Ian

I'm not so sure. OK, the guy deserves a title, but would that no simply encourage him to retire at the top? Do we really want another Penhall situation where we don't have a world champion competing?

Maybe I'll give it another go and see what happens, Norman. Certainly some of the threads on that forum were very interesting.

I tried that one a while back Norman. I didn't think much of it; you get serious abuse if you suggest that George Hunter might actually have out-gated Peter Craven in that fateful race at Meadowbank.

Sandman, as Paul Newman memorably remarked to Robert Redford in The Sting, "You're a real horse's ass!" It just seems a pity that the rancour which seems to have pervaded so many other parts of this forum has now found its way onto the "Years Gone By" section. There was a time when those of us who enjoy wallowing in nostalgia could do so without that sort of thing.

Is it really necessary to keep repeating the same insults? Is there something wrong with you?

It wasn't the greatest album ever, was it? Actually, that was part of what was reported at the time to be "artistic differences" which led to my departure. There are times when you just have to do your own thing. A bit like sailing, really.

Things ain't what they used to be on the old royalty front, Sandman. The main problem has been free music sites on the web. It's OK until it hits you in the pocket. Smaller boat? No aircon? No icemaker? Come on! You won't be happy until I'm reduced to sitting in a sailboat waiting to see whether the wind blows. In fact, if I ever make another album I'll name it after you Sandman. "Waiting to see whether the wind blows".

I sometimes wonder about all of these technical developments in speedway. Yesterday I read somewhere that Berwick's track record is still held by - wait for it - Steve McDermott! This must mean that either the bikes are getting no faster or else the tracks are getting slower. I wonder which it is?

I first saw Nigel riding for Coventry at Glasgow White City early in 1965 - the first year of the amalgamated British League. This big question of the day was whether Charlie Monk, the home hero, could beat him. I think Charlie did, but my memory is of Nigel's spectacular riding. His style was such that he always seemed to look faster than the guy in front of him, although it must be said that few riders stayed in front of him for all four laps. It was also a novelty to see the famous blue leathers. We'd all heard about them, but in those distant days of a black-and-white Speedway Star we looked forward to seeing the real thing.

Like you, MM, I was privileged to see all of these riders. The sisties were indeed a great time to be a speedway fan. Just one point: you seem to have joined two Russian riders together! You're speaking about Gabby Kadirov and Gennady Kurilenko. (Kadirov was the one with the "Beatle" hairstyle). No doubt you'll also remember that Newcastle favourite Mike Watkin, known as the Mudlark because of his immense scoring on very wet tracks. Then there was Ivor Brown, whom we all detested.

I don't often watch Sky, but I made an exception yesterday for the SWC Final. As a matter of interest, are the commercial breaks always that frequent? And are they always that repetitive? Also, can anyone tell me what "Current TV, share your world" means? And do they really have to keep saying that?

One thing's for sure. A "less tyrannical brand" of Nazism wasn't practised anywhere.

Correct. And it never became a communist state either. I was responding to your hypothesis with another hypthesis. I'm still waiting to hear what problems we faced as a result of Yugoslavian communism. My recollect is that many Brits used to go there on holiday, so it can't have been that much of a threat.

If we're going to look at history then let's at least make some attempt to interpret it sensibly. The eastern side of the Adriatic became communist after the war when the then Yugoslavia incorporated all of the shore from the Italian border to the Albanian one. The Adriatic is nothing more than an arm of the Mediterranean, and its total shoreline is vast because of the number of Adriatic islands. Perhaps you could let us know what dreadful problems that caused? Germany may have had all sorts of reasons for backing Franco, but their main input to Spanish domestic politics was the bombing of Guernica by the Luftwaffe. This was nothing other than a racist attack on a city whose population was mainly Basque (which I would imagine to be non-Aryan, in Hitler's volatile imagination). In any case, would a German puppet Spain have been in some way preferable to a communist one?

The "Morning Star" could always be relied upon to provide information which was never available in the mainstream press. However, their article on Clem Beckett reveals a little-known technical fact about pre-war speedway, and one of which I must admit to having been unaware. "Clem Beckett loved the dirty growl of his bike's engine, the smell of diesel and hot metal filling his nostrils." So there we have it: a diesel-engined speedway bike back in the 1930s. I wonder why it never caught on? The "Morning Star" being what it is, I suspect that if we wait another fifty years or so they'll be proclaiming that some well-known rider from the early 1980s actually rode a coal-fired bike in support of the miners' strike. It's an interesting story about Clem Beckett though. Does anyone know whether he ever rode against Flying Fay, the Fanatical Fascist?

I remember this remarkable guy riding for the Polish test teams in Britain back in the mid-sixties. He had a few off-track specialties too. The most famous was in the changing rooms at Old Meadowbank where he climbed to the rafters and dived into three inches of water.

The actor was Ian Charleson.

The accident that ended Guy Allott's career was in 1963 when he fell off the tractor at Sheffield. I think Alan Graham started riding a few years after that.

Is it possible that someone at the BSPA (or at any rate the PL part of it) has woken up to the fact that the GP may actually be detrimental to the interests of the Premier League? It always seemed to me that PL tracks selling GP tickets was akin to turkeys voting for an early Christmas.

No it doesn't, DK. You have to have a fertile imagination to believe that cutting prices by 50% would result in attendances doubling. Much as most of us don't like to admit it, the reason tracks are poorly attended is that there are not enough people interested in going along. The only outcome, I suspect, of dropping admission prices would be a financial loss for the tracks concerned, and that wouldn't do any of us any good.

Brilliant, Bagpuss!

I'm sorry I missed this. Incidentally, Jimmy is still a regular at Armadale. One of nature's gentlemen.

I mentioned the Scottish Match Race Championship earlire. This was a nominated evet, and was run on a best-of-three basis. In the Meadowbank days it featured contests between the likes of Doug Templeton and George Hunter for Monarchs against Charlie Monk for Tigers. These were eagerly-awaited events, and my recollection is that we were seldon disappointed. I'd love to see it back this year, now that Glasgow have two credible riders in Messrs Parker and Grieves. Pit them against Ryan Fisher or THJ or Matthew Wethers or Andrew Tully and we'd see cracking races both at Artmadale and Glasgow. Would it add to the gate? I don't know, but surely it wouldn't cost all that much to run. Similar events could be held elsewhere - maybe Wolves vs Coventry for the Midlands Match Race Championship etc. Speedway needs new ideas, and this would be an easy one to implement.

As far as I know, Dave, the Provincial League of the 1960s was the origin of the Silver Sash. The National League's equivalent was the Golden Helmet. More to the point though, why is it not in use today? The formula was simple: when the holder of the Sash rode in a meeting the opposing team's top scorer on the night would race him for the Sash after the meeting. I can't have been expensive to stage and it added a bit of interest to the meeting. Golden Helmet match races, by comparison, were pre-arranged and, I think, best of three races. Since the 1960s speedway has all but lost everything other than basic league competitions. Bring back the Silver Sash! Failing that, how about a return for the Scottish Match Race Championship?

I think you'll find that was 12.5p, Ron. You'll remember there being 8 half-crowns in a pound, not to mention thirteen shillings and fourpence being two-thirds of a pound etc. Always assuming that their "best rider" only scored 5 from 4 (5 points at £1 each plus fouir starts at 10/- each). You must have been thinking of Glasgow, DK.