BL65

As Olsen was based in this country during the speedway season there certainly does not appear to be any reason why he could not have made similar travel arrangements for the Long Track Final as other riders travelling from Britain, so it seems that one can certainly be chalked up as a black mark against him.

Olsen appeared in 10 out of 11 scheduled meetings that I am aware of between 1967 and 1973, missing the British League match on 5th June 1969 due to being required to represent Denmark in the World Team Cup qualifying round against Sweden, Finland and Norway in Oslo on that date. In addition to the league matches he also rode at Oxford in two 4 team tournaments and 3 Champions Trophy events during that period, gaining two second places and a third place finish. Olsen then won the Champions Trophy in 1974 and also competed in a Best Pairs event, but he failed to arrive for the league encounter as he was stranded for several hours behind a major pile-up on the M6 in which two people were killed, after an articulated lorry crossed the central reservation and collided with several cars and a coach. In 1975, Olsen missed both the league match and the Midland Cup Final 1st leg at Oxford. On the occasion of the league encounter he was on his way to Yugoslavia for the World Long Track Final. The cup final took place on a Sunday near the end of the season and I understand the date clashed with a prior continental booking. He had also missed the rearranged Wolverhampton home league match on the previous Sunday for the same reason. The final visit of which I am aware was in 1976, when he rode for Coventry in an inter-league 4 team event. After originally linking up with his mentor Ivan Mauger at Newcastle, Olsen moved on to another Mike Parker track at Wolverhampton when Parker relinquished his interest in the north-east. By the mid-70s he was unsettled at Wolverhampton and had his heart set on joining Coventry, with a move there eventually coming to fruition in 1976. There was never any real prospect of him accepting allocation or transfer to any other British track. Were there any other occasions on which Olsen was due to ride at Oxford but was not present?

Luckhurst rode on loan for Edinburgh in the PL in 1960 and Elliott appeared in 3 PL matches for Leicester towards the end of 1962.

Going off at a tangent, in 1958 Barry Briggs won only 5 races in winning the World Championship. He didn't win any in qualifying, being seeded to the final as defending champion, so his sucess was down to preparation and 369.8 seconds racing on the Wembley track.

Recollection of the Birmingham meeting in my previous post reminded me of a similar finish in another semi-final I saw, this time the British semi-final of the World Championship at Cradley Heath on 13th June 1966, in which the meeting was won with 12 points, just 2 points more than the lowest qualifing score. In that meeting Martin Ashby totalled 9 points and finished 9th. The qualifiers were Trevor Hedge 12 (4 heat wins and a fall), Colin Pratt 12 (3 heat wins), Mike Broadbank 11 (2 heat wins), Norman Hunter 11 (2 heat wins), Eric Boocock 11 (1 heat win), Dave Younghusband 11 (3 heat wins), Nigel Boocock 10 (2 heat wins) and Ken McKinlay 10 (2 heat wins). There were run-offs for 1st and 3rd places. in the other sem-final at Halifax Barry Briggs cruised through to the British Final with a 15 point maximum and Ivan Mauger secured the last qualifying place on 9 points.

Reference to how to win a meeting or title in less than emphatic fashion reminded me of a semi final of the Midland Riders’ Championship at Birmingham on 13th June 1983, in which there were only 2 points between first and ninth in the finishing order. Andy Grahame and Neil Collins jointly topped the scorers on 12 points, both with 3 heat wins. 7 riders tied on 10 points, Steve Regeling and Mark Courtney (3 heat wins each), Jan O. Pedersen and Phil Collins (2 heat wins each), Alan Grahame, Phil Crump and Neil Evitts (1 heat win each). The number of heat wins determined that Regeling, Courtney, Pedersen and Collins qualified for the final, with a run-off between the other three seeing Crump and Evitts join them, with Alan Grahame going to the Coventry final as reserve. In the final, Alan Grahame took 2 rides and scored 4 points, matching Courtney’s total from 5 rides and bettering Regeling (3) and Crump (0). He also met Phil Collins in both rides and beat him twice. Fine margins; who knows how well he might have done if he had qualified from the semi-final, with 10 points normally guaranteeing a top eight finish. Spare a though too for Steve Bastable, who scored 9 points at Birmingham and only finished in 10th place. The 2nd semi-final was also staged at Birmingham, the following week, in which the qualifiers were Hans Nielsen 15, Erik Gundersen 14, Tommy Knudsen 12, Simon Wigg 10, Kent Noer 10, Les Collins 10, Peter Ravn 8 and Finn Jensen 8. Knudsen and Wigg missed the final and were replaced by the next two highest scorers from the second semi-final, Kevin Hawkins (7 points) and Rick Miller (6 points). Luck of the draw and what a difference a week makes in speedway. The final was won by Gundersen (15), from Nielsen (13), Andy Grahame (11) and Ravn (11).

