BOBBATH

Yeh I saw the one with John Davis, will look up Hans Nielsen- anybody else from the sixties to early seventies in this series-e.g. Martin Ashby, Trevor Hedge etc.

Just got on to a Polish language site and translated it-it seems Zenon had been ill for some time with kidney disease and it had recently deteriorated.

I don't know what caused ZP's death or where it occurred-heard of it via Reg who in turn got it from Len Silver. ^7 years old though is awful young these days-can anybody add anything to this info. I share your thoughts Steve.

R.I.P.-just passed away , only 67

THanks BL65

BL65 I always enjoy your posts-you have a very comprehensive knowledge of our sports history and very good at sharing it with us. One question that bothers me-has anyone e.g. Speedway Researcher gone back to the start of League racing and converted riders' averages into the modern CMA system which was developed by Bryan Seery in the mid sixties when the BL started. ?

How is dad Clive doing these days-I remember him well-always value for money-think he rode for Middlesbrough at one point

Sorry to hear this , since I am getting up there myself I recall Peter starting at Brafield "Badgers"-time goes by so quickly. RIP Peter . BTW never figured out exactly where Brafield was -is there still a track. I seem to recall a guy called Laslo Muncsacki ( I think). Condolences to Peter's family.

That's crazy- I assumed the CMA was used for everything-to me that is the best judge . I remember Bryan Seery starting this in 1965 and the math for this is the best indicator of riders' performances

Well done BL65 -I never realized that- I always though Peter was top. Did Alby lead the averages any other year? Interestingly enough the Speedway Star of 13/11/1964 listed Peter as 9.37, Dick as 9.25 and Alby as 8.78- but I think that was just total points divided by number of meetings and did not use CMA's . Also from the number of meetings rode it looked like they included other than just PL meetings e.g.36 for Dick, so it must have included maybe PL K.O.Cup and say, Southern League. Your averages which I expect are more accurate were they on a CMA basis. Thanks for your response to this.

Here's another from the distant past- .Alby Golden of Newport from 1964 onwards. As I recall Alby was our third heat leader behind Dick Bradley and Peter Vandenberg. And he was a superb captain!!

I agree with you BL65-wasn't Nigel Boocock top of the averages in 1965- was Charlie the top of the former Prov. League Riders that year- I think George Hunter and Eric Boocock also had good years. And whatt about Jackie Biggs who I think had about a 3 point average for Coventry in 1964 and then became a star turn for Newport in 1965, when he would have been in his late forties I think. What a great year that was-the best!!!!!

Thanks everybody-as a matter of interest on the night the British Final was rained off (at West Ham), I spoke to Ivan at the bar and had a nice chat with him ( a gent). He was using a crutch as I recall and I said it must be a bit of a relief that it was rained off-gives you an extra week to recuperate etc. He said that it would take far more than a week to get better . He also didn't look 100%. As you mention he rode in the re-run of the meeting and despite a manful effort scored 5 points and was eliminated.

IN the great year of 1965-all of us PL fans wanted to see how well Ivan would do against the NL stars. Sadly Ivan had an accident very early on which affected his form . I am trying to recall the details- I think it was an early Newcastle match at Wolves-anyone recall more details e.g. other riders in the fateful race. I think one may have been Pete Jarman but am not sure

Hi Steve,guess Wyglenda still with us? The sixties Poles were great but I never thought Poland would become the centre of the Speedway world with the top League in the world. Can someone explain to me how that happened and why they replaced England as the top League-the crowds. they get seem to be like England in the forties

I rember pogo very well along with woryna and wyglenda- great and exciting riders. RIP Pogo. BTW are the latter two still with us- I hope so1

What was Steve Shovlar's mob-who was he???

Also thank you for your answer too Norbold.

Hi chunky, thanks for taking the trouble to answer this, good explanation that helped my understanding.

Well done Salty, thanks for correcting my mistake, I missed the obvious there. Cheers mate.

Just off the point a bit. I left England 52 years ago and I'm interested in how the English language is a flexible, living and evolving language and words are used in a different context now-e.g the meaning of the word "gay" which has changed meaning in all English speaking countries. I think I've noticed one change that hasn't come over here. This is the use of the word "of " instead of "have" e.g. in Terry's post he uses the word "of"instead of "have" in the first sentence as in "he would of always" etc. This is not meant to be a criticism Terry and I have seen this usage in other places including British newspapers. Are these two words now basically interchangeable on the your side of the pond? I have noticed other examples of this phenomon but can't think of any at the moment-although when I left England the use of the word "bottle"for courage was not widespread and the first time I saw it I had to ask my father-in-law what it meant!!

Last time I was in London, it looked like Sportspages had closed down, was it a victim of the internet and wikipaedia do you think? Has it ever reopened?

Speedway Researcher-what a wonderful site and many thanks to the folks who run it. I took Chunky's advice and looked up Wolves v. Newport on 8 October 1965 (my birthday -no need to send a card!!!) what a birthday present to a Wasps fan!! Here's the deal- all of the Wolves scored a max. Andrews, Sweetman, Francis, Airey, Jarman and Maxted. Guasco only man out-but even Gord had a paid maximum-four seconds. BTW I know what has happened in later years to all the Wolves riders except Brian Maxted-anybody have any update on Brian BTW Wasps bounced back from that awful defeat by beating CH 35-43 a week or so later (only their second away win of that season

I for one enjoy your posts Chunky. Not sure but I wonder if in the Wolves - Newport meeting in October 1965 which ended up 64-14 to Wolves (on my birthday no less)-whether all the Wolves had at least one race win-do any of you know the answer. Wasps forever!!!

Sorry to read this, how old was Bernie. I think he started riding in 1965 for Edinburgh maybe spent a couple of seasons there?