norbold

West Ham 1972. The last fixture that was actually raced was 23rd May v. Hull.

85 years ago today.

Certainly not Jack NICKLAUS but apparently not Gary Player either: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/07/14/luck/

He was my first favourite rider. On the night I first went to speedway, New Cross were racing against Norwich in the Britannia Shield. They had had a poor start to the season. On that night Ove Fundin and Aub Lawson were almost unbeatable. Ove scored an 18 point maximum, while Aub scored 16 paid 17. The only New Cross rider to beat him was Jimmy Gooch. He instantly became my favourite. Especially as he top scored for New Cross and the Rangers won their first match for several weeks. At that time, the final heat was a nominated riders' heat and New Cross nominated Split Waterman and Eric Williams to loud boos from the New Cross supporters who thought the hero of the night, Jimmy Gooch, should be nominated in place of Split. As the race started, Split reared at the start and a re-run was ordered. Split was unable to take part, so, in true poetic justice fashion, Jimmy Gooch replaced him. Although Ove and Aub scored a 5-1, Jimmy came third, beating Eric Williams. He remained my favourite until New Cross closed at the end of 1961....though Reg Luckhurst did run him close when he became a regular Ranger.

Tom Farndon!

Did you hear me in the crowd being irate?

He would certainly have made a good Pacemaker.

It's a good theory, chunky, but I feel I must make an admission here and that is that I was never that keen on Peter Craven!

I remember that I really disliked Charlie Monk....but, for the life of me, I can't remember why now!

Between 1956 and 1963, Ove Fundin was ranked at no. 1 in the world in the Speedway Star rankings every year except 1958, when he was second to Barry Briggs. Peter Craven made second place only once, in 1962, and third three times. Ronnie Moore was second on three occasions. Briggo was second just once but then came into his own 1964-1966 as Fundin began to decline. It is, of course a field for endless speculation and you can never know what special factors might influence any particular Grand Prix season, e.g. which tracks would have been used during the season, but simply going by historical records and, from 1960 onwards, my own personal observation of the leading contenders, I would say Fundin could well have won the Grand Prix every year from 1956-1963, with Briggo winning 1964-1966. Two caveats - Briggo might have won in 1958 and Bjorn Knutson in 1965. Personally, I really couldn't see Peter Craven winning a Grand Prix Season, but wouldn't rule out Ronnie Moore, especially in the 1950s. But then things rarely work out as you expect them to!

Thanks, spiegal. I wasn't having a go at you. Inadvertent errors are easily made on Internet Forums, but I just felt that if we are discussing Arthur, it is only right to spell his name correctly.

Incidentally, I know this thread had been going some time but could either the originator or an admin please change the title to Arthur Forrest out of respect to the man please?

He died in 2000 at the age of 68.

They also issued Stars of Bradford Speedway, Stars of London Speedway, Stars of Midland Speedway and Wembley Speedway Stars. Just to add, I don't know which riders were featured on the Scottish set. The only other one I know was Jack Young.

They came out in 2002, issued by J F Sporting Collectibles.

Indeed. There's a long history of foreign riders in speedway's top division going right back to even before the National League to the Southern League.

Thanks as always for your comprehensive and well researched reply, BL. Just to say I didn't mean they would be heat leader status, I did mean I thought they would be good enough for second string positions.

As a New Cross supporter, I didn't see many Provincial League riders in its early days, 1960/61, but I did see some in Individual meetings and in second halves. Purely from memory, without resorting to record books, I seem to remember that I thought Trevor Redmond and Ivor Brown were head and shoulders above the rest of the riders I saw and were the only two I felt at the time could hold their own in the National League. Of course that is purely a subjective view of a young speedway novice (me) and without seeing all of the top riders. i'd be interested in hearing Provincial League aficionados from that period's views on Redmond and Brown.

Tommy Miller was ranked in Stenner's Top 15 rankings three years running - 1951, 1952 and 1953. Not bad for a second division rider.

Thanks, Chunky, some really interesting stuff about Swindon and why they were so successful in 1957. I only started going in 1960, but I was always very impressed by the Swindon line up as it seemed they had five heat leaders in their team, George White, Ian Williams, Neil Street, Teo Teodorowicz and Mike Broadbank(s). They were the only team that had such a strong top five. However, and I could never really understand this, they managed to finish bottom of the league! This was partly due to the fact that their top scorer, George White, missed several matches through injury and also the fact that their no. 6 rider, Johnny Board, could only manage an average of 2.5, while the reserves, Brian Meredith and Ron Taylor, could only manage 2-4 and 1.7 respectively (remember they were eight man teams in 1960). Brian Brett rode in 11 matches and managed even less with 1.4. It was a sad decline from the heady days of just three years earlier.

Have you seen Robert Bamford and Glynn Shailes' book "A History of the World Speedway Championship"? It takes the story up to 2001.

Maurice Jones died some time ago. All his speedway archive was auctioned off.

This is the message John received from Phil giving the reasons for his ban: Reason: Spamming Penalty: Given 1 points which will never expire. Content moderated - 30 days Restricted from posting - 14 days Banned - 14 days

He's been banned for another transgression. He told me I could tell you.