BL65

25/09 Sheffield - The report in Speedway World stated ' Dent Oliver ran out a brilliant winner, with team mate Wally Lloyd second'. Oliver 14, Lloyd 13, Jay and Langton 11. Speedway News reported the same outcome. The scorechart shown for W Lloyd on the Researcher website is incorrect, the heat results show he recorded 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 not 3, 2, 3, 3, 3. 14/10 Southampton Date and winner confirmed (Speedway World), Green 15, Bob Oakley 14, Bert Cr. 13

15/08 Cradley Heath v Tamworth - CONFIRM DATE Date confirmed from programme and magazines 22/06 Peterborough Best Pairs - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date confirmed from programme, result not known - staged at Eastfield Grass Speedway 10/04 Sheffield Owlerton Trophy - tie between Tommy Bateman & Ron Mason - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Speedway News reported that there was a tie for the trophy, with no decider raced 29/04 Southampton Southampton Trophy winner George Bason - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date confirmed from programme; Bason stated in Stenner's Annual to be the winner, with the date also confirmed therein 27/05 Southampton Speedway Riders Championship QR winner Peter Robinson - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Stenner's Annual confirmed the date and Robinson as the winner 01/07 Southampton - Saints v Team Captains 53-31 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date and result confirmed from programme and magazines 02/09 Southampton v Division 3 Top Scorers 45-38 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date and result confirmed from programme 10/05 Wigan v Norwich rained off - CONFIRM DATE, COMPETITION & RESULT Date confirmed, National League Division 2 (postponed due to the state of the rain-affected track, but a series of races were staged between some of the riders - shades of the first attempt to stage the British League match between Cradley Heath and West Ham in 1965, when the track was deemed unfit to race a league match but the teams competed in a challenge match instead!) 23/05 Wombwell Speedway Riders Championship QR winner Stan Lanfear - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date and winner confirmed in the Stenner's Annual 30/05 Wombwell Best Pairs winners Alf Elliott & Gerry Williams - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date and winner confirmed in the Stenner's Annual

Speedway World 18th May 1949 reported on 'Speedway in Ireland', with the article referring to a recent meeting in which Santry beat a team from England 39-29. Speedway Researcher has a meeting listed for 8th May with the result being Santry 35 English League 37. However, the meeting on 22nd May had the result 35-37 and it looks likely that the meeting on 8th May is the one mentioned in Speedway World, with the score of 39-29.

The answer is provided in an article in Track News Weekly Illustrated Volume 2, Number 2, which stated: North v South Cup To fill in the vacant dates made by the withdrawal of Halifax from the league table a North v South Competition has been arranged, and is to be included in the Third Division fixture lists, with the title of the competition being North v South Twenty-First Speedway Anniversary Cup. The competition will consist of the teams in the third division playing each other in pairs as scheduled below (being divided into a north and south section) once home and away, the winner of each section being the team with the greatest aggregate of race points in its home and away fixture. In the event of a draw the teams shall meet in a deciding match on a neutral track nominated by the Speedway Control Board. The pairings and number of heats shall be in accordance with supplementary Regulation No. 532 in Appendix C to the Speedway Regulations. The final contest shall consist of the winning team from the South Section meeting the winning team of the North Section in one match to be held on a neutral track nominated by the Speedway Control Board and the team scoring the highest points being the winner. Schedule South:- Tuesday, May 11th, Southampton v Hastings; Wednesday, June 9th, Hastings v Southampton; Thursday, May 13th, Plymouth v Exeter; Monday, May 24th, Exeter v Plymouth; Saturday, July 31st, Coventry v Poole; Monday, August 9th, Poole v Coventry. North:- Thursday, May 6th, Stoke v Wombwell; Friday, June 4th, Wombwell v Stoke; Friday, May 21st, Cradley Heath v Tamworth; Wednesday, July 28th, Tamworth v Cradley Heath; Tuesday, August 17th, Yarmouth v Hull; Saturday, August 21st, Hull v Yarmouth.

