Peter

Is there a website where you can see the viewing figures?

Yes, it's the same one. He's 47 now!

Stiffy Aston Buster Breaks Olympia Burrows Plug Cooper Dilly Gittins Onanoff Johnson Happy Kirk Muddy Marsh Blinky Miles Riskit Riley Sawdust Sawds Tiny Timms Calmer Waters Sailor White

No probs. I've edited my previous post and put the club next to the name. In 1991, Coventry asset Chris Clarence rode as a reserve, but obviously, he wouldn't have represented them, because they weren't in the 2nd division.

Just to add to my first post.... Alec Gilroy was 60 years 228 days old when he rode for Ashfield against Peterborough in the Conference League on August 21st 2000. Any advance on that, from the three British leagues?

1991 Jan Staechmann (Long Eaton) 14pts David Bargh (Newcastle) 14 Troy Butler (Milton Keynes) 12 Neil Evitts (Sheffield) 11 Les Collins (Edinburgh) 11 Mark Thorpe (Newcastle) 9 Steve Regeling (Exeter) 8 Stephen Davies (Peterborough) 7 Kenny McKinna (Middlesbrough) 6 Bo Petersen (Arena Essex) 5 Peter Carr (Sheffield) 5 Melvyn Taylor (Rye House) 4 Eric Monaghan (Stoke) 4 Carl Blackbird (Long Eaton) 4 Shane Bowes (Glasgow) 3 Steve Lawson (Glasgow) 3 Chris Clarence (res) 0 Run-off for 1st: Staechmann, Bargh 1993 Gary Allan (Swindon) 13pts Mick Poole (Peterborough) 13 Tony Langdon (Oxford) 12 Paul Thorp (Newcastle) 12 Jan Staechmann (Long Eaton) 12 Jason Crump (Swindon) 9 Robert Nagy (Glasgow) 8 Jens Rasmussen (Rye House) 8 Martin Goodwin (Rye House) 7 Peter Carr (Sheffield) 7 Neil Collins (Long Eaton) 6 Daz Sumner (Middlesbrough) 6 Nigel Crabtree (Glasgow) 3 Les Collins (Edinburgh) 3 Kenny McKinna (Edinburgh) 2 Mark Simmonds (Exeter) 1 Run-off for 3rd: Langdon, Thorp, Staechmann (ef) Run-off for 1st: Allan, Poole 1994 Paul Bentley (Middlesbrough) 13pts Tony Olsson (Swindon) 12 Tony Langdon (Swindon) 11 Alan Grahame (Oxford) 10 Roman Matousek (Sheffield) 10 Mick Poole (Oxford) 9 Kenny McKinna (Edinburgh) 8 Martin Dixon (Long Eaton) 8 Robert Nagy (Glasgow) 7 Ronni Pedersen (Peterborough) 7 Sam Tesar (Peterborough) 6 Mark Thorpe (Newcastle) 5 Les Collins (Edinburgh) 5 Paul Fry (Exeter) 5 Nigel Crabtree (Glasgow) 2 Richard Hellsen (Long Eaton) 2

Alec Gilroy rode in some Youth Development(!) and individual meetings at Linlithgow, Glasgow and Edinburgh a few years ago and still does the occasional 2nd half I believe. He's in his early 60's!

I don't I'm afraid. If you have a Swindon programme from the 1977 season, the date of the Ipswich meeting should be in the fixture list. It did appear after your first post, but I clicked on 'delete' (I copy and pasted the whole message before hand), instead of 'edit' [i don't like it when it says the message has been edited] - (stupid I know!).

The Swindon averages for the 1977 season were: Martin Ashby - 9.72 Bob Kilby - 8.74 Jan Andersson - 7.61 Bobby McNeil 6.67 Geoff Bouchard - 5.49 Soren Karlsson - 5.48 David Ashby - 4.77 Kevin Young - 3.04 Richard Evans - 3.00 Kevin Pope - 3.00 Malcolm Holloway - 1.11 The averages include upto 36 league and 2 cup meetings, so you'll need to add your KOC scores and rides to the league (if you've got them) and work them out that way. Yes. Ipswich won 47-31.

The best last-heat decider for me was in 1993 - Wolverhampton v Belle Vue. We needed a 3-3 at least, in the last race of the season, to win the Division One championship and Bobby Ott won the race.

