star ghost

Tony Childs rode at the Firs Stadium in Norwich along with Cyril Crane before they sold our track for building in 1964, that makes it the early 60s.

miro - I can remember Conny Samuelsson came to the U K to ride for Oxford (I think) before 1964. As usual I must put in a mention for Wandering Wal Morton and our old mate Geoff Pymar who both had many years in the sport

The Researcher is the brainchild of Ron McNeil, Jim Henry & Graham Fraser who have gathered a dedicated bunch of fanatics? and they are gradually working towards getting all results from the History of Speedway to go on the site. Please remember to acknowledge any details you use from the site. Putting results onto the site is a finger-consuming time but it is well worth it in the end

I think Ove got Arne to come over here first, I seem to recall Arne was going to ride for Norwich in them days but this was over-ruled and Arne was passed on to the Oxford team where he became the number one except for a time when he had to run his dads business for him and he was unable to ride in the U K at that time. As has been said Arne was one of the riders who didnt rach a World Final Arne lived near Wymondham and played Pool for one of the local pubs, The Windmill, One night he came to play at ours and of course, we had "a few jars". When it was time to go I asked Arne if he was having "one for the road". His answer was to have one for each road he had to go on to get back home. Arne was unfortunate that night as he slipped on some ice on the Car Park outside but straight away denied it was anything to do with what he had just had. He worked for Lotus for a while but I cannot say where he is now. Arne always was "one of the best" without a doubt He was also quite a modest bloke as the other members of his Pool team had no idea how good a speedway rider Arne was until we told them

The Norwich connection was Richard (D) Wise who was the Manager of both tracks. He had the honour of unleashing Billy Bales onto an unsuspecting world of Speedway before leaving East Anglia to take over the Cradley Heath promotion. He also staffed his Mariners (Bloaters) team from his spare Norwich riders at the time as no-one would give riders away in them days. Finding & Training riders was the order of the day, not waiting for a "rider control system" to give you a team.

Good to know the old-timers are still around. Sad to hear Tom has now hung up his leathers. but I note he is still chasing-up the other riders for their life stories. Perhaps he is hoping to do the "History of Canadian Speedway" in the future. All the best to Cap'n Kidd of the Pirates and Mick Tams, Bobath and all other Speedway minded of the past, present & future

Reading through the Coventry listings is like a book from the past. It is in fact like reading the excellent Speedway Researcher Website with all the Speedway Results of the past. I remember those matches with Coventry at the Firs here in Norwich, Bees may have been heavily beaten, but Bob Fletcher, Jack Gordon & J D White put up a fight every time and that was what the supporters looked for in them days. The entertainment counted first & formost

Wasnt Ron born in Perth. I was once told they mistook the Perth to be West Aussie and not Scotland so Ron rode for Australia in the 1930 Tests and it stuck for ever more. Bert Spencer was born in England and also rode for Australia after his parents took him when they went to Aussie and Bert came back in the 20s and was taken as Australian

Quite right Norman. Ron would have to give much more than 10 to make it worth watching. And I am not putting you down Jim if you read this.

Harry Edwards, Wal Morton, Geoff Pymar .... 3 riders who rode for many years. The likes of Harwood Pike can be added. All these blokes, from my memory, just loved Speedway. One rider I was always told who went on too long was the great Jack Parker but as long as he wanted to race who would have had the nerve to say "Stop" to a bloke like Jack. Billy Bales, Phil Clarke & Aub Lawson were long serving Norwich Stars who rode until they were ready to pack it in. That is how it should be

Peter Bailey's death occured just outside Brandon's gates on a night when Kings Lynn were the visitors

Actually Ron Johnson in his prime would probably have been half a lap in front of Jim C so there would have been no need for him to move anywhere

I saw Tommy Miller ride for the old Glasgow side. Like Hurri Ken Tommy was quite a good rider in those days. Speedway was "different" then and Tommy more than held his own. A number of the riders from Div 2 rode in Test matches and of course Jack Young won the World Title from his second div days so there is no need to say he had to ride in div 1 to be rated by anyone at all

This makes it even more important for the Speedway Researcher and the present forum & club sites to do the recording of matters correctly. At present they are managing to make the distinctions I feel

Maybe Wal Morton or Geoff Pymar may have raced against 3 generations of some family even if not Crumps or Grants. They could well have met the Allotts I think.

Yes, that was the incident. Charles Ermolenko was a very popular bloke at Kings Lynn at the time and always found time to speak to anyone who was around and he was getting there as they said at the time, but then Kings Lynn were unfashionable so that did not matter to most

1 ............ Scott Autrey = The best American since the late Ernie Roccio (and drug free as far as I know) 2 ............ Lance King = Very unlucy when at Kings Lynn 3 ............ Bobby Ott = Worth a place for his all action style 4 ............ Also worth consideration .......... Bobby Boogaloo Schwartz = Another all-action rider and the most unfortunate of all ............ Charlie Ermolenko - forced by a stupid rule to take a third ride when obviously in no fit state to do so. Was fortunate he did not pay the ultimate price

The London Cup (for London team contests) was for the "London Evening News Trophy" and the National Trophy (for all teams) was for the Daily Mail Trophy. I was informed that these were held at Wembley when they were last stored away. I was also informed the National Trophy had been recalled by the Daily Mail & they now had that trophy stored away in case of it being needed in the future.

There was an Ian Peel in second half racing at Kings Lynn. I think he was a fenman, from the local area

Re the floods There was a photo of the flood in a Wimbledon programme that year. I will have to look it up to see what date it was though

The book you require is in fact a set of dvd's from Matthew Jackson & Hugh Vass. The first one covers the riders starting in the 1940s and the subsequent ones are yet to come. You will find they will fill in all you are looking for. Miss out on getting these items and it will be like losing your right arm.

You are right Nigel, so the story went at the time but memories have a habit of changing things like that around. Ove "filled Jimmy in" with wet shale a couple of times one night in 1963, Jimmy, obviously not too happy with his "team partner" for those actions, went across the pits and did some "filling-in" of his own. The story was that this caused Jimmy to leave the Firs and join Oxford for the 1964 season. When I mentioned this to someone recently they did not remember the matter at all.

I cannot recall Ron Mountford riding for the Hammers, unless as a guest rider. But then 1965 saw a lot of riders in unfamiliar team line-ups following the "invention" of the new league set-up

Ron Mountford always was a particular thorn in the side of the Norwich Stars when he rode for Birmingham in the team which contained Eric Boothroyd, Alan "Whacker "Hunt and Ivor Davies. It was always a tough battle home or away.

Look through track items for his teams on the Speedway Researcher website. I am fairly certain his scores are there I think he only rode for Coatbridge & Hull in the U K Leagues