The meetings involving two-legged contests between Exeter/Plymouth, Coventry/Poole, Tamworth/Cradley Heath and Hanley/Wombwell are referred to in a couple of programmes as the 'Speedway Anniversary Cup'. The Plymouth programme describes the meeting v Exeter as 'Round One'. However, if it was intended to proceed further with the competition then perhaps the greatly delayed staging of the Cradley Heath v Tamworth leg at Hanley might have caused it to fizzle out. The one-leg North v South Cup, with a final at a neutral track, appears to have been a separate competition from the Anniversary Cup.

08/08 Santry 36 Eastbourne Tigers 35 22/08 Santry Saints 40 Hanley 26 05/09 Santry 48 Midland Select 23 12/09 Mike Tams and Vic Pitcher both scored 11. Pitcher beat Tams in the top scorers' race.

Les had his best year in the National League with Rayleigh in 1957, with an impressive season at Hackney in 1964 his most successful at the lower level (Provincial League). He was consistently good in his 10 seasons at The Weir.

15/08 Rye House 53 Eastbourne 31 (Speedway World)

Clive's league average was over 10 in both 1962 and 1963, impressive indeed.

In the excellent book '70 Years of Rye House Speedway' by Norman Jacobs, this meeting is described as the Novice Knock-Out Championships.

Eastbourne 13/06 - Scratch and handicap races (briefly reported in the Sussex Agricultural Express) Match Race - Wally Green beat George Newton In heat 4 of the Eastbourne Handicap, Eric Dunn (Hastings) crashed and received fatal injuries. 27/06 Match Race - Wally Green beat Buddy Fuller 72.2 Arlington Scratch Race - Green, Gray, Fuller, Osborne Eastbourne Handicap - Osborne, Gray, Charlie Dugard Edinburgh - the report on the meeting on 16/10 v Glasgow in Track News Weekly Illustrated stated that this match would "ring down the curtain on Monarchs' first season". It had been announced in TNWI 10/07/48 that the fixture v Fleetwood had been brought forward to 3rd July. Exeter 29/04 - according to the report in Track News Weekly Illustrated there was a tie between Green and Bert Roger for first place Middlesbrough 24/06 - according to Track News Weekly Illustrated Hodgson beat Biggs in a run-off to take the £50 prize for first place Plymouth 29/04 - according to a programme and the report in Track News Weekly Illustrated this was a three-way tie Southampton 20/04 Jimmy Squibb 14, Jock Grierson 13, Alf Bottoms & Bob Oakley 12 18/05 Stan Hodson 15, Bert Roger 13, Cyril Roger 12 01/06 Rained off, following wet weather and a further downpour at 6.00 p.m. Wombwell 28/05 - The winner was Bert Roger with 14 points (Track News Weekly Illustrated)

22/05 Santry 35 English League Selected Team 37 (Reports in Irish Press and Irish Independent newspapers on 23/5/49). The meeting for Friday 29th April was originally scheduled for Sunday 1st May, but according to a newspaper advertisement it was changed as the Midget Car season began at the track on 1st May. The speedway event was to be for a 'Cup presented by the makers of Red-X Lubricants'. EDIT to add: George P. Kearns of Dublin spent a great deal of time researching Irish newspaper reports for his 2009 book 'A History of Speedway - The Dublin Experience'. He discovered very little relating to the 1949 season at Santry, with no reports found at all in the week following this meeting.

