Sprog1

Does anybody know where Norman Hunter is and what he is doing these days ? One of my favourite riders.

Well done for putting that together Tigerowl. As I cut my Speedway teeth at West Ham I have to go with Olle-by-Golly, but if someone was injued and Ron How came in at reserve I might have to think twice about it.

That is a very important point. Giving him hydrocortisone injections ay his age as they were when he had his wrist injury is a good way of getting him on the scrap heap within 10 years. If Micheal Lee was suposedly mentoring him at the time I am surprised he went along with it. Thats one reason I don't think Lee was good for him. I know speedway riders are supposed to be tough and all that but there is only so much a body can take in a relatively short period of time. It has been said many times that a good rider is a fast rider who has discovered the ground is hard and slows down a fraction. Tai has probably still not finished growing. A couple of seasons concentrating on the leagues and forgetting about the GP's in the short term will do him no harm at all IMO.

Look at the logistics of it. There are 15 permanent places. Last years top 8 go through plus 3 qualifiers, that leaves 4 places to be gifted. Of those 4 one will undoubtedly go to Emil. Historically those finishing close to the top 8 tend to get a place, so AJ must get one of them as he was 9th and only one point behind Holder, and winner of the final GP of the season. Pedersen must surely get one,as an ex-World Champion who had a torrid time but proved his ability to make semi's and finals in the last half of the season and was only 5 points behind Holder in 10th place. That leaves one place to be gifted and the main contenders for it, apart from Tai, would seem to be Hans who was 10 points down on Holder, but 27 points higher than Tai, but Hans has age against him plus the fact that if Nicki goes though there wil already be two Danes in the series. Then there is Zorro who has age against him but still did better than Tai on the track and in the table. Finally their is Kolodziej, Polish Champion, who out performed Tai in the few GP's he rode in, has had an outstanding international season and at 26 years old has the ideal blend of youth and experience. Kolodzeij would also have qualified anyway, had it not been for an engine failure. Looking at Tai's merits it would be difficult to put him in ahead of Hans or Zorro who both outperformed him but surely the strongest case for the remaining place is with Kolodziej who has ticked all the boxes, and at 26 is entering the peak of his career. How can he be denied for another year in favour of Tai, aged 20 who has still to reach his peak ? Surely the 4 nominations have to go to Emil, AJ, Nicki, and Kolodziej ?

Thanks for that. Its all slowly coming back through the fog of time. I do now remember reading that he emigrated and was married to an Edinburgh girl. I think the Haulage company bit was before he emigrated but if Barry is not sure what he does maybe what I read about the haulage company was just a story for the interview. You have reminded me as well that he had hardly been on a bike before he came to Edinburgh, and I vaguely recall that he had never actually raced until he lined up for the Monarchs. Is that correct ? Only going by what I read. I only ever saw him race the once, he was always injured before that, and when I did see him he was just back from injury and well of the pace so it was a disappointment. Incidently I thought Murray was the oldest brother, was I wrong on that. I never actually saw him ride. As for THE man, THE Briggo, the one and only, he was without doubt the greatest ever in my opinion. Not the most consisitent ever, but at his best absolutely breathtaking.

Yes he hardly finished a season without some form of serious injury, including the loss of sight in one eye. I saw him at the end of his career at Exeter in the early 70's. He was finished in speedway by the age of about 27 I think. Most of his injuries seemed to be for very unlucky reasons like broken frames and things. I believe I read somewhere that he is/ was until recently living in Scotland and running a haulage company I think.

Wal rode as reseve for Hackney for most of the 1963 season. Hackney at the time were said to have both the oldest and youngest riders in the Provincial League, Wal (aged 54) and Malcolm Simmons (aged 17) and both went out together in heat 4 (Simmons as no2 and Morton riding No 7). I think David Crane did a couple of meetings later in the season aged 16.

The one off World Final was exciting in its day but that day is now past. You have to consider the much larger geographical area speedway covers now. With more nations wanting a slice of the action you would be lucky to have a World Final staged in this country once every 7 or 8 years , maybe even less than that. Would you be happy with that ? Would Cardiff be interested in staging an event that infrequently with all the equipment that needs to be stored ? I doubt it . Where are the sponsors coming from ? Modern international speedway needs sponsors and sponsors need exposure. 10 or 11 GP's is one thing but sponsors are unlikely to be interested in sponsoring a rider who may well fail to qulalify for a one-off meeting. The qualifying rounds are unlikely to be of interest to the TV companies. The GP Challenge never gets televised so why should the TV companies be interested in televising qualifiers for a one-off World Final ? How are you going to organise the qualifying rounds ? If it was like the old system you will end up with top riders going out in th Danish and Polish rounds but near novices going a long way in the British rounds. We already saw riders like Marvyn Cox going abroad to qualify under the old system because it was easier so these days you are likely to find continetal riders coming over here to geet an easier qualifying route. Then there is the corruption. Apart from things like the Egon Muller fix, there was always a lot of riders buying points to get an easy qulifying route even in the days of the poor pay. so these days it would be rife with so much sponsorship etc turning on it. The one off Finals have had their day. Leave them in the past.

Not exactly sure why Penhalls win was a stitch-up unless you are referring to the overblown Kenny Carter incident. Mullers win was as stitch-up in that the track was specially prepared to suit his long-track style and he was allowed a lot more practice on it, than the other riders, behind closed doors. Whether that counts as a stitch-up depends on your view point but it was certainly a stage-managed event that was the beginning of the end for the one-off world final. I don't like Gollob much but if he wins it will be a genuine win, by a genuine world champion which is more than can be said for Szczakiels win.

Bit of a wild guess but Bob Innocent ?

