norbold

No wonder they blew their lead. 18 pints is a bit much for anyone!

Good work on the captions there. Sayfutdinov in the lead all the way apparently.

Yes, of course, there are lots of ways a tie could happen. The point I was making was the unlikelihood of them happening, i.e that at least one would fail to reach the final and the other finish fourth.

For it to be a tie, at least one of them would need to fail to get to the final plus the other would need to come fourth.

So someone else needs to beat Zmarzlik to stop him winning the World title even if Kurtz beats him in Vojens. Hmmmmm. And it's all thanks to the sprint! Great minds and all that, Iain. Was typing as yours must have been posted.

Late news. Meeting abandoned - track waterlogged.

It's called the American wave now.

You've got to feel for poor Kelvin - taking three point off Kvech and adding one point to each of the other riders in the race. It must be far too complicated for him.

Perhaps they've done that because that was his name! What's wrong is them saying Real Name: Raymond Sidney Humphrey. It should say, Birth Name: Raymond Sidney Humphrey.

Today is the 60th anniversary of the most insane conversation I have ever had with a speedway rider! I was at the Rye House Select v. Poole match (22 August 1965) and spent some time in the pits talking to the one-and-only Tyburn Gallows. He was as mad as the proverbial box of frogs. I just wish I had written down the conversation at the time as I can’t remember the detail now, only that it was the most insane conversation ever! This, of course fitted in with Tyburn’s known personality. His real name was Raymond Humphries. He was said to have been an assistant hangman. At least he said he was! In his early riding days he wore a CND body colour. The Control Board banned him from using the name Tyburn Gallows and from wearing the CND emblem. For a while he used the name Tyburn Humphreys and then changed his name by deed-poll to Tyburn Gallows so the Control Board couldn't stop him using it. His death fitted in with his life as it occurred on the day of his mother’s funeral. He came home, sat in a chair and then just died for no discernible reason. Incidentally, in the match itself, he scored a paid reserves’ maximum, 5+1. Just wondering if anyone else ever spoke to him and what the conversation was like.

Or they could dip for each rider, "Dip, dip, dip, my little ship...etc." (Ruder versions are available).

It would be a bit like, say, Aryna Sabalenka winning the Australian and USA Grand Slam singles tennis titles. Think of the bad publicity that would attract for tennis. It might never recover...

