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Ian

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Everything posted by Ian

  1. This section of the Forum contains a large number of interesting posts from those of us who can look back over many years of watching speedway, and also those who are keen to know more about what it was all like. We've had threads about who was the best rider, what was the best meeting, what was the best track and things of that type. Here's one, though. Who was the greatest promoter of his or her time? I started watching the sport in 1962, so I have a few to consider in my list. But first we need to define what it is that makes a promoter "great". Is it long-term commitment to a club? Is it showmanship? Personality? Business acumen? PR capability? Maybe it's a combination of these and other factors. I suppose that Johnnie Hoskins would get a very high percentage of the vote if a poll were held. The Great Man's place in history is assured by the sheer volume of written and anecdotal evidence which surrounds him, together with the not inconsiderable advantage of being credited by many with having "invented" the sport. However, Johnnie was probably past his peak by even the early sixties so I'm not sure I could put him in first position. I can immediately think of five from the 60s whom I would regard as "up there or thereabouts". Here they are. Ian Hoskins during his Old Meadowbank era. A showman supreme, helped along by his experience and interest in acting. Ian could hold an audience of 6000 in the palm of his hand; he would run the whole gamut of emotions from A through to B (apologies to Dorothy L Parker!) and then on a bit further. Any small snippet of information would attain the significance of a worldwide exclusive; the arrival of his latest signing would be heralded as if it were the second coming. A home defeat for Monarchs called for every response short of actual invasion of the victorious team's town, or in the case of really heavy defeats, possibly even England. He managed to convey much of that personality through into the press too. Perhaps his most endearing characteristic was his capacity for letting us all laught at him as well as with him. Len Silver at his best at Hackney. To be honest I always thought he had learned a lesson or two from the Hoskins family because there were some similarities. The nickname "Leaping Len" was certainly justified by the energy he would put into these Friday night shows. Who else could make such a major issue of throwing a coin into the crowd after the toss? Trevor Redmond in the 60s promoted at Neath, then at Glasgow. Here was another larger-than-life personality who knew how to get a crowd going (and that's largely what "atmosphere" at meetings is about, isn't it?) I think Trevor drifted away from speedway after his spell at Wembley in the early 1970s, and I always felt that was our loss. Here's a controversial nomination - Mike Parker. After the disastrous slump in attendances in the middle 1950s, the long climb back to a golden age for speedway started in 1960 with the formation of the Provincial League. Mike Parker started that league, and I seem to remember that he owned about half the teams that participated. I never saw a Mike Parker-promoted meeting; perhaps he was a thoroughly dull individual. But it can't be denied that Mike, along with partners like Reg Fearman and Bill Bridgett, really went for it and may have been speedway's salvation. Controversial? He certainly would have been on this Forum. After all, he looked like a guy who was making money, and he owned more tracks that the Russell brothers have had hot dinners. If the greatest promoter is defined as the one who makes the biggest success of the largest number of tracks then Mike's the boy. He was astute enough to resist trying to be popular - that was a job for the riders. How about Dave Lanning at West Ham in 1965, first year of the British League? A fabulous team and a brilliant front man. I remember the night they came to Meadowbank as one of the most memorable meetings I ever saw. We were beaten, but did it really matter? There was a virtuoso performance by Big Dave and Ian Hoskins each doing their bit to get the crowd going. Sheer theatre of course, but theatre of a very high standard. Dave went on to bring his enthusiasm to many an ITV speedway broadcast, and may well have won over new fans in the course of doing so. That's my five for today, with apologies to all the good guys whom I didn't mention. Incidentally, they all had one common understanding which I sometimes think is lost on some of today's promoters - they knew the importance of projecting the personalities of their riders to the fans, and they were smart enough to let the riders get on and do that.
  2. A couple of days ago I found myself thinking about something which I'd forgotten about for some years. It was the appalling newspaper reports about race-fixing in speedway, and I think it was in the News of the World. Was it in the late 1970s? I realise that many forum members will be too young to have seen this, and I can't remember much detail about it. Can anyone help me remember who was involved, what they are supposed to have done, and what year it was? My own recollection is that some of the sport's biggest names were involved (I can only remember a paticular favourite of mine, Reidar Eide). Obviously I've searched the internet for any reference to Norbold's "Speedway's Greatest Fixes", "Speedway's Greatest Scandals" and even "Britain's Crappiest Newpapers", but without success.
  3. Ian

