BL65

Thank you. Four of the ex-Nationals were in a group at the top of the table either way. Two teams were in the bottom three whether injury-hit or injury-free. The rest of the league would have been fairly even in the revised table, with only 7 match points between 5th and 16th. Two extra wins could have seen Wasps at 5th instead of 13th. The rider allocations at the beginning of the season were reasonably successful, but inevitably injuries played a big part in the fortunes of some teams.

Quite possibly it was taken in for that purpose. I don't recall seeing any explanation. Years ago the Control Board had to authorise re-measuring of tracks and it should have been accurate.

Ok BOBBATH, I have reviewed the league meetings from 1965 and if there had been no injuries to the first choice line-ups then in my view a fair number of matches would have had different outcomes and the final league table would have contained one major surprise. Revised outcomes due to injury absence only are taken into account. I saw all of these teams and almost all of the riders during the season. I have taken into account the form of the missing riders and assessed the impact they may have had at the tracks where the meetings were staged. The teams are listed in the order they finished in the table, with revised match points and the league position that would have resulted shown in brackets. 1st West Ham, 47 points (43, 1st) No match points were lost due to West Ham injury absences. Points would have been dropped against Oxford, Wolverhampton, Sheffield and Long Eaton. (Harrfeldt missed 1 match) 2nd Wimbledon, 46 points (40, 2nd) No match points were lost due to Wimbledon injury absences. Points would have been dropped against Coventry, Oxford, Newcastle and Long Eaton. (Hedge missed 3 matches) 3rd Coventry, 40 points (39, 4th) With Lightfoot riding at Wimbledon it is likely the match would have been drawn. Points would have been dropped against Long Eaton. (Mountford and Lightfoot both missed 2 matches) 4th Oxford, 40 points (40, 3rd) With How in the team it is possible that Oxford could have won at home to Wimbledon and away to Poole. An extra point at Newcastle, where the match was drawn, was also a possibility. Additionally, Oxford might have drawn at West Ham. How's extra points would have been cancelled out by Jarman's at Wolverhampton. Points would have been dropped against Sheffield, Cradley Heath and Long Eaton. (How missed 16 matches, Bishop 7, Reeves 1) 5th Halifax, 39 points (36, 7th) No match points were lost due to Halifax injury absences. Points would have been dropped to Swindon and Long Eaton. (Younghusband missed 1 match, Elliott 2) 6th Newport, 38 points (33, 13th) No match points were lost due to Newport injury absences. Points would have been dropped to Swindon, Cradley Heath and Long Eaton. (Biggs missed 1 match, Bradley 14, Erskine 3 and Hughes 2) 7th Wolverhampton, 37 points (34, 10th) With Jarman present the home match with West Ham would have been won rather than drawn. Ron How’s presence at Wolverhampton might have been enough to win the match for Oxford, but if Jarman had also been riding the match would still have gone to the home team. Points would have been dropped to Newcastle and Long Eaton. (Jarman missed 7 matches, Sweetman 3) 8th Hackney, 37 points (37, 5th) If Pratt had ridden at Edinburgh a 2 point defeat would have been turned into a victory. Points would have been dropped to Long Eaton. (Davies missed 2 matches, Pratt and Byford 1) 9th Exeter, 36 points (35, 9th) No match points were lost due to Exeter injury absences. A point would have been dropped to Long Eaton. (Cowland missed 1 match and Blewett 3) 10th Poole , 35 points (35, 8th) If Mudge had ridden at Edinburgh a one point defeat would have turned into a victory. Points would have been dropped to Oxford. (Gilbertson missed 3 matches, Mudge 6, Smith 2) 11th Sheffield, 34 points (34, 11th) If Kitchen had ridden at Oxford a 5 point defeat would probably have become an away win. The inclusion of Crane would almost certainly have enabled Sheffield to take a point off West Ham in a home meeting. Points would have been dropped to Cradley Heath and Long Eaton. (Kitchen missed 1 match, Crane 8) 12th Newcastle, 33 points (32, 14th) With a fit Mauger instead of Brett, Newcastle would have probably gained a point by drawing at Cradley Heath and would also probably have drawn at home to Wimbledon, gaining another point. A one point defeat at home to Wolverhampton would instead have been another victory. Points would have been dropped to Oxford, Edinburgh and Long Eaton. (Mauger missed 15 matches, Craven 1, Dent 4, Sharples 10) 13th Glasgow, 33 points (33, 12th) No match points were lost due to Glasgow injury absences. (Templeton missed 5 matches, Paulsen 13, Mattingley 6 and Ovenden 5) 14th Belle Vue, 30 points (30, 16th) No match points were lost due to Belle Vue injury absences. (Fisher missed 4 matches, Levai 6) 15th Swindon, 28 points (30, 15th) The inclusion of Kilby might have turned defeat into a draw at home to Cradley Heath, as would the presence of Keen at home to Halifax. With Ashby in the team Swindon would have won at Newport. Points would have been dropped to Long Eaton. (Briggs and Ashby missed 1 match, Kilby, Keen and Sampson 4 each) 16th Cradley Heath, 23 points (24, 17th) The draw at home to Sheffield would have been turned into a win with Hockaday in the team. With Brown present, the home meetings with Oxford and Newport would probably have been won. Points would have been dropped to Newcastle, Swindon and Long Eaton. (Brown missed 14 matches, Major 11, Hockaday 3) 17th Edinburgh, 22 points (20, 18th) The inclusion of Templeton would have turned defeat at home to Newcastle into a victory. Points would have been dropped to Hackney and Poole. (Templeton missed 6 matches, McKee 3, Harrfeldt 1, with the other 3 team places mainly covered by 5 regular riders) 18th Long Eaton, 14 points (37, 6th) The home meeting with West Ham would probably have been drawn with Sharp in the team. With Moore in the team the home match with Halifax would probably have been won. The inclusion of Moore and Sharp would have seen the team win at home to Sheffield, away at Cradley Heath and draw at home to Exeter. The inclusion of Wilson, Moore and Sharp would have resulted in a home win over Hackney. The presence of Cresp and Moore should have resulted in home wins over Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Wimbledon and Oxford, a draw with Newport and wins at Swindon and Coventry. (Cresp missed 14 matches, Cole/Bodie 4, Wilson 8, Sharp 23, Moore 32) The title would still have gone to West Ham. The biggest upward movement would have been Long Eaton, from 18th to 6th. Long Eaton had won their first two away meetings of the season, at Edinburgh and Halifax, before being decimated by injuries.

