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iris123

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Posts posted by iris123

  2. Posted

    9 minutes ago, norbold said:

    Presumably because all the tracks (originally) were outside London. It also harked back to the pre-War Provincial League which was an equivalent sort of second division.

    Yes, but they were always heading for trouble if a London club entered. Which Hackney eventually did, and they still kept the name, which made it even stranger. 

     

  3. Posted

    Nothing really, but i was just wondering if there was an explanation as to why they named the league Provincial ? Having no affinity to the league, it just strikes me as a very strange name to give it

  8. Posted · Edited by iris123

    On 2/15/2024 at 8:00 PM, Split said:

    You'll find "The Complete History of the Speedway / Wills / Embassy Internationale by Robert Browne" here:

    https://www.speedwayresearcher.org.uk/wimbledoninternationale.pdf

     

     

    My memory is a bit different crowd-wise. I thought there was a noticeable drop in the crowd from 1973-77. 73-74 were amazing crowds. The cars parked down to the gates of the cemetery, and the queue outside the stadium.... I didn't go to the last couple, but i guess it dropped even further ? Or why did they stop running the meeting ?

    1973 also witnessed two other bumper nights in my memory. The Spring Classic and for me , even better at least a more vocal colourful crowd was the BLRC 2 meeting. I am not sure that was ever topped for the various fan groups with their flags etc

  9. Posted · Edited by iris123

    Roskilde Road Greyhound and Dirt Track.

     

    In order to present the sport best possible, a selection of mainly British riders from the Manchester White City track  were contracted  from the opening day until the end of 1928. They were Dick Hayman, Ted Egerton, Mark Sheldon, Clem Beckett, Arthur Greenwood, Ernie Greenall and John Crump (all England), together with Keith McKay (Australia) and Stewie St. George (New Zealand) and others. At the end of the seas in December Dick Hayman had won  20 raced, thereof 6 in a row. Stewie St. George’s track record was 1,44 minute for 4 laps.
    Clem Beckett and Dick Hayman stayed i Copenhagen through the winter and returned to England at the end of June 1929.

    Season opening March 22nd 1929. Among the first foreigners to come  were Ernie Greenall, Ted Cowley and T. D. Ainthorpe. Greenall won every time he rode, which caused Count Raben to cable to England and ask for a rider “capable of  beating Grenall”. Then the Irishman “Ginger” Lees got dispatched to Copenhagen, where he immediately lowered the track record to 1,39 minute.

    Dirt track goes air borne. (Sure i have seen a photo of some riders, including Clem standing by one of these planes to take them between Copenhagen and Hamburg)
    The Dirt track Company’s first Air express took off from Kastrup airport at 10 o’clock this morning heading for Hamburg, with Air Cpt. Harald Hansen at the controls and with 8 passengers and 3 speedway bikes onboard.
    The bikes were securely fixed in the luggage compartment early this morning. It had been necessary to remove a wheel from each of them.

    http://speedwaylife.com/danish-tracks/roskildevej-dirt-track/

    Also to tie in with this, Beckett's appearance in Hamburg. Maybe it was just the one, or maybe he appeared in subsequent meetings, but wasn't mentioned in the press

     

    A minor sensation happened in the B class for german riders,as after a number of meetings where he so often fell off,Bill Kellner finally won a final!!!A taste of things to come........In the A class for foreign riders a newcomer from England made a sensational start.Clem Beckett won his heat in great style earning loud applause from the crowd.Unfortuntaely for him and the fans,he was carrying an injury that made it difficult for him to compete further.Ned Kelly won a hard fought heat just finishing ahead of Thorkild Claussen

    Johannes Wunders new technique did bring him the win in the main handicap final ahead of the Dane Rasmussen and Herbert Drews

    This time the Friday meeting with its new event could go ahead and seemed to have done what was hoped and attracted a record crowd(for a Friday)with around 18,000 turning up to see the race for the new Douglas bike.The meeting started with a match race challenge between Ned Kelly and Thorkild Claussen ,the first heat of which was described as the best so far this season.Both very evenly matched racing hard against each other.Claussen won 2-0,the second heat far easier than the first.Stewie St.George won the final for foreign riders ahead of English riders Arnold Moore and Jack Wood.And for the second meeting in a row,Bill Kellner won the B class final.He showed his improvement by also qualifying along with Herbert Drews for the handicap final,but it was the Berliner Heck who beat Claussen to the chequered flag followed by Drews and kellner

    In the big final Johannes Wunder kept up his good form,taking revenge on Fritz Niss,who beat him in the quali.Wunder was ut in front from the start and no matter what Niss tried he couldn't get to him.Arnold Stölting was third ahead of Otto Heinrichs

    The sunday meeting featured a match race challenge between Franz Heck and Arnold Moore Watched by 10,000+ the Berliner won the first heat in a great time,just outside the national record with 76.2.The second was far closer with Moore leading all the way in a tough race until Heck made a pass on the last bend to take the match 2-0 just 0.1  second ahead of Moore!!

