Grachan

Blimey! Bo Petersen is bald!!

I also read that in 1967 Norman Hunter staged a one-man protest about the constantly bad starts by deliberately breaking the tapes. I've just tried to find it, but can't. Maybe he was protesting about the scrapping of exclusions for tape-breaking?

Thanks. They were definitely slack at excluding people in 1967 though if that's the case.

Looking at some old sixties magazines I noticed that riders weren't being excluded for breaking the tapes. There was a race in 1967 at Edinburgh, for example, that needed re-running three times due to the tapes being broken, and yet all four riders were in each re-run. So does anyone know when the tape exclusion rule was brough in? Must have been between 1968 and 1974, as they definitely had it in 1974. Unless, of course, the ref at Edinburgh had been eating funny mushrooms or something.

Wrong book Andy. You were thinking of THIS one.

I'm quite looking forward to this book in a "Swindon" kind of way.

Certainly looks better with an "e" so I'm really pleased about that. What about his first name? Jim or Gym? Don't answer that.

Forget all this nonsense about who is the best rider ever or the greatest rider never to win the World Championship. The ultimate question is this: how did Jim spell his surname? You read old magazines and you get both spellings. You do a Google search and you get both spellings. So what is it? Airy or Airey? Anyone?

After the track that was presented to us on Saturday I guess we can at least heave a sigh of relief that Mads is safe from one of those GP tracks.

Get out of it! Nicki took a dive. (Based on how I saw it, not who he is.)

Yet another perfectly decent speedway meeting followed by people coming on here and saying it was rubbish. What is this? Some sort of anti-speedway orchestrated campaign or something? Great to see Leigh win. Let's hope he can do more of the same this year and finally get the title he deserves. The crash in the semi was Nicki's fault. In fact, I think he "played" for it - like a footballer taking a dive for a penalty. Worked though. Can't really criticise him. I mean, look at these pictures. In the first they are away from the white line and Nicki looks over and sees Crump. Now look where they are in the second, when contact is made. Totally Nicki's fault, and he even looked like he laid the bike down.

My mum remembers Laurel & Hardy being there.

That was Kid Bodie, not James Bond. Pretty sure James Bond was his real name.

When he rode at reserve for Wolves he actually had 007 on his race jacket. Said so in Speedway Star and News so it must be true.

I think he was announcing at Poole's openener this year.

Geoff Curtis was killed on December 15 1973 at Sydney Showground (assuming he died there and not later). (I'm guessing you already knew that, though, and really wanted his birth details).

I remember he qualified from the British final one year. I think it was the Carter broken leg one.

For along time he had a motorbike dealership in Thatcham Broadway. I used to go in there from time to time and remember taking my moped there for repairs. "Speedway Motors" was the name, if I recall correctly. It had a collection of race jackets on the walls and there were often speedway bikes on sale inside. There's still a Leonard, B in the area according to the phone book. I assume that's him, although his shop is long gone now.

What a strange looking track. Can't tell which is the bend and which is the straight.

On the subject of Hackney, this is the speedway segment in the 1970 film Bronco Bullfrog that was shot as Waterden Road. Anyone know who the riders are. Its Hackney v Wolves and presumably heat two. I assume it's either 1969 or 1970.

A friend of my wife used to live near Long Eaton speedway and he reckons the big "manor" type pub was almost certainly called The Pavillion and was knocked down about 20 years ago.

I never actually went to Long Eaton. It's just that I bought the 1967 Speedway Stars off ebay and have been reading about Swindon's matches that season.

I think the reason for that was because he refused to ride for Oxford after being allocated there by Rider Control in 1975.

It was one of Briggo's worst matches of the season. He ended up with seven points, what with those two defeats plus an ef in his final ride. Bob Kilby was the star for Swindon - beating Michanek from the back in his final race and then going on to beat Wilson in the second half final. It was, indeed, an impressive array of names in the Long Eaton side that year. It was Michanek's first year in Britain and he was one of two sensational new Swedes to come in to the league, the other being Hasse Holmqvist at Wolves. I think Michanek reached the World Final that year too.

Bobbath, were you there the night in 1967 when Long Eaton beat Swindon? Ray Wilson took the track record in heat one on his way to beating Barry Briggs and then took the Silver Sash from the World Champ in the second half. I wasn't there, by the way. I was reading about it recently. Speedway Star and News called his first race win over Briggo "the race of the season" at the time. That same year, a young Aussie called John Boulger was signed and scored a maximum in his very first match.