I wish I knew WHO has borrowed my TARDIS.

Thank you BOBBATH. Started out by following Liverpool. At various times over the years I have 'followed' by attending regularly at (in alphabetical order) Birmingham, Coventry, Cradley Heath, Hull, Leicester, Oxford, Peterborough, Stoke and Wolverhampton. There are many other tracks I have visited on numerous occasions, with Belle Vue, Bradford, Exeter, King's Lynn, Long Eaton, Reading, Sheffield and Swindon the most frequent among them.

I believe the record at the end of the 1952 season was 66.0 by Trevor Redmond, set in a match race on 12th September 1951. Speedway Researcher shows Bert Edwards setting a record of 69.4 on 17th May 1952, however this time was bettered the following week but it is not stated on the file to be a new record. The subsequent Aldershot programmes in 1952 continued to show Redmond's time as the record. In the early 1950s the track measurement was stated in the programmes to be 302.6 yards, whereas in in 1959 and 1960 it was shown in the programmes as 300 yards.

Very fortunate, it would have been a very long walk back to either Norwich or London, although hitching a lift was still common practice in those days. I was delayed leaving the stadium at Leicester on one occasion in the 1960s due to being engaged in conversation with Alf Weedon and ended up catching the last train, then missed a connection in Birmingham which meant being stuck there until 6.30 a.m. Happy days indeed.

