norbold

Sorry I missed you. I was the one trying to flog a few books!

I didn't meet him at Hoddesdon, it was at the VSRA Eastern Region dinner in Norwich. He was there with Kelvin Mullarkey. He's a very nice man too.

2004 INDIVIDUAL SPEEDWAY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND PRIX QUALIFIED RIDERS Riding N° Name Country 1 NICKI PEDERSEN DENMARK 2 JASON CRUMP AUSTRALIA 3 TONY RICKARDSSON SWEDEN 4 LEIGH ADAMS AUSTRALIA 5 GREG HANCOCK USA 6 TOMASZ GOLLOB POLAND 7 SCOTT NICHOLLS GREAT BRITAIN 8 RUNE HOLTA NORWAY 9 RYAN SULLIVAN AUSTRALIA 10 ANDREAS JONSSON SWEDEN 11 MARK LORAM GREAT BRITAIN 12 PIOTR PROTASIEWICZ POLAND 13 LUKAS DRYML CZECH REPUBLIC 14 MIKAEL MAX SWEDEN 15 BJARNE PEDERSEN DENMARK 16 LEE RICHARDSON GREAT BRITAIN 17 HANS ANDERSEN DENMARK 18 BOHUMIL BRHEL CZECH REPUBLIC 19 KAI LAUKKANEN FINLAND 20 ALES DRYML CZECH REPUBLIC 21 JESPER B. JENSEN DENMARK 22 JAROSLAW HAMPEL POLAND 23 WILD CARD 24 WILD CARD

Hi Shazzy. I met your uncle Ted at long last today. What a nice man. But he doesn't look anything like the slim youth of my photos of him in his riding days! Much more distinguished now...

I think I'll be there, won't I Steve?

Don't give up. Where there's a stadium there's hope! Look at Wimbledon. It happened there.The same could happen at Hackney, but it certainly won't happen at West Ham, New Cross and Harringay

Not necessarily. Any change of use would need council permission. Does anyone know what is really happening? What's happened to the Olympic bid? As far as I know it is still the intention for London to put in a bid to hold the Olympics and to use the Hackney site for the main stadium. Sorry to reply to myself, but I have just looked up the British Olympic Committee web site. It is still the intention to use Hackney Stadium and the area round about for the new Olympic Stadium. So hopefully there will be a new stadium arising from the ashes and even more hopefully in time can be used for speedway. Speedway as an Olympic Sport anyone?

Not necessarily. Any change of use would need council permission. Does anyone know what is really happening? What's happened to the Olympic bid? As far as I know it is still the intention for London to put in a bid to hold the Olympics and to use the Hackney site for the main stadium.

Olympic lot bought it didnt they ? Has the old stadium been knocked down so they can start building a new one then? As far as I know, Hackney Council will still not allow anything on the site other than a sports stadium.

OK, I'll delve back a bit further. He's not in the 1949 Speedway Who's Who though. That was the first thing I checked.

OK, I know we've done this before (nicknames), but I was reading an article on 1929 by Denys Jones in the latest article of Vintage Speedway Magazine and I was struck by the colourful names employed in the early days of the sport. These are just some of the names of riders who appeared in the Northern League (English League) in 1929: Dusty Haigh Buster Breaks Skid Knock Slider Shuttleworth Nobby Kendrick Sprouts Griffiths Skid Pelvin Crasher Coxhead Smoky Stratton Bronco Dixon Yank Harrison Skid Skinner Speed Formby Bunny Wilcox Riskit Riley Smoke Robinson Skid Hanley I wonder what Crasher Coxhead did to earn his nickname? And as for Smoke Robinson, didn't he later go on to be a singer..... Where are they now??? Sigh!!!

I've just looked through every Rayleigh team for the 1950s and I can't find the name Belfield with or without a nickname. Without going through all the London teams I don't recall the name Belfield as a London rider. Peter Jackson's books only detail the records of the top riders in each team in the National League (Division One) so I doubt if he would be in there. Sorry I can't be more helpful but I'll try looking up some other southern teams.

Just another little contribution to the Tyburn Gallows debate and whether he really was an assistant hangman or not. I came across this information on another web site: "In 1964 the last two men in Britain were hanged for murder. The following year, parliament voted to abolish capital punishment, with overwhelming public support. The most famous public hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, had already retired with nearly 700 executions to his name. The passage of time has since seen the demise of every executioner and their assistants (Pierrepoint died in 1982). By 1994 Syd Dernley was the only former hangman alive in the UK." If Tyburn Gallows died after 1994 it would suggest that he never really was an assistant hangman (or, of course, that the article on the web is wrong!). Have we established when Tyburn went to the great scaffold in the sky yet?

Good idea...especially in Sweden. Then we'd get a really good track.... :roll:

You should have come and said hello! I was the small kid on the back straight munching on a giant hot dog! If only I'd known at the time! But I'm afraid I never ventured round to the back straight...too far away.

Thanks frigbo. I think I went to every home Hammers match that season except two and a good number of away matches (including our glorious night of triumph at Cradley Heath when we clinched the double - sorry reliving old glories there!) and I'd never heard of Kevin Russell and John Ellis. Your post explains why!

It's no good getting excited now, TTF. You should have told us before the final you were supporting Nicki instead of keeping quiet about it.... ;-)

Who are/were Kevin Russell and John Ellis? Which matches did they ride in?

Red Ott rode for Crayford in 1975.

What have they bottled? And where can you buy it?

Think I'll stick to writing history...The future is obviously not my strong point.

i suppose you'll want to add Ivan Mauger and Ole Olsen to that list aswell... And Anders Michanek as well. Anyway, I was hoping Crump would win after all the bad luck he's had the year, but fair dos to Nicki. You can't say he didn't deserve on the evidence of the night's racing. Next year, Crumpy!

Yes. Unfortunately I can't remember where I was at the time...

And if it stays like this Pedersen will go marching on.

It's OK, I'm here now. I haven't a clue by the way.