Chadster

In the late 70s and early 80s Wimbledon made a habit of picking a novice at no. 7 in order to get the team under the point limit. Lads like Jay Pleece and Dave Brewer were given a go. It wasn't that they couldn't ride but they just struggled massively out of the starts. So when the Dons announced the signing of another unknown, Kelvin Tatum, I was completely underwhelmed. His first meeting against Ipswich was a revelation, not just for the points scored but for his sharpness out of the tapes. The two seasons Kelvin spent at the Dons were two of my most enjoyable watching speedway, seeing him go from raw novice to potential superstar. Just a shame that he fulfilled his potential away from Plough Lane. Great to see the earlier post about Roger Johns. I didn't see him when he was struggling but he was such a great rider to watch. Definitely one rider you hoped would miss the gate!

First one I have clear memories of was Belle Vue v Newport in 1967.Heat 1 ended Nevitt, Roper, Erskine, Golden. I think Tommy Roper and Jon Erskine are still going, but I'm not sure about Norman Nevitt. Alby Golden died some years back.

Another point is that the league in 1966 was arguably stronger. Riders like Nordin, Fundin and Jansson didn't ride in 65 and Betts, Peter Moore and Persson appeared only briefly in 65 but rode a full season in 66.

That Halifax consisted of 7 riders who had ridden in the PL in 1964, so an impressive feat. West Ham in 1965 really clicked into gear n the second half of the season when Simmons hit top form and Tony Clarke came in at reserve and added a bit of sting there. The season long averages tend to cover that up.

Apologies, I didn't make myself clear. I was referring to Hackney specifically. It seemed to me (from afar) to have a good reputation as a racetrack in the 60s, but there were some bad accidents there from the mid 70s. I remember seeing some bad crases at Hyde Road in the 60s.

Thinking on, the bad accidents seemed to happen from the mid 70s on, so was it that the track struggled to accomodate the faster bikes that developed with the introduction of four valves?

I was there the night Denny Pyeatt was killed and that was the lamp standards, which the next had all been covered in old tyres. It's difficult to explain, because it didn't seem to have a scary reputation like Exeter, with its steel fence, nor was it seen as a difficult track to ride like Newport, which a lot of riders seemed to absolutely hate and Len Silver was well known for always trying to provide a good surface. It may be that it was just one of those tracks that encouraged riders to have a go and that may have caused accidents.

Mine was 69. Mauger won in a canter and didn't even need to take his last ride. I remember a terrific ride by Briggs to win his first race passing Moore and McKinlay on the last lap. Ken McKinlay was very much in the running at the interval with 7 points from his three rides, but then didn't pick up another point from his last two races.

In fairness to Parker, Sunderland was not a great success when it reopened in the early 70s. Maybe, it's just not a speedway town, like Liverpool obviously wasn't. I think he was a little unlucky with the Liverpool and Bradford teams in the 1960 season as he stuck to the original ethos of the League whilst other promotions opted for very experienced teams. Not that that was always successful, as although Rayleigh won the league they closed down at the end of the year as runaway home wins led to dwindling support.

I think he sold up his last track in the 80s so he was in speedway for about a quarter of a century, which suggests that he had a feel for the sport. He was the driving force behind both the PL and BL Division 2, without which it's difficult to see how the sport could have enjoyed it's last golden period in the 60s and 70s.

Read on-line today that the stock cars are going back to racing on tarmac at Odsal.

I suppose there is the NORA thing, which was nipped in the bud last season. The cost of hiring my learned friends to slug it out in court would surely be highly unattractive to all parties.

An interesting post. Certainly the sport was in the doldrums in 1958, but one big difference then and now was that in 1958 there were many stadia ready and waiting for speedway to be staged there. Hence, it was relatively easy matter to re-open 10 tracks when the Provincial League started and even Division 2 in 1968 saw a number ot tracks re-open. Where today are the stadia that could easily stage speedway? A much smaller number, I think

Peter Oakes running a piece in the Star saying that the 'new' track might be Brafield.

I saw a lot of Gordon at White City, where he was a real star. Someone earlier mentioned seeing him riding long-track style at Belle Vue and he cetainly did that at Wood Lane. One of the main men in the league, but I felt rather under-rated at the time. He was formidable again whenhe dropped down at Eastbourne and there were some great battles between the Dons and the Eagles.

Think Belle Vue might have been one of the first, sponsored by the Piccadilly Gold radio station.

Just finished reading this book. Very enjoyable and highly recommended. It certainly doesn't pull any punches where Mike Parker is concerned.

I've ordered my copy from e-bay.

Details of the meeting here; http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/engvsu.htm

Found this on You Tube, very interesting!

Looking at the Championship team line ups it seems there is almost a de facto Rising Star scheme because of the reduction of the team limit. There are a lot of young/inexperienced reserve riders in the league. Will be interested to see how they get on. Of course, if they do well they will effectively ride themselves out of a team place for next year....

No Torbjorn Harryson? Remember seeing him scoring a 15 point maximum at Belle Vue in 1967 and was the only rider to beat Ove Fundin that night. He only rode two seasons in Britain but was regarded as perhaps the next big thing until he broke his leg in the 1969 Worlf Final and never got over the injury.

I seem to recall reading that Len Silver objected to Harringay re-opening as it would eat into his crowd at Hackney.

I seem to recall that the Weymouth promoter who is involved alienated his landlord at Weymouth and various other people too.