Tigerblade

Have you missed a joking smiley off this sentence? I wasn't there but I know from reading the Star etc. and books that he argued for ages and eventually had to be led back to the pits. Do you remember his brief couple of months at Sheffield in late 1983? I think his image did precede him a bit, but he was a good professional rider for a long time, look forward to reading about him, and also Larry Ross.

Must be over twenty years ago now, but I used to be penpals with her - never met her though. Sadly I never made it to Waterden Road so I'll leave this thread to you lot

Maybe circumstances were part of the depression - bear in mind it would still have been a huge stigma back then to a lot of people of Bob's (and his parents') generation. I don't really want to prolong the debate any further so I'll keep it to that!

It was also on display at Reg Wilson's Testimonial in September 1981 - I had my photo taken with it.

I think it was the mid 90's, I remember we had a minutes' silence for him.

Well before my time, but my mum knew Len's daughter (Jayne, as mentioned) as they both worked in the libraries for years, they probably first met in the late 70s and the family were in Sheffield then. Unfortunately I've no idea if Stan is still with us. They never went to Owlerton regularly though after Len retired, from what I can remember he didn't keep in touch with many folk, but Fred Rogers (also now gone, I believe) managed to get him to a veterans' do some years ago, and he really enjoyed it, and folk were just as thrilled to see him.

Yes, I know it does, but I can't speak with authority on pre-1977 happenings as I didn't start going until then Not that that stops some folk on this forum LOL

He certainly was in Sheffield for quite a long time, as his ex wife and daughter lived in the city for years, they may still do.

I must confess to being a bit of a 13 heat traditionalist as that's what I was "brought up" on - I do see why you would put your best rider at number 3. For instance, Belle Vue usually had their 3rd heat leader at no.1 (eg. Alan Wilkinson/Larry Ross) and PC at no.3, presumably as he would more than match most other team's number one, so it made sense to put him twice against whoever it was I can't speak for earlier than 1977 but I am still certain that the Flyer rode at number one for at least the 3 seasons of 1977 to 1979. The picture in Backtrack is from 1978 as it features Rauli Makinen.

Perhaps it wasn't about when he did it Because he was so unspectacular I didn't really appreciate at the time how good DJ was - how GB could do with a rider like him now. Also from my point of view enjoyed the Doug Wyer article, although I don't know what he is talking about as regards riding at no.3 therefore facing the opposition no. 1 twice - apart from 1980 when he had finished second in the averages in 1979 anyway, he always rode at no.1 as far as I can recall - in fact if you look at the picture with him, Reg and Rauli Makinen, there he is with the no.1 on!!

Mark Fiora was featured a few magazines ago. Is Craig Pendlebury still in New Zealand? Not that that is a barrier to being interviewed, I'm just curious!!

Yes, but how much would a current band cost??

And of course in 1978 Spin, our forward thinking and excellent promotion decided he wasn't worth the gamble , and then he went to Cradley.....

I got mine all right and I've never been to Hackney Speedway at all - although I did go to the Hackney Empire in the summer In all seriousness, it did bring a bit of a lump to my throat as Billy Sanders was one of my favourite riders, will always remember coming home from holiday and finding out what had happened to him It was nice to see a mention for Ray Glover as well, like Sandman says, a bit of a sad issue really all told. Although on a more positive note, nice to see an article on Ian "Super Mouse" Cartwright, he was another old favourite of mine. For those who never saw him ride, as regards style, Simon was his double!!

Can understand why you feel like that, but then again if we exclude him for off the track reasons, then we shouldn't have had features on Michael Lee, Malcolm Simmons etc. either. Where do you draw the line?

They're building it now, it's supposed to be due for completion in 2008, but bearing in mind Multiplex are doing it (the ones who have been doing Wembley), they might just get it done before the 2012 Olympics eh?

Mine came yesterday, good decision that I put it in my bag for the speedway, with our meeting being delayed It was good that the pictures of the Shay were in colour, whenever we went we used to stand on the fourth bend banking, so it was great to see one of the pictures taken from that viewing point.

