DK Rides Again

Rather than start another thread, I thought I'd revive this one and mention that I went down Hornshay Street today. Sad to report (I don't know if the BBC show covered it) that they have now driven a rail link straight through the middle of the frying pan and there is now no trace of New Cross stadium.

Making it louder is a by product of getting the gases out faster, so yes, in theory drilling holes in your baffles could make it faster; all you need is to be a tenth of a second quicker off the line and you're into the first corner first. Some likened the new silencer to sticking a potato up the pipe, drilling a few holes is like shaving a chip off it first.

I remember it well Ken, but for many years, outside of speedway, it was almost totally forgotten, to the point where I was starting to convince myself I must've dreamt it! With the invention of the internet and specialist nostalgia websites, it's started to become known again, but it seems to be most famous for it's appalling continuity in the final scenes. They used a clip of it on the Blue Peter episode that first featured Peter Duncan, by way of introducing him as the new 'daredevil'. AFAIK, it was never repeated and has never been 'officially' released, so Rob's right, if you get all 6 episodes, Auntie might be interested. I'd love to see it again.

So what's Pip's story? I can remember him riding second halves at Wimbledon (maybe 72 or 73) and entertaining the crowd with the odd startline flip or first bend wipeout, then he does what amounts to a full season at Long Eaton, gets a respectable average and promptly disappears............. I'm tempted to ask about one of his partners in crime, but I've had no success on here so far; Rocky Coutts anyone..............?

If they've got any sense, they'll learn to see it for what it is, a show, an entertainment. Speedway never started as a sport, it was a spectacle, an opportunist businessman's way of attracting a paying audience, and nothing much has changed; it didn't stand government scrutiny as a sport in the fifties, when it became subject to entertainment tax, and it doesn't stand scrutiny today. If, for example, it started to properly enforce it's regulations (and didn't change them when it felt like it) it might start to be taken seriously; as things are, one of speedway's biggest problems is that nobody really knows what it is, an entertainment masquerading as a sport, or a sport that's trying too hard to be entertaining (although I think most sensible people would say it's much nearer the former than the latter). I think the Sky viewing figures Vs the live attendances show, very clearly, that things like overly zealous presenters and stats that leave you guessing, just add to the pantomime nature of it all. So I say, keep the dodgy stattos and shouty commentators, at this point, it's the best chance speedway has of surviving.

Nice to see Norman getting a mention, but I'm sure that it will come as a great surprise to him that he's a "biking expert" and also that he used to clean Frank Hodgson's bikes, pre war; you're wearing well Norm, I would never have guessed you were that old! I was also interested to read that the Dagenham management either resolved the twin issues of unreliability and 'in flight' refuelling, or invented true perpetual motion, since they apparently rode with "no breaks". Has the 'proof reader' become extinct?

I used to work with someone called 'van Praag' (we used to call her 'van Prang', cos she was always smashing up her company car! ) but I never thought to ask her if she was related. I wonder how common 'van Praag' is, as a surname.

Except over here, they're probably more like a toonie than a loonie, they definitely know how to charge for a coffee in dear old Blighty!

That's a very kind offer Bob, but how did you know I like my coffee with extra cream and sugar?

I'm glad you can confirm that the word exists, but the implication is that it was around long before the person you describe. So is there an ancient charva? Not unique at all, but an interesting change of use; here, a Chesterfield is a very specific type of sofa, deeply buttoned leather with a roll top.

I rarely do, I normally prefer my collection of dictionaries and etymologies, although Wiki often links to some of these.

It's probably got it's roots in a choice of Romani words, 'chavi' meaning child, 'chavo' meaning boy and 'chavvy' meaning youth. Apparently, there's a Geordie slang term, 'charva' meaning a rough child and it's likely that is where it enters our language, but nobody knows for certain. The first group of people I heard it refer to, were the youth of the Medway towns, mainly Chatham (they were also refered to by some less than complimentary terms involving Gypsies, so there's that Romani influence again); I lived and worked near that area from the late 90s and it was in fairly common usage then, by the mid 2000s it was everywhere. I also love the way English evolves, although I'm not too impressed with the introduction of text speak into written word, that's not evolution, just laziness. Hope that helps M8

This is one of those things that has a few possible origins, but the most popular one is that it originated in America during WWII. The story goes that there was shipyard inspector called Kilroy and his job was to count rivets, because the riveters got paid by the piece; the riveters would leave a chalk mark where they had finished and Kilroy would write the famous phrase to show that he had noted it. The saying spread wherever American servicemen went (they would scribble it on barrack room walls, etc) and it became a Worldwide thing. The cartoon was a separate thing and nobody knows when the two merged, but it could've been during the Korean war. What is known is that he has a different name, depending on where you are; he's Chad in the UK, Mr Foo in Australia and I believe there was even a Canadian version, known as Herbie. I can tell you that Chad was once a popular shortening of Charles over here, which was later replaced by Chas; I think it's still Chad in the US. Edit: having read what Knowle wrote and being a complete anorak(!) I had to look it up; again, nobody really knows the origin of the cartoon (but it could be from a cartoonist called Chatterton, who signed himself 'Chat') but it sprung up during rationing and was associated with the phrase 'What, no bread/meat/eggs, etc'. As rationing disappeared, 'What, no.......' also disappeared, to be replaced with 'Kilroy....'; given when Liverpool started, it's more than likely that 'What no speedway' would've struck a chord, but Kilroy and Chad became inextricably linked not long after.

It's a legal protection thing. Just to use the name in this case as an example, if the other Andy Galvin that lives in a completely different part of Whitstable (or in the next street) suddenly discovers he's being shunned by the rest of society, from the other parents at his kid's school to the bloke behind the counter at the off licence, under libel and defamation laws, he can (potentially) sue the paper that didn't properly distinguish him from the Andy Galvin that has been accused of heinous crimes. That's why they are often very specific about a defendant's address.

I'm not surprised they got the hump, BOGOF is one thing, but when the 'get one free' is an underarm bubo and impending death, that's something else again......................... Sorry Rob, I couldn't resist