Curtis Sports Speedway 2022 Sticker Collection

[LeicesterRob]

Well I never thought I'd ever get to post a thread on my favourite sport (Speedway) here especially as in 100 years it has never had a sticker collection... well now we do!



Overview:

Date Released: April 2022
Pages: 42
Clubs: 17 (Premiership + Championship clubs)
Stickers: 170 (10 per club including badge, manager, team + the 7 man team portraits)

OK so many of you have never heard of Speedway unless you live in UK, Poland, Sweden or Denmark mainly and even then it's dropped from a big sport until the 80s/90s to what is now the equivalent of the 6th tier in football

The album covered all 17 clubs that competed in the top two leagues in the UK last year and it's actually very good!

It's produced by Curtis Sports that make most of the football programmes too so they have very good printers and very good paper quality too.

So with clubs typical attendances hovering from 1800-2000 per week for the big clubs like Belle Vue, Oxford etc down to 300 for the smaller clubs, meaning this could not be made with packets like Panini or Topps as there just aren't that many collectors.

So instead each week a new set of stickers were released that could be bought direct from Curtis Sports so unless you bought more than one set then you won't have any duplicates! Panini take note!

The actual album is excellent quality and well laid out too:







The stickers come in sheets like this:



The stickers have a matt feel and perhaps not quite as luxurious as top end Panini but still incredibly good.

So after waiting all my life asking my Dad in the 80s is there a Panini Speedway album, we not only have the 2022 album to enjoy but the best news for this collector is the 2023 album has just been released!

 

[dantzig]

Speedway for me was all about the crashes when drifting But I think Eurosport sometimes broadcast it.

Anyway, it sure looks a lovely album, Rob! My only "complaint" is not having images of the races, I'm sure there plenty of good shots taken during those races... maybe now in the new 2023 album?

 

[LeicesterRob]

Speedway for me was all about the crashes when drifting But I think Eurosport sometimes broadcast it.

Anyway, it sure looks a lovely album, Rob! My only "complaint" is not having images of the races, I'm sure there plenty of good shots taken during those races... maybe now in the new 2023 album?

Oh yeah Eurosport has the rights here for GP and British league speedway, it used to be such a big sport leading into the 80s in Britain racing in football style stadiums but almost all of that has gone now.

It's huge in Poland with football style arenas and massive crowds every week but here most clubs have to fight off the landowners that just want to build houses + warehouses on precious land.

That's a great point about having action shots as you're right, that will add a lot more to it.

I have to admit I was expecting this to be a one season only collection, so was pleasantly surprised to see the 2023 edition out which now includes the third tier (more of a development league with a mix of second teams and small clubs) - I'd better put my order in before you all buy it, haha!