norbold

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

Why?

Absolutely hilarious. I'm sure that the 6,000,000 Jews tortured and killed in the Concentration Camps would have a good laugh over that - if they were still alive. Oh yes, I know, lighten up, it's only a joke.

How about one on Seventh Day Adventist speedway riders?

John Louis. He took the helmet from Eric Broadbelt and then defeated Geoff Maloney, Gil Farmer, Arthur Price, Doug Wyer, Maurie Robinson, Eric Broadbelt and Reg Wilson to finish the season as holder. He then defended it successfully five more times at the start of the 1971 season. Incidentally, a few good old names to conjure with there!

George Major won the Silver Helmet from Taffy Owen and then defeated Phil Pratt and Geoff Bouchard before losing it to Maurie Robinson in 1970. Sorry I don't have the exact dates to hand. There was no silver helmet in 1969.

Sorry, BOBBATH, I've only just seen this...Having said that, I can't help anyway. I'm sure there must have been a number of Jewish riders but apart from guessing by name (Lionel Levy for example) I really don't know....But then I have a Jewish name and I'm not Jewish, so that doesn't really help!

We had that problem at West Ham too....another Tuesday track!

Norwich, Crystal Palace, Lea Bridge, High Beech and Stamford Bridge. But what I would have most wanted to see is Tom Farndon riding...anywhere!

Yes, sorry I haven't updated you on this, but I've only just learnt myself that apparently there is not going to be a temporary site now as it is hoped the proper web site itself will be up and running in December. I will see if I can get more of a definite date for you. I will also mention the fact that it would be good to have something up soon with a view to Christmas sales.

Anyone seen Shazzy?

Buster Frogley, Lionel Van Praag, Frank Charles,Wally Kilmister

As far as I know Derek Timms appeared in just one meeting at New Cross in 1959 as a reserve in the last meeting of the season, the Supporters Trophy.

I think the ? Timms who rode one match for Middlesbrough in 1946 is not Derek. Derek Timms was a Rye House discovery who first rode at Rye House in 1953.

Derek rode for New Cross in 1960.

I thought your teenage idol was Sprouts Elder...

1-2-3-4 5-7-6-8 10-11-9-12 15-14-16-13 13-1-5-9 14-10-2-6 11-15-7-3 4-8-12-16 6-16-1-11 12-5--15-2 8-9-3-14 13-4-10-7 7-12-14-1 2-13-8-11 16-3-10-5 9-6-4-15 1-8-15-10 9-2-7-16 3-12-13-6 5-14-11-4

I guess it depends what you mean by the "best". Certainly in the immediate post-War period, the crowds were enormous and speedway was getting extensive coverage in the press. This is also true for the early days in the late 20s and early 30s. There were at least three sets of speedway rider cigarette cards issued and the top riders also found their way in to sets of "leading sportsmen" and the like. There were also hundreds of postcards of speedway riders. I don't think speedway had that sort of following and publicity even in the 1965-1980 period. Being the age I am I have lots of acquaintances who went to speedway in the 1946 - 52 era, but never went again, not even in the 1965-80 period. When, as I frequently do (!), talk to them about speedway they will remember names like Vic Duggan, Jack Parker, Tommy Price and many others from the immediate post War period. Some will mention hearing of Ivan Mauger and possibly Barry Briggs, but that's about as far as it ever goes. I would say that speedway's greatest era was 1946-52.

1956 was the first Saturday final.

Incidentally, I think Louis Lawson is 86, therby putting him in second place.

I believe Split Waterman was born in 1924 making him 84 and therefore younger than Cyril Roger.

Was he the tallest ever though?

Fred and Cyril were no relation. Fred is a Rogers with an 's', Cyril is a Roger without.