Pure Hoskins? He didn't quote that. The book states: "Hunter was in front coming out of the first bend, while Peter began negotiating his way through the pack - effortlessly passing his partner Powell and the other Monarchs rider Dudley McKean - replacing Willie Templeton." (The quote is not someone's opinion, as it's not in italics in the book). Are you seriously suggesting Craven was outgated by McKean and Powell, as well as Hunter? I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. I wasn't there, so it would be foolish of me to say who is right and who is wrong. I'm just taking bits from the book that differ from what you say. Like you say, this could go on forever, but I think I've said enough. One thing that everyone seems agree on is that it was an accident.

First of all, I don't wish to get involed in any kind of arguement here. I wasn't born until 1976, but I have Peter Craven's book and it differs to what is being said in this thread. As a result, I am confused. A piece in the book says "I then made a tragic mistake, reflected Hoskins. I asked Peter in the pits, if he would care to start 20 yards behind the others in his final heat of the match. As there was nothing at stake, he sportingly agreed." According to the book, it happened on the final lap. Here is a piece from it - "....he soon began to close in on Hunter, and the crowd roared their encouragement to their Scottish star as the spectacular Belle Vue superstar got closer and closer with each turn. Then as the pair entered the final lap, Craven was very close behind....". It goes on "....But he over-slid on the banked track and fell. Craven immediately took avoidance action and swerved to avoid him, but he was too close and his front wheel struck the back wheel of his fallen competitor...."

They had one copy in Waterstone's, so we managed to buy it.

Does anyone know where you can buy the Peter Craven book, apart from online at Amazon?

It would help reduce the number of crashes if the stock cars stayed away from Kirky Lane. Belle Vue seem to suffer more than most from a stock car meeting. If Belle Vue had an air fence all the way round the track, you would only be able to see from behind the glass and possibly the 2nd bend grass banking, so it would have to be on the bends only.

Yeah, that was the one. Paul Hurry went through the fence. Most of the meetings at Belle Vue I went to last season took around 1 hour 45 minutes to complete, which didn't leave much time for the juniors.

Speedway isn't good value for money these days, therefore I would like to see either the 18-heat format and 5 additional races or the current 15-heat formula and 8 2nd half races. A lot of people would see it as backward step if we went back to 18 heats, but I would be happy if the extra 3 heats were added to the 2nd half. The question is, would clubs be able to fit 23 races in under 2 hours? I went to a meeting last season at Belle Vue and it took 2 hours 45 minutes to complete 15 heats. This is totally unacceptable.

Mark Lyndon.

Are they going to continue with the play-offs in 2004 and if so, will they be using the same rules that were applied in 2003? Does a riders grading stay the same throughout the season, or does it change depending on their average? Will they still be using the Green helmet colour?

Whether it's 19 or not, you know exactly what I'm trying to say, Speedy-Star, ... there can be a big difference in the total averages.

Ah right. I must be getting mixed up with the GDTS. I've lost all track of the (stupid) rules that have been brought in and I try not to get too involved with the rules and regs as it's too complicated these days!

For arguement's sake, say the grading system is: 9.67 - 11.00 GRADE 1 8.33 - 9.66 GRADE 2 7.00 -8.32 GRADE 3 5.67 - 6.99 GRADE 4 4.33 - 5.66 GRADE 5 3.00 -4.32 GRADE 6 and each club chose one from grades 1-5 and two from grade 6. You could have one team with a total average of around 50 and another, 41. Unfortunately, this will lead to more one-sided scorelines than if both teams totalled 45. Another thing you might find is that riders with an average of just above 4.33, 5.67 and 7.00 could be frozen out, as they are the lower-averaged riders in that grade.

Bringing the Golden Joker into league racing will probably mean most clubs will produce a slick track, which often leads to boring racing. It can be difficult enough at Poole to come from the behind when you start from the tapes, let alone 15 metres back. Too often, team managers will think 'it's too slick to do a Golden Joker', and as a result, the team losing won't claw back the defecit.

More nicknames from yesteryear.... Tip Mills Nobby Key Whirlwind Baker Hurricane Hampson Lightning Luke Champ Upham Sunshine Cannell Dank Ewing Chippy Lomas Olympia Burrows Calmer Waters Blinky Miles Dilly Gittens Happy Kirk Muddy Marsh Plug Cooper Sailor White Sawdust Sawds Tiny Timms Stiffy Aston Buggie Fleeman Onanoff Johnson

The wildcards are Lars Gunnestad and Joonas Kylmakorpi.