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Clive Featherby RIP

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Sad news.
Clive Featherby died at 11.30am 28th Aug 2019

RIP Clive Featherby

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Sad news...remember Clive riding for King's Lynn and, of course, his son Craig who was tragically killed at Peterborough.

RIP

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Very sad.

R.I.P. Clive. +

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I can still picture the crash Clive had at the Reading Tilehurst track back  in 1972. It was a world championship qualifying round and Clive crashed with Eric Broadbelt, which left Clive with a badly broken leg that led to his retirement.

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My dads favourite rider he often tells me about the time Len silver laid on the track at Sheffield and Clive came round and was going to run over him apparently he was a good hard rider  . Rip Clive 

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53 minutes ago, racers and royals said:

I can still picture the crash Clive had at the Reading Tilehurst track back  in 1972. It was a world championship qualifying round and Clive crashed with Eric Broadbelt, which left Clive with a badly broken leg that led to his retirement.

Me too - first really serious accident I saw

Edited by arnieg

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1 minute ago, arnieg said:

Me too - first really serious accident I saw

I was fearing that you might have been going to tell me that my words were remarkably similar to those in that wonderful book " tears and Glory "  :)

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Tough rider and character as well!

 

Never a star but a middle order/ lower end team rider who contributed much to a golden era of speedway!

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I never saw Clive ride but I was lucky enough to interview him for the Owlerton Legends book a few years ago.

I wrote to Clive and he invited me to spend the day with him - he was living in a luxury caravan at the time on a farm near Norwich.

I was a bit nervous as I had only heard stories about what a hard rider he was but I need not have worried. Clive was one of the nicest men you could wish to meet and could not have been more helpful. It was a fantastic day and we kept in touch for a while afterwards, including him finding me at Owlerton one Thursday night when he was visiting.

R.I.P. Clive, a true Owlerton Legend and a gentleman.

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On 8/29/2019 at 5:41 AM, 25yearfan said:

Tough rider and character as well!

 

Never a star but a middle order/ lower end team rider who contributed much to a golden era of speedway!

Who were the heart and sole of British Speedway and often under-rated and forgotten about.

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2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Who were the heart and sole of British Speedway and often under-rated and forgotten about.

I always hated the so-called "speedway" fans who were quite happy to admit that they were only interested in watching the top boys. EVERY rider is important...

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Been thinking about posting to this thread for a while-saw the comment re  Clive being a middle order rider and with respect I think this applies post 1965. In the Prov. League Clive was a consistent heat leader and a crowd puller- he was either top or second in the Sheffield averages from 61 thru 64. I don't think (request input from historians here) that he had an average below 9 points his entire time with Sheffield!!!. He was second in their averages in 1961 behind Guy Allott and then was either first or second in their averages(changing back and forth with Jack Kitchen)  for the rest of the League's existence. Even in the first BL year he was their second heat leader to Jack, ahead of Billy Bales.

 I checked thru' my programs and discovered that I saw Clive ride in 6 meetings in 65-66. The first time was most memorable-9 July 1965. Clive knocked off Dick Bradley in Heat 6 of a BL clash at Somerton Park. That was Dick's last race-he was 40+ and decided to pack it in. No criticism of Clive meant he was just a tough rider. As an aside - Dick was the Wasps second highest average heat leader at that time and Newport were unable to get a replacement. Newport finished  as the highest of the old PL tracks (OK OK I know that Halifax was composed of  a large part of the Middlesbro' Bears old team) that year and I wonder if Dick had not been injured we could have ended on  top even. We would have had a solid team with 4 heat leaders -Biggs, Bradley, Vandenberg, Golden!! Don't forget we lost only by 40-38 at Wimbledon

Second time I saw Clive was  at Poole July 28th for a British Semi-Final(that meeting is a story in itself-were any forumlanders there?). Very tough field , Clive got only 2 points , but did finish ahead of Colin Pratt when they met!!

 Saw him another three times in 1966 riding for CH but to me will always be a Sheffield Tiger(a team that always offered good entertainment).

 Don't want to downplay the importance of the PL here -in the combined year of 1965 a number of PL riders more than  held their own- e.g. Dave Younghusband, Eric Boocock,  Colin Pratt, Charlie Monk, Bill Andrew, Pete Kelly , Tommy Sweetman , Roy Trigg etc.etc.

 So , a tip of the hat to you Clive for providing so much enjoyment to myself and many others. R.I.P. indeed!!!!

 

 

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27 minutes ago, BOBBATH said:

In the Prov. League Clive was a consistent heat leader and a crowd puller- he was either top or second in the Sheffield averages from 61 thru 64. I don't think (request input from historians here) that he had an average below 9 points his entire time with Sheffield!!!. He was second in their averages in 1961 behind Guy Allott and then was either first or second in their averages(changing back and forth with Jack Kitchen)  for the rest of the League's existence. 

Clive's league average was over 10 in both 1962 and 1963, impressive indeed.

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