Brian Brett (Wolverhampton 1962) and Howard Cole/Kid Bodie (Wolverhampton 1961/2, Stoke 1961/2 and Long Eaton 1963) also rode in the Provincial League and later rode in a World Final.

In 1936 Ron Johnson scored a maximum 12 points at Wembley in the First Round to qualify for the Championship Round, where he totalled a further 22 points from 4 meetings to qualify as reserve for the World Final. The First Round and Championship Round points were added together to determine the qualifiers. Another 3 points would have seen him in the Final. Unfortunately, he failed to score in the round at Harringay, falling after colliding with another rider in his first race and then having to withdraw from the meeting after a heavy fall in his second outing. Joe Abbott was injured and unable to ride in the final, but Johnson was unable to replace him in the line-up, having fractured his collar bone in a crash at Wimbledon 3 days before the final. In 1937 Johnson again qualified for the Championship Round, this time with the lowest qualifying score of 12 points from 2 meetings. A low score of 3 points at Hackney, added to 22 points from 3 other rounds plus his Qualifying Round total gave him 34 points, 8 adrift of the lowest qualifier. Withdrawals due to injury saw him move up a couple of places to become second reserve for the Final. 20 points from 2 qualifying rounds at Belle Vue and New Cross saw Johnson through to the Championship Round in 1938, where just 25 points from 4 meetings resulted in him missing out on a Final place by 2 points. Falls in one race at Harringay and in two races at New Cross, where he totalled just 4, cost him dearly. With two riders out though injury, Jimmy Gibb took the second reserve slot for the Final, having also scored 25 points in the Championship Round. Ron Johnson at last qualified for the Final in 1939, but it was not staged due to the outbreak of war. 17 points from two First Round meetings saw him through as one of the lower qualifiers for the Championship Round, with an exclusion after finishing second and a fall when leading another race at West Ham not aiding his cause. 32 points from 4 meetings in the Championship Round saw Johnson qualify for the Final as 13th highest scorer. Johnson suffered a fractured skull in a meeting at Wimbledon on 1st August 1949 and was ruled out of the qualifying rounds that month. Although he returned to racing in 1950 he could not regain his best form and did not compete in the World Championship Qualifying Rounds. He then had a delayed start to 1951 after serving a prison sentence, beginning in October 1950, for driving offences. At his trial he cited the effects of his head injury in mitigation, but as he had previously been disqualified for life from driving in 1939 he was not going to get off lightly. The court heard that he had 15 previous convictions for traffic offences and drunkenness. In addition to the custodial sentence, he was again banned for life from driving. After that his speedway career sadly faded.

I had discounted him as he didn’t actually ride in a final.

Almost, but BOBBATH specified world finalists pre-1960 and Bob didn't appear in a final until 1960.

Thank you Steve.

Geoff Pymar and Dent Oliver. Pymar rode for Reg Fearman's Middlesbrough team in 1961.

