BL65

Yes, another remarkable transformation, with a rare honour for a team who so often had finished well down the league table over the years. Dave Perks was in the Long Eaton team at that time and I recall he was one of my girlfriend's favourite riders, along with Terry Betts, in the early half of the 1970s. Dave was part of a very strong Cradley Heath squad in 1979 and enjoyed some highly successful seasons with Long Eaton and Oxford.

Today the media is full of the achievement of Leicester City F.C. in winning the Premier League after fighting relegation the season before. Back in 1969 Poole Pirates achieved something similar. Having finished 17th in a league of 19 teams in 1968, just one point ahead of the bottom two teams, the Pirates became British League champions in 1969, finishing 6 points ahead of runners-up Belle Vue. There were two changes to the team from 1969, Gordon Guasco, having last ridden for Wolverhampton in 1966, returned from Australia to replace Bill Andrew and Frank Shuter joined from Swindon to replace Tim Bungay. Gordon's 1966 average was about half a point a match below Bill's 1968 average and Frank achieved about half a point a match above Tim's average, so the team was not exactly strengthened. However, 5 of the team upped their 1968 figures, with big improvements from Pete Smith, Geoff Mudge and Bruce Cribb in particular. Has there ever been a more dramatic improvement in the fortunes of a speedway team?

The car parks were almost full just after 6.30 p.m, nearly an hour before the start, with at least 200 queuing at the turnstiles and more than that number already in the stadium.

The appearance of the World Champion used to be a big attraction in the days when the champion was rarely beaten. Examples of riders with league averages of around 11.00, or more, in the pre-Grand Prix era included Ove Fundin, Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger, Ole Olsen, Anders Michanek, Peter Collins, Michael Lee, Bruce Penhall, Erik Gundersen and Hans Nielsen. These champions averaged around 3 wins and a second place for every meeting where they took 4 rides - on some occasions these riders achieved 11.5+ averages, showing how hard they were to beat. When Tai last rode for Wolverhampton in 2014, in 25 official matches he averaged 7.73, that is more or less equivalent to finishing second on average for every ride he took. It could be argued that standards are different now to the days when the other riders mentioned were competing, but I think they are lower overall now (and I accept that the race formula is also different), so if it came to a question of whether the current World Champion would put numbers on the gate I would say possibly a few, but certainly not the hundreds extra who would have turned up to see the near-unbeatables in their day.

I believe this thread began with a question of whether or not Tai should be selected to ride for GB in view of his absence from British team racing and the British Championship. Interestingly, in all the years that Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger and Ronnie Moore did not return to compete in the New Zealand domestic season or national championship there were no calls for them to be barred from representing their country. We can ignore the fact that they also represented GB for a number of years as speedway has always had odd rules such as the one that permitted Commonwealth riders to represent GB. Equally, there have been numerous occasions when Australian riders based in this country did not return home for their country's domestic season and championships. In other sports there are many examples of players moving abroad but still being selected for their national team. Football is a prime example, with Gareth Bale of Wales currently playing in Spain, probably half of the Premier League players being foreign internationals and looking back over the years we had Jimmy Greaves playing in Italy, Kevin Keegan in Germany and Gary Lineker playing in Spain. There was never a call for them to be barred from representing their country. I would prefer to see Tai and other top riders competing in a strong league set-up in Britain, but the fact is our Elite League is no longer an attractive proposition for a large number of them, financially or logistically. It is disappointing that Tai has chosen not to participate in the British Championship but he has given his reasons and they should be accepted.

I am aware there has been much discussion regarding the tragic incident over the years, including in at least one of the publications (possibly Classic Speedway) and I believe the track promoter at the time, Ian Hoskins, stated categorically that there was no handicap in force in the race. I was not at the meeting and cannot pass any opinion, however, the subject reminded me that George Hunter had a reputation for being extremely fast out of the starts - something I can confirm from the many meetings in which I saw him ride.

Bob Bath, I agree that Jack Biggs was undoubtedly the prime example of a rider with a new lease of life. From being eighth in the Coventry National League averages in 1964, at under 5 per meeting, he became the Wasps number one in 1965 with a British League average of just over 9. Other ex National League riders who rose towards the top in the new British League included Cyril Maidment at Belle Vue, Ron Mountford and Jim Lightfoot at Coventry, Colin Gooddy at Exeter, Gerald Jackson at Hackney, Jimmy Gooch at Oxford, Ronnie Genz at Poole, Martin Ashby at Swindon, Reg Luckhurst and Trevor Hedge at Wimbledon.

