stevehone

hear hear... best post on the forum in ages :!: apart from Lt's smilies of course

ditto that.. with regards to Cardiff.... not intersted in going to a GP too much. to me going to a world final means seeing the world champion at the end of the meeting and i miss those. i would much rather go to somewhere like Bradford for a final or a GP (and yes i went to the last one off final and GP there) and have fantastic racing, whatever is at stake. the GP IMO is all about money first, rider safety second... why else would they bring in the 5 in a race for the SWC?? and on bloody small tracks too!! Atmosphere is secondary for me, i would rather see good racing. If you're asking me to put my hand in my pocket to sample atmosphere alone i'm not interested.

Sorry Honey it's got to be said even if wrong here but........ One off tracks hmmmmmm Cardiff is a one off track to which you have not (to my knowledge) attended. I for one thought the first two years were race wise excellent, 3rd year maybe the track was not as good but still well worth the entrance money. inc. the overnight travel home afterwards. My friends that came to Arlington with me last weekend have already decided they are going to Cardiff next year. That after an Elite league meeting, not a GP. One things for certain there is a roof so no need for a rain-off, that's the beauty of Cardiff guaranteed a meeting, even for those that only attend one meeting a year How many rained off meetings, not neccessarily a GP or NLRC or even a BLRC have you attended but still not been put off the sport, no matter how far the travelling was? i've been to plenty of rained-off meetings the same as everyone and still turned up the following week... but there was a word in there that makes the difference...rain. if the GP at Ullevi had been rained off it would be a different story...something people actuallydo accept as it happens. With the one off tracks, the racing on the whole has been terrible, and as far as i am concerned tonights farce just about sums it all up. i've been to Ullevi for a world final when it was a proper speedway track and had a fantastic time, and i was sat watching tv tonight thinking about the fans from England, Poland, Denmark etc etc and how must they feel having a meeting called off not because of rain but because mistakes were made laying the track. pretty hard to swallow in my book. who did the one-off track for the LA Colisseum in 1982? i was there and thought the racing was good, and i don't recall the track cutting up badly like they do now, so maybe BSI should look elsewhere. what you say about Cardiff is correct in that i haven't been there, but in Cardiff it is all about atmosphere. I have watched the Cardiff GP's on tv and so am not sampling the atmosphere, so what i have to do is watch the racing. in my book it is not the best, and there are a lot of armchair fans that will have the same opinion.

it's kinda ironic about Ole and the way he deals with the riders... one of the commentators, i think Chris Louis said that Ole Olsen had to be the one calling the shots... i reckon Ole has stood in the meeting with the riders tonight in that garage, and said to them..'right you boys, i'm in charge, you're riding and thats the end of it' The irony is, how do you think Ole would have been if someone said that to him when he was riding? Ole has a fair temper and i reckon one or two referees felt the brunt of it at times. What i'm wondering is why do BSI continue with just Olsen in charge? Why not enlist the help of a number of highly respected ex-riders to form a team? If it's left to one person you are asking for trouble...at least with different opinions in there you bounce ideas off of each other to get the best of each situation.

BSI...hats off to them, they are trying to bring the sport to a higher level and staging racing at far improved stadia.... BUT.. maybe they should put money into existing tracks to bring them to a GP standard, get some PROPER speedway happening and get people coming back. On the showing of these one off tracks (not just Ullevi), they are shooting the sport well and truly in the foot. People will be so disgusted with some of the racing put in front of them we will never see them again, and they will go away thinking crap racing and crap tracks is all speedway has to offer. There are some brilliant racetracks all over the world...why not let the best in the world ride on them, rather than riding on tracks that quite frankly, can turn into a lottery. Speedway World Cup...on tv for a week, loads of publicity and look at the tracks that were produced.. I love to see riders having to work hard on a track rather than your blue groove easy riding tracks but you have to draw a line somewhere. For me tonight, Ullevi just about sums things up.. what non-speedway fans will return after that??

lol...'84 was when i stopped following them round the country due to starting to ride myself that year... call that 'sod's law' :roll:

as an ex-Wimbledon supporter i miss my trips up to Cradley... now if only we could have scored more than 25 points once in a while...

