BL65

On the Researcher website, Brian Collins compiled the Barnsley team file and made the comment that the meeting on 6th April 1929 was the first league meeting staged anywhere in the world. However, when Bob Ozanne put together the year by year file for 1929 he included the comment that the Leeds meeting on 29th March was the first league match staged in Britain. The status of the meeting at Leeds as a league fixture was confirmed by press reports at the time and the subsequent inclusion in the league table is correct. The Burnley match at Barnsley was reported in the Lancashire press as being the first league meeting of the season, but this cannot be correct if the Leeds meeting was a league fixture and the Barnsley comment needs to be removed from the file. Brian Collins created a number of files for the website, but not the Leeds one, which was added subsequently using a variety of sources of information.

Providing the 'world service' until 2.00 a.m.

After speedway he set up a haulage business. His father-in-law was a coach operator.

Yes indeed, Johnnie Reason was involved in transactions regarding the purchase and transfer of land (all above board) sold together with the football club's ground at Highfield Road prior to the ill-fated move to the Ricoh Arena.

Johnnie Reason?

Continuing the original list: 31= Peter Craven, Jack Parker, Split Waterman 1.92 34= Jimmy Nilsen, Igor Plechanov 1.90 36 Soren Sjosten 1.87 37 Anders Michanek 1.86 38 Henrik Gustafsson 1.85 39= Brian Crutcher, Bill Kitchen 1.80 41 Peter Collins 1.78 42 Kelvin Tatum 1.74 43 Phil Crump 1.73 44= Jeremy Doncaster, Dave Jessup 1.70 46 Antoni Woryna 1.68 47 Eric Langton 1.67 48= Ron Johnston, Tony Rickardsson 1.65 50 Aub Lawson 1.62

Photo taken on 11th July 1966.

11 Lionel Van Praag 2.21 12= Kelly Moran, Jan O. Pedersen, Malcolm Simmons 2.20 15= Bengt Jansson, Olle Nygren 2.16 17 Bjorn Knutson 2.13 18= Kenny Carter, Tommy Knudsen, Michael Lee, Cordy Milne 2.07 22 Ronnie Moore 2.06 23 John Louis 2.05 24 Sam Ermolenko 2.04 25= Torbjorn Harryson, Shawn Moran, Gote Nordin, Simon Wigg, Jack Young 2.00 30 Per Jonsson 1.97

12= with Jan O. Pedersen.

Jack Young averaged 2.00 and is 25th= with Torbjorn Harrysson, Shawn Moran, Gote Nordin and Simon Wigg. Two ex-Wasps there.

Michael Lee 2.07, 18th= with Kenny Carter, Tommy Knudsen and Cordy Milne. Simon Wigg 2.00, 25th= with Gote Nordin, Jack Young, Shawn Moran and Torbjorn Harrysson.

The top 10 for World Final consistency in terms of average points per ride ( from a minimum of 3 final appearances and excluding run-offs): 1 Ivan Mauger 2.51 (176 points from 70 rides) 2 Bruce Penhall 2.47 (37 from 15) 3 Freddie Williams 2.40 (48 from 20) 4 Barry Briggs 2.34 (201 from 86) 5= Wilbur Lamoreaux and Jack Milne 2.33 (both 35 from 15) 7= Ove Fundin and Erik Gundersen 2.31 (173 from 75 and 104 from 45) 9 Ole Olsen 2.29 (119 from 52) 10 Hans Nielsen 2.28 (171 from 75) Others which may be of interest: 17 Bjorn Knutson 2.13 22 Ronnie Moore 2.06 24 Sam Ermolenko 2.04 31 Peter Craven 1.92 37 Anders Michanek 1.86 41 Peter Collins 1.78 48 Tony Rickardsson 1.65 79 Nigel Boocock 1.24 86 Chris Morton 0.98 97 Tommy Jansson 0.73 From less than 3 finals, Bluey Wilkinson 2.90, Les Collins 2.60, Wally Green 2.60, Alan Grahame 2.50, Gary Havelock 2.40, Sverre Harrfeldt 2.40, Gordon Kennett 2.40, Bob Oakley 2.40, Todd Wiltshire 2.40, Craig Boyce 2.40. In the GP era, Tai Woffinden has scored 946 points from 519 rides for an average of 1.82. This would have ranked 39th in the World Final list, but the formats are too different for a comparison to be meaningful.

The title of this thread could have been longer as Harold McNaughton also rode for Santry (Dublin), High Beech and Cheshunt (at High Beech).

