chunky 6,104 Posted October 16, 2023 Thanks to a comment by frigbo on another thread, it got me thinking... I checked Tommy Nilsson's average in his first year in the UK, and thought it was pretty good. So, I just started checking the first-year averages of other Swedes, and looked to see who made the biggest initial impact. I decided to stick with the BL era until 1980; after that, i feel that British speedway started to go a little weird with leagues and foreign riders! So, here is a list of first-year averages of Swedes who made their debut in the upper tier from 1965-80. I have excluded riders who had been riding here before (Sjosten, Nygren, Nordin), but I did throw in the one first-timer from 1964 (Bengt Jansson) just because. I have also excluded riders/seasons where a rider appeared in a handful of matches (10 is the minimum), whether they came back or not, so a first year here should be considered a "full" year. I just think it's interetsting to see how some riders developed long and successful careers (Jan Andersson, Richard Hellsen), yet others (Bengt Andersson, Bo Wirebrand) were never able to really improve on an impressive start. Some great names on here, though... 10.05 - Torbjorn Harrysson 9.29 - Hasse Holmqvist, 9.19 - Bernt Persson 8.74 - Anders Michanek, 8.21 - Gunnar Malmqvist, 8.03 - Tommy Johansson 7.82 - Christer Lofqvist, 7.51 - Jan Simensen, 7.48 - Tommy Jansson, 7.32 - Tommy Bergkvist. 7.30 - Bengt Jansson*, 7.08 - Bengt Larsson 6.90 - Bo Josefsson, 6.41 - Tommy Nilsson, 6.38 - Christer Sjosten, 6.03 - Bo Wirebrand 5.86 - Lars Jansson, 5.22 - Bengt Andersson 4.75 - Richard Hellsen, 4.65 - Soren Karlsson, 4.57 - Bengt Brannefors, 4.56 - Jan Andersson, 4.17 - Conny Samuelsson, 4.14 - Stefan Salomonsson, 4.12 - Nils Ringstrom, 4.00 - Tommy Pettersson 3.70 - Hasse Danielsson, 3.61 - Jan Davidsson, 3.44 - Lars-Inge Hultberg, 3.19 - Leif Soderberg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve roberts 9,246 Posted October 16, 2023 5 hours ago, chunky said: Thanks to a comment by frigbo on another thread, it got me thinking... I checked Tommy Nilsson's average in his first year in the UK, and thought it was pretty good. So, I just started checking the first-year averages of other Swedes, and looked to see who made the biggest initial impact. I decided to stick with the BL era until 1980; after that, i feel that British speedway started to go a little weird with leagues and foreign riders! So, here is a list of first-year averages of Swedes who made their debut in the upper tier from 1965-80. I have excluded riders who had been riding here before (Sjosten, Nygren, Nordin), but I did throw in the one first-timer from 1964 (Bengt Jansson) just because. I have also excluded riders/seasons where a rider appeared in a handful of matches (10 is the minimum), whether they came back or not, so a first year here should be considered a "full" year. I just think it's interetsting to see how some riders developed long and successful careers (Jan Andersson, Richard Hellsen), yet others (Bengt Andersson, Bo Wirebrand) were never able to really improve on an impressive start. Some great names on here, though... 10.05 - Torbjorn Harrysson 9.29 - Hasse Holmqvist, 9.19 - Bernt Persson 8.74 - Anders Michanek, 8.21 - Gunnar Malmqvist, 8.03 - Tommy Johansson 7.82 - Christer Lofqvist, 7.51 - Jan Simensen, 7.48 - Tommy Jansson, 7.32 - Tommy Bergkvist. 7.30 - Bengt Jansson*, 7.08 - Bengt Larsson 6.90 - Bo Josefsson, 6.41 - Tommy Nilsson, 6.38 - Christer Sjosten, 6.03 - Bo Wirebrand 5.86 - Lars Jansson, 5.22 - Bengt Andersson 4.75 - Richard Hellsen, 4.65 - Soren Karlsson, 4.57 - Bengt Brannefors, 4.56 - Jan Andersson, 4.17 - Conny Samuelsson, 4.14 - Stefan Salomonsson, 4.12 - Nils Ringstrom, 4.00 - Tommy Pettersson 3.70 - Hasse Danielsson, 3.61 - Jan Davidsson, 3.44 - Lars-Inge Hultberg, 3.19 - Leif Soderberg I would have thought that someone would have given Conny another chance as he did show some pretty good performances away from Cowley but perhaps it was his own decision to give the UK a miss? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
norbold 7,116 Posted October 16, 2023 Just out of interest, I looked up Olle Nygren and Ove Fundin's first year averages using your criterion of 10 matches minimum.. Olle Nygren's was 7.6 from 10 matches (Harringay 1952) Ove Fundin's was 10.34 (Norwich 1956). (The previous year he appeared in 6 matches and scored 73 points.) I think it's fair to say that Ove Fundin began as he meant to continue! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,104 Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, norbold said: Just out of interest, I looked up Olle Nygren and Ove Fundin's first year averages using your criterion of 10 matches minimum.. Olle Nygren's was 7.6 from 10 matches (Harringay 1952) Ove Fundin's was 10.34 (Norwich 1956). (The previous year he appeared in 6 matches and scored 73 points.) I think it's fair to say that Ove Fundin began as he meant to continue! As you seemed to ignore Gote Nordin, then, I checked his figures! I was a little disappointed to find that he averaged less than 7 in his first year (1960) at Hyde Rd. Edited October 16, 2023 by chunky Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
norbold 7,116 Posted October 16, 2023 2 hours ago, chunky said: As you seemed to ignore Gote Nordin, then, I checked his figures! I was a little disappointed to find that he averaged less than 7 in his first year (1960) at Hyde Rd. I also ignored Soren Sjosten, Dan Forsberg, Birger Forsberg, Per Olof Soderman and Rune Sormander - to name just a few! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,104 Posted October 16, 2023 59 minutes ago, norbold said: I also ignored Soren Sjosten, Dan Forsberg, Birger Forsberg, Per Olof Soderman and Rune Sormander - to name just a few! I didn't, so here goes... Rune Sormander, Alf Jonsson, and Peter Smith never met the 10-match minimum. 8.78 - Per Olof Soderman 8.46 - Bjorn Knutson 8.31 - Soren Sjosten 7.47 - Dan Forsberg 6.38 - Birger Forsberg 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BOBBATH 467 Posted October 16, 2023 Great topic, I found this most interesting as I always do with Chunk's threads and Norbold's comments. Keep up the good work guys!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
