Grachan

I have one of Peter Collins' old books and he openly admits he didn't go to Somerton Park because he was scared to ride it. It was the day after Tommy Jansson was killed. I never went to Somerton Park, but I remember Newport coming to Swindon in about 76/77 and giving the Robins a right beating. Afterwards, about 500 Newport fans marched round the greyhound track with flags, singing and gloating.

Steve 'the Heave' Gresham

With respect to Michael Lee - who is the greatest ever footballer from the UK? I'm sure 99 percent would say George Best, yet he is also someone else who is seen as someone who 'wasted' his talent. This is rarely seen as an issue, however, when judging how good he was and neither should it be with Michael Lee who is definitely the greatest British rider I ever saw. The only one to come close is Peter Collins...... oh, and Martin Ashby of course!

With so much emphasis on averages these days when building teams I was interested to see the combined team averages at the start of the 1976 season printed in an old programme. There was more than 10 points between the highest - Exeter - and the lowest - Birmingham. Exeter - 50.31 Wolves - 49.54 Belle Vue - 48.62 Sheffield - 47.73 Reading - 47.30 Hull - 46.81 Ipswich - 46.68 White City - 46.68 Leicester - 46.53 Halifax - 46.11 Cradley United - 45.53 Newport - 45.23 Kings Lynn - 44.33 Poole - 44.43 Wimbledon - 43.41 Coventry - 43.37 Hackney - 42.87 Swindon - 42.46 Birmingham - 39.87 Eventual champions Ipswich were 7th in the averages at the start of the season. Swindon finished 5th but were 2nd from bottom average wise and Sheffield, who had the fourth highest average, finished 3rd from bottom. It does make you wonder if too much is made of averages these days. The final league table, according to the Hackney website, was: 1. Ipswich 55 2. Belle Vue 48 3. Exeter 48 4. Coventry 44 5. Swindon 42 6. Reading 41 7. Hackney 40 8. Newport 39 9. Cradley 39 10.Poole 37 11. Wolverhampton 37 12. Hull 36 13. White City 35 14. Kings Lynn 35 15. Halifax 29 16. Wimbledon 27 17. Sheffield 27 18. Birmingham 14 19. Leicester 11 If you take the average strength for all the teams together you get an average of 45.67, which I suppose makes 45 a fairly reasonable figure for team averages if you're going to have one. Of course, the table doesn't take into account any team changes that may have been made. I know, for a start, that Swindon signed Jan Andersson during the season.

Maybe that's why I always used to see him then! He also used to regularly turn up at World Championship events too, which is maybe where I got the impression he was omnipresent.

Don't know why, but memories of this guy came into my head today. He had dark, curly hair and seemed to be at just about every meeting I went to back in the 70s. He used to carry a tray of pens and would hold up his fingers to give the price if ever you bought one. Anyone else remember him? No reason, just curious. (It's definitely a sign of getting old when you start getting nostalgic about a bloke selling pens!!)

They are thinking of trying to get more people to subscribe to them instead.

Wasn't the story with John Louis that he broke into Foxhall Stadium, stole the track spare and started riding around the track? When he was approached he thought he was in trouble but they signed him up instead. Not sure how true that is though - may have just been a PR tale. I remember what must have been Bruce Penhall's UK debut. He came over with Mike Bast for an Overseas Final at White City. Both of them were well out of their depth and they managed just one point between them.

It's true - big things were expected of Blixt weren't they, but he never truly became the big star that was expected. Not exactly a debut, but I remember there was a USA v Rest of the World match at the Houston Astrodome many years ago and an American called Jeff Sexton came out and was beating everybody - yet was to all intents and purposes never heard of again (or at least not by me anyway).

The recent impressive debut by Janusz Duckbilledplattypusz at Reading reminded me of the time Swindon planned to sign a new rider back in the 70s. I can’t remember the name of their intended target – something like Kenneth Samualsson (?) – who was touring with the Kaparna side. They went to watch him, but in the end decided not to take him but to go with another young Swede who had impressed in the tour matches. The unknown youngster was duly signed up, and promptly shot out of the start to win his first ever race at Blunsdon and become an instant hit with the fans. His name? Jan Andersson, no less. Can anyone recall any other impressive debuts, or, for that matter, less impressive ones, from riders who went on to prove something special?

