lucifer sam

Rob Hollingworth? British Speedway was its height, in terms of number of tracks, in the mid 70s. Hollingworth doubled up between both leagues, Boston (NL) and Wolverhampton (BL). Then he came back between 2000 and 2005, and rode at a totally different level for Boston. I wouldn't be surprised to see him pushing 60 tracks. All the best Rob

Scunny receiving more praise for their semi-final: http://scunthorpescorpions.co/?p=5473 All the best Rob

Surely concrete starting gates are a huge safety hazard. Why on earth bring back something very dangerous? All the best Rob

I hope it's Bates and King. Bates for finishing eighth in what was the hardest of the two semi-finals, and King because he didn't get a chance in the semis. Kennett doesn't deserve one, after his poor showing at Scunny. He gated for around 14 points and scored 4! All the best Rob

Seemed a decent turnout to me. All the best Rob

Looks like a dry day ahead in Scunny today. I will be setting off straight after finishing work at 3pm and hoping that the Friday night traffic is not too bad. I'm really looking forward to this meeting - so many riders who should excel around the wide open spaces of Scunny. All the best Rob

Tai pulled out of the entire British Championship, not just the semi-finals. Here's a snippet of his own Press Release: Scunthorpe born Woffinden has made the move to step aside from the showpiece event at Belle Vue’s new National Stadium on Monday, June 13. What's the point in giving a wildcard to a rider who has already stated his doesn't intend to ride in the British Final? All the best Rob

No, the rider doesn't have to sign in until the day of the meeting. It's been like this since, at least, 2003, when Todd Wiltshire missed practice to ride for Oxford in a league match. Well done Bomber for putting British Speedway first. All the best Rob

No, that was different. There was a draft list known by the Monday, which I saw for the first time after that meeting. BUT that list had two changes from the finalised list that was sent out on Tuesday morning. If that list had been announced, people made plans to watch their favourite rider, only for the next day to be told that they were actually in the other semi, then they'd have every right to be annoyed. The riders were announced as soon as the list was finalised. All the best Rob

Never quite understood the secret squirrel approach at certain tracks - I find it bizarre. If you want people through the door, then you need to tell them what they can look forward to. I'll add the 1-16 to twitter at around lunchtime, and also point out the key clashes. All the best Rob

Around tomorrow (Thursday) lunchtime. All the best Rob

Terrible waste of potential whatever happened to him? Meanwhile, what about Steve Hone, No 7 / second half rider at Canterbury? Did he fulfil his full potential? All the best Rob

Steve, Joe was making great progress at Hull, but suffered life-threatening injuries in a crash in 1978. At the time, he was a 9.00+ man in the BL. Otherwise, who knows? I can't remember Hull being that unconventional, when we went up there in 1980. Viewing was tricky, because you were too low and were bombarded with granite (therefore it was Nan's first and last experience of a speedway meeting!!). But otherwise I just remember a narrow but fast track. All the best Rob That's true, but at least it meant we had a World Final, rather than a British/American/Danish/Swedish Final. And the continentals didn't always simply make up the numbers, as Szczakiel and Muller proved. And it certainly added to the drama of the ICF, which claimed a number of World Champions during its lifetime. All the best Rob

With Crumpie, Steve Gresham (his team-mate at Newport, Bristol and Swindon) thought the turning point was Crump's injury at Sheffield in 1977. Until that happened, he thought Crumpie was nailed on to become World Champion. All the best Rob

I think there might have been an injury while rode for Bradford. Of course, later on, while he was riding for King's Lynn, he was involved in the horrific pile-up at Odsal in the 1989 WTC Final. Lance had his head in a neck brace on that afternoon, was essentially physically OK, but the psychological effect of that accident was a factor in his subsequent retirement. But it was that missing British year in 1985 which really affected him and changed the whole course of his career. When I interviewed him, he certainly thought that was the big game changer. If you look at 1984, his performance in the final was no fluke. It's already been mentioned that he won the Overseas Final with a maximum, but he also breezed through one of the toughest-ever Inter-Continental Finals (which claimed the stricken Carter and nearly Nielsen too), with a third place. All the best Rob

