chunky

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

I always wondered why Blixt never fulfilled his early promise, but I'm pleased you mentioned Nilsson. I just checked, and didn't realize he was only 17 when he rode for Hackney. He had a great first year, and had he stuck around for a bit longer, who knows?

I'd thought about Holta, but good call with Chris Watson. I was just thinking that this thread had developed into a discussion about DJ, and how he could have been a force...

Funny... As you mentioned it, I just decided to check his figures. It does seem that after 1989, he just went backwards. Not something I'd ever thought of before...

I certainly think he would have achieved more had he not broken his leg...

A little later I know, but there was also Valeri Klementiev, who lost his life way too young... Interesting that you would mention Sokolov, as he is largely forgotten. I do agree though, he was certainly capable of making a huge impact.

Following on from the discussion about Mike Bast, who (from years gone by) could have become a true great, had they ridden in Britain? Or at least come to Britain earlier than they did? Okay, he was a great rider as it was, but how much better could Edward Jancarz have been, had he started riding in the UK in the late 70's? Staying with the Eastern European, what about Gennady Kurilenko? Or even Igor Plechanov? I know why he didn't, but what if Egon Muller have stayed when he first tried out? One American I would loved to have seen here was Jeff Sexton.

And he makes more bad decisions. However, I agree.