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norbold

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Posts posted by norbold

  1. Posted · Edited by norbold

    1965 was the first year of the British League as well as a new Knock Out Cup competition based on football’s F.A. Cup with just one leg and the luck of the draw which team got drawn at home.

    In that year, one of the Quarter Final matches saw a local derby London tie with West Ham drawn at home to Wimbledon. Before the tie, the two teams appeared to be evenly matched and so the match proved. With one heat to go the scores were level at 45-45. That final heat saw the Wimbledon pair, Olle Nygren and Reg Luckhurst, shoot in to an early lead over West Ham’s Brian Leonard and Norman Hunter and it looked all over for the Hammers when suddenly Luckhurst’s engine blew up resulting in a 3-3 and a tied match at 48-48.

    Having drawn at West Ham, Wimbledon looked a good bet to take the tie in the replay on their own track. But there was even worse news for West Ham as their top rider, Sverre Harrfeldt, was injured the previous evening at Hackney and unable to take part and their third heat leader, Norman Hunter, was also unable to ride as it was his wedding day! There were no guests allowed so the Hammers had to resort to filling the places of two heat leaders with Tony Clarke, making his racing debut, and a Wimbledon junior, Geoff Hughes. Only Ken McKinlay was a recognized heat leader and, although by now a team regular, it should be remembered that at this time West Ham’s 19 year old Malcolm Simmons was just a reasonable five point average second string who had shown no signs of the great rider he was to become in later years. No-one, not even the West Ham supporters present that afternoon, gave the Hammers much hope.

    By heat six it looked as though Wimbledon’s superiority was about to assert itself as Wimbledon skipper, the great Olle Nygren. along with the experienced Jim Tebby, took a 5-1 against West Ham’s newcomer, Tony Clarke, and second string, Brian Leonard. The lack of two heat leaders looked as though it was now beginning to tell. But as West Ham were six points in arrears it meant they could use a tactical substitute and they wasted no time bringing in Ken McKinlay for reserve Ray Wickett in the very next heat. The line-up for heat seven was therefore Bob Dugard and Keith Whipp for the Dons, Malcolm Simmons and Ken McKinlay for the Hammers. The young Simmons shot away from the gate with McKinlay behind him and that’s how the heat finished. A 5-1 for West Ham and four points pulled back. Simmons’ time of 66.2 was the fastest of the night.

    The next heat saw McKinlay out again, this time in a scheduled ride, with old campaigner Reg Trott lining up against Reg Luckhurst and reserve Mike Coomber. Some brilliant team riding by McKinlay and Trott kept Luckhurst behind them and with Coomber falling, it meant another 5-1 to the Hammers and, unbelievably, at the half-way stage, West Ham now found themselves with a two point lead.

    With Nygren and Tebby lined up against Simmons and Wickett in heat 10 it looked as though the Dons would edge back in to the lead, but, once again, Simmons rose to the occasion and beat Nygren in the second fastest time of the night. Heat 12 saw another astonishing turn of events as Wimbledon’s Bobby Dugard fell and was excluded from the re-run. It was a simple matter for McKinlay and Trott to defeat Whipp and take a 5-1. It was now West Ham who were six points up and it was now Wimbledon who used a tactical substitute as they brought in Nygren for reserve, John Edwards. Unfortunately it did not have the desired effect as, for the second time that night, West Ham’s new hero, the young Malcolm Simmons, beat Nygren, leaving West Ham still six points in front. This time though, Simmons had done it the hard way, coming from behind and taking the Wimbledon captain on the last lap.

    With just three heats to go, time was running out for Wimbledon and the impossible suddenly looked possible. However, a Nygren and Dugard 5-1 over Trott and Leonard put them back in with a chance and when, in heat 15, Tebby and Coomber pulled off a 4-2 against Clarke and Hughes, the scores, were back to level with one heat to go.

    The line-up for that final heat saw Keith Whipp and Reg Luckhurst for Wimbledon against Ken McKinlay and Malcolm Simmons for West Ham. The tension around the stadium was palpable. Everyone was holding their breath. A match which at the beginning of the afternoon had seemed likely to be very one-sided had now come down to a last heat decider.

    To some extent the final race as a race was a bit of a disappointment as Simmons once again flew off from the start and never looked to be in any danger and with McKinlay settling for a steady third place, the match was won by West Ham by 49 points to 47.