Interesting point. I never really gave much thought to the presentation at the time. It was my first time at Cardiff, so I had nothing to campare it to, and was carried along by the mass of noise when the riders appeared from the tunnel. If I think about it, though, the presentation was very similar to Sheffield - with the exception of the word 'Super' being omitted before the words Simon and Stead, which sounded strange coming from Nigel Pearson. I did think the music was a bit of a poor choice - sounded like someone had dug out a CD of 'Classic 70s Rock' and just stuck it on for most of the time. I didn't get any negative feelings from it though, but maybe if I'd had been to a previous one I may have wondered why they changed it. My mum went last year and spent the next 12 months complaining about the noice in the stadium - but that's my mum for you!! Maybe she wasn't the only one.

Yeah, good on ya Crumpie!! Anyone going to start a Tony Rickardsson's Tantrum thread after his little strop when he touched the tapes at Cardiff? Just wondered.

Having seen the GP on channel 4 now I think you're all making a lot of fuss over nothing to be honest. It can't have been that offensive either, or C4 wouldn't have shown it. Nothing worse than an indignant journo complaining about other people's behaviour! All this 'striving to bring the public what they want to see' nonsense annoys me. Most jounalists are in it for themselves, although I don't know KK so maybe he's the exception - though I very much doubt it! And no, I don't come from Manchester.

I remember in 1983 most people - at least on the bus I was on - were predicting Egon Muller to win before the meeting. When my friend got Muller in the sweep the whole bus groaned because they all wanted him.

Thanks Noodles. I know they sell them on the day now, because it says on the GP website.

Not only did he win the 1971 World Pairs final but I believe he scored a maximum in it. He was probably underrated, but I'd still say he was the worst World Champion of all. I still reckon Muller was better than he was given credit for. I have a video called 'Circuits of Gold' about Ivan Mauger, and Ivan's wife is talking about how Ivan would get highly stressed trying to copy what Egon was doing - so he can't have been that bad. Gary Havelock was a pretty weak World Champion.

Does anyone know if tickets will be available on the night, or do you need to get them in advance?

Don't see the problem with 'flipping' and 'crikey' myself.

Oh stop all all of you! Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it. It's all so silly. Sto-o-o-o-o-p it. Stop stop stop. Stop it. That's my contribution.

Since Tony Rickardsson looks likely to become the greatest speedway rider of all time, I'd hardly call Jason's record that of someone who can't hack it in a World Championship event - I'd say he can hack it more than an awful lot of the other riders in the field.

Difficult to say really. He so often under achieved on the night. I remember in 1982 he was unbelievable, scoring maximums everywhere and looking like the best rider in the World, yet only scored 2 in the World Final (and one of those was when Kenny Carter was excluded), so to be honest I'm not sure the GP would have made much difference. Now, if they'd had it over 16 laps..... Maybe Phil was too calm, whereas Jason is too hot headed, and both may well end up never winning. I think if Jason was going to be World Champ he would have had to do it last year or this year. Maybe he knows that, and that's why he was so gutted.

I'm a big fan of Phil Crump, but it's worth remembering that Jason has actually proved himself to be better than his father at World Championship level.

What is ridiculous is people criticising Jason Crump for how he reacted. I didn't watch the GP, but if he is upset at being eliminated - and pretty much being out of the title hunt already - then good for him for caring. If, as Star Lady says, he had taken himself away then he's not at fault at all so lay off him why don't ya! If Sky choose to seek him out and film him, then whatever reaction they get is their problem. I'm sick of this 'British' thing about not showing your own emotions for the sake of others. Oh yes, and I'm sure his father is extremely proud of him too.

Yeah, I found this in the past. There's some good stuff - my favourite being the marvellous charisma of 'Tony Croomes - Speedway rider'. Have you managed to download the White City one? I've tried a few times but just seem to get a blank .HTML page.

What about Jason Crump & Mark loram?