Grachan

Nigel, I've sent him an e-mail to tell him about your post. Thanks.

The good thing is that no matter how old I get or feel, I will always have the satisfaction of knowing that TMC left school, worked for the MOD and had the 'you've been to Poland so you must be a spy' interrogation a year before I did. It must be hard being 45. Forty-four is so much younger. Actually, I just realised I'm still 43. The first sign that you're getting on a bit is when you have to mathematically work out how old you are rather than knowing it automatically. I'm a year younger than I thought! Result (as those young people say).

Thanks Tigerblade. I have to say, by the way, that the more I look at the back row of that Stoke picture, the more it looks like a line of geezers headbanging to 'Born to be Wild' at the local village disco.

Yes, tell us more Tigerblade. Inc-de-ly. I ju- reali- it- no- Ray Bales who loo- li- Norman Collier bu- Graham Edmunds.

And there was me thinking it was one of Status Quo!! Interesting, also, to see how some of the old riders have aged. It's wierd. You don't see them for 30 odd years, and they turn up looking like someone famous. Okay, Malc Simmons, Terry Betts and Paul Woods don't look much different, but when did Mel Taylor become Peter York? And Ray Bales looks remarkably like Norman Collier. Then there's David Gagen without a feathercut. That's so wrong. How can you have David Gagen without a feathercut? He's now morphed into Joe Brown, while Ian Turner looks like he's about to burst into the chorus of 'Agadoo'. Also, Bobby McNeil. I've often wondered how Bobby McNeil might look these days. I was expecting him to have aged in a similar way to Charlie George of Arsenal. But NO!! He looks like he should be Chancellor of the Exchequer - a kind of cross between Nigel Lawson, Gordon Brown and Geoffery Howe. Hope his cocxyx is okay these days. It has also suddenly occured to me after looking at page 10 that John Louis now looks remarkably like Tommy 'TV on the radio' Vance. Amazing.

Hi Falcy, I don't know about the whole meeting, but there is various snippets from the 1973 Daily Mirror meeting on some of the Belle Vue History videos from the BelleVueZoo website. Maybe it would be worth getting in touch with see if they know how to get hold of the meeting. I think I have one or two races from the meeting from these videos, but not a lot.

Coincidentally, I took a job for the MOD a year later and had the same interrogation. Three people came to my house to give me a grilling, just because I had been to Poland, and it was also brought up in my job interview. As if a scruffy 16 year old Engineering Apprentice was likely to be a Soviet spy because he went to a Speedway meeting in Poland! It was a great British crowd there that year - as though everyone knew it would be PC's year. His victory even made both the front and back pages of the Daily Mirror. I bet that wouldn't happen these days.

I went, though not on that train you mention. I went Tee-Mill tours, with a guide called Alf who supported Hackney. Want to see my pictures? Look HERE. (not the most interesting in the World unfortunately!) My memory is a bit hazy too, as I was only 15 at the time. Let's see what I can remember at the drop of a hat. Stopping in Warsaw (I think) and having a crowd of locals gather around the bus. We soon became quite a tourist attraction. Someone on the bus decided to show Page 3 of The Sun to the gathering hoards, who quickly waved their disapproval. Pickled gerkins and stale bread rolls. Every damn meal. Possibly the most uncomfortable hotel beds ever. I remember in the hotel someone pointing out that the picture of Bob Kilby on my tee shirt was going the wrong way. I knew this, but had hoped nobody would notice! There was a disco in the hotel and I remember them playing Suzi Quatro. Old fashioned even then. We went into the town, which I guess was Katowice. People looked at us with disdain, but then became really friendly when they discovered we were English. They explained that they had thought we were German, and they didn't like Germans. The Stadium crowd was a mass of grey with soldiers on the end of the each line. The only colour was in our section, which was full of English fans. Our coach ran out of diesel on the way back. Everyone had to get out and push, but I was asleep and missed the whole thing. There is a photo somewhere of everyone pushing and waving, with me on the coach with my sleepy head against the window. A VERY rough crossing on the way there. Nearly everyone on board the boat was sick over the side, but for some reason I was fine and spent the time in an almost empty disco. 'Mississipi' by Pussycat was played. Rory Gallagher was on tour in Poland at the time. I remember seeing a poster. There were some Leicester fans on our bus who were particularly impressed with this. I missed a few days school to go, and started the 5th years a few days late. This made me officially cool. Funnily enough, I can't remember that much about the speedway other than Egon Muller taking a massive great fall while in the lead. I was really impressed with Egon in this meeting and always rated him afterwards. I think he was set to score 11 points before rearing up and coming off. I also remember watching it on TV when I got back and spotting my banner being waved about. It was an England flag with the names of Peter Collins, Malcolm Simmons, Doug Wyer, John Louis and Chris Morton, which I made myself. This is the closest I ever came to being famous. Funny that the Final where Peter became World Champ sticks in my mind mainly for Egon Muller falling off, but memory does these strange things sometimes. If I think of anything else I'll add it later.

