cityrebel

i was also at the showground on Sunday, for what was a very good meeting. Coventry are a well supported club, and I fully expect that there will be a decent crowd there for the testimonial. I will be paying £21 inc prog for 15 races at lakeside tomorrow, which I don't think is very good value for money!

i understand where you are coming from, but these days the public demands value for money. Be that in a restaurant, high street store or a speedway track. As was proven with the Ben fund, being a good cause is not enough. Big names pull in the crowds, that is why premiership football is so popular and speedway is on it's knees.

i remember something similar regarding the speedway updates website. Some bright spark reckoned it was stopping fans from attending meetings!

We have seen the damage that was done to the sport by certain clubs in dispute a few seasons ago. It's good to see promoters come to an agreement without any animosity.

Very similar in size to plymouth, a fast flat out racers track. I saw emiliano sanchez break the trelawny track record against Sheffield in 2002. Surprisingly it was never beaten, considering the likes of zagar and Harris were riding there every week!

The trelawny track was at nanpean near st. Austell. Even though I've been attending speedway for over 40 years at over 100 tracks, trelawny must be up there with the best. A great little race track hidden in the clay mines, next door to a blue lake. Quite an unbelievable place to watch speedway, and a venue I will never forget.

Although I expect to be shot down for being too pedantic, but does this topic belong in the speedway section. Surely sidecars and flat track racing would be more at home with grass track.

My first two meetings of the season were at rye last night and peterborough today. Both were very good matches raced in front of decent crowds. I will be at lakeside this Friday hoping for another entertaining meeting!

A very good meeting at the showground this afternoon. Nice to see a decent size crowd at a venue that could have been lost to speedway.

hi Eddie, I saw heat 15 amended at Newport about 30 minutes after the last race. Video evidence was used to change the result, when the stadium was almost empty!

A decent meeting tonight, but far too cold to really enjoy it!

i didn't go last night, but your assessment of the arena track is a bit harsh. You can get some very good racing at purfleet, but the last couple of seasons the track has been too slick for my liking. Let's hope that uncle Len has put some dirt down at rye tonight, it's going to be a cold one!

I never saw Nelson ride. My old man was a BL1 snob, it was a real struggle for me to get him to take me to any lower league speedway. My first two BL2 tracks were plymouth (holiday) and Romford (young Czechs). Not bad if I say so myself!

good Job someone does. I stand by my comment that it is a miracle that a new speedway stadium is being built in this day and age. Belle vue's achievement is no different to leicester's in my eyes.

shads, I've been told there is no seating on either bend at rye now. Is there standing in these areas, are the seats going to be reinstated?

the way the sport is going, every club might be at a third tier level in a few years time!

Going slightly off track, what are the chances of swindon's proposed new stadium getting built. I've read reports saying that this season will be the last at the abbey.

As a regular at both tilehurst and smallmead, I hold very little hope that speedway will be seen in the town again. As the years go by the sport slips further into decline and becomes less financially viable. The fact that belle vue are building a new stadium is a miracle in itself.

Fair play to the eagles for trying something different. That's what speedway needs in this country, some fresh ideas.

The problem is, the british public think that speedway is poor value for money and who can blame them. That is why we have very few younger fans coming through. Both of my kids have stopped going, but can't get enough of premier league football. They don't think twice about paying £40 for a ticket. Speedway is old hat and has very little chance of becoming fashionable again. Every time the admission price goes up, a few more fans stop going.

I totally agree with you. I think it's a miracle that more tracks haven't shut down in recent times. The promoters must have blind faith or very deep pockets!

Admission prices might be just about bearable if you have a local track. My nearest circuit is a sixty mile round trip away, that's when the cost starts to mount up.

My first meeting was the laurels at Wimbledon in October 1968, won by Barry Briggs. The second track i went to was plymouth pennycross when on holiday in 1969. My first dons away match was at west ham in May 1970, only a few weeks before the lokeren disaster.

i think it closed a couple of years ago.

that's a fair point dave. The three fatal crashes I have been unfortunate enough to see were in 1979, 1983 and 1984.