norbold

What I liked best about Hackney was the fact I could walk there and walk home after the meeting. Oh yes, and the fact that somehow the racing always seemed to be closer there than anywhere else and it was a very friendly atmosphere and then there was Uncle Len of course....

You're very welcome, but you'd have a long way to go.

There's also a chapter on Romford in Speedway in the South East.

That's because he was the best. p.s. That's kiwi's web site, one of our members.

I remember the wondeful cuisine available at the Brighton Bonanza I attended a couple of years ago. There were three items on the menu: 1. Sausage and Chips 2. Sausage without Chips 3. Chips without Sausage. mmmmm. Mouth-watering.

Great. I'd love to see film of speedway at Yarmouth. Never managed to make it there at the time. By the way, if you're referring to Star in Exile's question, he asked how old Bettsy was at the Kings of Oxford meeting, which was in 1961, which is why I said he was 18 in 1961.

My school sports ground was in Walthamstow somewhere near Walthamstow Stadium. So you can add me to the list of Forumers who know Walthamstow well, Robyn.

Bettsy first rode for Norwich in 1960. He had four matches and scored no points. He was 18 in 1961.

I walked to Hackney speedway through the streets of London every week for three years before moving to Loughton. Can't say I ever had any trouble. After moving to Loughton I got the Central Line to Leyton and then the free bus.

I was just looking at the hits on my Webshots site and I was a little surprised to see that, although I put them up at roughly the same time and they have roughly the same number of photos, my Hackney album has taken 1026 hits to Wimbledon's 195. This seems a bit strange to me considering Wimbledon are still active. Any Hackney or Wimbledon supporter care to explain this huge difference? Incidentally, New Cross has had 417, West Ham 412 and Crystal Palace 215.

Before the War, two of my uncles used to do the following EVERY WEEK: Monday: Wimbledon Tuesday: West Ham Wednesday: New Cross Thursday: Wembley Friday: Harringay Saturday: Hackney Wick I don't know where the money came from, but at least they didn't have to travel very far. Now if only they'd kept all their programmes.....

Pete Jarman 14 Harry Edwards 13 Roy Trigg 13 Vic Ridgeon 10 Geoff Pymar 9 Pete Atkins 7 Johnny Fitzpatrick 7 Terry Betts 7 Gil Goldfinch 7 Ron Bagley 6 (in 2 rides; excluded in 3rd and refused to take part in the rest of the meeting!) Brian Brett 6 Tommy Sweetman 5 Pete Sampson 5 Pat Flanaghan 5 Ken Last 2 Wal Morton 1 Reserves: Frank Wooster 2 Jim Chalkley 1 It was the last-ever meeting at Yarmouth and was never reported in the Speedway Star.

Yes, that's what I meant.

I think he is referring to size....

1984

????????????????? When was that then? Aub left at the end of 1960; Olle joined in 1962.

Olle was a great rider and a great sportsman. He has certainly done his bit to bring on British youngsters, even though he is Swedish himself. I remember Ove Fundin once telling me that Olle Nygren could have been World Champion many times but that he wasn't really bothered. He was more interested in the teams he rode for than the individual glory. Happy birthday, Olle.

You're a hard man, Bryn.

Yes, I think that's right, which makes him the longest serving team captain so far. Well equal with Super Steve!!! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sorry, yes, you're quite right. And so are you CHK. Tiger Stevenson was West Ham captain from 1929 - 1939.

Can't remember a West Ham rider winning in 71 <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, but neither did a Wimbledon rider. Actually, it was a great trip organised by the Wimbledon Supporters' Club. It included a nine day tour of Denmark and Sweden and also took in a Sweden v. Soviet Union Test match two days after the final. On the boat coming home, I won the table tennis tournament. There was a cash prize. Unfortunately it was all in Swdish Kroner - coins at that. And I received it just as we were docking at Tilbury.

I went to the World Final in Sweden in 1971. Apart from being one of only two West Ham supporters in a coachload of Wimbledon supporters absolutely nothing went wrong at all. It was a great trip.

Yes, I think that's right, which makes him the longest serving team captain so far. I don't know what years Booey was captain. Where's all the Coventry supporters when you need them?

Terry Betts was captain of King's Lynn from 1968 - 1978 Roger Johns was captain of Wimbledon from 1981 - 1989

Laurie Etheridge was Crayford captain from 1975 till 1982 (but that's not quite as long as some of the others...)

Yes, I remember seeing them at Wembley in 1964. It was great seeing them ride, though the outcome was a bit of an anti-climax as Great Britain won 73-35; only Plechanov and Samorodov put up any show at all. GB's three heat leaders, Briggo, Ron How and Booey, each scored 16 points.