BL65

If a league match, for example, is abandoned without the result being declared: - no team points are awarded regarding the league table - no rides and points count in the riders' averages - the fixture does not count in official 'records of achievement', so effectively the races completed become unofficial - if a rider sets a new best time in an unofficial 'race', such as in a practice it does not count as an official record ..... so why would a track record time set in an abandoned meeting stand? On the other hand: - the riders will have been paid for the races they competed in - at the time the races took place they were 'official' until subsequently deemed otherwise - if a team drops out of the league the results are expunged from the records - if a team drops out of the league the riders' scores no longer count in their averages - expunged results are no longer official, although they were at the time they were achieved - a track record set during a meeting subsequently removed from the official records still stands ...... so why wouldn't a track record time set in an abandoned meeting still stand. In my opinion the record should stand even if the meeting is abandoned. It was an official race when it took place. Ivor Brown held the track record at Cradley Heath for nearly 6 years with a time of 68.4 seconds set against New Cross on 20th July 1963. Eric Boocock eventually set a new record of 67.0 seconds on 12th May 1969. In 1963 New Cross dropped out of the Provincial League in August and the results were expunged from the official records. The meeting at Cradley Heath was 'official' at the time it took place. Subsequently, Cradley Heath had the league points from the meeting taken away, Ivor Brown had the points scored taken away but he kept the track record.

According to the Beatles' song, 'Money Can't Buy Me Love' and there was certainly no love lost between them.

Surprising that it took until 1969 for Ivan to move away as the catalogue of disagreements between the pair started in 1964.

Newport County, a Welsh equivalent, formerly of Somerton Park, are in a comfortable mid-table position in Division 2. Poole Town were relegated from the Southern League after leaving Poole Stadium in the 1990s but are now currently back in the Southern League Premier Division South, currently three points clear of the relegation zone. Fleetwood Town still play at Highbury Stadium and have progressed from non-league football to currently play in Division 1 of the football league, although in danger of relegation. All three clubs have re-formed at various times.

Not forgetting Billy Yates (Preston) and Edwin Youngs (Norwich).

That seems conclusive enough.

How many sources state that Erik's time was 56.7? If two or more then it remains a puzzle at present. The only other thing that springs to mind was that it was an error/typo and should have been 57.6 rather than 56.7. Do the meeting reports refer to Erik breaking the track record? If not, then......

Around that time changes were made to the track. The official distance for four laps of speedway actually increased from 1234 yards to 1274 yards but the alterations led to faster racing.

The split could have been averted in one of two ways. Firstly, a PL team from 1963 could have joined the NL to replace Southampton. (Norwich did not close until the end of 1964). Wolverhampton as reigning PL champions were the 'chosen ones' but there was never any prospect of Mike Parker going down that route. Even if he had been persuaded to do so, Parker was still in expansionist mode and nothing was going to stop him opening new tracks. He had lost part of his empire (an interest in Middlesbrough and Stoke) at the end of 1962 when he and Reg Fearman went their separate ways, so he had some ground to make up. The second option was one league comprising NL and PL tracks. The NL promoters would almost certainly not have wanted Newport and Sunderland to be included, but probably the only way amalgamation could have come about at that point would have been for them to back down and allow the new tracks in. The issue was that the NL promoters believed this would have made the league 'too big'. With Southampton's demise the NL was down to 6 teams. Rayleigh did not stay in the league for 1964 and with the closure of Stoke this reduced the number of tracks to 11. Subsequent events showed that there was no reason why a new league of 19 teams could not have worked, i.e. the 17 remaining tracks from 1963 plus the new ones at Newport and Sunderland. After all, the new British League of 18 tracks in 1965 was increased to 19 in 1966. Glasgow would have opened anyway as it was a relocation of Trevor Redmond's promotion from St Austell. Trevor finally found a (slightly) more permanent home for his team after being based at Neath in 1962 and St Austell in 1963. West Ham would almost certainly have fallen by the wayside as Charles Ochiltree and co. only re-opened the track in 1964 to make the NL numbers up.

Persson did not ride in 1966, he was doing National Service I believe. Two other riders who missed 1965 were Chum Taylor and Neil Street, although both were perhaps past their best in 1966.

You beat me too it. Well done!

Any reason for including 8 Hammers' riders? Without number 8 Ede the gap would be greater. In 1966 the Dukes had 36 matches, whereas Hammers had 34 in 1965. It could be argued that Halifax had to maintain higher scores over more matches, or conversely with the addition of another weaker team in King's Lynn there was a greater chance to boost their averages. Halifax beat the Stars 53-25 at The Shay, although King's Lynn won 42-26 at home, one of Halifax's nine defeats in 36 matches - on 19th October when the league was already won (and Maury Robinson failed to score when replacing Bert Kingston).

An expensive night out if all four of them had to pay to get in. Thank goodness for press passes when Eric Linden turned up in later years, at Wimbledon in particular, accompanied by Angus Kix, Rick Eldon, Danny Carter, James Oldfield, Bob Charles and co. Ronnie Greene clamped down on the number of free passes during the 1950s but Eric always sneaked his 'mates' in unseen. Perhaps he had copied John H's earlier methods.

By the closing weeks of the season, in my view, Wolverhampton had the best-balanced team in the league. Three riders (Pete Jarman, Jim Airey and Bob Andrews) ended the season with averages over 8.00; Tommy Sweetman and Cyril Francis averaged above 7.00, with British Finalist Gordon Guasco just a fraction under 7.00; reserve Brian Maxted at around 5.50 was keeping Jimmy Bond (4.50) out of the team. The team had an impressive late-season run, with results including wins against Wimbledon (50-28), West Ham (52-26), Exeter away (48-30), Newport (64-14 - sorry, Bob), Glasgow (56-21) and Hackney 44-34 (the last two without Aussie-bound Airey. In between, there was a narrow defeat at Swindon (36-42) when the Robins had to resort to using Barry Briggs as a tactical substitute.

Mike Coomber replaced Geoff Hughes as the regular reserve in the Wimbledon team. The other change made was the introduction of former Cradley Heath rider John Edwards towards the end of April.