BL65

I can confirm that the meeting on 31st May was the missing SAL match between Eastbourne and Aldershot. The original teams taking part were named as Eastbourne, Rayleigh, Rye House, Southern Rovers and Yarmouth. The intention was that Southern Rovers would be based at a new track at Sittingbourne but this never materialised. Rayleigh did not compete, being replaced by Ipswich. After the Southern Rovers SAL season had started with the meeting at Eastbourne it was decided the team would be based at Aldershot and the result then became one of the Aldershot results. To confirm the matter, the visiting line up is made up of Aldershot riders from the 1959 season. The tally of points scored by riders in the other 7 Aldershot SAL meetings compared with the published totals for the season leaves the shortfalls as Thomas 10, Meredith 9, Vandenberg 5, Eadon 4, Edwards 3 and Pickering 3. These are the same points as these riders scored in the meeting on 31st May. The result of the meeting between the sides is also shown as 38-34 in Peter Morrish's British Speedway Leagues book.

Eric and co always managed to predict the world final winner in the 1960s. In 1966 Eric Eric went for Briggs, Eric James selected Mauger and Eric Danny chose Knutson.

In no particular order: Eric Linden Basil Storey Tom Morgan Tom and Jim Stenner Peter Oakes Philip Rising Dave Lanning

The vast majority of riders take a while to reach their peak and some, including Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger, take a couple of years or more before starting to hit the high spots. My personal all time favourite is Ronnie Moore, who arrived in Britain at the age of 17, immediately notched an 8 point plus league average in the top division and reached the World Final. He left Britain having suffered a badly broken leg during the 1963 season, in which he recorded a 10 point plus league average and appeared to have retired, only to return in 1969 at the age of 36, good enough to average around 10 for 4 more years, reach another World Final, win a World Pairs title and rejuvenate the Wimbledon team, in which he was an outstanding captain, team man and team rider. Ronnie was a speedway genius from the day he arrived in Britain until the end of his career here in 1972 (I discount the two meetings for Coventry in 1974) and he would always be top of my list of greatest ever riders.

1. Igor Plechanov 2. Boris Samorodov 3. Emil Sayfutdinov 4. Viktor Trofimov 5. Gennady Kurilenko

His father, Chum Taylor from Australia, was with Cardiff in 1952 and at the beginning of the 1953 season, before transferring to Bristol. Glyn was born in Cardiff, but is classed as Australian, same as Bristol-born Jason Crump.

Several sources record that Howard Cole was born in Cardiff. Taking this and the probability that Leo McAuliffe was born in London into account, my revised top five is: 1. Freddie Williams 2. Eric Williams 3. Howard Cole 4. Ian Williams 5. Cyril Francis

I remember seeing some of his early rides in second half races at Midlands tracks, mainly Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath from about 1964 onwards. Dai also rode in half a dozen meetings for West Ham early in 1967.

Records show that in league racing in Britain Keith Harvey averaged under 4.5 points per match and de la Porte under 5.5. Although these are comparable to Dennis Newton's league record Dennis gained more titles in South Africa, as referred to by Britmet.

I was listening to news about it on Radio Guernsey earlier.

If there had been a Channel Islands team Ivan Mauger would have qualified as he had grandparents from Guernsey, where I saw some good racing on the beach at Vazon Bay over the years.

Event 1 comprised 4 heats of speedway. Heat 1 was won by Brian Craven from Derrol Melbin, Graham Beattie and Fred Collier. Heat 2 was won by Derek Skyner from Keith Rylance, John Key and Ted Connor. Heat 3 was for the first and second riders in the first two heats and was won by Craven from Melbin, Skyner and Rylance. Heat 4 was for the third and fourth riders and was won by Beattie from Collier, with Key and Connor falling. Event 2 comprised two sidecar heats and a final. Event 3 was a speedcar match race and Event 4 comprised two heats and a final for speedcars. Event 5 comprised four speedway races. Heat 1 was won by Craven from Connor and Key, with Collier falling. Heat 2 was won by Melbin from Beattie, Skyner and Rylance. Heats 3 and 4 were handicap races. Heat 3 was won by Craven (100) from Keith Rylance (20), Skyner (50) and John Rylance (gate), with Connor (30) a faller. Heat 4 was won by Key (30) from Melbin (80) and Collier (gate), with Beattie (50) and Pat Byatt (20) both falling. Event 6 comprised two sidecar handicap races. Events 7 and 8 were speedcar races. There was no overall winner of the speedway events.

1. Henry Long 2. Doug Davies 3. Doug Serrurier 4. Fred Wills 5. Dennis Newton

1. Freddie Williams 2. Eric Williams 3. Ian Williams 4. Leo McAuliffe 5. Cyril Francis Some sources suggest that Leo was born in London, but he was listed as being Welsh when he qualified for the 1963 World Final. Ivor Hughes was heading for the top five when he was tragically killed in 1966.

I understand that Dai was born in Bridgnorth, which is in Shropshire, England.

There's nothing in my programmes to show that he rode at Wimbledon, but he did make one appearance for Wimbledon at Shelbourne in 1951.

I would have included Bob Hughes and Phil Morris ahead of Taffy Owen.

I would have put Paddy Hammond, the former Norwich and Yarmouth rider who also rode at Shelbourne, ahead of Des Monson in the list shown.