I have a few 'memorable' experiences of West Ham from 1965 and 1966. In 1965 I attended the league title clinching win at Cradley Heath, when the Hammers won 47-31. This was a re-arranged fixture on 23rd October after the original meeting on 21st August was farcically changed from a league match to a challenge because the track was deemed unfit for league racing after a lot of rain during the day! Then on 30th April 1966 I had to dash from an England v Scotland schoolboys international football match at Chesterfield, which finished at 4.45 p.m. to Dudley Wood for the 7.30 p.m. meeting which the Hammers won 44-33. Another meeting I recall was during the period when the West Ham team was at its peak in 1965, a 52-26 defeat at Wolverhampton in a challenge match on 1st October, a meeting arranged after the teams had drawn 39-39 earlier in the season in the league. The match was remarkable as McKinlay (5), Harrfeldt (5) and Hunter (1) were out of sorts, with Simmons topping the scorechart with 9 paid 10 from 4 rides. To be fair, if the season had started in mid-September it is possible that Wolverhampton would have won the league title. They had a run of league results that started with a 50-28 home win against full strength Wimbledon, a 48-30 win at Exeter after the challenge success against West Ham, followed by a 64-14 annihilation of Newport, a narrow 36-42 defeat at Swindon, then ending with a 56-21 demolition of Glasgow and a 45-33 win over Hackney, the latter two after heat leaderJim Airey had returned to Australia. I remember those events vividly too.

I well remember being stunned at the time at the result of the cup replay, particularly given the circumstances, with Hunter and Harrfeldt both missing. Although this was partly offset by Trevor Hedge being absent for Wimbledon and John Edwards ruled out injured after his first ride, the home team were still expected to win with something to spare. Putting things into context regarding the improvement by Simmons, in his first 18 meetings he scored 8 or more (including bonus points) only 3 times. In the next 8 meetings he achieved this 4 times (from the Newport cup match to the home cup match with Wimbledon). From his sensational performance at Wimbledon onwards he was paid for 8 or more 11 times in 14 league and cup matches. That really illustrates his improved contribution to the team.

Malcolm's league and cup average on 13th July 1965 was 5.67; his average for the subsequent league and cup matches that season was 8.20. An improvement in form had started in the KO Cup match against Newport on 29th June, prior to which his average was 4.70. From the Newport meeting to the day before the Wimbledon cup match he averaged 7.76. That also included away meetings at Wolverhampton, Newcastle and Sheffield, plus home meetings against Edinburgh, Oxford, Poole and Wimbledon, the latter in the drawn cup tie. A lot of credit was rightly given to Simmons for the terrific team results in the latter half of the season, which led to the achievement of the treble (including the London Cup). However, at the time the introduction of Tony Clarke to the reserve slot in August was also acknowledged as being a contributary factor, with his average in league and cup being 4.35.

Although there was a pool of riders to cover for injuries in 1965 some teams fared better than others with their allocations. Newcastle, for example, received World Finalist Brian Brett to cover for Ivan Mauger and were allowed to keep him even after Ivan returned (half fit) to the team. Oxford's replacements did not adequately cover for Ron How. Newport moved Bob Hughes up from reserve and brought in Ray Harris and then Vic White. Dick had a league average of just over 8 points, whereas Harris and White achieved around 4.5 and 5.5 respectively. I do not believe that Wasps would have finished any higher in the league even with a fit Dick Bradley in the team for the rest of the season. After his injury Newport rode 6 home league matches and won them all. Away meetings at Long Eaton and Cradley Heath were both won anyway without him. Away to Swindon they lost 30-48, with Briggs, Broadbank and Ashby all unbeaten by a visiting rider and Dick's presence would probably have not added too many points. Both Gooch and Pander scored maximums for Oxford as Newport lost there by 13 points and again I don't think Dick would have added enough points to have altered the outcome. It is possible that Bradley may have scored enough additional points to turn the 8 point defeat at Glasgow into a draw, but Wasps did use a tactical substitute for his replacement in one ride, so it would have been unlikely. The same applies to the 8 point defeat at Edinburgh. Even high scores from Bradley would not have reversed the outcome of defeats at Newcastle, Belle Vue and Wolverhampton, by 27-51, 23-55 and 14-64 respectively.

