Tuesday 8 August 2023

MFL Monthly - a new magazine dedicated to the Midland Football League

A NEW monthly magazine dedicated to the Midland Football League is being launched.

MFL Monthly is a new programme-style magazine being produced by Midlands-based football journalists David Lawrence and Andy Mitchell and designer Neil Skelding, who works on numerous speedway publications.

The idea is to provide much-needed coverage of the league and a complete in-your-hands record of the season, including:

🟢 Monthly features from all senior divisions
⚫️ Coverage of the action and any news
🟢 A complete results service
⚫️ Comprehensive statistics

It will come out in the first week of every month by post with ordering via PayPal, delivered to your door for £4.95 (£3 + £1.95 UK p+p).

We hope this will be of interest not only to players, clubs and fans but also followers of non-league generally, including groundhoppers.

The first edition will be shipped out on Wednesday, September 6 but we encourage pre-ordering to help us gauge print requirements.

HOW TO ORDER

Finally, a big thank you to Baker Joiner for sponsoring the first two editions - we're incredibly grateful.
Thank you for your interest and support and please spread the word!

Cheers, Andy, David and Neil.

Wednesday 10 June 2020

Speedway: Danny King backs projects helping the BEN Fund

DANNY King has given his backing to ongoing efforts in aid of the BEN Fund during the Covid-19 lockdown.

In his notes in the new Speedway Quiz Book, a project that comes with a £100 prize draw for fans while donating to the Speedway Riders’ Benevolent (BEN) Fund, the 2016 British champion and Great Britain international was quick to highlight the all-round support offered by the registered charity.

“I have always supported them because I can see the good they do, that is the case with all riders really and they were just so happy to help me when I needed it,” said King, the winner of the 2020 BEN Fund Bonanza, the only UK meeting to take place so far this year.

READ MORE: 2000 world champion Mark Loram remembers his time at Exeter Falcons

READ MORE: Steve Worrall turned down Premiership offers for 2020

“They are genuinely like that, when a rider is injured they want to help and they get straight on the phone to see what they can do. That can be just as important as the financial side in many respects. 

“It is difficult when they cannot bring in the money. I think the majority of the funds they raise come from the BEN Fund Bonanza and at least we got that on this year but it can still be tough.

“It wasn’t so long ago (2018) that the meeting got cancelled after a number of rain-offs but the number of riders that needed help over that time would have been the same. 

“If we can raise money elsewhere, through projects like this and on the Speedway GB quiz nights online, then it can only come in handy.”

The 24-page programme-style magazine is packed with puzzles including wordsearches, crosswords, quizzes and picture rounds on a range of levels of speedway through the years.

All copies sold are entered into the prize draw but answers from various puzzles give you the clues to tackle the prize wordsearch for an extra chance of winning.

To take part and read King's full interview, buy now for £4 (£2.25+ £1.75 p+p) via PayPal: paypal.me/speedwayquizbook


Monday 18 May 2020

Mark Loram: "There were riders you would quite happily take on at Exeter because they didn’t want to know"


MARK Loram had a knack of winning at most places but at Exeter he and his colleagues always had a helping hand.

The 2000 world champion had no qualms with staring down the barrel of that famous steel fence at the County Ground, shattering the track record by 0.7 seconds in 1996 during a 48-48 draw with Oxford Cheetahs in which the number one weighed in with 14 points.

Lifting the lid on his two-year stint in Devon for new Exeter Speedway magazine Falcons Nest, Loram revealed how the talent that would take him to the top was aided by the bravery to tackle one of Britain’s most specialist circuits.

“Without disrespect or naming anyone, there were riders you would quite happily take on at Exeter because they didn’t want to know,” he said.

OFF HE GOES: The view most opponents had of
Mark Loram around Exeter
“Riders who you would have your work cut out against on other tracks. You would have teams where two or three riders would have a go and the rest would be pretty petrified.

“I loved it, though. Yes, it was hairy if you were behind but if you got out in front it was so much fun.”

Check out Falcons Nest issue one for the full feature with Loram who talks the track, the logistics of riding at Exeter the night after driving back from Poland, “wild nights out” and Simon Wigg.

It launches on Tuesday but can be pre-ordered now for £2.25 plus £1.75 postage and packaging.
Online payments can be done via PayPal: paypal.me/progammeordering or send an email  to programmeordering@gmail.com to pay via cheque.



