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| Some of the best from 2008 |
Best of 2008:Who is Garry Middleton? Tony Webb presents this detailed and well researched article on the life and times of one the sport's most controversial characters. Garry's life after speedway remains a complete mystery and Tony suggests it's not even known for certain whether he's still alive. |
Best of 2008:Whatever Happened to Tracy Bray? Twenty one years ago Tracy Bray made his way to the UK to attempt to break into team speedway. He headed for Cradley Heath where an injury ruled him out of a possible team place. On his recovery he was establishing himself in the Middlesbrough side when his injury jinx hit again. In this article he shares his memories of that season and tells us what he's been up to since. |
Best of 2008:Riders to Remember: Colin Caffrey Bill Elliot on his good friend 'Caff', a man who has been ever-present for the Glasgow Tigers these last thirty years - whether as rider, electrician or bus driver! |
Best of 2008:Track Pix: Berrington Lough 2008 Steve Hayward recently visited the site of the old Berwick track to see what it looks like in 2008. The last meeting at the countryside track was back in 1995 and since then the track has become overgrown and the buildings have been gradually rotting. |
Best of 2008:Riders to Remember: Bjorn Knutsson Geoff Langley makes his debut on the site by paying tribute to a man he describes as "speedway's forgotten great". Knutsson was the 1965 world champion who quit the sport all too soon afterwards. Fans of Ivan Mauger may not like Geoff's views on how things could have panned out had Bjorn raced on into the seventies. |
Best of 2008:Rim, A Lithuanian Legend Dave Gifford returns with another of his fabulously entertaining tales. This one is loosely centred around his friendship with fellow rider Rim Malskaitis, though along the way we hear of high-jinks on the high seas and 'incentives' being offered at a challenge match. |
Best of 2008:"We can all have a beer afterwards!" An Interview with Steve Johnston Alex Raby meets one of the sport's most popular and longest serving characters. Johno's career has been more nomadic than most and he reflects on some highlights, talks about his televison work and his testimonial. |
Best of 2008:We Had Joy, We Had Fun Arnie Gibbons' very personal account of the last meeting at Smallmead and the memories that were revived by a night of nostalgia. Hopefully Arnie will be able to report on the opening of the Racers' new track in early 2010. |
Best of 2008:Opening Nights: West Ham This year marked the 80th Anniversary of the first ever meeting at Custom House stadium. Hammers' fan Robert J. Rogers decided to dig into the newspaper archives to see how the local press covered the event. This article is the Stratford Express' report of that first night of racing. |
Best of 2008:Track Pix: Gorzow Doug McFarlane visited this very impressive Polish track for the Edward Jancarz memorial meeting. |
Best of 2008:Riders to Remember: Rick Timmo Tracy Holmes writes about the Kiwi who is probably best remembered for his time with Oxford. |
Best of 2008:Book Extract: Concrete for Breakfast An exclusive extract from Jeff Scott's latest book. This chapter covers his visit to the North-East derby at Brough Park last August, the night on which he met up once again with the man who introduced him to speedway and to whom this book is dedicated. |
Best of 2008:Pictures: 'Once a Jolly Swagman' Speedway historian Norman Jacobs has passed us these location photographs from the filming of 'Once a Jolly Swagman' the famous speedway movie. Those familiar with the film will recognise many of the scenes that are being shot. |
Best of 2008:Track Pix: West Maitland Charles McKay visited West Maitland, venue for Hoskins' original meetings, twice last winter. These are the pictures from his second trip. |
Best of 2008:Hooked at Last Philip Dalling admits that he's finally cottoned onto the delights of televised speedway. |
Best of 2008:Riders to Remember: Jack Young Geoff Langley on one of the very best riders to ever come from Australia and a man who remains an Edinburgh and West Ham legend to this day. |
Best of 2008:Track Pix: Industry (The Grand) Cary Cotterman visited Industry Speedway for this year's California State Championship and took these excellent track pix. The indoor circuit is promoted by one Bruce Penhall and looks like an amazing facility. |
| 24th December 2008 |
Newport / SGPDudley Jones shares his hopes for the incoming promotion at Newport and his concerns over the Grand Prix series. |
Track Pix: WimbledonJohn Hyam has given us these photographs of Plough Lane taken after the most recent speedway closure. Sadly the speedway track has once again been buried underneath tarmac. |
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"Dave Green got it spot on with his article about speedway being a numbers
game - how the Hell do you explain to a potential new sponsor/supporter how the points system
works. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, the old way was very simple - if you scored
more points than the other team, you won the match, picked up two points, and the losing team
got nothing. If your team was six points down, you could replace riders with others until you
were less than 6 points down - a wee bit more complicated, but still within the understanding of
most people. Even the bonus point rule was fairly straightforward, score more points than your
opponents over the 2 meetings you race against them home and away and you get a bonus point - a
similar concept to many sports where aggregate wins progress the winning team to the next
stage.
