norbold

Oh, you mean sandman.

No, you are not correct! The Control Board did recognise the Provincial League in 1960. I don't know why it was held at Cradley Heath. It was the first running of the Championship of course. Maybe the Provincial League promoters wanted to show they could run a prestigious meeting on one of their own tracks. Ken Middleditch was second and Eric Hockaday third.

Firstly, two things...I think you might have miscalculated my age. I was 18 in 1965, but at the time the Inetrnationale was held I was still only 17. The PLRC final I saw was in 1961, not 1960. Having said that...As it happens, Trevor Redmond was head and shoulders above the opposition in the 1961 final as well. His final race is one I can still recall vividly as I felt - and still feel - it to be the greatest misfortune and miscarriage of justice I have ever seen (apart perhaps from Jason Crump running out of fuel!). Redmond, who as I say, had been by far and away the best rider on show that evening, was up against Reg Reeves who was also unbeaten, but had not won his races in quite such a commanding way as Redmond. Anyway, Redmond went in to an early lead and, just as in every other race, was well in front when, on the very last bend, his chain came off and he trailed in last, handing Reeves the title, which should rightfully have been his. He even had the indignity of having to ride against Maurie Mattingly for second place, which he again won convincingly.

Yes, it was awarded as a sort of consolation prize by the F.I.M. because the World Final was to be held outside Great Britain for the first time. As star ghost says there were qualifying rounds in that first year. I saw the round at New Cross which had joint winners in Ronnie Moore and Ove Fundin, both with 14 points. Bob Andrews and Split Waterman were joint third on 12. Timo Laine took part but only scored two points. I then saw the final at Harringay, which is one of only two occasions I managed to get to Harringay - the other being the Provincial League Riders' Championship final held the same year. As for Charlie Monk winning in 1965, I remember penning a rather angry letter to the Speedway Star & News about this as it was my belief that he had ridden on the grass in Heat 14 and should have been excluded in his race against Barry Briggs. Had he been excluded he would have finished equal first with Gote Nordin and Bjorn Knutsson and there would have been a run-off. My anger, of course, had nothing to with the fact that Bjorn had been the West Ham captain in 1964 and was still much revered by us Hammers fans...The letter was published and I recently came across it while researching something else. I have to say it made me cringe with embarrassment re-reading it. Still I was only 17 at the time!

Yes, a great rider. Anyone who is named after him should consider themselves very fortunate!

I'm sure it did, speedyguy. The whole page article promoting the book, together with some personal reminiscences of the writer, was much appreciated. In fairness, I think I should add that the article and advert in Classic Speedway also played its part.

Just to let you all know that I heard from the publisher this morning that the first edition has now sold out in just over a month.

A new web site is being constructed. At the moment there is no Museum web site. It is hoped the new one will be up and running by the end of July.

I'm back. But what is it I should correct? I think Wessex Wanderer has it right.

No, the world champion Fred Williams didn't start racing until after the War.

It was definitely Cliff Watson in the 1949 Final. Are you sure about Split Waterman's year of birth, Knowle? In my copy of Tom Morgan's "Who's Who in Speedway" published in 1949, someone has manually crossed out 1921 and written in 1924.

In fact they are nearly all English. There may be the odd Scot or Welshman or maybe Australian, but probably well over 90% were English.

BOLTON Norman Dawson Fred Greenall W. Howard Joe Palastrand Jack Wood

Thank you for that, speedyguy. Do you know if I can enter the competition?

Squire Francis P.S. You mean what IS his real name. He is still alive!

The first track was outside the greyhound track, the second was on the field behind, later the go-kart track and the third was back at the greyhound track but inside.

There have been three different tracks at Rye House. You really ought to invest in my books, Parsloes...

Ideal for the next Speedway Eggheads team then, Gem!

Excellent. Yes, I've spoken to Terry many times. As you say he is a great bloke. Did he tell you the story about Split Waterman and the gun in the New Cross changing rooms...?

Touching the tapes was an excludable offence right from the start. After the successful experiment with starting tapes at Crystal Palace in 1933 the Control Board announced that starting gates were to be installed at all tracks for the purpose of clutch-start racing. The only difference to the Crystal Palace experiment was that riders were to line up two feet behind the gate instead of one foot. Any rider touching the tapes would be sent back and, if they repeated the offence, they would be excluded from the race. This rule meant that the tapes were only lowered as the riders were at the line. Most starters were anxious to avoid broken tapes so they were raising the tape almost as soon as they were lowered. Knowing this, riders were now edging forward as soon as the tapes came down, letting in the clutch a split second later. In one race in the Crystal Palace versus Wembley match, all four riders shot forward before the tapes had risen and had to duck underneath. To get round this, the Control Board introduced a new rule which said that the tapes were to be lowered before the riders reached the line. However there didn't seem to be any consistency regarding exclusion as, reading reports of different matches, some referees excluded riders for the offence and others didn't.

I think we're going for four decades at least as there would be too many who managed three decades.

Aub Lawson, definitely. 1930s - 1960s.

There you are, Parsloes. Buy a copy and make an instant profit. Can't say fairer than that!

Out of the Frying Pan - retail price £12.99 - has been out for just under two weeks. I have just come across a bookseller called "anybook-uk" selling it second hand (!) for £38.18 (even more !!!s)

Quite right. He retired at the end of the 1977 season.