Wessex Wanderer

Real sorry to hear about Brendan's latest setback. A great lad, he surely deserves a change of luck. Hoping you have a straightforward and relatively swift recovery Brendan.

Very sad. Great and spectacular rider who I enjoyed watching. Never a dull moment with him around as he could always be depended on to battle away all four laps. His determination was such that he almost set off a diplomatic incident in a clash with Ron How in one Wembley final. RIP Boris

This may have been a medal that was presented by veteran (since 1928) Speedway follower Bob Spence. Although living in Leeds, Bob had adopted Weymouth as "his" team in 1974 (a journey that travelled via Johnnie Hoskins, Canterbury, Bob Hughes and Weymouth lodging at Bobs house on northern tours) and used to make a presentation to everyone who had ridden for Weymouth each year. The presentation definitely included a medal/medallion of some sort every time. Sorry I can't be more specific about the design etc but hope this helps.

Great list Norbold. Wouldn't disagree with anything although it is all debatable (which is what is so fascinating about these lists).

Great to see Speedway back on the Island. Hoping to get over there 2-3 times to see the best Speedway League in the country. Also delighted to see Brendan is first signing. Good luck to all concerned.

Sorry to hear this. My best memory of Reg was a meeting at Peterborough when he was riding for Eastbourne. Then over 20 years into his career Reg put in a super show roaring around the fence like someone years younger. From memory he was top scorer for the Eagles that night. He was certainly the undisputed star of the meeting. R I P Reg and thanks for the memories

Just want to add something about Fundin and who was best of the big five. Many years ago I had the privilege of a chat with an old time Norwich fan who had seen them all from the very beginning. The conversation got around to the big five and the old timer was of the firm opinion that Ove was always dominant over Briggs, Moore and Knutsson. But he reckoned the only one who could consistently bother him was Craven. That's not to say that Craven was better, more that he beat 3 and drew with the other 1. Can't remember the name of the old boy. Sorry. These conversations are brilliant and make such a refreshing change from some of the "we are better than you" arguments or the interminable rows over 0.bloody 1 on somebody's race average that seem to dominate other parts of the forum.

Certainly was. At the footy grounds of St Mirren and Albion Rovers respectively. Paisley operated 1975 and 1976. Narrow track around the footy pitch. Pretty sure the site is now a supermarket. Coatbridge first operated when the Monarchs had to move out of Old Meadowbank (about 1968) until the licence was transferred to Wembley (1970?). The Tigers then moved there from Hampden but closed a few years later (mid to late 70s). The track was again around the footy pitch but somehow didn't seem to have the usual problem of sharp corners instead of bends. The most banked track I have ever seen. Totally OK if I am corrected by those with more local knowledge. Hope this helps.

Wilkinson, Knutsson, Collins

Plechanov for me. Best rider who never won the World Championship I have seen. Would surely have won it if the finals had been rotated to East Europe in those days. Before my time but just by reputation Jack Parker would replace at least half of those listed. Same for Vic Duggan. Although both won the Riders Championsip during the years when there was no World one. Of course they don't get so many mentions these days as there are not too many around who actually saw them ride. Even more so for the likes of Tom Farndon, Vic Huxley, Frank Arthur etc etc etc. I really miss the likes of Bob Spence who saw them all right from 1928 and was always a delight to talk to. Good subject. I always enjoy these sort of threads.

No. It finished R, W, Y, B Sorry I missed that.

Hi Dave Here are the Poole details you wanted: 2.7.85 I have no record of a Silver Helmet race in my programme. The Rider of the Night Final time was 65.4 29.7.86 The Bere Regis Knockout 15 Steve Schofield, Marcus Bisson, Geoff Powell, Colin Caffrey. R Y B W. 67.8 68.8 17 Martin Yeates, David Biles, Will James, Jackson Irving. B R Y W. 68.0 68.5 19 Kevin Smith, Dave Gibbs, Steve Lawson, Kym Mauger. R B W Y. 67.1 69.3 Winners and fastest 2nd to Final: 20 Schofield, Biles, Smith, Yeates. 67.3 Match races were held in the gaps above plus another immediately before the final: 14 Sam Ermolenko beat Yeates. 67.0 16 Ermolenko beat Smith. 66.2 18 Ermolenko beat Schofield. 66.4 Before final. Ermolenko beat Biles. 66.8 Bere Regis Junior Scurry First 2 to final, 3rd and 4th to heat 23 21 Wayne Barrett, Brian White, Peter Read, Martin Philips. R W Y B 70.6 22 Will James, Derek Cooper, Jonathan Blake, Gary Tutton. B R W Y 69.6 23 Philips, White, Blake, Tutton. R B 72.1. Blake and Tutton both excluded for tape breaking. 24 Barrett, Read, Cooper, James. R Y W B 68.9 Altogether 25 races on the night. Blimey you could get two and a half meetings into that these days sometimes! Sorry about bringing the rain to Glasgow so often. Would love to follow a Weymouth team to Glasgow nowadays though, whatever the weather. Always enjoyed going there.

