Plymouth Devils & Manor Delta.

[rogero]

Can I just say, .. as someone who saw Plymouth close in the '70s, my current local club Reading close in 2008 which followed Oxford's closure together with the closure of another track within a fair old drive, Weymouth ... I'm very sorry for the supporters of Exeter Falcons.

However, there has to be some reality and a little understanding.

My late Dad would get off the bus at 5.30pm after a hard day's work in Devonport Dockyard, grab a sandwich and then drive me and my pal Steve every Monday for 12 years or more (until we were old enough to drive). Before the current dual carriageway between Exeter and Plymouth was built, we'd get home at 11.15/11.30 pm and he'd be on the 6.30 am bus for work next morning.

I drove very regularly from wherever I was based to see the Falcons and, though born in Plymouth, I was one of the most fiercely loyal Falcons fans going. I remember clearly the last night at The County Grouund and walking back to the car after the fireworks with The RAF March playing. I was tearful.

However, times move on. Reading has not returned, Weymouth and Oxford probably never will returm and very sadly The Falcons are seemingly doomed.

So, what to do? Well, get down to Plymouth on a Friday night. The road trip is far easier these days and maybe the petrol costs can be shared or a coach hired.

If you have not seen racing on the tight St Boniface Arena you have missed out. True, it is the complete opposite to the long, fast, narrow, steel fenced County Ground track but it provides great racing and more overtaking in one night than 2 or 3 matches at my much beloved County Ground.

Ok, the Devils aren't the Falcons but The Falcons were never The Devils and in the heydays of Ivan Mauger, Scott Autrey, Vaclav Verner etc there must have been 200+ or so Plymothians in the ground because I knew many of them!

So, why not show the same support for Seemond Stephens and co. Seemond adapted to the tight track and Plymouth set up with ease having had to leave Exeter.

So, whilst sharing your upset and sadness, here's the challenge. After all my years of driving the Plymouth to Exeter Monday trip (plus the inevitable away match defeats) and the 364 mile round trip to watch The Devils regularly ..... will you drive 40 miles?

There's easy, free parking and it is on the doortep of the A38.

I respectfully suggest that some speedway in Devon is better than no speedway in Devon?

Best regards to all

Roger

[a4poster]

For anyone who is interested here are some of the Directors and Secretaries of Manor Delta:

www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/directors/manordelta

[winkey]

With all due respect rogero , I do with my mates go to Plymouth on Friday nights during the summer ! And enjoy it we do ! But it ain't my team ! My team don't ride in red and yellow ! We go to Plymouth as speedway fans and as much as I want to see plymouth continue, please don't let it be at the expense of the falcons ever flying again !!!

[rogero]

Great to read Winkey.

I know of a couple of cars that go down to the SBA on most Fridays.

I would love to see The Falcons back as I put in thousands of miles supporting them at home and away over a good many years. Despite being a red and yellow man I became a green and white man without qualification. A local derby would be incredible.

Let's hope that Manordelta have the funds to resurrect Exeter Speedway. Their accounts don't give a great deal of insight in to that. However, there doesn't seem to be huge funds available. The funds injection to The Devils is probably minimal compared to the cost of a new Falcons project.

If a new Falcons project happens I'll be the first one to turn up at the training session before the official opening of a new track in or around Exeter.

Enjoy your Friday nights at the SBA in 2013 and safe travelling.

[jay3012]

we were told we would have a new stadium with a stand named after colin and the falcons would fly. what we got was an air fence from oxford where is that now?and a 25% stake in a completely different club, and no chance of the falcons returning great well done!

[martinben]

at the end of the day its your choice whether to watch speedway , a lot of it is this pathetic stupid rivalry of plymouth v exeter which personally i cant and never have understood, you both come from the same county so therefore your techniclly devonians!! i followed exeter speedway as my parents and relatives come from exeter(i was born in northampton). i Served in the Royal Navy and was based and live in plymouth and always travelleed up on a monday it was a ritual not just to support the falcons but i loved speedway, now unfortunately Exeter falcons are no more, and plymouth were set up and i have my beloved speedway back .i hope one day exeter can return but i cannot understand this never set foot in the SBA? no doubt you will get the ones that would rather go and watch somerset and put money in there pockets and keep alive speedway in ANOTHER COUNTY!!, well thats your choice i will continue to support speedway in MY (adopted) COUNTY, ., because for one it keeps the interest in speedway in the county alive therefore keeping it in the spotlight and making the authorities aware its still supported. Im sure Colin Hill would appreciate that he has helped or is helping speedway survive in Devon. He was primarily Exeter speedway but he was also MR Speedway and im sure in time Exeter speedway will return but in the mean time im sure Plymouth speedway will do its best to keep a little of the falcons alive even if its not quite what you wanted, a speedway rider racing in an exeter bib is better than none at all!!

