chunky

The problem, John, is that you have admitted yourself that you lost interest in speedway in the 1950's. Since then, while you have had an "association", you have had very little interest or knowledge. If you concentrate on the period about which you DO possess interest and knowledge, it would be so much better for EVERYONE, not least yourself.

ARE YOU SAYING THAT WE'RE NOT NORMAL???

Any offers, anyone?

I've still got his autograph upstairs...

So, what you are saying in fact, is that SOMEONE should have known that West Ham was not the biggest track?

You are correct! I actually had no idea - it was a little before my time! It was 586 yards... Thanks.

If you look back a page, you will see that it was 440 yards. Nowhere near the biggest ever; that was Crewe at 470 yards. Did you know there was a track at Crewe?

Pete rode for Lynn in 1969, and switched to the Hammers in 1970. None of us who were around for that will ever forget it.

I think you've got the wrong thread; that should be on the Song Title Game!!!

I just had a scary thought. My last visit to West Ham was for the Lokeren Trophy in 1970. I WAS JUST EIGHT YEARS OLD!

Spot on. A PROPER stadium...

Nope. It's Colin...

I just found a couple of Tommy Price, advertising Quaker Oats and Goodyear Tyres...

In those days, it was macho to smoke. Today, it's macho to have tattoos on your neck and bits of metal sticking out of your face...

The founder of DerelictLondon, Paul Talling, is a Facebook friend of mine, and we've had a few discussions (usually about pubs where I used to play darts). I think it is one of the most fascinating websites out there, and I have the related book. Definitely worth a look or two.

Just thought I'd let you all know the news regarding the magical New Cross book about which John can't find any details... He emailed me the link on the museum website for it, in case anyone wants it! I know, I know, WHAT museum website? Do you need the link, Norman?

If you look at their figures compared to the previous year, you can see exactly what happened. Of course, a lot of it was down to Tyler and Evans, but when every team member raises their average (the top seven by a total of 11.47) that's impressive. Of course, when your worst riders are still well over 5, that gives you great strength in depth. When they won at Edinburgh, Dave Perks had a poor night, Pidcock (9) and Frankland (5+2) picked up the slack. When they edged out Hackney, it was thanks to Pidcock again (11+1) and Stevenson (10+1). The point they earned at Middlesbrough was thanks in no small way to 8+1 from Miles Evans. The win at Glasgow was spearhead by Tyler who got 11+1 from reserve. The real key was having 5 riders who would consistently score between 6 and 8 - and it varied who those five were. 8.99 - Dave Perks (+0.85) 8.75 - Paul Stead (+ 0.89) 8.50 - Graham Drury (0.71) 7.37 - David Tyler (+ 4.79) 6.96 - Chris Pidcock (+ 0.87) 5.83 - Miles Evans (+ 2.58) 5.41 - Mark Stevenson (+ 0.78) 5.35 - John Frankland (+ 0.14)

You know, when you consider it's been over 30 years since we shut down, I do wonder how many people I knew from the stadium are no longer with us. People like Tufty, and several fans who were getting on in years then, but I'm sure there are others who have been lost way too young, like Linda Aldous. Even if you didn't know their names, they were part of the whole experience...

Are you sure that wasn't in Penge? The people I know from there are clearly on something...

Shut up, John. You KNOW the details of the book. This is just getting plain pathetic.

What I want to know, John, is WHY you carry on playing silly buggers like this? All we want is for you to act like a normal person. Is your life that miserable that you have to spend your time on the internet being so bloody disruptive? And why the feeble apologies? Every time you do that, you return in a couple of days and carry on as before. GROW UP!!!

Wasn't it written by John Hyam? Everything else on the thread seems to have been written by him...

That's the one - thanks!

Yeah... I can't think of the guy's name - Roy, I think - but he did the Aces of Yesteryear videos.

Well, it wasn't so much a thread, as a series of "look at me" posts!