tigerowl

The Poles aren't too bad as there seems to be some Polish historians who keep records but the Russians from the late 60s might be an issue. Chunky has posted about Joel Jansson but if anyone has any info on Olle Andersson and Ulf Ericsson it would make things easier for a while.

Thank you.

I've had a look at this today and it does get more difficult as time goes on as there are a number of Swedes who rode in World Finals who I haven't got a date of birth for and I don't know if they are alive or not but my best guess would be: 1. Arthur Payne 30.8.1924 2. Dick Bradley 28.11.1924 3. Chum Taylor, 4.4.1927 4. Eric Boothroyd, 26.4.1927 5. Derrick Close, 13.5.1927 6. Billy Bales, 6.6.1929 7. Olle Nygren, 11.11.1929 8. Rune Sormander, 29.11.1929 9. Jack Geran, 10.12.1929 10. Ian Williams, 4.8.1931 11. Per Tage Svensson, 16.10.1931 12. Peo Soederman, 29.10.1932 13. Ove Fundin, 23.5.1933 14. Jim Lightfoot, 11.11.1933 15. Dan Forsberg, 25.3.1934 16. Josef Hofmeister, 25.6.1934 17. Brian Crutcher, 23.8.1934 18. Mike Broadbank, 25.9.1934 The three Swedes who may be on the list are Olle Andersson, Ulf Ericsson and Joel Jansson but I haven't got enough detail to include them at the moment.

BARSBY, Charles Robert (Charlie) Born: April 29, 1930, Lowesby, Leicestershire, England.* Charlie was an exciting and occasionally wild riding performer who devoted the whole of his racing career to his local club, Leicester. He started his career at a Wilf Jay Training School near Chesterfield and had practice rides at Sheffield before making his debut for the ‘Hunters’ in April 1952. Once established in the side he cemented his place with a string of heart warming shows but his hectic style upset many rival riders and fans alike. Charlie’s best season came in 1956 when he finished with an average of 6.27 points per match, a figure which put him third in the ‘Hunters’ averages behind Ken McKinlay and Gordon McGregor and included twelve paid double figure scores. That winter he travelled for a racing season in Australia but suffered a fractured skull in a track accident and a combination of the recovery from the injury along with the fact that Leicester were now a top flight club meant his scoring never reached the same levels again. Charlie managed to retain his immense popularity at Blackbird Road and retired after ten years with the club had seen him make 239 league and cup appearances. 1952 Leicester NL2 44 92 82 18 100 4.35 1953 Leicester NL2 36 138 178 22 200 5.80 1954 Leicester NL2 20 74 87 10 97 5.24 1955 Leicester NL2 34 143 158 26 184 5.15 1956 Leicester NL2 32 169 225 40 265 6.27 1957 Leicester NL 19 69 49 17 66 3.83 1958 Leicester NL 12 43 37 9 46 4.28 1959 Leicester NL 12 48 40 11 51 4.25 1960 Leicester NL 19 57 51 13 64 4.49 - 1961 Leicester NL 11 39 40 8 48 4.92

Got my April 4 copy today. Fantastic as usual. Incredible effort to keep the mag topical and interesting in these times. Full credit to all those involved and my appeal to everyone would be SUBSCRIBE!!! KEEP THE STAR ALIVE.

Hi everyone - Matt Jackson from the Speedway Researcher here. I know these are difficult times for everyone and there is no speedway to take people's minds off things. I am also aware that a lot of Speedway historians are of 'advancing years' and might be stuck in the house with not much to do, hence my offer that I will also post on the Researcher website on the next update. I have recently retired and have also got a bit more time on my hands which I will try and use up by updating the Researcher as often as I can. However, if anyone is interested, I am offering to help anyone with any projects that they have where they might be missing some information. I am thinking about heat details, match reports, race times, averages, rider profiles - that sort of thing. As well as the stuff that is on the Researcher site, I have at least one magazine covering every week from 1946 onwards and loads of pre-war stuff. I also have a record of every rider who I can find to have ridden in a meeting in the UK from 1928-46 inclusive, and everyone who has ridden a league or cup match since then. I am expanding this database to try and include all official meetings year by year as I go forward. If anyone wants any specific information about a rider, meeting, team or event, I am willing to help. I obviously won't have everything but I should be able to help with most enquiries. I hope that this will help to relieve the boredom for people until life returns to some sort of normality. The best contact is by email which is mattjackson68@btinternet.com Matt