[winkey]

Have I missed something here martinben?
I don't think the threads on this subject are anti Plymouth speedway, infact as I've said before, myself and many other falcon's fans attend at plymouth on Friday's !
What I think is the overwhelming complaint is using money ( however big or small ) set aside by Colin hill to keep speedway alive in the Exeter area, being used for anything other than Exeter speedway !
As for for only supporting your home town, I'm born and bred and still live in Torquay. So therefore I owe no home town allegiance to either Exeter or Plymouth , but the falcons were my team and so therefore anything that could possibly hold back their return makes me unhappy !
!

[martinben]

no you havent winkey it was in response to jay3012 post about terrible facilities generally rubbishing plymouth speedway in general and how he wont set foot in there , my point is you have to look at the bigger picture keep speedway alive in devon and you will keep exeter's chances alive too . i know its not exeter speedway but if it can be proved that speedway can attract vast crowds then maybe business's could get involved councillors etc those that make important decisions take an interest and may make more of an effort to find a suitable site for the falcons just being negative and blasting or blaming it on plymouth or saying plymouth will use all the money isnt any help at all. By having an academy team called the exeter falcons keeps the team alive yes its not quite the same but whose to say in a few years time both teams can work together find a suitable plot of land and groundshare or is that out of the question too?

[Nevs]

Interesting article in speedway plus from a few years back regarding Colin Hill wishing to do the best for speedway with Milton Keynes-If he were here now and no immediate prospect of a track in Exeter would he have helped out at Plymouth with a new era about to begin for them?
Quote"
At the beginning of 1992 the future of the Milton Keynes Knights was looking very bleak indeed. They just had come through a traumatic 1991 season which had seen them temporarily close mid-season due to financial problems, only being able to complete the campaign after an appeal to supporters for interest free loans. Along the way they'd also lost star rider Gordon Kennett in an attempt to stem losses.

The club was operating out of Elfield Park, a purpose built venue that had become their home after being evicted from the town's greyhound stadium in 1988. The stadium was basic in the extreme and the BSPA had issued warnings stressing that immediate and substantial improvements were necessary.

Club owner and promoter Terry Cheney admitted that making those stadium improvements was not going to be easy:

"My sole aim has been to keep Milton Keynes Speedway going, but it has been a difficult job and I have blown all my money."

Against this background - a skint promoter, a side in need of investment and a stadium requiring major works - it seemed unlikely that club would be able to continue.

In early February, help came from a most unlikely source - Exeter.

Exeter promoters Colin Hill and Roger Jones stepped in and agreed a deal with Cheney that would see them run the team, while he retained control of the track and stadium. Jones, who had actually been sacked as Milton Keynes promoter by Cheney a few years earlier, would take control at Milton Keynes while Hill would concentrate on activities at Exeter.

The Exeter promotion had a number of motives for getting involved. The Knights were actually their nearest rivals in the second division and they didn't want to become even more isolated, they also had unused rider assets that were of little value if they weren't employed and it's also fair to say they acted out of concern for the sport as a whole. Another lost track was the last thing that the sport needed - Wimbledon and Hackney had just closed and Peterborough were only saved by the intervention of Peter Oakes and James Easter.

Milton Keynes was not actually the first choice venue for Jones and Hill. Their initial target had been Mildenhall, where speedway had not been staged the previous year. The drawback of the Fens track was that as a new club they'd had to have paid a joining fee to the league, no such payment being necessary at Elfield swung the decision that way.

Jones was optimistic after the takeover was completed:

"Milton Keynes has got an awful history, but I feel that if it's promoted properly, and a cost-effective team is put in then Milton Keynes can support speedway and we can get by there."

In an attempt to boost crowds they applied to switch race night from Tuesday to Saturday, no doubt hoping to make it more family friendly in the process. Their application was refused after Coventry raised an objection that their own crowds might be affected by the increased competition - which seemed unlikely then and just as ludicrous in retrospect.

Within three weeks they had assembled the bulk of the side, which would race once more in red, white and blue - rather than the jade and orange of the previous season. It was a side that certainly didn't lack in experience, consisting of Richard Hellsen, Ian Barney, Peter Glanz, Dave Steen, Lars Munkedal and (surprisingly) Gordon Kennett who agreed to return despite the abrupt end to his earlier spell as a Knight.