I see you point, although I would question if a rider who won both the Speedway World Championship and was also three-time World Longtrack Champion could de deemed as not fulfilling potential. I somehow doubt if Muller would have exchanged the above with a successful BL career! All the best Rob

Not really. For example, Nigel De'ath led Erik Gundersen for three laps at Cradley in the opening meeting of 1987. His career seemed to be taking off, then he started to find out how much speedway can hurt. Sadly, that's probably the case with hundreds of riders. All the best Rob

Sid, it wasn't an injury as such. Lance King didn't return to the UK in 1985, because Cradley could only afford him or Erik Gundersen, and perhaps not surprisingly, they went for the World Champ. It killed the momentum of King's career - until then he looked like a future champion. All the best Rob

Eh? They had two riders injured on Saturday night. Which allows two choices: 1. IOW book guests. 2. IOW send weak team, and instead of last night's enthralling encounter, we get a one-sided drubbing. Before you point it out, I realise they didn't have any guests in the immediate post-war period. But I would also point out thanks to unbalanced teams and massive drubbings, amongst other factors, that speedway went from a massive boom (1946-1949) to the point of extinction (1957-1959) in just a decade. Anyway, getting back to the point, terrific meeting last night and great advert for speedway. All the best Rob

Shads, to be fair, both teams had high-scoring guests - it was an inspired race from Ben Morley in Heat 10 that kept Cradley level at that point. Good racing, and a meeting that both teams deserved to take something from. All the best Rob

Good meeting - glad IOW got a point, because they deserved something out of it. Dan Bewley looks something a bit special. All the best Rob

Steve, while it was a shame that Per didn't return in 1987, I didn't mind, because it meant Rambo Razzer returned for another season instead and he was something of a favourite of mine. My list: Arne Pander - injury and politics stopped Oxford's first World Class rider from reaching a single World Final. Martin Dugard - after Oxford, he should have moved to a big track, rather than go back at Eastbourne. The 2000 British Grand Prix showed what he was capable of. Andrew Silver - for exactly the reasons already stated. Wasted his very considerable talent. Dalle Anderson - brilliant at Oxford in 1995. Robbed of the World Under-21 that year in the run-off. And then... nothing really. It just didn't happen for him at Cradley/Stoke in 1996. Nigel De'Ath - massive talent who had the confidence knocked out of him by a series of falls in 1987, following by a scary crash over the top of the Oxford safety fence on 1988's opening night. Alastair Stevens - even bigger talent. The fall through the roof in 1986, while doing a building job, was a set-back, and later on, he just didn't prepare his machinery properly. Carl Blackbird - seemed destined for big things when he - almost unbelievably - passed Hans Nielsen from the back three times on the same night at Oxford in 1986. But it didn't happen. Brian Andersen - he surely would have been World Champion, but for the ill-advised decision to plate his broken collarbone, shortly after winning the 1997 British Grand Prix. So classy on the bike. All the best Rob

Eh? Nothing like letting the facts get in the way. Scunny were on to qualify for the LC semi-finals that year, only for half the team to get injured at Berwick on the Saturday, and we then lost at home to Sheffield the following Monday and the Tigers nicked our place in the semis. Mind you, the mid-signing seasons of Nick Morris and Gary Irving were rather inspired. It all came about because poor Tom Armstrong smashed himself up badly after losing a chain at the EWR. All the best Rob

There was a change over the winter. Sadly, the last AGM took place before that, so we're still effectively running the old regime's rules. Buster had already indicated he wants speedway to be about four riders over four laps, rather than overcomplicated rules. Let's see what Buster, Rob G and co come up with this winter. All the best Rob

And since the start of the GP series: UK 3 Poland 1 PS Hopefully Bomber will get one of the wildcards for the semis - he certainly has better credentials than almost any other non-qualifier, as a former GP winner. All the best Rob