The story behind this website...
When we moved near to Foxhall Stadium in 1974 we never realised how much impact the speedway track would have on my life! I went to a few meetings in 1975 and before long I was emulating Billy Sanders or Mike Lanham on my pushbike. I used to ride round and round in the road or on an old track on the heath. After a while I got a 'track bike' with just one brake, a Leo rear tyre, and a big 24T freewheel (have a look at my bike today :-). It was great, except perhaps for the emulsion paint job. When I was 13 my dad helped me build up a real cycle speedway bike (a Raleigh Wayfarer frame) and I joined my local club Kesgrave.
I was very fortunate to get an apprenticeship with BT when I left school. My job has enabled me to continue enjoying my favourite sport and buy lots of bikes! I've also experienced the technology which gave me the skills to set up this website.
In the late 80's I used an Apple Mac Plus for the first time and it completely changed the way I thought about computers. Here was a machine that was enjoyable to use and it was easy to become an expert on. (Every other OS frustrates me and I still use the classic Mac OS today.) Through work I was able to experience the internet in the early 90's, and while it wasn't that useful then, it was fun trying things out. I started to learn HTML, as everyone at work began creating web pages - just because they could!.
In 1997 I was working on an early DSL trial, and fortunately got it installed at home as part of the work. I spent a lot of time browsing this new webbed world and discovered Geocities (later Yahoo!) would host websites for free.
I've always been frustrated by how secretive cycle speedway has been (both internally and externally) so I had no trouble deciding what topic my site would be about. In April 1997 I created some pages which I believe became the world's first cycle speedway website.
Today there are many other cycle speedway sites, so the role of mine is less important. However, while I remain league recorder this is still the best source of results data for the South East. It's always been difficult finding time to update the site, but SE results will usually appear within 24 hours of programme receipt.
The site has been designed for maximum compatibility and should work with almost any web browser. You don't need a big monitor, Java, or even frames. And now that it's on my own server you shouldn't get any Javascript problems or adverts. If something doesn't work for you, then please let me know.
Change History (in addition to routine updates of results etc.)
01/10/23: Updates to Honours Archives
01/3/22: New server set up on 81.143.238.236
01/11/21: Norfolk Individual Honours updates.
12/12/20: Access limitations due to loss of static 62.239.47.80 IP address DSL service.
19/9/18: Updates to national individual honours lists.
25/7/18: Additional old fixture lists added.
11/10/17: Updates to regional honours lists.
15/11/15: Change of Web Server hardware.
30/12/14: Redesign home page with new image map. Personal page added.
11/12/14: Some updates to honours lists.
13/1/14: Changes to some images.
09/11/13: Some updates to honours lists.
01/2/13: Removal of redundant code and other minor changes.
24/10/12: Move to own server as BTInternet closes web hosting facility. Some relevant link fixes and code tidying.
13/11/10: Some Honours updates inc. East Anglian
01/8/10: Suffolk Honours updated. Some link fixes.
19/10/09: Moved to BTInternet web address as Geocities disappears
17/10/09: Rolls of Honour updates.
10/12/08: Pits updated with some photos.
10/8/08: Rolls of Honour updates.
21/1/08: Corrections to some tables/info/typos. Bike info and links updated.
07/10/06: Fix broken links caused when my ISP ceased trading.
30/9/06: Updates to Regional Roll of Honour.
27/6/05: Regional Roll of Honour section replaces Trimley page.
29/10/04: Some more photos added
15/10/03: Updates to Roll of Honour
10/5/03: Home Counties Leagues added
23/2/03: 2003 Structure taking shape
09/1/03: North West Middlesex leagues added
15/9/02: Moving some files to different servers after upload problems
11/4/02: 2002 Structure added
01/3/01: Full 2001 season structure added
12/1/01: Added NewsFlash window
06/8/00: Photographs List Page added
15/3/00: Links Page added
03/2/00: Some action Photos by Pete Randall added
07/12/99: Speadsheet downloads available
03/12/99: All sorts of 1999 South East stats added
24-11-99: Some gaps in results archive filled
09-11-99: Even more league tables!
05-11-99: More league tables and minor updates.
02-11-99: Result Index Structure Changed. More Roll of Honour info.
01-11-99: More league tables from past.
11-8-99: More photos added.
04-5-99: Full 1999 fixture list & some league tables added.
18/02/99: Suffolk U-13 team pic and a few minor extras added.
25/1/99: More East Anglian League stats added
19/11/98: Suffolk League page added
15/6/98: Updated Track Directory. Edited Introduction & bike info. Added Trimley club stats.
01/6/98: Added EAGP info page
05/5/98: Added current EAL Results/Table
21/4/98: Various minor layout changes
06/4/98: Guestbook added
29/3/98: Added 1998 provisional fixture list (non-league)
13/2/98: Add Geoguide and 'Home Track' button to several pages. Local news page added.
12/2/98: Changed front page
26/1/98: British Team/Restricted Individual Roll of Honour added
12/1/98: Few errors corrected
05/1/98: Track Directory added
01/12/97: Added some old EAL tables
08/10/97: Track Image map added
15/9/97: British U-16 scores & pictures
25/5/97: Pits Page
Over the years, the following tools have been used in the production of this website:
Software | Hardware |
---|---|
Apple Mac OS 7, 8 & 9 Netscape Internet Explorer Classilla Pagemill HTML Editor Fetch JPEGView GraphicConverter Bounds Microsoft Excel Excel Internet Assistant msw to html Filemaker Pro Aldus SuperPaint SimpleText BBEdit Lite MacHTTP NetPresenz |
Macintosh Performa 475 Macintosh Centris 650 Macintosh Quadra 840AV Powerbook Duo 280 Power Mac 8100/100 Power Mac 9500/132 Power Mac 8500/180 Power Mac G3/350 iBook 300 Apple QuickTake 100 Kodak DC120 Kodak DX6490 HP ScanJet IIx HP ScanJet 6100C Global Village Teleport Nortel ADSL NTE Fujitsu DSL NTU Efficient 5861 NTU 2Wire 2700 NTU BT HomeHub 2.0B BT SmartHub 2 2Wire 170HG Router BT PSTN, DSL & FTTP Lines E7even ADSL Line MacWorld Mac User |