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The Speedway Darts season has ended with another brilliant night. The Pairs Competition was won by Ian Miller and Mark Thorpe with Pete Johnson and Dave Rudkin runners up.

The Keeper’s Lodge has welcomed us all each week and Todd has provided us with some great suppers. A big thankyou to Charlie, Pete, Dan and young Jack for all their hard work, but the biggest thankyou is to you the players and friends who have made these nights so enjoyable. See you all in October.

Now onto the Speedway season proper. We wish all our riders and The Lions success and a safe season. We can’t wait to show Poole on Monday that we are the team to watch.

It has been a fantastic year for all the Darts Players. With 60+ people playing each week, the atmosphere wes noisy at times but always closely fought.

The Keeper's Lodge welcomed us every Wednesday. Todd gave us many memorable suppers so thanks to him. A big thankyou also to Charlie (even thought he was in Australia most of the time), Pete, Dan and young Jack who took over scoring for most of the season.

For pictures of the presentation night press

HERE

Darts Roll of Honour 2017/18

League Winnerws - The Underdogs

League Runners up - BFF

KO Cup Winners - Radder’s Rebels

KO Cup Runners up - Dart Attack

Team Cup Winners - Flight Crew

Team Cup Runners up - R/Y Mavericks

League Riders top 3 - Phil Barston, Chris Moore, Dave Howard

Player of the Night top 3 - lan Miller, Dan Archer, Henry King

GP Gold series top 3 - Matt Garner, Chris Moore, Phil Barston

GP Silver series top 3 - Glen Radford, Mick Kowal, Diane Taylor

GP Bronze series top 3 - Richard Watkinson, Tina Widman, John Abrams

Junior Champion - Kian Johnson

Track record holders - Paul Summerfield and Ed Archer

Pairs Championship Winners Ian Miller and Mark Thorpe

Runners up Pete Johnson and Dave Rudkin

SUPPORT YOUR SUPPORTERS’ CLUB

The season has finally started.

Your supporters club needs your help in moving forward with the club.

You can do this in two ways

1 Join the Supporters’ Club. It is only £6 for adults and less for everyone else. In return you get a membership card, pen and badge. Children also get a kit bag. You also get a chance to have a VIP tour of the pits. There are also some surprize goodies to come as well.

2. Become a volunteer and help out with events and the 50/50 draw .

Download a membership form.

We are looking forward to our best season yet, with your help it will be.

It's pretty certain that John will be known to many members. A man so committed to his sport that he even had his 1996 wedding at Long Eaton Speedway! The photographic evidence opposite was provided to us by his fellow LSSC member and speedway loving wife, Pauline!

John started going to Leicester Speedway in the early 50's with his parents on the buses from Coalville. At least 6 buses went from Coalville to the speedway every week. He followed them until they closed in 1962. He remembers the rider Lionel Benson from that time. He then went to Long Eaton and when Leicester opened again in 1968 he followed both teams at home and Leicester away. From 1968 until they closed in 1983 John only missed 1 home meeting (!) and went to over 90% of the away meetings. In fact John saw 1011 Leicester matches or with Leicester riders in that time. When John got his own car he introduced many of his

neighbours to the sport. His Mini of 1971 even had the registration number of RAY 789 G!

They both were as active as possible in supporting the bid to bring the sport back to Leicester.

Since the new era started John has been a season ticket holder. He has missed none of Leicester’s home meetings.He is a complete anorak in that he has kept track of all the matches he has attended. To date he has been to matches., When he was 70 his wife Pauline arranged a VIP evening with friends and family/ They had their photo taken with the 2012 Leicester Lions. Last year John was chosen to present the Rider of the Night to Eric Riss. His favourite moment of the new era was in 2014 when Jason Doyle and KB squeezed Bjarne Pedersen on the third bend in the match against Eastbourne to get a 5-1. Her worst moments have been with the lack os success of the team. He hopes that 2018 will change all that.

His worst moment has to be when the Leicester v Birmingham match was rained off in 1983. The restaging was three days later on the Friday. Unfortunately John was committed to taking some friends to see Leo Sayer that night and couldn't get out of it. It rained all day and John was hopeful that it would be cancelled again, but it wasn't. One of the best moments at home was a match against the local foes Coventry. It was a wet night and there were puddles on the track. Mark Courtney was racing Ole Olsen. Every time he passed the bends he stretched out his foot through the puddles and covered Ole who was behind - and not very happy. John met his wife at the Speedway and they got married on a Wednesday so that they could go to the speedway at night and even had their honeymoon the week before their wedding so that they could see their team away at Poole and Exeter This was in 1996 and they followed Long Eaton. His wife is a long time Halifax, Bradford and Sheffield supporter (travelling to Leicester many times to see classic matches between the Lions and the Dukes) and still follows the sport with him.