Speedway Mail

[TonyMac]

As the 40th anniversary of the launch of Speedway Mail is looming in early April, just wondered if any of you have any particular memories of this publication (good or bad!) in either its original newspaper or (post-1987) A4 magazine format?

 

A selection of the best, most interesting comments may be included in our feature that will appear in the next issue of Backtrack magazine.

 

Look forward to reading your views.

 

Cheers,

Tony McDonald

(Speedway Mail, 1978-1991)

Edited March 20, 2013 by tmc

[RedcarRacer]

I used to love the extended averages, at the time the only place to find these.

[Grachan]

Man of the meeting and most exciting rider was always quite interesting.

[Bruiser McHuge]

i used to like Speedway Mail..it was never as slick looking as Speedway Star but it was a great addition in its day....i felt it offered a good alternative and i liked the coverage it gave to some individual meetings that the Star tended to ignore....an example being the Coalite Classic at Bradford which i remember the Mail reporting on with a great double page centre spread with full photos and everything..the Star barely mentioned it !!....i think using Ken Carpenter's photos who was northern based helped in that regard..i sometimed felt that back in those days the Star was a bit too much southern influenced where the Mail wasn't..

i think i preferred the paper format to the magazine format though

[iris123]

Was never really a big fan of the mail,but i did like Big Arthur who sold it.Top guy!!

[The White Knight]

I loved the 'Mail'. It had a character all of it's own. I used to get the 'Star', 'Express' and 'Mail' I enjoyed the other two very much - but - I LOVED the 'Mail'. :approve:

 

I actually preferred the tabloid style too.

Edited March 20, 2013 by The White Knight

[SteveLyric2]

I remember the late Cyril Hart, who used to do the Poole match reports and for a while was also the Poole PRO. He used to sit behind us in the grandstand and clarified a lot of the rules when we first started going in the mid-eighties!

[salty]

Used to have the Star on subscription, but generally bought the Mail during the season from the track. Liked both formats, but obviously the magazine lasted a bit better than the newspaper version.

[remembertheracers]

I think Speedway Mail was fun, but made a huge mistake in going to a magazine format. As a package the Star was always superior, but the Mail did offer a different angle sometimes.

[Bryn]

Was never really a big fan of the mail,but i did like Big Arthur who sold it.Top guy!!

 

But did you ever have a clue what he was shouting? I certainly never had a clue no matter how hard I tried to understand him!

[martin_t]

I remember the ink coming off on my fingers.

 

Oh and the seller at Cradley saying " The latest,greatest,....and the chaypest". :-)

[martinmauger]

I liked the 'Mail and bought it most weeks, but I always though its biggest drawback was it came out 2 days after the 'Star, when the 'Star was sold on Wednesdays. So if you bought the 'Mail at Hull for example, a Wednesday nite track, it was always last weeks issue....

[TonyMac]

i used to like Speedway Mail..it was never as slick looking as Speedway Star but it was a great addition in its day....i felt it offered a good alternative and i liked the coverage it gave to some individual meetings that the Star tended to ignore....an example being the Coalite Classic at Bradford which i remember the Mail reporting on with a great double page centre spread with full photos and everything..the Star barely mentioned it !!....i think using Ken Carpenter's photos who was northern based helped in that regard..i sometimed felt that back in those days the Star was a bit too much southern influenced where the Mail wasn't..

i think i preferred the paper format to the magazine format though

 

Yes, Ken C is a great photographer - he actually taught photography at a college near Sheffield, where he lived. He is now enjoying retirement in Crete.

 

Wish we had stayed with the newspaper format. Adding the glossy, full colour covers contributed to the Mai's downfall due to substantially increased production costs that didn't translate to improved sales. It must be acknowledged, though, that the Star was always superior in most respects.

 

I liked the 'Mail and bought it most weeks, but I always though its biggest drawback was it came out 2 days after the 'Star, when the 'Star was sold on Wednesdays. So if you bought the 'Mail at Hull for example, a Wednesday nite track, it was always last weeks issue....

 

Fair point but, then again, if you bought the Mail at a Friday or weekend track, it included reports from the Monday night meetings at Reading, Exeter and Newcastle, which the Star didn't used to carry at that time.

 

I remember the ink coming off on my fingers.

 

Oh and the seller at Cradley saying " The latest,greatest,....and the chaypest". :-)

 

That would have been Alf Ferkins, who also sold the Mail at Wolverhampton.

