norbold

By the way, Gustix, one piece of drivel that appears on all your posts is your signature. Voltaire never said this. That was written in 1906 by Evelyn Beatrice Hall (pseud. S. G. Tallentyre) in the biography "The Friends of Voltaire". She did not attribute the words to Voltaire. They were her own.

Have you actually read this thread, Gustix!?

Rye House: The original track was where the present track is. the second track was where the go-kart track is.

I'm gutted.

Thanks BOBBATH. Always interesting to read others' views on this famous race - possibly the most famous single race in the history of speedway? My friend who was with Biggs at the London Riders' Championship was also at the 1951 Final, though in the crowd, but, as I said, his view has always been it was nerves and he was a Harringay supporter, so he would have had every reason to blame his loss on to Williams and Lawson. Eric Linden, writing later, also blamed Biggs's loss on nerves. He particularly made the point about the long gap between his fourth and fifth rides and commented on the number of people who came up to Biggs in the pits before the race prematurely congratulating him. "Why couldn't they have just left him alone?" he said. He felt this just made him even more nervous. My understanding of the race itself was that Biggs was drawn in gate four, made a bad start for the first time that night and tried to make up for it by blasting round the outside on the first bend but made a hash of it and went too wide, leaving the others to get too far in front for him to make up the ground. The fact that he also came last in the run-off was a further indication that by then his nerves were just shot. By the way my friend mentioned above was at the first meeting at High Beech on February 19th 1928! Sadly he can't remember it as he was only 8 months old at the time!

So can I just get this straight. This off-duty policeman was called in in an unofficial capacity specially to test Darcy Ward because there were suspicions that he had been drinking. Yet somehow this unofficial off-duty policeman had already tested other riders. Was that in an unofficial capacity as well? And if so why was he called on to test them? In addition, the story being put round - and in spite of protestations by Starman to the contrary - disputed by no-one that Darcy Ward was only just over the limit, he now seems to have been acting in such a suspicious manner that he needed to be tested. So more than just a little over the limit then?

Now you come to mention it, that must be exactly what happened. Why haven't we all seen this before? It is the only possible reasonable explanation for the events of that day. Where do I join the Darcy Ward Support Group?

So who do you think he was then? Some oik who just wandered in off the street, took a breath test and then got the FIM to accept his findings even though they had no idea who he was?

I've met your grandfather a few times at the annual Norwich Vets Lunch. He's always very friendly and full of information and anecdotes. Happy Birthday, Fred.

54 Moore; 55 Craven; 59 Moore; 62 Craven

Me too, Gustix.....well, one anyway, 1963.

This is getting exciting now....

One other name to throw into this - Vic Duggan.

I am very sceptical about all this "who said what to whom" stuff re-Jack Biggs, BOBBATH. It has been said that because Biggs didn't ask the other riders in his final race - Williams, Waterman and Lawson - to "cover" him, i.e. let him win, they ganged up on him. Considering that Biggs had had four lightning fast gates that evening and had carried all before him and Lawson and Williams were having poor evenings, Lawson's probably due to a hand injury sustained four days before, even if they had have ganged up on him there didn't seem anything they could have done, especially as he only needed third place. I take the view that he was beset by nerves for that final race. His draw meant that he had a long gap between his fourth and fifth rides, time to sit in the pits and worry about the race. He was, in any case, a very nervous man normally. A friend of mine who was with him in the pits at another big night when again he was in with a chance of winning, this time the London Riders' Championship, said he was a bag of nerves and his hands were shaking so much he was surprised he could even hold his bike upright, let alone ride it! In that fateful heat in the World Championship he was drawn in the outside trap and just completely missed the gate. Nothing to do with ganging up; Biggs lost it on his own. That's my view anyway. But it's always good to have controversies and talking points that never go away. And then of course there was the controversy surrounding the Lionel Van Praag/Eric Langton run-off for the first-ever World Final.......

You've got to hand it to Darcy and the F.I.M though. At least they've given us something to talk about to while away those dark winter days and evenings when there's no speedway.

Probably the nearest of the nearly men to miss out on the World Championship was Cordy Milne, who missed out by four days. He was hot favourite to win the 1939 title on 7 September, but when War was declared on 3 September, all speedway was suspended, so he never got his chance.

Talking of Dave Jessup just missing out, it is often forgotten that in the year Ove Fundin first won the World Championship, 1956, that, after four rides, Fundin and Ken McKinlay were joint leaders on 10 points. In his last race, Hurri-ken got a great start and was well in front when, with no real pressure on him, he fell, handing Ove his first of five victories, with Ken missing out on even a podium place.

I was there in 1965, BOBBATH, and supporting our former captain. Yay!

Technically there have been three tracks at Rye House, but all within the same overall stadium area.

Hi BOBBATH. I'm younger than you, but saw all of the riders I mentioned.

Do you mean my list, Arnie, the one that does include Brandon and also (by default), Kirky Lane? Also, the point I was really making there was that those tracks I mentioned have missed very few seasons in all those years; the ones you've added had much longer fallow periods.

....er....excuse me, but speaking from personal experience, may I say you do not need to be 80 years old - or even 70 years old - to have seen Peter Craven and Brian Crutcher or even Jack Young, Split Waterman, Aub Lawson and Ron Johnson.

As if to prove Grand Central's point, along comes Starman.....

Either the official concerned was a properly authorised official or he wasn't. Either the testing equipment used was properly calibrated or it wasn't. What do the F.I.M. hope to gain by postponing the date of the hearing? I can't help feeling that neither of those reasons are the cause of the delay.

Surely whether he was an on duty or an off duty cop has no bearing at all on the matter. What matters is whether he was officially appointed by the F.I.M. to carry out the test. I can't imagine he was just some off duty cop who happened to wander into the stadium with his breath test kit and decide to take breath tests at random! And, even if he was, where was the official tester? P.S. Great minds, Arnie. We were posting at the same time!