In his last edition as editor of the Swindon Programme, Robert Bamford asked me to write a piece for their "Words of Wisdom" column. Now, stop the sniggering - me, wisdom? Well he thought so. The account of Monday's Sky meeting will take me a couple of days to sort out so, in the meantime, here is the text that I supplied, and yes, I have copped a lot of flack about Rune's performance (after heat 1) last weekend in Slovenia. He wil get better! But now that article.
"Now before you get excited, the “getting down” and the “getting dirty” is all speedway related, but not, perhaps, in the way that you might have imagined.
"Let’s be honest, those of us who have grown up with speedway must admit that we emulated our childhood heroes in our imaginations. My hero was always Ove Fundin – not sure why, perhaps it was merely the strangeness of his name to my infant ears, more possibly the fact that he seemed to be a winner wherever he went. There was a swagger, a confidence, an air of invincibility about the man and, in my imagination, I was Fundin, all breath taking action and daring do. Alongside his fame was glamour – speedway was, to my childish eyes, full of glamour – the lights, the crowds, the sounds and smell, autograph books and shining chrome.
"And so I grew up with speedway whilst friends eulogised over footballers and soccer teams. Recently I’ve had the chance to become more involved in the sport. Having scared myself half to death in a grass track meeting when I was at college I soon realised that I was not cut out for riding and consolled myself with a lifetime watching and enjoying my favourite sport from the relative comfort of the terraces. But that all changed three years ago, when I answered a request on the fledgling Robins website, a request from Robert Bamford (who has brow beaten me into writing this article) for volunteers to help in some pre-season work at the track.
"That one Saturday morning turned swiftly into a Sunday morning and then to a Thursday … and the rest is, as they say, history. Fortunate (if that is indeed the right word) to be able to shift work commitments around, colleagues and associates know that I am never available on a Thursday. “He’s playing with tractors,” is how they usually put it.
"I work with Gerald Richter, Rod Ford and all the others who give up their time and efforts to assist the speedway team here at the Abbey. From 8.30am to 11.30 pm we work to get meetings on each week during the season (we also work each Thursday during the close season, but tend to drift away mid afternoon). It’s hard work, and it’s dirty work, but you see the sport from a whole new perspective.
"Frustrated by the frequently held view that speedway meetings just happen, I started the “Blundson Blog”, an internet site, a year and a half ago. It set out to catalogue just what happens in the “hidden side of speedway” , as my esteemed friend Jeff Scott puts it. From a couple of hundred hits per week it has now grown to five hundred hits per day, and over 150,000 per year. I have learnt that speedway is not all glamour and glitz – it’s damn hard work – and that there are several Swindon teams that make up the Swindon Robins Speedway Team – there are the 7 riders but they can’t operate without the backroom staff (the promoters, statisticians, web site, sponsorship, hospitality) and the track staff.
"At this or subsequent meetings, spare a thought for the tractor drivers, the rakers, the flag marshals and everyone else who contributes to the speedway. Nearly all volunteers, an unsolicited “thanks” or acknowledgement goes someway to making it all worthwhile. There is glamour and glitz in speedway but it can only be there when lots of others “Get down and dirty”.
"And, while I think of it, who has replaced the great Fundin in my esteem? Simple - one of the nicest speedway riders I’ve ever met, Rune Holta. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to prepare a Swindon track for him to ride."
