BL65

Nothing to do with 1965, but an oddment regarding Newport. Having seen Wasps lose 64-14 at Wolverhampton in 1965, I almost witnessed a repetition of that scoreline when they visited Cradley Heath on 24th June 1972. Eleven 5-1 heat wins by the home team, together with a 4-2 when Graham Plant took second place ahead of Mick Handley in heat 5 added up to 59-13. Just how unpredictable speedway used to be was shown by the result of the other race, heat 8, when the Wasps pairing of Neil Street and Terry Shearer shot away from the start to record a 5-1, thus accounting for the final score of 60-18.

Tommy Miller may not have been quite as dominant in the early part of the 1954 season for Motherwell as he had been in his Glasgow career, but he was not exactly a failure. Information on the Speedway Researcher website shows that during his time with the Eagles his record (including where paid for a first or second place) was 85 rides, 58 first places, 13 second places, 5 third places, 3 last places, 4 machine failures, one fall and one non-finish. This included a meeting at Oxford where he fell in his first ride, then gained two 3rd places before failing to finish his last race. In the next away meeting at Swindon he recorded a second and two third places before missing his scheduled 4th ride, maybe suffering the effects of the crash at Oxford. Tommy's next and final home meeting, against Bristol, saw him gain a win and two second places, followed by machine failure. (He may well have been less than fully fit in these 3 meetings, although he did manage 11 from 4 rides at Bristol the day after the Oxford meeting). Ignoring his performances in the meetings against Oxford, Swindon and Bristol, Tommy won (including paid wins) 76% of his races in all other meetings for Motherwell and his CMA in those other meetings was 10.40. After joining Coventry in August 1954, ignoring meetings against First Division opposition, Tommy won (including paid wins) 64% of his races for the Bees, with a CMA of 9.76. 32 out of 50 races were won (including paid wins), with 11 seconds, 4 thirds, 2 last places and an exclusion for unfair riding. Tommy did not enjoy a return visit to Oxford as he managed just 6 points from 5 rides. The Oxford meeting significantly affected his overall average, which was otherwise 10.40 (exactly the same as he achieved in the meetings referred to for Motherwell). It is probably fair to conclude that Tommy Miller's scoring decline started in 1955 rather than 1954. Inconsistency throughout 1955 saw his average fall, with a good proportion of high scores interspersed with some disappointingly low returns. Three poor scores at Oxford again suggest that Tommy did not enjoy his visits there. After some high scores and more inconsistency in the early part of the 1956 season, including another two poor returns for the Bees at Oxford, Tommy's scoring dipped and he moved to, of all places, Oxford in July. The move to Cowley was a disaster and his top score at home was 9 plus one bonus from 5 rides.

It could have been worse of course. Jim Airey actually fell in Heat 2 and remounted to take third place. He may very well have beaten Alby Golden if he had not fallen, which would have resulted in a complete whitewash. Wolves showed their strength in depth as they were without Jim Airey for their remaining home meetings as he returned to Australia. The following week they thrashed Glasgow 56-21 without him, having brought in junior Paul Sharples at reserve, with Brian Maxted moving into the main body of the team. In the final home league meeting they easily defeated Hackney, but they were without Roy Trigg, who I believe had also left for Australia.

Not forgetting Speedway Pictorial in 1965 and Illustrated Speedway in 1966.

Many, many years ago the mathematics teacher at my school was puzzled about the aptitude of a group of us who seemed to be surprisingly good at aspects of the subject. Every week we went into school with a copy of Speedway Star and spent the first hour updating the averages of all of the riders from the match reports. Two points - firstly, Bryan Seery (Seery's Statistics), you were an inspiration, secondly, it then came as a great shock many years later to discover that Speedway Star was not always 100% accurate!