Handicaps were applied in the National League in the early 1960s, with rules determining which riders started off scratch or 10 yards. The 'big 5', Ove Fundin, Barry Briggs, Ronnie Moore, Peter Craven and Bjorn Knuts(s)on went off 20 yards. In 1964 the National League had 7 teams and handicaps continued to be applied, although Peter Craven had tragically lost his life in 1963 and Ronnie Moore was back in New Zealand recovering from serious injury. Barry became particularly disgruntled at the number of blown engines he suffered in fighting to overcome his handicap and stated how much his confidence was adversely affected by having an often insurmountable task of passing riders of the calibre of Nigel Boocock, Ken McKinlay and Gote Nordin, for example. In early August 1964 Barry threatened to retire unless handicapping was scrapped. At the same time Newcastle were experimenting with handicapping Ivan Mauger in second half races at Provincial League level. The back marker handicap was duly removed for Briggs, Fundin and Knutson towards the end of August 1964. There had been a number of meetings between Provincial League Select and National League Select teams prior to the amalgamation in 1965 and it was clear that many of the Provincial heat leaders were more than a match for all but the very top riders in the National League. Also, the National League teams had a number of riders of reserve standard who would be second string or reserve standard in the Provincial League. When the two leagues amalgamated in 1965 a number of the top riders from the 1964 National League teams did not take part. A ban on commuting foreigners ruled out riders including Ove Fundin, Bjorn Knutson, Bengt Jansson, Gote Nordin and Soren Sjosten. Additionally, Brian Brett and Leo McAuliffe initially retired but then returned during 1965 to cover for injured riders. Further still, there were some fairly good National League riders, including Norman Hunter and Malcolm Simmons, who had ridden at Provincial League level as recently as 1963. The feeling was that the standards would soon level out in the new British League and this proved to be the case. Several riders from the 1964 Provincial League quickly flourished in the British League, including Ivor Brown, George Hunter, Charlie Monk, Colin Pratt, Roy Trigg, Eric Boocock, Dave Younghusband, Ray Wilson, Ivan Mauger, Peter Vandenberg (although a National League rider in 1963), Bill Andrew, Jack Kitchen, Clive Featherby, Peter Jarman and Jim Airey. I think it is fair to say that the large majority of supporters approved of the amalgamation, which enabled a fair number of riders to develop at a rapid rate by matching their skills against the best of the ex-Nationals.

Totally agree. I have every programme from the 1965 season for all British tracks except for the rained off meeting at Halifax on 29th September and three meetings at Weymouth in February and April. League tracks had a meeting scheduled for each week, virtually no guest riders, no rider replacement so every team had to track 7 riders, no changing team line-ups every other week except when required because of injuries. The weaker teams suffered some heavy defeats, but that happens these days even with the points limit and the chopping and changing culture. Back in 1965 crowds were generally good everywhere, there was variety with some away teams only visiting once a year, so seeing the World Champion in action, for example, was a crowd puller, whereas in modern times there is no novelty value if the opposition visits 3 or 4 times a season. In 1965 fans would support 30 meetings a season because of the variety of opposition and meetings, unlike today where a number of tracks only run meetings once every couple of weeks.

There were several good features of this meeting. A well prepared track following poor weather. Very good use of home track knowledge by Max Clegg and Ashley Morris, which allowed them to make up a considerable amount of ground to pass opposition riders. Encouraging glimpses from home team debutants - not everyone is a world beater on their home debut, as Bruce Penhall (1 point from 4 rides) and Greg Hancock (0 points from 2 rides) will confirm. An excellent performance by Luke Chessell. Matt Williamson unlucky not to have scored more, but showing that he will do well this season. Rob Shuttleworth and Lee Payne both inconsistent but showing that they are capable of scoring well. Daniel Bewley ticked several boxes and showed great potential - inconsistent starts, some very good, others indifferent; forceful first bends; plenty of speed and some controlled manoeuvres, others less so, but this was his first outing on a tricky track; great resilience, carrying on after a heavy fall and top scoring for his team.on his debut. Good presentation and the meeting completed in good time on a cold night. Well done to all concerned.

I am aware of three auction sales of the Malmo programme in recent years, two sold for £122 and the other one for £156.

Good memory. Speedway Star did encourage readers to cast their votes, with the slogan 'A vote for Briggs is a vote for Speedway'.

Yes, I agree, not seen any in years.

