Bbc Sports Personality Of The Year 1966

[steve roberts 9,246]

Barry Briggs is the only speedway rider to have been in the first three. Ivan Mauger never made it.

Where did Ivan end up? I remember the whole family voting for him and I thought that he finished quite high up in the standings? Memories play funny tricks!!

[norbold 7,108]

Where did Ivan end up? I remember the whole family voting for him and I thought that he finished quite high up in the standings? Memories play funny tricks!!

I don't know. But 1st, 2nd and 3rd in 1972 were: Mary Peters, Gordon Banks and Richard Meade.

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

Going from memory here (dangerous), but I think that Briggo’s second place in the Sports Personality of the Year competition was a result of a campaign in the Speedway Star. I believe it was an effort to promote the sport on national television. I recall reading an article in the Daily Mirror written by a sportswriter named Sam Leitch attempting to expose the vote as a farce maintaining that most of the general public had never heard of this bloke named Barry Bloggs (sic).

 

@Mad Moose. as a South East London boy I also supported the 'amlet as well as New Cross in my younger days.

Which is exactly why such campaigns are counter-productive and only cause bad publicity for the sport that attempts then.

Am grateful for iris quoting my post from before (and thrilled to realise he obviously has a folder on his PC where he stores my words of wisdom!!)!

 

With the great Bobby Moore (surely up there as one of THE greatest sportspersons this country has ever produced) passing away so young and assuming therefore the status of 'saint', can you imagine the bitterness that would be churned up again and again by the media and others every time it was mentioned that in 1966 he'd been denied this traditional honour by some dirt track motorcyclist from New Zealand..?! It would do Speedway massive harm so we should all be grateful that it didn't happen...

[iris123 20,978]

Which is exactly why such campaigns are counter-productive and only cause bad publicity for the sport that attempts then.

Am grateful for iris quoting my post from before (and thrilled to realise he obviously has a folder on his PC where he stores my words of wisdom!!)!

 

With the great Bobby Moore (surely up there as one of THE greatest sportspersons this country has ever produced) passing away so young and assuming therefore the status of 'saint', can you imagine the bitterness that would be churned up again and again by the media and others every time it was mentioned that in 1966 he'd been denied this traditional honour by some dirt track motorcyclist from New Zealand..?! It would do Speedway massive harm so we should all be grateful that it didn't happen...

I gave up long ago the hope of a folder.It was that quote and the folder never expanded,so I put it in the 'one quote wonders' folder instead

Edited January 17, 2016 by iris123

[norbold 7,108]

Just thinking about all this again, wasn't there one year when an angler actually got most votes as the result of a campaign by the Angling Times and the BBC said this was against the rules and discounted his votes?

[iris123 20,978]

Think you are right.It is counter-productive and easily spotted and that is why I guess the Beeb nominate the candidates and probably fix the thing themselves now

Edited January 17, 2016 by iris123

[Alan_Jones 1,005]

Just thinking about all this again, wasn't there one year when an angler actually got most votes as the result of a campaign by the Angling Times and the BBC said this was against the rules and discounted his votes?

 

Bob Nudd in 1991.

[norbold 7,108]

That's the one, Alan. Thanks.

[van wolfswinkel 635]

Going from memory here (dangerous), but I think that Briggo’s second place in the Sports Personality of the Year competition was a result of a campaign in the Speedway Star. I believe it was an effort to promote the sport on national television. I recall reading an article in the Daily Mirror written by a sportswriter named Sam Leitch attempting to expose the vote as a farce maintaining that most of the general public had never heard of this bloke named Barry Bloggs (sic).

 

@Mad Moose. as a South East London boy I also supported the 'amlet as well as New Cross in my younger days.

Cant be many New Cross fans left...quite a few Amlet fans around, over 2000 there on Saturday!

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

Cant be many New Cross fans left...quite a few Amlet fans around, over 2000 there on Saturday!

Yes I saw that Dulwich H. got a great crowd at the weekend! Good stuff!

 

I'm after some details of a game I went to at the old Champion Hill in the very early '70s... It was a charity/showbiz game and from distant memory involved some big rock stars of the time... I don't suppose you can fill in the blank spaces can you?!

[van wolfswinkel 635]

Yes I saw that Dulwich H. got a great crowd at the weekend! Good stuff!

 

I'm after some details of a game I went to at the old Champion Hill in the very early '70s... It was a charity/showbiz game and from distant memory involved some big rock stars of the time... I don't suppose you can fill in the blank spaces can you?!

No...moved to Swindon in '67, when they shared Champion Hill with those posh blokes called Corinthian Casuals, and haven't been to an Amlet game since at the new ground.

[Celticman 21]

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 12:16 PM, iris123 said:

Think in 1964 he finished behind Mary Rand......but if I use a quote from Parsloes from a few years back in answer to the rigged vote

 

Mary Bignal-Rand was England's greatest ever female track and field athlete. She won multiple Olympic medals including gold and set world records in the long and triple jump, the latter record lasting 22 years. She was known as the Golden Girl for her success and blonde good looks. I used to compete at discus and shot put and met her at an indoor meet. She was a knockout looks and personality wise

Edited December 20, 2019 by Celticman

[E I Addio 15,845]

On 1/10/2016 at 8:25 PM, Split said:

Going from memory here (dangerous), but I think that Briggo’s second place in the Sports Personality of the Year competition was a result of a campaign in the Speedway Star. I believe it was an effort to promote the sport on national television. I recall reading an article in the Daily Mirror written by a sportswriter named Sam Leitch attempting to expose the vote as a farce maintaining that most of the general public had never heard of this bloke named Barry Bloggs (sic).

 

@Mad Moose. as a South East London boy I also supported the 'amlet as well as New Cross in my younger days.

Yes that was a nasty article by a nasty man. I think the article was actually in the Sunday Mirror and the farce was that Leitch was trying to say that most of the public had never heard of Speedway, when it was the Sunday Mirror that sponsored the World Final and contained a regular Weekly column on Speedway by Don Clarke. 

The thrust of Sam Lietchs article was that Speedway was not a proper sport. Subsequently there was a strong reaction from Speedway fans and Briggo went to lunch with Leitch explaining what was involved in riding a Speedway bike , and Leith wrote another article more or less climbing down, no doubt in part because the editors were concerned at maintaining the readership of Speedway fans in a sport that was much more popular then than it is today