britmet

QUOTE: His Polish team, Rybnik , at the beginning of the 2016 season are surprising many fans. In the opinion of experts, Rybnik as a newcomer to the highest level of the league competition in Poland, were destined to struggle for survival. UNQUOTE. . Only to those with memory problems or to youngsters. Rybnik were Poland's No.1 team in the '60s, league champs 12 times between 1958 and '72, and toured the UK for that very reason. see here.

That's right, back in the 60s all the second half results were given. So the SS&N will be a better bet as prog may have name but not the result, or any rider changes. EDIT, - Yes Gustix, my typos on a tablet touchscreen, now inserted. Apols.

. How come he hasn't got time for 2 mtgs for the British Championship but can manage multiple dates for this ? .

Not so, this is clearly the view of many on here. . Propose those feeling that way email Chapman and Rossiter and advocate TW is not selected for Team GB unless he reverses his decision. How can 2 meetings burn him out ? . .

As well as the FIM Oceania Championship round, Gilman is staging the FIM World Cup, ( both '1000cc Sidecars') . . . on consecutive days ! I suppose as a 'World' event, the latter trumps the Oceania, a supposed 'regional' but Open title, (USA & GB teams participating, and seen by many 'til now as the de facto 1000cc World Championship,) and that, as seen in 2-wheel FIM classes, the 'World Cup' is a forerunner to the re-introduction of the 'World Championship' for the 1000cc machines, as mooted above, . . .but it must be confusing, - and undermine one of the 2 events, - which? - , to juxtapose the 2 competitions, especially if they're running the same field. .

. Great rider, never forgotten, - in World Finals: he and Plechanov coming 4th and 2nd respectively in '64 - , and in the regular GB v USSR Test series from '64 on. . He was also World No.1 on ice in '62, '63, '65 & '67, (initial years as forerunner 'European Cup/Champ' title.) .

. I've sent in an action shot from 1950. Lets all do likewise.

. Malmo: First time round, as a 15 year old school boy in 1961, I wrote direct to the stadium, - maybe enclosing a half-crown (12½p) PO, maybe not, I can't remember - , and got back the programme in return to add to my collection, newly-started that year. In the late '60s, after marriage and 2 kids, - girls were never going to have the same interest - , I sold the lot incl'g that 1961 World Final, with no particular memory of what it fetched, as work and career took priority over speedway. Upon early retirement I renewed my interest and started a limited collection, to include World Finals, and around 2005 the Malmo programme came up on eBay a few time, the going rate the same as the pre-war Finals, at around £200. With objectives fulfilled, last year I started a phased clear out, and one guy sensed what might be coming up next and pre-empted my future auction items. We made a private deal and I got my money back on them! As the Holy Grail of speedway programmes, that'll be the rate, for the days of writing to the track for free programmes are long since gone. You need to sense what's coming, and/or ask quietly around. .

. Neither have I, but I think that's both ways because there can be 2 classes, Rt-hand and Lft-hand s/cars, each having the rider on the inside. So on the continent both solos and s/cars go the same way. .

. I reckon that resolves once and for all how to spell Manny's surname ! .

. I note that the sidecars were going anti-clockwise, just like the solos. Couldn't be very easy, - .. .and perhaps testifies that it was some small operation. . .

. Is that Czech Championship mtg a one-off, or first of several rds ? .

. Established and existing speedway promotions have always had a weighted say about agreeing to another track/promotion opening within a certain radius of their venue. (Such distances have been 20mls or more, and objections upheld.) To propose there be 2 venues in W'ton seems ludicrous, to put it politely. When both would have a common member within each's promotion is even more unlikely. Why would CvS want 2 tracks in one borough? Why would he want to add capital costs (wherever in the Black Country,) to a financially successful operation based wholly on variable cost?

Never forgotten for his time at Cradley, particularly when arthritis gave him a unique straight-leg style, but he kept turning out every week. Many thanks for the enjoyment, Derek. .

. May not have bought into the Gold Cup, but even less so to Play-Offs ! They cost the team a number of League Championships. The NL took a wise decision last season but a backward step this week. It's clear the sport wants a biggy at the end of the season, (purely for the gate,) so make it the KO Cup Final. .

