Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

League Speedway moves from Sky to BT.

[Exiled off Main Street]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Final Speedway Bikes at Plough Lane this Sunday, plus a few ex-Wimbledon Dons showing up at the event including the Johns Brothers.

I spent nearly every summer Thursday night there from late 1978 through 1986. So many good memories of great riders.

"Again it’s something rather special this week with the appearance of Speedway Bikes! Yes we pay tribute to Wimbledon Speedway with some of ‘the Dons’ former Riders and their machinery over the years in attendance and a traditional Speedway Bike ‘Warm Up’ in the Pits at 4:30pm plus a parade lap during the evening – Race Fans please note this is with an earlier than usual Start Time of 5:10PM."

[Bored Of Education]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

evilC wrote: My first visit to this thread (since I'm not really into Speedway) but...

I've only just found out about the Haynes International Motor Museum, down near Yeovil - and it turns out they've got a small Speedway collection down there. At £14:50 admission, though, I'm not sure it's worth it. (I dread to think how much Beaulieu must be, these days, then!)

Apologies if this has been mentioned on here before, but I thought I'd better pass it on, just in case it's of interest.

Brilliant, thanks, evilC. I have a free family ticket for Haynes and am planning a trip up there soon.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Mt season starts on Saturday with Rye House's top flight debut against the reigning champions Wolverhampton.

I've very excited but by the look of the press & practice videos while the team has been impressively constructed the stadium is looking like a building site. I think there'll be a crowd of at least double the usual but in about a quarter of the usable space there was. How very British Speedway.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Fantastic meeting at Rye House last night. A huge crowd (for Rye anyway) in, somewhere north of 2,000. I got there 90 minutes before the scheduled start as I wasn't sure on vantage points and there were already way more people than for average meeting. It was rammed as I had never seen it before by the time racing started.

Things started slowly with a 1-5 reverse in the opening heat but from there the Rockets were more than a match for Wolves. The reserves equalled things up with a 5-1 of their own in Heat 2 and then Chris Harris and Scott Nicholls stepped in, the former with a trademark 4th to 1st in his debut ride before the latter bettered that with a last bend pass to clinch his opener.

That put the home side in the lead and from there they didn't look back, remaining ahead of the visitors all meeting with only a six point tactical ride from Kyle Howarth really worrying them. The win was sealed in Heat 14 before Harris and Nicholls combined for a Hollywood finish in Heat 15 with a 5-1 over Lindgren and Howard giving a final score of 51-41.

An amazing night, only the start and the crowds need to stay at a decent level to at all make sense of the outgoings but it really couldn't have gone better.

[Bored Of Education]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Recently realised that I pass Swindon's track on the way home from work which would be convenient if the two fixtures against Somerset Rebels weren't on non-work days. I will be doing both of those but may pop in another time as well.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Off to the south coast for Easter and hoping to see Poole Pirates v Somerset Rebels on Good Friday with tapes up at the bizarre hour of 11am (due to the return fixture being that evening). It seems to give the meeting a peculiar ecclesiastical feel, I'm hoping Poole rebrand to the Pilates in tribute.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

After Pontius, not the yoga thing - obvs.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

A quick note to say that the opening GP of the season from Slovenia is about to start on BT Sport 2.

[Greenlander]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

As I mentioned the Devils over in a football thread and (sort of) at RdG's request an update on speedway life in Plymouth.

The NL reincarnation has been a decidedly mixed bag. Our number one is former Rye House man, and a favourite amongst many Plymouth fans, Steve Boxall. His critics often state his lack of preparation and poor maintained equipment coupled with a lack of application over the course of the season. This time he's been given a flat courtesy of one of our promoters and been found a job down in Cornwall. And so far it's proved a sound signing. He hasn't dropped a point at home scoring 15, 12 (would have been 15 but heat 15 was stopped with him well in front and then beaten by curfew) and 18 last week. Away he's only dropped two points in two meetings. His CMA started at a whopping 10.30 so unbelievably it's pushing north. No doubt he's the quality rider in the NL, why he joined us rather than a team at the next level is something I can't be sure about. I presume he's on a reasonable deal so double points in the NL pays as well as 4 or 5 in the PL (or whatever it is now).

We're probably the only NL club flying a rider in every Friday - Benji Compton landing in Newquay from his Bradford base with his bikes being kept locally by Boxall. He's started pretty well too and is scoring around his 8 point average.
The rest are all reasonably local and the stand out is 16 year old reserve Henry Akins who has scored well every week and looks like a real prospect.

But life in the NL is very different. Our first meeting against the Isle of Wight saw it take almost an hour to complete the first three heats as no rider (Boxall and Cockle for the visitors apart) seemed able to stay on their machines. Our short, tight circuit and the third bend in particulr has proved extremely tricky for a number of riders home and away alike and there seems to have been more delays and exclusions than a whole year of PL racing. Each week so far has pushed towards curfew and considering we get two and a half hours that's slow running for 15 heats.

