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norbold

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Posts posted by norbold

  1. Posted · Edited by norbold

    8 hours ago, BOBBATH said:

    Thanks guys, BTW did anyone in forumland ever get to see a PLRC Final- I think maybe Norbold was at Harringay in 1960 when Reg Reeves won  following Trevor Redmonds'  e.f after he was unbeaten from four rides. Anybody else BL65 maybe?. 

    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!

  3. Posted

    8 hours ago, BOBBATH said:

    Strangely enough he never won the PLRC Final- does anyone know why?

     

    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.

  5. Posted

    1 hour ago, Bavarian said:

    Yes, which proves my point, that the name "Speedway" was adapted for our sport in England at the time league racing started.

     

    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!

  7. Posted

    1 hour ago, Bavarian said:

    When the sport arrived here in Germany in the summer of 1929, from England via Denmark, definitely no one here ever called it "Speedway". It was always only called "Dirt-Track", or sometimes more precisely "Cinder Track Racing".

    Same in France, or in Spain, where "Dirt-track Racing" became very popular, too. In fact, I don't recall a single country here on the Continent where this sport would be called "Speedway". That only came years later in the early/mid 1930s.

    In the early days, only the actually race track itself was called a "Speedway", which was true for all kinds of race tracks, lose surface or not (e.g. Indianapolis Motor Speedway), even horse racing tracks were sometimes called "Speedways". The term had been in use in America and Australia since long, even before the turn of the 20th Century.

       

    Different to the U.K. then.

  8. Posted

    3 hours ago, E I Addio said:

    A nice history norbold, but something I’ve often pondered on is when did speedway become “ speedway “ . It seems to me that there was common ancestry with grass track, long track and arguably board racing. Even early films around High Beech only suggest a loose relationship with the sport as we now know it . Certainly films of the very early 1930’s are clearly identify it as the sport we see today. Do you happen to know by what date it was being marketed and recognised as “Speedway “ ? Personally I would have said 1928 when the first dedicated stadiums where built over here, but that’s without much knowledge of how things panned out abroad . So what in your opinion would be the date my which it was universally recognised as the sport we know today?

     

    2 hours ago, Bavarian said:

    I am of the opinion that the term "Speedway" came into being when it became a team sport, and the term "Speedway" was chosen to give it s a distinct name. Just like other sports games had a distinct name, such as Cricket or Hockey for example. The promoters chose the name "Speedway" to differenciate it from the formerly used broader term "Dirt Track" which covered any form of lose surface motorcycle track racing. 
    The "Speedway" name for the game was created in the UK in about 1929/30 along with the setting up of League competions of teams. Before that, throughout the 1920s, our sport was always referred to as "Dirt Track", even in the early years in the UK, and in all the other countries, where there was no league racing, the name "dirt track" was still maintained for a good number of years.

    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.

  9. Posted

    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.'

     

  10. Posted

    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."

  11. Posted

    1 hour ago, BOBBATH said:

    A most interesting list- I immediatly thought of Arthur Forrest-wasn't he quite wealthy thru' a family business? I was lucky enough to see Bjorn Knutson win his only World Final in 1965, I couldn't believe he retired so soon-a great rider. I think though riding put him under tremendous mental pressur, Brian Crutcher too. Didn't Tommy Miller have health issues?

    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?"

  12. Posted

    1 hour ago, chunky said:

     

    We're going to quibble over one year - or more precisely, a couple of months? It seems strange that you would argue that point when neither Soderman nor Kaiser "retired" in the 1950's either...

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

  15. Posted

    3 hours ago, JamesHarris said:

    I know I've mentioned this somewhere else on the Forum over the years but the Tom Farndon story is well worth looking into. He was box office of his day and with Speedway in it's pioneer days he was somewhat the Beckham of the shale. He was an absolute superstar and the money he made was incredible, 

     

    3 hours ago, iris123 said:

    Someone should write a book about him

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

    • Haha 1

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, iris123 said:

    Think that is slightly unfair. Sure we have had a number of mentions, even a thread or two on the subject. Not sure how often you can keep going over old ground

    For instance think it was also mentioned on the Ray Tauser (Tauscher) thread that he held 3 world championships in the same year what with the Paris and Australian versions...

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

    • Haha 1

  20. Posted

    9 minutes ago, salty said:

    A fair few years ago "Classic Speedway" magazine did a top 20 of the 60's. Compiled by a "respected author"....

    Obviously is the whole of the decade rather than the period in the OP.....

    1. Nigel Boocock

    2. Ken McKinley

    3. Peter Craven

    4. Mike Broadbank

    5.Eric Boocock

    6. Ron How

    7. Martin Ashby

    8. Ray Wilson

    9. Terry Betts

    10. Dave Younghusband

    Focusing on the BL era, would see Craven and How removed from the list and probably higher positions for Eric B and Ray Wilson.

     

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

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    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.

  22. Posted

    52 minutes ago, arnieg said:

    Although during the winter of 63/64 between the closure of Sotton and the surprise re-opening of West Ham (anounced just a few weeks before the season start) there were only six.

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

  25. Posted

    30 minutes ago, BL65 said:

    Did you also go to Cradley Heath two months earlier for the original scheduled league fixture?  The referee and team managers agreed that the track was unfit for a league match but was fine to race a challenge match instead.  Tons of sawdust were used.  Speedway has always been crazy!  One rider, John Hart, refused to ride and was replaced by George Major, returning from injury.  Sverre Harrfeldt's winning time in the scratch race final was 11.6 seconds slower than the track record. West Ham won the challenge and the league match by the same score, 47-31. In the league encounter, Cradley took the first heat with a 5-1 against McKinlay and Trott and still led after four races.  If by some miracle the Hammers had lost the restaged match they would not have been champions.  Hammers' riders won all of the last nine heats though.

    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.

    • Like 3
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