Chadster

Mine have all been arriving on time recently. Some very good articles, too. One on Mike Parker was very interesting, as is this weeks analysis of the Weston-Super-Mare fiasco.

Some stuff about them here http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Thames/Thames.htm

Apparently they 'boasted' the lowest ever Football League attendance.

Got both the last two issues today here in North East Derbyshire.

Did he not have Martin Dugard in his camp at one time? He's obviously got a bit of expertise at his disposal but it's still up to him to put the advice into practice.

Tatum did say in commentary that Nicholls had had a puncture in his last ride.

Louis suggested on TV that contributory factors to the Sheffield debacle had been the earlier start time and warmer conditions. Make of that what you will. He also said that Anlas had sent over some new tyres with, presumably, a different compound and a technician to look at the problem. There didn't seem anything untoward last night, but I fast forward through the interviews so don't know if there were any comments.

But Brennan rides at 2 for the Aces, so is in Heat 8 anyway. Out of curiosity, if the rising star moves into the 1-5 does he have to ride at 2 becaue that's a protected heat?

I never saw Peter Craven ride, but pictures of him suggest a pretty modern style, he certainly looks differnet in pictures from most of his contemporaries. Soren Sjosten had a similar style. I see to recall him being referred to as a 'balance rider'. Maybe it was because they were both of small stature and bigger riders would find it hard to adopt such a style?

My recollection was that in the stadium you could only hear the commentary on the last lap, whereas on the You Tube videos you can hear him throughout the race. What he was able to do was use the commentary to gee up the crowd if the Dons had pulled off a good race win and he was one part of an excellent promotion team. Mike Bennet was excellent when he was at Wimbledon, too.

As in Tuesday, not Monday.

1960, Liverpool v Shefield Bruce, Dodd, Skyner, Robinson (ns) 95.8 Can't remember it at all, but it may well have been the slowest race I've ever seen.

My first meeting was Liverpool v Sheffield in 1960 as seen here; http://www.speedwayresearcher.org.uk/liverpool1960.pdf Maybe someone might know if any of the riders are still with us. As I was only 6 when I went to that meeting I can't remember anything about it. The first meeting I can remember anything about was this one at Belle Vue in 1967; http://www.speedwayresearcher.org.uk/bellevue1967.pdf Certainly Tommy Roper, Eric Broadbelt and Ove Fundin from the Aces side are still with us. Anyone know about any of the Wasps?

Nice tribute to the great man here and some good publicity for the memorial meeting next month. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/liverpools-world-champion-dad-remembered-23212909?fbclid=IwAR0fiZkbzPSQCdbA977bQFXojDptbKbIC2AQMSCfIpk6gQoa9Jgf6Xnhhy4

Dave Lanning used to do a commentary on the last lap at Wimbledon. I never minded it, but he was part of a very snappy presentation.

I think the trend for excitable commentary got a boost with the advent of subscription channels. I remember reading an interview with one of the pioneers on Sky who was presenting a pretty dire football match and at half-time apologised for the quality of the first half. he then got an angry producer in his ear reminding him the viewers were paying money to watch the match and wouldn't be pleased to be told they were watching rubbish. Even now Sky hype their football; it's not Sunday football, it's Super Sunday.

I only knew because I was looking at the Speedway Researcher's account of the 1965 season. I guess they had to keep more riders involved in the World Championship as there were probably no more than about 10 non-eligible riders in the BL ( people like Nygren, Harrfeldt etc) compared to previous years with a biggish Swedish contingent in the NL. They also needed to keep riders without team places interested as there were no guests and no R/R in 1965. I wonder whether there was a hope that tracks like Ipswich, Rayleigh and Kings Lynn might be a basis for a sort of revised SAL type operation?

They staged World Championship qualifying rounds? Weymouth also staged at least one open meeting in 1965.

Agree. His record in the first 4 seasons of the BL was top class and he reached the World Final in 1967. However he dropped about 2 points on his average in 1969 and was at about a similar standard when he went to Cradley in 1970. Sadly, Lokeren meant that we never found out if he could ride himself out of this dip in form.

Must be the case. I seem to recall reading in Backtrack that Betts said his own career improved after Colin Pratt was forced to retire and he then helped Betts to improve his engines and certainly the figures show that from about 1971 his average really took off.

According to the Speedway Researcher, the first season when Terry Betts rode regularly at number 1 for Kings Lynn was 1970, when his average was lower than 1969 when he started the season at 3 and ended it at 5. So much for number 1 being the easier position.

There was some talk of Brafield coming back a few years ago. Looking at it on the maps thread in Days Gone By it seems pretty remote. Odsal is another obvious one.

I always thought Todd Wiltshire looked very stylish on a bike. Wonder what he could have done if not for that bad injury that led to him taking a break in his career.

Glasgow Hampden Park https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=55.82824&lon=-4.24904&layers=10&b=1 Coatbridge https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=55.86140&lon=-4.01363&layers=10&b=1 Paisley? https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=55.85254&lon=-4.43212&layers=10&b=1

Brafield https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=52.19849&lon=-0.80204&layers=10&b=1