the worst ever speedway broadcaster in all of human history rather than the top rider he was.

Greg Hancock is now long retired, so does anyone know why he still wearing that silly monster cap? Has anyone actually seen Greg's hair since about 1998?

Kelvin will grow into the roll? Kelvin was commentator at the 1994 World Final in Vojens. That means he's been commentating for nearly 30 years!

Norick Blodorn is more articulate in a second language than Sam Ermolenko is in his first. Kelvin is doing a sterling job but the loss of Nigel Pearson is now starkly apparent as exemplified by the monotone, dreary delivery of someone such as Josh Pickering tonight. The camera work is hugely disappointing, two crucial overtakes completely missed. How hard can it be?

And there you have the reason why speedway is in its current parlous state. Back in the day I went to watch Halifax week in and out because I thought it was fantastic, exciting sport. The crowds came because people loved the sport and winning or losing wasn't the be-all and end-all of it. It was entertainment and we loved it regardless of the results born out by the fact that Halifax crowds were quite consistent over the 20 years they were in operation.

The replacement for Nigel needs to have a strong sense of humour and be a non ex rider (like Nigel!) to prevent the commentary getting bogged down with nerdy detail. Why Sam continues to secure employment remains one of the great mysteries of the world. I'm sure Sam is an all round top bloke and he certainly was a great rider, but as a commentator and analyser he is disastrous.

The problem with Wolverhampton and other small tracks is that you don't get any real sense of speed - it looks slow and therefore frankly, not very thrilling. At places such as Belle Vue even when races are strung out there is a sense of exhilaration because the action is so fast. Re the presentation, I hope Kelvin will follow the example of his late and beloved partner and display some honesty about the quality of the meeting because Nigel Pearson would almost certainly have made some reference to the fact that last night's meeting wasn't the best one we've seen.

Unfortunate but understandable slip up from Steve Brandon after the first pits interview, "Back to you Nige & Kelv", before quickly correcting himself.

Wolverhampton is the type of track that time has left behind. Just look at the those highlights from Belle Vue to see the difference between a proper speedway track and Wolverhampton. Given the apparently and reasonably strong fan base at Wolves, they should be looking for an alternative venue in the area because that track just doesn't fit in with modern European speedway.

A few more observations. The promotion of speedway has been elevated to a new level for which we should all be grateful. Even the fireworks display was probably the best ever seen at speedway. It must have been a bizarre experience for Kelvin who must have been dreading referring to Chris, as Nige. Zmarzlik's English is getting much better which is great to see. It would be really great to see World War 3 getting its own thread.

Superb presentation, tons of overtaking, what more can you want? Superb commentary in very difficult circumstances. Nothing to moan about here.

I watched speedway at Halifax almost every Saturday night from the opening meeting in 1965 until closure in 1985 and therefore was witness to hundreds of races. As a superfan I think that qualifies me to comment on the quality of racing at Halifax over a long period of time and believe me, there was plenty of overtaking at the shay.