Ian

Sorry Iris, I can't remember the whole story but..... Lex Milloy I think became a successful stuntman in Hollywood. Other than that, the only thing I remember from seeing him ride is that he had a highly-painted bike.

Well of course we had proper protests in those days. Who could ever forget the sit-down strike at the 1963 Provincial League Riders Championship?

I can't be certain about 1967 Grachan, but I can tell you that in the old Provincial Leage (1960-64, RIP) riders were fined the princely sum of £1 for breaking the tapes. I remember this vividly because George Hunter was usually fined close to once per meeting, although I think the fine was usually paid for him either by Ian Hoskins or the supporters. Incidentally, the pay rates in those days were frugal. £1 per start and £1 per point. A 12-point maximum therefore earned the rider £16.

That's possible Bryn. It even varies widely from one UK track to another. If I want to be peppered with grit then I go to Scunthorpe; if I prefer the slower death through choking then it's Rye House.

I've no doubt that no effort was spared to get the track right, Bryn. What I don't understand is this: how does the Polish league manage to operate in similar conditions throughout the summer afternoons? I've never seen racing in Poland. Is massive amounts of dust just something they accept there?

Yes, I enjoyed the Rockets/Monarchs match. The standard of racing however just doesn't compare with what's on offer at Armadale, for example. I don't know how many meetings you see in a season, Andy, or how many of these are at tracks other than Rye House, but I'm guessing it's not all that many. A meeting at Rye House holds certain attractions: for the nostalgic, it's probably as close as you get nowadays to "old-style" presentation of meetings (I suspect Len Silver tries to model himself on Johhnie Hoskins, and good luck to him). What lets the whole thing down is the lack of multiple lines on the first and second bends; after a couple of heats there really isn't any passing to speak of on the inside. My recollection of the track from the old National League days of the 70s is that racing was better, and I certainly don't remember all that dust from Sunday afternoons there. I know all the arguments about the difficulty of afternoon meetings but they seem to struggle along OK in Poland, don't they?

By definition, I'd describe heat 19 as infrequent. You don't get that many heat 19s, do you?

I quite enjoyed this meeting (or as much as I could see of it through the billowing clouds of dust). To be fair, the Rye track is never going to produce racing of the highest order but then most heats didn't produce heat winners half a lap ahead of everyone else either. I see a few posters have commented on how smart the stadium was looking. I didn't notice that, but then it usually looks OK anyway. What was good was to see a meeting where there was a good crowd distributed all the way round the stadium. The size of the crowd surprised me, as did being met by two car park attendants by the bridge who told me that the car park was full. That was a good forty-five minutes before the meeting started. Zengota and Wells both impressed, and Sczepaniak had his moments. I suspect that Lewis Bridger (is that really the future of British speedway?) would not have gone through without the cooperation of Tai Woffinden, but we'll never really know. Chris Holder looked a little less dominant than I expected, and Troy Batchelor was never going to be beaten. Congratulations to all the qualifiers and to Len and Co for a well-presented meeting - except for the dust, that is.

Yes, very best of luck Arnieg.

Ivan Mauger started in the 1950s - maybe 1957? He was still riding in special meetings, eg Golden Greats in the 1980s. Did he ride into the 90s?

He was also team manager that year when West Ham visited Edinburgh. He and Ian Hoskins did a tremendous double-act on the centre green winding each other up. That was in the days when speedway was infinitely more theatrical than it is now. That was a great West Ham team, incidentally. I think that was the year they had Ken McKinlay and Sverre Harrfeldt.

That's the name Ian Hoskins gave hit at Edinburgh. Older Monarchs fans will also remember for for having the biggest handlebars in speedway. I often thought it was a pity Dudley didn't stick it out a bit longer in British speedway. In his last season he was definitely showing signs of moving up a notch.

I think there was a young Pole in 2004 who rode for Swindon. Rafal Kurmanski. You also hear occasionally about ex-riders who have died in tragic circumstances, but I don't want to start a list.

Sadly, I think you'd find there have been quite a few others.

Hope that helps.

Not exactly, Paul. It's Reidar.

Yes, Bryan Seery was the man as far as averages went. He used to have a feature every week in Speedway Star - "Seery's Statistics". I think he was a maths teacher. I once asked him how he managed all this data - remember, this was pre-calculator days. He told me that it was all done on paper, so he must have had a good arithmetical brain. A nice guy too.

A little before my time, Bobbath, but I have read a few snippets over the years about Don. He was a Yorkshireman, and I believe he was by profession a confectioner, but I certainly can't swear to that. He certainly rode for Monarchs in the late 40s/early 50s though.

He was English. Other than that (which is bad enough) I can't remember anything about him.

Kevin Torpie was a real one-off! He was an incredibly fast gater; had the world championship at that time been run only as far as the first thirty yards Kevin would have been world champion. Mauger's gating was snail-like by comparison. Sadly, he was almost invariably last coming out of the second bend. His crowning glory came in a Scottish Cup match when he clinched the title by beating, if I remember, Trevor Redmond. This was considered an astonishing feat. In fact I was discussing this very event with Merlin only a few weeks ago. Kevin was riding in Britain as early as 1962, mainly in open meetings. Remarkably he won the Victorian Championship in 1966.

It's a long time ago Iris, but I don't remember them missing meetings. In any case I think they were mainly sheep farmers, so maybe the lambing season kept them fairly busy.

It's hard to believe we've reached nearly fifty posts on the subject of punch-ips and the name "Templeton" has no featured yet! I was at the most remarkable punch-up in speedway history back in the 1970s at Rayleigh. The visiting Berwick team featured both Templeton brothers, Doug and Willie. Rayleigh had a Kiwi newcomer called Ivan Miller, who I think was a former scrambles champion. Somewhere around heat 10 an over-exuberant Ivan Miller knocked Willie off on the second lap and the referee allowed the race to continue. As Miller came round the pits bend on lap 3 he found Doug, who had vaulted the safety fence, standing in mid-track waiting for him. Miller attempted to ride past him, but Doug threw himself at man and machine and wrestled him to the ground. Summary justice was then extracted. In forty-odd years of watching speedway I've never seen anything quite like it, and I don't suppose I ever will again. I had a discussion a few years back about this incident with Dick Barrie who was also there; he tells me that they ended up the best of mates in the bar afterwards. I don't think Ivan Miller ever came back for a second British season though.

Wayne was a class act almost as soon as he arrived here in 1961, and by the following year was starting to reel off maximums. The remarkable thing about that is that it has subsequently been claimed that he had never actually ridden a speedway bike before he arrived in Edinburgh! However, he was terribly injury-prone and that's what put paid to a potentially great career. I remember him running into Doug Templeton one night at Meadowbank; the result was two broken wrists. I last saw him ride at Newport in about 1970/71 (although I'm damned if I can remember whether he rode for the home team or the visitors - Wembley, maybe.

I've driven through Slovenia en route from Vienna to Croatia. Close to the Austrian border is a beautiful little town: Lake Bled. Anyone visiting Slovenia who has a chance to spend a few hours there would find it most rewarding. I've also driven from Zagreb Airport, but heading south. Access in and out of the arport is easy, and the Croatian motorways are of a very high standard.

Good luck to eeryone attending this auspicious occasion today. 60 years - same as Monarchs are celebrating this year. I suspect you're all going to be very fortunate. There's a major storm comin in from the north Atlantic tonight which will bring VERY high winds and heavy rain - near to hurricane force - to the south coast. From today's weather charts it should arrive a few hours after the meeting finishes, so fingers crossed.