Speedway Mail

[mikebv]

always felt the mail was more open to a bit of 'irreverence' regarding the sport when it came to letters and the editorial...

 

seemed to give the 'true fan' the voice rather than worry about what the promoters would say/think...

 

the star in the last six months or so have/are coming around to publishing the 'voice of the people'...

 

lets hope it continues....

[Ommer Mon]

Tony Mc mentioned Tony Barnard above.

 

I used to do the Cradley match reports for the Mail and passed the details to Mr B regularly each Sunday.

 

A relly nice fella, and big Hackney fan if I remember rightly, who knew Speedway inside out and put some excellent editorial together. I had the pleasure of meeting up with him and his wife Iris, together with Glynn Shailes, at Oxford in 1993 and spent an enjoyable evening in the restaurant.

 

Sadly, Tony passed away a couple of years ago but I have fond memories of his wit, banter and company.

 

A true gent.

[Mr Ore]

 

Seem to remember Tony Moyse was editor around the time of Gary Havelock's World Final victory. One of his first actions was to alter the heading as previously MAIL dominated. He amended this so that SPEEDWAY was the dominant word, which seemed a fairly sensible move. He also added a pic of Jacob Olsen wheelying to personalise this, as opposed to the group rider logo shot . As editor of one of the finest football history books ever produced (him not me) I have met Tony on several football related occasions and he is still a regular visitor at various tracks and GPs even though his local track no longer exists. He always enjoys a decent ale and chat about speedway and I will be seeing him at Cardiff this year for that beer and chat.

[Bryn]

Just to confirm firstly, for Tony Mac's info, that I never took up the mantle of editor of the Speedway Mail as back in those days I worked full time in the Insurance industry in addition to devoting a heck of a lot of my spare time to this sport I've been hooked on since watching my first ever meeting at West Ham in 1966.

 

Thanks to both Tony and 'Ommer Mon' for mentioning the late Tony Barnard and bringing back memories of "The Professor" as a one time announcer, programme editor and chief scribe of the weekly Kestrel News at Waterden Road dubbed him!

Edited March 25, 2013 by Bryn

[Parsloes 1928 nearly]

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!

 

Ah Cyril J. Hart - what a gentleman he was. Contributed a column to the Wimbledon prog in the CL days and I regularly corresponded with him - was an honour to meet him when he came up to Plough Lane. A true great of Speedway writing and to me the epitome of what a great journalist should be. Much missed.

[TonyMac]

Seem to remember Tony Moyse was editor around the time of Gary Havelock's World Final victory. One of his first actions was to alter the heading as previously MAIL dominated. He amended this so that SPEEDWAY was the dominant word, which seemed a fairly sensible move. He also added a pic of Jacob Olsen wheelying to personalise this, as opposed to the group rider logo shot . As editor of one of the finest football history books ever produced (him not me) I have met Tony on several football related occasions and he is still a regular visitor at various tracks and GPs even though his local track no longer exists. He always enjoys a decent ale and chat about speedway and I will be seeing him at Cardiff this year for that beer and chat.

 

This is the first mention I've heard of Tony Moyse. Presumably, he covered match reports for one of the tracks before being appointed Ed? Can you please confirm the name of the track(s), where he comes from and the time period he spent as editor of the Mail?

 

My last contribution to the Mail was writing the report for the '92 World Final at Wroclaw, won by Havvy.

Edited March 26, 2013 by tmc

[Mr Ore]

This is the first mention I've heard of Tony Moyse. Presumably, he covered match reports for one of the tracks before being appointed Ed? Can you please confirm the name of the track(s), where he comes from and the time period he spent as editor of the Mail?

 

My last contribution to the Mail was writing the report for the '92 World Final at Wroclaw, won by Havvy.

 

He left as Phil Lanning took over and started around the time of the Havvy victory so that would be his time period; clearly not a very long one. Although he did Wimbledon match reports for the local free papers and, I believe, still lives in that area, I am unsure that he was actually a reporter at the Mail prior to this. He always praised the regularity of Russell Lanning's press releases for the free paper so again that could identify his work period there, coinciding with his tenure at Plough Lane.

[brianbuck]

I saw the Mail as a natural replacement for the old "Speedway World" which was launched in 1937 and continued until about 1961. The World was a newspaper style publication, always well informed and very well filled with highly readable articles and did not waste too much space with pictures. Unfortunately though, its appeal fell away when it established a link with Stock Car Racing which meant that half of it became of very little interest to speedway people.

