Grachan

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.

Thanks for the appreciation Bobbath. I put the Knowle one up, but, much as I'd like to take the credit, the Southampton one isn't one of mine. My mum was a regular at the old Knowle stadium back in the late 1940s, so it was great to actually find some footage of it for myself too, and that clip came from a Speedway in Bristol video that I bought my mum a couple of years back. One place I'd love to see footage from is Reading's old Tilehurst stadium, but both footage and photographs seem to be very few and far between unfortunately. So, if anyone has any.....

That would most likely be the British Semi-Final on July 13 1967. Briggs won with 15. Trevor Hedge came second with 11. My own main memory of Wimbledon is playing a Sade tape all the way there. I don't even particularly like Sade, so Lord knows why I was playing it, but Sade always reminds me of Wimbledon Speedway now. When I arrived, John Davis was in the car-park putting a wheel on his bike, although that could have been a different time to the Sade time.

And Colin Farquharson. Whatever happened to Colin Farquharson? Best name ever for a speedway rider.

Bob Kilby is in charge of the Swindon Sprockets junior side. Took over from Wellie last season.

I didn't know he'd died. That's a bit of a bugger. Last seen riding at Swindon in 1988 in the "Champs are back" meeting. I vaguely remember him riding for Exeter in 1974. Wasn't that his last season in the sport?

In which case I won't bother to ask it!

Aha! Would that be why he wasn't in the 1966 World Final then? Or is that too obvious a question?

Just been reading about Ove Fundin not riding in the British League in 1966 due to a ban. Anyone know why he was banned? Something to do with being a Johnny Foreigner perhaps? Seems to have been quite a lot of resistance to overseas riders at that time.

Wasn't there a general superstition about not wearing green as it was supposed to be unlucky - hence Wiggy being one of only a few riders to wear it?

If I remember rightly they used the running track, which would presumably make it 400 metres.

Swindon's track record in 1975 was around 69.4 I think. I remember Martin Ashby getting the track record at 69.6 in the first ever meeting I went to. It's all a bit vague, but it was around that mark.

I agree. All the problems we are getting now are due to the demise of the monkey mask. It was always quite a moment when a rider (usually Dave Jessup) pulled it down around his neck after a race or (in the case of Jessup) an engine failure. I remember Norman Hunter doing it once. A moustache-tastic moment.

I was wondering when riders stopped wearing black leathers as the norm and started wearing different coloured leathers. I'm guessing that black was still normal when Mike Broadbank(s) and Nigel Boocock wore red and blue respectively, otherwise they wouldn't have been given the nicknames "the red devil" and "little boy blue". Maybe they started the trend though. I've seen a picture of Barry Briggs from about 1968 with stripes down the arms of his leathers. Pretty unusual for the time. And what about leathers outside the boots instead of inside? I seem to remember John Davis doign this when he first rode for reading and causing a bit of a stir. Here's another one. Who was the last rider to still wear a monkey mask rather than full face helmet?

Oh yes!!!

And Johnny Marr of The Smiths is in fact a fan of Belle Vue. Morrisey later wrote a song about him called "Speedway".

That's the seventies one, Moxey. I used to be able to recite that off by heart like the Lord's Prayer.

So, were 6 & 7 still reserves or was it just no 7?

Oh for heaven's sake everyone. This is like one of those Christmas quizzes. Bob Paulson is my guess.

Canterbury 1974 Canterbury/Weymouth 1975.

Well, you both put the same thing so I reckon you must be right! I nearly had it. Got the home team right, but had heats 12 and 13 down as 3/5 and 3/4 but knew it couldn't be right! So number 7 did only have 2 rides then. That confused me a bit too. Thanks.

It's 13 heats, 7 per team. Possibly no 6 having 4 rides and number 7 having 2 rides? Can't be sure though.