fatface

Ouch. I'd be very surprised if there was anything deliberate. I never saw Ravn do anything remotely dirty in years of riding for Belle Vue.

Nice tagline. This was mentioned in a backtrack interview recently with Colin Richardson. Bonus was he got loads of them. Surprised they didn't use Roger Johnnies instead... Yep. Lucozade with simply GRIT emblazoned across a pic of Havvy. I confess I tried to nick one for my student pad in Edinburgh at the time....until a police car pulled up and asked why I was whacking a bus shelter with a grolsch bottle. I had more testosterone than brains back then. Cool poster though

It's not an incident I know much about. Tell us more. I would also add that Evitts was no saint, saw him take Andy Smith into the fence at Odsal and he broke his leg.

I never really rated Mavis, but he did reach the World Final that year? Of course. They won at Belle Vue on opening night....which was a rare one for the Dukes. Lance King is a common denominator here. I think he never really settled anywhere after being forced to leave Cradley due to averages. He really looked the part at one time, but his career kind of petered out.

A regular run for me in SE London used to take me past Speedway Dry Cleaners in New Cross. I assume very close to where the old speedway used to be? Some nice memories here from Plough Lane. I only went to the speedway once for a 4TT in 1990 and then for Stock Car World Champs 2-3 years later and finally to the dogs about 10-12 years ago. Sorry to say the old place just grew more and more dilapidated. I had the same feeling the last time I went to Brandon too.

A World Final at Exeter? Can you imagine? A dear old place which I hold in great affection, but I'm glad the World Final never declined to the point it was at the County Ground Despite being a big Mort fan, I have to reluctantly agree with this. He could not get out of the gate consistently enough. The whole of the 1983 World Final is on YouTube....every race. On paper, it was quite an open field - until Muller wheeled his jet engine into the pits and had direction over track conditions, but I digress - and I would have Mort in the 8 or so riders good enough to win it that day. At the interval, he was doing pretty well on 6 points. But 4 of those were earned from the back. You just can't win World Finals earning 2/3 of your points that way. No one can....and he tailed off after the interval. Even had a World Final been held at Hyde Road, I still doubt it. It was great when he won the BLRC, but things out of his control helped him that day too. And if it had been a World Final at Belle Vue, with every rider peaking with the best machinery geared up to that day, all having prepared in practice, then I think his odds lengthen. Brilliant rider of course - as I am sure Nigel Boocock was - but there is a difference between being brilliant and being the best.

Interested to know if anyone has the results of this global series in 1985? Can't find any record of it online. Was there an overall winner at all?

Funny I remember the series being bigger than that..I was much younger though. I'll file it away with curly wurlys and monster munch.

Shouldn't laugh really. He might have had a better chance without that unprecedented pedigree. No pressure eh? I think (hopefully someone else can confirm?) that Steve had a decent night for Cradley one night at Hyde Road, winning a race.

I wouldn't ask anyone outside to debate that. The anorak in me likes the age ranking order alongside their biggest achievements... Peter - 1st World Final Les - 1st Intercontinental Final Phil - 1st Overseas Final Neil - 3rd Commonwealth Final Steve - 1st, erm, in a GB Junior Grasstrack Final? But I can't help the nagging suspicion that Les's purple patch in 82 which resulted in the Intercontinental title and finishing 2nd in the World Final (and let's be honest, he really should have won it), owed a fair bit to having a the fastest bike. For whatever reason, that Jawa was ticking over brilliantly. Faster than Penhall's Eddie Bull-tuned Weslake, faster than anyone else. Les never reached those heights again, he was never an automatic for England and only ever averaged 8 at best in the BL. Loved watching him though. One of my favourite moments was seeing live the opening race of the Edinburgh - Glasgow KO Cup Final in 94? It was packed at Powderhall and Les brought the house down by rounding both Robert Nagy and Mick Powell on the last bend to win.

Is there a team of Parkers? Asking for an anorak.

I'll forgive you Always reckon Phil and Les are a closer match than most would suggest. Sure, Les had some standout individual success, particularly in 82. But Phil was a better rider for England than Les.