Really shocked and saddened to hear this news. Danny was a bit of a throwback to the entertainers of years gone by and will be a huge loss to the sport. I think we all knew that he would never be a World Champion but if Danny was riding at my local track I would have made an extra effort to go and watch. I never had the pleasure of meeting Danny but he always seemed like a lovely guy and i would offer my condolences to his family and friends who will feel his loss a million times worse than all of us. RIP Danny

Roman was a superb rider and one of the most entertaining riders I have ever seen in nearly 50 years of watching the sport. I honestly would have paid to watch him ride round on his own. He was brilliant in those two years when the Tigers were last in the top flight and a couple of times won run-offs for the bonus point against all the odds. From memory, Jimmy Nilsen and Chris Louis were two of his victims. I also recall Alan Grahame trying to get round the outside of him on the third bend at Owlerton in a last heat decider and Roman just didn't turn, forcing Alan to slide off, throwing his race shirt into the crowd when he won one of the bonus point run offs and conning someone into touching the tapes and punching the air when his rival was excluded. Thanks for the memories Roman. RIP

Kurtz, Kilemand, Wright, Pedersen, Holder, Grajczonek... Looking forward to some classic Aces v Tigers battles this year.

Come on Skidder. Look at the reaction on here to Nicki's signing. Surely this is the way forward to attract back some of the missing fans (I hope so anyway!!)

Wow. That's all I have got to say.

Jordan has a higher NL average than Kyle Bickley, Connor Bailey, Danny Phillips, Jack Smith, Luke Harris, Drew Kemp, Ryan Kinsley, Jason Edwards, Joe Lawlor, Tom Perry and Connor Coles. I think he might be ok.

It's hard to compare the one-off final and Grand Prix eras but I think Tai winning three Grand Prix world titles puts him at the top of my list. I'm not sure that either of the PC's would have won three Grand Prix titles and Price and Williams were Wembley riders when the final was held on their home track. Neither were that dominant in league racing. When Tommy won in 1949 he was 8th in the league averages and Freddie was 14th in the averages in 1950 and 7th in 1953. There is an argument for suggesting that neither would have been World Champion if the final had been held elsewhere. My list would be 1. Tai Woffinden 2. Peter Craven 3. Peter Collins 4. Michael Lee 5. Mark Loram 6. Freddie Williams 7. Gary Havelock 8. Tommy Price

Thanks for the Speedway Researcher plug (and the compliment) Matt

I never saw Clive ride but I was lucky enough to interview him for the Owlerton Legends book a few years ago. I wrote to Clive and he invited me to spend the day with him - he was living in a luxury caravan at the time on a farm near Norwich. I was a bit nervous as I had only heard stories about what a hard rider he was but I need not have worried. Clive was one of the nicest men you could wish to meet and could not have been more helpful. It was a fantastic day and we kept in touch for a while afterwards, including him finding me at Owlerton one Thursday night when he was visiting. R.I.P. Clive, a true Owlerton Legend and a gentleman.

