rami

I can confirm that thankfully both Kelly and Shawn are still alive, I wont say they are well because a lot of the speculation about drink problems are sadly true, Shawn is currently living with his mom in a place called adelanto and Kelly is currently in San Diego. The accident that Shawn was involved in was about 2 years ago when he flipped a dune buggy and it landed on his arm badly breaking it to the extent where they thought it would have to be amputated, fortunatley this wasnt the case but Shawn had no feeling in the arm for a long time and even now he only has about 45% grip. Its all very sad that two of the greatest entertainers ever should end up this way.

The rivalry was unbeleivable they really didnt get on at one point a lot to do with Ole supporting Erik, as for who was the best thats another one that is all down to personal opinion, Along with Penhall Erik was my all time hero so maybe im a bit biased but i think week in week out Hans was the better more consistent of the two but when the pressure was on and it really was needed Erik was the man. Personality wise i think Erik wins hands down (no pun intended!!!) a really great down to earth approachable guy.

As for nicknames Ole was The Great Dane, Hans The Main Dane, and Erik was known as either Wunder Gunder or The Black Country Dane.

Jim - If you ever decide to do one of your fabulous paintings of Erik you can put me down for a copy straight away.

Im sure there was a Russ Etherington who used to ride for Arena Essex Juniors when bodger was there back in the late 80s maybe he ws a relation aswell

Same thing could be said for Erik Gundersen - probably one of the safest riders ive ever seen, i followed eriks career from day one and can count on one hand the amount of times i saw him crash.

I did ask him but he refused to tell me but he did say it was ample for what he needed !!! I agree with the other poster Tommy was in my opinion the best rider never to become world champion - oh and Janno was just class

Firstly the rules would not allow all 4 back as it was after the first bend so someone had to be classed as at fault. It is an arguement no one can ever win some beleive Bruce was to blame some feel Kenny was to blame, personally i dont feel Bruce did anything wrong as he was in front and that gives him choice of line - however Bruce was my hero and maybe i had rose tinted glasses on. The main difference is both were great racers but only one had a racing brain (and he wasnt from yorkshire!!!) if Kenny had not gone for a gap that was never gonna be there he would have shut off and cut back under bruce going into the next turn as bruce did to him going into the turn before the crash. If Bruce had falllen on the straight before the crash Kenny would have definatley been excluded for the way he went into bruce, but as i said its all ifs and buts and everyone has a different opinion. one thing that most people do agree on though is that it was Les collins who was really robbed.

We all have our opinions of Bruce just as we have Kenny but if all you can remember about Bruce Penhall is the incident in 82 at white city and him leaving cradley in the lurch then you must have had your head buried in the sand - What he did at white city was probably wrong but he only did what most people would have done in helping his countrymen i think the big mistake he made was making it so obvious maybe he should have forgotten to turn his fuel on or gone through the tapes - apparently rumour has it that the incident had quite a bearing on his descision to retire. As for leaving cradley in the lurch yes it did upset a lot of cradley fans but he gave cradley there first world champion, he led them to there first league title in 81 and he left the club in a damn site better position than it was when he arrived ( i appreciate he didnt do that alone Big Dan Mcormack was also a big factor). Bruce made mistakes, Kenny made some very big ones but the fact of the matter is without any doubt speedway never recovered from the loss of either of them and how we could do with characters like them nowadays, neither of them have ever been replaced and in my opinion never will be.

Sorry but that is complete and utter rubbish - i was a cradley fan at the 82 hammer and yes obviousley we wanted Bruce to win it and yes Kenny was the last person we wanted to win it but so what it was the golden hammer!!! - To say penhalls 2 world titles didnt do a lot for cradley or speedway shows just how little you know. Penhall did more for both cradley and speedway in general in his short time over here than Kenny or most other riders ever did. Yes we loved to give Kenny a hard time just as the halifax fans used to love to hate bruce but to suggest we were jealous of kenny is so far off the mark. Kenny was a great racer and how we could do with a bit of the Kenny / Bruce rivalry in speedway now but as the complete package he wasnt a patch on Bruce imo. Incidentally the 82 hammer you refer to, the reason bruce was messing around as you put it was he was late getting to the meeting and missed his first race so that pretty much ruled him out of winning the meeting anyway then he fell in his next race chasing kenny - the reason he was late was he had been filming the superstars tv programme, just a little bit more publicity bruce got for speedway on national tv but hey he didnt do anything for speedway or cradley!!!

