Chadster

Andy Galvin was always guaranteed a 'warm' reception at Plough Lane. Preben Eriksen had a tough time of it after a crash with Kelvin Tatum in which Tatum broke his leg. I can remember Kenny Carter breaking the track record at Belle Vue. The Aces fans were unimpressed, to put it mildly. The reception Chris Morton got a couple of races later when he broke the record was as noisy and fervent as I can ever recall at Hyde Road

Roger Johns

Did Graham Plant not wear a scarf?

The classic design from 1937 to 1973 was simple and striking. Most of what came after was ill-advised and needlessly fussy. Are Wimbledon the only team whose colours were a foreign flag? (Vietnam). Was Ho Chi Minh a closet Dons fan? Is there a Ronnie Moore Boulevard or a Mark 'Buzz' Burrows street in Hanoi? I think we should be told.

I came down to London in 1976 and saw quite a bit of the rebels in the following two seasons. I can't remember much about the racing, except for Kennett bombing along the straights as if he were riding long track. The impression I got was of poor crowds and a lack of atmosphere that meant even the best races felt flat. That was brought home when I started going to Wimbledon in 1978 and the bigger crowds and more enclosed stadium meant that the racing seemed much better. As for tracks around football grounds how about the one round a cricket ground?

I like the idea of a big league, but there would be a serious rider shortage. Leaving aside the issue of doubling up, one big league would have to mean the end of fixed race nights so there woud be fixture clashes with Poland, especially, Sweden and Denmark. Belle Vue would almost certainly lose Fricke and Bjerre, Kings Lynn Lambert, Poole, Kurtz, Holder and Klindt, Swindon, Doyle, Musielak and Batchelor and Wolves, Thorsell and Masters. There may well be others. That's a lot of new riders to find on top of the double uppers (23, I read somewhere) How would we manage this problem. Even 6 man teams wouldn't be a solution. 5 man teams like in Denmark?

When Wimbledon were in the CL, I was impressed by how well most of the riders got around what was a very tricky track. They were a far cry from some of the wobblers I remember from watching second halves in the 60s. When Barry Briggs visited Plough Lane he said he couldn't have got round that track in his early days and yet we were watching some good racing there.

I'm a little puzzled by the timing of this. If you'd asked me a year ago, I'd have said that the logic underpinning the BSPA's actions over the previous decade had been to reduce the gap between the 2 leagues so as to make one big league possible, but last winter the decisions taken seemed more likely to widen the gap, making a big league less likely. I know I used logic and BSPA in the same sentence there..... To make it viable, you'd need 18 teams at least in a big league, so 34 league meetings, 2 (minimum) in cups and some meaningful regional competitions. Individual meetings become more attractive because you're not seeing the same old riders every week. I'd always thought Matt Ford was a convinced top league man, so maybe there's a significant shift in attitudes developing.

At times in that race he reminded me of how Nigel Boocock used to race. Great stuff!

Saw a Belle Vue v Sheffield KO Cup tie in 1969 and Bengt Larsson beat the great man from the back and Arnie Haley did the same in the second half in the Silver Sash match race. That didn't happen very often!

Is right.

Saw quite a lot of Fundin when he signed for the Aces in 1967. He was obviously still a top class rider, though apparently Hyde Road was not a particular favourite of his, not that you would have known from watching him. The first home meeting after he won the world title was against Newcastle. He came round on the tractor with the World Championship trophy, won his first two rides and then was beaten third time out. Who was the Newcastle rider to beat him? It's not the obvious answer....

I seem to recall reading that it was quite heavily banked, which might have contributed to its nickname.

It's worth pointing out that the broadcasters mentioned (all very good) were public service broadcasters. I suspect that people working for Sky, BT are expected to 'big it up', as I believe the expression is to convince viewers that what they're paying to watch is worth the fee.

Was that the meeting when Carter smashed the track record in his first outing and then Morton came out in his first ride and demolished Carter's time?