Totally agree. In 1953, during his brief time with West Ham Basse Hveem top scored at Norwich, when as reserve he recorded 5 race wins and set the fastest time of the meeting. In two appearances at Poole he won a World Championship qualifying round with 14 points and scored 17 points for Overseas against Britain.

Aldershot 4th June Whitsun Trophy Bill Osborne 14, Ross Gilbertson 13, Jimmy Gleed 12 Aldershot 1st August Hampshire Trophy - The meeting was abandoned after heat 6 due to torrential rain, with Ken Vale leading on 7 points. Although it was never reported in the magazines at the time my own records carry a note that there were further postponements of the re-scheduled meeting on 6th and 27th August, when the original programme was to be re-issued. Aldershot 13th August - no result or mention of the match was reported in the magazines and my programme is blank. I suspect that this meeting was also postponed as match reports elsewhere confirm there was heavy rain across the country from 9th to 13th August. I have a copy of the missing Researcher file which makes no reference to the meeting. Stoke 14th May - no report was published in the magazines. I have the programme for the meeting, which I will retrieve from my archives. Stoke 9th July Reg Fearman beat Geoff Mudge in a run-off, as reported in Speedway World. Stoke 29th October In the run-off Jenkins and Roper both fell on the third lap, with Brown and Flanagan awarded the win. Rye House 18th September was called off on the day due to a waterlogged track. Exeter 12th September nothing further available.

Arne would have had a good chance of making the 1965 World Final, a feat achieved by his Oxford team mate Jimmy Gooch, but he wasn't allowed to take part in the qualifying rounds. Having decided to apply for British citizenship he wasn't entered in the European rounds and the powers that be decided because the process was not complete Arne was not eligible to ride in the British qualifiers either.

In the Handicap Final at Perth on 28th October 1960 Ken McKinlay, Aub Lawson and Les Saville tied for first place. McKinlay and Lawson had started off 160 yards handicap and Saville off 80 yards. Ken was leading but suffered machine trouble approaching the end of the race, allowing the other two to catch him on the line. Does anyone know of any other occasion where there has been a three rider dead heat in a race?

In 1960 Birmingham ran a short season of 9 meetings at the Alexander Stadium, the long time home of the Brummies until 1957. It was reported after the season ended that the the speedway promotion had negotiated an agreement to pay a rent of £100 per meeting to Birchfield Harriers. The athletics club may have welcomed the extra income, but scored an own goal in agreeing the deal. Instead of just accepting the rental the club should have ensured the speedway promoters contributed to General Rates as well, but apparently overlooked this potential liability. When the Valuation Office caught up with the increased use of the stadium it increased the Rateable Value and the city council were obliged to issue a revised bill for the year. The rates bill went up from around £400 for athletics use to around £1,500 for the combined use with speedway. So, the athletics club were faced with a bill for an extra £1,100 as a result of receiving a rental income of £900, a £200 own goal. I recall that the increase may have been reduced on appeal though. It was also reported that as a result of the rates increase the Harriers were not prepared to allow speedway in 1961. Speedway promoters Doug Ellis and Phil Hart were said to have offered to contribute to the rates liability, but as this was unlikely to change matters they were rumoured to be looking at moving to the Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium, the future home of the Brummies from 1971 to 1983. Does anyone have any further information on these dealings?

5th April was Supporters' Club Trophy, won by Ronnie Moore with 15, from Brian Crutcher 14 and Ron How 12 19th April was Southampton 47 Swedish Touring Team 43. The meetings at Belle Vue, Ipswich, Leicester, New Cross, Norwich, Oxford and Wimbledon were also labelled in the fixtures and match reports in Speedway Star as being against Swedish Touring Team, although commonly also referred to as Stockholm. As with many tours in that era, the visiting teams for meetings against club teams were drawn from more than one club, hence the use of 'Swedish' or 'Polish' touring teams to describe the fixtures. 24th May the Southern Riders' Championship QR was won by Ronnie Moore with 14, from Bjorn Knutson and Bob Andrews, both on 13. 14th June the Pride of the South Trophy was won by Barry Briggs after a run-off with Peter Craven, both scoring 14, with Bjorn Knutson third with 13. 26th July Southampton 55 Polish Tourists 35. See above comments about the Swedish Touring Team. Speedway Star labelled the visitors as Poland, but it was not the national team as it comprised riders of varying abilities drawn from club teams in Poland. Other examples of this were the 1965 tour by Gornik Rybnik, who borrowed Andrzej Pogorzelski from Stal Gorzow and the Edinburgh visit to Poland in the same year, when the team included riders from Newport and Long Eaton. Earlier previews had referred to 'the Polish Touring Team'. 4th October was The Ernie Rawlins Memorial Trophy, in which Dick Bradley's Eight beat Johnny Hole's Eight 48-36. The top four scorers qualified for The Trophy Race, which was won by Cliff Cox from Jack Scott, Tony Lewis and Ken Middleditch.

Stan Lemon rode for Wimbledon a few times in 1931, 1934 and 1935, he then appeared for Hall Green and Eastbourne in 1938, moving on to Belle Vue Reserves and Stoke in 1939. He won the Championship of Sussex at Eastbourne in 1933.