Derwent Park Workington

[singy13]

I took some pics yesterday of the current state of the ex speedway track at Workington. That is minus the shale but still lots of concrete around the four bends ... 

      

Edited June 8, 2021 by singy13
added pics

[Marksman]

You need to upload them to an image hosting site like imgur.com 

Then to post on here just drag and drop the uploaded image from the hosting site to the reply box on here

[OveFundinFan]

Your photos could well be too high resolution. Lots of people set camera to high resolution thinking it makes better photo viewing. For computer viewing I found low res 640x480 is fine. There. Is a max total size of .24mb on uploading photos, you probably exceeding that.

[OveFundinFan]

What you could do Singy13, is just load a couple or three at a time, making multiple posts, thus not exceeding .24mb limit on each occurrence.

[steve roberts]

I have a problem downloading images...given up trying if I'm honest!

[OveFundinFan]

As long as you know where the image is on your computer and the image is not too large there should be no problem Steve.  I always use the "choose files" option, this takes me to my computer and just go to the place and file I want. The size of the file (picture) is important, too large and it wont load.

[singy13]

I'll try again............................................oh stuff it.............never had a problem couple of years ago.

[jenga]

On 5/29/2021 at 12:56 PM, singy13 said:

I'll try again............................................oh stuff it.............never had a problem couple of years ago.

maybe you are of a certain age  ( over 21 )  .  any primary school kid should be able to help yo out . 

me , i am happy just reading and typing ..... 

[singy13]

I've added a couple of pics to opening post re Derwent Park....hope you can see them tho..ha

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

track still looks the same. 

[jenga]

it will look the same because that is the shale from Derwent Park ! ! !

[singy13]

The two pics show what is left of the Comets track nowadays...i.e. The concrete base that Ian Thomas and Jeff Brownhutt put in before adding shale, the grooves are from the scraping machines blade ....their is no shale there at DP now at all apparently all taken and dumped at Northside awaiting next track development???

[BEATTHEBOOKIEBOB]

On 6/10/2021 at 9:29 AM, singy13 said:

The two pics show what is left of the Comets track nowadays...i.e. The concrete base that Ian Thomas and Jeff Brownhutt put in before adding shale, the grooves are from the scraping machines blade ....their is no shale there at DP now at all apparently all taken and dumped at Northside awaiting next track development???

Hi Singy - I was at Iwade training track (one mile from Sittingbourne and the Kent Kings) yesterday where one of my sons was practising with others - Heard some good news that Northside would be doing training sessions next month and we were invited to take part - sadly I think it will be too far for us but hope this will be just the sort of news to warm the hearts of all the Workington fans - Will leave you to take it from there - good luck 

[Neila]

14 minutes ago, BEATTHEBOOKIEBOB said:

Hi Singy - I was at Iwade training track (one mile from Sittingbourne and the Kent Kings) yesterday where one of my sons was practising with others - Heard some good news that Northside would be doing training sessions next month and we were invited to take part - sadly I think it will be too far for us but hope this will be just the sort of news to warm the hearts of all the Workington fans - Will leave you to take it from there - good luck 

Last time I was down Northside, about a month ago it was still a long way from staging speedway, the base to the new extended track was down, but no particular shape, the shale off Derwent park was starting to be sorted, will have a walk down over the bank holiday weekend.

One bit of good news is that tha caravan dwellers that had taken up residence have been expelled, BUT are now all over different parts of Workington including a school playing field !! Also a new security gate at the entrance near the docks has been put up. Wish the guy behind it good luck

[topaz325]

13 hours ago, Neila said:

Last time I was down Northside, about a month ago it was still a long way from staging speedway, the base to the new extended track was down, but no particular shape, the shale off Derwent park was starting to be sorted, will have a walk down over the bank holiday weekend.

One bit of good news is that tha caravan dwellers that had taken up residence have been expelled, BUT are now all over different parts of Workington including a school playing field !! Also a new security gate at the entrance near the docks has been put up. Wish the guy behind it good luck

Yes much better access road to Northside.

Sad news of a former Comet this morning.  

[singy13]

21 hours ago, BEATTHEBOOKIEBOB said:

Hi Singy - I was at Iwade training track (one mile from Sittingbourne and the Kent Kings) yesterday where one of my sons was practising with others - Heard some good news that Northside would be doing training sessions next month and we were invited to take part - sadly I think it will be too far for us but hope this will be just the sort of news to warm the hearts of all the Workington fans - Will leave you to take it from there - good luck 

We can always live in hope of a Comets return..but...your mention of Iwade brought back some nice memories....My late wife had an Auntie residing in Sittingbourne, so after the Comets had finished on a Friday night we would speed off to stay with her (not too fast in an Austin1300 _ but it was ok) this was to take in the Comets weekenders v Canterbury and then on to Eastbourne. On our first such trip we called in at Iwade on the Saturday afternoon (after a nice kip on Aunties sofa lol)...correct me if I'm wrong, it was 50 years ago, but I think it was grass track racing? Very entertaining whatever. The Comets put up good performances too..it was a long trek back to Cumbria on Sunday evening though.