But for the injury to Ron How it is not inconceivable that Oxford might have pushed West Ham for the title in 1965. In the final league table West Ham were 7 points ahead on 47 from 34 matches. When How's career was ended by injury at the beginning of July Oxord had 25 points to West Ham's 18, both from 18 matches. Following the loss of How, Oxford brought in Stan Stevens and also replaced Glyn Chandler with Jimmy Heard. Heard averaged 3.56 compared to Chandler's 3.72, whereas Stevens averaged 3.29 compared to How's league average of 10.16. It is possible that with How Oxford could have turned defeat into victories at home to Wimbledon and away to Wolverhampton and Poole. An extra point at Newcastle, where the match was drawn, was also a possibility. The extra 7 league points would have put Oxford level with West Ham. The crucial match would have been the first away league meeting without How, at West Ham, where the Hammers won by 8 points. Stevens scored 4 points and as How's scoring had been at least as good as that of Gooch and Pander, who scored 11 and 9 respectively from 4 rides each, it is highly likely that with him in the team a draw at least might have been secured. This could have left Oxford with 48 and West Ham with 46 points at the end of the season. Lots of ifs admittedly.

Ted Ede was a West Ham junior who filled in for Oxford in the meeting at Custom House, replacing John Bishop. He was a regular in the West Ham team in 1965 and 1966. George Summers was a former Plymouth and Exeter rider who had started the 1964 season with Swindon. He rode in a meeting for Oxford at Belle Vue when Jack Geran was missing from the team.

Born 29th October 1930, died 21st June 2021 aged 90, according to my 'Coventry correspondent'.

There was an outbreak of smallpox in South Wales early in 1962, centred on Cardiff and the Rhondda. By mid-April it was reported that approximately 40,000 (out of 73,000) people in the Neath area had been vaccinated. In the week before the scheduled first speedway meeting two Neath families had been quarantined at home, as they were related to infected people. The Neath v Swansea rugby union match on 12th April was called off, but the Neath v Abertillery game went ahead on 14th April, after consultation with the Medical Officer of Health. There were still occasional reports of cases in South Wales around the end of the speedway season. News archives state that 19 people died (6 in Llantrisant and Rhondda, 13 in Bridgend) and 900,000 in total were vaccinated in South Wales. The outbreak started in January 1962 when Shuka Mia, a traveller from Pakistan, arrived in Cardiff and was diagnosed with the disease.

The opening meeting at Neath on 21st April was rained off, as were the meetings on 19th May and 11th August. There was no track lighting and attendances were not very good, contributing to the decision by Trevor Redmond to stage a number of ‘home’ fixtures at St Austell, where he also staged some open meetings and ‘Gulls’ challenge fixtures. When Neath didn’t open in 1963 Trevor moved the team to St Austell for the season. The first match at Neath was on 28th April, three meetings were staged at the track in May, five in June, only two in July (7th and 28th), three in August and the final one on 1st September, with just 15 meetings there in all. Three of Neath’s fixtures were staged at St Austell in July, one in August (with another rained off) and one in September, so a quarter of home meetings were staged away from Neath, mainly during the holiday season. Neath Abbey Stadium was purpose-built for stock cars in 1954. 15 meetings were staged in 1955, but crowd levels fell and the track closed at the beginning of July that year for improvements to be carried out. A re-opening was advertised for the end of that month, but that may not have taken place as some sources indicate that there was no return of stock cars after 1st July. I believe that the Abbey Stadium site was redeveloped for light industrial use. Trevor Redmond promoted stock cars at St Austell in the 1960s.

Very true. Although Plymouth published the track length as 413 yards in 1969, the Brtish Speedway Handbook stated 400 yards, the same as in 1968, so it's anyone's guess - for now at least.

Jon was with Neath in 1962 and joined Long Eaton the following year. He averaged nearly 7 points per match with Neath, in his first season of league speedway. His record time at Weymouth was remarkable in that it was 3.4 seconds faster than the average winning time for 14 of the 16 heats in the Best Pairs event, in which Jon scored 12 points from 4 rides. The next best winning time was 74.0 and Jon recorded times of 76.0 and 76.8 in two of his winning rides. This might suggest that the very quick time of 72.4 was dubious, except for the fact that he recorded it twice, in heats 12 and 14!

The track record at the beginning of the 1963 season was 72.4 by Jon Erskine on 27th July 1962. This was still the record throughout 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1968.