When Pennycross re-opened in 1968 the nature of the track, sand on a tarmac base, gave Plymouth home track advantage, but it also worked against their inexperienced young riders as they mastered their own circuit but then struggled on away tracks with conventional surfaces. The season was considered a success as the Devils finished in 4th spot in a league of 10 teams, but the basis of this achievement was a 100% home record, with just one success away. The weather was unkind to Plymouth, however, with 5 meetings rained off, one abandoned and several run in adverse conditions. The track surface was retained for the 1969 season, which saw the team plummet to 15th, with only King’s Lynn Starlets below them in the final table, following 6 home defeats and not a single away point registered. Pete Lansdale had left the promotion, with Fred Osborn taking control. The team was decimated, with loanees being recalled by parent clubs and Plymouth lost the top 4 riders from 1968 before the season started Those 4 riders had a combined average of over 33 points and they were replaced with junior riders, some being more successful than others. Midway through the season the promoter was extremely concerned by falling attendances. Throughout the winter of 1969-70 plans were made to continue in Division 2, with preparations including the replacement of the tarmac and sand with a conventional shale track. In mid-March the fixture list was drawn up for the league season, including Plymouth. However, during the winter there had been stories published of permission being sought or enquiries being made for the opening of several new speedway venues to jump on the Division 2 success bandwagon, including Bath, Rochdale, Weston-Super-Mare, Workington, Norwich, Newtongrange, Liverpool, Barry, Rye House, Newton Abbot, Torquay, Watford and Peterborough, with an appeal also being heard regarding the previous year’s refusal at Rochester. Additionally, Sheffield had indicated an intention to run a second team in Division 2. Early in 1970 the Division 2 promoters voted not to expand the league above 16 teams, although Belle Vue II relocated to Rochdale and Workington successfully appealed to take the number to 17. Just as the season was starting it was confirmed that Fred Osborn had exchanged his Plymouth licence for the open licence granted to Peterborough, having been unable to assemble a competitive team and no doubt unwilling to risk significant financial loss. The difficulties of the previous year had been repeated when two of the team’s top riders from 1969 sought transfers in the build up to the new season and replacements could not be found. Peterborough therefore took the place of Plymouth in the league. A season of open licence meetings was planned instead, but after a crowd of 2,000 for the opening meeting attendances dropped significantly and Plymouth closed in July. Loanees from Exeter had formed the basis of the 1968 team, but all riders approached from elsewhere apparently refusal to join Plymouth for 1969 due to the travel involved for home meetings. The 1968 success could not be built upon, the uncompetitive team was not sufficiently well supported in 1969 and the absence of league racing was not an attractive proposition in 1970, hence the closure. The change to a shale surface in 1970 saw race times almost 10 seconds faster then in the previous two years.

He did live there after Benfleet.

50 or more years ago Derrick Neave used to place a weekly advert in the Speedway Star, with a list of featured programmes he had for sale. He resided in Benfleet at the time and later relocated to Saxmundham. He was still advertising in the Star in the 1980s, but in one letter I received from him he told me that sadly he was finding the task of sorting through programmes and dealing with correspondence was becoming too difficult and painful, as he was badly afflicted with arthtritis. He actually gave me a huge pile of early post-war programmes sometime in the mid to late 1980s as he was winding down.

He also appeared for two other current tracks, King's Lynn and Poole. His name was in the programme for Ellesmere Port at Barrow in 1973, but he didn't ride and the Gunners used rider replacement for him.

Stan Stevens rode for Rye House, Yarmouth, Rayleigh, Cradley Heath, New Cross, Southampton, West Ham, Oxford, Exeter, Wembley, Romford, Barrow and Hull, which totals 13. He also made a single appearance for Newport in an away meeting (which if counted would make 14). The appearances for Wembley were all away.

George Major rode for Aldershot, Oxford, Neath, St Austell, Coventry, Cradley Heath, Norwich, Leicester (Blackbird Road), Doncaster, Newport (Somerton Park), Belle Vue (Hyde Road), Birmingham (Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium), Glasgow (Hampden Park), making 13 teams/tracks. However, his appearances for Coventry and Belle Vue were only away from home.

