BL65

Dominic Perry, from Dublin, decided to retire after Shelbourne closed in 1954. He was only 24 and had made excellent progress in just over two seasons in the National League with Wimbledon. Perry was third top scorer for England in the test series in South Africa in 1953-54. Admittedly it was not a permanent retirement, as Trevor Redmond persuaded him to take part in four challenge matches staged at Shelbourne Park and two meetings at St Austell in 1961, but his serious speedway career ended in 1954. He resisted further offers to ride in the UK and returned to work on his farm.

Just 5, having been seeded as reigning champion, something I disapproved of.

For comparison purposes: When Barry Briggs won the world title in 1966, he had to compete in three British Qualifying Rounds, a British Semi-Final, the British Final, the British-Nordic Final and the European Final before contesting the World Final. His total number of rides on the way to becoming champion was 40. In the 1934 Star Championship, each track was scheduled to hold an eliminating contest to determine which two riders would be their representatives in the Wembley Final. Jack Parker beat three riders in a qualifying heat at his home track, Harringay, to progress to a final where again he defeated three riders. In the final at Wembley, he scraped into a semi-final by finishing third in a heat behind Eric Langton and Ron Johnson. He won his semi-final and then beat Langton and Ginger Lees in the final. His journey to the title saw him compete in just 5 races. Jack Parker had a fine record in his career but a handful of rides in the Star Championship in 1934 was not enough to prove he was the best in the world at that time. 1934 was the season when the Lea Bridge team relocated to Walthamstow in August. As Lea Bridge closed before having an opportunity to stage an eliminator, the National Speedway Association nominated Dick Case and Dusty Haigh to represent Walthamstow. This decision was taken as the final was due to be held on 23rd August, shortly after Walthamstow opened. As a result, either of the Walthamstow riders could have sprung a surprise and won at Wembley by emulating Parker through a third place in a semi-final and then grabbing two race wins. Not inconceivable as Case had finished third in the championship two years earlier. Neither progressed beyond the semi-final, however. Winning a championship by only contesting three races would have been very different to the 1966 journey of Barry Briggs to the world title.

That is correct.

The only way the table could be correct is if the match had been awarded to Oxford.

I look forward to it - cheers!

The match was not re-staged and in the final league table Birmingham and Oxford should be shown as only competing in 7 matches each - the match points were not awarded.

Tom Johnson, who wrote a column in the meeting programmes. He was a journalist with the Express & Star newspaper, based in Wolverhampton. He acted as an umpire in the Provincial League in 1964 when ACU referees were not available due to the league being outlawed. In 1989 I sat next to Tom at the end of season Cradley Heath dinner, when we were both guests. Free meals are the best.

The information contained in the book is incorrect. My information is from the details provided by all of the tracks at the time regarding the format of the league, the composition of the groups and the fixtures. The first Swindon match in this league was against Poole on 28th April 1956. I have the programme for the match and it states the details on page 4. These details include: "Mid-week First Division tracks will race against Saturday Second Division tracks and Saturday First Division tracks will race against mid-week Second Division tracks. The Robins' matches will be against Poole, Wimbledon and Wembley." The groups determined which First Division teams raced against each Second Division team. The final league table was for the matches from all of the groups, based on a percentage out of the possible points gained - two points for a home win and three away. The book referred to does not include all of the groups, neither does it include all of the results for the teams shown. For example, it does not include Swindon 49 Wembley 47 on 1st September 1956. This is incorrectly shown on the Speedway Researcher website as a challenge match, but the fixture list in the Swindon programmes had the correct information.

The programmes from each of the second division tracks explained the format of the competition and specified which first division teams were in their own group.

This competition was in the form of a league, with all matches raced on second division tracks. All second division teams raced in three basic matches within the league, with additional matches against other teams if desired. The teams did not race an equal number of matches. Table positions were not decided on match points but on the percentage of match points obtained out of the total possible. Match points were 2 for a home win, 1 for a home draw, 3 for an away win, 2 for an away draw. The basic groups were: Coventry, Birmingham, Poole, Wimbledon Ipswich, Belle Vue, Bradford, Norwich Leicester, Birmingham, Bradford, Norwich Oxford, Belle Vue, Birmingham, Bradford Rayleigh, Norwich, Poole, Wimbledon Southampton, Belle Vue, Birmingham, Norwich Swindon, Poole, Wembley, Wimbledon In addition to the results listed by Chunky, Rayleigh lost 41-43 to Norwich and Swindon beat Wembley 49-47. This was the only match in the tournament which the Wembley team was scheduled to compete in. The Southampton match against Norwich was an 'additional fixture'. Three teams had a one hundred percent record, Ipswich had the best race points difference (+54), then Southampton (+42) and Coventry (+40). Matches Won Points % Ipswich 3 3 6 100 Southampton 4 4 8 100 Coventry 3 3 6 100 Leicester 3 2 4 67 Swindon 3 2 4 67 Oxford 2 1 2 50 Wimbledon 3 1 3 33 Poole 3 1 3 33 Birmingham 3 1 3 33 Belle Vue 3 1 3 33 Norwich 4 1 3 25 Bradford 3 0 0 0 Wembley 1 0 0 0 Rayleigh 2 0 0 0

Ron Mountford might have continued his high scoring but for serious injury in 1968. In 1965 Ivor Brown averaged 9.83 after 16 matches before serious injury in the Internationale at Wimbledon in June. He ended the season on 9.27 after returning, clearly unfit, in September. Before his accident he had ridden against the former National League teams on 5 occasions, including away at Swindon (Briggs, Broadbank, Ashby), West Ham (McKinlay, Harrfeldt, Hunter) and Oxford (How, Pander, Gooch). Before his accident he recorded 6 maximum scores (5 full, 1 paid). On his return he scored 7+1, 4+1 and 5 in league matches before missing the last three matches due to another injury.

