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Great clubs remembered

20/ 6/2008

BELLE Vue will have a unique format for their 80th anniversary meeting at Kirkmanshulme Lane on 28 July.

Aces are having 16 different race jackets made for the riders who will compete over 20 heats for the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy.

They will carry the colours of some of the most famous clubs, many of them now sadly defunct, to have graced British speedway since the sport started here in 1928.

Belle Vue have the proud record of being the only club to have run continuously over that period, and they have come up with the novel idea of paying tribute to the great sides which have come to Manchester over the years.

The full list of clubs is Odsal Tudors, West Ham, Sheffield Tigers, Southampton, Bristol Bulldogs, Wimbledon Dons, Cradley Heath, Belle Vue Aces, Birmingham, Norwich Stars, Poole Pirates, Coventry Bees, Swindon Robins, Leicester Lions, Exeter Falcons and Wembley Lions.

Steve Casey, the club’s meeting presenter, said: "We have been in touch with people who were involved with some of the defunct clubs and they are thrilled that their race jackets will be seen in action again.

"Bristol, who still have an active supporters’ club, say they will be coming up for the meeting, and Allen Trump, who is trying to re-open speedway at Exeter, was also very encouraging with his comments.

"We will be very happy for any of these clubs who have petitions open for the return of their speedway to collect signatures at our meeting."

The One51 Aces still have to complete the field following the withdrawals of Chris Harris and Simon Stead whose club rearanged a match for the date.

Aces’ chief David Gordon said: "It is no fault of our own that we have lost these two riders because of fixture congestion problems. They had accepted their invitations, and we are sorry they won't be taking part.

"We think it is a great idea to honour the most famous club names of British speedway with 16 different race jackets.

"It’s true we are staging a celebration of Belle Vue history over the last 80 years, but without these other clubs we would have no history."

Riders booked so far include Jason Crump, Billy Forsberg, Charlie Gjedde, Lukasz Jankowski, Joe Screen, Jason Lyons, Leigh Adams, Scott Nicholls, Jurica Pavlic, Chris Holder, Tai Woffinden and Ricky Ashworth.

Jankowski has returned home to Poland after being discharged from hospital in Manchester. It was decided he didn’t need surgery on his broken collarbone. But he will be out of action for at least a month.

Aces’ team manager Chris Morton said: "Lukasz has been told to let the injury heal naturally, so it’s a matter of time. We can operate rider replacement in his absence, but the problem is that he’ll need more time to regain his race fitness once he does start racing again.

"We are expecting an update shortly on Steve Boxall who has been having physiotherapy on his shoulder injury."

Meanwhile, the Aces return to Elite League duty on Monday when former table toppers Ipswich are the visitors to Kirkmanshulme Lane (7 30pm).

Aces will operate the rider replacement rule for Jankowski.

Aces ran out 49-44 winners over Coventry in the first leg of their cup quarter-final against Coventry on Monday night.

Jason Crump, pictured, gained maximum points.