Ian

A sorry sight indeed. Prediction: we'll have Nevs on this thread sometime between now and midnight crying his eyes out. And who could blame him?

I'm afraid I can be of no assistence to you in this matter Kev. Just one question, though. Why do you want to know?

It would be neglectful not to mention how accomplished a rider Bob Paulson was. I remember him appearing in the very strong Sheffield sides of the mid-sixties, along with other newcomers like Arnold Haley. Sheffield always seemed to be able to come up good quality riders who nobody had heard of before. Bob, in fact, became the Tigers skipper. I hadn't heard until this thread that he was dead. Tragically, speedway certainly seems to throw up more than its fair share of suicides.

Does some sort of code of secrecy apply to whoever it is you're all talking about, or are the rest of us allowed to know who it is?

Do we know how much he currently charges?

He used to fly up to Glasgow for his home matches. Unfortunately, the unreliability of air travel being what it is, he missed the meeting on more than one occasion.

I reckon you're right, Bobbath - it would have been Dudley McKean. Dud was the shortest rider in the league and, strangely, had the widest handlebars. He married an Edinburgh girl and went home in, I think, 1966. I thought that he was starting to come good at that time. Incidentally, it's unlikely Dud will be found in NZ - he was from Melbourne. A neighbour of mine was a mate of his and the two of them would spend endless hours working on my neighbour's old car. Dud had a sticker on his van - "Tracey's Speedway, Melbourne". But here comes the untimate piece on anorakery (if that's a word). Dudley's van was a grey Morris Minor 1000 model, registration number ESY 413. Not bad for forty-odd years ago, eh? Just don't ask me about anything that happened in the last few years!

I suppose it could be called a retrograde step.

It's hard to believe that the days of the early Russian visitors are so now so far gone. The Russian team had two outstanding riders - Igor Plechanov, and just behind him Boris Samorodov. It was a privilege to see them, particularly at a time when nobody had ever seen a Russian. They looked different, they rode differently, they were enormously exciting to watch. Igor was the star. And he was always smiling. Looking at Igori's site (first post above) it seems that Igor ended his days in some form of poverty and in very poor health. For example, he wore very think glasses following damage to his eyes from being splashed with methanol. What a tragic way for such a wonderful sportsman to finish up. I, for one, will never forget this wonderful character. I have seen nobody like him since.

I seem to remember Jimmy Squibb winning this once.

That all sounds fairly right to me, except that I remember Jimmy riding for Plymouth rather than Exeter. Oh yes - the famous "sit-down strike"! This was over a new heat formula which had been devised by none other than Speedway Star's Eric Linden. I think that Mauger won the run-off after George Hunter's bike packed up while leading.

Kev, I've noticed that you seem to keep statistics on track records. I've always assumed race times to be wildly inaccurate. What do you reckon?

Sorry about that. I now realise there should be an apostrophe before the "s".

Thanks for that Norman. A good interview. I particularly liked the way you emphasised that speedway history is not just sporting history but social history too. Also interewsting to hear you duck the question on whether your main interest is Clacton history or speedway history! I think we all know which one it is, though. Keep up the good work!

Well, I missed Norbold broadcasting to the nation. I hadn't counted on it taking ten minutes to download something called Real Player to my PC. I trust it went well, Norman!

But Speedyguy, they say you are judged by the company you keep. Why shouldn't you be judged by the politicians you support? Fay Taylour's audience as a rider must have been composed of people whose houses had been bombed; people who had lost loved ones to the infernal regime that she supported. Had I been around at the time, and known what she had stood for, I certainly would not have gone near any track that she appeared at.

Spot on, Parsloes.

That would be Dorothy Charles-Batson, who used to have letters published in Speedway Star. I think she died in Merton in 1987.

That's a good description, DK. I remember walking up Bishopsgate on my way to do an evening shift. There was an Evening Standard billboard which read "London Speedway Stars Killed". It was a couple of minutes before I was able to bring myself to buy a copy to find out who it was. What I can't remember is what day of the week it was. However, I was at Hackney on the Friday night and everyone seemed subdued; a group of supporters were talking about someone having been decapitated. Somehow that made it even worse.

Even better, how about Ove Fundin's handprint? If ever there was a Master of Wembley it must have been Ove.

You and I both, Norbold. A wonderful meeting, fabulous atmosphere. And, if I'm not mistaken, the drama of a run-off between Ove and Bengt Jansson to decide the title. The other terrific thing about these Wembley finals was that there always seemed to be a handful of riders whom you never saw on any other occasion during the season. The Russians and Poles were by far the most exotic. The League of Nations which the Elite League has become has robbed us of that pleasure. Was this not also the final where Barry Briggs suffered a hand injury?

I'm sure that's right, but judging by the views of some posters I'm not sure they would be willing to wait a few years.

I've always made that assumption too, but I've been wondering about it recently. At least one promoter is saying that there simply aren't enough riders to go round all the PL clubs because of the number of riders moving to EL. Fair enough you'd think, bring in more CL riders to the PL. But then you gets lots of posters on this forum telling us how the PL is being "weakened" or "ruined" and that "standards are falling". How can we have more tracks and square that circle?

Sweden is precisely what I was thinking of when I posted that. I was once told that many of the tracks there are surrounded by trees. That sounds good to me, but I'm still pleased that a city like Birmingham can support at least one track.

Yes, but surely the 30-mile rule only applies if the existing promoter wants it to apply? Armadale and Ashfield certainly aren't 30 miles apart (it may even be less than 20) but both sets of promoters know what's good for crowd levels.