     Kellner couldn't manage 3 on the trot in the B class as ever improving Herbert Drews beat him into 2nd place.Wunder again managed a good win in the handicap final,although he had a bit of luck that Walter Hulls bike played up whilst leading and Heck also had bike trouble,so onl Arnold Moore could give Johannes a scare in finishing second.

    A couple of days later it was announced that for the next meeting the best dirt track rider in the world was coming to Hamburg.Sprouts Elder!!!Not only that,but track favourite Ginger Lees was making his return from Denmark, having re-taken the track record in Copenhagen.Joining him would be another favourite in Niels Sorensen!!!!

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    6 minutes ago, Bavarian said:

    Shanghai Speedway was promoted by an Australien entrepreneur, Mr. Les Levante, who leased the local greyhound stadium. The first speedway meeting in Shanghai was held on Sunday, June 1, 1930, featuring eleven Australian riders. There were no local riders involved. 

    Levante's touring party had initially travelled from Brisbane to Manila, where a track was constructed in a baseball stadium. For some reason, speedway racing did not catch on in the Philippines, and after only a short stay, Levante and his troupe of riders went on to China. The arrangement with the stadium in Shanghai also was only for a short space of time, and according to the support given, would or would not become a permanent institution in Shanghai. But as in Manila, it didn't catch on in Shanghai, either.

    The names of the eleven speedway riders, who went on this enterprising tour of East Asia in 1930, they are Arthur Yenson, Jack Allen, Mannie Scofell, Harry Lillistone, Billy Lunn, Les Lawrence, Harold Meston, Harry Radford, Len Street, Bernie Rein, and Tommie Tompkins.    

    Great stuff. Lucky i didn't post, as i was going to say, seeing as there wouldn't be any greyhound stadiums in China, where would it have been held ? :D And there were !!! I tried to find out where it might have been held, but could only find an Athletic stadium that was built in 1934. So too late

    Thanks

  14. Posted · Edited by iris123

    15 hours ago, chunky said:

    You know, out of all the early stars of the sport, I probably know less about Max Grosskreutz than any other rider! As a kid, I certainly knew of him, alongside Farndon, Kuhn, Huxley, Johnson, Milne etc, but funny thing is, I have no idea where he should fit in status-wise. He was obviously a class act - but to what level?

    His best finish in a Star Championship was 3rd, never reached a World Final, and was "only" Aussie Champion twice. His league averages generally nothing to write home about, and his highest average came well into his career - in the second division. Yet he is often classed as a "legend".

    There doesn't seem to be a great deal of info about him readily available, and what there is, doesn't really answer any questions. Can anyone help? Doug? Norman?

    I do find stuff like this fascinating...

    I do seem to recall a period, i think from 1934-36 when he was certainly one of the best in the world. He certainly went well in what were some of the major meetings of the season. The England v Australia test series. Taking a guess that he was injured in one, and then missed the next couple. One being his home track of Belle Vue in 1936. I also seem to recall he had some good races for the UK Golden Helmet one of those seasons

    Plus ,and of course it was the year of the first proper World Championship, he did win the major-ish Aussie series in 1936. And i am wondering if the injury (guess) in the Test match also kept him out of the world championship qualis that season. Which would have been his best chance most probably. Looking on Speedway Researcher he was looking pretty formidable, almost unbeatable at Hyde Road, and then missed over a month i think.......Unfortunately the Golden Helmet history was on the Speedway History site, which seems to have disappeared......

     

    1936

    1.V.Huxley,N.Key, S.Langton

    2. B.Wilkinson,C.Parkinson.S.Perkins

    3.J.Milne, McLachlan, A.Atkinson

    4.W.Phillips, D.Haigh, B.Lamont

    5. T.Stevenson, F.Pearce

    6.M.Grosskreutz, C.Mitchell, R.Stobart

    Semi finals

    1. V.Huxley, B.Wilkinson, C.Mitchell

    2.W.Phillips,J.Milne, N.Key

    3. M.Grosskreutz, T.Stevenson, C.Parkinson

    Final

    M.Grosskreutz, V.Huxley, W.Phillips

    Although i'd sort of say the 'legend' title is more regional (Brisbane) than international

  15. Posted

    Max Grosskreutz (1906 – 1994) - A Legend in the History of the Speedway Machine

    From a very early age, Maximillian (Max) Grosskreutz had a yearning to become a speedway rider. Max was born at Foxdale in 1906, the youngest of eleven children of William Grosskreutz, a German who had emigrated to Australia as a child in 1873 and eventually purchased a sugar cane farm in Proserpine in 1897.  

    When not helping in the cane fields, Max would be off riding his motor cycle, much to the annoyance of the neighbours. But that did not faze him. Nor did a serious accident when he rode into a barbed wire fence. He began his motor-cycle career on a makeshift grass track at the showgrounds in Bowen, riding his Indian Scout road bike to win his first race with the prize money of £10.

