chunky

I remember we got stuck there one night, coming back from Belle Vue. There was a loud knocking sound coming from the floor of the coach, and nobody could find out what it was. The driver didn't want to take any chances, so we spent several hours, waiting for a replacement coach. We discovered what it was the next day... Someone has nicked a metal road sign for a lark. Not thinking, they stuck it face down under one of the seats. It was dark, and the back was the same colour as the floor. When we hit bumps in the road, the bloody thing would knock against the frame of the seat ..

Very sad to hear...

Seeing as there is no mention of them on there, I would suspect that they may have been individual meetings - or at least, not classed as "international" (National Team) events. The heat details for June 19 are: 1) Harris, Beattie, Winstanley, Robinson. 2) Paynter, Sharples, Caisley, Oliver. 3) Winstanley, Oliver, Robinson (N/F), Harris (N/F). 4) Sharples, Caisley, Paynter, Beattie. 5) Sharples, Winstanley, Beattie (F), Harris (N/F) 6) Paynter, Robinson, Harris, Oliver (E/F) 7) Robinson, Winstanley, Caisley, Oliver. 8) Beattie, Sharples, Paynter, Harris (F). 9) Robinson, Oliver, Paynter, Caisley. 10) Sharples, Winstanley, Caisley, Beattie. ENGLAND Maury Robinson 0 N 2 3 3 - 8 Paul Sharples 2 3 3 2 3 - 13 SCOTLAND Jack WInstanley 1 3 2 2 2 - 10 Milton Caisley 1 2 1 0 1 - 5 AUSTRALIA Graham Beattie 2 0 F 3 0 - 5 Alan Paynter 3 1 3 1 1 - 9 NEW ZEALAND Peter Harris 3 N E 1 F - 4 Brian Oliver 0 2 E 0 2 - 4 It doesn't seem that there was any strict structure, with teams riding as pairs AND individuals, and note the discrepancy with Milton Caisley's points (posted as 4, but apparently, he scored 5).

The meetings were at Cesenatico (18 June), and Rimini, the following day. Both meetings featured pairs from England (Maury Robinson, Paul Sharples), Australia (Graham Beattie, Alan Painter), New Zealand (Peter Harris, Brian Oliver), and a non-Scottish Scotland pair (Jack Winstanley, Milton Caisley). At Rimini, England won with 21, with the Scots and Aussies on 14, and the Kiwis on 8. Not sure about the first meeting, but at Rimini, the 8 riders also competed in a number of midget car races. Courtesy of Brian Collins' fabulous International Speedway website.

Yeah, I saw the photos. It scared me that I didn't even recognise Martin! Briggo and Broady don't look any different, but Martin...

Didn't know that? I'd loved to have been there. I was never a regular at Blunsdon (Saturdays were always difficult for me because of darts), but I always enjoyed my visits. Still reckon that between the 40's and 60's, Swindon had some of the greatest programme designs ever!

It was, and nobody said anything to the contrary. You must have just misread something.

And flat-track...

How about Xenon Plech? I'm sure he'd be in his element...

You know, that was something that used to annoy me with John (yes, ONE thing)! If there were no comments on the 'Years Gone By' thread for two or three days, he would always email me and tell me how people had "lost interest" in the BSF. At the same time, he would tell me how great 'Speedwayplus' was, even though the site could go a month or two with no comments!

And Chris Harris (E/F)?

If only we had the Internet back then...

Ah, the days when birds were happy for a bunch of drooling men to see them in various stages of undress...

Who can forget the 'Glamour League'? Wonder what reaction that would get these days?

While he stood out in particular, what about any of those other Poles of that era? Pawel Waloszek, Henryk Zyto, and Marian Kaiser? Zyto showed some great form, including winning the Midland Riders Championship, and Waloszek twice finished in the Top 5 of the World Final. Who knows what they may have achieved with an extended spell in Britain?

While we're on the subject, does anyone know the story behind "Gustix"?

Only if he had posted the links himself! Great point, actually...

As long-time speedway journalist John used to be a regular on the 'Years Gone By' thread, I thought it best to make a quick post on here. John sadly passed away on October 14 at the age of 91. There is a thread on 'General Discussions', so I don't know if it would be possible to combine the two on here.

Zyto Zaman Zarzecki Zabialowicz Zaluski Zubenko

Thing is, I know he never won a World Title (individual, anyway), but i just feel it's a bit of a stretch claiming that he wasn't a "major force". I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me...

I didn't, so here goes... Rune Sormander, Alf Jonsson, and Peter Smith never met the 10-match minimum. 8.78 - Per Olof Soderman 8.46 - Bjorn Knutson 8.31 - Soren Sjosten 7.47 - Dan Forsberg 6.38 - Birger Forsberg

I agree with you there!

As you seemed to ignore Gote Nordin, then, I checked his figures! I was a little disappointed to find that he averaged less than 7 in his first year (1960) at Hyde Rd.

Well, he came to the UK when he was 19, and stayed for 7 years, so I'm not sure he is a suitable answer to the original question...

Thanks to a comment by frigbo on another thread, it got me thinking... I checked Tommy Nilsson's average in his first year in the UK, and thought it was pretty good. So, I just started checking the first-year averages of other Swedes, and looked to see who made the biggest initial impact. I decided to stick with the BL era until 1980; after that, i feel that British speedway started to go a little weird with leagues and foreign riders! So, here is a list of first-year averages of Swedes who made their debut in the upper tier from 1965-80. I have excluded riders who had been riding here before (Sjosten, Nygren, Nordin), but I did throw in the one first-timer from 1964 (Bengt Jansson) just because. I have also excluded riders/seasons where a rider appeared in a handful of matches (10 is the minimum), whether they came back or not, so a first year here should be considered a "full" year. I just think it's interetsting to see how some riders developed long and successful careers (Jan Andersson, Richard Hellsen), yet others (Bengt Andersson, Bo Wirebrand) were never able to really improve on an impressive start. Some great names on here, though... 10.05 - Torbjorn Harrysson 9.29 - Hasse Holmqvist, 9.19 - Bernt Persson 8.74 - Anders Michanek, 8.21 - Gunnar Malmqvist, 8.03 - Tommy Johansson 7.82 - Christer Lofqvist, 7.51 - Jan Simensen, 7.48 - Tommy Jansson, 7.32 - Tommy Bergkvist. 7.30 - Bengt Jansson*, 7.08 - Bengt Larsson 6.90 - Bo Josefsson, 6.41 - Tommy Nilsson, 6.38 - Christer Sjosten, 6.03 - Bo Wirebrand 5.86 - Lars Jansson, 5.22 - Bengt Andersson 4.75 - Richard Hellsen, 4.65 - Soren Karlsson, 4.57 - Bengt Brannefors, 4.56 - Jan Andersson, 4.17 - Conny Samuelsson, 4.14 - Stefan Salomonsson, 4.12 - Nils Ringstrom, 4.00 - Tommy Pettersson 3.70 - Hasse Danielsson, 3.61 - Jan Davidsson, 3.44 - Lars-Inge Hultberg, 3.19 - Leif Soderberg