    The small band of Hammers’ supporters who had made the trip across London couldn’t believe what had happened. The hero of the hour was the 19 year old Malcolm Simmons. He had beaten the Wimbledon captain, Olle Nygren, twice and had set the three fastest times of the night. In fact he still wasn’t finished. In the second half scratch race event, the Cheer Leaders’ Trophy, he won the first heat, beating, McKinlay, Luckhurst and Dugard and then went on to win the final, once again beating Nygren. As if that wasn’t enough, a special Handicap race was held with Simmons starting off 20 yards, Nygren off 10 and Trott, Leonard and Tebby off scratch. Yet again, Simmons got the better of Nygren, even with his handicap.

    As for me, although that match was held 59 years ago I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. In fact I can remember it better than matches I saw last season. It was just such an amazing afternoon. I went along there with a few other Hammers’ supporters expecting a reasonable match but when it was announced just before the meeting started that neither Harrfeldt nor Hunter would be taking part we seriously considered going home. The Wimbledon supporters around us were saying things like, ’You’ll be lucky if you get 20 points’ and ’This is going to be the biggest thrashing of all time.’ Of course we gave back as good as we got but in our hearts we felt they could well be right.

    But suddenly there was this rider called Malcolm Simmons, who we had seen rise from the ranks of a second halfer at West Ham to a reasonable five point second string but no more, taking on and beating the likes of Olle Nygren and Reg Luckhurst on their own track in the fastest times of the night. He was just phenomenal.

    As we now know, Simmons went on to become one of Great Britain’s greatest ever riders and runner-up in the 1976 World Championship, World Pairs Champion in 1976, 77 and 78, World Team Champion in 1973, 74, 75 and 77 and British Champion in 1976. He was capped 80 times for England, seven times for the British Lions (touring Australia), five times for Great Britain and four times for the Rest of the World.

    But it all started that night and I feel very privileged to have been there to witness what must have been one of the best matches of all time and one of the most outstanding personal performance of all time.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 2

  4. Posted

    2 hours ago, BL65 said:


    25.05.60 Southern Riders' CQR (guest) 10 from 5 rides (3 wins)
    03.08.60 New Cross v BELLE VUE 13+1 from 6 rides (3 wins, paid win, ef in the other, 2 -1 to Briggs, one of which was the ef)
    24.8.60 Tom Farndon Trophy 6 from 4 (withdrew from last ride, won one race, lost to Moore)
    07.08.60 ENGLAND v Australasia 5+1 from 6 rides (won one race, lost to Briggs twice and Moore twice)
    03.05.61 New Cross v BELLE VUE 8 from 4 rides (2 wins and a second)
    10.05.61 London v THE REST 9 from 4 rides (2 wins,  beat Moore and Briggs)
    07.06.61 New Cross v BELLE VUE 13+1 from 5 rides (3 wins)
    26.07.61 ENGLAND v New Zealand v Australia WC Qualifier, 13 from 6 rides (4 wins, lost to Moore, beat Briggs twice)
    16.08.61 NEW CROSS v Southampton 8 from 4 rides (one win, lost to Moore twice and Briggs)
    23.08.61 NEW CROSS V The Kiwis (8+2 from 5 rides (no race wins, lost to Briggs twice and Moore)
    06.09.61 Tom Farndon Trophy 12 from 5 rides (3 wins, lost to Briggs, beat Moore and Knutson) 

    So, in the meetings I saw him in he scored at an average of 8.15 (including bonus points). Not bad, but not quite Big Five status.

  5. Posted

    1 hour ago, RobbieB said:

    Some excellent stats here for the speedway researcher website, i know it is not New Cross, but it is against the big five riders:

    Tuesday 22 August 1961: Southampton v NEW CROSS (Peter Craven 11 from 5 rides - 1 win) [lost to Briggs twice, and Knutsson].

    Can I please add

     

    No, because I was asking about New Cross home matches. :D

    • Haha 1

  6. Posted

    1 hour ago, BL65 said:

    Don't forget the 1959 Tom Farndon Memorial meeting, when Peter won with 15 points. Briggs got 14, Moore 10 and Knutson 7.

    Yes, I know he won that, but I didn't start going till 1960! Do you have any stats for Craven's appearances at New Cross before I start working through my programmes to see how correct my memory is?

