Daily Mirror International Tournament 1973

[Bavarian 765]

The final at Wembley of the 1973 Daily Mirror International Speedway Tournament is my ultimate favorite Speedway meeting of all-time !

http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/tourdmit73.htm

How I wish we could have a proper Speedway World Cup Tournament along these lines every four years !

 

This Meeting has all that I love about the sport. After 19 days of a round-robin tournament with twenty-one meetings held at tracks all over the country with the world's top seven international teams, followed by two semi-finals, the top two of England and Sweden met for the Grand Finale of this wonderful tournment at the greatest of all speedway venues, Wembley, with a fantastic crowd in attendance.

Even the tv coverage of this event is better than most of today's often drawn out live coverage, there are no boring breaks between the races, no restarts and warnings for riders moving at the tapes, it is action all the way in a condensed form that keeps everyone's attention high. The introduction of the Swedish and English team riders is beautifully shown before the racing commences. There is no track grading shown and no need for mostly boring interviews with the riders, to fill any gaps between the heats. Commentators Lanning and Briggs make this TV show even more enjoyable to watch. 

The sound of the old-style speedway bikes (plus the unmistakable smell of the burnt Castrol X oil), engines roaring majestically deep, instead of today's unpleasantly shrill sound, and the 13-heat format (remember: Happiness is 40-38!), and the main event to be followed by a full second half's racing which offered some variety for the spectators. This is all so damned good, I wonder why oh why they ever gave it up for what we have come to today. Poor fools we all are, to have let our once proud Sport go to pieces!

Today's speedway promoters and TV producers could learn a lot from how they did it back in 1973 !

 

 

Edited August 19, 2018 by Bavarian

[Sidney the robin 4,735]

Swindon          30th June  1973.     New Zealand v Sweden was certainly one of my favourite meeting's i ever went to.Legends Mauger,Briggs,Moore were  there the brilliant  Michanek  and both the Jansson's and Sjosten.I can remember the exciting Christer Lofqvist getting a paid max and breaking the track record in heat 1 great days.

[steve roberts 9,242]

Australia vs Poland at Cowley when the stadium was jammed pack! Zenon Plech's crash that was captured by Mike Patrick and 'soon to be' World Champion Jerzy Szczakiel's  only outing as far as the first bend when he got trapped under the kick board and an unlikely Polish hero in Jan Mucha...great memories of a great event during speedway's last 'Golden Era'!

Edited August 19, 2018 by steve roberts

[iris123 20,914]

Went to the New Zealand v Australia meeting at Plough Lane.Bit of a thrashing for the Aussies(Crump was out for the season and Airey wasn't really the rider of old) with a few Plough Lane experts in the line-up.Sadly now Ivan and Ronnie are no longer with us and neither is the stadium.NZ will never see their likes again and neither will London

Edited August 19, 2018 by iris123

[Hawk127 1,357]

Absolutely brilliant and that is what a team World Cup should be. Seven riders and a knock out tournament. No messing about at the start and a passionate crowd. I remember going to the round at Hackney and it was Russia but for the life of me I cannot remember the opponents but the stadium was packed. Oh happy days and if only they would give the same format a try today. 

[Sidney the robin 4,735]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Australia vs Poland at Cowley when the stadium was jammed pack! Zenon Plech's crash that was captured by Mike Patrick and 'soon to be' World Champion Jerzy Szczakiel's  only outing as far as the first bend when he got trapped under the kick board and an unlikely Polish hero in Jan Mucha...great memories of a great event during speedway's last 'Golden Era'!

I think that was one of Jim Airey's last ever appearances in Britain i think he might have rode at Wimbledon and Newport as well a great rider no doubt.

Edited August 19, 2018 by Sidney the robin

[steve roberts 9,242]

31 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

I think that was one of Jim Airey's last ever appearances in Britain i think he might have rode at Wimbledon and Newport as well a great rider no doubt.

He scored 10 points if I recall. Garry Middleton was programmed to ride but was replaced...apparently he didn't like Jim Airey and according to Eric Boocock when in Aussie Garry actually had a gun in his tool box and when Eric protested he explained that he had it in case Jim caused any problems!

[cityrebel 2,960]

I went to three meetings in the series and the final at Wembley. Australia v New Zealand at Wimbledon, England v Poland at Hackney and New Zealand v Russia at Reading. Happy days!

