boywonder

And if anyone wants a classic "NORBOLD" autograph, Sportpages bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London have a signed copy of his Norwich Speedway book still on the shelf....

He visits and posts on the speedwayatryehouse message board on issues blueandyellow.

Norbold, could you ask the one and only Stan Stevens if he can remember his part in two epic Mildenhall v Newcastle matches??? At the time Newcastle were THE team in the National League and brought four or more coachloads of noisy supporters away with them. NL 7/9/75 T his was tied 36-36 and a last heat decider featuring the almost unbeatable Weslake mounted Tom Owen. Stan on his Jap and the other veteran, Chris Julian on a 2v Jawa team rode for a 5-1 and an amazing 41-37 victory. The '76 rematch was the meeting I would relive if I ever could revisit a day of speedway history. It was baking, baking hot. The Diamonds were NL champions and superstars with both Owen brothers. Another crowd of 4-5000. It was a controversial meeting of exclusions and hard riding. Robbie Blackadder deliberately rode into Stan Stevens on the back straight and his footrest broke Stan's sprocket, chain and bike frame! The gentlemanly Stan went nuts and three men had to hold him back from tearing Blackadder's throat out. Newcastle refused to let the track be watered so in the last few heats you couldn't see the other end for all the dust. Riders were showering between races to avoid collapse it was so hot. Bob Coles got fined majorly for a one man commando assault on the ref's box after losing it over a decision. He kicked a hole in the door of the box that was there for years afterwards. John Gibbons also lost it big time and threw the track phone but I can't remember why. It went to a last heat decider when Tigers number 8 was sent out for his first ever race for his team! The previously untried Mick Bates, gated a poor last but rode through the fog of dust to unbelievably overtake the other three and win his debut race and the match for the Tigers. Unrepeatable drama. Does Stan recall any of this?? What a guy.

Bernard Crapper, team manager or something like, at Boston, late 70's

Also 28.5.1978 Inter-League KOC Mildenhall v White City Rebels. At the time like Poole v Buxton would be today. No NL team rarely ever won one of these matches. And Mildenhall weren't all that as a NL team then. 5000 turned up just in case. LBC Rebels, the GBL champs were led by Gordon Kennett, Niemi and Steve Weatherley who got a 12pt max. Incredibly Tigers lead into Heat 11 by 2pts. A young Rob Henry is put into the 2nd bend boards by a dive up the inside by Gordon Kennett on lap 3 and excluded, not Kennett. Pandemonium in the crowd and pits. 5-1 to Rebels gives them a 2pt lead which they hang to for a last heat decider. Kennett later concedes it was his fault. Heat 13 Henry again and Bales v that man Gordon Kennett and Paul Gachet. The score 35-37 to the Rebels. Tigers come out of the first bend on a 5-1!! Wow!! And Gordon has an engine failure for good measure. Surely the Tigers are going to be giantkillers now? Then just like when the British used to play the joker in Its A Knockout , it all went belly up. With Henry away in the lead avenging his unfair exclusion, Ray Bales fell off ON THE HOME STRAIGHT of lap 3 allowing Gachet a match winning 2pts. 3-2 heat win meant Tigers lost 38-39. Still hurts.

