cityrebel

i went to england v poland at hackney, new zealand v russia at reading and if my memorys working england v new zealand at wimbledon. i also went to the final at wembley, those were the days.

i've always felt the same about west ham. watching speedway at custom house and hyde road was like being in a living museum. no other tracks have made the same impression on me.

being a lifelong wimbledon fan every venue is an away track. my favorite track as a child has to be west ham. great views, fantastic racing and easy to get autographs. my favorite current track is probably the isle of wight. fast racing and an afternoon at the seaside what could be better.

i remember watching him ride for the wembley lions when i was a kid.

any memories of my favourite track as a child, west ham's custom house stadium. here we are some 36 years since it's closure, and i'm still mourning the loss of one of the greatest tracks in the sports history. in my opinion on a par with the demise of hyde road in 1987.

i also went on that coach trip on good friday 1975. from memory i think the scores were oxford, 59 coventry, 19 and newport, 54 wimbledon, 24. two really close meetings!. that was also my only visit to somerton park for speedway, although i did go to a football match there a few years later.

i wonder what would have happened to the rebuilt london stadium had it still been in use today. would it have run as a speedway/dog track or been swallowed up by the olympic building works.

don't forget the west ham hammers who he rode for in 1969.

i went there once in 1970, my dad took me to see the czechs ride. my two most vivid memorys are the bridge going over the pits and getting smothered in shale standing on the first bend. i was too young to realise that low wall meant no protection!.

ronnie moore for his brilliant team riding and christer lofqvist for his fence scraping antics on a track as wide as west ham! (1969/70).

you can ask him if he remembers riding that dirt track douglas around west ham in the lokeren meeting. that was one of my earliest memories of attending speedway.

yet again i agree, i still mourn for all the lost tracks in london and the south east. in my era of attending speedway 1968 to date we have lost too many. it's hard not to get nostalgic when you think of the good times we have had.

i agree, watching the west ham bombers in 1972 was not the same as watching the hammers in 71. same venue different team.

the track in 1984 was reduced in size from 345 yards to 320 yards. i believe this was done because of the position of the lamp standards on the bends. as for the hackney kestrels they were no different than the west ham bombers or the dreaded eastbourne dons. two wrongs don't always make a right. as a lifelong wimbledon fan myself, i refused to go to arlington when we moved there. what could be worse, it would be like arsenal groundsharing at white hart lane!.

well you learn something every day. i remember going to a couple of bank holiday morning meetings at rayleigh in the 70's. i asked my dad who is a keen angler where the weir was and he told me he had no idea.

my point was that 1983 was the last season of racing on the original circuit. 1984 was a new team and a new track, just as it was in 1996.

hackney was a great racing track up until 1983. when crayford moved in and they altered the shape and took away some of the banking, it was never as good as before.

my most vivid memory of the wick was attending the coldest meeting ever staged in this country!, the golden jubilee in 1978. i was still feeling cold two weeks later!.