Grachan

Any news on how the Leicester track is shaping up?

In my case, I am a Swindon supporter. It would involve a long drive and a stay in a hotel. All very pleasant but not worth risking if it is likely to be a bad track farce. Who are the guests booked?

I was planning on going, but after the problems with the track I am unlikely to now. Belle Vue last year. Poole already this year. It just makes it too much of a risk to travel that way for what could turn out to be a load of old rubbish. It will certainly take testing of the track before then if I am to go. Swindon are in with a chance too, with half the Leicester side missing. Well, it is the first meeting of the year so you can't expect teams to have all their riders, can you!!

That's me out for Saturday then! Saw that coming a mile off.

Surely if you post on an open forum you are talking to everybody on it.

Darcy was a wonderful team rider. The best we've had in recent times. It's true about Jason. Even if he is behind a second string rider on a 5-1 he will overtake. I hope he does team ride this year as he could make mincemeat of most of this league.

Just being paranoid because I'm thinking of going and I know how disastrous speedway can get. Poole tonight yet another example!

So will the match be on or will the track suddenly not be ready?

That doesn't exactly instil me with confidence, I have to say! I'll wait for reports from press and practice day I think.

See I'm thinking of going to Leicester's opener and when I see reassurances like thoae in speedway star that the track will be ready it makes me worry that it won't be. So it gives me doubts about going. Why do I keep seeing reassurances that the track will be ready? Why might it not be?

I have that book. There isn't. Best bet would probably to go to the library and look through old Advers from the time.

It was behind the pub where Tiverton Road is. I'd always assumed it roughly followed the shape of the road as it is now but from this picture I'd say it was at 90 degrees to the pub.

Ok, this is hardly a sensational picture, but it's the closest I've found so far to a photo of the original Swindon track in Gorse Hill. It's a Britain from Above picture of Swindon from 1934, with the side of the Autodrome -(which had already closed) tagged in a pixelly area near the top of the photo. You can see that it is very much out of the town at the time and there is a faint possibility of a bend being visible. Anyone got any proper photos of this track at all? This may not be a great picture of it, but it still fascinated me so I thought it worth sharing! https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw059049

It was. I actually used to do the Reading reports at one time (not the results but the article) on a Tuesday morning before faxing them in for the Thursday edition. I had no involvement whatsoever with the club and just decided to do it because there was never a Reading article in Speedway Mail (this is early 90s). It was easy because just by attending on a Monday evening I was always a step ahead of Speedway Star.

Whether we like it or not, The strength of so-called Premiership is a stepping-stone league, in much the same way as the old Division 2 used to be. Whereas that was a stepping-stone to the more ambitious moving up into division 1, where riders had to ride to be competitive on the World stage, the top league in Britain is now a stepping-stoe to Poland where anyone with ambition has to ride. If you are going to have a league of the strength it is now at, then that is unavoidable.

The mail used to cover Mondays though.

To apply for Aussie nationality you need to be over 16 and have lived there for a certain amount of time. He doesn't qualify as he was back in the UK at 15. If his parents applied for citizenship, then they could apply for it for their child at the same time, which would have been a possible route. I've never seen it written conclusively that he has Aussie citizenship. People just seem to like to think it. I do remember there being visa problems for the Aussie GP, so my guess is that he doesn't have it - although some people came up with the theory that these might have been for the crew rather than him. At the end of the day he was born in Britain to British parents, so he is British.

Will there be any fixture clashes? Even if there isn't, Polish league can quite easily decide to do a meeting on a Thursday night and Swindon lose their number one. It seems a strange thing to do, but maybe Jason insisted on it as a condition of signing. There should be no guests for missing riders if this has been signed. R/R or nothing.

They got rid of it for the play-offs. That's all.

You have such fine lines for team building with the stupid points limits. You can't afford to choose British riders. You just have to go with the best combination of averages that fits. Don't blame the teams.

Could well have been. I'm only guessing.

I remember Michael Lee taking on Phil Crump at Swindon and he was so far in front that he began pulling wheelies down. the straights.

Pretty sure I saw him ride in a later challenge against Dave Jessup at Reading, which may have been his last ever UK meeting.

Interesting to see that the Swindon team lost at home to Oxford and finished near the bottom of the league with a very similar side to the one that became league champions 2 years later. Proper teams.

Hackney was the best track, but, oh those lamp standards!! I went there quite a few times over the years. Wimbledon used to have a great atmosphere although the track itself was a bit small for my liking. White City was a fabulous stadium but the track seemed a long way off and the sheer size of it meant there was little atmosphere for league matches. Would have loved to have seen West Ham but it closed down before I started going.