[Hawk127 1,357]

11 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

I went to three meetings in the series and the final at Wembley. Australia v New Zealand at Wimbledon, England v Poland at Hackney and New Zealand v Russia at Reading. Happy days!

Thanks for confirming the Hackney meeting. Memory not what it use to be. Time to crawl back under the stone.

[Bavarian 765]

3 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

Absolutely brilliant and that is what a team World Cup should be. Seven riders and a knock out tournament. No messing about at the start and a passionate crowd. I remember going to the round at Hackney and it was Russia but for the life of me I cannot remember the opponents but the stadium was packed. Oh happy days and if only they would give the same format a try today. 

The match You attended at Hackney was Sweden vs USSR on Friday, June 25th, 1973, and the Swedes won 49-29

Anders Michanek AND Bengt Jansson each scored a twelve point maximum on the night. Best of the Russians was Vladimir Gordeev with 13 paid 14 from six rides !

 

All the results and point scorers of the 1973 Daily Mirror International Speedway Tournament, team photos, plus covers of the programmes, can be found on the excellent INTERNATIONALSPEEDWAY website, following this link http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/tourdmit73.htm

 

This tournament really was what a proper Speedway World Cup should be like.

 

 

 

 

[Grachan 7,314]

Before my time, as I started going to Speedway in 1974! However, when I did go I realised I had seen it on television, and I'm pretty sure that this is the meeting I saw.

[longlivefrankie 458]

Great memories of this tournament 

 

went to my home match Sweden v Australia @ newport and the Swindon Match 

 

it should have been held four yearly from then on 

 

 

 

 

 

[steve roberts 9,242]

I recall the furore caused when John Louis was dropped by Team Manager, Len Silver, for the second half match (vs. Rest of the World) during the Wembley showdown. 

[Guest WTF1]

On 8/19/2018 at 12:10 PM, Bavarian said:

The final at Wembley of the 1973 Daily Mirror International Speedway Tournament is my ultimate favorite Speedway meeting of all-time !

http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/tourdmit73.htm

How I wish we could have a proper Speedway World Cup Tournament along these lines every four years !

 

This Meeting has all that I love about the sport. After 19 days of a round-robin tournament with twenty-one meetings held at tracks all over the country with the world's top seven international teams, followed by two semi-finals, the top two of England and Sweden met for the Grand Finale of this wonderful tournment at the greatest of all speedway venues, Wembley, with a fantastic crowd in attendance.

Even the tv coverage of this event is better than most of today's often drawn out live coverage, there are no boring breaks between the races, no restarts and warnings for riders moving at the tapes, it is action all the way in a condensed form that keeps everyone's attention high. The introduction of the Swedish and English team riders is beautifully shown before the racing commences. There is no track grading shown and no need for mostly boring interviews with the riders, to fill any gaps between the heats. Commentators Lanning and Briggs make this TV show even more enjoyable to watch. 

The sound of the old-style speedway bikes (plus the unmistakable smell of the burnt Castrol X oil), engines roaring majestically deep, instead of today's unpleasantly shrill sound, and the 13-heat format (remember: Happiness is 40-38!), and the main event to be followed by a full second half's racing which offered some variety for the spectators. This is all so damned good, I wonder why oh why they ever gave it up for what we have come to today. Poor fools we all are, to have let our once proud Sport go to pieces!

Today's speedway promoters and TV producers could learn a lot from how they did it back in 1973 !

 

 

Yes a fantastic meeting and atmosphere and with a controversial ending,  was Peter Collins pushed or did he fall under pressure,  Michanek was clearly the quicker rider and hard riding Was The order of the day back then, unfortunately the closure of Wembley Was The start of the downward spiral for speedway. 

[steve roberts 9,242]

12 minutes ago, HerniaWise said:

Yes a fantastic meeting and atmosphere and with a controversial ending,  was Peter Collins pushed or did he fall under pressure,  Michanek was clearly the quicker rider and hard riding Was The order of the day back then, unfortunately the closure of Wembley Was The start of the downward spiral for speedway. 

...I would agree with this observation. Personally I don't think that it's loss has been totally recognised and the effect it had on speedway in this country.

As regards the Collins/Michanek clash I think that Ivan Mauger hit it on the head when he observed that there was no way that Peter was going to be blamed for his fall as it took place on an English track in front of mostly English fans and presided over by an English referee (Arthur Humphreys...who, much to Anders' disgust, apologised to him at Reading's next home meeting!)