Grachan

With houses now being built in the pits, I feel that this proposed new stadium will need to be started pretty sharpish or we could well end up closing down mid-season. I hope Swindon doesn't become another Oxford/Birmingham, with all matches becoming null and void, but this stadium seriously needs to be started. I just hope the pressure is kept on Stadia UK so they have no choice but to build it if they want the rest of these houses built too. Because houses being put up within the actual grounds of the stadium is not a good sign.

Pretty sure it's in the field area next to and to the right of the greyhound stadium.

I was fascinated by this photo. It shows Belle Vue in 1927 - just before the advent of speedway. The site of the Hyde Road stadium is an athletics track in the picture. The track at the greyhound stadium looks a lot bigger then it is today, and seems to have been brought in narrower in later photos to accomodate a new road and houses. I remember the houses in the bottom left of the photo. Well, sort of! The first time I went to Belle Vue (probably late 70s or early 80s) they were being demolished. The site was mainly rubble, but there was one house still standing with someone living in it who had, presumably, refused to give up their home. http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw017763 Here's a similar angle from 1947. http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw006253

Motorhead (along with fellow metallers Saxon and Angelwitch)did a festival at Hackney Stadium in the early 80s.

Here's an idea that came to me while driving past our local park. Build a skatepark in the grounds of the stadium and keep in open 24 hours a day to get kids in the vicinity. Then let schoolkids into speedway free.

Coventry used to be great for slapping riders on the back as they returned to the pits.Pity.

And put the phone to the ref's box back by the start line and allow (encourage!) riders to use it.

One thing that used to happen in some places but you don't see so much now. Pre meeting parade. Instead of having the riders standng on an old truck with some old fanfare or whatever blaring, have them walking down the greyhound track, close to the fans, slapping kids as as they go. Make the fans feel closer to the riders. Some way old buiding up the "team" aspect needs to be maintained too. To some people it looks like 4 blokes going round a track - but it is more than that. Keep the "match" element upfront rather than just: "And the result of heat blah blah blah in a time of...."

I don't understand accusations of a Polish bias by the referee. Dave Lanning went on about it in his commentry. Yet Peter Collins was given the win in a race that should have either been re run or given to Plech.

So what you are suggesting is that there is no presentation between races and people are left to talk with each other in a where the only other sound is that of a tractor going round?

That's not the point. The point is that the spectators need to be kept engaged during the breaks. It's all very well being annoyed that kids and spectators might lose interest during track prep, but if people lose interest they won't come back.

Not sure that was totally the case. I was at the meeting, and Wiggy was walking the track beforehand along with Billy Sanders. Some of the crowd were shouting abuse at Simon, and Sanders came onto the greyhound track and started having a go back at them.

Absolutely not. I have always been quite strict in what my son watches on tv and what computer games he is allowed. The fact is, whether people like it or not, kids find crashes exciting because crashes can be exciting.

Interesting. Quite a lot of similarities to my 12 year old. And they both like crashes. Also interesting that so far we've had the opinions of 2 young people and both like filling in the scores, which is the thing that Philip and Kelvin think youngsters don't want to do.

I never witnessed it, but Chris Morton has admitted to deliberately knocking off Alan Grahame in an accident in which Grahame broke his leg. I'm sure he can't be the only rider to do it.

Yeah. I could have done better than just putting the number one out in heat 8 too! I think working out tactical substitutes was a very big part of the speedway experience, and it was a mistake to lose that. Certainly for me, as a kid, I loved working them out between heats and looking at ho a match could be turned round.

I don't agree that speedway needs to target itself at an older audience. The reason the speedway audience is ageing is because the kids that used to go have grown up and their places haven't been taken. I think kids will love speedway. What kids don't like is standing around for ages watching a tractor going round while some guy babbles on about raffle tickets, listening to old music and being surrounded by old folk. Speedway is exciting. The way it is currently presented isn't. When I was a kid, I remember that I loved working out rider averages and also - something that has now been lost - working out the tactics and the tactical substitutes. It was the "crashes" comment that I thought might get some people going. Absolutely. Something that bores not only kids, but adults too. This is something that needs to be sorted. Because people aren't going to pay money to be bored.

Interesting thing about that, for me, is that the one thing you are suggesting kids don't like - ie using a pen and paper - if one of the things he likes! I guess if you want to know what kids want, the best thing to do is to ask kids. I just asked him what he thought about filling scores on his phone and at first he smiled and nodded, then, after a moment, changed his mind and said "I dunno actually. Nah. I prefer it real".

My 12 year old son has liked speedway for a while. So I just asked him what he likes and doesn't like about Speedway. Here's his answers. (Sorry, but it is what he said) Likes: Crashes (that was his first answer) The races and overtakes Getting selfies with the riders Filling in the programme The horns at the Grand Prix The bike noise Dislikes: Nicki Pedersen (except when he starts fights. He likes him then) When the ref makes a rubbish decision and there are delays The tractor going round - that's boring Getting stones in the face. There you go. Sorted.

You're right. It was actually 2010. Rosco tweeted an old photo last night from then and I wasn't paying attention.

Assuming they didn't mention him one has to assume that nobody informed them.

Last night. Alun Rossiter and Chris Harris were there.

Early 1990s I think.

You obviously never saw Johnny Thunders in concert. He used to regularly refer to his audience as 'douchebags'. Ah, happy days.

Good post. I enjoyed reading that. The footage I was talking about is actually the same, original footage that ITV showed, rather than this one (By the way, it's actually me who put that link on youtube!) Looking at it, yes you make a good point about Carter leaning into Penhall So I guess you have Carter leaning in and Penhall's wheel flicking out at the same time! No wonder it's so difficult to decide who was at fault! The case I argue isn't that it was neccessarily Penhall's fault, but that there was contact between the two. How we miss Gary Newbon's pit interviews by the way!