Tom Brennan, like Atkins only 16, of Eastbourne has been the standout visitor by an absolute distance, taking an instant liking to our track and one of the only opposition riders to give Boxall a race round the SBA.

I'm enjoying NL racing but I can't quite believe these riders are recording times a couple of seconds behind riders like Craig Cook, Sam Masters and Ben Barker manage round our track. Most races seem noticeably slower especially at the bottom end.

We've beaten the IoW twice and lost to Eastbourne at home so far. Joining the league at late stage hampered team building and our track restrictions mean it is difficult for riders to practice so we've always been slow out the gates at the start of the season. The next couple of weeks sees two of the NL big guns in Cradley and Birmingham in town so we'll really know what our team is all about after that.

[Third rate Leszno]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Ray de Galles wrote: A quick note to say that the opening GP of the season from Slovenia is about to start on BT Sport 2.

Caught up with it on TiVo earlier - decent meeting at what looks like a lovely venue, though not much passing after the first two bends. Great to see Sayfutdinov back in the GPs, too.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Yeah, it wasn't the most spectacular of starts to the GP season racing-wise. I'm not sure how permanent a track there is at Krso as it's a multi-purpose stadium but it didn't seem to have too many racing lines.

Good to see some variety in the heat and overall winners though, the competition could do with more of it - we don't need Hancock gating his way to another title.

I saw Rye House wallop (an admittedly understrength) Leicester 54-36 today. My first look at Ricky Wells in Rockets kevlars after we dumped Davey Watt following his terrible start to the season, a decision which led to him announcing his retirement from racing.

Wells was dynamite, top scoring with 12 meaning Kennett didn't hog the points for once but still managed 11 . It's still a culture shock seeing riders like Harris & Nicholls for the home side and they were solid today with Robson and the reserves chipping in too.

Only number one Nilsson and reserve Ayres showed up for the Lions with 10 and 11+2 respectively - the latter being particularly impressive and then shooting up the motorway to score another 11 for Cradley Heath's evening win over Lakeside in the NL.

Speaking of which, good to get an update Greenlander. I hope the season's a productive one for the Devils and I always liked Boxall at Rye House, a wholehearted rider too often dogged by bad luck.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Another Rockets hefty home win last night, 52-38 over Somerset - almost numerically avenging the 54-38 score line in the reverse fixture the night before.

Kennet had a paid maximum 14 + 1 and Nicholls scored 11 but Chris Harris rode the race of the night with a trademark third to first battle in Heat 9.

Somerset had brought in some new faces after a slew of home defeats but only Richard Lawson really stood out. Rye House now need to transfer the home form in to away points, emulating something like the Rebels' amazing early season win at Belle Vue would be good.

I am finding the new Rye House regime's constant self-promotion, sloganeering and management speak grating, however much they've delivered on the track. They are trying to impose their "Team BMR" brand on every aspect of the club as if it was just another branch of motor sports like their other endeavours.

It's all a bit crass, I don't want a sponsor/owner's name and colours completely obliterating the elements of the history of the club like the name Rye House and the yellow & blue.

[Paul S]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Thinking of going down to Hailsham to watch Eastbourne v Plymouth Saturday evening. Anyone know what the stadium's like?

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Only just seen this, did you go? I like Arlington, it's a good track where you can get really close to the racing, not been back there since the Eagles dropped down to the National League but hope to do so soon.

Had planned a Bank Holiday Monday Midlands triple-header yesterday with Rye House's trip to Leicester followed by two meetings at Monmore Green - Wolves v Poole in the Premiership and Cradley Heathens v Belle Vue Colts in the NL.

After a 90 minute delay at Leicester while the track staff tried to remedy the effects of an overnight downpour they managed to get the racing going and it was a fantastic meeting. The Rockets picking up their first away points and win in the top tier with a 44-46 victory with some great riding in difficult conditions (particularly from Chris Harris) and sealed with a 3-3 in the final heat decider after the heavens had opened again.

With the meetings at Wolves called off along with everything else in the Midlands I headed to Peterborough where Harris was due to ride again in his debut for his Championship outfit, the Panthers, against Workington Comets. I was also tempted by the Development League match scheduled for the second half as it was Peterborough's amateur side against Wales' only current speedway outfit, the revived Camarthen Dragons (whose "home" meetings are at Stoke).

The rain which seemed to follow me all the way down the A road from Leicester eased off ten miles from Peterborough and stayed away right up until five minutes from the scheduled tapes up when a sudden deluge turned the track to mud in ten minutes, cancelling the meeting. It was all worth it for a wonderful away win for the Rockets but the whole day goes down as a score draw between speedway and the elements.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

I can think of no greater tribute to John Noakes than this footage of him and Peter Purves training to ride speedway bikes. Textbook Noakes.