    In 1928, Max moved to Brisbane where, as a 22 year old, he won the Australian Title at Davies Park (becoming the first official Australian Champion). Thus began a meteoric rise to fame and he became the greatest idol the Brisbane speedway-going public had ever had, known to fans as “The Northern Flash”.

    In 1929, he was signed up to ride in England. For ten years, Max raced for several British clubs regularly returning for the Australian season. In 1930, Max rode in the first official Test against England and then made forty-one consecutive appearances against England, over seven years. In 1935, he finished third in the Star Riders’ Championship – the forerunner to the Speedway World Championship. In 1936, he won both NSW and Australian Championships.

    When war broke out in 1939, Max and his family secured a passage on the last ship to leave England, settling in Sydney. But once hostilities ceased, Max returned to racing on Friday nights at the Sydney Sports Ground. In 1946, he was again NSW Champion. This success persuaded him to return 

    to the UK for the 1947 season, again proving a great drawcard. In 1948, he broke three track records in a week, however after a serious crash on August 2, at the age of 42, he decided to call it a day.  

    The “pudding basin” helmets, heavy black belted armour and bulky cumbersome machines made the speedway circuit no place for the faint-hearted. But Max was not of the faint-hearted – he rode with an injured neck, jaw, cracked ribs and even a chipped skull. Twice he was reported dead! Max once said, “You haven’t got to be mad to be a speedway rider, but it helps.”

    Max Grosskreutz was not just a successful speedway rider; he was also a pioneer in the sport. In 1934, when he inspired an Australian Test victory over England, Max had ridden a machine of his own design built from pieces discarded by fellow riders - the prototype of the now famous Grosskreutz frames.

    Max was offered substantial amounts of money for his secret. In an interview in 1992, he recalled – “It was easy because the bike was much lighter. My engine was put back in the centre. They were all forward, that was their problem. They didn’t wake up for a long time. They started to catch up when I sold my bike to Bluey Wilkinson.” In 1936, when Wilkinson won all of the world final races mounted on one of Max’s frames, orders poured in and so it was that the Grosskreutz frame generated the standard design of frames to follow.

    Proserpine salutes your memory, Max Grosskreutz, a world-beating sporting hero from our small town.

    Story courtesy of Proserpine Historical Museum and photos from “Speedway Past Australia”

    https://www.mackayandwhitsundaylife.com/article/from-the-bush-to-the-big-time

  18. Posted · Edited by iris123

    Tbh and maybe i missed it, but Wimbledon's end of season, usually the Laurels was pretty tame apart fom the meeting-wise. It was mainly just the meeting and then fireworks from memory. Hackey and Len Silver on the other hand was a 'good show' and well worth crossing the river for. Len was a real promoter and sadly Maido wasn't

  19. Posted · Edited by iris123

    1 hour ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

    Well, it actually always was about sprints - namely a given number of very short races that form a meeting. :D 

    What it's never been about is endurance races (apart from occasional 16-lap gimmicks) or timed qualifying. 

     

    Just jumped to the conclusion that when they announced these new sprints, they would of course be something different. I never in my life thought it was just the same old 4 laps under a new name. I was thinking more of the one lap dash/flying lap that they used to have as a filler. Although quite by coincdence i think the only few i saw were at Stralsund and a certain Mr Morris was the fastest :D

    Ivan Mauger breaking the 1km flying lap

    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=734870230870249

  22. Posted · Edited by iris123

    12 hours ago, enotian said:

    excellent point

    hopefully discovery will read it and abandon the idea.

    my take on 'sprint races' in F1, Moto GP and WSB is that they're required because the full length races are dull and they need to fill 3 days content.

    Only in speedway could the sprint race be the same distance as the normal race. 

    I didn't realise this until you posted, but even worse than i thought. Nothing revolutionary, as they try to state. 4 riders on track at the same time doing a sprint over 4 laps. Which if i am correct, and my memory not failing me, as it has been a few years since i attended a meeting now, is what used to be called in the old days a heat. The fastest rider wins, just like in the old heats.....

    Trying to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear here :D 

    • Like 3

  23. Posted

    At least that

    But this touches upon a topic that was discussed on the darts thread

    Speedway isn't about sprints. Never was. And this is the problem with many sports that the ruling body for whatever reason start introducing rulings fiddling with things that change the nature of the sport altogether. Will we get points for best style ? Best looking outfit ? Or point reduction for a certain number of failures to complete a race ?

  25. Posted

    3 minutes ago, arnieg said:

    There were exceptions, Tilehurst was full of 'teenyboppers' for (ahem) Gary Glitter in 1973.

    Sure around that time Alvin Stardust came to Plough Lane. I can't be sure if he boosted the crowd . I do remember shaking all over during some of the cold early Spring meetings though 

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