Looking forward to that - I actually went to see the Blades reserves play there in the mid 90's, purely because it was at the Shay (Leeds were playing reserve games there at the time). It hadn't been made into a "proper" four-sided football ground then, and I had to walk across to the other side, around the pitch, to the coffee bar, and the 3rd/4th bend was still there. I was full of it afterwards, telling people that I had actually walked on the track!! Will be interested to read the Gordon Kennett interview, used to like him. I was only in London near White City a couple of weeks ago, you know how certain places put you in mind of certain people - well, whenever I think White City, that means Gordon Kennett!!

Somehow I knew someone else from the forum would have been on that coach I couldn't remember the exact malfunction, but that explains why it ended up limping up Prince of Wales Road.. No Frigbo, I don't think it was that special either - it was only the atmosphere and the fact it was completely different to anything I'd ever seen at speedway before then, that made it stand out. Ha, 1988 Vojens - that decision was made even worse by the fact that Jan O. Pedersen had put someone into the fence on the first bend a couple of heats earlier and that one was deemed unsatisfactory start with all four back!! Although like my mum said "come off it, was he ever going to exclude a Dane at Vojens". I only ever saw the 1989 Final on video, the only thing that stood out was Roman doing that!

I thought it was the late 90's, double-checking on the site it was 1998. I think he committed suicide. Didn't Stuart Shirley come from Sheffield? I know he did second halves there.

Was that not the year that Rider Replacement came into force? I know that was the year when Henny Kroeze got the first ever 21 point maximum.

My god - 25 years ago??? Stuff like that makes me feel old..... We had a chaotic build up to it - we had booked on one of the Sheffield coaches, and it broke down at Manor Top (presumably must have been going to junction 30 for it to have been there!). They couldn't guarantee when/if a replacement would come out, in the end someone knew someone who drove a few people, including my dad, back to the stadium for their cars, so us 3 ended up going by car. Only trouble was my dad had taken travel sickness tablets which made him drowsy, and we had to pull in at just about every services on the way down for him to have 10 minutes' or so break, as he was the only one who could drive then!! We still made it in bags of time though. I think I was a bit overwhelmed with it all, as I don't remember a massive lot about the racing, except for thinking Tommy Knudsen did actually beat Bruce Penhall in that race. Not to mention Dave Jessup and his jubilee clip, and Kenny Carter having EF which ruined his chances, although it does make you speculate what might have happened had Bruce had to beat him in that Heat 20. Although being a Sheffield supporter, I'd be lying if I said I was sympathetic to KC's engine trouble!!! That was my first World Final - I also went to USA in 1982, Norden in 1983, Bradford in 1985 and 1990, Katowice in 1986, Amsterdam in 1987 and Vojens in 1988. I too miss the "one offs", to me the GP's give you too many chances to redeem yourself if you have EF etc.

I remember that advert, wasn't that long after I had become interested in speedway Has anyone mentioned Billy Sanders as a feature yet? I have often wondered if it was due to the circumstances of his death etc. that he hasn't been featured, but then again, Kenny Carter and Edward Jancarz have been featured. Evitts had been making rumblings from the start of 1992 threatening he wouldn't ride unless things was sorted out. Cliff Carr admitted he was struggling at a public meeting in the Panorama Room a couple of months before his licence was revoked by the BSPA in July of that season. As it was a "new broom" so to speak I don't think that Neil Machin and Tim Lucking had any obligation to stick to whatever deals that Cliff Carr had agreed. That's how I remember it anyway, obviously I stand to be corrected!

I had no idea about this until I read the Speedway Star today. RIP Toni.

I can only echo Honey's smilie here The man himself replied to various points raised on another thread (in the Backtrack section I think), including one of mine that he never seemed to turn up when he was booked in for Testimonials. He said otherwise, but there was definitely a couple at Belle Vue and Halifax that I went to, although I'm not so desperate to prove myself right that I am going to turn the house upside down to find the programmes!! But like I said on the other thread, if the sport had been totally squeaky clean, he wouldn't have had anything much to write about!