Peter, Les, Phil?

Evocative stuff. Thanks for the memories! I can see from an Ipswich perspective, it would have been a lot of fun coming to Hyde Road and hammering us. From this young Aces fan though, it was no fun watching a team that had been brilliant all year suddenly looking very amateurish.

Finn Jensen. Brilliant or dreadful. Nothing in between :-) I remember the KO Cup Final well v Ipswich. The track was a mess...something to do with frost. We were well beaten, but when you see Mort and PC barely able to slide the bike around Hyde Road, it's not really speedway is it?

Yes, but Belle Vue were good enough to win nearly every match. I would still say the team of Morton, Collins, Ross, Courtney, Smith, P Carr, McKinna is stronger than Sanders, Cook, Niemi, Doncaster, Knight, Flatman, Blackbird. Fun season though.

Courtney was 84 though. I think the big problem was that he didn't pull his weight in some narrow away losses. Really, Aces should have won the league that year, they were the strongest team. They were smashing teams at home all year. Didn't know Ingels had some success....good for him

Massive. In fact worth speculating that we would never have had the Morans. Sam would've been our spearhead through to the 90s. Same issue with Ingels as Campbell. Promising year at Newcastle in 1984...but again was in a small pond. Out of his depth at Belle Vue. Wonder what came of him?

I think both Courtney and Blackbird lacked the application...both very able though. Andy Campbell had a really good 1984 with Exeter, but it was a lot different being a big fish in a small pond than riding at no1 for the Aces. On paper all looked good signings....but didn't work out that way. The same year, Aces were in for Sam Ermolenko when he was out of British Speedway, but I think were put off by the terms. We got Eddie Ingels instead!

Yep. Stuart Bamforth is remembered as the man who sold Hyde Road....there are more layers to the story than that of course. But you couldn't accuse him of not trying to win with Belle Vue. He spent big on Mark Courtney, Carl Blackbird, Andy Campbell and Paul Thorp in a short space of time....and they were all the right riders to buy - at that time, they were all really promising English riders. Thorpy worked out the best. Blackbird and Courtney could and should have done better. But Andy Campbell, you could tell he tried really hard, but he just wasn't cut out to make it at the higher level.

Mark Crang... there's a bloke who was thrown in out of his depth. All due to the averages. I think the Aces paid around £5k for him... Mainly because he had a really low average. Only in speedway....

Did you read my full post? Just scroll up and re read if not. It could not be clearer that PC deserves a free pass. My understanding is that is what exactly was offered, but refused on the grounds that every other Belle Vue rider ever gets the same treatment. Finally, yes, I probably do deserve better from Tesco's. Some of those trolley trains I steered are still talked of with great reverence.

In very simple terms, the winner of the F1 World Championship is the world's best driver. The winner of the men's 100m is the world's fastest man. The World Heavyweight Champion is the toughest man in the world. Those things will always cut through because they are meaningful to most people on the planet. Being the best to slide a bike round an oval dirt circuit on machines no-one has heard of, is meaningless to the vast majority of the planet. Excitement is a matter of opinion, I have always found speedway a whole lot more interesting than F1 and always will. It's preaching to the choir on a speedway forum of course. We are obviously in the minority globally and that won't change. Speedway just has to present itself a lot better in the key markets who are interested. Of course the marketing and packaging leaves a lot to be desired. But - in my opinion - BSI are the least guilty party in this area. Most of the SGPs are at least comparable with most other "global" sport series in terms of spectacle. Anything served up by the BSPA is a notable step down from any major domestic events from other sports.

Agreed. Very honest and self-aware. He had a lot in his favour. A speedway family, great role model team mates like Hans Nielsen, talented. He should have joined a big track and got away from Eastbourne. Truth is Dugard, Barker and Norris should all have done better and as three likely lads together, probably held each other back. In all sport though, you can never really say who is going to make it to the top until they actually get in that environment and see how they react. It's not always the most talented who make it. For example, not many of us would have seen Jason Doyle becoming a World Champion.

Joe Screen was dynamite and had the ability Henrik Gustafson looked a stronger prospect than Tony Rickardsson at first