Al Stewart

Thanks very much for your efforts in posting these results. Pity not all of the Vikings made it over.

Having spotted the post about wikipedia that seems to answer it.

Does anyone know how progressive totals are calculated? Do points scored in the final count?

Remind me how he knew he was going to get a second chance to use the joker?

Nothing against the Aussies who I like but I am delighted the joker scored nil. Now it becames a fair contest. And Boyce should be sacked.

I agree. He might get away with it but he was gambling on his riders continuing to do badly. A meeting with three teams battling for two places really shows up the stupidity of having the joker rule, when it can be the deciding factor in qualifying.

What is the point in having the stupid Joker rule if a thicko like Boyce doesn't use it when it is obvious that he should? He was the guy who didn't tell Jason to throttle back last year and stop giving the Poles a joker chance. It's about time he was sacked. Or better still, ditch the joker rule.

Are the lineups for the other rounds a state secret?

A reminder of how good the ITV coverage of Speedway was in the 70s and 80s.

Robin and Ross Martakies were brothers, both wrote about speedway.

Motherwell's colours were black and white as you say, and Len's brother was Stan Williams who rode mainly at Sheffield - couldn't say if he was clerk of the course at Newport though.

I have just received some very bad news from Muir Templeton, that his uncle Willie is extremely unwell with cancer of the marrow and hasn't been given long to live. He is in Ward 7, Victoria Hospital, Fife if anyone wanted to make contact. Willie Templeton as most will know was an Edinburgh Monarch, a Glasgow Tiger and a Berwick Bandit between the early fifties and the late seventies, and was guest of honour at the Scottish VSRA dinner in February. He seemed at that time to be fit and well.

I was at Wembley too having done a bunk rather rudely from a friend's wedding celebrations in Southampton. Earlier I had attended the famous Poland v Russia match at Halifax in which Zenon Plech made his UK debut. Great stuff.

Speedway doesn't recruit anyone, people come to the sport to watch / compete of their own accord and no-one would ever be turned away. It has long been a mystery why hardly anyone other than white people take an interest in speedway but it is nevertheless a fact. Interests and abilities differ between races in all sorts of ways.

As always your comments are very interesting, especially good to hear about Andrew who I must confess I thought might do even better on current form. I've put this quote in the Monarchs' programme for those who are not internet types to enjoy.

This is far too harsh and understates the difficulty of racing on continental tracks against riders who know the circuits.

We've got hold of Michael Lowrie, Stewart McDonald, Bill McMillan and Guy Robson, still looking for the others.

Born in Leeds 25/10/1923 so he is 84.

Don Cuppleditch is also still alive living in South Australia. Until recently he used to come over here for vintage car rallies and I had the pleasure of meeting him on one of these trips. He didn't quite have the lean facial features of his racing days but he still looked fine. He scored 1284 league points for Monarchs 1948-54 and is our 14th hghest scorer of all time. In 1953 his average was 10.31. Jim Henry has spoken to him recently regarding the Monarchs' 60th birthday celebrations but he has a bad back and can't travel now. Johnny Greenwood though is coming up for the Monarchs' celebrations.

Edinburgh have their 60th birthday this year and are planning a celebration weekend on 16th-17th May, starting with a meeting at Armadale on the Friday then a party at Tynecastle football stadium the next day. We've tracked down many riders but still have a few we have lost touch with. This isn't the full list but it is ones who I would expect to be nearby who might be able to come. Does anyone have contact details for: WILL BEVERIDGE, MICHAEL LOWRIE, STEVE McDERMOTT, STEWART McDONALD, BILL McMILLAN, PETER McNAMARA, GARY PHELPS, GUY ROBSON, CHRIS TURNER, IAN WESTWELL, GORDON WHITAKER.

Any news from the Lonigo meeting on 12th April?

It's more than quite good, it is outstandingly good.

On Friday 28th September the match at Armadale will be Edinburgh v Finnish Select, start time 7.30pm. The Finnish team is Nieminen, Aarnio, Laukkanen, Keskinen, Makinen, Katajisto, Koivunen. I think this is probably the first time a full Finnish team has raced in the UK. I hope you can come!

That's amazing, where did that clip come from? Was it from TV?