Dave may have been kidding about employing Carol Voorderman to work out the scores, but
he has a point, and as for league tables getting published next year, I think all newspapers
and teletext services will have to go onto manuscript setting, to allow for all the
permutations which allow a team to pick up any points from a meeting. If I go into teletext to
see how the various basketball teams are doing, it's played so many, won/lost so many, and
points gained. Dead simple.
How these latest variations are supposed to encourage new interest
is beyond me, and like Dave says, much of them will be quietly dropped before the 2010 season
- unfortunately, by that time, the sport will probably have lost even more casual supporters
and certainly dissuaded any new ones from coming. " " What a great article. I can remember going round the track on Goldie's van after the meeting. If I won the lottery I would get that track back to the way it was. I remember all the great riders that went round there - 'Pop' Rivett, Jimmy Nielsen, Rob Grant, Blackie and Walshie. Thanks a lot for this article." "Great story. The first time I met Ivan in 1980, my flustered brain threw in a rather superb(?) Richard Cranium qustion: "Ivan, does your Gold Bike actually run?" DOH!" "There is a terrific article on Ken McKinlay on the Leicester Speedway Supporters Club website. Compulsory reading for all fans of the greatest team rider in the history of speedway!" |
| 18th December 2008 |
The Night I Met IvanBill Elliot recalls the 1976 evening when he met one of the sport's greats. The event was a fund raiser for the Paisley Lions and Bill engaged Ivan's services as guest of honour. |
Track Pix: OxfordBob Cole recently popped into Cowley to take these pictures and see how the place was faring. Sadly he reports that grass has started to grow through the unused track surface. |
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"Quite brilliant - I can almost sense being there! Good luck." "One memory I have of Gaz 'the gas' Middleton was during his spell with Oxford, in a match against Coventry, after every race win he performed a lap of honour, standing up with his fist raised in salute, milking the cheers of the Cheetas fans. Tony Lomas beat him in the final heat and Tony mimicked Garry's celebration, only for the ref to fine him for making "V" signs to the crowd. In his defence Tony claimed he was holding his visor but the ref would have none of it. Many thanks for a great website." "Doesn't cricket in England also have at times complicated use of their scoring system? Bonus points for bowling and batting (equivalent to winning/losing by 7). A complicated formula for rain affected matches (speedway at least has a simple ht12 cut off) and even matches of different lengths. There may well be other examples of which this Scotsman is not aware of!!!" |
| 11th December 2008 |
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Track Pix: Berrington Lough 2008 Steve Hayward recently visited the site of the old Berwick track to see what it looks like in 2008. The last meeting at the countryside track was back in 1995 and since then the track has become overgrown and the buildings have been gradually rotting. |
Dream Team: Cary CottermanCary, one of our regular correspondents from over the Atlantic, selects what he describes as "an eclectic mix of riders domestic and international, past and even more distant past". |
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Special free offer for all riders
Through the Speedway Plus site I am offering ALL current and ex speedway riders a unique and free chance to become immortalised on a Cigarette card, Trade card or Postcard of themselves for posterity and the family album. Speedway trading cards have never been in abundance and talking to several riders over the years I find that quite a few have no photos or memorabilia of themselves whilst riding speedway. This venture will allow those riders to have a card made for them to recall and remember their days participating in our great sport and for future family and generations to look back on. For further details contact Carl at : memorylane@ntlworld.com |