Here are a few more Dave: 11.5.82 Junior Races: 1. Dave Brown, Rob Mather, Kevin Smart, Ian Humphries. R,W,B,Y. 71.8 2. David Smart, Geoff Wiltshire, Steve Urch, Rob Fortune. R,B,Y. 71.4. W fell while 4th 3. (R/R) Kevin Smart, Dave Brown, Ian Humphries (F - NS) replaced by David Smart, Rob Mather (F.EX). B,R,W. 71.5 4. Greg Williamson, Geoff Wiltshire (Ex-tapes), Steve Urch (F.EX), Rob Fortune. R,Y. Race awarded. 26.4.83 - sorry but for some reason I did not complete the second half details. Probably recovering in the bar after our 48-47 win! 19.7.83 - Heat 13 - Jackson Irving rode in white, Miles Evans in yellow. That was some night - double header with Stoke so 2 16heat matches plus a one off race for the Seyco Trophy. 33 races in all and I believe all completed in about 3 hours. 17.7.84 Wessex Junior League v Exeter 1. Marcus Bisson, Dave Robert, Billy Pinder, Mike Semmonds. Y,R,B,W. 70.0. 3-3. 3-3 2. Marcus Bisson, Terry Mussett, Steve Brennan, Mike Semmonds. R,Y,B,W. 69.1. 4-2. 7-5 3. Dave Roberts, Terry Mussett, Billy Pinder, Steve Brennan. W,R,Y. 71.1. 2-4. 9-9. R had bike trouble when 2nd, B never left the start. Victoria Inn Trophy (heat winners plus fastest second to final) 1. Alun Rossiter, Dave Gibbs, Steve Lawson, Colin Caffrey. R,W,Y,B. 68.2. 68.6 2. Martin Yeates, Kevin Price, Brian Collins, Tam Baggley. R,B,W,Y. 68.0. 68.8. Baggley replaced Jim Beaton. 3. David Biles, Mike Semmonds, Andy Reid, David Cassels. R,W,B,Y. 68.8. 69.0 Semmonds jreplaced Wayne Barrett, Cassels replaced Martn McKinna. Final. Rossiter, Yeates, Biles, Lawson. B,R,W. 67.9. Y had EF when 4th Junior Challenge v Glasgow 1. Rob Mather, Billy Pinder, David Cassels, Tam Baggley. R,B,Y,W. 68.9. 5-1. 5-1 2. Rob Mather, Marcus Bisson, Martin McKinna, Tam Baggley. B,W,R. 70.0. 4-2. 9-3. W & Y both fell with Y excluded. R had EF when 1st and pushed home. 3. Billy Pinder, Marcus Bisson, David Cassels, Martin McKinna. B,R,W. 70.2. 5-1. 14-4. Y was excluded but I have no note of why. Bisson filled a blank space in the programme. McKinna replaced K (Kenny I think) Brailsford 23 heats altogether. People certainly used to get there money's worth then! Will follow up with the Poole ones soon.

Dave Will deal with your requests in sections, starting with the one at Glasgow in 1983 (I still have my aways out following the MK query!). This was a "race card" plus notes issue and I have a note on it that it was" issued with rain off programme for NL match v Long Eaton 1.7.83". It is actually dated 8 June 1983 but that is an obvious error considering the LE meeting date and the advert for next meeting is 15 July v Boston. That had me completely confused for a while!!! The race card does include a second half but I did not complete any of it. There is no indication at all of an SJL match although Dick Barrie always tried to include one because us Weymouth fans used to enjoy them. In any case I don't think any second half races were run. I am 99% sure that this was run in horrendous conditions with rain coming down throughout the evening. It was probably the meeting when I saw Martin Yeates before the start and said I didn't think we would see any racing that night. "Oh yes you will" said Martin "I'm not coming all the way up here again". A nice 50-46 win for the Wildcats with Mighty Martin notching a 15 point max. Happy days indeed.

Sad news indeed and at such a young age too. Condolences to her family. I always loved reading her posts with her great knowledge of Speedway and, where necessary, her forthright views. RIP Shazzy, you will be hugely missed by the Speedway fraternity.