Kennett and Hellsen had both been riding since the early seventies and were now very definitely at the veteran stage. Hellsen, who had not been fully recompensed for his efforts for Peterborough the previous year, shared his thoughts on the eve of the season:

"I'm looking forward to riding at Elfield Park. For a start I know I'll get paid there. The place has potential, if they just put down some grass seed instead of the earth banks it would look good."

The Knights opened their season with a home match against Rospiggarna from Sweden on 31st March. By this time Justin Walker had signed up and Frank Smart, an Exeter asset, had been recruited to replace Ian Barney who'd thought better of signing for Milton Keynes. The Knights lost the match by 56 points to 34 - a youngster called Tony Rickardsson scoring a 14+1 paid maximum for the visitors in the process.

Even in defeat there was cause for celebration - this was the first time in the four years at Elfield Park that the opening meeting had gone ahead as planned.

The following night the team got their official campaign underway at Long Eaton. Gordon Kennett belied his years to notch 15 points from his six rides - though his team-mates only managed another 24 collectively and the home side took the Gold Cup points on offer. The Gold Cup being similar to the current Premier Trophy competition.

An away defeat wasn't an unexpected or unacceptable outcome from the meeting so everyone was in good heart before the first home Gold Cup meeting on April 7th when Rye House were the visitors. The good moods lasted only four heats before the meeting had to be abandoned. The following week's home meeting didn't even get that far, an early postponement preventing Mildenhall (who had been reopened by another promotion) taking to the track.

The team eventually managed to race another meeting the following Monday at sister-track Exeter. The Knights struggled on the notoriously difficult County Ground and no rider managed to score more than five points, the team total reaching only 27 as against the 63 of the home side.

The Knights got their revenge at Elfield Park the following evening, winning by 46-43.

Another team change was made at this point, Lars Munkedal was replaced with Ian Barney who had eventually been persuaded to join up. The suggestion at the time was that Munkedal was after more money, though the lack of home meetings suggested that a cash-flow problem may be at the root of it.

Gordon Kennett, even at 38, was proving to be the top man in the side, though he was less than happy with track conditions:

"The track is a nice shape, but it's full of holes, has adverse cambers, is badly watered and they use the wrong shale."

Despite his criticism of his home track, it was on his travels that he picked up torn shoulder ligaments. The Knights going down 53-35 at Rye House on the day that Kennett was injured. Ian Barney made his debut in this meeting and demonstrated his legendary inconsistency with a scorecard that read 0-3-0-0.

The home meeting on April 28th was to be another postponement and perhaps the most damaging of all the events to engulf the Knights that season. The meeting was called off at 7pm, heavy rain in the morning leading to damage that couldn't be repaired with the available equipment. Terry Cheney, who was still responsible for track preparation, took the brunt of the blame and tensions between the promoters and stadium owner were becoming clear.

Peter Glanz hit form to score 17+1 when the Knights visited Mildenhall the following Sunday. He was equally impressive when he scored an 18 point maximum in the home league clash with Middlesbrough that followed - the Knights winning 48-42 in a rare home meeting devoid of drama or extreme track conditions.

Away visits to (eventual champions) Peterborough and Glasgow led to predictable defeats. The 30 points the Knights scored at Peterborough being most notable for a 14 point contribution from Ian Barney.

It was to be one of his last meetings for the Knights as he quit the club once again. Kieran McCullagh was promoted from the junior side to replace the former NLRC champion.

An inter-league cup clash with Arena Essex was next on the menu for the Knights' fans. The Division One side convincingly winning the clash by 61 to 28.

After the meeting Colin Hill admitted the club had severe cash-flow problems, mainly the result of paying for eight away meetings from the income from four home ones.

The home clash with Stoke on May 19th was most notable for some controversial refereeing decisions from Stan Green. The visiting Potters won the match despite Gordon Kennett returning to the Knights' side for the first time since his shoulder injury.

In the corridors of power there was increasing unrest about the track and stadium conditions at Elfield and a threat to withdraw the track's licence was issued.

Things were no better on May 26th when the start of the meeting against Peterborough had to be delayed for 60 minutes to allow the track to be adequately watered. The Knights, by now without the injured Peter Glanz, losing the Gold Cup clash by 49 points to 41. Nobody knew it at the time, but this was to be the last ever meeting in Milton Keynes.

The following week's meeting against Long Eaton was postponed at 7pm after a track inspection showed the circuit was unfit for racing.

