Speedway Limerick Competition

A fun chance to win a signed copy of one of my Methanol Press books by submitting a speedway limerick.


Please email your Speedway Limerick using the 'Email the author' link at the bottem of my website home page (put "Speedway Limerick" in the subject heading and include your postal address, phone number. Please state whether you'd prefer to win 'Showered in Shale' or 'When Eagles Dared') by the closing date of March 31st to enter

I will then publish the best ones on my blog and announce the winner

For advice on the style of a limerick click here

Two early entries are:

An earnest young writer called Scott
Went off to the track like a shot
He got showered with shale
At each ground without fail
with his pen and his pad like as not.

[Graham Russel]


A Champion rider called Mauger,
By now is quite an old stauger,
But he's so in demand
throughout all the land,
We should issue him with a pauger.

[The Reverend Michael Whawell]

Double Trouble - Writer in Residence

I can wait for the season to start and will now be writing two blogs next season.

I'm delighted that Bob Brimson has invited me to be Writer in Residence for the Eastbourne Eagles.He has kindly given me permission to write whatever I want in the style of my usual work, albeit with a couple of caveats. I'm chuffed to bits as not only do get to wear a team anorak but there are so many interesting people at Arlington that I'd like the chance to get to watch more closely and know their foibles better.

My blog will be called Left, Left, Left and Left Again

I will continue to hoe my own row and travel the country to promote my new books ('Shifting Shale' my account of the 2006 speedway season and my quirky book of photographs 'Shale Britannia') as well as continue to regularly record my impressions on the people, places and meetings that I attend.


The Eagles press release reads:

As one of the many innovative ideas behind the new look of the Eastbourne Eagles, we're pleased to announce that we have appointed Jeff Scott as our ‘Writer in Residence’.

Jeff is the author of the much praised, often frank but perceptive Showered in Shale book and Blog. His writing takes its own unique and slightly quirky look at the world of Speedway and the rich variety of people found in it – from fans to volunteers, start girls to vicars, promoters to riders and pretty well everyone and everything else in between.

While Jeff will continue to work independently on his other projects, he will be at liberty to publish whatever material he chooses on his new Eagles Blog Left, Left, Left and Left Again. This Blog will appear with alarming regularity along with many other new and innovative features on the spectacularly revamped Eastbourne Eagles website, scheduled to be launched upon an unsuspecting world on the 12th March.



Bob Brimson, commented: “Though I know Edinburgh Speedway already have a club poet, I believe that we'll be the first club to enjoy the services of a ‘Writer in Residence’. Jeff’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to write about whatever he chooses without interference from anyone. His mandate from the club is - so long as he does not expose anything that might be of use to an opposing team, libel anyone or reveal a personal detail about a rider/member of the Eagles family that they have a right to keep private – he can write about what he sees as he sees it. In return, Eastbourne Eagles give him complete and total access to the operation, pits, team, inner sanctum (i.e. Bob’s tractor garage), staff, volunteers and the general machismo that constitutes the mighty Eastbourne Eagles.”

Another Review in 'the Voice': The Official Journal of the Friends of Speedway

When Eagles Dared – by Jeff Scott.

First I should say that I haven’t had time to read this entire book but I shall certainly finish it. This is a much more relaxed effort than Jeff’s first offering, Showered in Shale. His real love of Speedway and the Eastbourne Eagles in particular, and his sense of humour come through in this publication as he tracks the Eagles through the ups and downs of the 2005 season.

Jeff states that he means the book, like speedway, to provide entertainment and it does. This is something to pick up at random and read up on a match or two. In his “Afterword” (thank goodness it’s not a Footnote!) he hopes it will be looked on as a piece of social history – perhaps it will. The downside? Still footnotes to interrupt the flow of the action and photographs that are so indistinct that they give a rather amateurish look to the publication.

A final question for the author – does your comment about the back seat of a stretched limo come from personal experience, or is this the basis for another book?




by Sue Jackson-Scott [no relation!] in 'the Voice: The Official Journal of the Friends of Speedway'

This excellent and always independent minded quarterly magazine is a must read for speedway fans and can be ordered (£10 for four issues) from:
Stuart Towner
Editor
117 Church Lane
Chessington
Surrey KT9 2DP
0208 397 6599
stuart.towner@blueyonder.co.uk