Wolverhampton/Cradlley Billy Hamill, Bobby Schwartz, Bob Andrews, Howard Cole, Bruce Cribb, Brian Brett, Jan Simensen, Andy Grahame, Peter Ravn, Peter Jarman, Harry Bastable, Max Clegg, Ashley Morris, Derek Braithwaite, Errol Brook, Mick Handley, Bruce Cooley, Bengt Andersson, Eric Eadon, Cyril Francis, Guy Allott, Ivor Davies, Eric Irons, Phil Malpass, Roy Moreton, Fred Priest, Derek Timms, Jim Tolley, Les Tolley, Archie Wilkinson, Bill McGregor, Brian Shepherd, Craig Taylor, David Clarke, Les Rumsey, Malcolm Shakespeare, Nigel Wasley

Well before your time, Arthur Noterman won a sidecar race at Custom House on 9th October 1928.

I don't recall pork sandwiches on sale at the track until the 1980s. Fairly certain they were not available in 1965.

According to The British Speedway Handbook, with statistics by Bryan Seery, Peter Jarman appeared in 27 league matches, with 108 rides, scored 221 points, with 14 bonus points, giving a total of 235 points. That gives a calculated match average of 8.70. Jarman also rode in one KO Cup match, at Exeter, scoring 12 plus a bonus point from 6 rides. The total official match figures should, therefore, be 28 matches, 114 rides, 233 points, 15 bonus, total 248 points. This gives a CMA of 8.70. JoeW has pointed out the reason for the error in the History of the British League book.

Except that (a) Trevor Hedge didn't join Wimbledon until 1965, he was still at Norwich in 1964 (b) Trevor didn't ride at reserve in 1964

Consecutive seasons in Britain with a 9.00+ average: Nielsen 16, Gundersen 9 (until injury ended his career), S Moran 8, Penhall all 5 seasons that he competed, K Moran 2 Number of seasons with an average of 10.00+ (not consecutive): Nielsen 13, Gundersen 6, Penhall 3, S Moran 1, K Moran 0 Number of seasons with an average of 11.00+ Nielsen 4, Gundersen 1, Penhall 1, S Moran 0, K Moran 0

Compare the stats with those of another 'magnificent 7'. Ivan Mauger averaged 9.00+ for 14 consecutive seasons, with 11 seasons at 10.00+ and 8 seasons at 11.00+ Barry Briggs averaged 9.00+ in 20 consecutive full seasons he competed (he missed one and virtually all of another), with 13 seasons over 10.00 and 3 over 11.00 Ronnie Moore averaged 9.00+ in 16 consecutive seasons in which he competed (he missed 1957 and 1964 to 1968), with 11 over 10.00 and 2 over 11.00 Bjorn Knutson averaged 9.00+ in 5 consecutive seasons, but only competed in 6 in Britain, with 2 seasons over 10.00 Peter Craven averaged 9.00+ in 8 consecutive seasons until his tragic loss, with 6 over 10.00 and 2 above 11.00 Ove Fundin averaged 9.00+ in 12 consecutive seasons in which he competed (with the commuting Swedes banned from the British League in 1965), with 9 above 10.00 and 4 above 11.00 Ole Olsen averaged 9.00+ in 15 consecutive seasons, with 11 above 10.00 and 3 over 11.00

Looking at the league averages achieved in the top division as a measure of consistency shows the following: The peak years of the seven riders measured by the consecutive seasons in which they attained a 9.00+ average Terry Betts 1966-1977 (12 seasons) Nigel Boocock 1963-1972 (10) Eric Boocock 1965-1974 (10) Martin Ashby 1968-1977 (10) Ray Wilson 1967-1976 (10) Malcolm Simmons 1973-1980 (8) John Louis 1972-1979 (7) - there was a further season when he averaged 8.99 Nigel Boocock and John Louis averaged above 11.00 in one season each. The number of seasons in which the riders averaged over 10.00 in the league was: Eric Boocock 8 Nigel Boocock and Martin Ashby 7 Malcolm Simmons 5 Terry Betts 4 John Louis 4 Ray Wilson 2

Only one real difference in the order - 1. Nigel Boocock, 2. Malcolm Simmons, 3. Eric Boocock, 4. Ray Wilson, 5. Martin Ashby, 6. Terry Betts, 7. John Louis.

Stal Gorzow toured Britain in 1970. The results are on the Speedway Researcher website. I was at the meeting at Wolverhampton on 17th April, which the home team won 46-32. The Stal Gorzow team included 3 riders from the 1965 Rybnik touring team, Woryna, Wyglenda and Pogorzelski.

The letter Q is rare in Swedish. It was commonly used in ordinary words until the late 19th century, when it was replaced by K. Since about 1900 Swedish dictionaries only show common words with a k rather than q. However, proper names kept their Q despite the change made to common words. I recall looking into this in the late 1960s, principally because there were occasional spellings of (Tommy) Bergqvist as Berqkvist and (Hasse) Holmqvist as Holmkvist, whereas when they arrived at Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton respectively their names were recorded in programmes, magazines and newspapers as Bergquist and Holmquist, quickly becoming Bergqvist and Holmqvist. I understand quist is an older version of qvist. As they are proper names the correct version should presumably be Bergqvist and Holmqvist, with the same applying to Malmqvist and Lofqvist.

Looks like Aage Hansen to me.