Laser558

Do such things as open licences still apply so that individual meetings could be run just to keep speedway going at Mildenhall which was a bit like Rye House use to run many years ago?

Crap slick track as usual and processional racing. Olsen should be ashamed after Monday. He cannot possibly have had anything to do with Peterborough. He should listen to the comments from riders like Adams. When people like him are critical of track conditions then it is time for someone to take note deal with Olsen.

I thought the GB team was going to picked after the practice. If that is/was the case did Scotty turn up and who else from team GB was at the track. Anyone have any idea or was it behind closed doors?

His track preparation has been questionable for most of the GP's this year and frankly their are many more qualified people around who prepare good racing surfaces week in and week out and could do the job just as well if not better. If he is cleaning sponsors ads then he is either overpaid for menial tasks or is simply unable to delegate. It's not following sheep, its called having an opinion or is that to be banned simply because a few want to defend the indefensible. He was not in charge of the meeting but may have been involved at some point in the track and if he has learnt what makes good racing from this the when can all look forward to a better quality product in the future.

Based on Fixerman's comments, are we to expect a crap track and crap racing this evening so that the bald headed old coot can ensure his home country get through to the final. This guy should have been put out to pasture long ago and frankly he is doing immense damage to the sport at the highest level. Fire the guy before the riders take to track in order to prevent a borefest.

Yes as I think this would mean team riding and would balance the proceedings rather than have the scenario in Denmark with one team right out of contention. Also it may prevent a situation where a team would not be able to score any points because of an injured rider unable to take his place in a race.

Thanks for the reply Bavarian. Any suggestions about where to visit particularly when its pouring with rain. The weather forecast for next week looks dire. Hoping to do a bit of sight seeing around the black forest etc so presume its best to hire a car or does public transport go to such places from Bodensee?

Can someone let me know if any tracks operate in Southern Germany (within reasonable distance of Friedrichshafen) and are any meetings being held in the week commencing the 4th July?

Four of us would have been going. Two friends who now live/work in Denmark and my better half and I. All from the Ipswich area and former witches supporters. Just out of curiosity I looked on the ticket website and could only see tickets for DKR1400 for four. Do you know if thay are available on the days at the stadium? Still not totally convinced that the track will be any different to those in the earlier GP's with gate and go racing and little to get excited about.

Many thanks for this Ghostwalker

I am going to be in Denmark when the GP is on and was wondering if anyone knows if it is live on one of the local TV stations. I could make it to the stadium but given the latest GP's I am not going to waste the money (particularly when I look at the cost of the tickets for the meeting) on attending until track preparations improve and you get back to decent racing.

I have a copy of the programme for Saturday 14th July with England versus Sweden and Great Britain v the Rest of the World. The evening started at 6.00 pm with the final at 7.15 and the second meeting at 8.30pm. The programme race details etc are complete. As an aside the guests of honour were Ed Stewart and Carol Hawkins. To the winners of the meeting they received a trophy, medal and £100 To the losers medals plus £40 The rider with the highest points for the winning team got a further £50 and the higest scorer from the losing team got £25 The Final was drawn and in the run off Peter Collins fell but awarded the win with Anders Michanek being excluded. If you would like any more information let me know.

Rayleigh on Saturday Crayford on a Tuesday night Hackney on Friday Local derbies between Rayleigh, Canterbury, Eastbourne, Ipswich & Romford The Essex Gold Cup against Romford Brian Foote, Ted Hubbard, Terry Stone etc. Bank holiday monday morning meetings at Rayleigh, Dave Lanning and Johnnie Hoskins Rider of the Night Banger racing after the speedway meeting at Rayleigh Seeing Terry Stone's shining clean bikes, Geoff Maloney riding the boards Ivan Miller beating Arthur Price in a crucial league match at Rayleigh Regular friday/saturday night speedway Variety of speedway meetings, not just league matches Test matches when you got to see the good foreign riders Raw talent from second halves making it into the the team I wont go on but yes it was more fun and the supporters were a lot less fickle than those of today. We wanted to see speedway not just boring league matches

Sponsorship is the answer but this is on the assumption that the BSPA has someone who knows how to sell the product for the benefit of the sport and not simply to line a few pockets at the expense of the majority. If those promoters who continually whinge about losses are having such a bad time why do they not simply shut up shop and go and invest in something else. I find it hard to believe that in one field of business we have so many dumbos who are losing money and do nothing about it.