 

I preferred the Mail before it switched to the magazine format which made it become too similar to Speedway Star. I always thought there was room for both publications but less so when they became more like each other. I was sad to see its demise.

[Humphrey Appleby]

I preferred the Mail before it switched to the magazine format which made it become too similar to Speedway Star

 

You can get away with shoddy DTP/typesetting if you're a newspaper, but more difficult with a magazine. Unfortunately, the Speedway Mail looked poor even by the standards of most magazines of the time, and although the content was worth reading, I'm not sure it would haven't encouraged the casual reader to pick it off the shelf.

[TonyMac]

You can get away with shoddy DTP/typesetting if you're a newspaper, but more difficult with a magazine. Unfortunately, the Speedway Mail looked poor even by the standards of most magazines of the time, and although the content was worth reading, I'm not sure it would haven't encouraged the casual reader to pick it off the shelf.

 

Agreed. Even with the glossy, full colour cover that was added in May 1987, it couldn't hide the poor quality of newsprint and iffy lay-out inside. Having said that, had we tried to compete with the Star with glossy magazine-style pages inside, we would have gone bust even quicker that we did in 1990.

 

 

He left as Phil Lanning took over and started around the time of the Havvy victory so that would be his time period; clearly not a very long one. Although he did Wimbledon match reports for the local free papers and, I believe, still lives in that area, I am unsure that he was actually a reporter at the Mail prior to this. He always praised the regularity of Russell Lanning's press releases for the free paper so again that could identify his work period there, coinciding with his tenure at Plough Lane.

 

Thanks for the update.

[Vincent Vega]

Did anyone buy the Speedway Now magazine that came out for a few months in 1991? Was that a publication by the Lannings.

[Mr Ore]

 

Thanks for the update.

 

My pleasure. Sorry I can't be more specific re dates but hope this will fit in with others' tenures you may know more about. His football book(s) are about Ipswich Town but, although supporting the Witches to a degree, he was more of a Wimbledon follower, if not fan, owing to him moving to that area when he started work. I don't believe, other than a few references to them in his main ITFC book, he has actually reported on the Witches at any stage.

[steve19620]

Did anyone buy the Speedway Now magazine that came out for a few months in 1991? Was that a publication by the Lannings.

 

Yes I did and I still have them. It only lasted for about 8 or 9 issues.

 

It was edited by Russell (?) Lanning and was aimed towards a teenage market - it did contain match reports and heat results and even rated the meeting for entertainment value.

Edited March 27, 2013 by steve19620

[moxey63]

It was a shame really, but always thought the Mail existed hand-to-mouth from one week to the next. From a fan since the mid-seventies, I was only a school kid at the time and couldn't afford a speedway publication, so a neighbour often passed me his copies (along with the Speedway Star). The Mail wasn't as polished as the Star and came in a newspaper form back then, and you would always end up with black fingertips as the ink rubbed off during your thumbing it. As a strange boy who didn’t like getting his hands dirty, I was often irritated during my flick through its mass pages. In saying that, I remember some of the pictures as being quite superb, some of the features of interest for a kid feasting on facts and figures at the time. Ended up ordering both the Star and Mail, which used to arrive at my newsagents on Wednesday and Friday respectively. With the Mail being out of date by the time I had read the Star two days' earlier, and with finances stretched, sadly, as time progressed, one of the weeklies had to go - and it had to be the Mail. Then, in 1987, I noticed it had gone from newspaper to magazine form, and I started getting it weekly again. Being a stats anorak, I could and would never rely on the Mail for reference, and the latter years of the Mail, well, it was only out of habit I still got it. I think it went from weekly to monthly, if my memory's is in fettle Then the inevitable happened. I went to pick it up from the newsagents one day... and was told it had gone bust. Sad, but it was a hailing publication that had to be put out of its misery - a sick pet that had to be put down.

 

Yes I did and I still have them. It only lasted for about 8 or 9 issues.

 

It was edited by Russell (?) Lanning and was aimed towards a teenage market - it did contain match reports and heat results and even rated the meeting for entertainment value.

