norbold

Never mind the music, it looks like an absolutely brilliant book. I think everyone should buy a copy!

I remember Eddie and Reg Reeves well at New Cross. I also remember seeing Roy Trigg as a young novice in second halves at New Cross. I always thought he would be a good rider and he became my sort of "protege". I followed his career with keen interest and was glad to be proved right. My other "protege" was the 15 year old Dave Jessup at West Ham after seeing his first-ever ride in public. Not sure what happened to him..... I then quit while I was ahead!

Nice bit of dirt on the track!

I'm not sure if "Years Gone By" is the appropriate place for this as it's about something current, but it seems to fit better into the history section! A couple of days ago at Kent Kings, my old friend and chauffeur, Parsloes, announced my uncle's 93rd birthday, whereupon he took a bow to the crowd. My uncle Joe has been going to speedway since he started going to Hackney Wick in 1935. He became an avid supporter, sometimes going to a different track every night in London (as you could in those days). He is now a regular at Kent Kings and sometimes goes to Lakeside as well. I suppose it was probably due to him that, indirectly, I first got interested in speedway as well, as his enthusiasm brushed off on two of his brothers, one of whom was my dad.. Anyway, I was wondering if he is now the oldest regular speedway supporter in the country both in terms of age and longevity of going. Any challengers?

Sigh!

This is why I joined this Forum over 12 years ago. For the intelligent incisive interesting discussions. Disagreements, yes, but always carried out in a friendly respectful manner with a bit of light-hearted banter. No personal insults, no nasty comments. A nice friendly forum where people could express their views and opinions without fear of ridicule. Where you could engage in differences of opinion in an open friendly manner. Where all views were listened to respectfully, even if people didn't agree with them. Where we could engage in good open honest discussion in an adult manner with no name-calling and no attempts to belittle others who held different views. Oh, hang on a minute........

So was it 1956 or 1957?

Yes, that's correct. But I thought BOBBATH meant those who moved from 1964 Provincial League to 1965 British League.

Colin Pratt, Eric Boocock, Dave Younghusband, Jack Kitchen.

It's a funny thing but no-one here can post the word Tai used. Hmmmmm, now I wonder why that is.........

Just out of interest a couple of quotes from the 1961 Speedway Star Digest's European Review: "Bulgaria. There was little activity, with Czechoslovakian and Hungarian riders carrying off the honours. Poor equipment retards progress, although promise of delivery of Czechoslovakian machines this year would do much to benefit the sport. K. Nikalov is champion." "Hungary. Pal Pereney was Hungary's leading racer, and looks to be a rider with a big future once he obtains top class equipment. Other Hungarians who did well in international events were Lapos Varos and Istvan Djaka. There are many tracks in Hungary, but lack of central organisation is retarding progress." The other countries reviewed are: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Yugoslavia.

The war cry at Romford was "Give us a B" "B" "Give us an O" "O" ....etc.... "What have we got?" "Bombers" There was a section of the crowd near the starting gate (I think) who used to reply backwards, so, "Give us a B" "S" "Give us an O" "R"....etc...."What have we got?" "Srebmob" You had to be there...

I was going to say that! Also seeing cars with team stickers in the back window.

Well it was always said the Freddie Williams only won his two titles because he was a Wembley track specialist. Whilst I think Freddie was undoubtedly a top class rider, I think there is some truth in that and that 1950 may have been Graham Warren's year, maybe Aub Lawson or Jack Parker and 1953 would have been Jack Young's again.

Maybe that's why it never happened?

Are you larkin around? You may need to be a Londoner of a certain age to appreciate this too.

Not forgotten by us West Ham fans, Sidney!

And then there was Ivan Mauger at 17........

A great shame one of those meetings was the Riders' Championship Final. There is no doubt that Vic Duggan was the outstanding rider of 1947 but sadly missed out on the main title of the year.

Thanks BL. That's very interesting about Ronnie Moore's record as compared to Ove's. I did make a mistake about Jack Young. I was thinking of the 1961 season, not 1960, when he won the King of the South Cup, beating Fundin, Moore and Briggs and then, the following week, winning the Tom Farndon Memorial Trophy, beating Moore, Knutson, Briggs and Craven.

Yes, that is pretty much my memory except for 1964 when Bjorn Knutson frequently got the better of him.

Ove Fundin was certainly the best visiting rider at New Cross, though for a brief period towards the end of 1960, I think Jack Young was probably the best. From memory, I think I would have to go for Barry Briggs at West Ham. I'll have to look up my programmes....

Interesting stuff, BL. Out of interest as well, I looked up the Speedway Star rankings for those years and these are the British riders positions. 1960: Peter Craven 3rd, Ron How 9th, Ken McKinlay 12th, Eric Williams 20th 1961: Peter Craven 6th, Ron How 7th, Bob Andrews 11th, Ken McKinlay 12th, Mike Broadbanks(s) 16th, Cyril Maidment 19th 1962: Peter Craven 2nd, Ken McKinlay 6th, Bob Andrews 9th, Ron How 12th, Mike Broadbank(s) 18th, 1963: Peter Craven 4th, Nigel Boocock 8th, Ron How 10th 1964: Ron How 7th, Nigel Boocock 8th=, Ken McKinlay 8th= (1960 - 62 was a top 20; 1963-64 was a top 10)

All a matter of opinion of course and there is no right or wrong answer. However, the reason i would put Nigel Boocock and Ken McKinlay above Peter Craven for the 60s is because they were at the top throughout the whole decade. Of course, Peter was the better rider for the first four years, but sadly, was not to see out the decade. I always find Bob Andrews a bit of an enigma in that he seemed to do much better in individual or pairs events than as a team rider. If it had just been on individual performances I would certainly have put him in my top 10, but his averages just did not seem to reflect his personal attainments.

As a historian, your post got me thinking about even further back, Sidney, to the 1950s and 60s. So how about this for a Top 10 British from the 1950s: Peter Craven. Freddie Williams, Split Waterman, Brian Crutcher. Ken McKinlay. Arthur Forrest. Alan Hunt. Tommy Price. Cyril Roger. Eric Williams. 1960s: Nigel Boocock, Ken McKinlay, Peter Craven, Mike Broadbank(s), Eric Boocock, Ron How, David Younghusband, Martin Ashby, Trevor Hedge, Norman Hunter ?