jackofdiamonds

Still dry in the west of the city.

I have just seen a Sunderland programme from 1964, and riding in the junior's race is one Paul McCartney. Could the Beatle have had a try on the East Boldon track? I assume this was an alias for Paul Sharples, who was riding the next week. Could he have been under age the week before? Can anyone confirm?

Common sense out of the window as usual with H+S then.

Dave made the point that it's a great stadium. It is, but anything but great at the moment especially in the cold weather. We have the crazy situation where none of the terracing can be used, but even a quick look shows at least 90% of it could be used. Corden off the worst bits and allow some shelter. I know it's not the promotion's fault, but I feel we could be in serious trouble if as its suggested, William Hill aren't planning on doing any repairs this speedway season. I don't suspect it affects the dogs as it does the speedway. Crazy situation last night when the meeting was held up by the sun (again), and started again without any apparent change in conditions. Most likely the last three heats could have been ridden before the shower. Of course as soon as it was called off the rain stopped and the sun was out again. Was impressed with Plymouth's attitude, they really gave it a go. Nice to see Lemo getting among the points, and for my money he was inched out in the "dead heat".

Richie Worrall returned to racing last night guesting for Poole at Eastbourne. Managed 4 from the no. 5 spot

Picked some decent opposition as well!

Excellent meeting despite the scoreline. 14 lasts for Scunthorpe was the clincher. I thought Jorgensen was the best visitor, despite having a brown pants moment in heat 15 (broken chain?. Lewis Kerr was sensational. Gating well and riding a fast first bend, once ahead looked calm and safe. Leicester must be feeling they missed a trick letting him go.

Phew!! I'll keep it short. Third piece of silverware for Newcastle I reckon.

That was comprehensive to say the least. Redcar totally outclassed 38-57. Even with 2 tactical rides were never in the hunt. 11 heat winners for Newcastle plus Robbo with 3 paid wins. Superb from the Diamonds

Aussie Joey Ringwood signs for Glasgow according to the BSPA website.

Not surprised. This was never going to be on. Ironically, the weather stayed dry last night, and would have gone ahead.

Hope he is, have been looking forward to seeing him ride. Plymouth will be looking to forget last night, but I can only see another big home win.

No need for that Dekker, things are not looking promising at the moment.

Just a mention for a couple of Newcastle riders. Back riding after 20 years or so, and with no proper home track, there were excellent performances from Gavin Parr and Terry Kirkup. In the recent veterans meeting at Wolverhampton, Terry came 4th in the over 60s British Individual. Better still in the over 40s, Gavin rode magnificently to score 19 points and get second place, losing only to maximum man Chris Turner of Sheffield. Who knows how far Gavin could of gone instead of retiring at 25?

All of us at Newcastle wish to thank everyone at Astley for giving us the chance to ride your fine track. Unfortunately I had to miss it, due to being in Prague. Our veterans march on, second match, second win, with Gavin Parr unbeaten in both. 26 heat winners out of 30 so far. Astley 63 Newcastle 87. Some photos on our Facebook page..... Newcastle Cylce Speedway Club.

Chic is a wonder, well over 70 and still going strong. On the day before this meeting he'd been riding in a vets meeting at Coventry. Johnny won't see 69 again. We couldn't match that, but it was our first competitive meeting for over 20 years. Some of us hadn't raced since about 1970. Still the "young vets" did us proud, especially John Wilson at 53, Terry Kirkup 61 and Ashie Patterson 59. The B team, average age 56 slumped to a heavy defeat against a very young combination team. My contribution? as normal, 3 lasts!! To see a report of the meeting and photos, go to www.edinburghfalcons.co.uk Also of interest if you want to see the highest standard of league racing, you can see full meetings from Horspath at ....... cycle speedway.tv

The above gives the final league table correctly, however New Cross started the season, but withdrew. Their record was expunged. 17 matches were ridden Home P8 W4 D0 L4 315 305 Away P9 W0 D0 L9 265 433 Total Points 8

According to the British Book of Speedway Champions, league winners were Leeds Lions, only other nickname for 1929 is Leicester Stadium Tigers. By 1930 Sheffield had become Tigers and Belle Vue Aces.

This was Tim Swales, it was his only meeting for Leicester in 1971, 2 rides produced no points.

Sorry about this Lionheart, but it was 1979 when Midenhall pipped Rye House to the National League title by one point. As a footnote, there were a total of 37 teams in the British and National Leagues. Happy days.

In Alan Robertson's 1959 yearbook, Southern Rovers do not appear to have ridden any meetings under this name. Aldershot rode a full league programme of 8 meetings. 3 meetings were raced at Eastbourne, all apparently as Aldershot. Rye House don't seem to have had a nickname 1956-1959 if the Homes of British Speedway is correct.

Curiouser. Thanks Brough, at least it wasn't me. Maybe it was Dave Whittaker, and his name was given incorrectly. If we had got to heat 4, all may have been cleared up

Alan was part of one the most controversial and exciting heats of 1968. Newcastle were at Cradley Heath and for once were in with a chance of an away result. A 5-1 in heat 12 by Mauger and Gifford gave The Diamonds a 37-35 lead. In heat 13 an unbeaten Ole Olsen broke the tapes and was replaced by Alan. Also in the heat was Allan Butterfield,scoreless upto that heat, Alan Paynter was also without a point. Heathens had Tommy Berqvist and Bob Andrews, what could go wrong? From the gate Berqvist was away, but behind him Paynter and Butterfield shut out Andrews and Diamonds were victors 40-38, cue jubilation from the travelling support ( I was there ). Heathens supporters were justifyingly amazed and claimed it was Ole Olsen who came out on Paynter's bike. An interesting point to ponder.

Dave Whittaker crossed my mind, but he was a Plymouth rider, and never rode at Brough to my knowledge. It was very wet that night, as can be seen by the times, maybe the rain got into the PA and I misheard. I'll have to have a word with Mr Wallace as The Abott suggests.

Teams :- Newcastle 1. Ivan Mauger © 2. Mike Watkin 3. Ole Olsen 4. Alf Wells 5. Alan Jay 6. Dave Gifford 7. Dave Walker* Newport 1. Jimmy Gooch 2. Bob Hughes 3. Cyril Francis (R/R) 4. Alby Golden © 5. Jon Erskine 6. Torbjorn Harrysson 7. Terry Shearer Heat 1 MAUGER GOOCH WATKIN HUGHES 76.6 4-2 Heat 2 OLSEN WELLS HARRYSSON F/X GOLDEN NS (RERUN) 85.6 5-0 Heat 3 ( RERUN ALL 4 ) ABD, Waterlogged track. *Writing this I see Dave Walker was due to replace Alan Paynter at No. 7 for Newcastle. Paynter and Murray Burt broke down en route. Does anyone recall Dave Walker? I have no record of him riding anywhere, and he does not appear in any Newcastle 1968 second halves.