norbold

Thanks Jim.

I think you'll find his name is Jim, not Jack. I think you'll find the talk is about the history of New Cross Speedway not about a book. I think you'll find it's always easier to complain that other people are not doing it right rather than actually do something about it yourself. It seems to me the fact that a local history society wishes to have a talk on speedway is something we should welcome and encourage not moan that it's "not especially well thought out." And yes, davidba, everyone is welcome to come. The programme I have for the Lewisham Local History Society says at the bottom, "Visitors welcome - Donations invited at the meetings." I look forward to seeing you there.

Just thought I'd better come out of semi-retirment to put this thread straight... The Lewisham Local History Society are meeting at the Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way, SE13 at 7:45 on FRIDAY 26 NOVEMBER to hear a splendid illustrated talk on the history of New Cross Speedway given by the author of "Out of the Frying Pan". Unless other people bring them, there will be no relics and there will be no walkabouts. I don't know what kennylane thinks is not well thought out, but maybe he ought to contact Paul Newing, the Chairman of the Lewisham Local History Society, with his suggestions for improvements to the evening.. He can be contacted through www.lewishamhistory.org.uk

Some sad news. I've just heard that former Norwich rider, Phil Clarke has died at the age of 88. He first rode for the Stars in 1947 and became captain in 1951. He qualified for the World Championship final in 1955 and remained with Norwich until his retirement in 1959, having spent the whole of his career with just the one club. How many riders can say that these days!? In all he rode 309 matches for the Stars, scoring 2162 points, both club records.

Yes, you're quite right, Tsunami.... Crickey, did I really say that? I'm going for a long lie down....

Says the man who swears at people who disagree with him and calls them animals...

For all your FACTS, Colin, you only need to look at the contributions above to see the decision was not as clear cut as you seem to think. There have been plenty of people posting on here who are not Poles who think the referee was right. So maybe Mr Steele or a German/Hungarian referee would have made the same decision after all. You might disagree with the decision - in fact I do - but you can't just say the decision was made BECAUSE the referee was Polish. It's a controversial decision and one that could have gone either way, let's leave it at that shall we?

I was at the 1971 final. You could video me talking about it if you like!

Barry Briggs was another prime example. Yes, the service will be on 30 August. Any ideas what we could do on Sep 11 as well? I'm all for it if we could think up something meaningful.

I think it's 30 August. But I will confirm that.

Thanks for that, MR. John Chaplin has arranged for the Speedway Chaplain, The Rev Mike Whawell, to hold a service in honour of Tom. More details later.

My books on sale in a cathedral? The shame of it!!!

Just thought I'd let you know, Parsloes, old chap, that I have now been booked for 10 talks in 2011. Programme secretaries of many societies are now starting to book speakers for 2012.

You leave my biscuits alone...

Yes, where the name speedway came from is, of course, of historical interest as is why and how the sport we know today became known as speedway. More research needed there I think. Incidentally the 19 February 1928 meeting was billed as Dirt Track Racing at "King's Oak" Speedway, so the term speedway was used at that meeting. When you say "certainly the first meeting was not at High Beech" it depends what you are taking as your definition of speedway. If it is no brakes, sliding round corners on loose dirt tracks then as I have said I believe it was at High Beech on either 7 or 9 April 1928, though not on 19 February. I'm not sure why you should give credence to Ipswich any more than say Preston Park (Brighton) 1901 or Shepherd’s Bush (London), 1902. But none of these meetings featured what I would say are the necessary ingredients for speedway. How would you define speedway, Mick and why Ipswich particularly rather than other early examples of motor bikes racing round small oval circuits?

From the latest issue of "Opposite Lock", the magazine of the World Speedway Rider's Association: The article is titled "Darrell Mason's Tribute to the Past...Maitland 1923 still with us to this day." And begins: "It is not often one os given the opportunity to delve back to the past, in this case to visit the recognised home of where our sport began its life, in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia almost 87 years ago, on December 15, 1923, to be precise." There is a second article from Darrell, titled, "All our Yesterdays...Veterans from the past revisited. WSRA pays tribute to the golden greats of a bygone era." This article begins: "When our recognised 'father of speedway', the late John Stark Hoskins, first introduced the sport from Australia to these shores...." I'm just off to slit my wrists...

There is an article on speedway postcards in this month's Picture Postcard Monthly which begins, "Although it is generally accepted that motorcycle speedway was first introduced in Australia in 1923...." Here we go again!

I agree.

:oops:

Er...maybe because it closed in 1947...

As a "biking expert"...er..., allow me to answer Parsloes' question. I think Dagenham does indeed have a claim to be recognised as the "biggest hotbed of speedway talent in the UK before the War." Riders of the calibre of Frank Hodgson, Doug Wells, Jim Baylais, Nobby Stock, Malcolm Craven, Alan Smith, Eric French, Dick Harris, Crusty Pye, Aussie Powell, Ernie Pawson, Alex Gray, George Craig, Frank Lawrence and Bill Gilbert all had their grounding at Dagenham. Rye House would be the other claimant to the title but their golden period was probably just after the War, so I wouldn't dismiss Dagenham's claim. It's nice to be quoted as an expert in these matters of course, but I'd rather it was not in an article that also says, "The Dagenham track opened as speedway developed in the UK, four years after it was staged in Epping Forest, having been imported from Australia were it was first staged in 1923." As I said on another thread, aaaaaggggghhhh!!!! Incidentally, Parsloes, did you like your mention in my Speedway Star article!?

Do you mean Christer Lofqvist as i) he didn't ride for Wembley and ii) he was 26 when Wembley returned in 1970? Christer Sjosten maybe?

I was just about to say that!

I think it extremely unlikely.

Once again that's very interesting, Cyclone. Nothing like having contemporary documents. The information that Watson, Medcalf and Pugh demonstrated the art of broadsiding on 9 April come from the Motor Cycle report. I can't imagine the reporter would have just made it up. The report says: "For the first time in this country real, honest-to-goodness broadsiding was seen, no fewer than three riders demonstrated their ability to proceed round the track in the approved fashion. One of these riders is an Australian, but the other two are British. "The Australian rider, who is now connected with the King's Oak Speedway, is W.P.B. Pugh, a Silver Helmet winner. He gave several demonstrations on a 249 cc. Dunelt, and greatly delighted the crowd with his clever riding. The British riders are C. Watson (246 New Imperial) and A. Medcalf (494 Douglas), and as far as the actual races were concerned these two were undoubtedly the star turns of the day. "At the morning meeting Watson won the 250 cc event, and was second in the 350 cc race, and in the afternoon, he won both the 250 cc and 350 cc races and was winning the 500 cc event when he crashed... "Medcalf, who was, of course, only eligible for the 500 cc races won the event held in the morning after a wonderful tussle with Gus Kuhn and in the afternoon he was well on the way to victory when Nemesis, in the form of a skid, which he could not correct, overtook him, and he crashed heavily. He made the best time of the day by averaging 34.92 m.p.h. for five laps; the course is now 294 yards long." What qualifies it is that Hoskins was a supreme showman and said he invented speedway. It is a totally false claim. For one thing, the Maitland track was really a grass track. Eleven months before Maitland, the Thebarton Oval in Adelaide had held a meeting at which motor cycles raced round a cinder track (note, Rob, cinders!) under floodlights. There were similar reports of meetings from a number of places including Townsville, Rockhampton and Newcastle, all before the "famous" Maitland meeting. There was no broadsiding at Maitland.