 

Marketing 'experts' would say it's always bad to use the term 'cheapest' but I like the catchline Alf used - it had a certain ring to it.

 

But did you ever have a clue what he was shouting? I certainly never had a clue no matter how hard I tried to understand him!

 

Good to hear from a loyal Mail mainstay, Bryn.

 

To end many years of mystery, 'Big Arthur's' usual bellow was: "Aw yer week's results 'n' pictures . . . SPEEDWAY MAL!'

Edited March 21, 2013 by tmc

[TonyMac]

I used to love the extended averages, at the time the only place to find these.

 

Martyn Green, who compiled all the figures each week, was an Arena-Essex fan and very keen for his endeavours to appear in print. I used to joke with him that he should cover the averages right down to the 1.00 men but it would have taken up so much more space than it already did and would have taken over his life!

 

The trouble was, he would include so many riders and figures that we simply didn't have the manpower to re-type his computer print-outs (which he posted to us in the pre-email age) in a proper newspaper font, so the charts always looked unsightly in the Mail. Sad to say, poor presentation on our part didn't do Martyn's efforts full justice.

Edited April 11, 2013 by tmc

[BuckTaylor64]

Loved tha Mail! Bring it back!

[Wessex Wanderer]

I remember doing a weekly column for the SM in the 1970's about Weymouth. The Wildcats rode on a Tuesday then and the deadline for copy was 1st thing Thursday. That meant that my opportunites for writing the column (and it was definitely freehand in those days!) was late Tuesday evening (after a post meeting session in the Weymouth bar - bit dodgy), before work on the Wednesday (even more dodgy with a much battered alarm clock) or Wednesday evening.

 

Naturally the Wednesday evening was easily the best option but in the pre internet days that meant long after the last post had gone from the local post office. Luckily the GPO also ran the Travelling Post Office services on the rail network in those days and the Weymouth to Waterloo service called at Dorchester South station. So Wednesday evenings always ended with a stroll over to the station to meet the train at about 11.30 to post it through the letter box actually on the side of one of the TPO carriages. Kept in place by a very strong spring the cover opened outwards and care had to be taken to make sure you still had all your fingers as it closed! There was an additional charge for using this service - I had to put an extra stamp on the envelope (I seem to remember that it was an extra 2-3 pence).

 

Seems like a totally different world to today's state of instance communication.

 

I really liked the Speedway Mail. It may not have had the glossy image of the Star but it was always an interesting read.

 

Ray Collins

Edited March 21, 2013 by Wessex Wanderer

[Bryn]

In my days as a Speedway Mail track correspondent, and that was certainly before everything went computer orientated, I well remember on one day a week finishing work at my 'day job,' and then making my way round to the Mail HQ to 'do my bit' and arriving to see yourself TMC and John Bolle both be slaving away - well that's what it looked like!

[TonyMac]

In my days as a Speedway Mail track correspondent, and that was certainly before everything went computer orientated, I well remember on one day a week finishing work at my 'day job,' and then making my way round to the Mail HQ to 'do my bit' and arriving to see yourself TMC and John Bolle both be slaving away - well that's what it looked like!

 

Yes, remember your dedicated efforts very well, Bryn . . . as well as your distinctive long-hand copy, neatly set out on double lined A4 paper, which you supplied, that the typesetters had to type. Well, we obviously couldn't run to a PC for anyone in those days.

 

If we weren't slaving away in the office, then it would have been in the 'boardroom' (aka The Grove Tavern . . . just 10 paces away, or 18 coming back after a few!)

[martinmauger]

Martin Mauger, on 20 March 2013 - 11:14 PM, said:

 

I liked the 'Mail and bought it most weeks, but I always though its biggest drawback was it came out 2 days after the 'Star, when the 'Star was sold on Wednesdays. So if you bought the 'Mail at Hull for example, a Wednesday nite track, it was always last weeks issue....

 

Fair point but, then again, if you bought the Mail at a Friday or weekend track, it included reports from the Monday night meetings at Reading, Exeter and Newcastle, which the Star didn't used to carry at that time.

 

Point taken Tony. I mostly bought the Mail from 'work' on Fridays as being a mere paper boy at the time I didn't get to away tracks. I enjoyed the fact it contained fotos not seen in the 'Star, or Speedway Express for that matter, and so you got more of any stories of the time. Also being produced in newpaper format it was 'different', though I liked the switch to magazine style too.....

[Backless]

I remember when the Speedway Mail. They used to write their own articles rather than expect the readers to do it for them.