norbold

I wasn't referring to your original question, Brian, I was referring to a slight but important (from Danny's point of view anyway!) error speedyguy made which he has now corrected.

I think you mean dear old Danny!

At last. Photographs from the first year anniversary celebrations: Click Here Nos 30-37 (the last 8).

This week's Speedway Star carries a discount voucher for Paradise Wildlife Park. £8 per person for up to 6 people. (Normal entry price is £13 per person).

No, as it happens, it wasn't. It was a buffet inside a marquee. But it was wonderful. Peter really laid on a spread! There were a number of celebs there, including Freddie Williams, Len Silver, Vic White, Vic Gooden, Trevor Hedge, Colin Pratt, Bert Harkins, Terry Stone, Les Beaumont, Pete Saunders, Dingle Brown and Peter Sampson of course. I was hoping to have some photos on the web before now, but Mrs norbold took the photos with her new Canon 400 which takes Flash Cards. For some reason my computer absolutely refuses to download photos from a Flash Card. So I've been waiting for her to download them but she has so far not done so saying something about getting the garden straight being more important than a lot of old geezers at a speedway reunion. Women!

Yes, you're right about Lea Bridge/Clapton. They also rode in the Second Division as The Cubs in 1938. Walthamstow Wolves should read: 1934; 1949 - 1951. Also Harringay Canaries 1929 - 1931 Harringay Tigers 1934 - 1939 Harringay Racers 1947 - 1954

Oops 1969 - 1990 actually! sorry. Also: White City (London) 1929 Stamford Bridge Pensioners 1929 - 1932

Lea Bridge/Clapton (as a team) Saints 1929 - 31; 1934; 1938. Crystal Palace Glaziers 1929 - 1933; 1939 West Ham Hammers 1929 - 1955; 1964-1971 West Ham Bombers 1972 Wembley Lions 1929 - 1956; 1970-1971 Hackney Wick Wolves 1935 - 1939 Hackney Hawks 1963 - 1983 Hackney Kestrels 1984 - 1991 London Lions 1996 Rye House Cubs 1938 Rye House Roosters 1954 - 1959 Rye House Red Devils 1960 - 1973 (Most of that time not as a non-league team) Eastbourne Eagles 1938; 1947; 1954 - 1957; 1959; 1964; 1975 - 1990; 1992 - present Eastbourne Dons 1991 That'll do for now!

Never heard of him, Shazz. Harringay closed in 1954 and Wembley in 1956.

You can't take any notice of anything in his books! The strange thing about that photo is that only three of the riders have numbers on their shoulders. In 1929 the top riders were excluded from the new leagues and continued to ride for individual trophies. They were all given an individual number which they wore throughout the season. There was no no. 1 to avoid any jealousy. Art Pechar was no 2, Jack Parker, 3, Sprouts Elder, 4, Roger Frogley, 6, Frank Arthur, 8, Vic Huxley, 11, and so on.

There is a photograph of the 1933 Sheffield team in Robert Bamford's "Speedway - The Prewar Years", which shows the numbers on the front. One of the problems with investigating this is that most photographs of riders and teams are taken from the front or side! Photographs of the backs of riders are not very common.

Though, of course, Jack Parker did lose a couple of times. Tom Farndon was undefeated!

Apart from Tom Farndon of course...

Let's not get carried away here!

And let's not forget John Hyam.

Also - how could I have forgotten? - Don Johns, Albert 'Shrimp' Burns, Maldwyn Jones and Eddie Brinck - American pioneers from before the First World War and the early 1920s who invented the art of broadsiding.

Dick Case, the promoter who kept speedway going at Rye House - and thus Britain - throughout WW2...well, ok, he missed out on 1944, so I'll give you that one, Ron!

Don't forget to get your tickets for the Speedway Museum barbie this Saturday, 26 April at 1:00 p.m. Tickets are £15 which includes lunch and admission to Paradise Wildlife Park as well as the Museum. Tickets are available from Vic White, 90 Ruskin Avenue, Long Eaton, Notts, NG10 3HX. Tel: 0115 9736041. email: legend333@btinternet.com See you there!

So many people... A. J. Hunting - Established the first major promotion in Australia and then in Britain. Bill Cearns - For the cash he injected in to the sport in the early days and his support of tracks like High Beech and Wimbledon amongst others. Sydney Glanville and Lionel Wills for being instrumental in bringing the sport to Great Britain. Early promoters like Fred Mockford and Cecil Smith for taking a chance on the new sport. Jack Hill-Bailey for organising the first meeting at High Beech. J. A. Prestwich for inventing the J.A.P. speedway bike. Showmen promoters like Ronnie Greene, Alec Jackson, Len Silver. And that's without the pioneer riders like Frank Arthur, Vic Huxley, Ron Johnson, Sprouts Elder, etc. for helping to get the sport established. And lots lots more...

I was interested in speedway before I ever actually attended my first meeting. My family had gone just before and just after the War and I'd heard a lot about it from then. In the 1950s I used to follow the results in the newspaper and watch it on the rare occasion it was on television. When I was about 8 or 9 we used to have a cinder pitch near where I lived and I would ride my bicycle round this pitch pretending I was either Split Waterman or Aub Lawson, who were my two heroes. The first meeting I ever actually attended in the flesh was on 11 May 1960, New Cross v. Norwich. Amazingly, the first heat saw my two heroes up against each other as Split Waterman and Jimmy Gooch were out for New Cross and Aub Lawson and Harry Edwards for Norwich. The result was a 3-3. !st: Lawson 2nd: Gooch 3rd: Waterman 4th Edwards. I was hooked from then on!

No! Anything but that!!! Take all my books for nothing... They're yours!

Now if you'd invested in a book called "70 Years of Rye House Speedway" you would have found out all you wanted to know....

He was indeed a cooper.

According to Tom Morgan's 1949 Who's Who, Jack Unstead was born in 1926, but, as I have found in the past, the birth dates he gives are not always reliable. So I'd say he was 36 give or take a couple of years when he died.

Newcastle racked up five scores of over 70 in 1982, the best being 74-22 over Oxford. The highest score in 1982 was Crayford's 76-20 win over Milton Keynes . Newcastle didn't manage any 70 point scores in 1983. The best that year was again by Crayford who beat Stoke 73-23. Exeter matched the 76-20 scoreline in 1989 with a win over Arena Essex. Bristol beat Glasgow White City by a maximum 70-14 in 1949 under the 14 heat format.