Chadster

First one I have clear memories of was Belle Vue v Newport in 1967.Heat 1 ended Nevitt, Roper, Erskine, Golden. I think Tommy Roper and Jon Erskine are still going, but I'm not sure about Norman Nevitt. Alby Golden died some years back.

Another point is that the league in 1966 was arguably stronger. Riders like Nordin, Fundin and Jansson didn't ride in 65 and Betts, Peter Moore and Persson appeared only briefly in 65 but rode a full season in 66.

That Halifax consisted of 7 riders who had ridden in the PL in 1964, so an impressive feat. West Ham in 1965 really clicked into gear n the second half of the season when Simmons hit top form and Tony Clarke came in at reserve and added a bit of sting there. The season long averages tend to cover that up.

Apologies, I didn't make myself clear. I was referring to Hackney specifically. It seemed to me (from afar) to have a good reputation as a racetrack in the 60s, but there were some bad accidents there from the mid 70s. I remember seeing some bad crases at Hyde Road in the 60s.

Thinking on, the bad accidents seemed to happen from the mid 70s on, so was it that the track struggled to accomodate the faster bikes that developed with the introduction of four valves?

I was there the night Denny Pyeatt was killed and that was the lamp standards, which the next had all been covered in old tyres. It's difficult to explain, because it didn't seem to have a scary reputation like Exeter, with its steel fence, nor was it seen as a difficult track to ride like Newport, which a lot of riders seemed to absolutely hate and Len Silver was well known for always trying to provide a good surface. It may be that it was just one of those tracks that encouraged riders to have a go and that may have caused accidents.

Mine was 69. Mauger won in a canter and didn't even need to take his last ride. I remember a terrific ride by Briggs to win his first race passing Moore and McKinlay on the last lap. Ken McKinlay was very much in the running at the interval with 7 points from his three rides, but then didn't pick up another point from his last two races.

In fairness to Parker, Sunderland was not a great success when it reopened in the early 70s. Maybe, it's just not a speedway town, like Liverpool obviously wasn't. I think he was a little unlucky with the Liverpool and Bradford teams in the 1960 season as he stuck to the original ethos of the League whilst other promotions opted for very experienced teams. Not that that was always successful, as although Rayleigh won the league they closed down at the end of the year as runaway home wins led to dwindling support.

I think he sold up his last track in the 80s so he was in speedway for about a quarter of a century, which suggests that he had a feel for the sport. He was the driving force behind both the PL and BL Division 2, without which it's difficult to see how the sport could have enjoyed it's last golden period in the 60s and 70s.

Read on-line today that the stock cars are going back to racing on tarmac at Odsal.

I suppose there is the NORA thing, which was nipped in the bud last season. The cost of hiring my learned friends to slug it out in court would surely be highly unattractive to all parties.

An interesting post. Certainly the sport was in the doldrums in 1958, but one big difference then and now was that in 1958 there were many stadia ready and waiting for speedway to be staged there. Hence, it was relatively easy matter to re-open 10 tracks when the Provincial League started and even Division 2 in 1968 saw a number ot tracks re-open. Where today are the stadia that could easily stage speedway? A much smaller number, I think

Peter Oakes running a piece in the Star saying that the 'new' track might be Brafield.

I saw a lot of Gordon at White City, where he was a real star. Someone earlier mentioned seeing him riding long-track style at Belle Vue and he cetainly did that at Wood Lane. One of the main men in the league, but I felt rather under-rated at the time. He was formidable again whenhe dropped down at Eastbourne and there were some great battles between the Dons and the Eagles.

Think Belle Vue might have been one of the first, sponsored by the Piccadilly Gold radio station.