norbold

falace is right. That stuff is worth a tidy sum. Who was your grandfather, by the way? I would certainly be interested in knowing what you have, so I know where I can come and do some research for my next book!

I'm not sure how to take that... :?:

Perhaps it was because they abolished the death penalty a long time before we did. How did your dad get on with him Shazzy? I spoke to him once in the pits at Rye House. I had the uncomfortable feeling that he had probably just escaped from the local lunatic asylum...Great character though!

Thanks for the run down falcace. I guess I'll have to change my mind and go back to Jerzy being the worst ever...although there's always Gary Havelock. However, I'm not sure your two quotes above quite add up, unless you're not countng getting past Jancarz as overtaking and by 'nearly always first to the first turn' you mean in all but the one heat when Jancarz was in front. Anyway, the fact he won by rolling at the start in every race seems to me to be a case of the biter bit when it comes to Ivan Mauger

It is often said that Jerzy Szczakiel was the worst World Champion of all time; that his win was a fluke and that no-one had ever heard of him before he won the title in 1973. I was recently reading Donald Allen's 'Speedway '72' book which included in it a review of the 1971 Polish season by Ian MacDonald. Here are a few selected quotes from that article: Talking of the World Cup, Macdonald named the five riders in the team then went on to say, 'Certainly the selected team was hard to justify', after mentioning Jancarz's absence, the article goes on, 'Even stranger was the absence of Jerzy Szczakiel from the side. Only a few weeks earlier he had been Poland's only entrant in the World Final. He had also been the best rider on show in the World Best Pairs Final which he had won in conjunction with Wyglenda.' Later, in the same article he reports on the Polish Riders'Final, 'Favourites were Szczakiel and Wyglenda'. Szczakiel in fact finished second. Finally, MacDonald says, 'If only a couple [of Polish riders] follow in the footsteps of Szczakiel, who was the Silver Helmet winner two years ago, then the Poles will be more than pleased.' Perhaps he wasn't that bad after all. After that, I'm voting for Egon Muller as the worst ever!

My e-mail said:

I remember it well, Jim. In fact you can read a bit more about the first Internationale in a forthcoming Wimbledon programme as part of the Norman Chronicle series (The title wasn't my idea - honest!)

Apart from Norwich fans of course who idolised him. I have no personal memories of him from his riding days in the sense that I never actually met him then, but I have a number of memories of his racing. He won the first race I ever saw, beating Split Waterman in heat one of the New Cross v. Norwich Britannia Shield match. He went on to get an 18 point maximum that night. In 1967 I took a group of college friends to the World Championship Final. They had never seen speedway before and didn't know anything about the riders. I told them we should support Ove as our college was in Norwich. It was more in hope than anything else as it did seem as though Ove was a bit past his best by then. Of course he won the 1967 World Championship and the fact they were supporting the winner went down very well with my friends and even got one or two of them interested in speedway. I first met him two years ago at the annual Norwich Veteran Riders' Association Eastern Region Social and Dinner. He was a real gentleman. I presented him with a copy of my book "Speedway in East Anglia". He told me he'd heard a lot about the book and that he was looking forward to reading it. I said I hoped he found that I had done his contribution to Norwich justice. A couple of weeks later he 'phoned me from his home in France to say how much he had enjoyed my book and, remembering what I had said, he added that he felt that the book had more than done him justice and he was very pleased that his time at Norwich was still so well remembered. I have spoken to him several times since to ask him questions mainly. He never fails to be extremely helpful and courteous and always seems to be only to happy to take the time to talk to me and answer my questions fully. He's a real hero. Happy birthday Ove.

Yes it was more like an iron cross before the war. The colours were the same. The colour I have on this forum is the pre war design.

Well, I assume New Cross adopted a cross as its body colour because of the name and a Maltese Cross looks better tha just a plain x

You and me both, Dave C. But that's what comes of proudly sporting the Maltese Cross....

Well, I think we can certainly agree on that one...although there was Christer Lofqvist of course...

Ove Fundin? Now he really was the greatest ever... Walking to Sweden from the South of France? I used to walk across Hackney Marshes to get to Hackney Stadium. Is that the same thing?

