2000

[Robinh88]

Morning all,

Looking through potential teams for 2018 got me slightly nostalgic about my first full season following the sport which happened to be 2000 after doing a few Berwick meetings at the back end of the 99 season.

I was hooked Alan Mogridge was brilliant (at Berwick) and David Meldrum not far behind at certain times great stuff. Berwick struggled domestically? Don't remember the rules or politics just great memories.

In the PL there were real entertainers back then and characters. Stonewer missed meetings for the gp's and to be fair two of them were at berwick. But i don't remember too many riders missing meetings etc. A handful of guys I do remember Wilson, Morton, Richard Juul, Paul Thorp, Neil Collins, Peter Carr, Castanga for differing reasons and Anders Henrickson 

Even got Mark Loram at Berwick who was phenomenal and gave a performance fitting of a man who would become world champion. Speedway was fantastic back then I couldn't get enough.

So my questions

1. Was 2000 a good season for PL speedway and how did YOUR team fair?

2. Do you feel your first season was the best?

 3. Did the Sport have problems in 2000 on a professional level? 

Seventeen years is a long time as is 12-29 as to how someone sees things. I appreciate one can't go back to 2000 or have the speedway brain of a 12 year old but guess time moves on as the sport has changed in different ways.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Robinh88

[Fenway Bleachers]

As  a  monarch  2014  was by  far  the  best  .....the  invincibles  won lots  of  bling and  made  the  season  memorable,  especially the  Pairs.

I  first  watched  speedway at  Coatbridge  in  `73,  Dave  Gifford, Pogo  Collins  and  Trapper  Wilson to  name  a few,  but  76  was  my  favourite  a  certain Mitch  Shirra  lit  up the  shale  that  year, and a  few later  the  Monarchs  rose  from the  Ashes  back  at  Powderhall.........happy days  

[SpecialOne]

31 minutes ago, Fenway Bleachers said:

As  a  monarch  2014  was by  far  the  best  .....the  invincibles  won lots  of  bling and  made  the  season  memorable,  especially the  Pairs.

I  first  watched  speedway at  Coatbridge  in  `73,  Dave  Gifford, Pogo  Collins  and  Trapper  Wilson to  name  a few,  but  76  was  my  favourite  a  certain Mitch  Shirra  lit  up the  shale  that  year, and a  few later  the  Monarchs  rose  from the  Ashes  back  at  Powderhall.........happy days  

The OP was about the year 2000

[Triple.H.]

1 hour ago, SpecialOne said:

The OP was about the year 2000

Aahh

But this is the BSF it always goes a bit off topic. Sometimes good sometimes bad(petty bickering) but I for one enjoy reading about people' thoughts on the good old days etc

[arnieg]

Looking at what I wrote in 2007, it does feel as if 2000 was one of the better seasons (unless you were a Reading fan - racers got their second wooden spoon in a row!).

Here's the opening to the 2000  season chapter in 'Tears & Glory':

For the first time in many seasons the mood in British speedway seemed overwhelmingly positive. Hull returned to the Premier League, but otherwise the Elite and Premier League make-ups were unchanged. The Conference League expanded with a new track in Somerset and speedway returned to Rye House thanks to Len Silver. The Rockets had competed without a home track in 1999, tracking three Reading juniors: Simon Moon, Peter Collyer and Ian Clarke. The star of the homecoming meeting in May (apart from 'uncle Len') was a young rider called Chris Schramm.

Honours were shared around and both Elite and Premier Leagues produced close finishes. Eastbourne won the Elite League, aided by a solid contribution from Petri Kokko. They went into their final fixture needing to beat King’s Lynn to stop the Norfolk team picking up their first league title.

King’s Lynn did have the consolation of winning the Knock-Out Cup. Beaten finalists Coventry picked up the Craven Shield. The Norfolk team regularly featured five Australians, and when Adam Shields guested for them in July they tracked six! One of them was Travis McGowan. He started the year by winning the Australian Under-21 title (with Scott Smith third and Brendon Mackay ninth) and ended it with the biggest improvement in average of any rider in the Elite League.

The destination of the Premier League title depended on bonus points. For the first time since their introduction, the team with most match points did not win the title. Thanks to their massive home advantage Exeter picked up all 13 bonus points available, but only two away wins. It was enough to clinch the title on race points two days after Swindon lost a bonus point run-off against Newcastle (September 28).

Although Swindon remained without a league championship since 1967 they did win the Knock-Out Cup and the Young Shield, their first trophies for 33 years. Hull won the Premier Trophy.

To add to the sense of euphoria Britain had a speedway World Champion. Despite not winning a single round Mark Loram relieved Tony Rickardsson of his crown. And the British GP did have a British winner with wild card Martin Dugard storming to victory.

On a personal level it was the year I only attended 21 meetings, fewer than in any other of my 47 seasons.

 

[Robinh88]

What was the reading 2000 team.... Morris Norris Colvin Castagna???

Edited December 23, 2017 by Robinh88

[arnieg]

Castagna, Morris, Wester, Clews, Marsh, Marc Norris and Shane Colvin.

 

Wester and Marsh were replaced mid-sesaon by Mullett (after a year out with a broken leg) and Lee Herne

 

Wester under-performed leaving the Racers with a weak third heat leader to add to poor reserves (both averaged below 4 including bonus).