I am not a Wolves supporter White Knight, although I have seen hundreds of meetings at Monmore Green over the years, so I am not 'grateful' for the action taken to close Sunderland down in 1964. Wolverhampton did indeed benefit significantly by the addition of Airey, McKee and Guasco in 1964. Airey and Guasco progressed in 1965, with Gordon being one of the top riders in the 1966 Wolverhampton team and Jim returning from Australia in 1967 after missing the previous season and then going on to be a top rider in the late 1960's and early 1970's, by which time he had moved elsewhere. I believe that Sunderland were two good riders short in 1964. Just look at the difference the addition of just one guest rider made on occasions. Although suffering a run of heavy defeats otherwise, when Ivor Brown guested at home to Sheffield his 12 point score saw Saints only lose by 4, then 9 points from guest Jimmy Squibb saw Saints only lose by a point at Middlesbrough, 10 points from guest Pete Jarman at home to Glasgow contributed to a decisive win and 9 points from Ivor Brown helped towards a narrow home win over Newcastle. Sunderland could have been another of the Provincial League success stories, I believe the promoters just bit off more than they could chew. As with any business operation, it is all in the planning! The decision to close the track part way through the season was in the hands of promoters with interests elsewhere. Those same promoters made an error of judgement regarding the team strength at the beginning of the season and they were never able to remedy this apart from the use of the occasional guest rider. Maybe they did not have the will to improve the situation in the end. There were a few other short-lived operations for a variety of reasons in the Provincial League between 1960 and 1964, including Bradford, Bristol, Leicester, Liverpool, Neath, New Cross, Rayleigh and Yarmouth. It was very much a period of 'open and close' and I was very sad to see all of those closures at the time.

The Newport performance at Wimbledon was in no small way due to the remarkable return to top form of 43 year old Jack Biggs, with a 12 point maximum. I agree with you Bob that 1965 was a golden year, plenty of unpredictability over the season and some tremendous achievements by several of the former PL riders. Ivor Brown was mixing it with the very best prior to his injury in the Internationale at Wimbledon, George Hunter was scoring double figures in nearly every meeting, Charlie Monk averaged over 10 for Glasgow and won the Internationale, beating an all-star line up which included Briggs, Fundin, Knuts(s)on and Nordin, with Eric Boocock and Ivan Mauger also coming to the fore in the new British League. Just to make you wince, I saw the Wasps crushed 64-14 at Wolverhampton towards the end of the season. To be fair, the Wolves had developed into a very strong team on their own track, with Pete Jarman, Bob Andrews, Tommy Sweetman and Cyril Francis having a good year, ably backed up by James Bond and Brian Maxted, who vied for the reserve slot. The key to the strength of the team though was the emergence of Jim Airey and Gordon Guasco, the latter only missing out on a reserve place at the World Final in a run-off at the British Final. On a happier note for you though, three weeks later I saw Wasps win at injury hit Cradley Heath to end the season in style. As usual in those days there were plenty of cheering travelling fans supporting their team. One of the best aspects of the 1965 season was that supporters knew there would be a meeting every week, mostly on the usual race night, the opposition would be varied due to there being 18 teams in the league and following the team was a habit, win or lose. I knew several people who went to watch Barry Briggs at Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath because of the pre-meeting publicity, having never been to speedway before.

It could be argued that Monarchs were weakened by having to include Ivan Mauger to replace George Hunter. At the end of the 1965 season George's league average was 9.41, whereas Ivan's was 8.81. I believe they only met in two races at Edinburgh in 1965, with George beating Ivan in both (26th June in the league and 2nd October in the Scottish Open). Ivan did have a bad injury at Wolverhampton on 16th April though and had not completely recovered when he made his comeback in the World Championship qualifying rounds 2 months later.

Hi Bob. Under the Special Features section on the Researcher website the Riders Averages item shows a breakdown for each rider and a column for league averages only. In the details shown in the Year by Year section Jack Young is shown as scoring 404 points from 33 meetings, but this includes cup matches as there were only 30 league fixtures for each team in Division 2 that season, hence the difference between 11.72 for league and 11.63 for league and cup. Jack scored 339 points in 29 league matches and 65 in the cup, totalling 404.

'Igor Baranov' also rode in second half of three meetings at Wolverhampton in June 1961, his best result being 4th place in a handicap race which had 5 starters. That 4th place actually qualified him for the Handicap Final, where he failed to score despite starting from the gate whereas one rider was off a 30 yard handicap, two off 40 yards and the other starting 70 yards back. He had a few second half rides at Stoke around that time and also scored 3 points in the World Championship Qualifying Round at Sun Street, picking up all three points when other riders fell or failed to start.

Statistics from the Speedway Researcher website show CMAs in league matches for Jack Young in 1951 (Edinburgh, Division 2) 11.72 and 1952 (West Ham, Division 1) 10.88, a very impressive transition to the higher division. The CMA shown for Tommy Miller at Glasgow White City in 1951 is 10.70 and in the following two seasons for league matches 10.91 and 10.81, so no doubt the ranking was thoroughly justified. Sadly, his scoring declined significantly in the mid-50s after joining Motherwell and then Coventry. Bob Leverenz achieved a CMA of 10.84 for Norwich in 1951 according to the Researcher website and he also reached the World Final that year, finishing in 8th position.

