football rambles

Last night we went to King's Lynn Stars v Coventry Bees at the Norfolk Arena. The Stars ran out easy winners defeating the Bees 54 to 35. I'll be reporting on that later, but here are some photos from last night's meeting. Photo of Norfolk Arena At the starting line in race 5 The pit crew at Norfolk Arena. Taking a bend in Race 9, moments before the crash

The Coventry Bees are based in Brandon and used to go by the name of Brandon Bees. They are one of the oldest teams out there being formed in 1928. I am not sure when they changed their name, but we still have this badge from the 1960s when they were known as Brandon, which I found when I was a kid in the 1980s in my Granny's house. Before the war they rode in the Southern League and the National League. They have been involved in the top league every season since 1948. They have been Champions 9 times with the last victory coming in 2011. They almost didn't compete at all in 2011 after walking out of a meeting along with the Peterborough Panthers and were originally excluded from competing that season. At the time of writing they are currently 6th in the league, but with a couple of matches in hand will be looking up to a play-off position.

King's Lynn Stars of the Elite League ride at the Norfolk Arena and have pretty close links to the football club, in that when the Linnets were in financial problems it was the owners of the Stars that bailed them out. They also use the colours of the football team and in fact the town. Since 1994 their colours have been yellow and blue. The original team was founded in 1965 and wore yellow and green, but at that time they were the Norwich Stars. In the modern era of the play offs the King's Lynn Stars can probably feel a bit hard done by having finished top in the first season that the league started using a play-off system. Nevertheless justice was done when they were crowned the 2006 champions beating Sheffield Tigers and doing the double with the Premier Trophy also making its way to West Norfolk. They also finished top the following year and won the cup, however this time Sheffield beat them in the semi finals of the Championship. 2009 was also a vintage year when the ...