Paulco

Well we said farewell to my friend Dennis today , a good turnout befitting such a nice man . Rest in peace Dennis

Agreed , ok he was borderline dangerous at times, but his races always got the crowd going , either for or against . Scottish derbies with Parker on one side and Fisher on the other were always exciting , could be controversial , but never dull .

If a rider is a club asset of one of the particular clubs involved , then obviously he rides there , if the rider in question is a club asset of neither club ( i.e. Craig Cook Workington and probably Belle Vue as he's an Edinburgh asset ) then god knows , just have to hope there's not many clashes . Also if for talking sake Richie Worrall ( Belle Vue asset assuming Belle Vue include him in their septet ) is down to ride for Glasgow against whoever in a scheduled fixture , but Belle Vue reaaranged a fixture for the same night - then the scheduled fixture would take priority . The fun and games will come if we have a end of season situation where Workington and Belle Vue were the two sides involved in the promotion / relegation play off - which side would Craig Cook ride for in that scenario ? We could conceivably have Craig Cook riding number 1 for Workington and Belle Vue using rider replacement for Craig Cook at number 5 .

Cheers guys , it was a long time ago and was going by memory , was only 14 in 1973 and still went to the speedway with my dad . Remember being distraught when we dropped down a league as Jimmy Mac was my hero and it was unthinkable to me for him to be riding for anyone else but the Tigers . But I soon got used to life in division 2 especially when the likes of Mitch Shirra , Mick McKeon and Merv Janke arrived to entertain us .

Not sure about Gifford , he would still have been at Hull then . After the 73 season the licences were switched , Coatbridge dropped down and acquired Dave Gifford and Eddie Argall , while Hull moved up and Jimmy McMillan and Bobby Beaton went there .

Max Fricke , that will be about it I would imagine as far as an Aussie Aces go

Egon Muller never did much in two away fixtures for Coatbridge Tigers in the early seventies , and he ended up World Champion

Did Dick not try to take a step back a couple of years ago , and it didn't seem to work out . I like Clarke though , he does the fours at Peterborough and interacts well with the fans . Hope Dick has a long and enjoyable retirement , doesn't seem 40 years since I was stood on the terraces at Blantyre 1 , listening to him do his centre green stuff .

6 years of watching Shane Parker round Ashfield tops my list . Saw Henrik Gustafsson round Saddlebow Road in 1992 , that was amazing to watch . Likewise Les Collins round Powderhall . Any rider who misses the gate , then proceeds to toy with his rivals before executing an overtake , is the biggest buzz watching speedway . Shane Parker doing that to Ryan Fisher , then waving to him after he passed him , brought the house down at Ashfield that day . You have to include Chris Harris in that too , anyone who was at Cardiff that night in 2007 , will never forget it .

They didn't , but it's amazing what can happen in particularly pleasant dreams

Hopefully the May 5th meeting with Belle Vue goes ahead as planned , as i plan to include that meeting on my wee speedway holiday this year . Hope to meet up with some of the Bees faithful that night .

Remember going to a Mildenhall v Exeter meeting in 1992 . You wouldn't expect Exeter to be anything special round Mildenhall , and mostly you'd be correct . However Richard Green was the exception , he was brilliant that day , amassing 19 points . My own team , Glasgow , never had a great record round the County Ground . Indeed we suffered a few embarrassing thrashings , though Robert Nagy ,and to a lesser extent , Shane Bowes had a liking for the place

Rye House look to have assembled a decent looking side , they should be there or thereabouts . Once the first green sheets come out there will be one or two sides making alterations . Will be about May before we know for certain who the real contenders are

Kjelle Gimre rode for Glasgow , and yes he wasn't very good

You'll enjoy the forum better once the season starts And one can dream

It's a forum , it's not to be taken seriously . It's a place where fans can discuss their favourite sport . Yes some thought neither Coventry , Leicester or Belle Vue would run , they were wrong ........thankfully . It always gets a bit silly during the close season on here , I wouldn't get too worked up about it .

less of the " good " haha

Of course i'll be there

It will be Somerset on Cardiff eve , worry not

Looks like another Benfund bereft of big names , in saying that if it's all second tier riders then it will be a competitive meeting . if the British Final is beneath the likes of Woffinden , this isn't going to remotely figure on their radar . Best we can hope for is Harris or Nicholls or both being added to the field . Cook will no doubt be added too , plus a couple of Monarchs .

Sad to hear of the passing of my good friend Dennis Wallace ( Merlin ) today . An avid Monarchs fan for many years and a man I shared a few enjoyable beers with at various speedway tracks and in Edinburgh city centre . R.I.P Dennis , you'll be missed by all that knew you .

We were unlucky to lose to Coventry last year , so another meeting of this type would be a good opener .

Glasgow v Somerset 2011 , ironically the other rider in the shot is the current Glasgow skipper , Aaron Summers , guesting for the Rebels that day

A debate that has been done to death on here . Is speedway value for money ? Compared to other sports I believe it is . Yes you get crap meetings , one sided meetings etc , but that happens in every sport . Do you want to spend over £100 for a ticket to a F1 race , which can be worse than speedway for a race being over after the first bend . I'm Scottish , so I aint forking out £25 to watch an SPL football match where the standard is worse now than it's ever been . Ok speedway in this country isn't anywhere near as strong as it used to be , but when you get two well matched sides on a perfectly prepared track , it's still the best sporting spectacle out there . My fondest memory of the 2016 season was those wonderful two days in the Peterborough sunshine watching the PL Fours . £30 for two days wonderful entertainment can't be beaten anywhere for value for money .

Aye very nostalgic , there's a Years Gone By section in this forum