norbold

Yes, I was there, though it was 1961, not 1960. Even to this day, 62 years later, it still ranks as the greatest injustice I ever saw on a speedway track!

Finishing 6th=, 4th=, 9th=, 8th= and 7th

There were a number of other good PL riders around at the time especially Trevor Redmond and Ivan Mauger. Ivor made the final every year, but never made it to the podium.

How does that prove the point!? As I showed above, the word speedway was in use right from the beginning in 1928 in England. I could give dozens of examples of its use in 1928 if really needed!

l-r, Back Row: Eric Boothroyd, Marian Kaiser, Charlie Barsby, Guy Allott, Ivor Brown, Jack Geran, Alf Hagon. Front Row: Bryan Elliott, Ken McKinlay (on bike), Dave Hankins

Different to the U.K. then.

I'm not sure when the word speedway was first used but it must have first been used originally in Australia and my understanding is that it first of all referred to the track but was then translated to mean the sport itself. As far as this country goes, it was in use right from the start and certainly before 1929/30 and team racing. The first edition of Speedway News came out on 19 May 1928 and throughout the term speedway is used meaning both the track and the sport itself. For example, the riders are referred to as speedway riders and the most prominent promotion was International Speedways Ltd. under A J Hunting. My opinion of the first speedway meeting in this country as we fully understand the sport was held over the weekend of 7-9 April at High Beech as this was the first time a track in this country had a loose surface and bikes weren't fitted with brakes. It was therefore the first time that broadsiding was seen - demonstrated most effectively by Colin Watson, Alf Medcalf and Digger Pugh. The 19 Feb meeting had a hard rolled surface and all bikes were fitted with rear brakes under ACU rules. No broadsiding took place even by the two experienced Aussies (Keith McKay and Billy Galloway) who were there. The top Australian promoter. A.J. Hunting, arrived towards the end of the 19 Feb meeting and took the promoter, Jack Hill-Bailey, to one side and told him that he "had it all wrong." He then took a hand in preparing the track properly for the 7 April meeting while also lobbying the ACU to remove their rule insisting on rear brakes.

This is an extract from an article I wrote, with the help of Ross and Nigel, for Speedway Star some years ago: 'There is an old philosophical paradox that goes, “All that is certain is that nothing is certain.” There is no doubt this applies to the origins of speedway. The first problem we have is what do we mean by speedway? Is it just motor bikes racing round a small oval track or does the definition of speedway include no brakes and sliding round the corners on a loose surface? Certainly if we just take the meaning as motor bikes racing round a small oval track there can be many claimants to the title of the first speedway meeting in the world. There are reports of this activity taking place in America in 1901, in Ireland in 1902, in Australia in 1904, in South Africa in 1907 and in Prague in 1908 amongst many others. Even if we add the no brakes and sliding round corners ingredients, there is ample evidence to show that American riders were broadsiding round dirt tracks well before the First World War. A rider called Don Johns who started around 1909 and won the National Dirt Track Championship in Chicago in 1912 may have been the first. A contemporary description of him goes like this, “Don Johns preferred to barnstorm the 1-mile dirt track circuits of California and the Midwest, gaining experience as well as a reputation as the hardest fighting rider in the no-holds-barred game. By 1914, Johns had improved to such an extent that the Excelsior could not hold him. He would ride the entire race course wide open, throwing great showers of dirt into the air at each turn.” How else could you throw great showers of dirt into the air on the bends if not by sliding? Was Johns the first speedway rider in the world? He was followed shortly afterwards by another American called Albert “Shrimp” Burns who was killed in a track crash on 14 August 1921. Part of his obituary written by C.E.B. Clement, which appeared in Motorcycle and Bicycle Illustrated reads, “I strolled down the track to watch him take the turns. Here he came with that motor humming a great tune and into the turn he went. Watching him handle that machine in the long slide all the way around, I saw in fancy, the then great battler of the day, Don Johns. For Burns was holding the pole and fighting the rear wheel in a manner that very closely resembled the work of the then known hardest fighter of the racing game." After the War, in the late teens and early twenties, two more Americans, Maldwyn Jones and Eddie Brinck, were renowned for the way they threw their bikes in to the bends and broadsided round, using what was known as the pendulum skid. By the early 1920s Australia had also discovered the sport of motor cycles racing round small oval circuits. The generally accepted wisdom used to be that Johnnie Hoskins “invented” speedway at Maitland Showground in 1923. Evidence from America clearly shows that this is not the case, and, even in Australia there are many reports of meetings similar to that put on by Hoskins prior to 1923 in places such as Townsville (as early as 1916), Rockhampton and Newcastle. Eleven months prior to Hoskins’ much vaunted December 1923 carnival on the grass track at Maitland, motor cycles had raced on a cinder circuit under lights at Adelaide’s Thebarton Oval. Again, in the Adelaide Mail, dated 3 November 1923, there is an article headlined, “Steering into a skid Dirt Track Methods”. This article goes on to say: “To steer away from the direction in which a corner is being taken is quite a usual practice on level tracks with a soft surface…it appears to be voluntarily adopted by the experts in order to make the turn at a higher speed than would be possible in the ordinary way…On a dirt track the friction available is very small, consequently in order to corner without skidding, a very low speed would be necessitated..” So there we have an article explaining the process by which the “experts” take the corners on dirt tracks over one month before the meeting at Johnny Hoskins’ meeting at West Maitland. Indeed, the major argument against speedway originating on 15 December 1923 at Maitland is the Monday December 17, 1923 Maitland Daily Mercury's report on the Saturday December 15 carnival, which says: - "For the first time motor cycle racing was introduced into the programme and the innovation proved most successful. In an exhibition ride at the last sports several riders gave the track a good test and they then expressed themselves satisfied with it. They also stated that it was better than several other tracks that have been used for this kind of sport on a number of occasions..." Note that last sentence in particular. Maitland’s own paper did not see the meeting on 15 December as anything new. The riders themselves were comparing Maitland to “several other tracks” Perhaps the boost Maitland did give to the sport however was to provide speedway on a regular basis as between 15 December 1923 and 26 April 1924 there were no fewer than 15 carnival meetings featuring motor cycle racing, with promoters Campbell and DuFrocq staging six of them and including a rider by the name of Charlie Datson who was to become one of the leading pioneers of the new sport of speedway.'

