Split

Brian Crutcher was second in the 1954 World Final. That alone should see him in any list of the top 30 British riders. There were 5 English riders in the top ten that year - those were the days! A certain Peter Craven finished 15th that year with another newcomer, Ove Fundin 16th. Craven won the title the following year and Fundin in 1956. There is no doubt in my mind that Ron How also deserves to be there too. I saw a lot of him riding for Wimbledon back in the 60's and on his day he was a match for anyone. I see there was a typo in the first post misspelling his surname as Howe. There was actually an Eric Howe who was a contemporary of Ron’s and rode for Exeter.

I imagine that the fact that we English often simply ignore the umlaut must be a constant source of irritation to German speakers. Iris is correct that Müller can be written as Mueller for those who haven't discovered the alt129 entry. Bearing this in mind, the name of Bjorn Knutsson that we saw printed in so many speedway programmes back in the 60's actually contained two errors as Björn Knutson would have been correct. I have little knowledge of Scandinavian languages but I do know that they include letters such as Ø and å which I imagine should have appeared in the printed names of various riders from Scandinavia but I've never seen them used in an English programme. Norbold beat me to it with his New Cross team but how about this Wembley Lions line up: Ove Fundin, Tommy Price and Split Waterman heat leaders Lionel van Praag, Freddie Williams and Brian Crutcher second strings Dave Jessup and Bill Kitchen/Ginger Lees as reserves. Four world champions plus three runners-up in that team!

I think the picture above must be from the 1960 final: Trevor Redmond Bristol 15 Ken Middleditch Poole 13 Eric Hockaday Rayleigh 13 Tony Robinson Sheffield 11 Doug Templeton Edinburgh 10 Jack Kitchen Sheffield 9 Tony Lewis Poole 9 Wal Morton Liverpool 9 Ivor Brown Yarmouth 9 Tommy Roper Bradford 5 Johnnie Hole Bristol 5 Reg Reeves Rayleigh 4 Ray Day Bradford 3 Clive Featherby Cradley Heath 1 Cliff Cox Bristol 0 Norman Strachan Poole 0 Eric Eadon ® Cradley Heath 3 Ross Gilbertson ® Poole 3

As I think I've mentioned before, I also saw my first speedway meeting at New Cross in 1960 but only at the end of the season so Norbold beat me by a few months. I saw most of the meetings in '61 though when Gooch, McAuliffe and Luckhurst were the second strings. They all went on to become world finalists by which time I think the heat leaders (Waterman, Davies and Williams) had all retired.

Two ex-New Cross riders battling it out.

In the early 60's Craven and Fundin were two of the five riders who were in a league of their own. Björn Knutsson, Ronnie Moore and Barry Briggs were the others. They became known as the Big Five and incredibly in the 1962 world final, four of them were drawn together in the same race, in heat 6. Moore was the one who did not ride in that race which was won by Briggs with Craven (who won the title that year) second.

Useless piece of trivia. German TV produced a version of Till Death Us Do Part and called it Ein Herz und eine Seele (literally "One Heart and One Soul") and Alf Garnet's character had the name Alfred Tetzlaff.

Does Ove remember that famous evening back in (I think)1961 when he spent much of his time racing around the 'frying pan' staring at Split's back wheel. I certainly do!

Briggo's 'success' in 1966 was a result of a campaign run by the Speedway Star for all readers to vote for him to promote the sport in the media. I recall reading an article in the Sunday Mirror by a journalist named Sam Leitch condemning the result because Barry Bloggs (sic) was not a household name and that in his opinion Briggo’s second place was not a true reflection of his place in sporting history. It led to a flood of mail from irate speedway fans saying that Sam ‘Bleach’ (who also worked as a sports presenter on the BBC) had no idea just how popular the sport was.

Just seen this topic and so sad to read of Ronnie Moore's passing. I saw him ride many times and remember him as one of the most stylish riders I have ever seen. His team riding was legendary and of course he was a twice world champion. Sad news indeed!

We might have had this conversation before but I've missed out on seeing the same three. As I think we both supported New Cross at more or less the same time it might be more than coincidence.

Didn't Fundin win the World Championship riding the Norwich track spare?

If the list is not limited to riders, what about Johnny Hoskins?

You mentioned Morian Hansen in a previous post. Is this the Danish rider who rode in Britain as well as appearing in a couple of world finals back in the 30's?

And the chance to win a new BMW motor cycle just for buying a programme - WOW!

I think Ken Cameron, an Australian rider who appeared for Edinburgh in the early 60's, rode in white leathers.

Sverre Harrfeldt is undoubtedly the best Norwegian rider world speedway has seen. Barry Briggs fans would disagree but there were times in 1966 (when he finished up runner-up to Briggs at the World final) when he was just about unbeatable. I do realise that the period from 1970 to 1989 will be covered in the article in Backtrack but Leif "Basse" Hveem's achievements prior to this time surely deserve a mention. In his career he won the Nordic Championship 13 times (8 long track and and 5 speedway) plus 21 Norwegian Championships (11 long track and 10 speedway). As this site's self appointed South African correspondent,I should mention that he suffered an horrendous accident in Durban in 1955 that nearly ended his career but recovered to win both the Norwegian and Scandinavian Championships the following year. Basse died in 1964

I think Hans Van der Sluis had a brother who rode speedway. I also remember another Dutch rider of the same era named Gerrit Kopp (not sure of spelling) but can't find anything about him on Goggle.

The first year the Internationale was held (1961),qualifying rounds took place and some riders who were not riding for National League teams in Britain were invited over. I saw the round at New Cross and I remember that Timo Laine took part but only scored two points. I seem to recall that he was riding on borrowed equipment but I might be wrong.

So we are even Norbold. As I am Living in Johannesburg does it count if I happen to bump into Henry Long in the street?

New Cross Speedway was of course, next door to the old Millwall football ground. Too late now but would it have been feasible to put a speedway track around the pitch at the New Den for a New Rangers team? It worked at the old Wembley and continues to work at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

So was Björn the best of the ‘big five’? His record suggests otherwise although as Norbold points out, on his day he could beat anyone! I feel that in 1965 he was already losing his enthusiasm for the sport which ironically may have lead to him being able to overcome his nervousness and win the world title. He certainly retired too early which is such a shame as he would doubtless have given Mauger a run for his money in later years. And New Cross was not his favourite track. I recall seeing Colin Pratt beat Björn almost effortlessly when a Provincial League select raced against Southampton at New Cross back in the early 60’s.

Sadly, both the English riders on your list lost their lives while racing,

Split was riding in the first ever speedway meeting I attended back in 1960 and he was regarded as a veteran back then! Happy Birthday to my namesake!

A belated Happy Birthday from sunny Johannesburg!