[BEATTHEBOOKIEBOB]

17 minutes ago, singy13 said:

We can always live in hope of a Comets return..but...your mention of Iwade brought back some nice memories....My late wife had an Auntie residing in Sittingbourne, so after the Comets had finished on a Friday night we would speed off to stay with her (not too fast in an Austin1300 _ but it was ok) this was to take in the Comets weekenders v Canterbury and then on to Eastbourne. On our first such trip we called in at Iwade on the Saturday afternoon (after a nice kip on Aunties sofa lol)...correct me if I'm wrong, it was 50 years ago, but I think it was grass track racing? Very entertaining whatever. The Comets put up good performances too..it was a long trek back to Cumbria on Sunday evening though.

You certainly packed a lot in that weekend and without some of the more modern roads and in a car of that time - I would guess you were both pretty tired on the Monday following - I started going to Wimbledon around that time and visited Hackney and West Ham but had no transport so never got to Crayford  nor Canterbury - Afraid I cannot help with your grass tracking at Iwade but hope another of us old uns on here  can shed some light - Interestingly when I was looking at google maps the other day it showed another large track at Iwade very close to the large and small training tracks currently in use leading me to wonder if this was the track in use at that time - again maybe someone can help out with this info - was good reminiscing with you - Hope you can get speedway restarted in Workington - That was some team in their last year - 

[singy13]

On 8/26/2021 at 7:41 PM, BEATTHEBOOKIEBOB said:

I started going to Wimbledon

Yep in1973 we travelled to Wimbledon to cheer on Lou Sansom in the Div Two Riders Championship a  major event..he finished third after 3 man race-off...It was a very impressive stadium, for example to have your own worktop type seating, handy to lay drink and programme on it....Although being behind glass made for a quiet atmosphere. Didn't stop us returning next year to shout for Mitch Graham who was a top star in Div 2 but failed to re-produce his form that night, he fell and was injured in his second ride...oh well it was still worth watching lol.  We did, one of those years, move on to Crayford (having stayed at Sittingbourne)....we arrived quite early to be greeted by a Crayford riders mechanic...he asked where we were from. 'Workington' we added - to which he said "ahh yes the stadium that is always empty of fans". Such cheek the fact was crowds were in decline but Derwent Park grandstand held 1100, still does, and was always heavily populated - the stand wasn't very visible from the pits which is probably why the Crayford guy formed his opinion? 1100 nowadays would be deemed excellent... and anyhow I wished I could have met him later that night because there was hardly anyone supporting Crayford...who then folded later that year.....so up his wotsit to that.  Thanks for inspiring some of my Comets memories...so many more to recall but don't want to be soooooo boring.

Edited August 28, 2021 by singy13
correcting some details

[BEATTHEBOOKIEBOB]

19 hours ago, singy13 said:

Yep in1973 we travelled to Wimbledon to cheer on Lou Sansom in the Div Two Riders Championship a  major event..he finished third after 3 man race-off...It was a very impressive stadium, for example to have your own worktop type seating, handy to lay drink and programme on it....Although being behind glass made for a quiet atmosphere. Didn't stop us returning next year to shout for Mitch Graham who was a top star in Div 2 but failed to re-produce his form that night, he fell and was injured in his second ride...oh well it was still worth watching lol.  We did, one of those years, move on to Crayford (having stayed at Sittingbourne)....we arrived quite early to be greeted by a Crayford riders mechanic...he asked where we were from. 'Workington' we added - to which he said "ahh yes the stadium that is always empty of fans". Such cheek the fact was crowds were in decline but Derwent Park grandstand held 1100, still does, and was always heavily populated - the stand wasn't very visible from the pits which is probably why the Crayford guy formed his opinion? 1100 nowadays would be deemed excellent... and anyhow I wished I could have met him later that night because there was hardly anyone supporting Crayford...who then folded later that year.....so up his wotsit to that.  Thanks for inspiring some of my Comets memories...so many more to recall but don't want to be soooooo boring.

Pleased you enjoyed your trips to Wimbledon - Tricky track as you would have seen and very different to Workington - If you got out in front and rode the right line it was very hard to get passed - I well remember Trevor Hedge in the KO Cup Final v Belle Vue shooting out of gate four and he was away and gone  followed by (Slim) Jim Tebby our number 6  and regardless of whatever he tried to do Ivan Mauger could not get past Jim so a 5-1 in the first race - We went on to win the first leg by ten points and although we lost the second leg we kept the lead overall and picked up the cup against a strong Belle Vue team - good memories -  When I go up to Birmingham the eating area behind the glass reminds me of the old main stand at Plough Lane - At Wimbledon I used  to go outside on the 4th bend and like many of us I used to love the great smell of the Castrol oil - I did manage to visit Derwent Park a few years ago and remember Chris Schramm was in your team and riding at reserve - good atmosphere from the crowd - think it was a Saturday night and the following day  I travelled by train across to Brough Park changing at Carlisle - different track shape but again a crowd that loved their speedway - hope they can carry on after this season - Some very happy memories so thank you too - 

[Ovalman]

Going to Worky in 2004/5 rekindled my interest in speedway after 30 years. Steady and Stoney superb riders. Some great atmospheres, especially the 4's. Crowds averaged 1200.