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Campaign For Real Shale - Speedway 2018

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    #26
    The opening meeting of the season throw up at least one fantastic race and an amazing performance from Max Fricke after a 15m handicap :

    https://twitter.com/speedwaygb/status/975856146752983040?s=21

    The planned opening meeting, the Speedway Riders Benevolent Fundraiser at Peterborough scheduled for Sunday, was postponed due to the extreme weather at the weekend, frustratingly.

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      #27
      I bought the Speedway Star today for the first time in a year. It's the season preview issue so old habits die hard...

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        #28
        Oh, that reminds me to get a physical copy of that particular issue as it's so much more satisfying than my usual digital copy.

        As I said on the matchgoing thread in football , it looks unlikely that I'll get to any meetings this weekend as hoped - everything in the south looks likely to be washed out.
        Last edited by Ray de Galles; 29-03-2018, 17:17.

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          #29
          That's a hell of a race in that video clip. I'm not familiar with the handicapping system, what sort of offence must you commit to get a 15m handicap at the start?

          Whereabouts do Belle Vue ride nowadays? Their old home next to the zoo was knocked down ages ago and the whole lot re-developed, but I don't know where they moved to.

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            #30
            They’re now at the purpose built National Speedway Stadium right next to their previous home of the Kirkmanshulme Road dog track which they’d been in since Hyde Road closed at the end of the 1987 season.

            The 15m handicap would have been for touching/breaking the tapes at the start.

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              #31
              Thanks, Ray.

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                #32
                First look at the Devils last Friday.

                The racing started slowly with a number of processions from the gate and some dubious tactics from a couple of the Kings. Twice Devils were shoulder barged coming out of bend two amusingly one of them by a lad called Clouting, who even more amusingly lost it under no pressure on the following lap and was disqualified.

                The Devils early advantage was pegged back but the racing picked up for the last few heats and Adam Roynon looked unbeatable. In the end it was the tightest of all wins with just three points in it.

                Kent are predicted to be a top three team with Plymouth down in the bottom two so as a start I'll take it. Eastbourne up next which will be tricky too.

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                  #33
                  I should see my first meeting tomorrow night, Rye House v Leicester. Still concerned as to what the view will be like given the ridiculous decision to add a motor-cross track in the centre green.

                  My concerns about the promotion's long term commitment to speedway remain.

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                    #34
                    What-the-actual-fuck-is-that.

                    I don't know what the sight lines are like at Rye House but something like that at Plymouth would pretty much kill the view from everywhere except the top couple of rows of the stands. The size of the air fence is bad enough but you sort of learn to live with it. Leaving the tractor on the centre green is enough to get folk wound up over the obstruction to their view across the track.

                    Our promotion have leased the area out to junior football and it seems to work pretty well as it's like playing in a real ground for the kids.

                    Go old school, take a milk crate.

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                      #35
                      I think it could ruin the view on large parts of the track, so much so that I have broken cover on Rockets' supporters social media and the British Speedway Forum to say so.

                      The large number of slavish sycophants to the promoters in both places seem to think I am carping and being negative for the sake of it, they don't agree that the whole crowd actually seeing all the racing is that important.

                      I'll reserve final judgement until I see a meeting, hopefully tomorrow, but my fears remain. I'm 6'5", by the way, so shouldn't need the milk crate!
                      Last edited by Ray de Galles; 10-04-2018, 12:18.

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                        #36
                        Polish speedway is on FreeSports. (Freeview channel 95.)

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                          #37
                          What happened to the banking they were building round the ends at Rye House? I thought that would have offered excellent viewing of the whole circuit. The decision to be a moto-cross track does seem rather crass though.

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                            #38
                            The banking is there, with a set of temporary bleachers perched on top of it. There is also a new (but very jerry-built) stand by the start line and ref’s box on the home straight.

                            After getting to the track 75 minutes before tapes up and squeezing in to the very last spot at the front of the viewing platform at the top of the latter stand I actually had an OK view. Though being 6’5” and being at the very highest viewing point in the stadium (with the possible exception of the last row of the bleachers on the second/third bend) certainly contributed significantly to that.

                            However, I can’t see how everyone in the stadium can have had a satisfactory view without those advantages. I’m certainly concerned I won’t have one if I don’t manage to get a spot in the same place for future meetings (and there will, hopefully, be plenty of busier ones where good spots will be even more at a premium). I had hoped to try out a few other spots in later heats but that became impossible as rain and mist meant track conditions and poor visibility saw the meeting abandoned after 8 heats.
                            Last edited by Ray de Galles; 27-04-2018, 10:03.

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                              #39
                              Lakeside Hammers 56 Redcar Bears 34

                              SGB Championship


                              My first trip to Arena-Essex Raceway for over a year (their Sunday meetings in the National League didn’t work for me) and my first completed meeting of the season.

                              My first disappointment was there was no back straight enclosure on the stock car track as it’s the best place to watch the racing at the track and one of my favourite spots in the country. I checked with the club afterwards on social media and was told it was due to track access issues (bizarrely, there had been a murder on the A road running alongside the track that morning which was still sealed off and there was a heavy police presence still in the area).

                              It was a decent meeting but, to be honest, not much interesting racing for the neutral. In the interviews between heats the Hammers management and riders made much of the difficulty predominately second tier riders are going to have with their trick track and it certainly seemed that way for Redcar with only Barker (who I wish had stayed at Rye House) making any inroads.

                              On the plus side, there was a decent crowd now they’re back up from the bottom tier and good to see the meeting be well run and zip along so quickly that everything was done in 90 minutes.

