Ron Butler

Dirty cheat! No really, Schumi, I'm jealous because my two remaining little grey cells could only come up with 1949. That was easy because I was there and the minor placings were both Belle Vue riders. Your source of info was very interesting to this old veterand supporter. Joy to you. Ron.

I think he's still competing back home in the USA

A face full of character - a face befitting the man that was Sverre!

My goood friend from cycle speedway and Belle Vue Aces the late Tink Maynard was a very happy and jocular guy as was Peter Craven and many more I have met over the years!

Ernie Armitt?

Arthur was at Bristol in 1928 and rode at both Leicester Super (Melton Rd) and Leicester Stadium (Blackbird Rd). 1928 saw him in the Stadum line-up in Challenge Matches, He rode in the first match in 1929 then moved to the Super team where he was joint top scorer. In 1930 Arthur was a heat leader in the Super line=up. 1931 saw him back at the Stadium until withdrawal from the Southern League. He was one of the riders nominated to meet Fay Taylor on her only appearance in Leicester and also took part in Revival meetings later which were unlicensed Pirate Events. This info is contained in Alan Jones book "Speedway in Leicester - The Pre-War Years" (Part 1 of a 3 book series on the Teams history)

Possibly Ernie Appleby who rode for several northern teams I think. Ernie also ran a training school in Manchester. The school did, of course, pre-date the famous Dent Oliver training school at Hyde Road. Ernie's school was in the less glamorous location of a former rubbish tip. It did, however, have the advantage of being adjacent to a well known brewery. When the wind was in the wrong direction some of the lads, including my mate Bob Hunter, put in some very erratic laps. Another rider of that era who was associated with the school was Cyril Cooper. I used to go along as a general dogsbody charged with such onerous duties as picking up fallen 'riders' Great pioneering days before the advent of training schools as we know them today. Ron.

Maybe this would best left in the hint[erland], Chris!

Here come the completely unfounded rumours yet again. I completely fail to understand the necessity, point and desirability in this topic being initiated! The one and only grain of merit here is that Tommy does not claim that his source is reliable. Presumably every rider in the team will be named by those contributors to this forum who have an allegedly 'reliable' source. Should you be one those foolish people you would be well advised to remember that you could destroy the professional and personal reputation of the man you name, whether he be guilty or not. Leave it to the relevant authorities to reveal the name of the rider - or not if they consider that the best course to take.

All credit must be given to S. A. Skinner. I just stumbled across it whilst browsing the ODNB website. I thought it worth sharing with my fellow Belle Vue supporters, and with the wider speedway fellowship on here. Ron.

Hi Bob, I said 'eliminations' and I meant...........eliminations. You can apply your own interpretation to it but if you knew Blackpool at this time of year.............! Ron.

