norbold

Briggo wasn't great round New Cross. Of course, he was very good and was New Cross's top rider but, apart from 1959, when he didn't ride in England apart from a couple of meetings at the end of the season including the World Championship Final, I think it was just about his worst year in Britain. Fundin and Moore were far better round New Cross. It was the first time his average dropped below 10 points per match since 1954. It was also the only year between 1956 and 1966 that he was ranked outside the Top Five in the end of year Speedway Star rankings. I would agree, Sidney. Notwithstanding Fred Williams's success in 1953, I would say that Jack Young was the dominant rider in the world from 1951-1954 when Ronnie Moore rose to stardom.

He beat Moore, Knutson, Briggs and Craven in the Tom Farndon Memorial meeting. The week before he beat Fundin, Moore and Briggs in the King of the South Cup. So over those two weeks he beat all five of the "Big Five", including Moore and Briggs twice.

Funnily enough, iris, I have that same problem with Peter Craven! I first went to speedway in 1960 at New Cross and there is no doubt that Fundin was the outstanding master of the Frying Pan; Moore was also excellent there and Briggo actually rode for New Cross in 1960. Craven always seemed to me to be some way behind those three. In fact I think Jack Young rode New Cross better than he did, even though he was past his best. It always seemed to me that Craven couldn't quite master such a small track and it did actually colour my view of him.

Just another comparison. Fred Williams was never ranked higher than no. 4 in the World in Stenner's end of year rankings, a position he achieved twice. Peter Craven was ranked no. 2 once, no. 3 four times and fourth once in the successor Speedway Star end of year rankings . This in a period, as Sidney points out, included Fundin. Moore, Briggs and Knutson.

They're not consecutive. The first was from speedyguy, the next was from gustix.

I wasn't criticising, merely making an observation and asking a question. Anyway, your record has now been broken by Chunky!

Well done, Chunky. You've broken Gustix's record.

Sportspages no longer exists but it was where most of my London books sold when it came out. Mark Loram went in there one day not long after it was published and signed a number of copies quite unbeknown to me!

Yes. I also think there is a difference between the sort of history books I wrote and a book by Tai Woffinden. Because a lot of people "used to go" to speedway and that's why my East Anglia book sold so well in Norwich and my London book in London as people there could wallow in a bit of nostalgia and read about their heroes and relive their younger days when they "used to go" to speedway. I guess to most people, even former speedway supporters, a book about Tai Woffinden would actually mean very little.

When I first spoke to my publisher about producing a speedway book, I said I wanted to write one about Speedway in London. They asked me how many tracks were still open in London and I told them there weren't any, so they said they didn't think they would be able to sell it as they thought that a niche" book about speedway would only sell at speedway track shops. So we agreed that I should write "Speedway in East Anglia" instead as there were four tracks still open. They printed 1200 copies and sold out within two weeks and then sold a further 1200 in just about a month. What amazed them was that most of the sales were in "High Street" bookshops in Norwich where the track had long since closed. They then agreed to my Speedway in London book, which reached no.3 in the Sunday Times Sports Books chart. The moral is you don't need to be a bookshop near a track to sell books about speedway!

Just over 10 years. Is that the record for the longest gap between two consecutive posts on the same thread?

A number of people on here are doubting whether Greg Hancock should be given a wildcard next year by pointing to the fact that Tai missed out on a couple of GPs and racing in general for a while and hasn't been able to reach his former best and that therefore Greg, who has missed out on a whole year, couldn't be expected to get back to GP form. I do think there is one crucial difference in this though and that is that Tai was out injured with a bad injury and may have come back too soon. Greg has suffered no actual bodily injury and therefore will not be in the same position as Tai. Personally, I don't see how Greg can not be given a Wild Card for next year, given his record overall and especially considering where he finished in 2018.

Dennis

Yes, I have the programme. Les Trim won; 2nd C Anderson; 3rd A V Sweby I also have an unfilled programme for 01/09 A V Sweby's Team v. D Gray's Team, so can't confirm it actually took place.

Yes, he did say he would like a wild card for next year.

Do you think it's worth writing to the editor of Stenner's and tell him he's made a mistake!?

Sorry, you were too fast for me. I did delete my second paragraph when I realised what you'd written before!

Yes, Stenner's has that match on 1 October as well!

29/10 Tamworth 64 Hanley 32 (MvSC) - 1948 Stenner's.

15/06 confirmed - Filled in programme 20/04 - Date confirmed - Partly filled in programme which is hard to decipher. Also some of the heat results are not filled in at all and the score chart at the end is not filled in, so I can't work out who won, though looking at the heats that are filled in, it looks likely that the winning pair was either P. Robinson and M Flack or G Bason and E Irons.

Ah, right. I know who you are now!

That doesn't seem likely at the moment.

I agree in principle with everything you say, Gavan. Just one thing though, if Zagar maintains his place in the top 8, Anders Thomsen will be in next year.

6 June A Flack's Team v. S Clark's Team. A Flack's team won 28-26 (nine heat match).

The meeting was the Rye House Best Pairs. The Novice Knock-Out Championship took place before the main event. I do have the filled in programme for the meeting but it is very messy with lots of alterations and almost illegible! The winning pair were A. Briggs and Stan Clark, both replacements for the programmed pair of Frank Bettis and Reg Craven.