That is speedway legend Len Silver doing the training.

[Ray de Galles]

Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

Really good Grand Prix in Prague tonight. After a few heats for the track and riders to settle down it was thrilling stiff with the riders throwing the bikes at each other all night. Best GP I've seen in ages.

Jason Doyle won (his second consecutive win at the Marketa after Woffinden won three in a row prior) from Greg Hancock and local wildcard Vaclav Milik.

The leaderboard for the Championship refreshingly has some relatively new names at the top with Patrick Dudek leading Doyle (who was in course to win last season before he was injured out of the series) by a point and Martin Vaculik third.

[Ray de Galles]

BT's coverage of domestic speedway finally starts tomorrow with the British Final from Belle Vue's National Stadium. Much as I am enjoying Rye House's debut top flight season the lack of TV airtime make it feel like the league campaign isn't really up and running (especially on here where it's turning in to my private diary!) as Sky would have shown around a dozen meetings by now.

Speaking of the Rockets and Aces, I saw the former's first home defeat of the campaign on Wednesday when the visitors managed to clinch a 44-46 win with a last heat 5-1 which put them in the lead for the first time in the night. New GB World Cup captain Craig Cook was excellent throughout scoring 14 and was ably backed by guest Brady Kurtz. Cook is clear favourite for the British final on his home track.

Too many Rye House riders have off nights including the previously near-unbeatable Eddie Kennett and Scott Nicholls who was surprisingly anonymous . Danny King guested well for Chris Harris (who was on GP qualifier duty) but it wasn't enough. Great racing though and a tense, enthralling meeting - just disappointing to be on the wrong side of it especially given last time out was our first away win.

[Third rate Leszno]

Enjoyed watching the British Final last night, some good racing and a lot of evenly matched riders made for a good meeting. Still desperate to get to some racing (I've said this each year for the last three!) and know I need to do it before the football gets going because I won't have the time or money after that...

[Greenlander]

Life in the National League is certainly different.

The recent meeting against Stoke saw the rain arrive around heat 6 and by the time the meeting ended it was a steady drizzle. In the higher divisions there would have been little doubt that the referee if not the riders themselves would have called a halt within two or three further heats but these NL boys carried on as if nothing was wrong and we went the full distance.

In team news the Devils have brought in Adam Roynon meaning we have two riders at the top end with 10+ averages and four with 3.50 or lower. One of these is Henry Atkins who has moved into the main body of the team in no time at all and is full value for it. Seasoned watchers are saying he resembles a young Woffinden, I couldn't say but he is certainly exciting to watch and picking up good points.

We're really yet to get going in the league but have reached the final of the NL Trophy so on balance more good than bad so far.

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, it was a good British Final. Predictable win for Cook but he's on fantastic form at the moment so deserves it. Ben Barker (a rider I've always loved watching) did himself a lot of favors and should be looking at a top flight gig on the back of it.

The NSS looks a great track and stadium, had tickets for the World Cup race-off and final there last year but couldn't make it and still desperate to get there at some point. Seems to be a real dearth of accessible fixtures for me for a few weeks so not sure when my next live meeting will be. A good job BT's coverage seems to be a pretty regular Monday night fixture from here on in.

[Exiled off Main Street]

Well another home loss when we (Kings Lynn) were on a roll (admittedly Belle Vue are Aces right now) ... Clearly the deciding factor as to why we keep losing these squeakers is that Chris Holder currently has an average of 7.09. I wonder if the Darcy Ward accident has taken a lot of life out of him. He's struggling in the GP and in Poland. I was hoping a change of track would give him a lift and we would see a return to the 10 pt Holder we knew. If he was scoring 2 more points a match, we would be challenging Wolverhampton at the top.

[Greenlander]

Isle of Wight speedway must be fed up with racing the Devils.

It's now five meetings and five wins and last Friday is the best we raced all season. Boxall and Roynon seem to feed off each other and the competition for them seems to be to outdo the other. Our team, with it's extremely strong top end, is now starting to score well throughout the order and especially at reserve. It may be too late to push for the playoffs having lost a couple at home already, but it's cup action this week and the visit of one of the next big things in Jack Parkinson-Blackburn, the only rider in the NL with an average higher than the Devils duo.

[Ray de Galles]

An eventful (though possibly because it was dangerous riding conditions) GP on Saturday night which is well worth catching up on. It features probably the best match race (i.e. featuring only two riders) I've ever seen.

Poole v Belle Vue on BT Sport 2 at 7:30pm tonight.

[Ray de Galles]

That match race from Saturday's GP.

Really good meeting at Poole last night too, worth catching up on.