Wednesday 29 April 2020

ON THIS DAY: Redditch United beat the drop with Barrow win

IT SEEMS unlikely Redditch United would have defied the odds and beaten relegation without Covid-19 but they did muster Mission Impossible 14 years ago.
A level higher than today in the second season of the Conference North, the Reds beat Barrow 2-1 on the final day to stay up on goal difference ahead of Leigh RMI, the team that had been deducted the potentially decisive point they had earned the week before for fielding an ineligible player.
Craig Wilding and Carl Palmer saved the day as United came back from behind at the Valley Stadium with midfielder Ian King, manager during the early part of the 2019-20 campaign, judged man of the match by Non League Paper reporter Roger Newbold.
Here we look back on that momentous day, what led to it and what happened after.
THE SCENE SETTER
What was supposed to be a continuation of the dream under Southern League Midland Division title-winning manager Rod Brown turned into a nightmare. 
The Reds had defied all expectations after that double promotion by finishing ninth in the league’s inaugural season, one in which they had been expected to crash straight back down.
Top striker Norman Sylla controversially left but nine new players came in, including FA Trophy winners Ryan Young and Palmer from Hednesford Town, ex-Swansea City midfielder Lee Jenkins and veteran striker John Williams – ‘The Flying Postman’ – formerly of Kidderminster Harriers.
The changes simply didn’t work with a series of defeats leading to chopping and changing and the quick release of players, notably Williams who claimed he had signed a contract only to get bombed.
By mid-September United hit rock bottom having been beaten at Alfreton Town and while a rousing home win over Droylsden, inspired by Walsall loanee Joe Broad, lifted the mood, optimism was punctured by an FA Cup exit against United Counties League outfit Woodford United.
The struggles continued with a 6-3 home defeat to Workington seeing fans begin to turn for the first time in Brown’s era but the ire was mainly directed at chairman Pat Cremin amid managerial and boardroom unrest over the running of the club.
Players continued to come and go with Brown quitting after a 3-1 defeat at home to Harrogate on December 17, alleging Cremin had asked him to “cut the wage bill by 50 per cent” on the back of the club being placed under a transfer embargo.
Assistant Gary Whild, who had followed Brown to the Reds from Stourport Swifts, was left with a quandary. Remain with the board battling Cremin and take over as manager or follow Brown who would soon turn up at arch rivals Bromsgrove Rovers. 
He stayed and led a valiant effort, although Redditch appeared doomed after a dreadful six-pointer at Leigh, the chance to salvage a point from two down blown when a late penalty was scuffed by Wilding and the follow up blazed over by Paul Moore. 
Hope was restored a week later when Nuneaton Borough, in between FA Cup ties with Middlesbrough, and Vauxhall Motors were gunned down 3-0.
Whild’s rejigged side continued to compete but lacked a cutting edge, drawing many matches and a run of one win in 15 from there saw them remain embroiled in a battle for survival.
Indeed, Redditch should have been in the drop zone going into the final day only for Leigh’s point from a 2-2 draw with Hucknall to get chalked off, leaving them level on points but behind by eight on goal difference ahead of entertaining champions Northwich Victoria.
Backmarkers Hednesford trailed both by two with a vastly-inferior goal difference, meaning the Reds knew a win would keep them up.
THE MATCH
Despite a strong start from the Reds, Barrow took the lead five minutes in.
Steve Ridley swung in a free-kick from the left and the unmarked Jonathan Smith steered in from the edge of the six-yard box.
Pre-match optimism was punctured in the stands but the hosts refused to lie down with Wilding and striker partner Richard Adams going close prior to another scare, Bluebirds hitman Gavin Knight lifting over when one-on-one with United keeper Richard Anstiss.
Redditch pounced on that reprieve, Wilding flicking a looping header off the back of his head in off the far post from Damian Whitcombe’s free-kick in the 31st minute.
Buoyed by the goal, Whild's charges went on the front foot either side of the break with Palmer having three shots, the first two of which had to be saved by keeper Simon Bishop.

Palmer’s breakthrough finally came on 62 minutes with the slightest of touches on Asa Charlton’s centre and United kept pushing in a bid to make the game safe, Adams, Jermaine Clarke, Wilding and fans’ favourite Richard Field all firing off target.
That profligacy, an Achilles heel all season, set up a tense finale, particularly as news filtered through that Leigh had won, but Reds stood firm and saw through the required result.
THE REACTION
Naturally, the story gripped the region as an all-for-one effort, the ultimate triumph over adversity in a season that the club fans had got to know came apart on so many levels.
Whild told the Birmingham Mail’s Ian Johnson: “It is great to have that side of things (off-field issues) settled and it is fantastic to have achieved the seemingly impossible by staying up.
“Having been on both sides of the fence I know exactly how much effort has been put in on the pitch and in the boardroom to get this club back on course.
“Since taking over at Christmas I have not been able to fault the effort of the players. They have given me everything and deserved a good drink after Barrow.
“However, to finish where we did means there are weaknesses in the squad and this has to be addressed by me and coach Kim Casey, who I have to say did a great job with the team. It’s a pleasure to work with him.
“Redditch were probably written off by many people two years ago when we were promoted but we have survived two seasons. We now have a blank canvas and having learned a massive amount in the past few months we must build on that.
“We will not be carrying the massive baggage of last season when the fans were protesting and making life difficult. They were entitled to their views but this next season we want them on our side.”
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Things stabilised on the pitch and United generally stayed ahead of any relegation fears for a couple of campaigns bar the odd mid-season scare.
Off the pitch it was a different matter, though. Relations between the five directors left when Cremin departed eventually became strained and a mooted merger with Bromsgrove led to a boycott by fans in 2008.
Whild continued to keep the Reds out of the drop zone against growing odds before heading to Kidderminster Harriers as Steve Burr’s assistant.
The effect of ongoing cutbacks could not be contained and the club crashed out of the Conference North in 2011 with current chairman Chris Swan’s taking over long after hope of survival had vanished.

Sunday 12 April 2020

QUIZ: Name the manager of each Premiership club at the start of 2005-6

The managerial merry-go-round shifts at quite a pace so how well will you do with this teaser from 2005-6?

Chelsea finished up as champions with Birmingham City, West Brom and Sunderland heading through the relegation trapdoor.

There were changes along the way but can you name the man in charge of each Premiership (as it was called then) club at the start of the season?

To keep things simple, the surnames will do.

Take care to spell them correctly to flag up the right answers. You have 10 minutes and don't forget to tell us how you did on Facebook and Twitter.