BOBBATH

I don't even know what HMX means. Does anybody recall my favourite photo of all time-the one of the 1964 British Final with Brian Brett, who was the leading qualifier and hot favourite to get to the World Final sitting on his keyster at Wembley after falling in his first ride. He looked bemused thinking I've lost my chance-which indeed he had. I assume the photo must have been taken by Alf Weedon who gets my vote as the greatest photog.

Excellent topic. I started reading the "Star" in 1964-also the monthly sister publication "Speedway Post' when that started up . I also got hold of some old Speedway News' from the fifties. My chief comment is the way the usage and vocabulary of the English language has gone down since that time. There were some very erudite writers then e.g. Phil Reading ,Eric Linden, Paul Parish and dare I say John Hyam.,-now not so much. I also enjoyed the Star when it was black and white-while it had black and white team pictures-you had to imagine what the team colours really looked like until you saw the team ride in person. I enjoyed that..I read a Star a few year ago and the standard of written English was lamentable-maybe reflecting the dumbing down of the population in general. Thanx for posting this gustix -I greatly enjoyed seeing the old covers.

Despite your excellent post BL65 I still reckon Monk had it over Colin. If I may retort (as Samuel L. Jackson said in "Pulp Fiction"!) in PL days Charlie bested Colin in most seasons-the averages I will be quoting are from Matt Jackson and may include K.O Cup , regional leagues as well as Prov. League . In 1962 CM ave. of 7.8 (Neath) v CP 6.6 (Stoke), 1963 CP9.7(Stoke) v CM 9.1 (Long Eaton). 1964 CM 10.9 (Glasgow) v CP 10.1 (Hackney). Also in the PLRC Final, Charlie was runner up to Ivan Mauger and Colin scored 7-note also Roy Trigg came 3rd in that meeting. Also in that year Charlie apparently beat Ivan more times than any other PL Rider. Further in the Prov. League averages published in the "Star" on November 13th 1964 Charlie was second to Ivan with an average of 11.60 (although I recognise that these averages excluded bonus points and were straight points divided by meetings -not CMA's). Colin was 8th, just ahead of Jack Kitchen. Now to the great year of 1965 where the Prov. League riders were up against the top NL riders for the first time.. Charlie was easily the top ex -PL rider with 10.3 average(Matt's figures again). After Charlie the ex-PL guys were placed as follows in order-Eric Boocock, George Hunter, Ivor Brown, Bill Andrew, Dave Younghusband , Pete Jarman, Jack Kitchen and only then Colin. Interestingly Ronnie Genz was just above Eric Boocock. Also that year of course Charlie won the Internationale (what a surprise that was) at Wimbledon-not a track he was particularly familiar with and missed out on the World final by a fall in the British Final at West Ham-after going thru' all the qualifying rounds without dropping a single point. Colin didn't make the British Final that year. I realise Colin had some good years post 1965-although in 66 he and Charlie were just about even-also that Colin's best year was 1967-his World Final year. Thus -very good rider though Colin was - I rest my case for Charlie, I would also put Ronnie Genz up there considering his years in the NL.. Great debate though and I enjoy greatly remembering these super years of the mid sixties.

I agree with this, looking back at my old programmes -on Friday October 9th 1964 (another dark and stormy night) Newport beat Hackney in the PL 51-27 at Somerton park. Poor old Colin got zero points from 3 rides and in Heat 9 was tactically substituted and replaced by Roy Trigg. Roy won that heat, scored a 15 point max. then won both his races in the second half. Colin pulled out of second half. In the second half final Roy, beat Dick Bradley while both Jon Erskine and Geoff Penniket had e.f.'s. This always stuck in my mind even without consulting the programme and that was one of the reasons I always preferred Roy to Colin. I also reckon Roy deserved to get to a World Final and think he would have perhaps performed better than Colin in his only appearance. Roy trig a great trier and fan pleaser!!

Thanx BL65 -great post as always-I was about to make a post on the same lines-I was at the 1967 GB v. Poland test at West Ham and well recall Pratty's outstanding performance-he really liked that track!! As regards the comparison to Monk ,Hedge, Genz, Trigg etc. I would have to say I would put Monk ahead of those mentioned including Colin. Ditto Roy Trigg who seemed more of a fighter from the back-and compared to Colin always did better at Somerton Park as I recall. I would rate Colin along the lines of , as mentioned, Dave Younghusband and perhaps also Jack Kitchen, Wayne Briggs and Peter Vandenberg(but behind George Hunter). I know Colin was a star in PL but am not sure he ever made the PLRC Final. What say others??