  7. Posted

    48 minutes ago, BOBBATH said:

    I always figured Clive Featherby was the king of non team riding. Getting back to the Big Five we didn't mention the team riding of Peter Craven and Bjorn Knutsson- I would imagine Peter was just behind Ronnie -what about Bjorn was he more like Ove in that department- what do you think Norbold, I know that you saw Bjorn at West Ham every week in 1964.

    Without looking up statistics and going purely from memory, all I can remember about Bjorn is that he seemed to win every race he was in at West Ham! I can't really remember him team riding, but I don't think he was as selfish as Briggo or Ove in the sense of knocking his own team mates out the way to get to the front - he was already there!

    I saw Peter Craven mainly at New Cross and I don't think he ever really got to grips with the track. I always thought, purely from seeing him at the Frying Pan, that he was the worst of the Big Five, though that certainly wasn't the case looking at the overall statistics. So, I don't really remember him team riding much as he was struggling himself a lot of the time.

  11. Posted

    13 minutes ago, E I Addio said:

    I forget where I read this,but it was probably in Classic Speedway, and it was on the lines of “ you didn’t need to leave a on gap for Ove , he would come through whether there was a gap or not and whether he needed to or not”. 

    By all accounts it seems Ove had to win every race even if it meant knocking his own team mates out of the way ! Somewhat surprisingly the same was said about Nigel Boocock- by his own brother Eric !

    Yes, sorry I've taken so long to answer your question BOBBATH, but I agree with the above comment on Ove Fundin. Even though he is now a good friend of mine, I have to say he was just as ruthless as Briggo and was not one for team riding!

     

     

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    For me, I think the highlight was the 1975 season. John Berry assembled a team of completely local riders - John Louis, Tony Davey, Mike Lanham, Mick Hines, Trevor Jones, Ted Howgego, Dave Gooderham and Billy Sanders, by now fully domiciled in Suffolk. Just those eight riders were used all season and they carried all before them, with Ipswich winning the league for the first time in its history. I can't think there has ever been a team anywhere made up completely of local riders that so completely dominated the league.

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    When I wrote my small booklet on Briggs and Moore, I spoke to a number of Wimbledon riders about this very subject. Their view was unanimous. Moore was the greatest; Briggs treated them like one of the opposition! This is what Bob Andrews said (and it is fairly typical of them all):


    "...he {Ronnie] knew I could gate. He said "get to the first bend first, and leave a gap at about a foot from the line, if I need to I will come through." Bob said that's how they got a lot of 5-1s. He went on to say, "I then had a season riding with Barry - oh my God! I would gate, then leave a foot of room in case he wanted to come through. Usually, by the next bend, he would not just come through, but he would hang me on the fence. Briggs was a selfish rider."

    • Like 3

  15. Posted

    13 hours ago, iris123 said:

    The thing that struck me i seem to remember when looking at Fardon's scoring, was his inconsistency and a fair number of falls. Although it was a few years ago now. maybe it was down to the tracks or the bikes etc and maybe he was still to peak

    But Mauger and Nielsen were extremely consistent, as obviously Fundin was 

    Farndon did fall a lot in his early days. It was probably due to his leg trailing style of riding as he leaned his bike over and nearer to the ground than other riders of his time.

    The other reason that his scoring wasn't as high as it perhaps might have been was he suffered from engine failures. In the days before riders had armies of mechanics and helpers in the pits, Farndon just wasn't very good at machine maintenance. It was said that Freddie Mockford used to send someone round the track after every one of Farndon's race to pick up the bits that fallen off his bike during the race.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    I absolutely agree that record books don't tell the whole story. Chunky asked me earlier whether I thought Tom Farndon was as good as Ove or Bjorn. I really can't answer that. Obviously I never saw Farndon ride. But I do think he is a good case in point where record books in themselves don't tell the whole story. Again without looking them up, I would say that the record books would show he did not have quite as good a record as other riders of the pre-War era, Bluey Wilkinson for example. However, reading contemporary newspaper reports and other eye-witness accounts, I don't think there is any doubt that he was idolised like no other rider in the history of the sport. It was of film star proportions. Does that make him the greatest and therefore greater than Fundin, Mauger, Rickardsson, Zmarzlik? I don't know. Probably not in terms of achievements, in fact certainly not, but in terms of what he meant to speedway as a whole, then probably yes. 

