Tracy Bird

remembering vic today 32 years since he left us

denny morter came from the ipswich area,buttigieg,foot and chaldicot started at the matchems training school in the early seventies, buttigieg i believe was born in malta and was a regular in the poole team in 1973 for a while then he packed in to concentrate on karting.he would of been a very good rider,other trainees at matchems were the better known martin yeates,steve lomas and geoff swindells who with russel foot can be seen at poole on racenights.

why have hart back? were training him up for lakeside,got rid of two out of three riders who are going to improve halsey and resch.i would have got rid of the basebys,their treading water and are never going to get better,also why sign a rider who cant get in plymouths or weymouths side leaving the buccs woefully weak at reserve

dick partridge rode a couple of matches for scunthorpe in 1976 and started 1977 at weymouth but was replaced after a couple of matches by malcolm corradine.

try http;//speedwayresearcher.org.uk/1969.html

jancarz would never have rode with teodorowicz and certainly never rode at norwich and kings lynn opened after teo,s death.

go to www.defunct speedway.co.uk go to a-z of tracks and on the bristol(eastville) page scroll down second photo there is a team line up from 1977 in colour with tom in it and further on down a b/w action photo. i remember tom when he was sponsored by bulmers cider along with malcolm corradine and pip lamb with yellow leathers as seen in the team line up on the grass.one of the nicest blokes you could meet,very down to earth chap and died far to soon.

you forgot tony peasland

spare a thought for vic harding who lost his life 30 years today at hackney 8th june 1979.still remembered as a really nice lad at weymouth.also thoughts for steve weatherley who was badly injured in the same accident.

geoff swindells at weymouth.

ellesmere port (2)72-1 stuart riley,as mentioned much earlier.

the legend that is ted laessing won it in 1968 anybody who remembers ted will find it hard to believe.

met robin martakies at the weymouth training school in the early seventies, i believe he lives in the lake district and was behind the scenes at chris roynons abborted attempt at national league at barrow in 1985.

been moved to kings lynn section page 7.

wimbledon (1) is doug white of kings lynn when their colours were green with a yellow star. wolves(1) 71-1 johannes fransden?

ellesmere port (2) 72-1 stuart riley rayleigh (6) 70-1 nigel rackett teeside (3) 68-1 john spilsbury

cradley heath(1) 71-1 richard eslick grass tracker from cornwell cradley heath (8) 76-1 nigel wasley canturbury(5) leading v weymouth 68-1 barry crowson leading mike vernam.

funny lee richardson contacted eastbourne about returning next year after declaring he was giving gb a miss next year.

saw the goals from barrow v brentford fa cup tie on telly earlier,you would never believe there was a speedway track there once.

got toms autograph at weymouth in 1968 along with other berwick legends mark hall, lex milloy and alec nicol.

yes weymouth beat crayford on the tuesday before with their three juniors in the side and it just shows even with your uni education you still learn something new everyday.

my comment is based on one visit in 1978 to watch weymouth with a patched up team with three juniors including kevin smith,before barry thomas who was a fine site on any track,this team had laurie etheridge,alan sage,alan johns and tony featherstone not the most exciting riders and etheridge and sage . knew their home track like the back of their hand.just wasn,t a good meeting.the stadium was a mini wimbledon and the bar was superb,in fact the coach driver had to drag myself and my two mates out of the bar.unusually this meeting was on a saturday night.

rode in 1970.no doncaster riders rode both seasons,very rare occurrence in succesive seasons.

west ham,looked a huge stadium.nearly went to crewe once while on holiday in north wales,father changed his mind at the last minute. often wonder about tracks that only lasted a few years,romford,doncaster,sunderland,plymouth(pennycross late sixties) and barrow(park road) looked to have fine views of the surrounding countryside.on the mentioned north wales holiday also went past ellesmere port track but it was the year before it opened.i would say the worst track ive been is crayford.

lived at fraddon cornwall,was one of the nicest blokes around off track but on tracktook no prisoners. remember his spell at weymouth, if he gated nobody could pass him,lets say he used all of the track. sadly was killed a few weeks before st austells revival in 1997.remember reading his obitary in the speedway star how he was looking forward to his local track appearing again,a sight he sadly didn,t see.