NL KOC 2nd round, 25/5/1980 and 26/5/1980, Mildenhall v Rye House. Big, big vociferous crowds. Needle. Mildenhall 1979 NL Champs by 1 pt from the Rockets. Rye in their own title winning season. Teams of home grown local riders. Plenty of "history" and a few recent cotroversies. Like Fiala being controversially excluded in heat 13 of the '79 NL "decider" at West Row after a crash. Garrad sportingly doesn't come out for the 5-0 rerun as Rye withdraw from the meeting having lost the match. Whit Sunday, 45-33 to Tigers at the Fen on Sunday. Bob Garrad punches Mick Bates after being excluded for unfair riding after a Heat 9 pile up that also brought down Kelvin Mullarkey. Kelvin got up to win the rerun. Very hard riding throughout and Kelvin, who lived in West Row, at the centre of much of it to the "joy" of the crowd. Tigers only pull out a lead in the last 3 heats when Fiala has an EF allowing a 5-1 to the Fenmen. Rye on Monday begins a massive Rockets fight back. No Fen Tigers race winners except for Ian Gledhill in Heat 7. The agg. score is level 69-69 for the start of heat 11. Ray Bales makes up for two last places by winning a 4-2 for the Tigers from Bob Garrad, the first Fen Tigers heat advantage this day. 71-73. Heat 12 and Rob Henry falls. Amazing scenes. A 5-1 to the Rockets is turned into a 4-2 as Richard Knight battles past King Kelvin Mullarkey so the score is level 75-75 for the last heat decider. Garrad and Peter Tarrant v Bales and Gledhill, the only Mildenhall heat winners. Bales goes round Garrad on 2nd bend to head off and hold on for a 4-2 win for the Tigers and the bumps as Tarrant bites the dust at the back behing Ian Gledhill. Randall Butt, Sports correspondent, Cambridge Evening News wrote, "Two of the most thrilling speedway matches I've ever seen, indeed two of the most exciting sporting events of any sort I've had the priviledge to be at."

Thanks!!! Is that why Graham Drury is so loved at Wimbledon??

Quote from this very readable magazine... "Ivan,the supreme professional in everything he did, went berserk in the (Coventry) dressing room because he knew we had lost the title earlier when a couple of our riders didn't turn up for our away meetings at Wimbeldon and Exeter." Who did he mean?? Why didn't they appear??

Shazzy, Thx (I thnk) A good biographer should do a no holes barred book on Mike Lee's life and times. A la soccer's Franks' Worthington or MacAvennie or Tony Adams. It would appeal to many o/s speedway who've never heard of him or the sport. Sportspages would sell van loads.

Some people can take any drug and be okay, others should never go near 'em 'cos they can't handle it. If you can't eat one Malteser without going thru a whole boxful, then you should leave 'em alone. I've seen some very paranoid cannabis smokers indeed and know many very smart professional people who do that and more. Should ANY pro sportsman smoke?? I'd be sad if my kids started to but so many riders are seen smoking in the pits aren't they? Shall we tell them off too? Its the most addictive damaging drug. Now Mike Lee was/is VERY single minded and a bit wild from a young kid. Maybe they are the very qualities that meant he could be a WORLD CHAMPION and other "nice guy" riders weren't. He used to drive a brand new 3 litre JPS Capri with a bike on he back to train at Lynn and Mildenhall when he was 16 and 17- yes no licence!! He bunked off school before to ride before that. Who pulled him up then?? He had a famous dad who owned a motorbike shop and who indulged his son so my theory is Mike didn't have many good friends and was envied by many more. He was an original golden boy who could have gone either way. Speedway riders have got to be a bit different to take the risks and do what they do anyway. Andrenaline seekers and all that. Teenaged lads who come alone from half way across the world with no care for where they end up and putting their life on the line at places like Wolverhampton on a dark cold weekday night?? Are we then surprised or outraged some of them take other risks and get criminal records?? Well, we shouldn't. Plenty of todays riders have be in more or as much bother as Mike Lee but don't get the publicity or boos. Promoters boosted their gates with Lee's image. Fans loved to hate him. Others loved him. He wound them and other riders up with all the back and forth and tricks to be last up to the tapes. But he was BLOODY good. And underneath it a nice bloke. The Mike Lee who took the piss out of us for following a particular rider in a M-way services one night on the way back from a British semi was the same bloke who rang me up as British Champion when I'd smashed myself up after a motorcycle crash on the way home from the British Final. He didn't know me from Adam but as my bike was being repaired at his Dad's shop in Cambridge, someone there told him and he rang me to ask if he could do anything at all and asked to visit me in hospital.This when he's riding just about everynight. There was no publicity in it for him, just Leo being a good guy. Whatever in his life followed, I remain impressed. His "sins" are less than some others. Be grateful for what we saw. Maybe his involvement preparing engines and helping out young riders gives him focus now.

I'd just like to speak up for Ray Bales, Billy's son. I never saw his dad ride but Ray was the absolute biz and was the best rider in the National League championship winning 1979 Mildenhall side. Big track or small. He is an electrician in Norwich still, I believe.