    On the points you raise, E I, I always consider the 1960s and early 70s to be "my" era for speedway. I used to go two or three times a week, went to all the big meetings, followed the goings on avidly in the speedway press and so on. To my mind, Ove Fundin was just the absolute greatest rider of my era. Again I don't know whether that can be backed up by record books and statistics, in fact probably not when compared to Mauger, but there was just something about seeing Fundin ride. The absolute thrill of seeing the master in action. Mauger never gave me that same feeling. In a funny way, he was just too professional and efficient.

    As far as Ronnie Moore is concerned he was, as you say, probably the most naturally talented of the lot. He could ride the inside, the outside, slow races down, speed them up, do everything you could with a bike. He was a great team man and would always look for his team mate to shepherd him home. To Ronnie, the team was everything and I think, in a way, this was his undoing when it came to individual events. In spite of his near perfect bike control, he did not have that ruthless streak of a Fundin or a Briggs and I think that's what led to his probably not winning as many World titles as his talent should have won him.

    There is one other rider I would like to mention and that is Jack Young. I only ever saw him in the early 1960s when he was well past his best. But older supporters I knew used to reminisce about seeing him in the early 50s and many thought he was the greatest rider they had ever seen.  In two successive weeks in 1961, he won the King of the South Cup and the Tom Farndon Memorial Trophy at New Cross and he was absolutely stunning. In the course of these wins, he beat Briggs (twice), Fundin, Moore (twice) and Knutson. He was absolutely brilliant and showed what he must have been like in the early 50s at his peak. I always consider it a privilege to have got this glimpse of Youngie at his best and understood why the older supporters rated him as the best ever.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted · Edited by norbold

    I had the great honour of seeing Bjorn destroy the opposition week after week at West Ham in 1964. He was immaculate. However, over the period you mention, I would have to say that Ove was the dominant force, not just over Bjorn, but over every other rider. 

    Now off to check the record books to see if they confirm my memory of those times.

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    9 hours ago, chunky said:

    I don't think we can actually start an actual section; we would have to ask Phil if he could set it up in the "Years Gone By" section. However, it would be easy just to start a stats thread, which obviously, knowing the weird stuff people post/ask, would remain active.

    Go for it, Chunky. It's the sort of thing I would like as well.

  20. Posted

    I think you are correct about the source of the pungent smell. However, I don't recall Branston ever being manufactured in Hackney. In my time in London, it was manufactured in Bermondsey near where my Mum was born and brought up.

    Branston was made by Crosse & Blackwell. I don't think they were ever responsible for Bovril.

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    Being from the area and therefore having a number of books on Hackney, I thought I would delve into this Bovril controversy a bit more.

    It would appear that Bovril was at one time manufactured in a factory in nearby Shoreditch and that when the Olympic Park was being constructed, dozens of old Bovril bottles were found on the site and it is thought that there must be literally thousands of old Bovril bottles buried in Hackney Wick on the site of the old refuse tip there.

    Maybe the smell was still coming up out of the ground!

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    On 6/14/2024 at 9:03 PM, chunky said:

    Didn't we discuss the Bovril factory a few months ago?

    EDIT: Yes we did! Steve mentioned it back in March, but from what I could find, there never was one in Hackney. It seems that there was a Fray Bentos factory there, which could have been the source of the smell.

    Lesney had a large complex on Eastway, by Hackney marshes.

    Also a large Clarnico factory. I wonder if they were experimenting with Bovril flavoured chocolates....

  24. Posted

    Yes, he won two races in the West Ham v. Glasgow match in 1968. In the first he beat George Barclay, Barry Crowson and Brian Whaley and in the second he beat George Barclay with Oyvind Berg falling and Stan Stevens having e/f. In his other two races that night he came last.

    • Like 2

  25. Posted · Edited by norbold

    14 minutes ago, CHR2 said:

    West Han v Glasgow May 1967…Bill McMillan 4 rides, 0 points.

    West Ham v Glasgow April 1966... Bill McMillan 3 rides, 4 points.

    West Ham v Glasgow August 1965...Bill McMillan 3 rides 2 points.

    West Ham v. Glasgow August 1968...Bill McMillan 4 rides 6 points

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