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                                #40
                                Rye House Rockets 48 Wolverhampton Wolves 42

                                SGB Premiership


                                The Rockets finally get a win after the abandoned home opener and two heavy away defeats at Wolves and Belle Vue. Early on it looked like the losing streak would continue after an opening heat 5-1 for the visitors and Rye House being 8-16 down by heat four. They gradually got back in to the meeting on an evening where the unusually slick, almost glassy, track meant gating was far more at a premium than is normal at home for the Rockets.

                                Guest reserve (and Rye House asset) Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen was outstanding, scoring 14+1 with Krzysztof Kasprzak the best of the established big guns with 12 +1 overall. 5-1s in the seventh and ninth heats brought the scores to 27-27 and another in the twelfth put the hosts ahead for the first time in the meeting. They still went in to heat fifteen at 43-41 needing three points for the win but a stunning fourth to second pass (one of the few notable ones of the evening) from Scott Nicholls secured a final 5-1 and the win.

                                In other news, Poole will celebrate 70 years of speedway tonight and face a guest representative side for their first ever opponents, the wonderfully named Yarmouth Bloaters.
                                Last edited by Ray de Galles; 26-04-2018, 20:49.

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                                  #41
                                  Whenever I go to Yarmouth (yearly, passing through) I always get sad that they covered the track with tarmac - a non-league, summer programme would be boss there!

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                                    #42
                                    I miss Ben Barker tearing round our track never quite sure whether he's controlling the bike or his bike's controlling him.

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                                      In other news, Poole will celebrate 70 years of speedway tonight and face a guest representative side for their first ever opponents, the wonderfully named Yarmouth Bloaters.
                                      A tragic start to racing at Wimborne Road those 70 years ago saw Reg Craven killed in the very first race. I didn't even know who he rode for until Ray's post. It seems from the Pirates' Wikipedia page that the meeting was completed despite the circumstances, something that would be unthinkable nowadays.

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                                        #44
                                        I’d seen that Poole had commemorated those riders that had died due to accidents at the track during last night’s meeting but didn’t know that fact about Craven. It seems it was actually the first bend of the first race and Craven, though 37, was a newcomer to the sport :

                                        The elder brother of Malcolm and Gil Craven, Reg was a late starter to speedway who, having being inspired by the success of Malcolm at West Ham, had his first rides at the Rye House Training School in the winter of 1947. He had previously been a boxing booth fighter and a ship’s engineer during the Spanish Civil War and was signed by Third Division new boys Yarmouth in 1948.

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                                          #45
                                          I can't access that link you've posted, Ray, could you check if it works for you?

                                          Sadly, "first bend of first heat of first meeting" is part of the Wimborne Road folklore. Your first sentence had me wondering just how many riders had been killed on the track at Poole. It turns out to be three too many, the last of which, 41 years ago to the day, is indelibly etched in the memory.

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                                            #46
                                            It's works for me but is a link to a PDF from The A to Z of British League Speedway Riders so maybe that's the problem . The info is below ;

                                            CRAVEN, Reginald Orron (Reg)
                                            Born: 1911, Ilford, Essex, England.*
                                            Died: May 4, 1948.

                                            The elder brother of Malcolm and Gil Craven, Reg was a late starter to speedway who, having being
                                            inspired by the success of Malcolm at West Ham, had his first rides at the Rye House Training School
                                            in the winter of 1947. He had previously been a boxing booth fighter and a ship’s engineer during the
                                            Spanish Civil War and was signed by Third Division new boys Yarmouth in 1948.

                                            He started the season in the ‘Bloaters’ line-up but on an early season trip to Poole, Reg was critically
                                            injured in a crash with Charlie Hayden and Alf Elliott and died of head injuries after being unconscious
                                            for 180 hours. Reg’s accident occurred, remarkably, on the first bend of the first ever official race at the
                                            Wimborne Road Stadium on April 26, 1948.

                                            Year Club Division M R P BP TP CMA FM PM

                                            1948 Yarmouth NL 3 2 4 3 0 3 3.00 - -
                                            Last edited by Ray de Galles; 27-04-2018, 10:04.

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                                              #47
                                              Like you I was wondering about the other deaths at Poole and, probably also like you found this list of rider deaths at speedway.

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post
                                                Polish speedway is on FreeSports. (Freeview channel 95.)
                                                It's on again now.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Forgot to flag up that the Grand Prix season started last night with the sold out 54,000 Polish SGP in Warsaw’s national stadium.

                                                  Some excellent racing, especially for a temporary track, and there was a fantastic Grand Final. Well worth catching up with.

                                                  I’m off to Rye House v Poole tomorrow but the BT Premiership coverage also starts then with Belle Vue v Swindon on BT Sport 2.
                                                  Last edited by Ray de Galles; 13-05-2018, 12:18.

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                                                    #50
                                                    Here's the Grand Final from Sunday's GP, excellent stuff :

                                                    https://twitter.com/SpeedwayGP/status/995743678789451776

                                                    Saw Rye House get a 48-42 home win for the third time in a row last night. Beating Poole by the same score they managed against Wolves and Somerset which may sound good but the Pirates are an abject shambles at the moment and it was frustrating to let them pick up a losing bonus point.

                                                    Something's not quite clicking about the Rockets at the moment and they can't seem to get Nicholls, Harris, Kasprzak & Kennett all firing at the same time which is frustrating given the potential of the former three. The track seems to be more of a gaters paradise than I ever remember it being before too, maybe it's an early season/weather thing - I'm not sure. Good to see us winning and in a play-off position though, even if it's too soon to make any judgements on how things will develop.

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