Don't know about Chris Slabon, but for sure Robert Slabon-who was a World Finalist- raced in Canada-in fact I saw him at Welland a number of years ago. Also Kyle Legault who raced I think at Sheffield-saw him at the Canadian Championship at Paris a number of years ago-one of the best meetings I ever saw- Legault came over to defend his Canadian Championship , won every race and broke the Paris track record, although there was a Canadian who gave him a run for his money-a guy called (I think) Aaron Hesmer.

Think you are right Sidney-I referred to the excellent book "Tragedy" by TMC and on p.128 it confirms that-apparently Kenny didn't have any use for Penhall, Bobby Schwartz and Dennis Sigalos.but got along with the Morans.

Enemies- Ivor Brown and Ivan Mauger in the Provincial League. Clive Featherby and Ronnie Genz(and just about everybody). Peter Collins and Kenny Carter, also Kenny Carter and just about any American.

Blimey- I know where the Cold Harbour is-I thought the Swindon Autodrome might have been a new name for the Abbey Stadium-do the Robins still race at Abbey-which I fondly recall visiting (good crowds there) in 65 thru 68??

Wasn't there a pub called the Cold harbour nearby??

That's fascinating gustix and thanks for posting it-no wonder Ron Johnson could afford to live in a posh London hotel-how did he let all that dough slip thru his fingers?? Like some footballers today I guess. I imagine by the mid fifties the points money had really dropped-quite apart from less jobs available. I guess big money today is made in the Grand Prix and Polish league racing -not the UK leagues.

Thanx Arnieg -most interesting stuff on the PL and NL attendances in 1964- I would guess the 1965 attendances went up and were even higher with the merger into the BL, were there some big say +10,000 crowds in 65? Was interested in the poor attendance at Oxford in 1964-after all they were all powerful that year. My impression now is that crowds of less than 1,000 may occur -unthinkable back then!! How on earth do the tracks keep going-guess you have to go to Poland to see big crowds at League meetings these days!!

Both whitenight both Don't know why there is a line going thru' my response!! but my comment stands- More on this subject-does anybody recall the TV show "Tonight" with Cliff Michelmore, sometime in 1963 there was an item on speedway -Michelmore was at a track and the gist of the piece was that more people went to see tracks where there was more exciting racing although they had less famous riders-clearly he must have been talking about the Prov. league vs. the Nats.. Anyone recall this, further does anyone recall the size of the crowds at the Prov. League (best league ever) in 1964??

Gustix's topic of 80,000 attendances in 1946 got me thinking of attendances in 64-65(the golden year). I have the idea that attendances greatly increased in 1965. For example in the Star of 4 Sept 1964-the report on the British Final at Wembley said the attendance was 32,000. This was a big meeting as the qualifying riders went to the World Final, so 32,000 doesn't sound that great for that time. (BTW and off topic-the meeting report -presumably by either Paul Parish or Philip Rising-was most erudite and in perfect English-which IMHO shows how the usage of the English language has declined since then). As many will recall that was the year that Brian Brett had led the qualifiers to the British Final and was considered a certainty to get to the WF and maybe even become British Champion-but crashed out-who would have thunk it.!! Anyway getting back to 1965- and I'm talking about meetings at tracks other than the Wembley World Final - does anybody know what the big attendances were. For example at Newport (and thanx for bringing it up billybikes)- at the GB v. Soviet test of 1965 -the place was packed to the gills-no question-maybe 20,000 ,10,000, who knows. The stadiums I went to in 1965 e.g. Swindon, Cradley Heath always seemed packed -in my view at least to the level of third Division soccer or maybe more. Does anybody know the size of the crowds in those halcyon days.?? Wish we could bring 'em back.

yup billybikes was at Somerton for the Russian test-July 16th 1964, as you say huge crowd packed in like sardines.-Plechanov scored 12 in the 4 rides he completed-my program says he retired in two of them. Real eye opener was Kurilenko-beat Charlie Monk in his first ride and then Briggo in his second. I of course remember the Cromwell Road end-me and my mates used to try and stand near the start line-I think the starting gate changed from one straight to another at some point. I remember street parking was easy then-less people had cars. We always parked on Oliver Road which ran into Cromwell Road (guess both streets named after Oliver Cromwell) As folks have pointed out many riders didn't like Somerton , but one guy who always put up a good show there was Roy Trigg with Hackney. (wish Roy had made it to a World Final). Great times.