God, yes, I recently threw my nine copies away. It was a good idea, the SPEEDWAY NOW, but the editorial was mainly the throw away sort of stuff which doesn't stand the test of time... Again, as with the Mail, I got to the newsagents - or was I buying it from the track shop... Anyway, went to purchase copy number 10, only to be told that Speedway Now had joined many other speedway publications in that great skip in the sky.

They come and go, but non have stood the test of time.... and we must salute the Speedway Star for its longevity.

 

As regards giving a meeting marks out of ten etc... I did this for years in my programme, listing the most entertaining rider, man of the match etc... or when passes were made and on what lap. In fact, get any of my programmes out from the last 10 years' watching, and the score page is like one big ink spill!

Edited March 27, 2013 by moxey63

[Bruiser McHuge]

interesting reading..

 

i would agree that the Mail should have kept itself as a paper..the magazine format did look a bit cheap and even more so when alongside Speedway Star...it didn't really matter when it was a paper as you cannot directly compare a paper with a magazine.

 

i do remember Peter Baker's Aussie sections in the winter and they were very good...i remember a highly detailed rider by rider preview of the Australian Final by him ..when the Aussie Final actually meant something and was a route to the Commonwealth Final and hopefully the World Final ( unlike today's pale shadow of an event)....that was very good indeed.

 

i do think that you have to congratulate Speedway Star though...hundreds of magazines have gone to the wall yet Speedway Star is still out there and is a far superior magazine now to back in the 70's and 80's ...it is still on the shelves of Tesco every week and that takes some doing in this day and age for a small sports magazine.

[The White Knight]

interesting reading..

 

i would agree that the Mail should have kept itself as a paper..the magazine format did look a bit cheap and even more so when alongside Speedway Star...it didn't really matter when it was a paper as you cannot directly compare a paper with a magazine.

 

i do remember Peter Baker's Aussie sections in the winter and they were very good...i remember a highly detailed rider by rider preview of the Australian Final by him ..when the Aussie Final actually meant something and was a route to the Commonwealth Final and hopefully the World Final ( unlike today's pale shadow of an event)....that was very good indeed.

 

i do think that you have to congratulate Speedway Star though...hundreds of magazines have gone to the wall yet Speedway Star is still out there and is a far superior magazine now to back in the 70's and 80's ...it is still on the shelves of Tesco every week and that takes some doing in this day and age for a small sports magazine.

 

No it isn't.

 

True it is good NOW - but - it was GREAT THEN!! :approve:

[moxey63]

No it isn't.

 

True it is good NOW - but - it was GREAT THEN!! :approve:

 

Any magazine that is foolish enough to stop Angs Kix glamour league can't be as good as it was when it had AKGL.

[TonyMac]

It was a shame really, but always thought the Mail existed hand-to-mouth from one week to the next . . . Sad, but it was a hailing publication that had to be put out of its misery - a sick pet that had to be put down.

 

Sadly, the 'vet's' bills still kept rolling in eight years after the mag's demise! We had only ourselves to blame, though.

 

It was a good idea, the SPEEDWAY NOW, but the editorial was mainly the throw away sort of stuff which doesn't stand the test of time...

 

Obviously not that good an idea, then. Speedway has not had much of a teenage following since the early post-war boom days. In opposition to the Star and Mail, the 'Now' was doomed to fail from day one.

 

.... and we must salute the Speedway Star for its longevity.

 

Absolutely.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2013 by tmc

[Bruiser McHuge]

No it isn't.

 

True it is good NOW - but - it was GREAT THEN!! :approve:

 

 

oh yes it is !!!

 

i've always liked Speedway Star but i do think it is superior today than back in the 70's and 80's ..i think it has grown and looks more professional and does have better content these days...and i don't follow the sport too much these days as well....only my opinion though .

[The White Knight]

oh yes it is !!!

 

i've always liked Speedway Star but i do think it is superior today than back in the 70's and 80's ..i think it has grown and looks more professional and does have better content these days...and i don't follow the sport too much these days as well....only my opinion though .

 

Speedway Star IS a great Magazine and serves Speedway well. I just preferred the journalistic content all those years ago. There were more 'Stories' about the Riders, Promoters, Teams etc. than there is nowadays. I do agree that we must progress - but - in my candid opinion we have LOST a lot in doing so. These days the journalism is usually down to someone at the Track banging some Notes in to Speedway Star. These are usually quite biased, and tell the Speedway Supporter, mostly but not always, what he already knows.