chunky

Still seems like yesterday to me. I was 19 at the time!

Well, I'm just a puppy... John Jorgensen is the first world finalist younger than I, and he's way down at 90! He was born three days after me.

Another one who hasn't been mentioned is Jorn Haugvaldstad, who rode four matches for Halifax in 1980, without troubling the scorekeepers...

Don't forget that Uno Johansson also rode a couple of matches for Belle Vue in 1978, scoring one point.

Sorry, don't know how I missed him. Thanks. Just scary to think of riders of his/my generation leaving us...

If he gated, he wouldn't be easy to pass!

Riding for them?

Been a bad couple of days, eh? He really wasn't that old, either...

Here is the updated list after the sad passing of Rick France... 01 - Arthur Payne - 28/08/23 02 - Chum Taylor - 04/04/27 03 - Ian Williams - 04/08/31 04 - Ove Fundin - 23/05/33 05 - Dan Forsberg - 25/03/34 06 - Josef Hofmeister - 17/06/34 07 - Brian Crutcher - 23/08/34 08 - Mike Broadbank - 25/09/34 09 - Barry Briggs - 30/12/34 10 - Bob Andrews - 27/10/1935 11 - Reg Luckhurst - 11/11/193512 - Sverre Harrfeldt - 23/11/1937 13 - Leif Larsson - 16/02/1938 14 - Bjorn Knutson - 27/04/38 15 - Gunnar Malmqvist - 25/12/1940 16 - Andrzej Wyglenda 04/05/1941 17 - John Louis - 14/06/1941 18 - Jim Airey - 19/08/1941 19 - Bengt Jansson - 09/01/194320 - Anders Michanek - 30/05/194321 - Trevor Hedge - 30/08/194322 - Terry Betts - 15/09/194323 - Howard Cole 29/12/194324 - Martin Ashby - 05/02/194425 - Jan Simensen - 26/07/194426 - Zygfryd Friedek - 19/10/194427 - Jerzy Trzeszkowski - 10/01/194528 - Eric Boocock - 02/02/194529 - John Boulger - 18/06/194530 - Hasse Holmqvist - 18/06/194531 - Jim McMillan - 03/12/194532 - Soren Karlsson - 23/10/194633 - Ole Olsen - 16/11/194634 - Ray Wilson - 12/03/194735 - Doug Wyer - 16/08/1947 36 - Grigori Khlinovsky - 11/11/4737 - Egon Muller - 26/11/194838 - Christoph Betzl - 13/02/194939 - Jiri Stancl - 18/11/194940 - Viktor Kuznetsov - 27/11/1949 41 - Georg Hack - 20/02/195042 - Marek Cieslak - 28/06/195043 - Alois Wiesbock - 31/07/195044 - Tommy Johansson - 21/10/1950 45 - Vladimir Gordeev - 30/11/195046 - John Titman - 26/01/195147 - Dag Lovaas - 25/02/1951 48 - Jan Verner - 03/03/1951 49 - Petr Ondrasik - 08/10/195150 - Phil Crump - 09/02/195251 - Henny Kroeze - 11/03/195252 - Valery Gordeev - 28/08/195253 - Dave Jessup - 07/03/195354 - Ales Dryml - 10/06/195355 - Scott Autrey - 09/07/195356 - Robert Slabon - 15/09/195357 - Peter Collins - 24/03/195458 - Larry Ross - 15/06/195459 - John Davis - 10/11/195460 - Finn Thomsen - 16/02/195561 - Mikhail Starostin - 24/02/195562 - Tommy Nilsson - 10/03/195563 - Jan Andersson - 07/05/1955 64 - Kai Niemi - 15/09/195565 - Jerzy Rembas - 18/04/195666 - Chris Morton - 22/07/195667 - Steve Bastable - 16/09/195668- Bruce Penhall - 10/05/195769 - Karl Maier - 24/08/195770 - Roman Jankowski - 05/10/195771 - Bo Petersen - 21/02/195872 - Les Collins - 24/05/195873 - Mitch Shirra - 27/09/195874 - Michael Lee - 11/12/195875 - John Cook - 18/12/1958 76 - Richard Knight - 26/05/195977 - Dennis Sigalos - 16/08/195978 - Erik Gundersen - 08/10/195979 - Hans Nielsen - 26/12/1959 80 - Olli Tyrvainen - 11/01/1960 81 - Phil Collins - 02/06/1960 82 - Sam Ermolenko - 23/11/1960 83 - Rick Miller - 12/01/1961 84 - Jeremy Doncaster - 16/06/1961 85 - Tommy Knudsen - 09/11/1961 86 - Zoltan Adorjan - 15/11/1961 87 - Shawn Moran - 19/11/1961 88 - Peter Ravn - 16/03/1962 89 - Zenon Kasprzak - 10/05/1962 90 - John Jorgensen - 18/07/1962 91 - Antal Kocso - 22/12/1962 92 - Sandor Tihanyi - 28/04/1963 93 - Lance King - 13/08/1963 94 - Armando Castagna - 22/09/1963 95 - Kelvin Tatum - 08/02/1964 96 - Marvyn Cox - 11/07/1964 97 - Zdenek Tesar - 30/07/1964 98 - Mikael Blixt - 08/08/1964 99 - Paul Thorp - 09/09/1964 100 - Tony Olsson - 13/03/1965 101 Gerd Riss - 17/03/1965 102 - Conny Ivarsson - 15/04/1965 103 - Simon Cross - 31/05/1965 104 - Bohumil Brhel - 10/06/1965 105 - Slawomir Drabik - 06/02/1966 106 - Per Jonsson - 21/03/1966 107 - Andy Smith - 25/05/1966 108 - Jan Staechmann - 05/06/1966 109 - Ronnie Correy - 08/11/1966 110 - Jimmy Nilsen - 16/11/1966 111 - Brian Karger - 09/02/1967 112 - Jan O. Pedersen - 27/07/1967 113 - Craig Boyce - 02/08/1967 114 - Troy Butler - 22/09/1967 115 - Piotr Swist - 20/06/1968 116 - Todd Wiltshire - 26/09/1968 117 - Gary Havelock - 04/11/1968 118 - Stefan Danno - 10/02/1969 119 - Martin Dugard - 18/05/1969 120 - Gert Handberg - 30/05/1969 121 - Chris Louis - 09/07/1969 122 - Billy Hamill - 23/05/1970 123 - Greg Hancock - 03/06/1970 124 - Henrik Gustafsson - 14/08/1970 125 - Tony Rickardsson - 17/08/1970 126 - Mark Loram - 12/01/1971 127 - Tomasz Gollob - 11/04/1971 128 - Leigh Adams - 28/04/1971 129 - Josh Larsen - 12/05/1972 130 - Joe Screen - 27/11/1972 131 - Jason Crump - 06/08/1975

