Andrew

Until about a decade ago,the Sheffield track was graded after every heat.The 10/15 minute interval was taken after heat ten and the entire time the tractors went round.Then they came out before heats 13 and 15 and the meeting would be over by 9.10 after starting bang on 7.45. Then for some reason,we got the 'every four heats' grading that we all know and love,meetings started to get dragged out and the track started to become what it is today.

I left a sunny Sheffield at 11.45 without a coat and arrived 20 minutes later to a massive downpour in Barnsley. Collected my friends kids and returned back to a very damp Sheffield thinking the planned return trip via Owlerton wouldn't happen! And it rained on and off over Southwest Sheffield during the afternoon then hammered it down just before 5 then was dry for the rest of the evening.

Well that was never going to happen,as soon as he did one more away meeting at the start of the the year he jumped from 2.00 to over 5 due to his high scoring for Ipswich last year.A more cynical Promotion may have replaced him there and then as Drew was always going to find it tough at number 2. Another problem was having Broc stuck on a assessed 4.00 for half the season while he attained a true average.It wasn't till July 1st almost a year to the day that he signed that he got a new one and it was still lower than Drew's who couldn't drop down as Zaine and Josh were also still on assessed 4.00s. The rain off at Redcar stopped Chunk from getting his new average earlier,which would have seen Drew drop down a couple of weeks before he did and maybe if he had found his feet again the change for Broc may have not been made. Regarding Todd in place of Ty,hindsight is a wonderful thing,but the Tigers season may have been slightly different.Then again Kyle's been up and down and Kasper Andersen didn't work out as we hoped and if Broc hadn't been wiped out at Leicester...

Shawn Moran

Hillsborough is about 5 minutes walk from Owlerton if your coming up from the city centre.United are in the east and Wednesday the west of Sheffield.

Would need to change two riders to fit him in. Broc and Drew out for Todd and Danyon Hume and move Zaine up to either 2 or 4 would just fit under 40. More likely to stay as we are though.

Drew's lack of speed is very apparent around Owlerton .He's not the first to join the Tigers and then struggle with lack of engine power. 52-38 or 38-52 given how up and down the Tigers can be!

When I copied out a score chart and heat details from a 1986 meeting at Belle Vue from the Speedway Star,the time given for heat two was printed as 62.3.Nobody ever went that fast around Hyde Road,so logically the time must have been 72.3.A honest mistake and no doubt there are many other misprints etc.It still happens nowadays,on Somerset's match report on their recent meeting at Sheffield,it mentions that Todd Kurtz won a race in 50.38! (actually 60.38)

Yes,me and dad were discussing the same subject on the way home yesterday,very similar to the Lakeside collapse last year. The Tigers heatleaders got slower as the meeting went on and the Redcar lads looked like the home team! Didn't think we'd make the play offs anyhow,as the Tigers have three inconsistent heatleaders and four reserves who struggle to win races at home,let alone away.Just 12 between them in 103 heats.

Yes,DSF ,Eurosport was 1992 my mistake lol

That was 1994,live on Eurosport.Tony Rickardsson won after a run off with Hans Nielsen and Craig Boyce.

Yes,it was on Sunday Grandstand,I'd set the video to record it while dad and me attended it live.I wore a white ski jacket (all the rage in 1988 and rather expensive!) so I could pick myself out when we watched it back,which I did lol. Mum was not happy that the aforementioned jacket got hit by wet Danish Shale which wouldn't washout!

How about Eastbourne on the 14th July? First time the Eagles have visited Owlerton since 2003.

I do wonder whether a mix of Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings would have been worth trying,rather than the whole scale switch to Sunday. Wednesday isn't a dog day so you would have no problem getting the track ready etc.

