David Pickles went to Rye House on Wednesday and concludes that fixed race nights are having a devastating effect.
Can you help Graham Gleave? [ grahamgleave1945@gmail.com ]
"Since I retired I have been trying to find out about the speedway at Lambeg (Ireland) in 1971. I believe the following meetings were either staged or planned:
28/5/71 - Lambeg v Yorkshire Select
11/6/71 - Lambeg Trophy (rained off)
25/6/71 - Lambeg Trophy (restaging) - Won by Larry Murray
16/7/71 - Lambeg 35 - Dublin Tigers 37
23/7/71 - Lambeg 31 - Dublin Tigers 41
13/8/71 - Meeting cancelled due to the Troubles
Does anyone have further details of any of these meetings? In particular, was the meeting against the Yorkshire Select ever staged?"
Good to see the Save Oxford Stadium campaign is continuing to raise awareness with adverts in the Oxford Mail. Thanks to John Fray for sending us this scan of the latest one.
"The hospitality blocks only just encroach on the 3rd and 4th bends. The Tony Mole plans actually left them in place, but obviously some form of raised fencing would be needed."
"There was an article in Speedway Star recently explaing why r/r was used. I have in fact seen Dag Lovaas and feel sure White City would have been just as good, if not better, had he had ridden."
"Robert Nagy qualified for the 1994 Inter Continental Final via a different round to the Overseas Final which Joe Screen failed to progress from. So surely had Nagy dropped out before the meeting started, should it not have been the reserve from Nagy's meeting taking his place?"
"Re: Handicapping.. Being a similar age to Dave Pickles we've probably both 'read the book, worn the t-shirt and seen the film' as the saying goes. Handicapping would be a backward step as is with the reverting to the old tactical substitute rule of replacing a rider off form with a better rider.
Every year they muck around with the rules to try and make all teams equal in stregnth in the belief closer matches are going to get these mythical non speedway supporters to start following speedway. Sport is about competition to see whose the best, not to penalise good teams to give everybody an equal chance of winning (Speedway Nations a good example, Poland usually winning the World Cup so lets reduce it to two man teams, thus giving other nations a better chance of winning).
If speedway needs to take a backward step, then go back to 1968, have two leagues, no track sharing, no doubling up, no maximum team averages, riders on contract and loaned out if surplus. That way you could have a workable promotion and relegation where teams are formed on what the promotions can afford."
"Missed the really good Leicester teams but what a great racing tack - really difficult to emulate. Spent a season watching a late Arriving Johnny Boulger, Gary Middleton and the fantastic Ila Teromma (unbelievable at the Riders Championnship at Belle Vue) try to cope with top flight opposition. Fantastic track!,,,"
"Just been in touch with Nathan Murray who was selected to ride and appears in the programme at number 6. Sadly, he was unable to travel due to a lack of funds. So adding to the scorechart; NATHAN MURRAY Q ns."
"Remember White City(Remember them?) clinching league title at Momnmore having used Rider Replacement for Dag Lovaas (remember him? No I never saw him race either!) for a complete season in late 70s"
"John Boyd summed up lack of media attention to British speedway perfectly, it's run by amateurs. Too many leagues with not enough riders, track sharing, doubling up, team averages restricting team strengths. Sport is about competition, speedway is the only team sport that penalises teams that are successful, no wonder media doesn't take notice. The latest is the revamped World Cup, two riders per team, the minimum number of people you can call a team. A great sport being run down by the people that run it. "
"Absolutely right, why did the BBC not comment on the passing of a Motorsport legend? It's shameful of the media to not cover it, just another indication of how speedway is on the media list. If a back room sport like darts can make headlines and attract massive coverage then we need to speak to the people behind the rise in public interest in darts and talk to them about changing speedway's fortunes."
"Perhaps the (two?) exceptions that prove the prevailing rule, actually, Ivan's passing was marked by a full-page obituary in The Guardian, Thursday 19th April, and is available to view on the newspaper's website. The Telegraph also published an obituary which is available online too, though access is subject to a pay-wall."
"David I think you expect to much. Speedway fans which I class my self as, know how good Ivan was. To the press etc he was just a rider. You are right about Lewis Hamilton. But there again Formula 1 get millions of viewers. That is all the TV and media want. Wouldn't it be great to get the results on the news, we need more publicity to push our sport forward.Good for you on getting on t o BBC and ITV."
"Although it's been many years since I have regularly read a daily paper, I believe from posts on Facebook, that at least one of the broadsheets (I believe it was the Daily Telegraph, no less) featured a fairly extensive article as an obituary to Ivan, as well as some of the so-called the red-tops.It's just that they took a while to appear in print after the sad day of his passing....."
"Yes I remember Charlie Monk being almost unbeatable at White City apart from Silver Sash races. I also remember Bengt Jansson going over the 'hump' on the first bend and breaking his leg in 66? And Jim Airey? Takes me back- good times growing up and travelling on the underground from Hillend! "
