norbold

I'm glad you mentioned this Hazzman! Publication is due for the first week in November. The book is called "Speedway's Classic Meetings" and is by Norman Jacobs and Chris Broadbent, better known as norbold and falcace. There are twenty chapters featuring two meetings from each decade from the 20s to the 00s plus two 'wild cards'. The book is dedicated to Phil and all the members of the British Speedway Forum for all the help given to us in the early stages of the book with suggestions and memories. It will indeed make a great Christmas present!

Will anyone (apart from me) be going to the Norwich VSRA Dinner next Sunday? If they do they will be able to meet Trevor there as he and Pam organise it.

I have some great memories of Leicester too. When I first started going to New Cross in 1960, New Cross were losing everything. Bottom of the League, kncoked out the National Trophy in the first round etc. But then on 8 June, we met Leicester and won 53-37. The sweet smell of success for a change. Yes, I have a lot to thank Leicester for..... Now then, back to leathers....

Talking of Briggo, there was the time he wore no leathers at all...or anything else for that matter.

Green has long been associated with bad luck in the theatre. One reason for this is that it is believed to be the fairies' colour and therefore not proper for mortals to wear. So, make of that what you will in the context of speedway.

Lloyd Goffe also used to stuff cotton wool down the seat of his leathers because he used to sweat so much... Sometimes, you can give too much information...

He first won it on 17 May 1973 from Reidar Eide and then lost it to him the following night. He regained it on 13 September from Arnold Haley and retained it through five challenges (Pete Smith, Edgar Stangeland, John Titman, Malcolm Simmons and Ulf Lovaas) to end the season as holder. In 1974, the Golden Helmet reverted to the old format of chosen challengers. He held it against Ray Wilson, Peter Collins, Malcolm Simmons, Dag Lovaas and Ole Olsen before losing it to Phil Crump. He won it back in 1975 from Dave Jessup and successfully defended it against Malcolm Simmons before losing it to Martin Ashby. He challenged again in 1977 but failed to beat Phil Crump.

Graham, have a look at page 32 of the 1980 Yearbook. The idea was dreamt up by Gordon Parkins. "Instead of having teams fighting for race points from each of the thirteen heats he split a 20-heat programme into five separate formulae - awarding one match point to the winning side..." The formula was used three times: Boston 3 Peterborough 2; Boston 2 Nottingham 2; Boston 2 Cradley Heath 2.

I think Dave Kindred was the photographer. I'm not sure how you would get hold of him now as I believe he has recently left the EADT. But they may know how to contact him. Alternatively, I'm sure John Berry would know how to contact him.

Absolutely. The "Andy Smith scenario" is what helps make speedway speedway, not someone deciding on commercial grounds who should be in the Grand Prix. Let's have some sort of qualifier, even if it is just a one-off final thrash bewteen 9-15 and 9 others.

And both with cigarette in hand...!

Thank you, boywonder. As far as my sharp intake of breath on the news of Wimbledon Speedway see my contribution to the "Wimbledon Strike Back" thread in Speedway General Discussions.

I think the eldest Hole was Graham, but I don't know if Derek is his son.

Why bother with the GP at all in that case? If you want the best rider in the world to finish up as World Champion, why not nominate the World Champion based on league averages etc. By having any sort of competition you could finish up with an "unlikely" winner. Mark Loram wasn't the best rider in the world in 2000, nor was Nicki Pedersen in 2003. I totally agree with Andy on this. Far better to have some form of qualifying competition and let the riders decide by their own actions who should be in the GP than the "men in smoke-filled rooms" deciding who should have the chance of glory and who shouldn't.

How many A-Finals did he get to this year?

Couldn't agree more, Andy.

I agree that in any discussion of the greatest ever you have to include Rickardsson. But really it's impossible to say. How many people would now include Vic Huxley in their greatest ever? And yet he dominated the sport in the late 20s and early 30s in the same way that Fundin, Mauger and Rickardsson did (do) in their time. But there are now very few people left alive who saw him in his prime. "Greatest evers" are always skewed to recent riders because that's who people have seen. It's not to say they are wrong. Rickardsson might be the greatest ever. But how can you tell? Can anyone really be the greatest ever? Put Huxley, Fundin, Mauger, Rickardsson in a series of races together, assuming they could all start on equal terms with machinery, current techniques etc. and could you really say that one of them would consistently beat the others? Wouldn't they all win their fair share of races? It's all good fun arguing over the respective merits of riders from different eras but it's a sterile argument in real terms.

The converse to that is that riders like Ove Fundin and Ivan Mauger might have won MORE World titles under the Grand Prix system as in their own time they were just as dominant as Trick and under the Grand Prix system wouldn't have lost out just by losing on one big night. The fact of the matter is no-one will ever be able to say who is/was the best ever nor as every one will have their own ideas based mostly on who they have seen in their life.

Exactly, Shazzy. That's the point I was trying to make.

Definitely an excellent win for the world's third or fourth or maybe fifth greatest ever rider.

As you know Jim, my first meeting was also at New Cross on 11 May 1960. Obviously therefore I didn't see PC in 1959. Looking at results from that year he did seem to do very well at the Frying Pan, but, whenever I saw him in 1960 and 1961, I have to say he didn't seem to be able to master it. Briggo didn't ride well there either, which was unfortunate because, of course, he rode for us in 1960. Fundin and Moore were the real masters of New Cross in my opinion and Jack Young on a couple of occasions rode it like he must have ridden in the early 50s. Bob Andrews was another who always rode New Cross well.

Ah Yes, 17 April 1946: New Cross 46 The Rest 37 For New Cross: Ron Johnson 12, Eric French 9 Geoff Pymar 9 The Rest: Ron Clarke 8 Tommy Price 8, Wally Lloyd 6

I would like to add my congratulations to everyone else's.Backtrack is an excellent read and this issue certainly keeps up its very high standard. Just one point of clarification on your response above though, Tony. Wimbledon were also open in 1985, though not in the SENIOR LEAGUE. They closed in 1991, the same year as Hackney.

Rayleigh started the 1964 season with a series of open meetings after withdrawing from the Provincial League at the end of 1963. The promoters were Wally Clark, Stan Clark and Maurie McDermott. Later in the year they took part in the Metropolitan League with Eastbourne, Weymouth, Newpool (a combination of Newport and Poole juniors) and Ipswich with a view the rejoining the Provincial League in 1965. The 1964 season was run under the Provincial League banner. 1964 was the year the Provincial League was officially banned, so in that sense the Rayleigh management did fall foul of officialdom in the same way that all Provincial League tracks did, but when the new British League was formed in 1965, they were back in the British League. In fact Rayleigh had originally wanted to stay official in 1964 and operate within the National League orbit and actually arranged for their opening match to be against Norwich but the National League rules at the time prohibited foreigners riding on open meeting tracks, so Norwich would not have been able to use Fundin and Nygren. That same rule would have applied to all challenge matches in 1964, so they decided to throw in their lot with the Provincial League instead.

I'll be there Jim...