Over the years, so many.. 2003 season? BEN HOWE. Would also have won the Laurels but for an EF. Why don't the Dons sign him for 2004???

And helped Mildenhall in their first season coming up every week from Cornwall. About a 6-7 hour journey in 1975. There was talk about him flying in one day in his gyrocopter, James Bond Thunderball style. What a guy. Sadly missed.

Grachan, All you are doing is positively promoting speedway. Probably more than anyone this winter except Tim Stone and Graham Drury. More power to you, what can be wrong with that? If any publicity is good publicity, you must have caused a few more Bristol videos to be sold and whetted fans appetites to go and watch racers in action. Ask for commission! I doubt very much that LWT will sue, remember there are so many tribute websites out there that no action is taken upon. Don't worry! Keep up the good work sir. Any trouble and I'll send MY boys round to help.

Bruce v Les, wowee Mr Grachan!! Bob Coles?? Yes, he was riding at Mildenhall on the Sunday as normal. I think this crash was shown repeatedly that week on the weekday evening news programme in the West Country. . As I lived in Suffolk then I can't confirm that. News of it made our programme though. Mr Coles was THE MAN at that time (1978) and without whom Mildenhall probably wouldn't been in existence as he held in all together pointswise in 75,76 and 77. Bob Coles is a very hard man indeed. The only meeting I remember him missing for the Fen Tigers was when he accidently hit his then very young son Mike (now Exeter Falcon) on the head with a spanner one Sunday morning. He had been watching Bob prepare a bike for that afternoon's meeting but they missed it as Mike was rushed to casualty. Does Mike still have a dent I wonder??

Nice one Grachan! I really look forward to your features and they warm up winter's days, thanks. I went to college in 1978 with an embittered ex Panther junior who said Richard Knight would never do anything...how wrong he got that one! Never thought I'd see him on TV again, just having my own memories of his journey from Fen Tigers 2nd halfer to heat leader, then KL Stars no 1.... Arguably Mildenhall's most successful ever rider. Some race given that Dave Perks was one of the kings of the National League at the time after dropping down. All from the time when Mildenhall had the upper hand on Peterborough, which may not happen again for a while. Do you have anything from the Anglia TV Match of the Week series with Rockets/Tigers/Panther battles??? Or Lee vs Louis? Would love to see some of that! Thanks again for your efforts........

Any of the Fen Tigers, particularly '79 NL league champs!! see above. Yes,the Rockets were entertaining but waited til 1980 to win the League. Also Mitch Shirra, Mauger, Briggs, Bert Harkins, Gary Gugliemi (who'll he knock off next?), John Jackson, either Louis, Lee, Boley Proch, Jack Millen,Barry Thomas (game legtrailing made the Feb78 Golden Jubilee meeting warmer!), Martin Yeates, Simon Wigg,Vic Harding,Alan Cowland,Bobby Schwartz, Len Silver on the mike, Peter Collins, Peter Collins and Peter Collins. Oh yes, John Noakes and Peter Purves. Mike Patrick's funny trousers, that crazy flag waving Aussie bloke Johnson,Dick Barrie and any rider that fought with handbags at 10 paces or could overtake after lap 1.........

Midnight lady, I DO sympathize, really. I once rode a 250cc motorcycle up the A1 to Powderhall for a Friday Meeting and slept in a bus shelter o/s Berwick on the way back as I was a skint teenager.No journey was as bad as that. A ggod thing about the South coast is that it is beautiful and there are loads of places to stay for all our continental friends. Maybe Easyjet'll do an Edinburgh-Bournemouth cheap deal this summer. Or stay with my in-laws near Weymouth!!

Couldn't temporary grandstands and portaloos solve the problem?? And Poole is closer than Poland....