 

It was the only season in Reading's history without an away league win (they did manage a couple of Trophy wins)

[Pinny]

Newport had Ben Howe on an 11.50 average or something similar did they not?

With Henriksson at 1 and Neath stepping up to third heatleader

[Robinh88]

Yes I think they struggled that season, after a good 1999 season

[topsoil]

On 22/12/2017 at 11:51 AM, Robinh88 said:

Morning all,

Looking through potential teams for 2018 got me slightly nostalgic about my first full season following the sport which happened to be 2000 after doing a few Berwick meetings at the back end of the 99 season.

I was hooked Alan Mogridge was brilliant (at Berwick) and David Meldrum not far behind at certain times great stuff. Berwick struggled domestically? Don't remember the rules or politics just great memories.

In the PL there were real entertainers back then and characters. Stonewer missed meetings for the gp's and to be fair two of them were at berwick. But i don't remember too many riders missing meetings etc. A handful of guys I do remember Wilson, Morton, Richard Juul, Paul Thorp, Neil Collins, Peter Carr, Castanga for differing reasons and Anders Henrickson 

Even got Mark Loram at Berwick who was phenomenal and gave a performance fitting of a man who would become world champion. Speedway was fantastic back then I couldn't get enough.

So my questions

1. Was 2000 a good season for PL speedway and how did YOUR team fair?

2. Do you feel your first season was the best?

 3. Did the Sport have problems in 2000 on a professional level? 

Seventeen years is a long time as is 12-29 as to how someone sees things. I appreciate one can't go back to 2000 or have the speedway brain of a 12 year old but guess time moves on as the sport has changed in different ways.

 

 

We tend to only look back with rose tinted glasses at the past. I'm sure if you look back you would find fans moaning about promotions back then as well (certainly the Berwick promoter at that time took his fair share of flak). As for entertainers, for each of the ones you have mentioned I would match them with, off the top of my head, Nick Morris, Craig Cook, the Worralls, Robert Lambert, Chris Harris, Sam Masters, Ben Barker, Jason Garrity, Josh Grajczonek, Lewis Bridger (when fit) probably more. I would say the standard of the Premier League, certainly at the top end, was a match for any year.

I bet if you went back to 2000 you would find examples of bad track preparation, bad meeting presentation, meetings postponed at the last minute, everything that brings us to say "final nail in the coffin" these days.

Mark Loram came to the Bordernapolis and was great, but what chance is there of attracting big names to individual meetings nowadays? You saw the number of riders who pulled out of the Kevin Doolan testimonial last year. Look at the Ben Fund meetings. 

Speedway has it's problems now, big problems. But maybe these problems may not have occurred had mistakes not been made in the past.

[martinmauger]

The Vikings did flipping great: Hull won the Premier Trophy,  first 'cup' since Interleague KOCup in 1976.  A good season for me personally for various reason.  I was a good position financially to buy a season ticket, £250 if memory serves, so thought "why not?".  Gained me free entry each week to at least 20 home meets including free car parking so was very good value indeed as Hull had good run in all competions.   Also an ingenious cross-promotion meant season ticket holders were offered a "5 for £5" deal with greyhounds, which ran at Hull, Craven Park until mid-2003.  Think the deal was entry, free drink, free racecard, £1 of bets (minimum was 25p) and maybe a bag of chips.  Went to few 'dog night's had a great time, picking dogs with speedway-sounding names like 'Screen Machine' and picked trap numbers going by gate positions on the speedway track (!) e.g. inside traps / gates early on, then the outside traps / gates, then random.  Me and the girlf basicaly broke even and thoroughly enjoyed our nights at the dogs.  Was also able to do a lot more away meets than usual and got to know the riders a bit more....

Edited December 23, 2017 by martinmauger

[Robinh88]

6 hours ago, topsoil said:

We tend to only look back with rose tinted glasses at the past. I'm sure if you look back you would find fans moaning about promotions back then as well (certainly the Berwick promoter at that time took his fair share of flak). As for entertainers, for each of the ones you have mentioned I would match them with, off the top of my head, Nick Morris, Craig Cook, the Worralls, Robert Lambert, Chris Harris, Sam Masters, Ben Barker, Jason Garrity, Josh Grajczonek, Lewis Bridger (when fit) probably more. I would say the standard of the Premier League, certainly at the top end, was a match for any year.

I bet if you went back to 2000 you would find examples of bad track preparation, bad meeting presentation, meetings postponed at the last minute, everything that brings us to say "final nail in the coffin" these days.

Mark Loram came to the Bordernapolis and was great, but what chance is there of attracting big names to individual meetings nowadays? You saw the number of riders who pulled out of the Kevin Doolan testimonial last year. Look at the Ben Fund meetings. 

Speedway has it's problems now, big problems. But maybe these problems may not have occurred had mistakes not been made in the past.

 

 

 I do agree with most of that. Rose tinted specs definitely  and I wonder if fans back then reminisced over periods in say the 80s or the 90s... 

Edited December 23, 2017 by Robinh88

[topsoil]

1 hour ago, Robinh88 said:

 

 I do agree with most of that. Rose tinted specs definitely  and I wonder if fans back then reminisced over periods in say the 80s or the 90s... 

Probably. You always think the time before was better. You only remember the good parts. There is a Youtube video of Berwick v Ellesmere Port at Berrington around about 1985. Not a single pass in the whole meeting. As with every era, there was good and bad.