We will just have to agree to disagree then lol!!!, i wasnt there and dont know how much motivation middlo was giving the boys but at the end of the day no matter what he does or says when the tapes go up its down to the riders and im afraid the Brits just arent as good as the other nations at the moment but im sure our time will come, at least middlo gave the youngsters a chance which can only be good for the future Again well done all 4 teams - what speedway should be about, good racing winner not decided until last heat and a bit of controversy thrown in - perfect

I dont think they really under performed they did pretty much as i expected, As SS as said EK, OA, and SS are really nothing more than second string Elite league riders, we all know Rico has been struggling although he seems to be getting it back together a bit lately. Scotty in my opinion despite what people on here have said wasnt to bad. The only really disapointing Gb performance was from bomber. So yes i stick by my original post i dont think any other team manger would have got anything more from the brits tonight

He can only work with the tools hes got and we simply arent good enough no matter who the team manager is, cant knock his selections no one any better to go in.

Great meeting with some superb racing, how i wish we had a track like that in the uk, I just knew scotty was gonna beat Hans in that race. Well done all four teams super entertainment

Thanks for that Ross, A very sad and tragic story indeed.

Im sure that would be an interesting read Ross, please post it thanks

Thanks for that tigerblade, A tragic loss indeed

Just browsing as you do at 1.00 am in the morning and came across this thread, was suprised to see that Craig Hodgson is no longer with us, could anyone let me know what happened to Craig and how long ago did this happen? thanks in advance

Hans Anderson is - A big headed wind up merchant, who rides with maybe a little to much aggression sometimes .......... but he is also a superb rider who dishes it out but can also take it, you dont hear him moaning if someone is a bit hard on him (tonight he threw a tantrum because the ref got it totally wrong - totally understandable in such an important meeting - although his language was a bit strong for live tv, but what do sky expect when something like that has just happened and they shove a mic in his face straight away) The top and bottom of it is in my opinion that love him or hate him the sport needs characters like him and Nicki P and im pretty sure that most of the people who boo him and dont like him would feel very differently if he were riding for there team or country. In fact right now as a cradley fan if we were to re open and i were given the choice there is probably only Crumpie and Greg who i would prefer as a number one to Hans

what difference would Jan Staechman make???? - He didnt have to play any jokers and in all honesty Denmark won because they have got the best riders- so much so they would probably even have won with Ronnie Russel in charge!!!

Yeah but not half as much as your attitude!!!

I might be wrong and im sure someone on here will confirm ---- but if Hans holds the record for fim gold medals it must be more than 22 because im sure Erik won 22, Hans had more individual speedway titles than Erik but Wunder Gunder had 2 Longtrack gold medals and did Erik not win a few pairs/team medals when Hans was left out of the danish team after his fall out with Ole, Well im not sure but im sure someone on here will confirm This goes against the grain for a Cradley fan to agree with a Wolf but i also think Hans was better that trick

And another statistic - Hans was the second best Dane of his era, only Erik Gundersen was slightly better!!!! oops let the debate begin lol!!!

We are still waiting for the next Bruce Penhall and I have a feeling we will be waiting a long long time

Steve - Penhall might have cost us the league in 1982 but he will always be a legend at Cradley, He along with Dan Mcormack transformed cradley from the day he arrived, He helped win our first league title and gave me and many fans our greatest night in the sport in 1981 when he won the world final. You obviousley dont like the American riders and im sure you have your reasons but maybe your tarring them all with the same brush so to speak!! I always speak as i find but i had the pleasure of growing up watching the likes of Bruce, Lance,Greg and Billy- 3 world champions and a world number 3, all four top class riders and very nice people who always gave 100 per cent for cradley. Maybe you should ask yourself what you would have done had you been offered the the opportunaties that Bruce was. One thing is for sure the sport could certainly do with a Penhall in its ranks right now and in my opinion love them or hate them our sport was much better when there were plenty Americans racing over here.