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norbold

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Posts posted by norbold

  1. Portsmouth Speedway

    in Years Gone By

    Posted

    The first speedway track to open in Portsmouth was in 1928 when a local man, Mr E I Jones, laid out a 440-yard track in a field, initially as a training track. The first proper meeting was held there on 15 July. A second followed on 29 July. This latter attracted a crowd of 2,000 people. But, sadly, that was the track's last meeting.

    Speedway returned to Portsmouth the following year, 1929. Promoting pioneer, A J Hunting, had planned to open Wessex Stadium in 1928, but the stadium did not, in fact, open until 10 August 1929 under the auspices of Wessex Speedway Co, in conjunction with Dirt Track Speedways (the company behind West Ham and Southampton speedways). This was also a 440-yard track. Because of the tie-up with West Ham and Southampton, many of the riders appearing at the first meeting were contracted to those two clubs and included Sprouts Elder, who won the day's major event, the Golden Gauntlet, Tiger Stevenson, Ivor Creek and Buzz Hibberd.

    The track continued to run a series of open meetings for the rest of August with riders of the quality of Frank Arthur and Bluey Wilkinson appearing. The last meeting that year was held on 31 August.

    A new 382-yard track was laid for the following year, with the first proper meeting being held on 21 April 1930. The track ran a series of challenge matches with a team called Portsmouth which included Steve Langton, Tiger Hart, Bill Clibbett and Ted Bravery.

    Plans to enter the Southern League in 1931 were aborted when the local council announced plans to build houses on the site. Although the plans to build houses never materialised, speedway was never again staged at Wessex Stadium. The last match ever staged there was between Portsmouth and West Ham on 2 October 1930, which ended in a 26-26 tie.

    In 1935, Harringay promoter, Tom Bradbury-Pratt, built a 300-yard track inside Portsmouth Greyhound and Sports Stadium at Tipnor. Bradbury-Pratt was having trouble completing all of Harringay's home fixtures so he planned this new track to ease the pressure on their Green Lanes track. In the event, however, only one league match was raced there, on 2 October, when Hackney defeated Harringay 35-32 in a National League match. A week later, a challenge match was due to be held against Wembley, but it was rained off.

    Speedway returned to the Tipnor track in 1937, when the Albatross Motorcycle Club promoted two meetings there, both challenge matches with Portsmouth taking on a team called Basingstoke and Reading.

    Further attempts to reintroduce speedway to Portsmouth after the War were made, but they proved unsuccessful.

     

     

    • Like 2

  3. 60 Years Ago. R.I.P. Norwich.

    in Years Gone By

    Posted · Edited by norbold

    I wasn't a Norwich fan. New Cross and West Ham were my teams, but I did have a soft spot for Norwich as the first match I ever saw was New Cross v. Norwich, with the great Ove Fundin scoring an 18 point maximum.

    I did hope to become a Norwich fan when, in 1964, I put down Norwich as my choice of Teacher Training College purely on the basis that I would be able to see Norwich every week. Sadly, between my application and my actually starting at college, Norwich closed! I only went to King's Lynn once.

    P.S. Not only did I not see Norwich while at college, I didn't become a teacher either. If it wasn't for the fact I had a really good time at college, it would have been a complete waste of time!

  5. Ian Williams R.I.P.

    in Years Gone By

    Posted

    8 hours ago, Split said:

    Sad to see another world finalist is no longer with us.

    Condolences to the family. 

    I remember watching Ian load his bike after a meeting and thinking that his handlebars were the widest I had ever seen on a speedway bike. 

    What, even wider than your hero's?

  9. 2025 GP line up/wildcards

    in Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup

    Posted

    20 hours ago, mikebv said:

    For me, the top six go through to next year, the next 8 go through to the GP challenge,with the 15th being "relegated"...

    That 8 race against 8 qualifiers and the top 8 qualify...

    With the SEC Champ getting the last place.. 

    If I remember correctly, the system used to be something like this but it was ended to stop Andy Smith qualifying every year!

  15. Where are they now?

    in Years Gone By

    Posted · Edited by norbold

    1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

    I used to get notifications but no longer?

    I'd say that's a quirk of Facebook not Karl. He is continually posting on many and various Facebook pages.

    He has put up 25 posts on his own page today, let alone his posts on other pages!

  18. Tom Farndon

    in Years Gone By

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Kev1 said:

    This lot caught my eye, which is in an upcoming sale at my local auction rooms. It includes what I imagine to be one of the bulletins posted outside the stadium during the period following Tom's tragic accident.

    ae6327_8e1f349ba3c44f318ef6ff23fe116273mv2.thumb.webp.314ecc287916aef9256ff6cfd5d8d142.webp

    When and where is the sale?

  20. 2025 GP line up/wildcards

    in Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, chunky said:

    So why contradict yourself? If you want the "best", then Doyle certainly should be there. Or was that just a fluke the way he started the season?

    At the time of his injury, Doyle was third with 47 points, only just behind Holder on 48 and Zmarzlik on 50. If you rule Doyle out, I guess that means ruling out everyone else below him. So 13 new riders needed. 

    • Like 1

  25. Danish GP Vojens Saturday 14th September

    in Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup

    Posted · Edited by norbold

    39 minutes ago, andout said:

    F1 has been doing this for a million years (well maybe not a million), a little bit different maybe as Speedway goes to sixteen places but I don't hear any complaints from F1 fans 'cos that's the way it is. This wasn't that difficult, true Kelvin and Chris had no bloody idea but that is lack of preparation on their part.....the difference was 17 points, BZ needed to make it a 21 difference. Doesn't really take a brain surgeon just someone feeding the two commentators of what is happening. OR preparation. Um-Er....I don't know!!

    F1 is not the same though is it? Each Grand Prix is just one race. How else would you score it? There are 23 races in each speedway Grand Prix and riders accumulate points in each race as they go along. I think most feel that riders should be rewarded for the points they actually score throughout the meeting. In theory (or maybe it has even happened) a rider can win every race up to and including the semi-final, giving him 18 points and then come last in the final, giving him a total of 14, whereas another rider can get to the final with 10 points, then come third and come away with 16 points. So that five second places beats six wins over the evening.

    Edit: Sorry, crossed with the last two comments, but I agree with IainB.

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