cityrebel

back to tonights meeting. was there a decent size crowd, was the racing any good and was it worth 25 quid to get in!

the weather forecast looks poor for this at the moment, no doubt this will put a few people off from travelling. i will be in north london tomorrow so i can leave later than normal.

it's on the official british speedway website that it's being staged on sunday the 22nd, which is a pain for me as well!

no rain south of the river either, it's on the way but much later than originally forecast. Who would be a speedway promoter!

tomorrow evening at the launch pad sees the rockets take on redcar in the 2nd leg of the cup. the weather could win this one!

brandon stadium has been living on borrowed time since the day the ochiltree's sold it.

there was a really good crowd there last night, no doubt boosted by the school holidays. it was such a shame that the whole event turned out to be a PR disaster. i just hope it is a wake up call to everyone officially connected with the club.

well last night was always going to happen wasn't it. with such a strict curfew in place any sort of delay was going to lead to a struggle to complete the meeting. last week was a close call with all the traffic problems on the local roads. with a decent crowd inside the stadium it would have been a logistical nightmare trying to issue people with imaginary readmission tickets if the match never got started. the ambulance fiasco at rye house last month, last weeks fours marathon at peterborough and last nights events, are even making a speedway die hard like me question my sanity in following this once great sport of ours.

just a reminder that lakeside are staging an amateur meeting tonight. 7.30 start and admission is £5 for 32 races.

hi mike, sundays fours was just light training for this coming saturdays marathon at the launch pad. i've got over the 2 hour sprint at kent last night, my sleeping bag is packed and i'm ready to go!

chris gay might argue with that!

unwanted speedway records keep tumbling for me this season. after the 2.5 hour ambulance delay at rye house last month, yesterdays fours event was the longest meeting i have ever attended in over 40 years of watching speedway. crash delays can't be helped but power failures, faulty starting gates and tyre disputes can. on the plus side there was some excellent racing and i thought the track staff did a decent job in keeping the dust down on a very hot day.

at the moment i think the 8.30 curfew is a big problem. meetings are being run at a rapid rate leaving little or no time for track maintenance during racing. one or two crashes are leading to a rush to get everything finished before the cut off time. if at some point in the future the curfew could be extended to 9pm, everybody could relax a little and the track could get a little more TLC. let's not run before we can walk!

a tough looking match for the rockets at the launch pad this saturday. if both teams have full line ups, it will be too close to call.

sent the club a text last thursday, still no sign of any vouchers. i was going to pass a few around to some lakeside fans at kent on monday. oh well, that's life!

no probs

boxall is a very fast rider at NL level, probably the best in the league. so it was no suprise that he broke the track record on his home circuit. if you consider a track that is down to the chalk base after only a few heats as being in 'good condition', then we will have to disagree.

i don't know anyone who does understand them!

a poor meeting last night raced on a poor track. too many delays, no grading or watering of the circuit didn't help. is it just me or are things starting to feel a little flat at central park. give the riders a decent surface to race on and the sport might have a future at this excellent stadium.

it's a nice site for the new 'national speedway stadium'!

mildenhall have no guest for stefan nielsen only R/R and have danno verge riding at reserve. could a shock home win be on the cards!

tonight sees the fen tigers pay their 2nd visit of the season to central park. mildenhall look a bit weaker this time and i reckon it will be a close match.

i stopped working for the dreaded GRA in 2002, ironically the year speedway returned to plough lane!

you would be wasting your time contacting the GRA. they have no interest in anything to do with their greyhound racing heritage let alone speedway. i have an oil painting of derby final night that used to hang in the boardroom at white city that i rescued from a skip. when the GRA finished promoting speedway at plough lane in 1984, a lot of speedway items were given to me by the outgoing dons boss cyril maidment, most of these were his own property. the trophies remained in the speedway office when the new promoters took over. i have a good idea who took the trophies, but no proof and a public forum is not the place to be making unfounded accusations.

custody of the GRA usually means thrown in the skip. i was part of the crew that cleared out white city, harringay and wembley stadiums prior to demolition. a lot of very historical greyhound items were just thrown away. i rescued a few things from each venue including a couple of speedway items. regarding the laurels shield, this trophy used to be housed in the speedway office alongside the knock out cup which the dons were allowed to keep after their third win in 1970. both of these trophies were 'removed' from the stadium during the era that the GRA did not promote speedway at wimbledon 1985 - 91. i don't know who took these items that rightfully belonged to the club, or where they are now.