norbold

Yes, I know what you mean, Deano. But I suppose it's better to have some reminder than none at all. Talking of housing estates, of course, the Firs at Norwich is now a housing estate as well.

You're certainly not, Tigerblade. I remember Tony Holland well.

Yes, but at least the roads are named after former West Ham riders plus Johnnie Hoskins. Has this happened anywhere else? As is Rayleigh. They spell it High Beach! The spelling has long been a bone of contention in the area. The word beech could refer to the beech trees in the area which would make more sense as High Bee(a)ch is nowhere near the sea, but there is also an archaic meaning of the word beach which means an escarpment and it could refer to this. When I lived in the area in the 60s and 70s both spellings were used but recently it has become normal to refer to it as High Beach.You hardly ever see High Beech except in speedway circles! There are some photographs of how the area looks now on John Skinner's Defunct Tracks website (I should know, I took them!): http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/High%20Beech.htm

I'm really sad to hear that, Tsunami. I spoke to him a couple of times while I was researching my Wembley book and I also published the results of one of the interviews in the Vintage Speedway Magazine. He was extremely courteous and helpful and a true gentleman. I found him to be very modest about his achievements and seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about and why I should want to interview someone like him! But he was a great rider and an integral part of the Wembley team that included such stars as Jack Ormston, Ginger Lees, Colin Watson, Frank Charles, Wally Kilmister and Lionel Van Praag. Yet he was never outclassed or overawed by them. He was their equal and one of them. He will be sadly missed.

Sorry, Jim, I can't. The song I remember most being played at New Cross was Good Timin' by Jimmy Jones. I don't know why, it has just stuck in my memory. What I do remember really well are the songs they played at West Ham in I think c. 1968 or 1969 when they had a sponsorship deal with Buddah Records and played tracks from the Kasenetz-Katz LPs like "Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus" and "Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus" exclusively all season. Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz were record producers who had got together a number of different groups to play together like a big band. The individual groups included 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express, Music Explosion, Lt. Garcia's Magic Music Box, Musical Marching Zoo, J.C.W. Rat Finks and St. Louis Invisible Marching Band. They played such memorable songs as "Simon Says", "Yummy Yummy Yummy", "Chewy Chewy", "Goody Goody Gumdrops" and "Quick Joey Small" They grew on you after a while....

What do you mean what happened to them? They are no longer involved with the Museum.

Writing in the 1972 Webster's Speedway Mirror annual, Ian MacDonald said in the international section, "The Poles themselves are still Eastern Europe's top speedway country...The international days of Pawel Waloszek and Antoni Woryna seem numbered but there is still an awful lot of talent over there. Leading the way is Jerzy Szczakiel and how the Poles could have left him out of their World Cup team is one of speedway's mysteries!" Szczakiel's photograph is the main featured photograph at the beginning of the section. In the report of the World Pairs, Ian MacDonald also says, "The Polish duo of Jerzy Szczakiel and Andrzej Wyglenda were indisputably masters in the World Pairs Final..." So it's not as though he came from nowhere to win the World title in 1973. He was already being touted as Poland's best hope at the end of the 1971 season.

Yes, I agree Nigel. But don't forget Albert "Shrimp" Burns (if only for his name) who was also sliding his bike around American dirt tracks before the First World War.

:lol:

Thanks for the info, Bob. Yes, I shouldn't have left out his time at Poole.

Just heard the sad news that Fred Pawson has died in New Zealand. Fred Pawson started his speedway career as a mechanic at Eastbourne in 1947. After practising at Rye House he was signed by Harringay in 1948. He moved to Norwich in 1951, coming straight in with a near 6-point average. On promotion to the First Division his average dropped to around 3 or 4 per match, but he remained in the reserve position until 1954.

Who knows, Trackman, who knows? It all depends on your definition of speedway. The other thing about the first meeting at High Beech was that the bikes were still fitted with brakes. As far as I'm concerned I believe the first proper speedway meeting in Great Britain was either the second or third meeting at High Beech on 7 and 9 April 1928. "Motor Cycle" magazine says that the meeting on 9 April was the first time broadsiding was seen in this country with Digger Pugh, Colin Watson and Alf Medcalf doing the honours. The track on 9 April was also described as having a loose dirt surface, built under the direction of the great Australian promoter, A J Hunting, which the first meeting did not have, nor did the meeting at Droylsden on 25 June 1927, also said by some to be the first speedway meeting in this country. Although the 9 April meeting is described as the first to feature broadsiding, I presume that the meeting on 7 April used the same loose dirt track. What I'm even more unsure about is whether bikes were still fitted with brakes at this point. It seems unlikely, what with A J Hunting, loose dirt and broadsiding, but I have found no mention of them either way. The first meeting at Greenford was also held on 7 April 1928, but with no broadsiding as far as I can tell. At the meeting the following week, 14 April, the New Zealander, Stewie St George, gave a display of broadsiding, "He laid his Duggie over at impossible angles with the rear wheel slewing right round." Billy Galloway also gave a display of broadsiding as did a young English rider, Les Blakeborough. By the time, Britain got round to "proper" speedway" the Americans and Australians had been at it for years. The first reports of broadsiding go back to before the First World War in America with a man named Don Johns. R. M. Sammy Samuels, one time editor of 'Motor Cycling' and 'Speedway News' and manager of an Indian motorcycle agency in London went to the USA in 1911 where he says he witnessed 'Dirt Track Racing'. Years later he commented that Johnnie Hoskins had only reinvented an old idea. Speedway did not suddenly appear overnight, as Johnnie Hoskins would have us all believe. It came about through a long process of evolution that probably started even before 1911. There are reports of oval track racing in South Africa and Ipswich before that, though neither could be called speedway as we know it. I don't think we will ever be able to point to a particular meeting and say "That's when speedway started." (My thanks to Nigel for some of the information in the above.)