' Ang on a minute billybikes -don't knock poor old Somerton-ah the memories!!!-the trains to London and elsewhere speeding by on the railway track which you could see above the fence, the lights at night from the suburban houses on the hill behind the Stadium., the Newport County Supporters Club hut behind the main stand where after paying a 5 shilling membership for the season you could go in and glug down Whitbread Trophy!! Now all gone-no more Somerton Park, no more Newport Speedway and even no more Whitbread Trophy beer!!!! Wot's the world coming to!!!! I subscribe to the theory that there are three sorts of people in this world. "One group makes things happen", "a second group things happen to" and a third group asks " wot the f***s 'appening"- I am in that third group.

Also gotta say the Green and white CH for Cradley-wished they'd kept that throughout-found the Heathen type jacket too fussy.. Re the Dukes-liked their 1965 jacket and wished they hadn't changed to the stylised elephant head in later seasons. Don't even get me started on Newport-liked the black and amber quarters and thought the later jackets with stylised wasps(White Anglo Saxon Protestants shurely) also too fussy.

Just checked it out and in my case it was the 11th of June 1965 at Somerton Park Briggs v. McKinlay which Barry won 2-0. Noticed from the program they also rode in the second half-both won their preliminary heats and then in the Final Barry beat Ken again

I should also have mentioned the iconic skull and crossbones of the Pirates .

Is the Slabon you mention the Pole Robert Slabon??If so he got to a World Final, he now lives in Canada and I saw him ride at Welland Ontario-he looked pretty good compared to the opposition he faced here!!

I'm thinking here of the sixties of course. I always liked the simple race jackets- Newport (obviously) with black and amber quarters , ditto the Bears with red and white. I think Oxford had blue and yellow quarters with a diagonal yellow stripe, Hackney with blue and red quarters with a gold diagonal strike. I think Exeter had green and white halves with a black falcon-and of course the great Cradley jacket of green and white halves with the bold CH. And don't forget the black and white Diamonds-really stood out Another one to me was the Sheffield Tigers of 1965 race jacket. Don't like the modern jackets one bit-this is also my view of modern football uniforms too!! Any thoughts on this.

That's great BL65- I managed over 30 in 65, but sadly had no transport (or money)-did you keep all the programmes (like me)-which tracks did you go to on a regular basis- I would guess CH and Wolves and maybe Coventry- a lucky guy indeed. Did you get to all of the tracks at one time or another in 1965? I'd forgotten Plant was in the Leicester team in 1968-any memories of Malcolm Shakespeare spring to mind? Seeing the six tracks a week makes me think I should have stayed in the UK for a few more years.

Re Sid's question on Brannefors, Hughes and Strachan. Can't help on Brannefors as he joined Newport after I had emigrated (August 1968), Strachan I saw about 3 times for Newport in 68 but chiefly recall him as a Pirate-solid middle order guy and a pleasant fellow. Bob Hughes I recall well - firstly as a second halfer then going to Wasps first team-I think when Vic White left for Belle Vue. If you go to the excellent Defunct Speedway Tracks website run by John Skinner and look at the Newport section there are lots of interesting photos- there is one of a reunion of Newport riders and Bob is on that his hair now white (whose isn't!!). Think the photo is a few years old as Alby Golden and Ken Vale are both on it-now sadly passed. Also the A-Z of Speedwat Riders website has details on Bengt Brannefors career-also sadly gone. Anybody know where Mike Keen and Clive Hitch are these days??. Re Graham Plant-think I recall him being in the second half at Leicester in 1968-could be wrong though-I recall Malcolm Shakespeare from the same time frame. Speaking of Leicester at Blackbird Road it really bothers me how these great venues have been demolished-see that Brandon is going too-so I think all the stadiums of the NL in 1964 are gone except maybe the Abbey stadium in Blunsdon-wotta drag!!!!!!

' Ang on Norbold that was the exact outfit you were wearing at the British Final in 1965 also!!

Read with interest your post BL about Wolves end of season run- I had totally forgotten that, they ended up 7th I notice -one place behind the Wasps I ent back and read the report of the meeting in the Star and you are right -there are comments made about the quality of the racing-including PV being overtaken by Sweetmanand partner after a lightning gate. I see Alby Golden prevented a whitewash (no racist comment intended) and even then that was because Jim Airey had been bumped into the fence by Geoff Penniket who then dropped out due to e.f. Blimey BL65-you must have attended a whole pile of meetings in 1965-how many do you reckon? Sorry Lucifer- just looked at the 1955 results for the Hammers and though they finished bottom- there didn't seem to be any blowouts along the lines of others mentioned here. -so reckon CHR and norbold have a point here.