I've been trying to keep out of this! As an old West Ham supporter I have a lot of sympathy with those who say our Sverre was the greatest ever. He wasn't of course, but it certainly seemed like it every week at Custom House. I don't think Sverre knew where the inside of the track was or even the middle. For some reason it seemed as though he had to ride with his handlebars touching the fence every race. It was not only spectacular but it worked as he beat all the visiting stars. But, sadly, the greatest ever, I don't think so...

On the evidence of the first Grand Prix it certainly seems as though this year's championship has already been decided. TR is in a class of his own. It seems to me that the problem is that his once greatest rivals - Crump, Sullivan, Loram, Hancock, Adams - have had their day and are not going to get back to a challenging position. This may be a bit unfair because of injuries, track condition etc., but, I did say this is on the evidence of the first Grand Prix. When you consider how long Rickardsson himself has been around it is no mean feat that he is still out on his own amongst his contemporaries. On the other hand the next generation - Pedersen, Dryml, Richardson, Nicholls - are not quite ready yet to challenge for the master's crown. Next year, the year after maybe, but not just yet. It all leaves Rickardsson far and away the world's best rider and on course to equal and then beat Mauger's record number of championship wins. There is no doubt he is an all time great and a rider to be spoken of as at least the equal of the likes of Duggan, Fundin, Mauger, Neilsen and all those other usual candidates for the 'greatest rider ever'.

Little Waltham only operated for about two years, 1969 and 70. It was built by Johnny Guilfoyle as a training track. I think both Rayleigh and West Ham used it as such. I don't think it unearthed many stars in its two years, the best probably being Johnny's brother, Laurie

I could be persuaded! I'll let you know. Thanks, Steve.

Steve, I would love to see your scrapbooks. I've just been lent a couple from 1938 and 1939. Fascinating stuff. My next meeting is Wimbledon on 28 May, if you happen to be that way... Addict, West Ham's average gate that year was about 50,000! 60,000 was nothing unusual. I'm not sure what it is you want a copy of, is it my gran?

Sorry Addict, I haven't got a copy of the programme. I got the result from Stenner's 1947 Annual. Now you've made me give my secret away...

That was Colin Watson's last full match for West Ham. He was badly injured four days later at Odsal and never rode again.

9 July 1946: West Ham 62 Wembley 46 (London Cup Match) Scorers: West Ham - Eric Chitty 17, Colin Watson 12, Malcolm Craven 10, Cyril Anderson 7, Bob Harrison 6, Benny King 6, Buck Whitby 3, Ron Howes 1 Wembley - Bill Kitchen 14, Tommy Price 10, Georgie Wilkes 9, Charlie May 4, Bob Wells 3, Alf Bottoms 3, Roy Craighead 2, Bronco Wilson 1

The Big Five became the Big Five because they were much better than all the other riders around at the time. They were in a class of their own effectively. Between them they won every World Championship between 1954 and 1967 and more often than not the second and third also came from their ranks. They also consistently topped the league averages and the 'Speedway Star' unofficial World Rankings table. It became three in 1964 because Peter Craven had been killed at the end of 1963 and Ronnie Moore had retired. Peter Craven was killed in a challenge match against Edinburgh but that was not the reason handicapping was abandoned. Briggs and Fundin in particular had had enough of it and threatened not to ride if handicapping was continued. That was why it was abandoned during the 1964 season. Incidentally, just before it was abandoned, Gote Nordin had shown such brilliant form at Wimbledon that many thought he ought to join the, by now, Big Three on the backmark (20 yards).

..............but methinks, only when they were world champion. I believe this was abandoned in '65 when the BL started. It was '65 weren't it? Handicapping for the "Big Five" was abandoned in 1964 because by then there were only three of them, Briggs, Fundin and Knutsson and they refused to continue with the handicapping.

In the very early days of the sport - and I'm talking 1928 here - they used to do things like that. There were lots of handicap events with anything up to 8 riders in them. There was one memorable occasion at High Beech when a rider, who had never ridden speedway before, started the afternoon with a sixteen second start and by the end of the day's racing was going off scratch. His name...Jack Parker.