Hi Dave MK rode as programmed, their only changes during the match were Cliff Anderson replacing Harry McLean in heat 10 and Phil Bass in heat 12. On the Weymouth side Gary Ford moved up to number 1 in place of Malcolm Shakespeare with Kris Lane coming in at number 6. The number 8 was Geoff Cable, not a Weymouth regular so I assume he was a local recruited in the pits. It was R/R for Geoff Swindells at number 5 and he was replaced by Sean Willmott (3), Gary Ford (7), Danny Kennedy (10) and Malcolm Corradine (12). Nigel Davis had two extra rides: Heat 9 replacing Kris Lane and heat 10 replacing Malcolm Corradine who had a 2 minute exclusion. Time for heat 10 was 62.8. Those details are taken from my programme as completed at the meeting. Just looking at the programme now brings back a few memories and as we (Weymouth) only lost 37-41 I suppose if either or both of Malcolm or Geoff had been there it would probably have resulted in a nice win. Hope this helps. Ray By the way in looking this up I came across a note I made that you wanted some details of meetings at Glasgow on 17/7/84 and 8/7/83 both of which were when Weymouth were visiting. I don't know whether I nor anyone else replied and can't remember what details you wanted but if you still need help please remind me of what it is! I will try to help if possible.

Just finished it. Great read. I knew a few families who lived in prefabs here in Weymouth and without exception they all really liked them and were sorry when the time came for them to move to more permanent homes. Quality nostalgia Norman.

Always respect your views Rob but the number of rider absences this would cause amounts to no more than a spit in the ocean compared to the number of guests and rider replacements used overall. International and television exposure could more than balance out the negatives. The absence of riders is definitely a problem Speedway must address but boycotting international meetings ain't the way to do it. 30 years ago it might have affected the international scene and brought some concessions but nowadays we are no more than an insignificant add on that has very little real standing.

Thanks for the explanation mdmc82. That is bloody unbelievable and makes me madder than ever. At one time we used to lead this wonderful sport of ours both on and off the track. Now ?????? Grrrrrrr

Looks like a great line up but why no Brit? I don't care what the official standing of this series is, it is an international Speedway meeting and we should have someone in it. If the senior riders don't want it then what better way for the likes of Lambert or Cook etc to get some priceless experience? Mind you, the way British Speedway is now we would probably get someone like Fricke or Tungate etc to represent us now that Rory Schlein is unavailable.

I sometimes get really ticked off about Speedway but then along comes a meeting like that and it restores my faith in its future. Bloody brilliant, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Really enjoyed that meeting. Probably more than all GP, Pairs and EL shown so far this season combined. Hope any talk of EL is just commentator ramblings - a few teams have had their heads turned by "ambition" and lived to regret a move to a higher level. That's NL to PL as well as PL to EL. Please Sky can we have more PL and maybe take a dip into the NL every now and again too.

Agree totally with the criticisms of the new match points system. Earlier this year the F1 bosses had a meeting to look at ways to make F1 more interesting. So a sport with a huge following and massive commercial backing is conscious of the need to keep things interesting. At the same time the Speedway bosses get together and contrive to make their obscure, commercially ignored and poorly supported sport LESS interesting. The reasons given were the same as those for dropping the aggregate bonus point (if I remember correctly). So two rules which added a whole lot to meetings, especially the final heats, are changed because of a pretty juvenile attitude of "we should get all the match points even if we didn't deserve them". Like someone said, why not just give all teams 4 points each and not bother with the actual match score. Is it any wonder that our wonderful sport is sliding further and further into oblivion?

The best league ever. Wonderful memories just reading those already listed. Great characters, mainly stable line ups. Each of us going down memory lane the list would be endless. Must add Bluey Scott and Howdy Byford though. And everybody (meaning mainly the crowds) seemed to enjoy themselves too. A different world than today but one I am glad I experienced.

Such sad news. Lew always had time for everyone and was one of those who would treat the top people and the ordinary fan in exactly the same way. In Speedway his biggest contribution was the wonderful Weymouth Training School which he ran for so many years with his wife Betty. It had a world wide reputation and was often the first calling point for newly arrived Aussies and Americans. A grass track legend. He won an all star event in Germany so many times that they gave him the trophy to keep. It was huge, standing some 5-6 feet high. I asked him about it one night at Weymouth and the next week he took the trouble to bring it down to show me. Typical of his thoughtfulness and kindness. As someone said earlier: Race In Peace Lew.