customhouseregular

I always liked to watch Sjosten in action.

Pity the action does not date from the inception of the BL in 1965. I'm missing some of my all-time favourites... Knutsson Harrfeldt Nordin

I was clearing out a bookcase of old books and magazines yesterday and found the programme for the memorial meeting held at Peterborough in April 2001. It was good to read this again, to read the many tributes and to remind myself of Simon's achievements. I was very pleased to have found this again.

The London speedway tracks and teams dvd looks a winner too.

In your opinion who is, and why?

Re the last line of your post. I always felt that way about Mauger, Surely the greatest rider ever in terms of achievement, but boring as hell to watch. I don't find Tai boring but he is not exciting in the way that say Briggs was. Difficult to make a case for greatest ever British rider as there have not been many greats, in my opinion. Certainly some very good ones over the decades...Craven and Carter could have gone on to great things, but Tai does stand out from the crowd.

I heard a whisper there will be 2 Irish riders in the Championship in 2019. Could be Nick Knack and Paddy Wack.

Those were the days!

Yes, Tai is probably the best British rider ever but all riders are products of their time. Do Tai's 3 modern day titles make him a better British rider than Craven?, or Hancock's 4 make him better American than Penhall or Rickardsson's 6 make him a better Swede than Fundin?. Titles are one yardstick but not the only one.

I admit it's all conjecture and comparing eras and systems does not give valid answers. It is only a personal opinion that Tai would have found it harder to win 3 titles pre-1995. It does not mean though he would not have achieved it. Class is class and usually wins through

If last Saturday had been a World Final Tai would not have won. Under the old system there were many chances to fail...one bad round and your dream was over for that year. Under the new system Tai had 10 chances to rack up the points so could afford a bad round or two. I am not knocking Tai...I have the utmost admiration for his skill and dedication. I just feel that if you are one of the chosen 15 each year you have a better chance of becoming World Champion than was the case pre-1995. Is Tai the best British rider ever?...probably.

We obviously will never know, but if Tai had to race through WCQR's, British Finals, Nordic/British/ American Finals, European and Inter- continental Finals etc. etc., would have made the World Final every year, let alone win 3 titles?.

Not really a classic and most people would not even consider it, but as a die-hard Hammers fan...Stan Stevens holding off Barry Briggs for 4 laps at Custom House.

If it was up to me I would drop the wild card system, including the "famous" no. 16. The top 8 would qualify as they do now, the European Champion and world U21 Champion would qualify and the top 6 from the GP Challenge. If any of the Challenge top 6 qualify via one of the other 3 routes we go down the list till we have 16 GP riders. All 16 GP riders from one season should enter the GP Challenge series to give them a second route in to the next year's series should they not finish top 16. Just my opinion.

Very true.