My sincere apologies, guys - slipped up big time there! The article - a biography - is taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. You can subscribe to this online by paying a fee. On the other hand if, like me, you're thrifty, [aka tight-fisted], you can gain free admittance simply by typing your library card number, without spaces, into the appropriate box Congratulations, Bobbath!. The subject is Peter Craven. You have won a major prize. You have won a season ticket to Blackpool eliminations. Now, here by courtesy of the dynamic duo, I Kutt and E Paysts, is the article: Craven, Peter Theodore (1934–1963), speedway rider, was born at Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, Liverpool, on 21 June 1934, the second son of Benjamin Harold Craven (1902–1999), master window cleaner, later biscuit packing-machine operator, and his wife, Edna May, née Stevens (1905–1976), florist, of 24 Prestbury Road, West Derby, Liverpool. He was one of twins, though the other died aged three-and-a-half; he also had an elder brother and four sisters. After attending Ranworth Square infant and junior schools, Norris Green, and then Abbotsford Road senior school, he entered Walton Technical College at the age of thirteen. Craven first rode a speedway motorcycle the day after his sixteenth birthday, in 1950, when he borrowed his brother Brian's machine at the newly reopened Stanley Park stadium in Liverpool. He crashed after a dozen laps, sustaining concussion, but returned to the saddle several months later at Ainsdale Sands practice circuit for training under one of the team sponsors of the Liverpool Chads, the former rider Charlie Oates, at whose Liverpool garage Craven worked as a motorcycle mechanic. After progressing he made eight appearances for Liverpool in division two in 1951, and the following year five appearances apiece for Liverpool and, after the Chads went defunct, for the first division Belle Vue Aces of the Zoological Gardens, Hyde Road, Manchester. After a brief spell with Fleetwood, Craven joined Belle Vue officially in 1953; he travelled from army camp at weekends in the course of the first of his two years of national service in order to fulfil twelve league appearances in that year for the Aces. Though Craven's raw talent was obvious, at this stage ‘the problem with the wee fellow was that he could not stop falling off’ (Rogers, 87). But guided by the Belle Vue manager, Johnnie Hoskins, the New Zealander who had introduced speedway to Britain in 1928, and equipped with machinery which his father had worked overtime for four years to provide, he improved hugely in 1954. He twice broke the Belle Vue lap record and qualified for the individual world final, the first of his ten successive appearances, though after falling in his first ride he scored three points, finishing only above another débutant, the later multiple world champion and legendary Swedish rider Ove Fundin. Out of uniform Craven's ascent was complete. He rode in all twenty-four of Belle Vue's matches in 1955, topping the club's averages for the first of nine successive seasons, and replaced the great Jack Parker as the team's ace as they finished runners-up in the league. Craven again broke the Manchester track record, and caused a sensation at the end of that season when as a rank outsider and at the age of only twenty-one he won the world title on 15 September before a crowd of 54,000 at Wembley Stadium. Craven finished fourth when defending the title in 1956, after unluckily blowing a motor while leading in his second ride, but won his first Golden Helmet match race title, awarded on a challenge basis to the best rider in the domestic leagues. At the end of that season, on 17 October 1956, he married at St Lawrence's Church, Kirkdale, Brenda Pauline Williams (b. 1934), a typist, the daughter of Arthur Williams, a freight clerk; they had a son and a daughter, born in 1957 and 1961 respectively. In the winter of 1956–7 Craven went on a honeymoon tour of South Africa, where he was outstandingly successful, breaking numerous track records and winning the prestigious West Rand title. He returned for the 1957 season an improved rider for his experience on different surfaces, but was disappointed to finish third in the world championship after finishing joint top scorer, with Ove Fundin and the great New Zealander Ronnie Moore, but last of the three in the consequent run-off heat. Having finished fourth in 1958, and third again in 1960, Craven won the world championship for a second time on 8 September 1962 in front of 62,000 spectators at Wembley. Craven first rode for England in 1954, and was the country's top scorer in the series of annual tests against Australasia held between that year and 1960; he also proved almost unbeatable in tests against Poland in 1958 and 1960. Representing England (after 1962, Britain) in the world team cup inaugurated in 1960, Craven was also the side's top scorer in 1960 and 1961. In a total of forty-seven career internationals, he amassed 621 points at an incredible 13.2 average, top-scoring for his country in ten of the fourteen series. Among the myriad domestic titles and trophies which Craven also accumulated were the Golden Helmet match race title (variously between 1956 and 1963), the British championship (1962, 1963), the Champagne Derby (1954, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1960), Pride of the Midlands (1957, 1959), the Kings of Oxford trophy (1957, 1961, 1962), Pride of the East (1958, 1959, 1961), the Northern cup (1959), the CTS trophy (1959), the Tom Farndon memorial trophy (1959, 1960, 1961), the Champion of Champions cup (1959), the Internationale Derby (1959), the Metropolitan cup (1960), and Best Pairs (with Gerald Jackson, 1962). As well as the league title in 1963, his Belle Vue side won the national trophy in 1958 and the Britannia trophy in 1957, 1958, and 1960, with Craven making a total of 218 appearances and scoring 2318 points. He was one of the ‘big five’ world riders, and the only Englishman, to ride off the maximum 20 yard handicap introduced in the British leagues in 1962. In 1963 Belle Vue finally broke the stranglehold of the metropolitan clubs Wimbledon and Wembley and won the national league, but their success that season was eclipsed by one of speedway's greatest tragedies. On Friday 20 September Craven was racing for the Aces in a challenge match at the Old Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh. In heat twelve, having already won his first three heats in style, Craven lined up with his Belle Vue team-mate Billy Powell against the Edinburgh riders George Hunter and Willie Templeton. Hunter had a slight lead over Craven on the first bend of the second lap when his engine seized, locking the rear wheel, and as he tried to swerve Craven clipped Hunter's machine and crashed heavily into the safety fence. He was rushed to Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, where he lay unconscious in an iron lung, his wife at his bedside, until his death at 9.10 p.m. on the following Tuesday, 24 September 1963. The cause of death was certified as severe head and brain stem injuries. There was a large attendance and over 250 wreaths were received at Craven's funeral; he was buried on 30 September at the West Derby cemetery, Liverpool. His brother, Brian, then riding for the Newcastle Diamonds, retired from speedway. Some thirty years later, on 11 April 1992, Craven's widow, Brenda, married his former friend and pit helper, Leon Leat. Peter Craven was arguably the country's best ever speedway rider, and, of the five Englishmen to win the individual world championship since its inauguration in 1936, the only one to do so twice. Unusually diminutive, at 5 feet 2 inches and under 8 stone, he also differed from most racers of his era in that he rarely drank, never smoked, and went regularly to the gym. But Craven's real distinction was his fearlessness, fine throttle control, and exceptional balance, permitting a daring and spectacular style which was hugely popular with fans both at home and abroad, by whom he was known variously as the Mighty Atom, the Pocket Rocket, and, most appositely, the Wizard of Balance. Off the track he was known for his gentle manners, modesty, and kindness to fans and fellow riders, and it was universally noted that he died trying to avoid another rider. His name was immortalized in the sport's Peter Craven memorial trophy, raced for annually at Belle Vue and presented by his widow, Brenda, and the Craven shield, the prestigious knock-out trophy for which British speedway's élite teams have competed since its inception in 1997. A plaque in his memory was unveiled in a ceremony at the Old Meadowbank stadium, Edinburgh, on 7 March 1998. S. A. Skinner Hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did. It was always a privilege to watch Peter in action. A legend amongst legends. An ace amongst many Aces. His true greatness, though, lay in his natural humility. Ron.

