Grachan

Olle Nygren?

Bugger. I thought that would be quite difficult. Mavis it was.

Aha, I can be Mr Smartarse on this one, because my dad had a programme from it. Peter Collins won it, Les Collins was Second and John Louis was third. When England won the 1977 World Team Cup in Poland, who was the reserve who came out and had 2 wins?

And a jolly fetching titfer it is too. Cheers Frigbo (& Norbold).

Great to see a packed Owlerton, but who put that chimney there?

Erik Gundersen, Lance King, Simon Wigg, Phil Collins, Jan O Pedersen, Alan Grahame, Peter Ravn.

The only thing that made Peter more predicatable than Phil was that if he was behind you knew he was going to get past whereas with Phil he might not. Good rider, though - Phil Collins. I remember him winning the Overseas Final at Belle Vue one year. I'd have to agree that Peter had the edge in pretty much every department though. (Unless Phil could gate - I can't remember, though being a Collins I'd say it was unlikely)

I remember Eric Broadbelt having an accident where he collided either with a track raker or a grading tractor(?) I still recall the picture of him on the track with a badly cut face. I guess that must have been around 1974/75 time.

I don't think I have unfortunately. If anyone has got some, though, I'd gladly make a copy of it and put it up. Wouldn't mind seeing it myself come to that!

Mr Gundersen's name did pop into my mind as I was writing that. I was thinking more about league matches though. Not many riders could have finished a season with a perfect 12 point league average away from home. He wasn't unbeatable by any means, but if one of your own riders beat him it was always an event and, even more importantly, annoyed the Oxford supporters!

Andrew Silver, Shawn McConnell, Peter Collins, John Cook, Michael Lee, Per Jonsson, Ivan Mauger. It was always worth watching Hans Nielsen just to see if someone could beat him.

Wonder if Ipswich Town won at Old Trafford??

It's certainly not something you've ever tried to keep a secret! The Mort certainly had a good moan about the conditions during that meeting. Not as good as John Louis though: 'Get out in that slimy and that's it. You're done for!!'

You sound just like Chris Morton falcace!

They did have speedway back then, but it was raced on celluloid.

Incidentally, if anyone has any old stuff they fancy sharing I'd love to see it - particularly from the pre-Betamax 70s!

I read the comments today and thought exactly the same thing, both in terms of his remarks being offensive and the point that changes are made every year. Giving points to a team just because they are behind sums it up perfectly.

Two blokes in a bar. One says: 'My dog's got no nose.' 'Really?' says the other. 'How does he smell?' 'Bloomin' 'orrible!' says the first one. Good joke eh?

So you did. We've really got to stop agreeing like this Racer X! It's an interesting point about Gjedde/Loram, particularly as a lot of Charlie's points came from reserve. The problem is, give discretion on one rider and everyone will start wanting it. With Charlie Gjedde, though, presumably he'll be based on his PL average from last year. Averages still seem the best way of selecting riders' grades, even though they are far from perfect.

One thing that could arise if the grading system carries on into the following year is riders who are on borderline averages at the bottom of their grade miraculously losing a couple of points to drop into a lower grade and make it easier to secure a team place for the following year, or to help getting a stronger team. I'm sure this sort of thing could happen. I remember a certain Swindon rider a few years back had already decided to drop down into the lower division the following year. To do so he needed to average below 6 points, and in his last race of the season he needed 1 point to be below 6. If he scored 2 points he would have been over 6. He was cruising round for his point when the rider in second had an engine failure on the last lap. Cue the worst last bend of all time, followed by looking over the shoulder to make sure the guy in last place got past, thus ensuring 1 point instead of 2. It was so obvious it was hilarious.

I don't know if the grading system is to be long term or just for this year, but on a one year basis I certainly don't have a problem with it. You could put a limit on heat leader averages, but teams would probably all hang on to their 'grade A' riders and nobody would be available for teams coming up. It's unfortunate, but if the EL wants teams to move up a league, then they have to make it clear that there will be top riders available to them if they do. This didn't happen last time, so they had to find another way. It may cause quite a difference with team averages, but I don't have a problem with that. I don't see why every team needs an almost identical average at the start of the year, and there's yet to be a year when they've all ended up equal at the end so it's a bit of a false levelling up. As a short term fix to get top heat leaders distributed I think it's okay, and, let's face it, nothing is ever long term in speedway so lets see what happens in the future. I trust them even less now after certain other rules they've brought it.

Yeah, he did a whole series of Chips, before advancing into the glamorous world of soft porn, normally playing people called Bruce.

Hehe, I'd already noticed your signature Jez!

The other riders in that crash were Jimmy Nilsen, Lance King and Simon Cross. I think all four riders were injured in that crash and missed the rest of the meeting. I was there and it was announced that Erik was in hospital but was fine. My biggest worry at the time was if Jimmy Nilsen would be fit for Swindon's next match, and it was only later that the extent of Erik's injuries came to light.