chunky

Never heard that before after a GP...

I will say this again; at least this system guarantees that the GP winner gets the most points! I HATE when people do this, but here's how it WOULD have looked under the old system (with comparison in brackets)... 18 - Holder (-2) 14 - Zmarzlik (=) 12 - Lambert (=) 12 - Doyle (-6) 11 - Huckenbeck (=) 11 - Lindgren (-5) 9 - Madsen (-1) 8 - Kubera (-1) 7 - Michelsen (-1) 6 - Vaculik (-1) 6 - Wozniak (=) 6 - Kvech (+1) 5 - Lebedevs (+1) 5 - Bewley (+2) 4 - Zagar (+2) 3 - Woffinden (+2)

He was also out wide looking for grip when there wasn't any...

That's fine. Get rid of Zmarzlik, Holder, Bewley etc...

Gate 4's coming good, eh?

Doesn't help when you get class riders off gate 4, and they move out to the dirt - and go backwards...

He changed his mind...

Three races into the season...

Who won the bloody war anyway?

Yes you did! You invaded Poland!

You started it...

I think he mentioned it once...

NEXT!!!

Doyle? Well I never...

Okay, that makes more sense... As far as the GP's, the Wild Card and track reserves are nominated by the hosting national association. With other events, such as the British Final, NLRC etc, it was usual (but didn't always follow) for the hosting track to nominate the track reserves. For example, the track reserves for the 1974 British Final were Coventry riders Frank Smith and Roger Hill. The NLRC was another example. In 1974, Bob Hughes, Brian Havelock, and Willie Templeton all "qualified" as their track's No.1, and all rode as reserve on the night. Same with Ian Clark and Graham Jones in 1977. However, Wimbledon juniors Ian Williams and Dave Brewer rode as reserve in 1976 and 1979, and Keith Yorke and Graham Knowler did the same in 1980.

"MADE IT to the Cardiff GP lineup"? He was named as "track reserve", which is hardly the same thing. You could say that Keith Yorke made it to the NLRC, and at least he actually rode! Yes, Iris123, why are you slagging him off for being a heartless violent thug and criminal?

Do you mean a "wig"?

I understand. I'll get me coat...

In 1965, West Ham also won the KO Cup, and the London Cup

Pete Wigley used to do that too!

Oh, trust me, Freddie Williams really is the prime example! And people today complain about having multiple events in Poland...

Moreso than most sports, speedway traditionally has a problem with "home Advantage", but how big an issue is it? Let's look at some home-track winners from the BL era (1965 to 1990), and there are two reasons for that. Firstly, many tracks got into the habit of running regular (and well-established) individual meetings, and secondly, there was a tendency to get as many top riders as they could. I've chosen what I consider to be the strongest established events at most BL tracks. Some of you may wonder why I chose the Internationale over The Laurels, but I always felt that The Laurels leant toward a "regional field", or riders that we enjoyed seeing. I know there were several meetings like that around the country. So, here goes... Belle Vue - BLRC: Ivan Mauger (1971), Peter Collins (1974, 1975), Chris Morton (1984), Shawn Moran (1989) Coventry - Brandonapolis: Nigel Boocock (1966, 1968, 1971), Mitch Shirra (1980), Tommy Knudsen (1982, 1984) Cradley - Golden Hammer: Bobby Schwartz (1979), Lance King (1983), Alan Grahame (1984), Erik Gundersen (1986, 1987), Jan O. Pedersen (1989), Simon Cross (1990) Exeter - Westernapolis: Ivan Mauger (1973, 1975), Zdenek Kudrna (1979) Hackney - Champions Chase: Bengt Jansson (1973), Barry Thomas (1979) Halifax - Dews Trophy: Eric Boocock (1970, 1973), Graham Plant (1976), Ian Cartwright (1979), Kenny Carter (1980, 1981) Ipswich - Golden Sovereign: John Louis (1975), Billy Sanders (1976, 1978, 1979) King's Lynn - Pride of the East: Terry Betts (1968), Howard Cole (1969), Dave Jessup (1979, 1980), Michael Lee (1981) Poole - Blue Riband: Malcolm Simmons (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978) Reading - Manpower Trophy: Anders Michanek (1973), Joh Davis (1978) Sheffield - Yorkshire Bank Trophy: Bob Valentine (1973), Doug Wyer (1979) Swindon - Silver Plume: Martin Ashby (1974) Wimbledon - Internationale: Trevor Hedge (1969), Edward Jancarz (1977) Wolverhampton - Champion of Champions: Ole Olsen (1970, 1972, 1974) Sad note is the fact that, out of all these tracks, only Belle Vue, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Poole, and Sheffield still exist...

It doesn't fit in with the topic of this thread, Bob...

Oops! You know why I didn't include it? I didn't see that Martin Ashby won it in 1974!

Les, Dick, and Jim Tolley were brothers. According to a comment from Nigel on the Brummies' Facebook page, Dick and Stan (not sure where Stan fits into this!) were "distant relations".