Andrew

https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/speedway/sheffield-tigers/sheffield-tigers-on-hunt-for-new-addition-as-bates-return-delayed-1-9130329 Jan G perhaps?

£1000 in 1973 would be hefty sum I think?

http://www.sheffieldspeedway.co/news.php?extend.2460 Id forgot about that !

Can anyone name the riders and the stadium?

1977

4/12/82

Practice day 1987,a Thursday afternoon during a school day.Two double social studies classes all afternoon,or Owlerton,six miles across the city.Only one winner there! So I nip into school (we live close by and I went home for lunch) for afternoon registration then a quick detour through the woods and back home and into my brothers car and off we went.The class was easy to skip as it was made up of pupils from several classes and was on a different site from the main school and they never checked upon you. Anyhow,after being dazzled by Sean the Prawns latest luminous pink leathers,Shawn and Kelly finally took to the track,this being the first time Kelly had been back on a bike at Owlerton since the serious wrist injury the previous summer.Riding side by side,with Shawn on the inside,they took the first lap slowly at first then opened up the throttle for the second lap.As they came into the 3rd turn (I'm stood on the 3rd/4th terrace,so I'm looking right at them) Kelly sweeps out to the fence,makes a tight turn to square of the fourth bend and then pulls the most vertical wheelie I've ever seen the whole length of the home straight,finally putting the front wheel down on the first turn with Shawn still by his side ! Kelly was more of a showman than Shawn.I don't recall Shawn doing wheelies during races for example and Shawn was the better gater of the two by a long distance.Having said that the best gate I ever saw Kelly make was the one he made to win the ten rider ten lap race around Owlerton in 1988,probably the thought of the seven riders behind him focused the mind! Maurice Ducker and Eric Boocock pulled of a masterstroke when they found a loophole that allowed Kelly to sign on a 7.50 average in '86 after missing two years when his final Eastbourne average had been around 9.Just imagine the outcry if some promoter tried to do that nowadays...

Josh Grajczonek 7.34 Michael Palm Toft 5.20 Lasse Bjerre 6.10 Josh Bates 5.52 Kyle Howarth 6.64 James Sarjeant 2.20 Georgie Wood 2.00 35.00

Bit hard to predict anything until we know for definite which league we will be in...

http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/speedway/sheffield-tigers/sheffield-speedway-ace-s-season-is-over-1-8165008

He broke his wrist.

Yes,Kyle isn't riding.

Without Josh G and Kyle,its going to be a tough task to win,unless Scott finds some pace that he was lacking on Monday. 42-48 (would prefer 55-35 though!)

It was roughly what you'd expect to see on a Thursday night for a normal league fixture,maybe not as many on the 3rd/4th bends as usual. There didn't seem to be any Lions fans around though.

If I remember rightly,both Sheffield and Glasgow were mooted to join that 'pirate league' in 1997. Anyhow back to the thread topic, The League winners go straight to the play off final,there needs to be a better bonus to finishing first then getting first pick of the other teams.

I'm finding that drinking copious amounts of gin is the best way to get through this!

18/9/76

45 years ago tonight!