"A full house at Derwent Park - but sadly not for speedway. When I toured British speedway tracks earlier this year researching my new book, Classic Speedway Venues Past & Present, I really enjoyed an evening at Workington, a very traditional stadium, extremely well-appointed by modern speedway standards and with a great atmosphere. Interesting to see that, according to the BBC, the attendance for the Scotland-Italy match in the Rugby League World Cup on Sunday November 3 was 7,280, a full house. Derwent Park has enjoyed considerable recent refurbishment to allow two RL World Cup games to take place. I imagine the ability to hold a crowd of that size means Derwent Park has the largest spectator capacity of any current British speedway venue (with the exception of the Millennium Stadium, obviously). Although it would be marvellous to see such a crowd turn out these days for a speedway meeting other than the UK Grand Prix, I think it would be fair to say that Workington Comets probably get a bigger average home crowd than Workington Town RLFC. "

Comment on this Article | Contact Us | Go Back to Main Menu