ONE LAST TIME

In addition to speedway, having the odd fine wine and collecting vintage pornography, something that’s always fascinated me is how the public are enchanted by reputation, fame and the majesty of the great ones.

Look at show-business.

On their last tour the Stones grossed $10 million a night. On a 46-concert tour. Yes, that’s 460 million (£331 million quid) being trousered by 78-year-old Sir Mick, 77-year-old Keith (why no knighthood, d’ye think?) and their geriatric buddies.

After the Rolling Stones, the top earners in the world of live performance in 2019 (the last two years don’t count, of course) were Sir Elton John, Sir Rod Stewart and Sir Paul McCartney.

It’s the reputation folk are paying for, of course.

People flock to these shows, selling them out all over the world, not because they expect to hear new songs as great as “Jumping Jack Flash” or “Yesterday” – they’re there because they want to say they saw these stars in the flesh, perhaps for one last time.

It’s much the same in speedway. I recall having my eyes opened a couple of times when I was announcer at Hampden Park, when the regular crowd went up by several hundred people when Wimbledon or Belle Vue came up to race Glasgow.

The unexpected turnstile activity was simply because Barry Briggs or Ivan Mauger would be in the visiting team. They had star quality.

Even long after these Kiwi greats had passed their prime of speedway life, just to advertise their names was sufficient to attract the curious newcomer, the lapsed fan or maybe just people dragged to the track by a family member who insisted that they went to the meeting, like they might to an Elton John concert or a McCartney appearance, just to say they had seen these legends one last time……

As it will be on Saturday.

Plymouth Gladiators aren’t winning too many matches this year, but they are pulling in the people wherever they travel.

Why? Because they have Bjarne Pedersen and especially, they have Jason Crump.

The Dane is still the classiest of acts, and scoring very well wherever he races in what he has announced will be his final season.

Jason? Well, I have to think he’ll be bidding us a final farewell after 2021.

But he remains Australia’s greatest-ever rider. No other Aussie has taken three World Titles.

He remains one of just five riders who have that many – only Mauger, Rickardsson, Fundin, Briggs, Neilsen and Hancock have more – and can truly be regarded as one of the top ten world speedway riders of all time.

His last British season comprised five matches for Belle Vue a dozen years ago, and his farewell to Grand Prix racing – after sixteen straight years – came at the close of 2012.

Having taken part in a handful of meetings in Australia – “for a bit of fun” — in recent winters, Jason astounded speedway by announcing that he would be coming out of retirement to race in Britain again.

Which brings him, at the age of forty-six, to Shielfield Park with Plymouth Gladiators on Saturday night.

Trust me, he may not be the rider he was thirty years ago when he first turned up with Peterborough at the age of sixteen, nor the rider who won five British GPs between 1996 and 2009 — but he’s still turning left at the end of the straights, he’s still getting his bike to go sideways pretty quickly and he’s definitely still Jason Crump.

I would urge anyone who hasn’t quite decided to come along, or who knows someone who would like to attend, to make it happen.

Be there to say that you were there.

Be there to see Jason Crump – and indeed Bjarne Pedersen – on our track, in the flesh, one last time.

Let’s go skidding! .
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Disagree with Dick – as so many do? He is always be happy to hear from interesting people at dick@crystalfm.co.uk