A few meetings were staged in Scotland at White City, Motherwell and Edinburgh in the late 1950s. The excellent book by Philip Dalling, 'Saving Speedway - The Provincial League & The Southern Area League', explains the role the SAL played in providing opportunities in the south of England prior to the formation of the PL. There were also a few open-licence meetings in the south-west in 1959. Riders from these tracks, together with some coming out of retirement, combined with novices from training schools in the north to form the PL teams.

I know where you are coming from, but even if it had been a serious question they were around 90 years apart in age. The real Jack Keen rode at Oxford in 1939 and had some second half trials at New Cross in 1946.

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).

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

Three recent speedway history books. 'Shelbourne Speedway, Dublin 1950-1954' and '50 Days of Speedway, Sunderland in 1964', both on eBay. 'Walthamstow Wolves, London's forgotten speedway team', from London League Publications and on Amazon and eBay.

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.

Presumably you stopped in a launderette because you were feeling 'washed out'

Did you also go to Cradley Heath two months earlier for the original scheduled league fixture? The referee and team managers agreed that the track was unfit for a league match but was fine to race a challenge match instead. Tons of sawdust were used. Speedway has always been crazy! One rider, John Hart, refused to ride and was replaced by George Major, returning from injury. Sverre Harrfeldt's winning time in the scratch race final was 11.6 seconds slower than the track record. West Ham won the challenge and the league match by the same score, 47-31. In the league encounter, Cradley took the first heat with a 5-1 against McKinlay and Trott and still led after four races. If by some miracle the Hammers had lost the restaged match they would not have been champions. Hammers' riders won all of the last nine heats though.

The correct score was West Ham 41 Wimbledon 43 as shown on the Speedway Researcher Year By Year 1954 Fixture List. The meeting was on 1st June. The West Ham file on Speedway researcher incorrectly shows the meeting as a National League fixture. Heat results: 1. Young, R.Moore, Perry, Craven 70.6 (track record) 3-3 3-3 2. Mardon, Green, Gurtner, Longley 72.4 3-3 6-6 3. Hussey, Roger, Briggs, Brine 73.8 5-1 11-7 4. Mardon, Green, Maidment, Courtnell 73.2 2-4 13-11 5. R.Moore, Roger, Craven, Brine 73.0 3-3 16-14 6. Perry, P.Moore, Byford, Gurtner 74.0 1-5 17-19 7. Hussey, Mardon, Roger, Longley 72.6 4-2 21-21 8. Maidment, Briggs, Byford, Young 75.2 1-5 22-26 9. R.Moore, Green, Perry, Gurtner 74.2 2-4 24-30 10. Hussey, P.Moore, Longley, Courtnell 72.8 3-3 27-33 11. Craven, Young, Briggs, Maidment 74.0 5-1 32-34 12. Hussey, Perry, R.Moore, Roger 73.6 3-3 35-37 13. Green, Briggs, P.Moore, Byford 74.4 3-3 38-40 14. Mardon, Young, Craven, Longley 74.0 3-3 41-43 West Ham Jack Young 3 0 2 2 7+1 Malcolm Craven 0 1 3 1 5+2 Wally Green 2 2 2 3 9 Keith Gurtner 1 0 0 1+1 Gerry Hussey 3 3 3 3 12 Bert Roger 2 2 1 0 5+1 Howdy Byford 1 1 0 2 Terry Courtnell 0 0 0 Wimbledon Dom Perry 1 3 1 2 7+1 Ronnie Moore 2 3 3 1 9+1 Geoff Mardon 3 3 2 3 11 Bill Longley 0 0 1 0 1+1 Barry Briggs 1 2 1 2 6+1 Cyril Brine 0 0 0 Peter Moore 2 2 1 5+2 Cyril Maidment 1 3 0 4

Someone by the name of Adam Oughtibridge was born in Scunthorpe, England, in 1980. It is a rare surname and I am unaware of anyone else of that name with the forename Adam.

His full name was Arthur Ernest Lester and he was born in Nottingham, England, 17th November 1906. He died in 1989.

There are bits of information and photographs on the Defunct Speedway website at http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/misc page 2.htm I remember that Mick Handley, a Wolverhampton junior/reserve rider at the time, was one of the group on the 'Italian job' that summer. Mick lived near to Dudley Wood and I believe had his first rides there, before also appearing at Wolverhampton, run by Mike Parker and Bill Bridgett. It was at Monmore Green where he was given his first team opportunities and the invitation to ride in Italy in 1966. Paul Sharples, son of Ken, was also on the trip to Italy. He had rides at Wolverhampton in 1964 (after Sunderland closed early) and 1965, including a handful of team appearances late in the season.

Plymouth withdrew during the season. They had raced 13 matches, won 2 and lost 11 before pulling out. Records expunged. M W D L F A Pts Bristol 12 9 0 3 563 440 18 Exeter 12 9 0 3 557 448 18 Poole 12 7 0 5 533 472 14 Swindon 12 6 0 6 477 527 12 Rayleigh 12 5 0 7 475 527 10 Oxford 12 4 0 8 478 526 8 Southampton 12 2 0 10 432 575 4