The track length was 413 yards when the record of 71.0 was set by Goog Hoskin. On reopening in 1959 a lot of track work had been carried out, with the track length becoming 417 yards and a new record was established in heat 1 on 27th March (73.6 by Les McGillivray), lowered twice in the same meeting to 72.0 by Jack Unstead. Ray Cresp set a new record of 71.4 in heat 1 on 30th April 1959 (confirmed in the programme for the meeting in which Craven recorded 70.6). At the commencement of the Provincial League 1961 season the track length was stated in the programme to have become 413 yards once more. Plymouth programmes stated that 'the fastest time' (it does not say 'track record') was 72.4 by Jack Scott on 7th April 1961 (although Speedway Researcher shows this as 73.4). This fastest time was printed in each programme from 14th April 1961 to 21st July 1961. The programme for 27th July 1961 shows a 'new track record' of 72.0 by Jack Scott on 21st July. As this time was slower than Hoskin's time for 413 yards then it is either a new record because (a) the track was now perhaps slightly different in shape to when it was previously that length, (b) it was a new record because it was a different size to when the Craven record as set, or (c) it was a Provincial League track record - I have seen no explanation. The programme for the reopening meeting on 24th May 1968 (postponed and run on 31st May) stated that the track length was 400 yards, hence a new track record was established. For 1969, the programmes showed the track length to have become 413 yards for the third time! Details of record times shown in the programme at the start of the season were 'Track Record 72.0 by Jack Scott on 27th July 1961; Fastest Division II Time 79.6 by Eric Broadbelt and Chris Bass on 5th July 1968. The 'record' time of 80.2 which is purported to have been equalled on 9th May 1969 relates to this matching Mike Cake's time of 80.2 (noted on Speedway Researcher as a record) on 7th June 1968, but this clearly an oversight as it ignores the 'fastest' times set by Broadbelt and Bass a month later. The British Speedway Handbooks continued to state that Jack Scott's time was the record, as printed in the programmes. Peter Craven still covered 4 laps in the fastest time though, whatever the track size.

The spearhead of Boothroyd, Boocock and Younghusband, plus Tommy Roper, gave Halifax a formidable top 4, with good support from the second year Australians Bert Kingston, Dennis Gavros and Bob Jameson, resulting in the British League title going to The Shay in 1966.

For part of the 1964 season the third Hackney heat leader was Len Silver.

Eric Boothroyd rode for Long Eaton in 1964, although his season was curtailed by injury. Bluey Scott was the other heat leader for Middlesbrough that season. Early on in the 1964 season the Long Eaton heat leaders were Boothroyd, Kid Bodie (Howard Cole) and Ken Adams. Later in the season Ray Wilson had overtaken Adams to become a heat leader, before being injured. By the end of the season Norman Storer had become the third heat leader, so in one sense (unless I have missed something), there could be 4 surviving Long Eaton heat leaders. The Archers were blighted by injuries, particularly in 1964 and 1965 when team changes were a regular necessity.

I have a programme showing the time for heat 1 as 80.0 and the programme for the next meeting showed this as the track record.

The races at Belle Vue on 26th May 1962 were not for the Golden Helmet, they were described as challenge races in the programme. Not forgetting the earlier clashes in the Golden Helmet: Belle Vue 20/07/57 GH Peter 2 Ove 0. Norwich 07/08/57 GH Peter 1 Ove 2 Southampton 20/08/57 Peter 2 Ove 0 Norwich 07/05/58 GH Peter 0 Ove 2 Belle Vue 31/05/58 GH Peter 2 Ove 0 Poole 09/06/58 GH Peter 0 Ove 2 Norwich 27/05/59 GH Peter 1 Ove 2 Belle Vue 03/06/59 GH Peter 1 Ove 2 Norwich 29/08/59 GH Peter 1 Ove 2 Belle Vue 05/09/59 GH Peter 2 Ove 1 (included in Sid's list as 05/09/61) Peter Craven won the decider by default as Ove Fundin was unable to ride due to commitments in Sweden. Additionally: Oxford 09/05/63 Peter 2 Ove 0 Norwich 17/07/63 Peter 1 Ove 2 Wimbledon 29/07/63 Peter 0 Ove 2 That gives a total in the Golden Helmet races of Peter 20 Ove 23.