    Man From Uzbeqistan

    Listening to today's news of the tragic events in the Uzbeqi town of Azbizhan, I got to wondering whether there has ever been an Uzbeqi rider in speedway. I may be completely wrong about this, but I think that one member of the superb Russian touring sides of the mid-sixties was from the capital, Tashkent. Was it Gab Kadirov? I'd be pleased to hear if anyone knows the answer to this, as it's the sort of question which will annoy me now for days on end.
  4. Apparently he was fined the equivalent of almost £4000. It makes you wonder what the penalty would have been had the little lad actually done something naughty.
  5. No trick intended. Clearly my knowledge of West Lothian from the air doesn't match your own. Thanks for the answer though.
  6. The picture which goes with that article - does anyone know which stadium it depicts?
  7. Iris is right though, Tsunami. In the fifty years I have been watching speedway the only changes I can recall to track surfaces are that they have become generally slicker and that they no longer seem to use sawdust on wet tracks. There may, of course, be a perfectly good reason for the latter - I don't know. I apologise if I have posted this before, but somewhere out there must lie a solution to the wet track problem. After all, it can't be beyond a species which managed to send men to the moon and back to come up with some more weatherproof surface than we have now. My best suggestion is that the BSPA, or FIM or whatever, offer a research project to a number of technical universities aimed at finding a better surface material. It wouldn't cost that much, and we'd have some of the country's finest brains working on it. Alternatively, we could all be defeatists and just sit back and hope for the best that next summer is a bit drier than this one has been, which I suspect is what will happen.
  8. Probably the reason is that air fares fluctuate wildly inside and outside of the school holidays. For example, I just looked at tickets between London and Dubrovnik around 31st October, which is over £400 with British Airways. Five days later (after the English half-term holiday) the same flight is £50. Now that's on a short 2.5 hour flight, so scale that up to the 24-hour haul to Australia and the cost differences can be dramatic. This seems to happen with riders every year. It's unprofessional, but you can see the reason for it.
  9. Ian

    Premier League 2013

    To some extent it was the survival of the fittest, and I believe that Wimbledon won the National leaugue (which was the first tier) for a significant number of consecutive seasons. Was that a problem? Not really. Wimbledon fans seemed happy enough to watch large home wins every week, and the attraction of such a strong visiting team ensured a good payday for the other promoters. The real answer is to allow team-building to a fixed average, but to give discounted averages to riders based on how long they have stayed with the one team. I cannot see the attraction of supporting a team which changes riders every couple of weeks.
  10. From the top drawer, most likely.... sorry Nige.
  11. This really is the most unwarranted attack. Tsunami's not all that old.
  12. He'll be wearing a pink cushion next!
  13. Ian

    Berwick Bandits 2013

    So, to summarise. The plain fact is that you actually know nothing at all, and your entire post is constructed from hearsay, gossip and speculation. Is life in the Borders really so dull that you have to resort to this sort of nonsense to keep yourself amused?
  14. I have to agree with this. Speedway likes to bill itself as a "family sport". Nicki Pedersen' s choice of language is at odds with that description. Some years ago one of his fellow Danish internationals described Pedersen to me as "a great rider, but just a yob". Sadly he seems to go out of his way to prove that too many times.
  15. Ian

    West Ham Memories

    Old Meadowbank wasn't all that big - 363 yards (332 metres). However, it had very wide sweeping bends which made it look big, and the short straights meant that riders generally weren't too spaced out. Glasgow's White City was exactly the opposite, with very long straights and hairpin bends. Compared with these West Ham looked huge, but I never thought much of the racing there. Perhaps that's because speedway is a bit like fags and booze in that you get hooked on a specific brand and nothing else is ever quite the same.
  16. Ian

    New Rayleigh Rockets Dvd

    Ivan Miller, eh? Does the DVD cover the race against Berwick where Miller knocked Willie Templeton off and brother Doug wrestled him from his bike? If it does then I'll happily buy a copy. To this day that's one of the funniest things I ever saw at a speedway meeting!
  17. Ian

    Ludvik Staric

    My Slovenian is also limited, but I can tell you that "Kranjec" means a Slovenian. Croatians call them "Kecec", after a cartoon character.
  18. Ian

    Nickname Query

    I recall them being Bears during the 1960s. I think the use of the Teeside name came about following name changes in local government.
  19. Ian

    Did Anybody Know About This?