It's an excellent obituary. I met his daughter Liz many years ago and she told me her dad had been World champion. I knew that wasn’t right, but lo and behold in the article there is a mention that he won an unofficial world series in Sydney in 1932-3. It’s a fascinating story illustrated in the paper by a cigarette card of Ormston. Jack Ormston Last Updated: 2:07am BST 26/06/2007 Jack Ormston, who has died aged 97, was one of the pioneers of speedway - the sport that took Britain by storm in the decade before the Second World War - and later became a racehorse trainer. Although there had been speedway on dirt tracks in Australia and parts of North America from the early 1920s, it was not until 1928 that the first meetings took place in Britain. In that year the meetings were spasmodic and individually promoted, but in 1929 proper leagues and championships were established. The big, successful clubs were mainly in London, with Stamford Bridge, Wembley, Wimbledon, Harringay and New Cross the leading protagonists, although all of them struggled to overcome Belle Vue, Manchester, which frequently topped the national league. Huge crowds flocked to cheer on their teams and the leading riders. Of the top dozen riders, around half were from Australia and the United States; most of the English competitors, Ormston among them, were from the North. Crowds of 50,000 or more turned out for the big ties and the championships. The riders had a glamorous aura, and were by some margin the best paid sportsmen in the country. (In the 1930s the leading footballers were paid around £6 a week, earning a £2 bonus for a win.) The entrepreneurs setting up the speedway clubs knew they could prosper only by winning and that meant getting the best riders. The riders knew their value, and their demands were met. Top performers like Ormston rode five or six nights a week during the six-month season, and would get £100 appearance money at provincial meetings plus any prize money won in the match races. He would expect to earn as much as £15,000 in a season at a time when the average annual wage was £200. Ormston's preferred residence in London was the Park Lane Hotel. John Glaholme Ormston (always known as Jack) was born on October 30 1909 at West Cornforth, Co Durham, the only son of a prosperous farming family who also had a butchery business. He was a boarder at the North Eastern County School (later re-named Barnard Castle). From the age of 14 he was borrowing a friend's motorcycle and driving the family's Buick, posing a constant challenge to the school authorities and the local police. After leaving school in 1926 Jack bought his first motorcycle with the help of his mother and launched himself into grass track racing in the Middlesbrough area. Soon he was making a name for himself and being sponsored by Shell on the new Middlesbrough dirt track, which opened in 1928. It was not long before he was signed by Wembley, one of the new professional speedway clubs in London. In 1930 Ormston won the inaugural London Riders' Championship, beating the leading Australian rider Vic Huxley along the way. That same year Ormston represented England in the first ever Test series against Australia. In 1931 and 1932 he captained the Wembley team which won the National League and most of the knockout championships. In the winter of 1932-33 he led a British team to Australia, winning the individual unofficial world series in Sydney. As he paraded the trophy around the track he was roundly booed, a reflection not only of the traditional Aussie reaction to being beaten by a Pom, but also of the anti-English feeling whipped up that winter by the "bodyline" cricket series. With the Australian rider Frank Arthur, Ormston then formed a company, with the support of the manager and promoter Johnnie Hoskins, to take a group of riders to New York with a view to operating speedway at Madison Square Garden. Despite the harassments of Tammany Hall and the Mafia (everyone wanted a share of the action) they succeeded in getting an option for "the Garden" and prospects looked good. Then Ormston received a telegram telling him that his father was seriously ill; he immediately left for England, arriving home in time to see his father, who died that same evening. Without Ormston's leadership and money, the New York venture collapsed. Ormston missed the 1933 English season, as he was involved in revitalising the family's butchery business. He converted two vans into mobile butcher's shops which covered all the local villages; and he slaughtered all the cattle and sheep himself, whilst his mother made 1,500 pies a week, plus black pudding and sausages. That achieved, he returned to speedway for the 1934 season. For a year Ormston rode for Tom Bradbury Pitt (owner of the Harringay and Hall Green tracks), having been signed for a £2,000 fee. He then spent four years at Harringay with Jack Parker, England's captain for many years. Ormston got through to the World Finals four times - in 1935 he was beaten by only one point. He represented England in six Test series against Australia, and in another against the Dominions. He also toured Australia with the official British team in 1936-37 and 1937-38. He retired in September 1938. Throughout his speedway career Ormston had pursued his hobbies of flying and hunting. He owned a succession of planes, and twice competed in the King's Cup air race, completing the course both times; he also came second in the Grosvenor Cup. When he was not touring Australia in the winter, Ormston hunted several days a week with the racehorse trainer Willie Stephenson. After retiring from speedway, Ormston took on Lane Head Farm near Richmond, Yorkshire, and in 1940 married Jean Manners, who hailed from a well-known Durham farming family. He then established himself as a racehorse trainer. He was a fine judge of a yearling. Among the fillies he bought were Hardiemma, who went on to be the dam of Shirley Heights, winner of both the English and Irish Derbies; and Manfilia, who was a great success at the Irish National Stud. When buying yearling colts Ormston often went for the big, backward types which he would put away until they were three-year-olds; then, if they showed promise, he would sell them on as jumping prospects. Peter Cazalet was a good customer and ex-Ormston horses won a Scottish Grand National and came second in a Champion Hurdle. His gambling exploits were infrequent, but brilliantly executed. Not being burdened with heavy gambling owners who would spoil the price, he could wait until the weight, the going and the price were all in his favour. He was particularly adept at exploiting postal betting whereby, provided the postmarks were before the time of the race, the bet was valid but the bookmaker was unaware of his liabilities until the next day, and thus unable to hedge and force down the starting price. On one occasion he had four horses running on the same day, two each at Hamilton Park and Newcastle. The horses were well-prepared, were "expected" and the money was down. All four won. Ormston trained only about 400 winners before retiring in 1976; but he will be remembered for his brilliant handling of Le Garcon d'Or, who holds the 20th (and 21st) century record for flat races won -34. In 1983 Ormston and his wife passed the farm to their son, John, and went to live in Spain, where they remained for a decade before returning to live near Darlington. Jack Ormston, who died on June 22, is survived by his wife and by their son and daughter. Another son died in a riding accident in Australia in 1968.