Bob Lovell also rode for Eastbourne and Ashfield. The 1946-47 Birmingham track and the current stadium are at the same location.

Alf Hagon was an accomplished rider in the 1950s and 1960s, principally with Harringay, Wimbledon, Leicester, Oxford and West Ham. His son Martin represented clubs including Hackney, Sheffield and Ipswich in the 1980s. Sam Hagon is the son of Martin Hagon and Charlotte (Bob Dugard's daughter, sister of Martin Dugard), becoming the third generation of Hagon's in speedway.

Thank you Sidney.

Thank you. Regarding the suggestion of holding the meeting at your nearest track for your benefit Norbold I doubt very much that was the case. However, if you had asked them then I am sure they would have done so without hesitation. No names, but many years ago there was an instance of an England/GB international rider who was moving to a new club during the close season and he had similar offers from two rival tracks, so he chose the one it would be easier for me to get to. Happy days.

It was in November 1960 that shock news was announced that the F.I.M., at its annual congress, had awarded the 1961 World Final to Sweden. Numbness turned to rage in the U.K. over the next few weeks, with stories in the media of a threatened boycott of the competition by the U.K., talk of withdrawal from the F.I.M. (and thereby from the A.C.U.) and going it alone with our own version of the championship. Some pointed out that through the dark days of the latter half of the 1950s it was only the payout from the Final that had kept the National League tracks afloat. It was even suggested by one personality (not identified) that the sport in this country should be run by the promoters themselves, as they virtually did so anyway - an interesting thought, but then in those days there were some extremely capable and astute business-minded people at certain tracks. Reports described how our leagues would be stronger without those foreign and commonwealth riders who still wished to be able to compete in their own countries, where the sport would continue to be controlled by the F.I.M. This was at a time when teams in the National League had been cut from 8 to 7 riders due a shortage, with a lot of ex-National and Southern Area League men having joined the growing Provincial League. Maybe a certain amount of press coverage was based on speculation and interpretation of the views of promoters may have been less than accurate at times. Nonetheless, the situation was uncomfortable for a few weeks until a sudden announcement that all had been resolved. The work behind the scenes had been ongoing throughout in all probability, with a view to inroducing something to alleviate the impact of the loss of Brtitish tracks' income from the Wembley final. The resolution, announced in mid-December, was that the UK would stage qualifying rounds leading to a British Final, from which 9 riders would qualify for the World Final. During November and early December stories had been published expressing the thoughts of at least one promoter that the final would be better staged away from Wembley in any event, at somewhere such as Wimbledon, due to the very high cost of hiring the stadium. It was argued that the cost of Wembley was 4 times higher than staging elsewhere and that all Wembley had going for it was prestige. Others pointed out that the cost might be less but so would the income from a much reduced attendance capacity elsewhere. It was emphasised that Ronnie Greene of Wimbledon was not the promoter putting forward arguments against Wembley. As things unfolded it became clear that the British Final would be staged at Wembley. This would offset the loss of the World Final to some extent, but the income from the event would undoubtedly be substantially less. In view of this the F.I.M. agreed to award a new competition to Britain, initially known as the Open European All-Star Championship, renamed as the Internationale before too long. With the British Final scheduled for the 'expensive' Empire Stadium, the final of the Internationale was allocated to Harringay, which was much more affordable and was also to stage the 1961 Provincial League Riders' Championship. Perhaps it was felt that holding two high profile meetings at Wembley just a few weeks apart was too high a risk financially. A lot of backtracking then took place, with people denying they ever had any intention of breaking away from the F.I.M. and they all lived happily ever after, well at least for a while.

The Dugard clan could have put their own 'team' out. Charlie first appeared for Eastbourne in 1936, John first rode for the team in 1957, Bob in 1959, Eric 1972, Martin 1985, Paul 1992 and Kelsey 2015.

They did, on 13th August 1964. Wilf Jay rode at reserve in the home match against Long Eaton and scored 1. His sons, Alan and Derek, were also in the team and scored 10 and 0 respectively.