Good on paper, bad on track (or the other way?)

[fatface 2,556]

Having a browse through Peter Oakes' excellent history of British League Speedway book the other night. Found it interesting to see some teams that look the part and actually turned out to be not up to much. Also, the opposite, teams that looks pretty ordinary, but actually really clicked. Two examples...

King's Lynn 1988 - Lance King, John Davis, Bo Petersen, Richard Knight, Allan Johannsen, Stephen Davies, Adrian Stevens - effectively four heat leaders and two really solid second strings. Finished 9th/11

Long Eaton 1984 - Dave Perks, Graham Drury, Paul Stead, Chris Piddock. Miles Evans, David Tyler, Mark Stevenson, John Frankland - mostly past their best, middle of road or untried...bottom in 1983, champions in 1984

Anyone else got any examples that drained away the start of year optimism or pessimism... ?

[norbold 7,117]

Peterborough 2021!

[customhouseregular 1,651]

West Ham... bottom of league 1964, champions and cup winners 1965.

[norbold 7,117]

4 hours ago, customhouseregular said:

West Ham... bottom of league 1964, champions and cup winners 1965.

Yes, but with a much better team that got even better as the season went on with Malc's rise to heat leader status. You couldn't say the team that finished the season looked anything but the best team in the league.

[customhouseregular 1,651]

2 hours ago, norbold said:

Yes, but with a much better team that got even better as the season went on with Malc's rise to heat leader status. You couldn't say the team that finished the season looked anything but the best team in the league.

Very true Norbold. The second half of the season was exceptional.

[waiheke1 4,295]

Aces 87? At the start of the year I expected Mort (9.5+) to be supported by three other heat leaders averaging 8+ (Ravn, Blackbird,Thorp), with backing from a couple of solid second strings (McKinna and a returning from injury Smith). I thought they were title winners, but they ended mid-table. Ultimately Blackbird and McKinna dropping their averages significantly was the main factor. 

 

[waiheke1 4,295]

15 hours ago, falcace said:

Having a browse through Peter Oakes' excellent history of British League Speedway book the other night. Found it interesting to see some teams that look the part and actually turned out to be not up to much. Also, the opposite, teams that looks pretty ordinary, but actually really clicked. Two examples...

King's Lynn 1988 - Lance King, John Davis, Bo Petersen, Richard Knight, Allan Johannsen, Stephen Davies, Adrian Stevens - effectively four heat leaders and two really solid second strings. Finished 9th/11

Long Eaton 1984 - Dave Perks, Graham Drury, Paul Stead, Chris Piddock. Miles Evans, David Tyler, Mark Stevenson, John Frankland - mostly past their best, middle of road or untried...bottom in 1983, champions in 1984

Anyone else got any examples that drained away the start of year optimism or pessimism... ?

That Long Eaton team looks really average on paper. I guess they were helped by Newcastle, Exeter and Oxford making the move up to BL? 

That KL team looks solid, albeit lacking a true number 1, and were Davis and Petersen still true heat leader quality at that stage?

[waiheke1 4,295]

86 Bradford Dukes? Carter, King  Evitts, supported by Ross and Willmot, with Graves and Whittaker as the two reserves. Obviously the events of May chsnged thst...

[chunky 6,108]

1 hour ago, waiheke1 said:

That Long Eaton team looks really average on paper. I guess they were helped by Newcastle, Exeter and Oxford making the move up to BL? 

If you look at their figures compared to the previous year, you can see exactly what happened. Of course, a lot of it was down to Tyler and Evans, but when every team member raises their average (the top seven by a total of 11.47) that's impressive. Of course, when your worst riders are still well over 5, that gives you great strength in depth.

When they won at Edinburgh, Dave Perks had a poor night, Pidcock (9) and Frankland (5+2) picked up the slack. When they edged out Hackney, it was thanks to Pidcock again (11+1) and Stevenson (10+1). The point they earned at Middlesbrough was thanks in no small way to 8+1 from Miles Evans. The win at Glasgow was spearhead by Tyler who got 11+1 from reserve. The real key was having 5 riders who would consistently score between 6 and 8 - and it varied who those five were.

8.99 - Dave Perks (+0.85)
8.75 - Paul Stead (+ 0.89)
8.50 - Graham Drury (0.71)
7.37 - David Tyler (+ 4.79)
6.96 - Chris Pidcock (+ 0.87)
5.83 - Miles Evans (+ 2.58)
5.41 - Mark Stevenson (+ 0.78)
5.35 - John Frankland (+ 0.14)

[fatface 2,556]

9 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

That Long Eaton team looks really average on paper. I guess they were helped by Newcastle, Exeter and Oxford making the move up to BL? 

That KL team looks solid, albeit lacking a true number 1, and were Davis and Petersen still true heat leader quality at that stage?

I never really rated Mavis, but he did reach the World Final that year?

9 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

86 Bradford Dukes? Carter, King  Evitts, supported by Ross and Willmot, with Graves and Whittaker as the two reserves. Obviously the events of May chsnged thst...

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.

[waiheke1 4,295]

84/85 King was truly world class - I went to the overseas finals both years (I'm sure you probably did too) and he won 9 out of 10 heats for a first and third. Could have been world champ in 84 had he won his last ride in the final.

But after that, he never kicked on, and in fact went backwards - dont think he made another world final. 

[Guest]

Talking of Bradford, Neil Evitts was another rider who failed to realise his full potential. British Champion at the age of 21 in 1986, his career arguably never recovered from his controversial crash in the 1987 Inter-Continental Final when Peter Ravn mowed him down.

A few years after that he was riding in Division 2 for Newcastle after steadily falling down the rankings for the Dukes.

[waiheke1 4,295]

1 hour ago, prodons said:

Talking of Bradford, Neil Evitts was another rider who failed to realise his full potential. British Champion at the age of 21 in 1986, his career arguably never recovered from his controversial crash in the 1987 Inter-Continental Final when Peter Ravn mowed him down.

A few years after that he was riding in Division 2 for Newcastle after steadily falling down the rankings for the Dukes.

Agree. Rated him from first seeing him round Hyde Rd as a Brummies reserve in 82. In 86 he started the season in genuinely world class form, faded a little as the season went on - iirc some injury problems, possibly from a clash with Andy smith- but still made the world final, and won the heat which put paid to Eric's hopes of a third  consecutive world title. But never hit those heights again.

I saw that 87 crash for the first time just the other day. Never seen anything like it before.  Was Ravn ever punished for that collision? 

[Guest]

Unbelievably I don’t think he was sanctioned or fined at all. It was all totally bizarre to say the least.

[steve roberts 9,246]

3 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

Agree. Rated him from first seeing him round Hyde Rd as a Brummies reserve in 82. In 86 he started the season in genuinely world class form, faded a little as the season went on - iirc some injury problems, possibly from a clash with Andy smith- but still made the world final, and won the heat which put paid to Eric's hopes of a third  consecutive world title. But never hit those heights again.

I saw that 87 crash for the first time just the other day. Never seen anything like it before.  Was Ravn ever punished for that collision? 

Remember the race well (I was there). As the tapes rose Neil steared slightly into Erik's lane and Gundersen hesitated and the race was lost.