It is time to let the younger riders in on the act. Tai could not do any more and Kennett was perhaps trying too much. Both made up for Monday. Going forward, time to re-group, drop Richardson and concentrate on the likes of Daniel King (would not have done any worse than Richardson and should have replaced him tonight), Olly Allen and other young Brits. In fact based on this week British speedway needs to think about number one and this involves a radical re-think of the use of foreign riders in league speedway in the UK. As for Scott and Chris, they are not world class and perhaps with the grooming of younger riders and bringing them on rather than worrying about winning may help bth them and the team. Too uch pressure on two riders is not working. One final point and it is Bob Dugards views in the SS which I agree. Scrap the yearly world cup and make it every two or three years to give it some creditability and perhaps replace it with test matches again to give riders the experience.

The thing I would prefer is a format where pairs from each team rode in a heat to encourage team riding rather then individuals and possibly change the points scoring to 4,3,2,1 just to make it interesting. No real fun seeing Leigh Adams the length of a straight ahead of a guy from say Hungary. The answer possibly could be to bring back team matches and and have home and away internationals with the top four qualifiers going into a quarter final with the final held at a neutral venue. For example Poland and Denmark in the final held in Germany or the Czech Republic (or Mildenhall ). I think change is needed and perhaps it should be held every two years rather than annually which would allow for the qualification meetings.

Nicki Pedersen is not a honest and true speedway rider and his antics are not something new. The guy knows exactly what he is doing and is a cheat of the highest order. How much had he or his team pay the the officials? Desperate men do desperate things and he is not worthy of a true champion. He is nothing more than an little pip squeak who will get what he deserves sooner or later and will I enjoy watching him suffer. He is no loss to British speedway.

Scott Nicholls Jason Crump Edward Kennett Nicki Pedersen Well you can dream once

Tobi has done the Witches proud. Well done that man. Lets see more of the same against Eastborne on Thursday

Current Team Greg Hancock - $40k (Captain) Hans Anderson - $40k Andreas Johnsson - $40k Tomasz Gollob - $45k Scott Nichols -$35k For this one can I change Team Captain to Tomasz Gollob - Thanks

Greg Hancock - $40k (Captain) Hans Anderson - $40k Andreas Johnsson - $40k Tomasz Gollob - $45k Scott Nichols -$35k

Rob, I seem to recall that they also looked at the possibility of opening at the greyhound stadium in Prittlewell. Rawreth however did appear to be the best bet at that time. I agree, although a speedway fan nothing has since matched a saturday night at the weir with a local derby against Romford in the Essex Gold Cup. Friday Night at Hackney and the odd trip to Crayford. Oh happy days. I also seem to recall that the riders all met up at the blinking owl cafe after the meetings. Looking at the last programmes i have they showed both the speedway and stock car meetings. Bank holidays use to be great. Speedway on the bank holiday monday morning and stock cars at 3.00pm in the afternoon. As a kid i use to hide after the speedway so as not having to pay to get into the stock cars.

Bob Young broke the track record in heat 9 of the match with Peterborough which Rayleigh won 45-33. He was up against John Davies (2nd) and Richard Greer (last) Allen Emmett was the other rider. Prior to this the record of 68.6 was held jointly by Tommy Jansson (19/6/71) and Hugh Saunders (7/8/71). The record stood until the track closed. The last meeting was the end of season challenge against Eastbourne held on the 20th October 1973. Rayleigh won 48-47 (this was 16 heat match). The following season they moved to Rye House and the opening meeting was the Johnnie Hoskins Birthday Cup. Rye beat Canterbury 41-36 and the fastest times of this opening meeting were in heats 6 and 11 when a time of 63.6 was recorded. The joint record holders from the first meeting were Roger Johns and Steve Clarke. I hope this helps. I have a few programmes from 1969 through to 1973 for Rayleigh, then Rye House as well as Hackney and latterly Arena Essex when it opened. I also have some programmes for Rayleigh for away meetings. If you need any more let me know and I will see if I can help.

I might be wrong but the garage that use to be just before Rayleigh weir roundabout was owned by Roy Uden. I think it also sold Jet petrol. I remember him driving at Rayleigh but it was before my time as a rider at Rye House