Were programmes issued for the postponements on 8/7/63 v Edinburgh, 22/5/68 v Hackney and 22/6/68 v Leicester?

As 1965 was one of my favourite speedway seasons I welcome any 'look back' at the events of that time.

Anders Michanek had an impressive run of success and was very hard to beat from 1973 to 1975. He had a higher British League average than Ivan Mauger and Ole Olsen in 1973, was World Champion in 1974 and 2nd in the World Final in 1975. He was also a World Pairs winner in 1973-74-75. In Britain in 1973 he won the Spring Classic, Superama, Brandonapolis, Blue Riband, Pride of the East and Golden Gauntlets. Probably worthy of being described as the man to beat at least in 1973.

The newspaper report of 16th February 1928 (see post #7 in this thread) suggests that the demonstration at Stamford Bridge took place as late as 18th February and if that was the case then the impact on the attendance on 19th February was dramatic.

Ron James rode for Ipswich at Southampton (0 from 2 rides), at Rayleigh (0 from 1 ride) and at home to Wolverhampton (1 from 2 rides) and Swindon (0 from 2 rides). He also rode for Ipswich at Norwich in a charity match (4 from 2 rides).

The subject of the arrival in this country of Messrs Galloway and McKay was covered at some length in the 'Footage of West Ham' thread a few years ago, when a 1927 or 1928 filmed demonstration at Stamford Bridge was debated. There was a report 'From our London Correspondent' in the Western Morning News on Thursday, 16th February 1928 which said: "London is to try its new sport on Saturday, for a party of Australian dirt track riders are expected to give a demonstration of motor cycling on cinders. Those who have seen it say that dirt track racing is the most thrilling spectacle that sport has provided. We are told of expert riders who wear steel boots so that they can scrape the cinders on the bends without lacerating a foot or twisting an ankle. The riders streak round the unbanked bends at such alarming angles that they get very near to the horizontal, and it is recorded that one man had to retire during a race in Melbourne (Australia) because he had badly scraped his knuckles on the track." I assume that the Saturday referred to in the newspaper item would have been 18th February 1928.

I am also missing the programmes from the rained off meetings listed. The St Austell programme sold on ebay for £40 some time back and the Newcastle programme sold for £25.01.

Good to note more confirmation. Of course, this might have been contradicted by Angus Kix and Eric Linden. Rick Eldon too, if he was there. Eric, Angus and Danny Linden-Kix-Carter often had slightly different views, especially when predicting World Final winners.

Other riders to remember for some outstanding performances at times in the 1960s include Boris Samorodov, Terry Betts, Soren Sjosten, Torbjorn Harrysson, Colin Pratt, Anders Michanek and Andrzej Wyglenda.

Gustix was entirely correct in post #30. The only way that Westerberg could have been included in proceedings at the World Final would have been as a replacement for a European Final qualifier. There were four qualifying rounds in the European section, at Abensberg, Lahti, Oslo and Warsaw, with semi-finals at Oslo and Vienna, followed by the final at Vaxjo in Sweden. The qualifiers were Sormander, Soderman, Hofmeister, Nygren and Hansen, with Forsberg as first stand-by. Forsberg replaced Nygren in the programmed line up at Wembley. With Forsberg taking part in the meeting, Westerberg became first stand-by in the event of any of the European qualifiers withdrawing before the World Final. He could be described as a stand-by reserve, but not a meeting reserve. There was a run-off at Wimbledon on 2nd September to determine the British reserves (and therefore meeting reserves), with Crutcher winning from Biggs and Ken Middleditch. The British qualifying reserves would have taken the place of any British riders withdrawing before the Final and could also have taken rides in heats of the meeting if called upon to replace other riders. If Crutcher had taken the decision not to participate in the meeting then the rules provided that Biggs would have moved up to First Reserve and Ken Middleditch would have become Second Reserve.

I did not attend the 1957 final but I have a programme completed by a family friend who was at Wembley on that occasion. He was renowned for completing his programmes meticulously but he did not note any changes to the reserves for the meeting, shown as Brian Crutcher and Jack Biggs. The historian Cyril May serialised The World Championship Story in Speedway Star and in part 10 published on 16th February 1968 he reported on the 1957 final, in which the reserves were listed as Crutcher and Biggs.

Not the 'Hawks', but on 24th August 1935 Hackney Wick Wolves took advantage of a depleted Belle Vue team to win 41-30 at Hyde Road in the National League. Aces were missing 3 riders who were taking part in a test match at Harringay. Hackney were without Dick Case for the same reason.