Shazzy you forgot Edgar Stangeland.... how can you forget your Edgar???

bloody right too...no women's perogative there!!! :roll:

so Middlo does have some influence!!!!

so what did Coronation Street do...raid the program for the names???

have a browse through this site... http://www.canterburycrusaders.co.uk/

i'm afraid it's called...'let's relieve the punters of their £13, give them 15 races, and then get rid of them' 'promoters' for you eh....?

Is that speaking from seeing the track closely (sorry m8, you left yourself asking for that one ) flipant I apologise for that one :!: xx yes i saw the track closely on occasions.... but it was a track i hated being on gates 1,2 or 3 as i loved the banking at Exeter. The track could be rough but made for good racing as you could miss the gate completely and still have a chance to pass. Dear old Ted Lethbridge (RIP mate) actually did a good job on the track. Now you Exeter supporters, be honest... how many sunny bank holiday meetings have you seen at the County Ground that have been a bit of a bore because the track didn't cut up enough? Yes, even Exeter can be like a billiard table and it does not make for good racing.

you can always tell when there are going to be adverts, as just before the break Millard will say 'and the crowd here are enjoying themselves' i will still stick up for the bloke as it is not an easy job to do. my reasons were posted in a previous thread somewhere... although life must be easier now without Peter Collins getting things totally wrong next to him

You could be right there Falcace. Brilliant track last night for the Bees match against Poole and the record went in the first race, but the racing....mostly processional. The Kings Lynn track was the same when we went there in May and I remember Star Lady commenting it was "too fast and smooth" or words to that effect. Result - worse match I've seen for years, with Edinburgh taking a real beating because they weren't getting out of the gate all night. which is why i have always said that Exeter is a brilliant racetrack although most people on here disagree

and also next year GB will be one of the higher seeded nations.... Italy and Germany in round 1.... nice

yeah it was re-run... steve that owns re-run lives in canterbury and started his filming at kingsmead... i'll give him a call.... thanks

i'm sure in the commentry tonight (heat 18 i think), tony millard got his words mixed up and didn't know whether to say david or norris and ended up calling him Doris can someone have a watch of a video and confirm this....

that's the one Kevin...knew i could rely on you!! 11 points... i thought it was 10! as i didn't finish one race. don't suppose anyone has a spare program lurking do they....? in reply to Shazz.... i haven't a clue what i done really...never thought of keeping progs.. got the one from the Junior League Riders Championship at Milton Keynes and my NL debut at Berwick, but thats it really :-( i was after dates to see if Re-Run were filming back then... it also keeps the Crusaders thread at the top..

no sorry Kev... that's not the one. the meeting above was called the Grand Slam and was in 1987. in 1986 they run a big tourny for juniors and called it the Junior Grand Prix. it was set out that we got a couple of qualifying rounds and the top points scorers went through to a grand final somewhere. my 2nd round was supposed to be at Exeter which i was really looking forward to, but at the last minute it was swapped to Eastbourne :x i had a run-in with Kevin Pitts in my 2nd or 3rd ride at Eastbourne and went head on into the fence, and so missed out on scoring.

better amend your records then Kev... think Rob Tilbury refused to ride after a couple of races too... think i had 5 rides that night as i was one of the few wanting to ride. ok...here's another one for you Kev... do you have the date and records of the junior grand slam/grand prix in 1986? i know i did ok even though i ended up on the footie pitch in one race! i'm after the details so i can see if steve at re-run videos was filming at that time.. it was the first canterbury meeting for ian cox and i think he ended up getting about 8 or 9 rides from reserve!! we still laugh about that meeting cheers

aha!!!! i'm not the only one that thought this then....

after he retired from refereeing then.....

Kev...i take it the reason we only had 6 riders is because Paul Evitts refused to ride? think you had better dig out that suit of armour