. Do you mean prequel ? .

/ See my posting on the Cradley Forum in Jan. 2010, " Next Generation, - Future Heathen?", almost 6 years ago when he was just 11. . http://cradleyspeedway.proboards.com/thread/496/next-generation-future-heathen Unfortunately the photos and videos there have now expired, but you can Google for others. It was probably 2012 when he had after-meeting spins on a number of UK tracks incl'g Monmore Green. .

. . . .but you may have seen him riding, . . .at Monmore, . . after a 'Dudley' meeting, . . about 3-4 years ago. .

. This is what makes a mockery of a league , - pulling in a SGP rider who's not been willing to ride in the UK for a season but will, for short-term inflated pay, finish the season here, when in effect he and that Sept/Oct team line-up, - you know the one I'm thinking of - , has not been the one that's competed in the league the preceding 5 months ! . There needs to be a rule, - sorry, yes, another but essential rule - , to stop clubs drafting in heat-leaders at the end of the season if they weren't prepared to commit to a full season in a UK league.

]Most of the fans want the plays offs ...it's a small number mainly from people over 55 who don't want them . The over 55s ARE today's Speedway fans. Without them there,d be no speedway

. Absolutely ! ! ! .

Superguest has it when he says 'Double headers' , post #636. But was he thinking the same as me? - 2 Wolves matches ? . . . . or a Wolves followed by a Cradley match. Surely that's the solution to rain-offs. And think of the gate, . . . Not 2 sets of riders pay from one match gate, but 2 lots of fans and double the gate !

Not quite what you sought, but a little bit of info on what happened to 2 of those Oxford Swedes, Samuelsson and Holmqvist: both found success in different ways in Ice Racing I'd been a family pen-pal for a few years when Njudingarna's Conny Samuelsson became a 18-year old success at home by double-scoring in his international debut against Russia in 1967. For a reward, at Christmas that year as his present he got a brand new ice-racing Jawa, so he was racing on shale and ice. (See photo, foot of page.) In '68 he again double-scored, against Czechoslovakia in his one test appearance, and was reckoned to have the fastest motors in Sweden. He joined Oxford in '69 and raced 13 matches, plus just one reserve appearance in the Test Series, at Cradley Heath, (where we finally met up,) but he pulled up no trees, and didn't appear in the UK again. He rode tests for Sweden against USSR in '71 & '72, scoring just a few points. But on Ice he was improving, so that by 1976 he was 3rd in the World Ice Championship, and went one better in '77 when he took the Silver Medal as World No.2, and capped the year with the Swedish Championship. Today Conny Samuelsson is a respected Ice referee at international level and an FIM official. Hasse Holmqvist spent his first 2 UK season with Wolves, sharing a house with Heathen's Tommy Berqvist in Cradley Heath, and the two would often spend free time around Dudley Wood chatting to youngsters like ourselves. In 1970 he was the 'foreign rider' replacement for Samuelsson at Cowley, topping their season's averages at 9.1 and again when he returned in '73. Since those times Hasse has become a much respected engine turner, notably for the most successful of Swedish Ice Racers, Posa Serenius, who's taken the national ice title 22 times, and 2 world championships, mostly on Holmqvist motors, which he reckons would blow if tweaked one more fraction. You can see present-day Hasse in this of Serenius, (at 3m.30s)

. Born in July 1927, Henry Long started riding at age 18 after the war at the Old Barn track outside Johannesburg. He can be seen in action photos from that time with Buddy Fuller, Fred Wills, etc. HERE Age 88, he now lives in Franschhoek, in the Western Cape. .

. Been said on the Fans Forum a few years ago. If you've only got Variable costs to pay out, why burden the operation with a large Fixed Cost outlay of building your own site when some other operation will host you and carry the overheads of a stadium? . Over the decades the likes of Parker, Mole, Thomas, etc. have known and shown that its the first couple of seasons that they (might) make money, and after that attendances usually fall as the novelty wears off, (though a run of successes can prolong it.) That's when they sell off the operation to another new, keen but green promotion/association. .