George Hunter walked out of the home meeting against Coventry on 7th August after one ride as he was unhappy with track conditions. He subsequently failed to appear in two away meetings, at Coventry on 11th September (his vehicle having reportedly broken down en route) and at Exeter on 13th September (when two other Monarchs also failed to arrive), following which he received a 21 day suspension from the BSPA. Edinburgh were given permission to use Ivan Mauger as a guest for the home meeting against Belle Vue on 24th September. George Hunter was successful in an appeal to reduce the length of his suspension, allowing him to take part in the Scottish Open Championship at Edinburgh on 2nd October.

Ron How was injured in the GB v Russia test match at Wimbledon on July 5th and was replaced in the Oxford team until the end of the season by Stan Stevens. At that stage Oxford were second in the league table, one point behind Hackney with 3 meetings in hand and 7 points ahead of eventual champions West Ham, from the same number of meetings. Ron How averaged 10.23 in the league and Stan Stevens was 6.87 lower at 3.36. Oxford finished 4th in the final league table, 7 points behind West Ham. If Ron How had remained fit to complete that season and scored 6 points per match more than Stan, Oxford would have accumulated 48 league points. This would have included a draw and a win against West Ham instead of two defeats, leaving the Hammers with 44 league points. That shows the impact of How’s injury and puts the strength of the Oxford top three of Pander, How and Gooch into perspective.

Ivan Mauger's grandparents on his father's side were from Guernsey, so would he have qualified if he had not represented New Zealand?

Cradley Heath v Exeter, 18th June 1966. Heat 12 was declared void by the referee after a protest by the home side, so the score was effectively 0-0. Chris Blewett was originally declared the winner, having caused Chris Julian, Jack Geran and Chum Taylor to fall. Julian and Geran remounted and finished, which until the successful protest would have resulted in a score of 2-4. On 3rd June 1967, heat 7 of the meeting between Cradley Heath and Oxford saw Tommy Bergvist and Dave Schofield excluded, leaving the Oxford pair of Des Lukehurst and Maury McDermott to contest the re-run unopposed. Lukehurst won in a time of 80.0 after the pair had cruised round almost side by side for laps. The referee ignored the valid protest from the home team calling for the Oxford pair to be excluded for not making a bona fide attempt to race, otherwise there would have been another 0-0.

The 2 points scored by Stan Stevens for Southampton were deducted from the original score. Coventry had objected to the inclusion of Stevens, who was still a New Cross rider. New Cross were closing down, but this had not officially happened at the time the Coventry-Southampton meeting took place, hence Stevens should not have ridden.

John Yates rode at reserve for Birmingham in a few meetings in 1947. He was selected to ride for Cradley at Wombwell in a challenge match on 10.10.47. He was programmed at number one, failed to score in heat one and was replaced in his other rides. I believe this was his only appearance for Cradley in 1947. He also appeared for Wombwell at home to Exeter on 16th May 1947, but failed to score in two reserve rides.

Hi Steve, Cradley MRQR 29/4/72 4th places Ht 1 Dave Gifford, Ht 2 Mick Handley fell, Ht 3 Peter Jarman, Ht 4 Tom Leadbitter, Ht 5 Leadbitter, Ht 6 Gerald Smitherman (reserve), Jarman excluded tapes, Ht 7 Handley, Ht 8 Roy Trigg, Ht 9 Norman Hunter, Ht 10 Per Hansen, Ht 11 John Hart, Ht 12 Handley, Ht 13 Handley, Ht 14 Hart, Ht 15 Geoff Ambrose, Ht 16 Roy Trigg machine failure, Ht 17 Hart, Ht 18 Ambrose, Ht 19 Leadbitter, Ht 20 Jimmy Squibb (reserve - replaced Colin Gooddy) Coventry v Cradley 22/4/72 Ht 1 Peter Jarman, Ht 2 Jimmy Squibb, Ht 3 John Hart, Ht 4 Mick Handley, Ht 5 Rick France fell, Ht 6 Squibb, Ht 7 Roy Trigg machine failure, Ht 8 Les Owen, Ht 9 France, Ht 10 Hart, Ht 11 Jarman, Ht 12 Trigg, Ht 13 Tony Lomas Coventry 14/10/72 This was a 5 Team Tournament (3 riders per team) - Coventry A, Coventry B, Swindon, Cradley Heath, Leicester Ht 1 Pete Bailey, Ht 2 Les Owen, Ht 3 Rick France, Ht 4 Norman Hunter, Ht 5 Peter Jarman, Ht 6 Malcolm Brown, Ht 7 Hunter, Ht 8 Jarman, Ht 9 Bailey, Ht 10 Roy Trigg, Ht 11 Brown, Ht 12 Mick Handley, Ht 13 Brown, Ht 14 Handley, Ht 15 Owen Keith

