rami

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.

My best memory of Wiggy was back in 1983, Part of the deal that bought wiggy to Cradley was that Cradley had to agree to take a full strength team to Weymouth for a challenge match, As per normal A coach load of heathens made there way to weymouth for a day out followed by the meeting. When we arrived in weymouth who do we bump into on the go karts - wiggy and Phil collins probably 2 of the nicest and funniest guys ive ever had the pleasure of meeting anyway after wrecking the go karts and taking the mickey out of the attendant Wiggy and Flyer (Phil Collins) decided to go into the joke shop and purchase policemens helmets they then proceded to direct the traffic in weymouth high street and managed to bring it to a standstill !!! one of the funniest things i have ever seen. Wiggy - A super, funny guy, and propbably the most naturally talented alround motorcyclist this country has ever seen - Greatly missed but very very fondly remembered

Yes but Scotts first failure was in a season where he missed a lot of gps because of injury - at the end of the day in my opinion we want the best 16 riders in the gp series - now in my mind and i think in the majority of other peoples minds Scott Nicholls falls into that catagory - and he also happens to be one of the few riders who knows how to overtake and give a bit of excitement. i am curious to know why you dislike him so much.

So in your opinion Scotty shouldnt be in because hes not good enough otherwise he would have qualified, yet your not questioning Lindbacks right to be included even though he didnt qualify either!!. Your unbeleivable talk about double standards, How about you just pick your favourite 16 riders and we will put them in. And by the way Linback isnt half the rider Scott is and if you think he is how about a 50 quid bet on who finishes highest in gp series next year out of the 2 of them

So come on Hands up who lost a fortune on the danes!!!! me for one anyone else??

I dont think so Also remember him crashing at Cradley (think it was in Golden hammer) and when St Johns removed his boot they found lovely painted Pink toenails, Apparently he had fallen asleep on his way to stadium and his girlfriend painted them for a joke ( well so he claimed)!!!! I agree with Grachan a Very good rider but at no stage did i ever consider him to be the best in the world

Personally i think anyone who laughs or cheers when a rider falls should be banned from every stadium in the land, no matter how much you dislike a rider we should always respect the risks they take entertaining us, something i appreciate more than most having lost my best mate to this sport. With regards to Andy Galvin, having spent a bit of time at Arena in 88 and 89 i would describe Andy as a hard but fair rider who would in my opinion have gone a whole lot further in our sport without the horrific injuries he picked up, - off track having spoken to him a few times i have to say i always found him to be a really genuine nice guy.

Jim - Thats a cracking Picture of bruce, you must have a superb picture collection, Have you got any of Wayne Garratt?

Put me down for a copy Jim when its done, Dont suppose you can do one of Bruce Penhall aswell so i can have prints of my two all time heroes on the wall!!!

Thanks Jim - You ever considered a painting of The Great Dane, Im sure it would be a good seller

simon cross, jimmy nilsen, lance king BTW Jim your prints are absolutley superb but how about one of Erik Gundersen, would love one of them for my living room wall

Think you will find its Brian Karger in Yellow, definatley not Gert Handberg

red - Paul Thorp white - ronnie Correy y/b - Hans Nielsen blue????? - maybe mikael Blixt

What happened to KM videos are they no more? Can there back catalogue still be purchased or do they no longer hold the originals? i would imagine they have some really good stuff from early 80's

can i have a copy aswell please martanwend@hotmail.com cheers

Dont think there was much apparently about it Briz - Hans definatley wiped TK out big style couldnt understand at the time how Tommy was excluded ( was at the meeting and it was a long way to go for Erik to have a disaster - But typical of the great man he is he actually came on the cradley coach after the meeting to apologise to us for his performance) and having watched the meeting since its still blatant Hans wiped him out But as you said all four of these great danes are legends and all sadly missed in our sport

Superb read again, loved the Martin Goodwin interview brings the happy memories flooding back

Don't spoil it for me Rami. To me Tommy won that race <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Im sorry to shatter your illusions but i have watched this meeting so many times that ive worn the tape out ( got it transfered to dvd now!!!) and Bruce clearly won the race by a mile!!! lol (nothing to do with me being a cradley fan and Bruce being my all time hero honest) But as i also said i think In my era of watching speedway Tommy was the best rider never to win a world final, also watched a few videos recently of the coventry v cradley meetings from the early 80s and TK was truly awesome around Brandon ( no where near as good as Erik mind !!!!

Am i missing something here!!! Tommy didnt beat bruce so how should he have won this world final????? But i must admit in my time of watching speedway Tommy was probably the best rider never to become world champion ( along with The Late Kenny Carter who but for tragic circumstances would surely have become world champion - and thats damn hard for a cradley/Penhall fan to admit!!!!)

Terry was a right character, he told me once he was the first mechanic ever to get banned from a stadium when rob was riding for canterbury ( cant remember the exact details you might know shazzy - but think there was some punch up possibly with one of the chessel brothers) Rob new he could pull all sorts of stunts on the track because if there was ever any trouble terry would sort it out!!! The first and last time i ever got totally drunk was on a northern tour with terry he got me totally bladdered and he didnt look like he had even had a shandy!!! Great bloke though next time you see him or Rob shazzy tell them rami bodgers mechanic sends his best

Cliv Clav glad you appreciated Bodgers time at arena, Wayne loved his home track at cradley but i know for a fact that waynes happiest times in speedway were the 2 seasons he had at the arena, The fans were first class and the whole atmosphere at the place was superb. That along with Peter Thorogood as manager and his best buddy Martin goodwin as skipper was the ingrediants for some great times.

I was lucky enough to mechanic for The Late Great Wayne 'Bodger' Garratt during his 2 very happy years at arena and the highlight of the season without doubt was the northern tours, With messrsTilbury,Humphreys,Goodwin,Thorogood,Garratt and of course Robs brother big Tel a superb laugh was always gauranteed, but this is a family forum so most stories could never be told!!! I would also like to know what these guys are upto now if anyone knows, also Kevin Brice one of the nicest guys i ever met ( I heard he was living in Newcastle but not 100% sure)

Im amzed how can people defend what he did, maybe they should get the dictionary out and look up SPORT. We all know the ref made mistakes and we all know Sweden deserved to win but what he did was completley wrong and if an englishman had done the same thing i would still be saying the same, Andersson has obviousley never heard of the saying dont bite the hand that feeds you and if i was in charge at ipswich im afraid hed be on the first boat back to denmark.