21/07 Edinburgh Press Charity Gala Sports Night scratch races - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Appears to have been demonstration races between three riders only. 16/07 High Beech v Bishops Stortford - DATE & RESULT 16/07 Rained off (programme) 16/07 Hull - date only - did anything take place? Speedway World advertised an ‘open’ meeting the week before, but no match reports in weekly magazines suggest nothing was staged. EDITED to add: The Hull Daily Mail, 15th July 1949, carried an announcement saying 'Hull Speedway Ltd regret they have been unable to arrange a match for this week. Next home match v Exeter on July 23'. 21/05 Rayleigh World Championship QR - Tie between Alan Hunt & Will Lowther - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Hunt and Lowther tied for first place (Speedway News) 15/05 Rye House Best Pairs - CONFIRM DATE & WINNERS 15/05 Winners Ken Smith & Harold Bull 12points, 2nd= Reg Fearman & Ken Osborne and George Bason & Ernie Saunders 10 points (Speedway World) 05/06 Rye House Whitsun Trophy - CONFIRM DATE & WINNER 05/06 16 heats, 2 semi-finals and a final, won by Alan Briggs from Allan Kidd, Stan Bedford and Harold Bull in 67.2 (programme) 15/05 Southampton - practice - winner: Welch - CONFIRM DATE, EVENT NAME & WINNER Should this be 15/03? Speedway Echo reported that ‘in the recent trials Cecil Bailey carried all before him in his races’. There was no mention of Welch, or of a competition, in that report. 08/08 Wimbledon World Championship QR - Tie between Aub Lawson & George Wilks - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Lawson beat Wilks in a run-off, 70.4 (programme)

Local newspapers advertised the venue as 'Northampton Speedway, Kettering Road', with the comment that 'all keen motor cyclists should join the Northampton speedway and have the privilege of practising on the Finest Dirt Track and Grass Track in England'.

Quote from the excellent book 'Speedway in Scotland' by Jim Henry and Ian Moultray: 'The pioneer Broxburn track did not even get the length of staging a meeting. This 436-yard track was the pioneer shale track built using waste retorted oil shale used to surface the modern day Scottish venues. In 1929, an impromptu race between Drew McQueen and Sam Reid at a motorcycle club event lasted two laps before Reid fell.'

There is a clue on the Glasgow files for the 1970s and 1980s on the Speedway Researcher website...… compiled by Dave Allan. I believe has previously explained on the forum that he is working on updating the fixture details on lists taken from the website for each season. No doubt the results of his work will be shared there in due course.

Points to consider It has been estimated that most of those who use the BSF are only interested in modern times. I imagine there is no data to quantify or substantiate this view. However, is that relevant? Is Dave Allan checking and compiling information in order to eventually share only with members of the forum? Maybe the purpose behind the research which he is doing is to tidy up and add to information already compiled, or in the process of being accumulated elsewhere, i.e. on the Speedway Researcher website. Those people who look at the information on the Speedway Researcher website are surely not confined to membership of this forum. I wonder what proportion the members of the forum amount to out of all of those people who have a current or past interest in the sport and do (or may at some point in the future) refer to the Speedway Researcher website. Also, the Speedway Researcher has the stated aim of ‘Promoting Research into the History of Speedway and Dirt Track Racing’. It covers the sport from its introduction in the UK until the present time. The website will, therefore, no doubt be of interest to a proportion of current followers of the sport, even if only in some instances for very recent years. It is important to observe that what happens today becomes tomorrow’s ‘history’. Regarding the accuracy of detail, if something is worth doing then it is worth doing well. If nothing is recorded for posterity in an easily accessible format purely because it is ‘too old’ then, taking extreme examples, future followers of the sport would have a less clear idea of the number of times an individual won titles or a team won cups or championships. Future participants could have less-clear ideas as to how much they needed to achieve if they aspired to become more successful than past competitors. Debates often take place about whether a rider was better than a rival, or which rider achieved more in the course of their career. Throughout its history the sport has been founded on numbers and statistics, whether match points, individual meetings where qualifiers or winners have to accumulate most points at some stage, or regarding averages. Long before the system of points limits for team building purposes was introduced, averages were used to determine which riders would be at reserve or named as supplementary reserve in a team. Statistics, whether the number of points scored or averages achieved, allow comparisons to be drawn. They form a useful basis for reasoned debate. The more accurate the recorded information is the more likely it is that reasoned opinion can be supported by interpretation of fact. It could be interpreted that there appears to be an isolated misconception that Dave Allan is merely sharing information, where he has noted inaccuracies or absence of detail, for the purpose of ‘educating’ forum members, whereas it is inescapable that what he is actually doing is seeking the support of forum members (through the designated ‘Years Gone By’ section) in attempting to correct such inaccuracies and obtain the required information.

