norbold

Who retired in 1960, so not in the 1950s.

If you are talking purely about riders who retired in the 1950s, I'd say that Arthur Forrest must be the prime example.

I think one has already been written. Can't quite remember the name of the author(s) though.

Tom Farndon. He won the Star Riders' Championship in 1933.....

Yes, I believe I may have mentioned Tom Farndon winning the 1933 Star Riders' Championship once or twice!

Where was mine when I went to Toronto earlier this year?

New Cross closed in 1963. Lack of support. They weren't forced out.

Funnily enough, that's exactly the same as the Top Ten I would have chosen.

The Speedway Star used to issue an end-of-year ranking list. Unfortunately this finished in 1966, so there are only two years to look at. But, in both, Nigel Boocock was the highest ranked British rider. But, what is perhaps more interesting, is that in 1965, he was ranked at no. 5 in the World and in 1966, only at no.12. The foreigners were truly taking over! The only other British riders to feature were Ken McKinlay, at no.9= in 1965 and Mike Broadbank(s) (no.13), Eric Boocock (18=) and Ken McKinlay (no.20) in 1966.

Yes, true, which is why the promoters were desperate to find another track to run and, fortunately for me (!), found West Ham.

There were seven teams in 1964, the lowest it got to.

Interesting stuff. Is the cut-off point of 15 significant for any reason?

No, that was the only time I ever went to Cradley. I was actually at college in Norwich at the time and, because of the importance of the match, I thought I really had to get there. I managed to persuade two fellow students to come with me so we hired a car and drove over. Inside the stadium, we joined the group of West Ham supporters who had made the journey. After the match, as you can imagine, there was much celebration going on amongst us Hammers fans and I really wanted to go back on the coach with them to London to continue the celebrations, so I did. When we reached West Ham in the small hours, my friend and I walked back to his house in Hackney, stopping in a launderette on the way for an hour's kip! I got the train back to Norwich the next day. Meanwhile, my two college chums had slept the night in the car and drove back to Norwich the next day. Sorry, not much to do with speedway as such, but a small slice of life of an ardent speedway fan in the 1960s.

Yes, 1965. I was on the West Ham supporters' coach coming back from Cradley Heath after we had just beaten them to win the league and do the treble. We stopped off at Watford Gap and met up with Ken McKinlay and some of the boys.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten that. He was a great lover of midget car racing as well.

Yes, indeed. All of them.

Yes, I agree. I saw him. couple of times in 1960 and thought he looked really good.

He would probably have liked a thread for each name.

Yes, I certainly can. I was at the meeting.

I also ignored Soren Sjosten, Dan Forsberg, Birger Forsberg, Per Olof Soderman and Rune Sormander - to name just a few!

Just out of interest, I looked up Olle Nygren and Ove Fundin's first year averages using your criterion of 10 matches minimum.. Olle Nygren's was 7.6 from 10 matches (Harringay 1952) Ove Fundin's was 10.34 (Norwich 1956). (The previous year he appeared in 6 matches and scored 73 points.) I think it's fair to say that Ove Fundin began as he meant to continue!

He won the British Semi Final at Sheffield, the British Final, the Commonwealth Final and came 6th in the Intercontinental Final.

That he didn't is the biggest regret of my speedway life! I saw his first ever public race at West Ham. It was a special junior match race between him, aged 15, and Barry Thomas, aged 16. Barry won, but I thought Dave looked really classy for a 15 year old having his first race and I said to my friend, "He"ll be world champion one day." But, of course, he never was!

I think there were a number of Russians in the 1960s who would probably have benefited from riding for British clubs. As well as Plechanov and Kurilenko, there were Boris Samorodov, Gab Kadirov, Yuri Chekranov and Vladimir Sokolov to name a few.

It is an interesting conundrum and Zmarzlik's dominance raises an interesting question . Leaving aside Laguta and Sayfutdinov at the moment for obvious reasons, if we were to look objectively at the top 15 riders in the world, I think we would include the likes of Magic and Dudek. However, I think we also know that the chance of them ever beating Zmarzlik to the World Championship is almost zero. The only way he is going to lose over the next few years (Russians excepted) is for one or two of the younger riders, like Lambert, Bewley, Kvech, Kubera or Becker for example, to come good. But to do that they need to get experience at Grand Prix level. So do you go for the top 15 in the world regardless, and I can understand those left out would feel very aggrieved, or do you try and inject a bit of youth in the hope that at least one of them will make good and make a fight of the World Championship?