Here is the best brief biography I have read of a man it was my privilege to watch on many occasions. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6499...rderField=alpha There you have a man who could teach many riders of today a great deal - starting with an ongoing demonstration of real and true sportsmanship. Ron.

I suggest you cut and paste that post to your CV when you apply for a job with TonyMac. It could swing the decision in your favour. On the other hand........ Ron.

I wish Kenneth every success with his new Swedish club and continued success with Peterborough. Ron.

Jack Parker, one of the greatest speedway riders Britain has ever produced, was renowned for keeping himself to himself in the pits. He did nothing to his machine during the meeting. He just gave instructions to his mechanic and left him to it. Parker either watched the racing or sat smoking his pipe and reading . Was he any less a speedway rider or any less a man because of this. None of us who saw him regularly thought so. For many years, even after his death, Jack was known and respected both to speedway supporters and those who had never seen a speedway meeting. People have many facets to their nature. Kenneth Bjerre may be a complicated man to some of us but does that matter? I firmly believe not. Judge his ability as a speedway rider [Peterborough seem to think well of him] and not how you see him as a man. None of us has the right to criticise him and put forward our views of him as an individual. It is somewhat arrogant of us to do so - unless, of course, we have never offended anyone by our own attitude. Can you honestly say that of yourself? I can't. You see, I'm just a man with human frailties.

Millard's, ladies and gentlemen, a great arsett to televised speedway! I think he could justifiably be introduced as the Man of Mildewra. Still he's not bad for a man who so ably demonstrates his lack of knowledge about the sport. Ron.

So much riding So little racing. So much talking So little commentating. * Such close scoring Must ask, why so boring? * Once again Maddening Millward meandered meaninglessly on. Repetition reigned. Exactly how many knees has Jason Crump broken? With how many upset stomachs was Scott Nicholls afflicted? Answers on a pocket calculator to Sky Sports. Time to fire him. Time to fire him. Time to fire him.

I apologise if I'm boring anyone by repeating what I've already stated, but He of the Firmamental Multitude does not appear to understand what I meant when I input the following: "I do not purport to be an international speedway team manager. I assume Mr Middleditch does" .............etc Ron.

Naturally I couldn't do a better job of managing the national team than Neil Middleditch does. However, my pseudo-angelic friend, I do not purport to be an international speedway team manager. I assume Mr Middleditch does, otherwise why would he have accepted the job. I believe Middleditch has been unable to guide successive groups of riders to any real success during his tenure as manager. In fairness to the man perhaps you would [could] list on this thread full details, with dates, of the trophies or other honours the national team has won under his reign as team manager. I await your reply with interest. Ron.

..........but they are far from the b[r]e[a]st!

This country could were once speedway legends. The team was feared throughout the speedway world. The team which allegedly contested the final today were nothing less than a national disgrace. Middleditch your immediate resignation is required. Sadly, I changed my avatar under the false impression that the team would be competative. A team made up of Belle Vue and Ipswich riders would probably have done better. Dismayed, Distraught, Deluded and Disgusted Stockport.

George for the English. Andy, Dave and Pat will probably be added if and when appropriate! Good luck to the boys from these shores this evening. Ron

Ah, you mean they've taken it to the next level - down Sorry Just couldn't resist that pun. Just a jest really. Actually Ive missed televised speedway this season. We relocated into a sheltered housing complex shortly after the season started. We couldn't get Sky due to the communal aerial being unsuitable for digital TV. A local company is now nearing the end of an aerial updating scheme. Our apartment should be done within the next few days. I've ordered my installation. Now I have to sit back and wait - only for a few days I hope.. Not being able to watch at the track now I will really appreciate having Sky Sports again. Joy to you, Ron.

They didn't though and that's skill. It's also entertaiment for many of us!