My Uncle used to go to Hackney before the War. I asked him about interval attractions once, he told me, "They used to put on some great interval entertainment. I can remember a boxing match there once between Jimmy Bitmead and Max Joachim. It was only one round of three minutes but it was a cracking fight."

I was lucky enough to see Bjorn every week at Custom House. Just pure class, week in, week out. If he hadn't retired so early, I am sure he would be right up there with the usual suspects in the unanswerable question "Greatest rider ever?"

Where did I say that Soderman and Kaiser retired too soon? I'm sorry, I must have missed my own post.

Who retired in 1960, so not in the 1950s.

If you are talking purely about riders who retired in the 1950s, I'd say that Arthur Forrest must be the prime example.

I think one has already been written. Can't quite remember the name of the author(s) though.

Tom Farndon. He won the Star Riders' Championship in 1933.....

Yes, I believe I may have mentioned Tom Farndon winning the 1933 Star Riders' Championship once or twice!

Where was mine when I went to Toronto earlier this year?

New Cross closed in 1963. Lack of support. They weren't forced out.

Funnily enough, that's exactly the same as the Top Ten I would have chosen.

The Speedway Star used to issue an end-of-year ranking list. Unfortunately this finished in 1966, so there are only two years to look at. But, in both, Nigel Boocock was the highest ranked British rider. But, what is perhaps more interesting, is that in 1965, he was ranked at no. 5 in the World and in 1966, only at no.12. The foreigners were truly taking over! The only other British riders to feature were Ken McKinlay, at no.9= in 1965 and Mike Broadbank(s) (no.13), Eric Boocock (18=) and Ken McKinlay (no.20) in 1966.

Yes, true, which is why the promoters were desperate to find another track to run and, fortunately for me (!), found West Ham.

There were seven teams in 1964, the lowest it got to.

Interesting stuff. Is the cut-off point of 15 significant for any reason?

No, that was the only time I ever went to Cradley. I was actually at college in Norwich at the time and, because of the importance of the match, I thought I really had to get there. I managed to persuade two fellow students to come with me so we hired a car and drove over. Inside the stadium, we joined the group of West Ham supporters who had made the journey. After the match, as you can imagine, there was much celebration going on amongst us Hammers fans and I really wanted to go back on the coach with them to London to continue the celebrations, so I did. When we reached West Ham in the small hours, my friend and I walked back to his house in Hackney, stopping in a launderette on the way for an hour's kip! I got the train back to Norwich the next day. Meanwhile, my two college chums had slept the night in the car and drove back to Norwich the next day. Sorry, not much to do with speedway as such, but a small slice of life of an ardent speedway fan in the 1960s.