This Is Speedway

Sky Sports Elite League champions Coventry Bees have confirmed Chris Harris as their new captain.

The Glasgow v Edinburgh meeting sheduled for Sunday 9th March at Ashfield Stadium has been postponed due to heavy rain and waterlogged track.

8th Mar 08, Academy League 2008

After the recent drought of English youngsters coming through the ranks we have decided to put together an Academy team for the 2008 season subject to eligible riders being available. Due to the rules being relaxed regarding the Academy League this season it allows us to run a team without committing to a full league programme. We feel this is the best way forward to try and unearth our own home grown riders after the traditional local talent has all but dried up in recent seasons. All the proposed teams meetings will be challenge matches and we hope to run around six meetings this season. We are now looking for riders to form our four man Ipswich team. Riders need to be between the ages of 14 and 23, hold a SCB licence and have a 500cc machine. Meetings will be run over a six heat formula giving each rider three races per match. We are holding a practise afternoon on Wednesday 12th March at the Stadium and any riders interested can contact me via my office on (01473) 333889 for further details and confirm their availability. Jeremy Doncaster will be overseeing the Academy team for me and he will also be arranging some after meeting practice for the youngsters after our meetings on Thursday nights throughout the season.

We hope this project will enable us to give youngsters an opening into the sport which I myself had the chance via the Witches junior team in the mid eighties. I’m sure plenty of fans will support us in this new venture and we look forward to hopefully finding the next Scott Nicholls or Jeremy Doncaster to further secure the future of the club.

Peter Simmons.

BELLE Vue’s efforts to raise their profile has been rewarded with a major sponsorship from a multi-national travel company with a base in Manchester.