And I will be updating the list shortly...

Yep... He lost his last race to Ray Wilson, but it was enough for both of them to qualify ahead of Broady, who had won the previous race to finish on 9 points.

Really sad. A very underrated rider, and I'm sure that a lot of modern fans don't know that he was a World Finalist.

Funny thing is, British speedway history is littered with Jekyll & Hyde characters like Mike Parker! Sadly, many promoters are remembered more for their failures or their dodgy adventures than they are for their "achievements"...

Thank you so much! That was fascinating, and I could listen to Greg talk all day. Interesting to hear him mention Swede Savage, who lost his life after a crash at the 1973 Indy 500.

Um... Because we don't have any tracks in London???

Sorry, I forgot about Slough...

Dammit! I thought I had New Cross listed! Sorry!

Personally, I think my dream league would be Wimbledon, Wembley, West Ham, Hackney, White City, Walthamstow, Harringay, Barnet, Romford, Rayleigh, Rye House, Crayford, Reading, Lea Bridge, Stamford Bridge, Arena Essex, Crystal Palace, Dagenham, Greenford, and New Cross. EDITED: 'Cos I'm a pillock, and left off New Cross...

And scored 9, 11, 8, 7, and 9.

Well, we had the 1930 Southern Speedway League. On June 30, 1930, the Wimbledon prog states, "First Speedway Test Match" when England took on Australia. Also, there was a series of collector's cards issued by "The Rover for Boys", and the series was called, "1930 Speedway Stars". On Jack Ormston's card, it states that, "then became a speedway racer at Middlesbrough".

Tsk, tsk... Time of the month, eh? Not like you to not read things, Norman...

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...

Closely followed by Brian Crutcher...

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with you. Look at the problems we had with the World Pairs. Trying to change things 75 years down the road is never easy, and as you say, they never WERE "World Championships", despite being considered as unofficial ones.

Surprised you never mentioned it before?