salty

Jan quickly won the fans over at Durley Wood when he arrived midway through the 1970 season. If I remember correctly his home debut included a couple of last bend overtakes to help clinch a victory over Wolves. I think Cradley were allowed to sign him to bolster a weakened team, but no sooner had he signed then Colin Pratt suffered career ending injuries at Lokeren. I think the dark forces of rider control wouldnt allow him to return to Cradley in 1971, so he only rode a half season in the green and white.

Another great effort. Loved the pic of Charlie Monk smiling.

As a Cradley fan it has to be Bernie. Was more or less an instant hero at Dudley Wood when he joined in 1969 and gave great service certainly for the first few seasons. Slightly sullied by the last couple of seasons as a Heathen where his appearances were sporadic to say the least. However, I would guess to many Heathens fans of my vintage he is our childhood hero. Will never forget Wembley 1972 and how close he came to the ultimate prize. Others worthy of mention are Christer Lofqvist - always spectacular and in later days Peter Nahlin who made a huge impression in a short time at Cradley.

Thanks for that. I'd forgotten Tommy rode that spell for Exeter.

Won the first race I ever saw, 28th September 1968 at Dudley Wood v Newport. Returned to NZ at the end of the following season.

Lovely stuff, particularly enjoyed the Paisley feature. Think Craig Featherby was a bit young to swap with Johnny Hart....

The link is no longer there because Steve bought the copy that was on offer. But trust me it was earlier, from World of Books if memory serves.

One on Amazon for £4.22 plus postage.

Sitting twiddling my thumbs in a Maltese hospital ward where my parents are currently residing. Finally caught up with this thread and gave me the chance to explore Doug's "magazine". The photo on the home page is a great start with the 1968 Tigers at the tapes against the Heathens of Tommy Bergvist and Ivor Brown. Sadly 2 Heathens I never saw ride as by the time I made my debut at Dudley Wood near the end of that season they were both injured. Tommy never rode in the UK again afaik and Ivor retired. Some interesting stuff as ever from Doug, which we would expect from his contributions to Backtrack over the years. Good luck with the venture.

Sadly I don't recall any of those guys you mention, but I do remember most winters there used to be news of some tragedy on the racetracks Down Under in the local paper. Gordon Guasco and Geoff Curtis are ones I particularly recall from the early 70's.

Lived in South Norwood for a while so occasionally dandered there with my daughter on a Sunday morning to have a look around. Remember the dinosaur lake and the guys racing their remote control cars up the top of the park.

A cursory glance at the British Speedway Handbook shows guests (as opposed to junior replacements) were only used sparingly, with 8 teams not using them at all. Wimbledon's stats show Maidment and Tebby being ever present and Hedge and Everett only missing 1 match each. Bobby Dugard missed 3 whilst Ronnie missed 10 and Reg Luckhurst (who suffered a broken leg) missed 16. Pete Murray notched up 16 so did most of the cover with the 8 guest appearances and, presumably, RR doing the rest. Of the other team's guests were used very sparingly apart from Newcastle who relied on one all season to bolster their undermanned team and also the Hammers who suffered badly with injury. For my team Cradley, even Bernie, who later in his Heathens career seemed to be absent more than he was present, only missed 7 league matches and if memory serves some of those were due to injury rather than Swedish commitments. It certainly was different times...

I've got Coatbridge only using 9 riders as well. Wimbledon is more than 9? A number of guests alongside the main 7 of Moore, Hedge, Luckhurst, Tebby, Dugard, Maidment, Everett and main replacement Murray. Those were the days eh?

You truly are the Milkman of Human Kindness!

Always good to see some Bard of Barking references.

Has anyone thought to tell the crowd whats happening?

Gate positions?

Enjoyed last night's meeting. This despite a poor surface to race on. Good to see the Czechs and Latvia doing so well. Kelvin and Chris clearly struggled last night. Much as I wish them well, the difficulty to understand the scoring and the possible ramifications was amateur hour. Instead of banging on how Denmark were in with a chance prior to the last race they should have identified the Latvians situation who - I believe - could only be denied a place in Heat 22 by one possible result. The whole broadcasting team don't seem to grasp that the most important thing is to not finish last rather than to win a heat. For example, in the Final the camera should have been following the race for 3rd not 1st. Not a good look for the sport to have such a poor crowd, lets hope tonight's turn out is better.

Another cracking race in heat 5.

Thought there might be one involving the Swales twins, but by the time they (Teesside) rode Barrow in April 1974 (against the Owens and Sheldricks) Tim was missing from the Teesside line up.

Sad to hear that might be the end of the 2 mags. Have been a subscriber since issue 1 of Backtrack and have most of the Classic Speedways. Have really enjoyed them but I have to agree with Falcace that the "Life and Times" feature is not so interesting as the new interviews. Obviously with over a 100 issues it becomes increasingly hard to keep the mag fresh. Even so, I'm hoping someone else takes it on. Great to hear from Tony that he intends producing occasional books and DVD's. Many thanks to Tony and Susie for their efforts over the years.

£50 Bewley more £50 Thomsen more

Thanks for doing this again. Bewley over £25 Lindgren over £25

What terrible news! Was a fantastic advocate for the sport. A sport that will miss him terribly. Thoughts with family and friends. RIP.

The Laurels in 1986 was run with 12 riders and the top 8 going into Semi-Finals and thence into a 4 man Final, which Nigel Sparshott won.