WHAT DID I KNOW?

In my last blog, you may remember I published a letter of congratulations from Jim Lawrence, the chairman of the SCB, praising our staff for their smooth and superb work in keeping a particularly traumatic Shielfield Saturday Session on the rails.

In recent years I’ve been to a good few other tracks, and Jim’s wise words came bouncing back as I think of how I’ve watched curators failing to curate, staff bumbling about, a distinct lacking of sensible medical coverage and preventable problems going unresolved.

All underlining that we really do put on a pretty good show at Shielfield, with long-serving staffers all knowing their job and everybody selflessly pitching in to serve the cause.

Resulting in, even on the bad nights, a smooth presentation of what remains the best sport in the world. IMO.

When people know their job it looks effortless – although a good night’s speedway show is a bit like a swan, gliding smoothly and gracefully over a calm pond. With all the heavy lifting going on out of sight with the bird’s legs pedalling away nineteen to the dozen under the surface!

A good, well-equipped staff can work wonders. Like at Malilla last weekend. When I switched on discovery+, only to see a bedraggled Abi Stephens talking to Greg Hancock in pouring rain with the track utterly awash behind them, I didn’t hold out much hope for the GP.

Even if it were to go ahead, I reckoned it would be no more than a sad series of mud-splattered processions.

Well, what did I know?

With Phil Morris dashing about every which way (boy, does he burn energy – I bet he slept sound that night) the track staff calmly doing their stuff and a two-hour delay, the meeting didn’t just take place – it was a cracker!

What a lesson for some places here in the UK.

Promoters who regularly call meetings off a day or more in advance.

Track surfaces which can’t be reconfigured after rain to still produce racing of the quality we saw last Saturday night.

Avoidable equipment breakdowns. Insufficient medical cover. Etc. Etc.

This coming Saturday, as well as seeing (it says here) a bright and efficient show we will hopefully be digging deep in our pockets, handbags and sporrans.

Life can be messy, and speedway is part of life.

It would be marvellous if our sport could just encompass the closest of races, the slickest of passes and the most spectacular crashes — in every meeting – and no-one gets hurt, ever.

Sadly, the prospect of that transpiring without injury to the riders remains as remote as Ascension Island. Ain’t gonna happen.

While they’re entertaining us, riders get hurt, often badly. Meaning they cannot continue racing, can’t earn money to pay simple bills we might take for granted, such as buying food for their families or paying the mortgage…..

Already this sorry season we’ve had Lewi Kerr sidelined for nearly two months and both Bastian Borke and captain Rory Schlein have been injured so badly that we might not see them back on track this year.
In the past we’ve had our stars – out’n’out #1’s — such as Seb Alden, Adrian Rymel and Ricky Ashworth hurt so grievously in our service they have never been able to race again.

Thus, the need – for the past 76 years – for our SRBF. Wholly funded by donation, with Saturday’s collection by the riders part of the very necessary money-raising this BenFund has to rely on every year.

If you can, when the boys appear with the buckets, please be generous.

In addition, remember the annual BenFund Bonanza – so cruelly rained off in March — returns to Workington next month (Sunday 14th) with a hopefully star-studded cast, and will most certainly be worth a visit.

That’ll be the afternoon following the Speedway of Nations Final down the road at Belle Vue – might it be too much to ask that some of the really big-name riders who’ll be gracing the Manchester meeting might be tempted to stay over and put in a free shift for such a worthy cause?

However, before we plan our jaunts to the left-hand coast, Saturday has the Tigs in town.

Book your e-tickets before midnight on Friday and get yourself a 10% discount on what is already the league’s best admission deals – you know it makes sense!
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Want to disagree with Dick (as so many do)? He is always happy to hear from interesting people on dick@crystalfm.co.uk