The individual pics were taken at the Pride of The East meeting at Saddlebow Road on Sat 27/10/1979. Gordon Kennett 5pts John Davis 0 from 3 rides Dave Jessup 14pts Peter Collins 7pts (1 win) Ian Turner 6 pts John Titman 7pts Michael Lee 14pts Hans Nielsen 1 pt Ole Olsen 12pts (2 wins) John Louis 14pts Terry Betts 1pt Richard Hellsen 11pts (2 wins) Finn Thomsen 2pts Zenon Plech 5pts (1 win) Ivan Mauger 8pts (1 win) Pete Smith (res) 4pts Bent Rasmussen 7pts Dave Jessup won a run off in 64.8secs from Mike Lee with John Louis falling. So I presume from the photo that Leo asked Ole to do the victory parade so he could go off, polish his Porsche, have a fag and clean out the glove box. Mike Lee was once on the way to wolverhampton, racing Al Littlechild in a Big Merc and Dave Gagen who had a beat up BMW,bike on the back. They both slowed down to be passed in a cloud of blue smoke and screamimg engine by a triumphal Gagen. Triumphant until he saw the parked police patrol car that chased him and pulled him over........ Another boring car story unless you were there..

Nice pics Mr Dastardly. Shazzy, there weren't that many Cortinas (well not brand new ones like louis) and my point in going off the point was that identifying the portrait pics was a bit too easy and so I'd try (and fail for you) to be humorous! And how many riders or people do you know that have a brand new Porsche like Mike Lee did then??? A real "golden" era then???? Like Steve Hone says, the top GBL riders like Penhall, Collins and the other yanks followed the lead of Ivan Mauger and had Citroen estates so they didn't have to obey the 50mph speed limits for trailers. Maybe that was another reason to strap one bike to the back of a car. That said, on my travels I rarely saw a rider keep their speed down. See also pictured, "super Melvyn Taylor", who then had an old brown 1750 sport Allegro (yes there was such a thing) and Ray Bales who had a new blue Peugeot 504 diesel saloon. Lots of the foreign boys had Mercs and BMs. Ted Hubbard also had a BMW 5 series then. I have never seen a man as angry as him after another Rocket (mullarkey?or Garrod?) flour bombed the inside of said luxury car at an end of season match at Rye (78 or 79). He went mental. Ah, end of season meets.

Billy Sanders leading Mr Lee. In the portraits, extra spotter marks for knowing Mike Lee drove a brown T reg new Porsche 928, Ivan Mauger had one of those Citoen DS estates and John Louis a Ford Cortina Ghia....sad or what.... I think Gordon Kennett had a Cortina too.

VSM- £2 an issue, a really good read and more info and better value than just about any programme Elite speedway or even Premier League football. I get mine from the nice man selling them at Wimbledon...well done chaps.. And I really enjoy Bertola's features, more from him please. Has anyone asked Mike Lee what he thought of the John (Ipswich) Berry article about him? And if Mr Berry was aware of the US riders drug influence at the time, as he seems to have done, why wasn't it sorted out then for the benefit of the sport , fans and riders involved? It was more interesting trying to work out who those others were. Why not name them know or ask them for their stories now. As sports nostalgia biographies are all the rage now, a well written book on Michael Lee should sell well and be of interest to more people than those in the sport...youth prodigy/wild boy to sports idol, people loved or hated him, a downfall, comebacks, drug busts,prison and renaissance as rider/coach/tuner at Mildenhall. Anyway someone approach him and write it. There one hell of a story there. There is an interview on the net by Carl Askew who mentions he similarly messed up his career in England partly by drinking and drugs. As i met him and his lovely wife in 1979, it is very sad and I'd never have guessed. And ah, Stan Stevens! Hear, hear to an article on him. I remember him well from Mildenhall's early days when he was in his forties. He seemed like a true gentleman. Hugged the white line like no other rider. The epic meeting v Newcastle's great NL team in 1976 when 3 men held Stan back from attacking Robbie Blackadder who'd steamed into Stan's Jap on the back straight and broke the frame! (deliberately it appeared). Couldn't believe it of Stan as he was so quiet. Part of an amazing victory that day. Retired quietly mid season in 1976 replaced by Alan Cowland. Another huge character. Booed when a Peterboro rider one month, hailed as a Fen Tiger hero not long after. He was TOUGH. Stan the man who wore thick cotton Arsenal kit under his leathers all thru that long hot summer! And didn't he help Bob Coles and Neil Street with the 4 valva Jap street conversion? And as he worked for the Daily Mirror did Mr Maxwell leave him penniless??? Thanks for the memories Stan, Top Man. Gents, good work on VSM, more articles on our heroes from years gone by. Cheers