Thanks for taking the trouble to do that report. It is much appreciated. Hope speedway continues to grow in Finland. Congratualtions to Kakke on his second Finnish Championship. One of the nicest guys in speedway.

Loads of clubs have the same problem but find a way round it. At Lakeside not just the airfence but the entire safety fence has to be erected and taken down on raceday and I am sure there must be others in the same situation. Where there's a will theres away. If you can't get volunteers you have to offer some kind of inducement such as free admission or some other kind of financial incentive. I can't believe its beyond the wit of businessmen to get airfences erected if they really want to. The advertisements on the airfence more than pay the cost of getting it up and down. KL had no touble finding someone to put the airfence up and down when they wanted to stage the SWC qualifier, so why not every meeting ? Whats more important a few quid to get an airfence up or rider safety ?

That is something people should take note of when they keep on about Lynn's facilities. If the Chapmans had invested in an airfence they would not have had the money to invest in other facilities. Staying in the PL enables the Chapmans to have their priorities back to front- facilities that improve their profit comes first, rider safety (i.e.airfence) second. If all the EL promoters were to play that game there would be no EL just a secondary league with no international riders which in turn would result in no SWC at all in this country, reduced attendances at Cardiff, no Sky and ultimately the decimatiion of the sport in this country. There are three leagues but they are all one sport and unless they work together, then in the lomg run all will suffer.

What, you mean invest in emerging talent like David Howe and Joe Screen ?

I wouldn't, not after all the trouble Eddie Kennet caused by having one last week at Lakeside

Exactly

For a whole range of reasons, of which the amount travelling is one of the more prominent, there will always be continental riders who chose not to ride over here. That does not alter the fact that the Elite League is where the top riders are to be seen as far as this country is concerned, and without the EL, speedway in this country would come close to disappearing. When I refer to World class riders I am using the term in a much wider sense then simply GP riders. On last night performance non GP riders such as Stead,Schlein, Batchelor and Davidsson have to be classed as world class on the basis that they held there own in world class competition, which is more than can be said for Daniel Nermark for example.

I agree with much of what is being said by SS. People talk sneeringly of the Elite League not being "elite" any more but the plain truth is that it is the Elite League not the Premier League that keeps world class riders in this country. "Elite" is just a word and even if you called it the Rubbish league or the Coronation Street League or some other name instead, it is still the league where the top riders ply their trade , so please, lets have less sarcasm about the title. If people prefer PL racing' they are quite welcome to support it but the truth of the matter is that without the EL by any other name there will be no world class riders over here, and without world class riders speedway in this country would all but collapse. Why does the EL survive ? Only because certain people who love the sport are prepared to spend huge sums of money supporting it rather than the soft option to drop down to a lower league where the overheads are less. To that extent it is only fair that people like Rick Frost who was reported to have spent over £100,000 on Peterboro last year, including improving the faclities should get preference over a PL club even if the SWC was at EOES last year, assuming he wants it of course. The only reservation I would have is that it was reported that there were 8500 people there last night and if that is correct then I am not sure if there is an EL club that could safely hold that many, so if true the stadium capacity, and nothing else would justify KL for last nights event.

That is a very good point but is not the point Shovvy was making. I don't think there is a lot in the argument that it should be on a track that gives advantage to British riders becuase at most tracks it would be so marginal as to make no difference. However I do agree with orions point that the big meetings should be a prize event for the Elite League. No disrespect to KL fans but many of them are going to get a top-notch meeting on their doorstep at a location that will be very difficult for many EL fans to get to on a week night, but KL as club will benefit with loads of local publicity that the EL clubs will miss out on. If KL want their fans to see the better riders they should support the EL and not have Rob Lyons fixing this up by the back door. I notice KL are quite happy for the EL to stage the mind numbingly boring British under-21. If they are not prepared to chip in with the rubbish meetings like that why should they have the jewel in the crown ?

The Royal Navy was advertised on all the bikes.

I tend to agree with that. Every serious speedway fan I have spoken to would rather see the sixteen best riders in the competition, irrespective of where they come from.

Don't think I agreee with out with the old in with the new. If you got rid of everyone over 30 the standard would be a lot lower. Noddy and Emil will only become great riders by beating the likes of Crump and Gollob. If the only have to beat people like Lindgren, Bomber and Woffinden they hardly need to be any better than they are now. I think Holder was as impressive off the track as he was on it. The way he got his feet on the ground and calmed down very quickly after his issue with Crump was I thought, very mature and an ingredient to become a very great rider, especially compared to the way Nicki P., for example starts throwing thing around and loses his cool when things go wrong. Thats one reason why I think we have seen the last of Nicki as a real top-liner. Crump needed anger-management training to deal with those things but Holder has dealt with it at a much younger age. Have to say he really is a true sportsman.

Sky will have problem if they are not!

Lewis Bridger ?

The problem there is leapfrogging. If for the sake of argument they were to finish in the order they are now in, with Zorro 9th, do you kick Zorro out but let Lindgren, currently 14th, have another year ? Greg is currently 13 th, so do you let a rider of his stature go out after an impeccable career but keep someone else just because they are younger ? On the other hand if Greg is put back next yeat what do you do with Zorro if he were to stay ahead of Greg. With Nicki currently languishing in 7th what would you do if he were to slip the 9th ? How could you put him out and let Chris Harris go through. I agree there should be exceptions in the case of riders like Emil who have time out due to injury and maybe he should then be assessed on the basis of his average points per GP ridden but if a rider is outside the top 8 for the whole season I don't see case for seeding him through the following year unless he quallifies either by staying in the top 8 or top 10 max, or by doing the qualifying rounds.