    I'm sure Bert must be as popular in the United States as he is here, Bryn. I'm not sure haggis is banned in the US though, although it's not legal to import it. I used to know a town in New Jersey (damned if I can remember the name if it) where there was a significant Scots population. The local butcher made both haggis and black pudding. It's strange how you find those little outposts of civilisation in the most unlikely places. PS Just remembered - it was called Kearny.
  20. Ian

    Johnny Fitzpatrick

    Eric Boothroyd was certainly in the team. So, I think, was a very young Eric Boocock. I think a third member of that Middlesborough team may have been Slant Payling.
  21. Ian

    Weren't Second Halves Wonderful

    It seems to be widely believed nowadays that some of the old second half races were a bit of a sham, with riders agreeing to split the prize money etc. I have no idea whether that was true, but I recall with great pleasure the weekly Rider of the Night finals from Meadowbank. I remember local heroes like George Hunter and Dougie Templeton facing the likes of Monk, Mauger, Boothroyd and Squibb. If they weren't actually "racing" then they certainly had me fooled.
  22. Ian

    Eight Points And Fourth!

    I once had a long chat with Bryan Seery after a match at, I think, Oxford. This was back in the pre-pocket-calculator days and he used arithmetic to compile "Seery's Statistics". If I remember he was a former maths teacher. Is he still around?
  23. Ian

    Wayne Briggs

    Yes, I was there Bob. Along with maybe a couple of thousand Monarchs fans! This must have been one of the most controversial meetings of all time. It was run using a new format which resulted in FIVE riders qualifying for the four-man final. This resulted in a riders' sit-down protest led by Edinburgh skipper Doug Templeton. Incidentally, the new format was the "brainchild" of Speedway Star's Eric Linden; the following week's edition carried the headline "It's not all my fault"! I speak only from memory, but I think you may be wrong on two points about that final race. 1. George Hunter didn't fall - his bike packed up when he was leading Mauger. He also had bike problems in his first two races when his bike "died" at the start and he did really well to make up the best part of a quarter of a lap on each occasion to bag a third and a second respectively. At that time George really was the form rider in the PL - Mauger or no Mauger. 2. I agree that Hunter, Mauger and Kitchen were in the race, but I don't think Wayne Briggs was. I think the fourth rider was Poole's Ross Gilbertson. Incidentally, as a measure of just how good George Hunter was, his sensational performance came just a week or two after the fateful crash with Peter Craven. One Sheffield fan that night started shouting abuse at George, including the word "killer". I'm not especially proud to admit that I hit him very hard. If he's reading this forum then I apologise. When you've watched this sport for the best part of 50 years there are many memories, some for good reasons and some not-so-good. Above all of them, this one stands out for me. Fabulous racing, a huge crowd with great atmosphere, drama; you couldn't choreograph it better. As an occasion it's up there with the Russian test matches, the 1967 World Final and all the other wonderful times. It even outstrips all the thrashings Monarchs have given the Tiggers at Ashfield, and that's saying something! A couple of years ago my good friend Merlin wrote a thrilling account of this meeting. I'll call him tomorrow and ask if he could post it here.
  24. Ian

    Wayne Briggs

    I'm not sure how many (if any) races Wayne had before lining up for Edinburgh, but it wasn't many. I also was under the impression that Murray was the eldest brother, but I'm not sure. As for THE Briggo, he's a remarkable man. It's hard to believe he's actually 75 years old. As you say, he was breathtaking. I might quibble with you about him being the greatest (my having been a Fundin fan) but there can be no doubting the huge role he has played in the sport's history. I mentioned to him that last time I was in Christchurch I was struck by the thought that there was a time when that city could have won the World Team Cup, spearheaded by Barry, Ronnie Moore and Ivan Mauger. You could have added pretty much anyone else to that lineup (Trevor Redmond and Geoff Mardon, maybe?) and they'd still have been far too good for anything the rest of the world could have thrown at them. Wouldn't you agree?
  25. Ian

    Wayne Briggs

    The difference is that you're speaking about two different sports - speedway and grasstrack. Do you generally compare apples with oranges?
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