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steve roberts

Team Captains...Those That Perhaps Don't Immediately Spring To Mind?

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I seem to recall that Oxford during the 1976 season adopted a very different approach in that whoever was top of the averages at the end of every month rode at number one and as captain and had a special race jacket dedicated to same.

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Wasn't Rob Grant Berwick captain for years, despite never being their no1?

 

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Alan Wilkinson captained Belle Vue without ever being their top rider.

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2 hours ago, Sotonian said:

Alan Wilkinson captained Belle Vue without ever being their top rider.

Great skipper and influence to! Sadly missed.

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John Dews was captain of Sheffield but was never their number one, same for the Templeton brothers at Edinburgh and Glasgow and Alby Golden at Newport. I recently saw a picture of a 1969 newcastle team with Mike Watkin, not Ole Olsen as skipper.

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18 minutes ago, Chadster said:

John Dews was captain of Sheffield but was never their number one, same for the Templeton brothers at Edinburgh and Glasgow and Alby Golden at Newport. I recently saw a picture of a 1969 newcastle team with Mike Watkin, not Ole Olsen as skipper.

I believe that John Dews topped the Sheffield averages in 1966, Doug Templeton did likewise for Edinburgh in 1960 and 1962, with Alby Golden top at Newport in 1964.

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Guest

Think Middlo captained Poole for a couple of years in the early 1980’s before stepping down. He was never number one for the Pirates, more of a handy second string. 

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Here's another from the distant past- .Alby Golden of Newport from 1964 onwards.  As I recall Alby was our third heat leader behind Dick Bradley and Peter Vandenberg. And he was a superb captain!!

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Remember when Michael Lee was offered the captaincy and he laughed at the prospect.

Edited by steve roberts

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Buster Frogley was Wembley captain in 1930, but, by the end of July, was actually their worst rider in terms of averages, causing him to resign as captain.

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23 minutes ago, norbold said:

Buster Frogley was Wembley captain in 1930, but, by the end of July, was actually their worst rider in terms of averages, causing him to resign as captain.

That reminds me of Colin Pratt spending a few meetings at reserve for Hackney after a slow start to the season in 1965, but he kept the captaincy and eventually only missed out on finishing top of the averages by a narrow margin.

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8 hours ago, BOBBATH said:

Here's another from the distant past- .Alby Golden of Newport from 1964 onwards.  As I recall Alby was our third heat leader behind Dick Bradley and Peter Vandenberg. And he was a superb captain!!

In 1964 Alby Golden ended with a league average of 9.20, ahead of Vandenberg on 8.85 and Bradley on 8.23.

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Well done BL65 -I never realized that- I always though Peter  was top. Did Alby lead the averages any other year? Interestingly enough the Speedway Star of 13/11/1964 listed Peter as 9.37, Dick as 9.25 and Alby as  8.78- but I think that was just total points divided by number of meetings and did  not use  CMA's . Also from the number of meetings rode it looked like they included other than just PL meetings e.g.36 for Dick, so it must have included maybe PL K.O.Cup and say, Southern League. Your averages which I expect are more accurate were they  on a CMA basis. Thanks for your response to this.

 

 

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56 minutes ago, BOBBATH said:

Well done BL65 -I never realized that- I always though Peter  was top. Did Alby lead the averages any other year? Interestingly enough the Speedway Star of 13/11/1964 listed Peter as 9.37, Dick as 9.25 and Alby as  8.78- but I think that was just total points divided by number of meetings and did  not use  CMA's . Also from the number of meetings rode it looked like they included other than just PL meetings e.g.36 for Dick, so it must have included maybe PL K.O.Cup and say, Southern League. Your averages which I expect are more accurate were they  on a CMA basis. Thanks for your response to this.

They are CMA.  Alby dropped to 7.76 in the British League in 1965, with the rejuvenated Jack Biggs (9.05), Dick Bradley (8.23) and Peter Vandenberg (7.91) ahead of him.  In 1966 he was on 5.35, behind Gote Nordin (10.53), Biggs (7.23), Jon Erskine (6.17) and Geoff Penniket (5.52).  In the following final three seasons with Newport he averaged 6.29, 5.62 and 5.78 as a second string rider, with spells at reserve.

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