Parsloes 1928 nearly

Unlike a large number of people on this Forum I always accept when I'm wrong (which is often enuff!! ). I didn't know about the direct seeding of the likes of Craven and Mirac in the '60s for example - before my time!!! I was thinking of what were to me the glory days of the WF from say, '72 through to the early '80s and there was no 'seeding' or fast-tracking then. To cite the Polish situation is a bit of a red herring. When England was hosting the WF we had five (or was it four..) places and these were decided at the British Final.. The Poles on occasion (and one was '73) choose to select their finalists...: you can call this 'seeding' if you won't but I wouldn't personally... Just a different method of 'selecting' the host county's allocation of riders.. The fact is that if you were World Champ or in the top three or four in the world you still had to qualify in the year concerned to get back to defend your title.. This made for fantastically exciting meetings across the board and was a real proof of a rider's mettle where it REALLY counts, in the white hot atmosphere of individual meetings. Look at that clip of Olsen racing like a man possessed in his first ride in the '72 Final...: tell me you'd ever see an equivalent effort (albeit ending in failure...) in a current GP.... This is also an enormous red herring... What you're saying is that Greg Hancock qualified through a qualifying process in 1994/'95 and because he's stayed in the top eight since he is there as a qualifier... But each year to finish in the top eight involves finishing ahead of a maximum effectively of just seven other riders... IF he'd had to qualify every year for a WF with several rounds he'd have had to have taken on, at an estimate, something in the region of 59 riders (say) in five ride, 20 heat meetings to get there. There's no doubt (1) that Greg remains in the top 8 - probably four - in the world and deserves his place; but (2) that it is nevertheless one heck of a lot easier for a rider of his class to stay in the GPs than it is for any younger pretenders to get in.. Look at the average age of those contesting GP Finals this year and even with Emil lowering it, it's still far higher than the average would've been in the old WF system...

Hmm, whilst it is the case that sometimes the Poles, for example, selected their reps in a WF the point holds that rider no matter what their status could rely on being 'seeded' straight through to a Final... So it's you who needs to be more accurate with your statements... There is no question that the old WF system was better in every respect than the GPs...: I think more and more people are waking up to this fact by the day...

Ah, but sometimes it was!!! And no, neither clip is from 1981!! :approve:

Which is the time I most need a pint!!!

Yes - there's as much chance of norbold agreeing to get back into my car as there is me getting that pint off Rob!!!

Is it only me wondering what this aside is referring to..?!

That's not much a fantasy as a nightmare!!!

Hmm, apart from the years when it was being rebuilt...!!!

Good point!! That'll have to be the next thread after this one!!!

Well clearly not with '95 coz that was the first year of the GPs: and Nielsen did indeed win!!!

They've ALWAYS been dull... A 'lowest common denominator' system to decide a World Champion will always lack the drama, sudden death excitement of a traditional final. The GP system is rather like FIFA looking back over the results of international fixtures over the past four years and declaring Spain (or Brazil or whoever...) as Football World Cup winners rather than bothering having a Finals competition... There is only one overhaul...: that's to consign the GPs to history and restore a proper open-to-all world championship.. And before anyone says you can't make changes like this, turn your mind back to the mid-'90s, huge changes were made then and they CAN be again... Throwing out the World Final was a bit like giving away the family silver... A trip to the pawn shop to get it back is in order...: right now!!

In '74 PC won both the Internationale and the European Final - both world class fields at least as good as the final in Gothenberg where he didn't do so well. In '75 only some muppets invading the Wembley track to go mad with a hosepipe denied him a proper crack at Olsen in that WF - over a series he'd have been a definite threat. And in '78 the sugar' put in his tank in the British Final meant he didn't qualify for the Final: a tragedy and a disgrace.. As for you keep saying he wouldn't have won in '77 - that's bananas. PC was head and shoulders best in the world in '77..

No - you're completely wrong about Michanek. He WAS supreme in '73 and - in this 'game' - would clearly have won a GP series that year. Don't know where you get this idea from that he was weak in the big events. He won several World championships and major WC rounds - at Pairs, WTC and Long Track. As well as bouncing back from, yes, a very disappointing WF in Poland to win convincingly in '74 and finish runner-up in '75: dropping just two points out of ten WF rides in those two years! 1977 was certainly PC's year but he was also dominant in '76 - including beating Mauger in the Inter-Continental Final: PC beating Mauger in a Wembley run-off as he had in '74 too.. Ivan's deluding himself to think he was the best rider in the world in '76..: he knows he 100% certainly wasn't in '77 and so thinks that he can theorise about '76 and get away with it... he can't!! I know we're not there yet but to me GP wise, it would've been Michanek in '73; too close to call between Michanek & PC in '74; and then a shoo-in for Collins in '75 through to '78.

Well in all honesty there ain't a SINGLE one of us (you including JH, even at your advanced years!! ) who ever saw the late Mr. Farndon ride so really how could we possibly comment...

Hmm, but even with a shin bone newly smashed to pieces, PC still finished ahead of Olsen in the rain in Gothenberg... Peter was different class in '77..: simply the greatest rider the world has EVER seen...

Way off with '77...: unquestionably Collins' year!!!

Norbold's is correct!! He is always right - though don't listen to him when he talks about my driving...!!

Ah, all very well...: but Roy Barwick and Paul Gilbert acheived the real peak of riding a Speedway career...: they went onto ride for Crayford!!

Or if it didn't the Dagenham Dales certainly would...!! Hmm, "Dagenham Dales" has something of a ring to it...!!!

That IS an excellent idea!! I'll say it was the Cumbrian Dales branch!!

Rob: I really wish I could but dare I say it, I'm decorating the bedroom!!!! Hopefully 2010 I can get up to Worky/Northside!

Is this in the Cumbrian Dales, Mimmo..??!!

And quite right too.. I think Speedway historians should totally ignore any daft retrospective dictate from the FIM...: clearly this WAS an official World Championship...

QUOTE (Robbie B @ Sep 6 2009, 12:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I remember that after a lateish meeting, walking down Blackshaw Road, with the cemetery beside you was well eerie when I was younger, on my way getting a 155 bus back to Kennington. If that bus went via Streatham it's a certain bet that speedyguy was aboard!!!

I think you should've waited a little before making this judgement..? Perhaps until we'd got as far as the 1958 Final...!!!