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"Cor, Proper Speedway Riders! Can we have some more of our old Skipper Hurrir-ken Mckinlay please!" "Just seen my old mate Wrighty on your site. We had good old days at Rayleigh with him. Roger did like a good old pint of English beer." "Used to love to watch Becker race - always great to watch." "Every year the promotors seek out the magic formula that will bring spectators flooding back. Endless tinkering with the points, tactical rides and other such ...(sorry. nearly used a word not suitable for a family website) won't make a blind bit of difference. Try reducing costs and smartening up your venues." "Bonus point for a 4-2? Does not happen! - possibly means a 3-3 Obviously not just terracing confusion." |
| 4th December 2008 |
The Numbers GameDave Green looks at the over-whelming use of numbers in the sport today. He suggests the actual racing now plays the same role as the dice in Monopoly. |
From Ken's ScrapbookSome 1967 pictures courtesy of Adrian McKinlay, eldest son of the legendary 'Hurri-Ken'. |
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I was interested to read the recent comments of respondents on Speedwayplus.
Can I suggest that anyone with an interest in SGP/World Championship, goes to Ove Fundin's website.
Here he recently gave his views, which are extremely well put. You will see that he makes a compelling case for a return to the knock out
system where all could enter, and their chances of being World Champion broadly rest upon ability, and their capacity to handle 'big night nerves',
not selection.
SGP has never been comparable with the old championship insofar as I am concerned, seems hugely dispruptive to the league system which underpins
speedway, and is for a small clique of the better riders. Now we see riders such as Scott Nicholls abandoning the league for it, the total
irrelevance of SGP, either as a genuine decider of the person truly worthy of being called 'World champion', or to world speedway, is apparent.
Take a look at what Ove, possibly the greatest real 'World Champion', says on the matter.
Perhaps we should have a world championship in something like the old knockout format, running alongside something we might call 'World
Series Championship', or something similar. Then everybody wins."
"Just found this site, I would make the following comments in response to Andy Gallon's opinion.
a) Come to the Scotwaste Arena and watch the Edinburgh Monarchs, only beaten at home by Elite League opponents all season, they can't gate but boy can they cut back. Big scores don't mean boring racing.
b) Try watching football, twice the price for an adult, don't know many football clubs that let kids in for free. You could argue that there is only 15 minutes (15 - 1 minute races) entertainment in a meeting, but many other sports are like watching paint dry.
c) Most promoters are hamstrung by curfews or restrictive licensing by local authorities which restrict the time for second half races.
d) I've seen a few this season, thought on the whole they were value for money, I don't imagine that there are a lot of full time club officials in speedway, there can't be much time between meetings to prepare and print programmes.
e) Who's going to pay the wages? how are riders meant to fund equipment? Sppedway must be one of the few sports where you can bring in a guest and know that he will be trying his best as he is paid per point so if he doesn't score he doesn't get paid. Rider replacement at least protects home track advantage.
f) This contradicts b), if you want better facilities it's going to cost more at the gate. I go to speedway to see racing not to admire the stadium. It's family orientated, no crowd segregation, good humoured banter, informed crowd who don't just enjoy seeing their team win, but appreciate the effort and bravery of all the riders.
g) Think the engines need to be high compression otherwise they wouldn't slow down when the throttles shut, can't run on petrol due to high compression, all parts are homologated to ensure a level(ish) playing field. Ignition systems provide reliability and various charecteristics for different track set ups.
h) Totally agree very little local / regional coverage, not aware of any articles on Scottish BBC or independant channels, unbelievable that there is no coverage of a team that has just won Premier League, Premier Trophy, Premier Play-off and Scottish cup, on local TV. Then again maybe it's better that it's kept a secret for true supporters!!" |