GB v. Poland at West Ham. July 18 1967

[BOBBATH 467]

Any forumlanders  (other than me and probably Norbold ) at this meeting. Poland won 69-39, total demolition. GB  had  only 6 out of 18 heat winners. The Poles were tremedous Woryna 17 points from 6 rides, Waloszek 15 from 6 rides.. the only competitive GB rider was Colin Pratt with 13 points from 6 rides (with 4 heat wins). Only other GB heat winners were Reg Luckhurst with one( 7 points from 6 rides) and Nigel Boocock with one (( 8 points from 6 rides.. Eric Boocock had a tough night (3 points from 5 rides) as did Mckinlay with 5 pts from 5 rides. . Don't even ask about Terry Betts, Trevor Hedge and Norman Hunter.

 That's when I first realised how good the Polish riders were- Woryna had finished 3rd in the 1966 WF. Pogorzelski (Pogo) and Wyglenda had great evenings too.. If only the Iron Curtain had come down in 1965 , maybe we would have had a few Polish World Champions!! Who knows.

[OveFundinFan 4,145]

1 hour ago, BOBBATH said: That's when I first realised how good the Polish riders were- Woryna had finished 3rd in the 1966 WF. Pogorzelski (Pogo) and Wyglenda had great evenings too.. If only the Iron Curtain had come down in 1965 , maybe we would have had a few Polish World Champions!! Who knows.

I agree, some good riders in the eastern block who could have been serious contenders for world championship 1-2-3 if they could have got more racing in the UK Havimg said that, Plechanov, and to a slightly lesser extent Samarodov seemed to get the knack of Wembley. There would probably have been nothing like Wembley track behind the iron curtain.

[BL65 657]

The Poles of that era gave an indication of their capabilities when the ROW Rybnik club side toured Britain in 1965. The team contained Andrzej Wyglenda, Stanislaw Tkocz, Antoni Woryna and Joachim Maj, plus Andrzej Pogorzelski borrowed from Stal Gorzow.  On the tricky Brough Park track they trailed Newcastle 15-3 after three heats and then outscored the home team by 34-26 over the remaining races to go down to a narrow four-point defeat. A few days later they beat a strong Wolverhampton team by a point on what was expected to be a difficult track for them to adapt to. The top Poles had no trouble, Wyglenda and Woryna scoring maximums and Pogorzelski dropping only one point. On bigger tracks, against good teams, Rybnik drew at Halifax and thrashed Poole 52-26.

As for Soviet Union riders, they had probably seen few tracks like Newcastle and Wolverhampton before the 1966 tour. They beat England 59-49 at Brough Park, with Trofimov scoring 16 and Plechanov 15. Although losing by 10 points in the test at Wolverhampton, they shocked home fans in the first heat when team riding Plechanov and Chekranov left Nigel Boocock and Brian Brett way behind. When the same pair beat Mountford and Betts in heat 7 the score was 20-22. Igor and Yuri took their third 5-1 in their last ride.  Like the Poles, the British tracks held no fears for them.

[Beirao 202]

18 hours ago, BOBBATH said:

Any forumlanders  (other than me and probably Norbold ) at this meeting. Poland won 69-39, total demolition. GB  had  only 6 out of 18 heat winners. The Poles were tremedous Woryna 17 points from 6 rides, Waloszek 15 from 6 rides.. the only competitive GB rider was Colin Pratt with 13 points from 6 rides (with 4 heat wins). Only other GB heat winners were Reg Luckhurst with one( 7 points from 6 rides) and Nigel Boocock with one (( 8 points from 6 rides.. Eric Boocock had a tough night (3 points from 5 rides) as did Mckinlay with 5 pts from 5 rides. . Don't even ask about Terry Betts, Trevor Hedge and Norman Hunter.

 That's when I first realised how good the Polish riders were- Woryna had finished 3rd in the 1966 WF. Pogorzelski (Pogo) and Wyglenda had great evenings too.. If only the Iron Curtain had come down in 1965 , maybe we would have had a few Polish World Champions!! Who knows.

If you'd been at Edinburgh' s Old Meadowbank the previous year you would have got an appreciation of how good they were and how good their bikes were. July 31, 1966, not a great day in Scotland on a number of sporting fronts! 

[chunky 6,108]

2 hours ago, Beirao said:

If you'd been at Edinburgh' s Old Meadowbank the previous year you would have got an appreciation of how good they were and how good their bikes were. July 31, 1966, not a great day in Scotland on a number of sporting fronts! 

Jealousy, jealousy...

Did ye put your boot through telly in 1966? Bahsta' Geoff Hurst...

Edited November 7, 2023 by chunky

[BL65 657]

Delayed reaction to the events of Saturday, 30th July?

[Beirao 202]

1 hour ago, BL65 said:

Delayed reaction to the events of Saturday, 30th July?

Got the date wrong? Here's my fuller story of that day

https://classicspeedwaymemories.webador.co.uk/july-2023/anyone-remember-no8

[BL65 657]

1 hour ago, Beirao said:

Got the date wrong? Here's my fuller story of that day

https://classicspeedwaymemories.webador.co.uk/july-2023/anyone-remember-no8

But there was still 15th April 1967 to come, when Slim Jim was in control and Denis was a very happy man at Wembley (and Glasgow won 40-38 at Edinburgh).

[Beirao 202]

8 hours ago, BL65 said:

But there was still 15th April 1967 to come, when Slim Jim was in control and Denis was a very happy man at Wembley (and Glasgow won 40-38 at Edinburgh).

A great night at Old Meadowbank ! However Dennis Law was less than happy at the "keepy up" as he felt off would have been better to bang in a few more goals - think he was right. 

[steve roberts 9,246]

19 hours ago, BL65 said:

But there was still 15th April 1967 to come, when Slim Jim was in control and Denis was a very happy man at Wembley (and Glasgow won 40-38 at Edinburgh).

Always makes me laugh Denis Law's total dislike of England despite giving him the opportunity of making it in football as I think I'm right in saying in his entire career he never played for a Scottish club side? He always states that beating England (despite England playing with what was in effect a 10 man team for a good proportion of the game) in 1967 made Scotland the unofficial World Champions. I've read his fascinating autobiography and despite his prejudices he was certainly a star player in his time.