Dave Baugh replaced Jon Erskine in the re-run of Heat 9 of the Wolverhampton v Poole meeting. (I was at the meeting).

The other Italian on that 1980 tour was Ottaviano Righetto. During the 1981 tour, I saw the match between Wolverhampton and Italy on 12th April, when the Italy 1 to 7 was Francesco Biginato, Mauro Ferraccioli, Lorenzo Franchetti, Paolo Castagna, Ottaviano Righetto, Armando Dal Chiele and Roberto Incao, with Giorgio Zaramella (No.8) taking part in the second half races. Hope that helps, Keith.

Jack Scott joined Cradley Heath for the 1967 season, having won the Australian championship during the preceding winter. I saw his debut at Wolverhampton on 24th March and he was quite impressive, scoring 8 points from 3 completed rides (2 wins and a second place) on a borrowed bike. He survived being paired with Chris Julian! In the return match at Dudley Wood the next evening he won his first two races (one as a tactical substitute), then had a last place and a fall before withdrawing from his 5th ride. I was looking forward to seeing him become a top man for Cradley Heath, but sadly he suffered a lot of machine problems and took a few heavy falls before deciding to return to Australia in June. He did have a few very good meetings when he scored double figures and it was a great disappointment when he left. This followed the 'retirement' in May of Jack Biggs, who had joined Cradley Heath from Newport (although Jack joined Hackney later in the season). As Howard Cole (who had won the New Zealand championship during the winter) refused to return to Cradley Heath (eventually joining King's Lynn) the team struggled, although the signing of Brian Brett midway through the year was a bright spot. When Howard Cole returned to Dudley Wood with his new team on 17th June we saw Brian Brett fall in Heat 9 and he was excluded from the re-run. Howard Cole then had machine problems and was lapped by Chris Julian and David Crane. Howard impeded Chris and Cradley lodged a protest after Lynn took a 3-2 heat advantage. In keeping with the mad happenings that frequently occurred at Dudley Wood, Heat 9 was re-run (with 2 riders only) after Heat 13 and despite bouncing off the fence a few times Chris Julian held on to his machine to pick up the 2 points needed to give his team a 39-38 win (so, as it happened, the original 2-3 could have been allowed to stand). Happy days.

I understand that Barry was born on 30th December 1934 and Wayne on 22nd June 1944. I don't know when Murray was borm but in his 1972 book 'Briggo', Barry says that Murray came to the UK in 1957 as a 19 year old, indicating that he would have been born in 1938. Murray crashed in a practice session at Wimbledon in 1957 and fractured his skull. I think that he may have ridden at the Eastbourne track as well as Wimbledon.

I believe that Sir Arthur Elvin, the Wembley managing director, felt that the teams from outside London were not attractive opposition in terms of drawing in the crowds and Wembley opted to run a short season in 1955. Harringay had followed fellow Londoners New Cross in withdrawing from the National League, which was down to 7 teams, with Wimbledon and West Ham the only other remaining London teams. As far as I know, for 1955 it was planned from the outset that Wembley would ride one home match and 3 away against the other teams in the league, with none of the third away matches being designated as the Wembley 'home' match. An explanation for the reduced home season was given in the opening meeting programme on 26th May (v Wimbledon), when it was stated that in addition to team matches a number of big money individual meetings would be held (seeking to attract bigger crowds than for team matches). The Wembley Open Championship was held on 9th June, the £500 All Star Trophy on 7th July, the Wembley £500 Empire Trophy on 21st July and the Wembley £500 Handicapy Trophy on 18th August.

Wal Morton scored 5 points (+2 bonus) for Ipswich at home to Rayleigh in the Metropolitan League match on 21st July 1964. Ipswich were missing two 'star' riders, David Crane and Ron Bagley for this meeting.

Ray Cousins, John Cole, Derek Battle, John Anthony, Syd Whatley