OK, make a cup of tea, sit down, put your feet up and get ready to read one of the longest posts ever posted on here! It is 60 years to the day since I saw the best and most memorable speedway match I have seen in all my 65 years of going to speedway. A match I can still remember vividly. In that year, one of the Quarter Final matches of the KO Cup saw a local derby London tie with West Ham drawn at home to Wimbledon. Before the tie, the two teams appeared to be evenly matched and so the match proved. With one heat to go the scores were level at 45-45. That final heat saw the Wimbledon pair, Olle Nygren and Reg Luckhurst, “fired themselves to the front” (as Kelvin would say) over West Ham’s Brian Leonard and Norman Hunter and it looked all over for the Hammers when suddenly Luckhurst’s engine blew up resulting in a 3-3 and a tied match at 48-48. Having drawn at West Ham, Wimbledon looked a good bet to take the tie in the replay on their own track. But there was even worse news for West Ham as their top rider, Sverre Harrfeldt, was injured the previous evening at Hackney and unable to take part and their third heat leader, Norman Hunter, was also unable to ride as it was his wedding day! There were no guests allowed so the Hammers had to resort to filling the places of two heat leaders with Tony Clarke, making his racing debut, and a Wimbledon junior, Geoff Hughes. Only Ken McKinlay was a recognized heat leader and, although by now a team regular, it should be remembered that at this time, although gradually improving through the season, West Ham’s 19 year old Malcolm Simmons was still no more than a good second string. No-one, not even the West Ham supporters present that afternoon, gave the Hammers much hope. By heat six it looked as though Wimbledon’s superiority was about to assert itself as Wimbledon skipper, the great Olle Nygren. along with the experienced Jim Tebby, took a 5-1 against West Ham’s newcomer, Tony Clarke, and second string, Brian Leonard. The lack of two heat leaders looked as though it was now beginning to tell. But as West Ham were six points in arrears it meant they could use a tactical substitute and they wasted no time bringing in Ken McKinlay for reserve Ray Wickett in the very next heat. The line-up for heat seven was therefore Bob Dugard and Keith Whipp for the Dons, Malcolm Simmons and Ken McKinlay for the Hammers. The young Simmons shot away from the gate with McKinlay behind him and that’s how the heat finished. A 5-1 for West Ham and four points pulled back. Simmons’ time of 66.2 was the fastest of the night. The next heat saw McKinlay out again, this time in a scheduled ride, with old campaigner Reg Trott lining up against Reg Luckhurst and reserve Mike Coomber. Some brilliant team riding by McKinlay and Trott kept Luckhurst behind them and with Coomber falling, it meant another 5-1 to the Hammers and, unbelievably, at the half-way stage, West Ham now found themselves with a two point lead. With Nygren and Tebby lined up against Simmons and Wickett in heat 10 it looked as though the Dons would edge back into the lead, but, once again, Simmons rose to the occasion and beat Nygren in the second fastest time of the night. Heat 12 saw another astonishing turn of events as Wimbledon’s Bobby Dugard fell and was excluded from the re-run. It was a simple matter for McKinlay and Trott to defeat Whipp and take a 5-1. It was now West Ham who were six points up and it was now Wimbledon who used a tactical substitute as they brought in Nygren for reserve, John Edwards. Unfortunately, it did not have the desired effect as, for the second time that night, West Ham’s new hero, the young Malcolm Simmons, beat Nygren, leaving West Ham still six points in front. This time though, Simmons had done it the hard way, coming from behind and taking the Wimbledon captain on the last lap. With just three heats to go, time was running out for Wimbledon and the impossible suddenly looked possible. However, a Nygren and Dugard 5-1 over Trott and Leonard put them back in with a chance and when, in heat 15, Tebby and Coomber pulled off a 4-2 against Clarke and Hughes, the scores, were back to level with one heat to go. The line-up for that final heat saw Keith Whipp and Reg Luckhurst for Wimbledon against Ken McKinlay and Malcolm Simmons for West Ham. The tension around the stadium was palpable. Everyone was holding their breath. A match which at the beginning of the afternoon had seemed likely to be very one-sided had now come down to a last heat decider. To some extent the final race as a race was a bit of a disappointment as Simmons once again flew off from the start and never looked to be in any danger and with McKinlay settling for a steady third place, the match was won by West Ham by 49 points to 47. The small band of Hammers’ supporters who had made the trip across London couldn’t believe what had happened. The hero of the hour was the 19-year-old Malcolm Simmons. He had beaten the Wimbledon captain, Olle Nygren, twice and had set the three fastest times of the night. In fact he still wasn’t finished. In the second half scratch race event, he won the first heat, beating McKinlay, Luckhurst and Dugard and then went on to win the final, once again beating Nygren. As if that wasn’t enough, a special Handicap race was held with Simmons starting off 20 yards, Nygren off 10 and Trott, Leonard and Tebby off scratch. Yet again, Simmons got the better of Nygren, even with his handicap. As for me, although that match was held 60 years ago I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. In fact I can remember it better than matches I saw last season. It was just such an amazing afternoon. I went along there with a few other Hammers’ supporters expecting a reasonable match but when it was announced just before the meeting started that neither Harrfeldt nor Hunter would be taking part we seriously considered going home. The Wimbledon supporters around us were saying things like, ’You’ll be lucky if you get 20 points’ and ’This is going to be the biggest thrashing of all time.’ Of course, we gave back as good as we got but in our hearts we felt they could well be right. But suddenly there was this rider called Malcolm Simmons, who we had seen rise from the ranks of a second halfer at West Ham to a good second string but no more, taking on and beating the likes of Olle Nygren and Reg Luckhurst on their own track in the fastest times of the night. He was just phenomenal. Following that match, and now with a fourth top-class heat leader, West Ham remained unbeaten for the rest of the season, taking the treble of League, Cup and London Cup. Recalling the match later in an interview I carried out with him, Malcolm Simmons told me that the West Ham team had gone to the meeting thinking they would get thrashed but somehow the whole team had risen to the occasion. He went on to say, “It was the first good meeting I ever had for West Ham. I just came good on the night.” He also told me that he didn’t clean his bike for weeks afterwards as he was afraid of upsetting whatever it was that was making it go so fast! As we now know, Simmons went on to become one of Great Britain’s greatest ever riders and runner-up in the 1976 World Championship, World Pairs Champion in 1976, 77 and 78, World Team Champion in 1973, 74, 75 and 77 and British Champion in 1976. He was capped 80 times for England, seven times for the British Lions (touring Australia), five times for Great Britain and four times for the Rest of the World. But it all started that night and I feel very privileged to have been there to witness what must have been one of the best matches of all time and one of the most outstanding personal performance of all time. I should add that the rest of the team also rode exceptionally well, especially Reg Trott, Brian Leonard and Tony Clarke, who all rode far above expectations.

Hopeless commentator. Not one rider fired himself to the front or rode high and wide early doors, no doubt about that. I bet he can even do the maths properly.

Oh well, a chance to catch up on the Test match. Actually much more exciting than the Grand Prix with Crawley and Duckett in full flow.

He was trying to fire himself to the front.

Just wondering why Kelvin never mentioned that Bewley was the fastest in practice today…

Agree with much of what has been said. I couldn't see whether there was contact or not either in heat 14 but I do think the wrong rider was excluded. Having said that, however, it should never have got to the point that the result of that race was so crucial. It's hard to believe that this Ipswich team is the one that started the season so well and touted as almost unbeatable. Jason, Emil and, to a lesser extent, Danny, carried the team tonight. As for the rest... And what was all that nonsense before heat 13 about? How is it that a team manager and a referee don't know the rules regarding the no. 7? Unbelievable!

Also it was on telly, so probably fewer than a normal meeting.

AI needs to be fed the correct information. It is still very early days. When you see a mistake like the Belle Vue one, you need to correct it, then, in future, it will get it right. I have used AI a number of times in my historical research (not speedway). It is getting much better than it was. In some ways it's like Wikipedia. It's only as good as the information it is fed. It will continue to improve. It will be an amazing research tool in a few years.

Of course it didn't make any real difference to those of us here, but, it would be important to people new to speedway, the people we are trying to attract. It didn't happen, of course, but if Oxford had got a 5-1 in the final heat it might have left newcomers feeling very confused as to what was happening. That's the real problem with the gaffs Kelvin makes.

Not according to Kelvin. Ipswich only needed one point!

All four excluded.

Kelvin's maths strikes again!

Thompson and Ellis?