I did send an e-mail to the website where the 'Money for Speed' information came from to see if there was any way of viewing it. They didn't know, but suggested the British Film Institute, whose website is http://www.bfi.org.uk/collections/rvs/

That was called 'Rider Control', which was definitely around in the 1970s. I can't remember the exact time of the introduction on averages to define team strengths, but I'd guess it was late 70s/early 80s. The limit was much higher then, though. I think it used to be around the 50 point mark.

IMDB (If you click on 'more' you'll see it has Arthur Mullard in it!)

Well, there's a thing. There's more HERE, and you can actually view clips from the film - but only if you are in a School, College or Public Library! Unfortunately, I am in none of these 3 places.

No, nothing to do with the USA Team from the 1980s, but 1933 film featuring Speedway. We all know 'Once A Jolly Swagman', but has anyone heard of this one - edited by David Lean no less!? Review taken from HERE. Take a look at some of the names of the 'players'. There's some well known Speedway names there. Money for Speed (1933) Brash Aussie newcomer, Cyril McLaglen, threatens to steal the limelight from speedway star John Loder. Loder tries to nobble him by setting him up with a guaranteed heartbreaking woman. The mechanics of the script are a little dreary, but boy does the speedway action make up for it! Director Bernard Vorhaus scraped together the £7000 cost of the picture by getting the thrills and spills of actual speedway on film. These sequences with editing by David Lean (who also has an uncredited bit as a journalist) form the core of the film. No other picture captures the atmosphere and excitement of one of the great spectator sports of the 30s. McLaglen is adequate as the dupe, but the dramatic demands of the plot are a little outside his range. Loder, playing bad for a change, has never been sexier. The undoubted star of the film though has to be 15 year old Ida Lupino as the femme fatale. Other actresses might have gone way over the top in this role, but she effortlessly underplays. She knows she has no need to get the camera's attention. No wonder Hollywood snapped her up. Money for Speed was listed in the BFI's Missing Believed Lost search. A dubbed French print and a subtitled German one was discovered. Rediscovering Money for Speed has made this search worthwhile. It's not a world classic, but it's a breath of fresh air compared to so many of its contemporaries. I can't think of an American B picture of the same period with half as much oomph as this. Money for Speed gives the lie to the belief that quota-quickies were a blot on this country's film heritage. Script: Vera Allinson, Monica Ewer, Lionel Hale Director: Bernard Vorhaus Players: Moore Marriott, Marie Ault, George Merritt, Sam Wilkinson, Ginger Lees. (with the co-operation of: Ginger Lees, Frank Arthur, Jack Ormston, Colin Watson, Tom Farndon, George Greenwood, Bluey Wilkinson, Jack Parker, Vic Huxley, Eric Langdon, Tiger Stevenson, Ron Johnson, Billie Lamont, Wal Phillips, Frank Varey, Cyclone Danny, John Hoskins, Alec Jackson, F. Mockford, E.J. Bass, A.J. Elvin)

I remember that. It was great. The way we celebrated Crumpie's maximum you would have thought Swindon had won.

