norbold

Great site, Steve. Excellent. Well done. I notice you don't have the full date for Frank Charles' death. It was 15 July 1939.

Max Pearce died in Yarmouth Hospital on the morning of 14 July 1948 following injuries suffered in an accident at Yarmouth the night before. He was lying fourth after a bad start and was trying to make up ground on the straight. His bike wobbled, struck the fence and dragged him across the track. He came from Melbourne and had only arrived in England a few weeks before. He originally signed for Norwich but was soon transferred to Yarmouth. He was the second Yarmouth rider that year to lose his life in a riding accident; the first being Reg Craven. Pearce's accident happened on 13 July in Yarmouth's 13 meeting of the season. p.s. Frank Pearce didn't ride for Harringay in 1939. I don't know if he rode for anyone else, but I can't find any record of him racing in 1939 in England.

Bob Sharp

Bob Sharp

As always Shazzy, your wish is my command: 1979: Dave Perks Mike Sampson Kevin Hawkins Glenn McDonald Les Sawyer Nigel Wasley Craig Featherby John Homer Mark Williams There were also a few who only rode in one or two matches: Tony Garad, Paul Share, Neil Collins, Terry Freeman, Roger Lambert. 1980: Mike Sampson Ivan Blacka Glenn McDonald Craig Featherby Mark Collins Arthur Price Steve Sant Mark Williams Peter Bacon John Homer Steve Mildoon (Paul Bosley rode for them once)

No, he didn't ride for Nottingham.

Mike Sampson rode for Nottingham in both 1979 and 1980. In 1980 he topped their averages with a cma of 9.88.

Bob Kilby is English Bob Sharp is an Australian. He rode for Ipswich in the old National League. Dick Wise was an Australian. He rode for - and managed - Norwich. I don't think Triss Sharp was an Australian, though I am not 100% sure. He was Crystal Palace captain in 1929 and continued to ride for them until 1933. He owned a motor business in South London. Sig Schlam rode in Britain, but I'm not sure if he was attached to any league teams.

Junior Bainbridge is Ron Bainbridge We've also discussed Cliff Watson's nationality at some length! Terry Betts and Ray Wilson are English unless they are a different Terry Betts and Ray Wilson

It was called Malmo Stadium. It held 31,000 spectators. It was opened in 1958 and the opening event there was a World Cup match on 8 June 1958. It was administered by the Malmo Athletic Council. The architects were Fritz Jaenecke and Sten Samuelsson. Attached to the stadium were 7 football pitches. The total area of the complex was 50 acres. Does that help?

P.s. The 1964 Ullevi World Final Programme also has double s.

The 1961 Malmo World Final programme has it spelt with double s.

This is true, Steve. Even authoritative books such as Speedway in London spell it Knutsson with double "s". However, I understand that the correct spelling of his name is with one "s" but when he came to England the programmes and magazines spelt it with two and he couldn't be bothered to correct it so he just let it go. ooops - overlapped with you there, Jim!

Hmmmm.....

And his name is Knutson.

Allen Trump told me that he has some pre-War correspondence between Sir Arthur Elvin and H.R. "Ginger" Lees, in which he wrote to Lees as "Dear Ginger", so his ban on the name in Wembley programmes didn't extend to his personal correspondence.

Further to my comment above, Billy Galloway and Keith McKay put on an exhibition race with two of the local riders at Audenshaw on 3 March 1928. The race was won by McKay after Galloway suffered engine failure. Although I have seen no report of the race it could be that Galloway at least (given Ross's remarks regarding McKay) practised sliding in this race, which, if so, would beat the second High Beech meeting by just over a month as the first time broadsiding was seen in Britain.

I don't know about other tracks. Sir Arthur Elvin refused to use the name "Ginger" in Wembley's programmes as it was a bit "downmarket"! He insisted on Lees having his initials, H.R., printed in the programme. I don't remember seeing any away programmes of the period featuring Lees. Interesting point!

Yes, that's true. Of course it was expected that Galloway and McKay would demonstrate the art of broadsliding at the first High Beech meeting but, owing to the nature of the track, they were unable to do so. Galloway also suffered from another difficulty and that was that he was unable to use his own bike and instead had to borrow Freddie Dixon's Isle of Man TT machine with road racing gearing. Even worse for Galloway was the fact that he never managed to get out of bottom gear because, as he said afterwards, he didn't know how to. This also shows, of course, that the bikes had gears as well as brakes at that first meeting.

There's only one Morian Hansen...as the song goes.

Yes, Maldwyn Jones and Eddie Brinck are credited with "inventing" broadsiding in America in the early 1920s, long before either the West Maitland meeting or the High Beech meeting. As far as I know the brakes had come off and sliding the norm in Australia well before High Beech; though when it first happened in Australia I am not sure. High Beech was a dirt track, though, like Droylsden, not made for sliding. At the end of the day, top Australian promoter, A J Hunting, told Jack Hill-Bailey (the promoter of the High Beech meeting), "My boy, you're all wrong - this isn't the way to run a dirt-track meeting." The official ACU report of the meeting made a number of recommendations including widening the track by a further 16 feet and also recommended that "certain parts of the track be rolled at intervals, and then raked over to a depth of two inches in order to retain sufficient looseness to permit skidding." It was probably at High Beech's second meeting on 9 April that broadsiding was seen for the first time in England when Australian Digger Pugh and two British riders, Colin Watson and Alf Medcalf, showed how it was done. The Motor Cycle magazine commented, "For the first time in this country real, honest-to-goodness broadsiding was seen..."

Steve Langton and Tiger Hart both rode at Eastbourne in 1930.

Merv Harding Doug McLachlan

As has been said above, Ron, I suppose it depends on what you mean by speedway. Even at Britain's "first" meeting at High Beech there was no sliding and the bikes had brakes which were used as it was considered "unethical" to put your foot on the ground. When did the brakes come off? That's the question.