Mr Machin won far more,or are we air brushing his ownership of the Tigers? Mr Machin and various co Promotors.(19) 2x League Championships (1999,2002) 2xFours (1999,2000) 2x Young Shields (1999,2002) 1 KO Cup (2002) 1 Premier Trophy (2001) 1 Pairs Title (2010) 1 Premiership Trophy (2000) 6 Plrc Winners (Sean Wilson (3) Sam Ermolenko,Andre Compton,Ricky Ashworth) 3 U21 Winners (Simon Stead (2) Ben Wilson) Plus the Prowlers Titles in the CL The Bates/Mr Mole Promotion.(8) 1X League Title (2017) 2x Pairs (2017,2018) 2 Plrc (Simon Stead) 2 U21 (Josh Bates) 1 U19 (Josh Bates) Still time to add to the list,starting on Sunday,hopefully!

Wonder if Buster will add us to his little collection?

Yes,your right TB,originally set for the 8th September but rained off.The restaging date was 7th October by that that we'd signed John Davis as you said and Shawn was back from his broken leg.Poole changed their entire riding order apart from Michael Lee at number one (looks like they brought Sudden Sam in for Erik Stenlund) causing no fewer than 38 changes to the race card during the meeting!

Sheffield 45 1.John Davis 1',3,2',3:9+2 2.David Bargh 2,2',2',3:9+2 3.Shawn Moran 3,3,2,1:9+1 4.Phil White 3,1',2,2':8+2 5.Dave Morton 0,2,1',2:5+1 6.Gerald Short 0,1,0:1 7.Reg Wilson 1,3,0 :4 Poole 33 1.Michael Lee 3,3,3,3,3:15 2.Sam Ermolenko 0,0,0,-:0 3.Kevin Smith -,-,0,1:1 4.Vaclav Verner 2,2,-,0:4 5.Neil Middleditch 1',1',0,0:2+2 6.Brian Jacobson 3,0,0,-,1:4 7.Andy Campbell 2',2,1,1,1:7 ht1.Lee,Bargh,Davis,Ermolenko:67.9 ht2.Jacobson,Campbell,Wilson,Short:69.2 ht3.White,Verner,Middleditch,Morton:67.5 ht4.Moran,Campbell,Short,Jacobson:67.2 ht5.Lee,Morton,White,Ermolenko:66.7 ht6.Davis,Bargh,Campbell,Jacobson:68.1 ht7.Moran,Verner,Middleditch,Short:67.6 ht8.Wilson,Bargh,Campbell,Ermolenko:67.8 ht9.Lee,White,Morton,Smith:66.5 ht10.Bargh,Davis,Jacobson,Middleditch:67.6 ht11.Lee,Moran,Campbell,Wilson:66.9 ht12.Davis,White,Smith,Middleditch:67.7 Ht13.Lee,Morton,Moran,Verner:66.4

Back in the early months of Mr Machin's time at Owlerton,Tiger to be Lee Redmond's father was over from Australia (where he did live commentary on races) and he did a couple of races.While it was ok as a novelty ,I don't think it would have lasted long before people got annoyed by it!

The plans do show a smaller concourse area in front of the new suite. And your looking at a crowd of say 2000+ which Owlerton can hold comfortably enough in its present configuration.

I enjoyed the meeting,I won the £500!

It's just for Mothers Day.

1985.He also started as one of the reserves for the Tigers in 1986,but found points hard to come by and went into the National League after a few weeks.

2006 v Rye House and it was Chris Neath,who was so annoyed by the slow moving Compton rolling roadblock that he chucked his bike down on the infield ! Andre and George Stancl wielding their bikes as weapons and trying to knock each other off. 1985 Golden Helmet match race,Shawn v Hans Nielsen who had set a new track record of 61.4 (it was 63.2 at the start of the meeting).Shawn just gets the drop into the first turn and for the next four laps Hans tries inside and outside to get by,only for Shawn to block (fairly as you would expect) his every move.

Wieslaw Patynek had two races at Eastbourne,failing to score.He then crashed on the Sheffield training track breaking his back,so never got to appear at Owlerton. Zan Zabik was built like a tank,or so it seemed to a young me! Allan Fogg.Came on loan from Eastbourne,nice equipment,no idea how to use it. Rob Steman.He rode one meeting for the Tigers, v Reading in 1995,hopelessly out of his depth he trailed in a distance last in each of his three rides.However,Roman Matousek had bike problems,so he borrowed Steman's machine and somehow he managed to win the race on it,even though it was belching out smoke from various places !