I was hopping through some satellite TV channels last night when I came upon this. Has anyone seen it before? It's remarkably similar to speedway, though it looked to me like they were using trial type bikes - but I'm no bike expert so I may be wrong on that. Also, although they were sliding on the bends, it wasn't a smooth, controlled slide but more a case of leaning, with the back wheel slipping out now and again. I only saw a bit, but it looked like it was America v Italy. Six riders in a race, from a standing start. According to the commentry, Kenny Roberts started his bike racing career on short track. It was so similar to Speedway I don't know why they bother having both! Very interesting though.

Yummy yummy yummy, I've got love in my tummy. I remember that. For some reason it reminds me of being round my Gran's house, so it was probably played on the little transistor radio she had in the dining room. I also remember a song something like: Judy in Disguise with glasses, which came to mind along with my Gran's transistor radio. I didn't go to Speedway then though. I was more interested in playing Pinky and Perky records at the wrong speed to make them sound like normal people. Did that at my Gran's too.

Cough cough... tactical rides..... cough... Premier League KO Cup.. cough cough. Bilahora, I agree with you on the earlier post regarding the Play-offs. I think the team that wins the league table should be league champ. End of story. One thing I will say about them, though, is that they now have Play-offs in football, rugby and no doubt plenty of other sports too, so at least they are something that is occuring in sport in general rather than being another of Speedway's unique daft little ideas.

I think the way to make the sport attractive is to have quality racing on good tracks and the way to have that is to have good promoters and team managers who get 100% effort from their riders. Giving out points is just another extension of the tactical ride rule, where points are dished out for no extra effort. I know my Mum doesn't do bonus points because, in my younger anoraky days, I told her her programme was wrong because she didn't put in the bonus points and she told me she couldn't be bothered with all that! She just wanted to see good racing and to see Swindon win and do well in the league. The points allocation would effect where the team finishes in the league so she would have to take notice of it. Bonus points can easily be ignored without it affecting one's own interest in the match.

Tape touching is one of the few changes brought in that had a reason and has worked well. Bonus points serve a purpose in that they are there to encourage team riding. Sure, team riding is something of a lost art these days for some reason, but how many of the marvellous displays of this skill would we have missed out on over the years without them, and the fact is they are not something that newcomers have to worry about anyway as they are not a major factor in the match. My mum's been going to speedway for about 55 years and I don't think she's ever bothered with them. Guest riders and tactical rides - I agree. Ridiculous. These are the kind of things that are introduced that would cause speedway to be a laughing stock if people actually knew the sport still existed. Complicated scoring systems like those proposed in this thread would, in my opinion, fall into the catagory of one of the daft ideas constantly being invented by this crazy sport of ours like those mentioned in the second paragraph. Speedway should be kept simple because the four laps of racing is where its appeal lies rather than the elaborate scoring systems that go with that. Adding to that just causes confusion.

Totally agree with SCB here. Speedway has enough ridiculous complications without adding to them in this way. I can imagine the baffled looks on any newcomers' faces if such a system was brought in. I've got an idea. Two points for a win. One point for a draw. One point for winning on aggregate. What on Earth is wrong with that? It means you can already pick up a point without winning the match. I think it's a ridiculous idea, to be honest, and I also think that making comments on people's spelling just because they disagree with you is a rather low level of having a discussion.

. 1. Who finished 2nd in the 1990 Odsal World Championship Final? Nobody - it was declared void after Shawn Moran failed a drugs test. (Although he did, I suppose, finish second on the day so that could be the correct answer) 12. Who was the Guest Rider in a British League match in the mid-1970's who guested in place of himself? John Davis, for Oxford. 11 - 1981 World Final

Great issue this month. Three of my favourite riders in there - Phil Crump, Dag Lovaas and Jason Crump. I think it was a very telling quote by Phil Crump that summed up his lack of World Championship success when he said that in 1982 he was enjoying the Carter/Penhall clash rather than concentrate on his own racing. Both Phil and Dag both clearly lacked the 'killer' instinct that Jason has to take them up that one extra level. Very interesting issue.

Falcace, He was found dead - in his home I think - roughly a couple of months ago. On that subject, was it ever announced how he actually died? He was only about 38 years old, after all.

Rob123, Mine too!! I forgot to change my post, but I've over written the file. I have a few Andrew Silver races on video though. If you want I can go through them and put them onto either a tape or a DVD for you. E-mail me your address if you like.