Jump to content
British Speedway Forum

norbold

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    11,475

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    23

Posts posted by norbold

  1. Posted

    Yes, 1965. I was on the West Ham supporters' coach coming back from Cradley Heath after we had just beaten them to win the league and do the treble. We stopped off at Watford Gap and met up with Ken McKinlay and some of the boys.

  3. Posted

    4 hours ago, chunky said:

    While he stood out in particular, what about any of those other Poles of that era? Pawel Waloszek, Henryk Zyto, and Marian Kaiser? Zyto showed some great form, including winning the Midland Riders Championship, and Waloszek twice finished in the Top 5 of the World Final.

    Who knows what they may have achieved with an extended spell in Britain?

    Yes, indeed. All of them.

  4. Posted

    46 minutes ago, Split said:

    Stefan Kwoczala was Polish champion in 1959 and seventh in the World Final the following year. He rode for Leicester that year but was only allowed one season of racing in Britain and returned to ride in the Polish domestic league in 1961. Sadly, he suffered serious head injuries in a track crash in May of that year which effectively ended his career. Who knows what he might otherwise have achieved.

    Yes, I agree. I saw him. couple of times in 1960 and thought he looked really good.

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    1 hour ago, Split said:

    Riders who excelled at long track have been mentioned in previous posts and one of these was Finnish rider, Timo Laine. As far as I can see, he never rode for a British speedway team but I seem to remember him riding at New Cross in a Speedway Internationale qualifying round in the early 60's  - Norbold can probably confirm that.

     

    Yes, I certainly can. I was at the meeting.

  7. Posted

    2 hours ago, chunky said:

    As you seemed to ignore Gote Nordin, then, I checked his figures! I was a little disappointed to find that he averaged less than 7 in his first year (1960) at Hyde Rd.

    I also ignored Soren Sjosten, Dan Forsberg, Birger Forsberg, Per Olof Soderman and Rune Sormander - to name just a few!

  8. Posted

    Just out of interest, I looked up Olle Nygren and Ove Fundin's first year averages using your criterion of 10 matches minimum..

    Olle Nygren's was 7.6 from 10 matches (Harringay 1952)

    Ove Fundin's was 10.34 (Norwich 1956). (The previous year he appeared in 6 matches and scored 73 points.)

    I think it's fair to say that Ove Fundin began as he meant to continue!

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    4 minutes ago, ch958 said:

    should have been a double world champion

    That he didn't is the biggest regret of my speedway life! I saw his first ever public race at West Ham. It was a special junior match race between him, aged 15, and Barry Thomas, aged 16. Barry won, but I thought Dave looked really classy for a 15 year old having his first race and I said to my friend, "He"ll be world champion one day."  But, of course, he never was!

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    It is an interesting conundrum and Zmarzlik's dominance raises an interesting question . Leaving aside Laguta and Sayfutdinov at the moment for obvious reasons, if we were to look objectively at the top 15 riders in the world, I think we would include the likes of Magic and Dudek. However, I think we also know that the chance of them ever beating Zmarzlik to the World Championship is almost zero. The only way he is going to lose over the next few years (Russians excepted) is for one or two of the younger riders, like Lambert, Bewley, Kvech, Kubera or Becker for example, to come good. But to do that they need to get experience at Grand Prix level.  So do you go for the top 15 in the world regardless, and I can understand those left out would feel very aggrieved, or do you try and inject a bit of youth in the hope that at least one of them will make good and make a fight of the World Championship?

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    1 hour ago, TTT said:

    GP's in 2024 will be pointless if Emil and Laguta aren't in them.

    Zmarzlik's a tainted WC at this point through no fault of his own, World class rider but the higher ups took away his only challengers due to wokeness. 

    Can you explain the meaning of wokeness in that context?

    • Like 3

  22. Posted

    On 9/23/2023 at 3:35 PM, chunky said:

    That's what I keep saying on here. Nobody watches sport for the "sporting aspect"; ie entertainment. The only thing they're interested in is sudden-death finals and results.

    Is there really something wrong with me watching speedway because I enjoy the racing?

    Another things that has occurred to me is that back in the "old days", we used to go along and watch "meaningless" matches, London v. the Rest, New Cross v. the Kiwis, etc. I even remember seeing Southampton v. Provincial League Select at New Cross when New Cross had an away fixture on race night. There were also a number of individual trophy meetings. And, of course, there were the second half scratch races. And yet we enjoyed them all just as much as the league and cup matches.

  25. Posted

    On 9/11/2023 at 1:22 PM, chunky said:

    Just elaborating on this...

    So too are the Top 3 from 1963. This is scary, but these two years are the ONLY years with a surviving Top 3 - PRIOR TO 1975!

    1975 still seems so recent to me, but...

    Mind you, Ivan Mauger accounts for most of that on his own!

    • Like 1
×

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy

  I accept