Since everyone else has posted their Coventry Speedway thoughts
and memories, and I haven't blogged since the end of last season, I thought a
quick one before I head down to Poole might be in order.
Those of you who know me will
know I used to be a staunch Oxford supporter, home, away and anywhere Todd
Wiltshere might have been riding that week. I went to Oxford for about 6 years,
from when I first fell in love with speedway (and Mark Loram) including 3 years
where I didn't miss a single meeting home and away, so i'm not going to claim I
am the longest serving Bees fan by any stretch of the imagination, but in the
10 years I've watched the Bees, you wouldn't make it to double digits for the
amount of meetings I've missed home and away during that period.
Everyone who has posted so far
has posted their idealised memories of Coventry and Brandon. Treating it like a
mecca of speedway, where every race had 10 passes, only legends raced and where
Coventry won every meeting.
During the 10 years I've been
at Brandon, I've been left heartbroken, ripped off, angry and frustrated just
as many times as I've gone home elated and happy. For every Greg Hancock, Emil
Sayfutdinov and Andreas Jonsson, there's an Andreas Messing, a Jacob Jamrog or
a Filip Sitera. For every 2010 play off final, there's a 2015 play off final.
For every Coventry 46-44 Poole, there's being 5-1d by Swindon and Reading in
heat 15 twice in consecutive meetings to throw the points away. For every
King's Lynn at home with one reserve a great atmosphere and stunning racing,
there's a Coventry storm meeting cut short with no passing in front of a
handful of people. We've all got just as many naff memories following the Bees
as we have good ones, from a purely sporting perspective.
But isn't that why we love
sport? Marilyn Monroe (the great philosopher....) is often misattributed to
saying "If you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't
deserve me at my best", and that's the way I feel about the Bees. We've
got so many fans who turn up for the big meetings, the play-offs or when we're
winning, but aren't there when things are tough. For me, I wouldn't be able to
appreciate the good times anywhere near as much if I hadn't had to go through
all the naff times first. I feel like I've deserved the success we have had by
sticking with it and not knocking it on the head because we've had some naff
meetings.
That's why, for me, picking one
memory, one moment, one race or one meeting is too difficult. 2010 final second
leg at Poole is almost certainly the best night I've had supporting the Bees
and I'll never forget the Bomber heroics that night, but if the winter and rule
changes following 2010 and the abdication of Sandhu hadn't happened would we
still have Coventry Speedway? It might well be a different situation, that's
for sure. That same year we would never have got there were it not for stunning
away wins in the second half of the season to sneak us into the play-offs, and
after 11 heats at home in the semi final we were up against it, only to come
out and blitz Peterborough in the last few and cope with the 'special' track
Peterborough had come up with for us in the second leg. In supporting a sports
club, everything follows on from the other, and I just couldn't narrow it down.
Since visiting Coventry both as
an away supporter and as a die hard Bee, I've met friends for life, had more
laughs under the scoreboard than some people have in a lifetime, I've cheered
and got angry, been elated and disappointed and nearly had Danny Ayres jumping
over the barrier at me on more than one occasion (if you're going to keep
knocking the hero that is Martin Knuckey off his bike then you have to expect
the abuse that's due!).
Now we are in full swing of the
season, I'm missing it more than ever. I miss texting updates and upsetting
Richie Worrall and Joel Parsons in the process (although hopefully I made at
least 1 of you laugh!), I miss abusing Hans Andersen as he rode passed whether
he was in a Bees jacket or not, I miss being laughed at by my friends for
celebrating a last bend win like Newcastle had just won the FA Cup. I am
desperate for us to come back and continue my love/hate affair with Coventry
Speedway. After 10 years, speedway elsewhere as a neutral just doesn't seem the
same.
I must pay huge thanks to Jeff,
Dave and co who are all fighting so hard to keep us on track this season. I
will enjoy Poole tonight the same way I enjoyed Peterborough and Wolves and
will enjoy Leicester and Rye House too. The only thing I ask is that the riders
involved understand this is all we've got, and put the effort in that our
strong but currently distraught fan base deserves. An away win at Poole would
do that nicely!