KWOCZALA, Stefan Born: June 15, 1934, Czestochowa, Poland. The second Pole to join Leicester under a scheme where the Polish authorities allowed riders to race in Britain for a year to gain experience of the smaller tracks, Stefan had the difficult job of replacing the hugely popular Marian Kaiser at Blackbird Road. He was a member of the Wlokniarz club in his home city and had won the Polish Championship in 1959, joining the ‘Hunters’ the following spring. He was a robust and sometimes wild rider who upset some opponents with his hard charging tactics but proved to be a popular member of the side with the fans at his home track. He not only filled the spot left by Kaiser admirably, he actually outscored his fellow countryman with a series of fantastic displays which saw him among the top 20 riders in the league. His official debut came at Ipswich in a National Trophy match in May and Stefan showed what was to come by scoring twelve, paid 13, from six rides. Although he was never to score a maximum for the ‘Hunters’, Stefan was in double figures in over half of his league and cup matches and ended the season with a superb average of 8.22 points per match to finish as second heat leader behind Ken McKinlay. He also worked his way through the qualifying rounds of the World Championship to reach the Wembley final, joining his compatriots Kaiser and Henryk Zyto in the event. Stefan proved to be the best of his countrymen that night, scoring eight points to finish the evening in a creditable seventh place, the best effort yet by a Pole in the competition. As with the rest of the Polish riders of the time, he was only allowed one season of racing in Britain and returned to ride in his domestic league in 1961. Sadly, he suffered serious head injuries in a track crash in May of that year and, although he made a recovery, the injury effectively spelled the end of his career. Year Club Division M R P BP TP CMA FM PM 1960 Leicester NL 19 90 172 13 185 8.22 - - Individual Honours: World finalist 1960 (7th), Polish Champion 1959. International Honours: Polish international – 3 caps, 16 points.

Star of the show - Danny Ayres. Would love to have seen him at Owlerton and would have been a hero for us. Some of the 'effort' put in by one or two home riders tonight was just not good enough.

I think we need a new set of riders, not a new set of averages. A couple of them look like their heart isn't in it. Cook is a better number 1 than King and that was always going to be the case, but Kyle Bickley outscoring Kemp is not something I expected to see and Drew has, apart from the odd ride, has been a disappointment so far. The big difference for me is the comparison between Rasmus Jensen and Proctor. One looks an inspired signing, the other looks like it's turning into a disaster.

Alan Rivett, Cliff Watson, Tommy Sweetman

Jason Bunyan?

Really pleased to see Birmingham back at a higher level next season. Best of luck to the Masons and everyone connected with the club. Looking back at some of the posts over the last few days, some people on here don't half make themselves look daft!!

It's always difficult when there is a change of race night and it's not going to suit everyone. However, the fact remains that we need to try and attract a new and younger audience somehow. I'm 50 and I often feel like the youngest there. When you used to look at the first bend you could see blue and yellow scarves, now it's grey hair and beige anoraks. If the change of race night starts to attract some kids who can be home before bedtime then all the better. Well done on the team building by the way, it looks a very exciting team and I will be making every effort to be there next season after a bit of a period of apathy.

Great start to the team building. Welcome to Sheffield Drew and well done to the promotion for securing the deal.

I love watching Chris Harris ride but he is so far off the mark with his opinions it is unreal. So Chris wasn't too good at school and needs to ride for two teams at least to make ends meet. Sorry Chris, but can you explain how this is possible on 500-800 fans paying to get in? It seems a large proportion of everyone else in the sport want the doubling up system to end so that the sport can try and regain a bit of identity and credibility thereby attracting new fans and keeping the few that we have but Chris is happy for the sport to be run into the ground as people keep drifting away. I don't think that doubling up is the only issue as to why speedway is struggling but it's certainly one of the main ones and Chris needs to realise that the sport as a whole has got to come first, not the needs of a few riders who do not have the capability or willingness to do something else.

Never mind then. Let's just leave things as they are. Let's have an ever decreasing number of them riding for various teams every night of the week whilst their mates (and I'll mention Joe Jacobs again) having to pack in because he can't get a ride. Let's have fans who want a team to support continue to drift away because they can't take the sport seriously (Chris Harris just missing out on the play off's with Glasgow but winning a league winner's medal with Poole and a cup winners medal with Somerset). Just let things continue as they are and see how many riders can be full time then. The answer will be none, because the sport will cease to exist.