BL65

The Wembley World Final programmes for 1950 and 1952 gave his age as 26 and 28 respectively, with the meetings taking place after his August birthday, suggesting he was born in 1924.

In the build-up to his World Final appearances Arthur was reported in the speedway press as being born in Sydney in 1924. Matt Jackson of the Speedway Researcher website also records his date of birth as 30th August 1924.

Peter is currently the announcer at Wolverhampton.

Norman scored 18 against the USSR at West Ham in 1966. When he moved to Wolverhampton in 1969 his performances in the first three meetings were fairly ordinary, but he then showed great form and when his season was halted at the end of June he was averaging close on on 10.5 points per match. He had also been highly impressive in individual events.

George Cole Junior, full name George Howard Cole and briefly known as Kid Bodie, started riding on Midlands tracks as a 3 or 4-year-old. He first appeared at Birmingham, perhaps also at Tamworth, in around 1947/48. An unrelated George Cole is believed to have been a mechanic who assisted Keith Gurtner and although he may have had practice rides on southern tracks in the mid 1950s he did not appear in official races.

In my youth I enjoyed turning up early at the tracks, watching the riders arrive, gathering autographs and generally soaking up the atmosphere. Now in old age I am quite happy to arrive much closer to start time, although taking care to ensure safe parking will be available within reasonable distance. The earliest I have arrived was 2 and a quarter hours before start time at Blackbird Road, Leicester and 2 hours before the start of the 1967 Internationale at Wimbledon. A friend persuaded me that it would be a good idea to travel by train to the Leicester match, which was the re-opening fixture against King's Lynn on 9th April 1968. In order to get there in time for the meeting an early start was required, as we had to change trains twice. We were very early arrivals, even though walking slowly from London Road station to the track. We were first through the turnstiles and within 20 minutes we had been offered three regular jobs each. As we wouldn't be attending regularly we had to decline. It was a very good match, with a large crowd and wonderful atmosphere. The downside was that we didn't get back home until 8.00 a.m.

I answered this question in a previous thread about Oxford 1964, started by BOBBATH on July 9, 2021 in Years Gone By. I concluded that if teams had not been affected by injuries it was likely that Oxford would have finished third instead of fourth in the league table.

Garry Lindsay made just one appearance for Liverpool in 1960, scoring 11 points from 5 rides. He had last appeared as Ken Sharples in 1956 at Belle Vue and subsequently returned using his real name of Sharples at Sunderland in 1964, before moving on to Newcastle.

There is now a great deal of doubt over this. A number of sources say that Lawson was in fact his real name, as confirmed by his birth record.

He broke his wrist when changing a car tyre.

He was late in arriving, having attended a meeting with Bill Rose, the scriptwriter for the film 'Once A Jolly Swagman'. Still wearing the suit he had hired for the meeting, he needed the umbrella to keep it dry.

Peter is the announcer at Monmore Green for Wolverhampton meetings. He is a keen follower of Worcestershire County Cricket Club too I believe.

Best I can do is that he was known as 'the umbrella man' for a short time afterwards.

On the wet night in question I am sure that he was uninjured.

I know of one occasion when Francis James (nicknamed Ken) Le Breton raised a cheer and a smile at New Cross. Guess what he was carrying that time: (a) an injury (b) a passenger (c) an umbrella

I also used to tune in to Radio Luxembourg for the results. BBC2 used to give speedway results on Saturdays at around 10.00 p.m., during June, July and early August in 1966 on ‘The Sports Scene’. This was a 35-minute programme, with David Vine reporting and commenting on the day's outstanding stories. The programme replaced Match of the Day when the football season ended, but sadly only survived until the start of the next football season. At that time BBC1 occasionally showed speedway, for example during Grandstand on Saturday 20th August 1966 there were highlights at 1.55 p.m. of the previous night's Welsh Championship at Newport, ‘featuring such international riders as Barry Briggs, Nigel Boocock, Gote Nordin, and Olle Nygren.’ This was actually a second half event following the Newport match against Wimbledon. There were three heats, two semi-finals and a final, which Nordin won from Jon Erskine and Boocock. Briggs had machine trouble in the final. Ivan Mauger also took part but failed to reach the semi-finals.

According to government statistics, there were 653,000 vacant dwellings in England on 4th October 2021, with 237,300 of these (approximately 1% of the housing stock of 24.9 million) classified as long-term vacant dwellings. This information was released in May 2022 and the next release will be in May 2023.

Panthers from 1959 to 1962.

Bradford (including the early period when known as Odsal) had 6 names - Boomerangs, Tudors, Panthers, Barons, Northern and Dukes.

I understand that the television programme focuses on a family who moved from India to Uganda before eventually settling in Britain, probably following the coup by Idi Amin in 1971. Amin declared himself president, following which there was a period of ethnic persecution during his military dictatorship. By 1971 most of the prosperous businesses and the wealth in Uganda were controlled by groups originating from Asia and Amin issued a decree expelling 50,000 British passport holders. Many of these people of Asian origin relocated to Britain. Grasstrack racing was popular in Uganda and Kenya during the 1960s and 1970s and it is likely that the brief clip shown in the programme is from the 1960s.

1928 Middlesbrough programmes listed him as David 'Onanoff' Johnson (no 'd' in onanoff). He had a few falls, but also recorded some heat wins during a brief career. David Johnson appeared at Middlesbrough in 1928 to 1930, Whitley Bay, Gosforth, Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1929 and York in 1931. He rode as reserve for York in a National Trophy match at Leicester Super in 1931, falling in his first race and scoring one point from two other rides.

Edwin Pye made a few appearances at Dagenham in 1936 aged 22. He was a member of the Dagenham team in 1937 and 1938, when he won the Stan Greatrex Trophy after beating Jack Tidbury in a run-off. In 1938 and 1939 he was given a few opportunities in the Harringay team, but struggled at the higher level. His performances at second division level with Lea Bridge in 1938 were more productive and he recorded maximum points at home to Leeds at the end of September. With Lea Bridge closed, Pye linked up with first division Southampton in 1939 but again struggled for points. After the war he rode in one meeting for West Ham and made a couple of appearances at New Cross in 1946 before joining Northern League Middlesbrough. He spent two seasons there, contributing useful scores as the team won two successive league titles. A poor start to the 1948 season with second division Newcastle resulted in a transfer to third division Coventry, where he produced some good scores. When Coventry moved up to the second division in 1949 Pye was unable to maintain his form and retired at the end of the season, aged 35.

Frederick H. Philpott from Southdown Road, Wimbledon, was a regular writer to Speedway Star and his letters were published on the 'Edaches' page. The Star ran a Tell-a-tale competition which Mr. Philpott won. The prize was a regular column in the magazine. He wrote articles under the name 'Ninth Man', with his first column being published in the Star on 17th October 1953.

Steve Bole was a motor cycle dealer who was a month short of his 34th birthday when he made his debut for Eastbourne. As he was from north-east London it is possible that he may have attended training school sessions at High Beech. In the winter of 1948-49 145 riders took part in training sessions organised by Speedway World, at High Beech and Rye House. Training sessions were also held on a smaller scale the following winter. D. Bole made one appearance for High Beech in 1950, at California. As his first name was not recorded maybe it was the same Bole, or it could just be coincidence - he may even have been borrowed from the home juniors to replace a missing rider. There was no mention of a rider named Bole in High Beech programmes around that time.

I remember his articles.