cityrebel

well i enjoyed going to the shay, odsal and hyde road. all great race tracks and all sadly missed.

west ham was always my favourite track as a child. as for romford i was lucky enough to go there once to see the czechs ride in 1970, as a dons fan i was at plough lane most thursdays. the venue i regret not going to the most must be crewe. i would have loved to have seen phil crump blast round that massive track!

david hamilton and ed stewart announcing at wembley ronnie moore team riding christer lofqvist scraping the fence at custom house vaclav verner blasting around brooklands punch ups at eastbourne v rayleigh meetings bengt jansson riding the boards at hackney watching the trains go past at tilehurst league racing at the white city garry middleton throwing a wobbly olle nygren's white boots end of season flour and egg fights wimbledon coach trips belle vue zoo and funfair sverre harrfelt's comeback at wembley bank holiday mornings at the weir watching tommy jansson ride i must stop before i start to cry!!!!!!!

speedway in london!

a golden era for me was definetly 1970 to 1980. being taken as a child to famous tracks like wembley and west ham was brilliant. another highlight for me was when white city opened in 1976 and making my own way there by bus. all the big meetings staged at wembley seemed to have decent crowds to me.

i was at the white city that day and remember the incident like it was yesterday. penhall made no attempt to race and just cruised round at the back. on the parade truck he was loudly booed and pelted with all kinds of objects. he looked really shocked at the crowds reactions but in my eyes he deserved it. all he had to do was go through the tapes or have an ef. to cheat like that with no regard for fair play was a disgrace.

a really big crowd present last night to bid farewell to smallmead. good to see some racers riders from the past although a few were missing. despite my reservations i really enjoyed the sidecars they put on some exciting racing. finally a fitting winner of the last ever meeting at smallmead, the big o has been brilliant to watch this season and a real credit to the club during a difficult year.

the photos do bring back memorys of the wimbledon coach trips from the 1970's and early 80's. some good and some bad!.

i found mike to be a really nice bloke. he gave me his wimbledon race jacket when riding for the dons in 1983. it's really sad to hear he is going through hard times.

i went to park road twice, first in 1981 for berwick v wimbledon and again in 1984 for blackhawks v hackney. i thought it was a great little track, a bit basic but fast with plenty of racing lines

a poor line up for the last ever meeting at smallmead. i would rather have seen a match between reading present and reading past, or against an oxford and swindon select. you have to run a meeting which reflects the history of the track. a lot of the riders named have no reading connection at all.

in my opinion the sport did die at wimbledon when tommy was killed in may 1976. it might of been a very slow death but it was never the same afterwards. it was like a big black cloud hung over the stadium and never went away. you have to admire the way belle vue recovered after cravens death in 1963. although having success as a team does help the healing process.

lofqvist along with ronnie moore were my big heroes as a child. i saw his first meeting in this country against my beloved dons at west ham. his 15 point maximum for the hammers at wembley has to be one of the finest perfomances at a new track. although watching pavlic get a 21 point maximum at arena last night runs it very close.

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.