norbold

Yes, Blue Plaques in London are organised by English Heritage. Outside London, it's every council for itself!

Only in London. Outside London, different Councils have different rules. It depends what Cheshire's rules are.

Foxhall had been around before 1968, up to 1965, but didn't reopen till 1969. So almost!

Shelbourne was promoted by Ronnie Greene and their team, the Tigers, was the Wimbledon team.

Yes, Walter Winterbottom was the first England manager. Appointed in 1946.

Quite right, Sidney. I am an idiot with no mind of my own and easily swayed by a man I have never met. I was totally unable to read all the posts on this Forum and make up my own mind and just fell under Chunky's Svengali-like influence. It's very instructive to learn what your real opinion of me is.

Please just STOP, Sidney.

Thanks for clearing that up, John. Oh, by the way, can you remind us who wrote this? “Over the years I have written on a freelance basis for most speedway publications - 'Speedway Gazette,' 'Speedway Reporter,' 'Speedway News,' 'Speedway World' and many more. In 1954, when the Southern Area League started I offered to write about the competition for the 'Speedway Star' and they agreed….It was the start of a link that led to me being offered a full-time post at 'Speedway Star' in 1955… I stayed in that post until 1962. “I was out of speedway journalism for more than 9 years, but resurfaced in 1972 when I was involved as a freelance writer and sub-editor with the 'Speedway Mail' which I ceased links with in 1984. “There came another lengthy period out of speedway until Wimbledon's return as a Conference League track in 2002 when I resumed old links with 'Speedway Star' as the track reporter, also contributing items on overseas speedway. “I…did edit in the early 1960s the first two editions of the annual 'Speedway Digest.' In recent years since about 1998 I have been a contributor to the 'Vintage Speedway Magazine' and more recent times to 'Classic speedway.'” Thank you.

It is Ove Fundin's 87th birthday today.

No, The West Country Gazette is not a regular feature, but the Talking Pictures channel has lots of short 5-15 minutes historical films, many from the 1940s and 50s. I find them fascinating. You need to keep a watch out for them.

Any time, TWK! They said it was a grasstrack meeting at the beginning. The racing looked particularly uninspiring I thought, though nevertheless interesting to see Vic Duggan in action.

Yes, correct, steve. The man in the bow tie is Jon Stevens

You are right of course to a certain extent, but does lockdown prevent cancer and heart disease in the same way it does Covid-19 spreading? How many would have died from Covid-19 without strict rules on isolation and distancing? The figures you give are not really comparable.

This is a photo of Terry Mussett next to a man wearing a bow tie, if that helps?

I wouldn't disagree...... ....unless I am trying to sell a book about Tom Farndon.

Yes, something similar for me too. I was interested in speedway some time before I actually went to see a match as two of my uncles had been going to speedway since before the War and often spoke about it. So that, growing up, I would hear stories about Bluey Wilkinson, Jack Parker, Vic Duggan, Jack Young and so on. I used to follow speedway results in the newspaper and watch it on the odd occasions it was on telly. My own heroes were Split Waterman, Aub Lawson and Brian Crutcher, so, again, even to this day they have held a special place in my memory of the "greats". By a strange twist of fate, when I did go to see my first meeting, the very first heat brought together Split Waterman and Aub Lawson and I also bought a copy of Speedway World and the front page headline news story was about Brian Crutcher. Also, at my very first meeting, Ove Fundin scored an immaculate 18 point maximum. It has been very hard in the 60 years since to shake me from the belief that Ove is the greatest rider of all time.

I think that is patently untrue. I think it more likely that most people's memories and ideas on who are/were the greatest riders are more likely to be the riders we first saw. I know in my case, for example, the likes of Ove Fundin, Barry Briggs and Ronnie Moore are the yardstick by which other riders have to be considered.

And no mention of Vivian Woodward either, certainly one of the greatest players of all time.

If we're going for Wimbledon riders I've actually seen riding in Wimbledon colours, I'd go for Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs, Ron How, Sverre Harrfeldt, Olle Nygren, Gote Nordin, Bob Andrews, Edward Jancarz, Reg Luckhurst and Terry Mussett.

I believe that later in life his daughter married a Mr Mussett and their son became a speedway rider....

I've heard of all of those except Terry Mussett. Are you sure he rode for Wimbledon?

Next Wednesday (20 May), the Talking Pictures TV Channel has a programme entitled, "West Country Gazette". It’s synopsis reads, "1948. We take a look at a speedway track outside St Austell where Vic Duggan makes an appearance....."

I don't know if anyone remembers a board game called Wembley. It was a football game, the idea being to win the FA Cup. All the League teams of the time were included. So as not to get silly results, but to retain the possibility of upsets, there were six different dice, so that red was a First Division Team at home down to white being a third division team away. I can't remember now what the actual numbers were on each side of the dice, but the red dice would include high numbers (5&4) and perhaps just one zero, whereas the white dice would have 2 or 3 zeros and so on. If you're still awake, what I am leading to is that the way I played speedway was with these dice, by throwing red for the home heat leader, down to the white for the away reserve. For individual trophies, I gave the Big Five the red dice and so on. Bob Andrews once won one of my World Championship Finals!

Buzz is also an all-time speedway legend.

My profile photo is of Vic Huxley and Billy Lamont.