One I remember at Wimbledon in the late 70s against Ipswich, in the spell when Anders Michanek was riding for them. Larry Ross got out of the gate, Michanek was all over him and Stefan Salomonsson was the same to Michanek. All 3 riders locked together for the race until Salomonsson got through for a 5-1 on the last lap. Terrific stuff and I can remember old Ken Tozer going mad on the PAat the end.

I've just taken a look at 'Seery's statistics' in the Speedway Star from May 1969. He regularly produced a table of riders with over a 9 point average. There were 22 riders in that table. I think we can discount one of them as he'd only ridden three times but the rest had managed double figures in meetings, or close to. After 11 meetings Ivan Mauger had yet to drop a point. 19 teams in the league and lots of riders scoring heavily. If I recall correctly, last season in the Premier League, two riders averaged over 9 in the Star's end of season averages. Of course, it's not just a smaller league but other factors; fixed gate positions, race formulas meaning heat leaders meet each other more frequently and more professionalism. Riders routinely turn up with two or three bikes, so you don't have people withdrawing after a ride because their engine had blown up and, with a much smaller league, they're much more familiar with away tracks.

Of course all teams have three heat leaders, but I suspect that what Sidney meant was teams with 3 good heat leaders. In the early BL years the best teams usually had 4 heat leaders (Simmons for West Ham in the second half of 65, Roper for Halifa in 66 and Kilby for Swindon in 67 are just three examples). But equally, there were some woefully weak teams whose heat leaders would be second strings in most other teams.

Thanks! Interesting that one of the teams with more assets than liabilities (Workington) have closed down. Glasgow seem in a healthy position but there's been a lot of talk of retrenchment there this winter.

Sorry to ask what's probably a really stupid question, but what is the significance of the brackets in the right-hand column?

The standard of riders was obviously better back in the day, with most of the best riders in the world appearing in British racing, but that doesn't necessarily lead to better racing. The best guys were largely full time and filled their boots against riders who might be turning up with only one bike and riding at tracks they saw once a season. Obviously, there were great races but they stick out in the memory and the processions get forgotten about. Speedway seemed better because there were bigger crowds and better presentation. Alan Morrey's two minute button at Belle Vue was legendary, whereas most of the recent meetings I've been to have dragged interminably. Speedway back in the 60s and 70s also benefitted from presenting more races. I've recently been looking at the Speedway Researcher website and the Coventry section for the early BL years has details of the second hald races. Coventry regularly put on 20 races, most tracks 19 and one or two 21. The evening ended with a Rider of the Night final, which certainly in some of the runaway Belle Vue victories I saw was often the best race of the night and cute promoters elsewhere knew to get the riders to put on a show in the last race of the night (none of this should be seen as a plea for the return of the second half as they'd certainly had their day by the time they were got rid of). The other thing was that speedway then was full of confidence; the formation of the Provincial League, the successful amalgamation of the PL and the NL and the formation of Division 2 all took place within a 10 year period and the sport seemed to be going places. Now, the atmosphere seems overwhelmingly negative, with contraction not expansion the chief expectation. It's difficult to see a recovery like there was 50 years ago, but then that recovery could never have been predicted 10 years before it happened. Let's hope history repeats itself.

In the late 60s and early 70s I cut my speedway teeth watching at Hyde Road. There were some great meetings, some good ones, but a lot of poor ones , too, particularly when the Aces were at their strongest and some teams turned up beaten before they started. As has been pointed out, attendances were so much higher so that contributed to a sense of occasion that may have made up for poor racing. When I came to London, I started watching White City and then, on moving house, started going to Wimbledon. The racing at Plough Lane always seemed better because of bigger crowds and a much better atmosphere.

I thought he made some reasonable points and would agree the AGM was a cautious tep in the right direction. I was surprised about his enthusiasm for one big league as the decisions at the AGM actually moved the top two leagues further apart after years of them moving closer together.

I think the programme was originally set in the 50s but later series saw the period move into the 60s, so I think Geordie's ok to be driving a 1965 car and no doubt having conversations with the new vicar about the merits of Ivan Mauger over whoever is riding for the Grantchester team.

I imagine the resources available to the Washington Post and the Speedway Star are rather different.