E I Addio

This discussion and some old programmes reminded be of a race that just about sums Briggo up. It was at West Ham and Briggo was against Anders Michanek. Now, Michanek was one of speedways real hardmen, even the ruthless Olle Nygren described him as a "hard bastard" so he was definitely no pushover to say the least. Michanek made the gate and Briggo tried to get through on the inside, but Mich clamped him against the white line, so Briggo tried the outside, leaning on Michanek but Michanek elbowed him out, then Briggo, who had had enough of it by now switched back to the inside and bulldozed Michanek out of the way as if he was a rag doll. The amazing thing about all this was that it all happened on the first two bends rather than two or three laps and Briggo went into the back straight in front. I can't ever remember seeing anything like it. That was the amazing thing about Briggo. he has so much upper body strength he could just flick the bike around and get it to go wherever he pointed it. I would have loved to have seen some of the clashes between Briggs and Fundin when they were both at their peak, but sadly it was before my time. Fundin was well on the way down by the time I got to see him and even Briggo was past his best but still pretty amazing. Anybody remember them at their absolute peak ?

Perhaps its now just a matter of time before any rider more than 6 points behind the leading scorer after 3 heats gets the chance to play the joker and go out for double points in his next ride. Don't rule it out while Olsen is in charge.

Of course.

What do you mean ? Of course speedway has moved on. We now have the tactical ride. If that isn't progress I don't know what is. I don't think you have watched the Youtube clip. He did not out-think Mauger. he just rolled forward from 6 feet away and the referee let the tapes go. That doesn't involve thought. it just involves a referee who had already handled the meeting appallingly, letting the tapes go when his fellow countryman approached them. If you go back to all the World Champions from Tommy Price in 1949 to Mauger in 1972 some of them had some luck on World Final Night but it is undeniable that without exception they were consistently among the worlds best. Two weeks after Szczakiel won the World title he rode in the World Cup and was the only rider that failed to score. A year later he again rode in the World Cup and failed to score. He never qualified for another World Final. That does not suggest he was a genuine world class rider, as opposed to someone that got lucky on the night. Egon Mullers win in 1983 was also shrouded in some suspicion. If you are looking to find the rider who is genuinely the best in the world the Grand Prix system is the only way. As Philip Rising says, the WEorld Champion should be the best rider of the year, not the best rider of the night.

Justin Sedgmen doesn't have a place and has tweeted that it looks like he won't be back in the UK in 2013 even though he wants to.

Oh I agree TWK, Briggo has been there done it and got the t-shirt while Darcy has still got it all to do. What I meant was that Darcy excites me in the way that Briggo used to. He doesn't bother with all the technicalities, he just goes out and wins in the old-fashioned way by keeping the throttle open longer than anyone else. That's why Briggo is regarded by so many including me as the greatest.

I saw the last of his British Championship wins at West Ham (I think it was the last). Still have the programme. Absolutely stunning performance. The No 2 gate wasn't working. Ivan Mauger struggled to a second place off of it and everyone else was either third or last off No2 gate when their turn came. Then towards the end of the meeting out comes Briggo off gate 2 and shatters the opposition on his way to his fourth win of the night.. Then he went on to a 15 point maximum literally a class above the rest of the field. Probably the most memorable performance I have seen. People rave over Mauger and Rickardson etc, who were admittedly consistent but to me, when Briggo hit his best form there was never another rider in speedway like it , at least not until Darcy Ward came along.

That's not quite the point of the discussion. The rules require that the starting marshall and the referee ensure that there is a fair and equal start. You may take the view if you wish, that its OK to play the odds on getting a roller but frankly when we are talking about a run -off to decide the highest honour in speedway I think most fans would want to see the best rider win, not the one who takes advantage of a dodgy starting procedure that did not comply with the requirement for a fair and equal start. We all know about Polish referee's even in modern times.. The real point of the debate is not Mauger -v-Szczakiel but the One-off World Final -v- the GP system. My point is that there will always be questionable refereeing decisions but a GP series evens out the luck element. If you take a couple of modern examples riders like Antonio Lindback and Freddie Lindgren are capable of winning a GP but few , if any fans would argue they could genuinely be regarded as World Champions, at least not yet anyway. For me the Szczakiel win was the start of a slide that was compounded by Egon Muller's 1983 win and made the case for a GP system with rounds in each country.

No, Ian the 1973 World Final run-off was the biggest stitch up in the history of speedway. In front of 140,000 Poles there was no way a Pole would be prevented from winning. That was the meeting when Dave Lanning made his famous comment that the Poles were making up the rules as they went along. He was not reprimanded for that so one must accept the validity of it. Look at the youtube clip. The riders approach the tapes, the start marshal doesn't even put the riders under starter orders when the Pole rolls forward and the referee lets the tapes go giving the Pole a flyer and catching the usually sharp gating Mauger by surprise. The Polish attitude is shown after the crash: Mauger is lying unconscious on the track and for all anybody knew at that stage his life could have been hanging in the balance but the race was not stopped but instead the Pole, in a disgraceful display of triumphalism allows his bike to drift wide on the next lap, missing the medics bu inches and showering the unconscious Mauger and the medics with shale. That meeting was the beginning of the end for the old one-off World Final.www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQplGWLW7Zw (EDIT if it won't come up just type 1973 World Final run-off -Youtube in your search engine and you should get it.)