Broadsiding wasn't allowed.

1965 for me too. The year the great and glorious Hammers pulled off the treble.

No, sorry. I did tell them about Christmas sales and they said "What a good idea, we'll have to at least get a temporary site up"...but, as you can see, nothing!

There may be room for both. There is nothing to stop anyone organising an event at High Beech as well. The Speedway Museum does not have a monopoly on speedway events.

I have already explained the reason for the decision several months ago on the "Latest News" thread: 'Next year's annual "High Beech" celebrations will be held at the Speedway Museum instead of High Beech and will be on 8 February. Admission will be free. It is to be called "A Celebration of Speedway - incorporating the High Beech Anniversary." The reason for the move is because of complaints received at this year's annual celebrations (and received every year since I can remember) that the King's Oak is too small for the number of people who come to the event. By holding it at the Museum and using other Paradise Park facilities there will be much more room for stall holders and visitors and more and better facilities available. The museum will also be open on site as a bonus. We are hoping to persuade a number of former world champions to come along.' There was unanimous agreement on the committee for this move and in fact two of the main proponents were Terry Stone and Bert Harkins, who both argued that we needed more room to do the event justice. However, it was also recognised that there would be complaints about moving away from High Beech because of the tradition and so it was also agreed that the event would be held at Paradise Park and High Beech in alternate years, so as to keep the link. P.S.. Just seen this comment, "I fear the organisers have 'sold their sole' to make a few quid." The organisers will be making nothing out of the event other than what they would have made had the event been held at High Beech. The only way the Museum will make extra money is if more stallholders take stands. The money will go to the Museum, which surely is a good thing. Paradise Park itself stand to make a loss as entry to the Park itself will be free for the day.

Don't make my cry, Bryan.... Anyway, you are right. The last match at New Cross was against Poole on 2 August 1963. The Rangers raced an away fixture at Poole three days later on 5 August and then that was it. Incidentally the last rider ever to win a race at the Frying Pan was my old mate, Stan Stevens. Jimmy Squibb was last in the race and therefore the last rider ever to cross the finishing line at New Cross in a competitive race (there were some junior practice laps after the meeting finished, so I don't know who was actually the last rider to cross the line).

I was at the meeting too. It was heat one of the meeting. I honestly don't remember the incident, but I have made a note on my programme which says. "Fundin excluded. Other riders objected. Humphrey's a twit." (Humphrey was, of course, the referee). So, I suppose, I agreed with andout's view at the time.

Apart from the fact that women were banned for most of that 40 years so there are unlikely to have been many female world champions what does that have to do with it? Only very few men have been world champion in that 40 years; should all the rest not bother then?

Dons 1954. Yes, that is Dom Perry in the front. Swindon. The official on the left is the man I was named after, Norman Parker.

12 April Southern League match. New Cross 45 Hackney 33

Phew! That's a relief....

Strangely enough, Ron, I have no club loyalty to Norman Parker at all because, being a New Cross supporter, Wimbledon were the enemy! Of course, I do have a personal loyalty however to the man whose name I now proudly bear.....

"I was named after a speedway rider, Wimbledon captain Norman Parker, so I guess you could say that speedway has always been in my blood. My father and older brother used to go to Harringay in the late 40s, but I was considered too young to brave the London elements so had to be content with hearing about the matches. I continued to take an interest in speedway via newspapers and television and often, on my bicycle at the age of 7 or 8, would pretend to be Split Waterman or Aub Lawson. By the time my parents considered me old enough to go to speedway there was only one track left in London, Wimbledon, but that was too far away from our Hackney home to get to by public transport. By 1960, three things had changed: 1. My dad had bought a car 2. He had started buying the Evening News 3. New Cross had re-opened. In those days the Evening News regularly had speedway reports and also printed the programme for the forthcoming evening’s racing at Wimbledon and New Cross. One day in May 1960, I saw the programme for that night’s racing at New Cross and asked my dad if we could go. He agreed we could. And so on 11 May 1960 we made our way to New Cross via Mile End, the Rotherhithe Tunnel and the Old Kent Road and I found myself sitting below the main stand almost opposite the starting gate waiting for the evening’s racing to begin. I was 12 years old. That evening’s match was New Cross v. Norwich. The New Cross team was captained by Split Waterman with the rest of the team being Jimmy Gooch, Leo McAuliffe, Bobby Croombs, Eric Williams, Derek Timms, Tommy Sweetman and Reg Luckhurst. Amazingly the very first race I ever saw pitted my two boyhood heroes, Split Waterman and Aub Lawson against each other. It resulted in a victory for Aub. That night Aub Lawson and Ove Fundin were almost unbeatable for Norwich and scored 16 paid 17 and 18 respectively. Between them they scored 34 of Norwich’s 42 points. But it wasn’t enough to beat New Cross and MY team, as the Rangers had now become, won their first official fixture of the year, having lost their first 5 including two at home. I said Lawson and Fundin were almost unbeatable because in heat 10, Jimmy Gooch managed to beat Lawson to the biggest cheer of the night. Goochie instantly became my favourite rider and stayed that way until I was forced to support West Ham in 1964 following New Cross’s closure. I remember that the biggest incident of the night came in Heat 15, the nominated riders’ heat. When it was announced that New Cross’s pair would be Split Waterman and Eric Williams there was a lot of booing. Not only had Goochie beaten Lawson, but he was the Rangers highest scorer of the night, having scored 10 to Split’s 6 and Eric’s 8. However, there was some poetic justice when Split fell and injured himself in an unsatisfactory start and Jimmy was allowed in to replace him. He duly came third, beating Williams. For me it was a night to remember as my first visit to speedway." As seen on Jim's excellent New Cross Tribute site: here