Speedway World June 7th 1950 included a report headed 'Lorry on fire spoilt match'. The report continued: The High Beech team's first proposed visit to Scotland ended disastrously. On the way north the transport lorry caught fire at Leicester and the Londoners had to call off their match with Bothwell Bulls. At short notice a challenge match was arranged against a Glasgow selected side and after 14 closely-contested heats of racing the Bulls won their first real test by two points, 41-39. Highest scorers were the two White City novices, Willie Gordon and Gundy Harris and Jim Black and Bob Lindsay, two of the lads that have done a big part of the work towards getting the Bulls properly started as a racing outfit on their home-made track.

I have noted that the result of Hull v Southampton on 09/10 is shown on Researcher as 47-36, but Stenners and the PM book have 47-37 - I suspect that Alf Kaines remounted or pushed after falling in heat 1 in order to account for the additional point. Researcher has the match score as Hastings 47 Southampton 33 on 02/06, but the heat details show 47-36, which is confirmed by Stenners and PM. The other results on Researcher team files appear to match the scores in the annual and book.

The table in the Stenners annual has Poole 1761.5, but the PM book shows 1760.5, Stenners and PM show Southampton 2113.5. The PM book has the same table as on the link. The Speedway Researcher site shows a match score of Hull 58 Poole 25 on 03/07, although the heat scores show 58-24. The correct score is 58-24. Does this account for the Poole discrepancy? I will check the Southampton results.

I have a programme for Southampton v Poole 13/07 which shows 56-27, which is the score shown in the weekly Speedway Gazette, Stenners annual, Peter Morrish's book covering 1946-64, subsequent Poole and Southampton programmes that season and in the 'Souvenir Brochure of the Southampton Speedway 1948 Season'. The result of the match at Poole on 17/05 is shown in subsequent Poole and Southampton programmes, the annual, book and brochure referred to above as 51-33. The programme for the Special Challenge Match between Poole and Southampton on 07/08 also refers to the result being 51-33 in the earlier match. The brochure was produced before the October meetings between the sides had been staged, but the scores are recorded in the annual and the book as 49-35 at Poole and 58-26 at Southampton, the same scores as recorded in the weekly Speedway Gazette.

I would go with the marked programme result. No further details re the Glasgow Select team, but as Bothwell team comprised junior riders/trainees I suspect it would have been a group of junior riders associated with Glasgow teams. A meeting staged on 13th May as part of the 150th Anniversary Show at Hamilton resulted in a 48-35 in for Bothwell Bulls against a Glasgow 'Giants and Tigers Select'. The Select team on that occasion comprised Tommy Miller, Peter Dykes, Gundy Harris, Clive Gresser, Bob Lindsay, Frank Kyle, Eric Davis and Jim Black. The Bothwell team was Ken McKinlay, Willie Gordon, J Green, Nivvie Macreadie, A Robertson, Jim Blythe, Jock Pryde and Fred Rowe. (Miller also won the Hamilton Cup, from Dykes, McKinlay and Gordon). I suspect some of the 'Select' riders may also have taken part on 27th May.

I have checked several sources and there are two meetings which I have found different results for: Fleetwood 34 Edinburgh 49 on 08/05 Yarmouth 41 Exeter 41 on 29/06. The Speedway Researcher Yarmouth file carries the explanation: Note -Above is amended result as Reg Morgan was placed third in heat 14 (but had fallen and his score was amended to 0).

