BOBBATH

Roy Bester-South Africa, Malcolm Brown definitely English

Are any of the members of the original 1948 team still with us Al.This will be a great event that is being organised.

Not so difficult as you might think-e.g. John MILLS-one vowel and four consonants-assume you meant starting with a vowel!!!

Ta much Al

Thanx Al Stewart for updating us re Don-didn't realise he lived in Oz-glad he is still with us-how old do you reckon he is??

OK folks(particularly dons67) I can confirm that Maurie rode in 1966 also. He rode for Oxford and his average was 25 meetings in BL with a CMA of 5.16.He seems to have improved over 1965-the question is -was 1967 his last ever season.If so his career spanned 16 years or so which isn't half bad.Anyone know when MM passed away??One of the unsung heroes of our sport.

Interesting dantodan-I don't recall that -I am sure post war the numbers were always on the back

Maurie McDermott was definitely English-a Londoner I think. Also Ian- re Seery's stats-is the same method of calculation used today for Riders Averages??? By the way glad we are talking about Maurie-great to see his name mentioned and bet he would be tickled to hear of us picking over the bones of his long ago Speedway career.Thanx for bringing his name forward folks.

More on Maurie.I have a Stenners 1952 annual( for the 1951 season) -there is a brief note on Maurie that says he was employed as a sorter in the Post Office when he started riding at training tracks e.g. Rye House.Its funny to see Maurie's picture of 1951 and then compare it to the 1965 one I alluded to earlier.Hope all this is of interest.By the way and this is for Brian Hamilton-the top average scorer for Exeter in 1965 was your old Oxford buddy Colin Gooddy followed by Jack Geran!! Guess they couldn't hold these old Oxford guys back!!!

I have the British Speedway Handbook for the first BL season 1965.Maurie's picture is in it as part of an Exeter team pic, he rode in 25 BL matches and his CMA was 4.2. Think this would have been his last season.By the way are averages still calculated the same way -then it was points plus bonus points divided by number of rides, then multiplied by 4 e.g. in Maurie's case his ave per ride was 1.05 times 4 = 4.20. This was done because riders typically rode 4 times per match.Bryan Seery was the originator of this method I think??

Thanx barcroftlad-does anyone know if Don is still alive??Also is Johnny Greenwood still with us???

Hi hellsgranny-if you were born in 52 you are a young granny!!

There is no way Maurie was riding as late as 68 when Berwick started-I reckon as per Frigbo it was Maurie Robinson

Is Don still alive-anyone know???Guys like Don should not be forgotten.

Amazed nobody has posted to this thread-thought Norbold/Starghost/Brian Hamilton would have remembered-but are you all younger than I think!!!????I guess Don has faded from memory.

I recall Maurie riding for Exeter-good middle order guy-wasn't he with Rayleigh when they won PL in 1960??

Can this be right?? was Charlie Monk still riding in 1977??

ta mate

I recall Jack Unstead died in a track crash at Ipswich that evening -he had been transferred to Exeter in the PL at the start of that season-Len Silver was the star of that team-a real tragedy-anyone remember Jack and any memories to share??I think a middle order NL rider at Ipswich, I reckon he would have been a top PL rider-a big guy-ex-policeman I think-anyone recall the crash details or have other recollections of him??

Coppers/Coopers-oops it wuz me folks who got it wrong!!! I had a Speedway Digest of 1963 in which Dave Lanning wrote an obit of Jack-he did indeed say cooper-but I jumped to the conclusion it was copper.Mea Culpa-I have sadly run across a few coppers in my time but never a cooper!!!.Are these folks still around or has the job been mechanised/outsourced out-or perhaps there are now just metal barrels and they ain't needed any more -any coopers out there in Forumland??????????

Going back to my era of 13 heats any whitewashes in the PL/BL era of the sixties.I remember a 64-14 Wolves v. Newport in October 1965-and Newport had a good team too!! But don't recollect any 65-13's!!

Anybody got Kevin's stats?I thought he may have ridden for Edinburgh in PL but not sure

Hiya SALTY -wot a drag, we wuz robbed!!

Interesting posts-hey SALTY what was the order they finished in-hope it was a Newport 1-5 and that Newport won the meeting.Amazing that Jon Erskine was in both races eight years apart .Also to Norbold two of those riders Waterman and Gooch are still with us 48 years later!!Good for them.

Pretty sure he rode for Weymouth(non-league) in 62 or so.