The Speedway Control Board now had little option and suspended the Elfield Park licence. They issued the following statement:

"The SCB, upon the request of the BSPA, after an investigation of all the circumstances surrounding the events at Milton Keynes this year, have decided that both the promoting and track licences be suspended until such time as the stadium and track meet the requirements of the BSPA".

These required improvements were the installation of lighting in public areas, acceptable toilets and cover for spectators.

As the days passed it began to look less and less likely that the track would reopen. Hill and Jones wouldn't return until the track improvements were made and Cheney refused to start work until the two promoters confirmed they would definitely return. A classic impasse.

In the interim, the Knights raced three away rounds of the Four Team Tournament competition, though there were few signs that they would ever race at home again.

Eventually, Roger Jones confirmed the inevitable:

"Following the recent problems at Milton Keynes Speedway, the promoter Roger Jones regrets to announce the withdrawal of the Milton Keynes speedway team from the Homefire League for the 1992 season having experienced financial losses at the venue due to various operating difficulties."

Hill and Jones pointed the finger squarely at Cheney for the failure of the venture, pointing out that the problems were mainly to do with the track and stadium, which were both under his control. Cheney suggested that some of their problems were self-inflicted and that they had reneged on an agreement to pay certain bills, including the purchase of shale.

There has not been speedway in Milton Keynes since, despite irregular rumours of a new track. Terry Cheney held out hope that the club could be relaunched in a mooted new third division, sadly for the Knights the new league did not get off the ground until 1994, by which time the track and stadium had long since been left to rot.

Retrospectively we can see that Richard Hellsen was the last ever heat winner for Milton Keynes - being their only heat winner in the Rye House round of the 4TT on June 21st 1992.

The last ever race at Elfield Park was won by Mike Howe in the junior match that followed the delayed May 26th meeting against Peterborough. The last race of that main meeting was won by Paul Hurry of the Panthers, but only after his team-mate Jason Crump had fallen.

The Knights competed in nine Gold Cup meetings and collected two match points. They raced in two league matches - a win and a defeat. These results were subsequently expunged from official records."

Unquote

My own gut feeling is that if Colin was still here,and no Exeter he would look at the possibility of helping out Plymouth Speedway in their present predicament for the good of speedway in Devon in the future,
One sports stadium I will never set foot in is the bleedin rugger lot at Sandy Park even if my daughter wants to get married and hold her reception there, still give it the v sign every time I drive past ;D

[jay3012]

Please let me make something clear benmartin this has nothing to do with pathetic stupid rivalry of plymouth v exeter at all! and everything to do with Exeter falcons. I have been to Plymouth speedway 3 or 4 times in the past and taken 2 of my children along as well, my problem with the Plymouth set up is that each time I went my kids could barely see anything there aren't really any straights to stand on and by the fence it was full, the bit of mud stacked up at the corners was not really any better so by the time you took account of the fuel the entrance fee,program,food/drinks something from the track shop it was expensive to go and for the kids not to see much, and to be honest I wasn't really bothered who won it just isn't the same that is why i believe the facilities are bad. I have also been to somerset there again i wasn't really bothered who won but the kids had a great time they could see everything and they were also doing kids for a quid, the travel time is much the same so I choose to go to somerset now and again on those reasons. I have also been following what goes on on well known other forums I try and see how Plymouth are doing and if you have been reading them as well you will understand why I can't understand why you would invest money that was dedicated for Exeter. I wish Plymouth well with their speedway but not at the expense of Exeter, it wasn't a few thousand Colin left it was enough to build a f.i.m standard track with full facilities one of the best in this country we all saw the plans for westpoint, we never really found out what went wrong there it was signed and sealed at one point then after Colin died it went wrong along with alot of other things if all that's left is enough to buy 25% of Plymouth. I don't believe Colin would ever have sacrificed Exeter for Plymouth or any other team. I firmly believe the 2nd half Exeter Falcons is just a token gesture to those fans like me hoping they'll be back to say here you go we're still around we wasted all the money but they're still around in devon. After years of waiting for something we get nothing except to be told there will never be speedway again in Exeter. I am gutted and feel we have been cheated out of our speedway Where are Manor delta the silence from them over the last few years has been deafening!!! These are my reasons for not ever going to Plymouth please do not get side tracked on rivalrys it's nothing to do with that..My original post was written in shock and anger I hope this clears up any misunderstanding. My support for the Falcons will always be there I went as a boy with my Dad & grandad both of whom worked there as well, when I was old enough I was a raker on the track then worked in the pits bringing the bikes out onto the track and push starting them before each race I am sickened that people who were trusted with our team have let it down so badly.