18/03 Bothwell Best Pairs - CONFIRM DATE & OBTAIN RESULT 18th March - Winners: Tommy Miller and Duncan Hendrie. 2nd: Willie Gordon and Jock Pryde. 3rd: Niven Mcreadie and Gordon Mitchell ALSO NOTE THESE BOTHWELL FIXTURES: 27th May Bothwell Bulls v High Beech postponed (the High Beech transport lorry caught fire at Leicester). At short notice a challenge was arranged, result Bothwell Bulls 41 Glasgow Select 39. 22nd October Bothwell Bulls 65 Newtongrange Rockets 17 (challenge) 04/08 Bristol All-Star Guest Night - tie between Cyril Brine & Dick Bradley - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? 4th August – Bristol Best Pairs, tie for 1st place between Dick Bradley (13)/Ernie Roccio (7) 20 and Cyril Brine (13)/Jack Mountford (7) 20 (£10 prize shared). £10 prize for the top home rider – Bradley (13); £10 prize for the top visiting rider – Brine (13). The programme confirmed the nature of this event and Speedway Echo confirmed. 13/10 Bristol Best Pairs - tie between D. Bradley & K. Middleditch and C. Boss & D. Close - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? 13th October – programme shows that there was a £10 prize shared between Bradley (11)/Middleditch (11) 22 & Boss (12)/Close (10) 22 with a tie for 1st place. Eric Salmon won £10 prize as the top scoring home rider (15) and Middleditch £10 for the top visiting rider (11). 11/06 California v Rye House - CONFIRM DATE & OBTAIN RESULT 11th June California 50 Rye House 51 17/03 High Beech West Ham Juniors v Stoke - CONFIRM DATE & OBTAIN RESULT Possibly not staged as an article in Speedway Gazette stated that ‘speedway returns to High Beech on Easter Saturday’ (8th April) 15/04 High Beech v Epping Foresters - CONFIRM DATE & OBTAIN RESULT 15th April confirmed, result not known. ALSO NOTE THESE FIXTURES: 10th September 1950 Newtongrange Rockets 30 Bothwell Bulls 51 2nd December 1950 Newtongrange Rockets 24 Bothwell Bulls 45 (meeting curtailed due to icy conditions) 08/04 Oxford v Exeter 52-32 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Saturday 8th April Oxford 52 Exeter 32 confirmed 31/08 Oxford v Liverpool Rained Off - - CONFIRM DATE 31st August confirmed 28/03 Southampton C. (Charles?) Knott Trophy winner (Bob?) Oakley - CONFIRM DATE, EVENT & WINNER 28th March - Charles Knott Trophy, winner Bob Oakley 15, 2nd Craighead 14, 3rd May 12 13/06 Southampton Supporters' Trophy winner Roy Craighead - CONFIRM DATE & WINNER 13th June, winner Roy Craighead, 2nd= Wotton and McFarlane 12 27/06 Southampton v Southern Stars 40-44 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT 27th June Southampton 40 Southern Stars 44 18/07 Southampton Future Stars Trophy winner Bill Holden - CONFIRM DATE & WINNER 18th July, winner Bill Holden 15, 2nd Alan Kidd 13, 3rd= Hayles, McNaughton, Bridges, Taylor 11 25/07 Southampton World Championship QR winner Merv Harding - CONFIRM DATE & WINNER 25th July, winner Merv Harding 13, 2nd Mason 12, 3rd= Bob Oakley, Craighead, Potter 11 27/06 St. Austell - date only - DID ANYTHING TAKE PLACE? 27th June – no meeting Also note re Belfast Dunmore 1950: Saturday 20th May 1950 Dunmore Trophy Winner: Tommy Turnham 14pts, 2nd= Wally Lloyd 12, Jimmy Clay 12, Ron Johnston 12 Saturday 27th May 1950 Best Pairs Winners Tommy Lack and Ralph Horne 23 pts, 2nd Malcolm Riddell and Mike Tams 21 pts Saturday 3rd June 1950 Tommy Turnham’s Team 34 Wally Lloyd’s Team 50 Saturday 1st September Supporters’ Trophy This was Friday 1st September

Charlie Spinks winning heat 3 of the Silver Sash Scratch race on 26th May 1928.