britmet

Speaks volumes !

. I put Denzil in because of his 1985 S.A. record, when, after a year in the UK top flight in '84, he went back and collected all 4 senior titles, - SA Championship, SA Open, SA Open Handicap, and End-of-Season Match Race Champ.

. The face is familiar, without looking anything up,I think he was a Scandinavian .............................................................................. EDIT: Just had a dig around , - Bo Josefsson, 1967, '68 - ? t.b.c.

. You should be there today ! - British Championship !

. While postings on another current thread debate whether Mr.A or Mr. B have changed passports or are eligible to compete for a British title, what no one can do is officially change their nationality from English to Welsh or Scottish, or vice versa . ( . . but Ms Sturgeon might change that one day !) EDIT. But wait, - New Cross in '60 & '61. . . .Wasn't the promoter at that time a certain Mr. Hoskins ? Now we realise anything is possible ! Johnnie knew that variety was good publicity.

Harrysson was a Swede.

. We've mooted a British Open Championship in posts above, but we should remember we already have a British league riders championship, i.e. a championship for riders of any nationality riding in a British league. . No point in duplicating that. Its also worthy of note that while some countries have foreign winners of their national championship, (when its an Open Championship,) there are other countries that declare the winner of the national title to be the highest placed national rider in the championship meeting. That's a better proposal than my earlier post, . .and the Cardiff Wild Card would still go to the British Champion, . . ( analogous to what happens now if the new champ has already qualified.)

Top 5 Channel Islanders - 1 - Hugh Saunders 2 - Marcus Bisson 3 - Stefan Dunne 4 - Dave Patten 5 - Terry le Maine

Denzil Kent Mike Ferreria Bert Clark James Haydow Deon Prinsloo David Steen Stan Paulsen Paul Smuts-Steyn I leave you to put them in order.

The RSA seems to have been overlooked, so here's my top 5 South African Riders, - 1 - Henry Long 2 - Doug Davies 3 - Dennis Newton 4 - Fred Wills 5 - Denzil Kent I haven't overlooked Buddy Fuller, but HL and DD at 1 & 2 can't be refuted. Dennis Newton is there by virtue of having the greatest number of SA national senior titles, even though English born: he was naturalised and living there at the time of taking most of them, and was a UK senior league rider at his peak. Denzil Kent was also not S.Africa born, but from Southern Rhodesia, - not sure if he ever took up SA citizenship.

. Okay, that makes Hveem even better than I've credited him to be ! .. . . . or I could say "One swallow. . . ." but I won't. .

(After p.1 I've skipped a few posts, so apols if already stated, but...) Other countries do have non-nationals compete in their championships, - they're Open Championships. Thus far the British Chmpshp isn't. . ..and agreed, its not an FIM matter but an ACU/BSPA matter, . . at which point I shall give up in despair.

, One swallow . . . . . .

. 1 - Eric Chitty, - 3x British Individual Champion, 1940, '41 & '42, at war-time Belle Vue. 2 - Jimmy Gibb comes a long way behind, (by virtue of his immediate pre-war performance.) None of the others merit mention.

There's no qualification on this topic, - Top 5 in the UK / British Lge, - OR - Top 5 you've seen - OR - Top Norwegians. . - ? . Leif 'Basse' Hveem's record of successes make's Harrfeldt and Eide look like also-rans. True he pulled up no trees in 1953 at West Ham in just 4 matches, but on the international scene he was unsurpassed by any other fellow countryman, with Norwegian, Nordic, European and World Championship titles on the speedway and Long Track. . His record reads; SPEEDWAY - Norwegian champ 8x ; (Harfeldt 4x, Eide 5x) - European champ 1x ; ( SH & RE - nil ) - Nordic Champ 8x [3 forerunners + 5 Off'l ] ; (SH & RE nil ) LONG TRACK - Norwegian champ 8x ; (SH 3x, RE nil ) - Nordic champ 8+, [3 inter. years winner unknown] (SH & RE nil ) - World Champ 3x [as Euro forerunner] (SH & RE nil ) Whether you saw him ride or not, these figures make the question of the No.1 Norwegian a 'no contest.'

. Whilst acknowledging Pander's form at Oxford, - and I liked his riding style around Cowley - ,in truth he never made it once into a World Final, so I think not.

Results from Somerset, . .Rd. 2 Mark Cossar and Carl Blyth were unbeaten except for an engine failure, - even winning on borrowed machinery in their following race - , and lead the championship overall: M.Cossar & Blyth 29, Cave & Steer 24, Whitelam & Saunters 21, Moore & Pugh 18, W.Penfold & Pay 16, T & W Winterburn 14. . 2 more rounds to go, at Kings Lynn and Belle Vue.. Sidecar Speedway Champions

. TOTALLY WRONG ! It is one of the top 3 reasons why speedway can't be taken seriously today. .

Ditto

. Mark Cossar was unbeaten throughout, with Whitelam conceding only in the final heat (Ht.16) and the Grand Final. . Above link apparently not functioning, so here's the scores. 1st M Cossar / C Blyth 16, 2nd P Whitelam / T Saunters 14, 3rd M Cave / B Steer 11, 4th R Moore / C Pugh 9, 5th W Penfold / R Pay 8, 6th M Stace / K Ivy 7, 7th S Blyth / S Fumarola 7, 8th M Fumerola / G Williams 6, 9th A Cossar / M Chittenden 5, 10th P Wynn / A Cowper-Smith 5, 11th W Offen / S Black 3, 12th T Cossar / R Barker 3, 13th P Johnson / J Farwell 2, 14th J Mogg / J Cutler 2, 15th N Penfold / K Jones n/s, 16th T Winterburn / B Winterburn n/s. .

. Isn't Erik Riss competing this year ?

Action video from the Australian Sidecar Speedway Championship, KurriKurri, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKxJV1R2sAQ .

. There was a rider that never took my imagination, but he so little impressed me that I forget his name. .

British Sidecar Speedway Championship The first round of the 2017 ACU British Sidecar Speedway Championship will be staged at Leicester Speedway next Saturday, May 27th. With over £5,000 of prize money up for grabs, this season's Championship will be competed for over 4 rounds. The top 16 British Sidecar crews on their 1000cc combinations will fight out the championship over 18 races at each event. There will also be Support Class heats. The second round will be at Somerset Speedway on Friday 9th June, round 3 at Kings Lynn on Friday 14th July, and the Grand Final at Belle Vue on Saturday 14th October. A full background to sidecar speedway, including results of all FIM World and European Championships, British, Australian and other national sidecar speedway championships, plus continental Long Track and UK sidecar grass titles can be found HERE

. As has been said, most of the time he was a v.good rider, but what's not been mentioned is his dislike of wet tracks. Colin Pratt was a double-figure or zero points rider, though double most of the time in the '60s .