norbold

Talking of best ever line-ups. How about this for a match? 21 May 1956. Wimbledon v. Wembley Wimbledon 1. Ronnie Moore 2. Ron How 3. Peter Moore 4. Alf Hagon 5. Barry Briggs 6. Cyril Maidment 7. Cyril Brine 8. Gil Goldfinch Wembley 1. Brian Crutcher 2. Tommy Price 3. Trevor Redmond 4. Freddie Williams 5. Split Waterman 6. Eric French 7. Mike Broadbanks 8. Jimmy Gooch Four World Champions plus two runners up. The score was 48-36 to Wimbledon. Briggo got a maximum.

Great idea Sean. But who'd publish a book on a minority sport like speedway? By the way, just as an afterthought on Aub Lawson. He had his best years in the World Championship from 1957 to 1959, coming 4th, 3rd and 4th. Not only was he over 40 by then but he was up against the likes of Fundin, Moore, Briggs and Craven in their prime not to mention Crutcher, MacKinlay, Nygren etc. His qualification for the World Final in 1960 was 21 years after he first qualified. It's like a rider being in the Grand Prix series this year who first qualified in 1982, when Bruce Penhall won. As you may have gathered, Aub is a bit of a hero of mine!

Thanks Kevin.

Aub Lawson? Now you're talking! His averages in Britain were as follows: Wembley: 1939: 5.70 West Ham: 1948: 8.62 1949: 8.88 1950: 8.28 1951: 10.12 Norwich: 1953: 8.60 1954: 7.80 1955: 8.27 1956: 6.91 1957: 12.40 1958: ? Haven't been able to find this one. Grateful for help! 1959: 10.13 1960: 9.97 The above are all actual averages, not CMAs. In addition his World Championship Final placings were: 1939: 16th 1949: 7th= 1950: 4th 1951: 8th= 1953: 8th = 1954: 14th 1955: Qualified but was unable to ride. 1957: 4th= 1958: 3rd (His one and only tractor ride - he was over 40 years old) 1959: 4th= 1960: 13th= In the Stenners World Rankings in the early post war years he was ranked: 1948: 4 1949: 4 1950: 2 1951: 3 1952: 5 1953: 6 What a rider!

Blimey, Sean, are you looking for a job as my agent?

I have seen a number of explanations as to why he was called 'Split', including David's one. The one I always thought was most likely was that his famous grin 'split' his face from ear to ear.

Thanks for all the plugs, Sean! Actually the history of Romford speedway is in Speedway in the South East not the London book. But, as everyone has already told you, the speedway track was at Brooklands, not the greyhound track. I think there are two problems with Walthamstow, which have already been mentioned. One is its situation, very close to a residential area and secondly, the GRA see Walthamstow as the jewel in its doggie crown and don't want it messed up with speedway. Still, as you say, we should never say never, because if we did, Wimbledon would never have come back, but I think it will be an uphill battle. Have you thought about Yarmouth????

Can you try and arrange this one for a time when I will not be in Australia please?

If anyone wants to do it I am sure Tempus will be more than happy to publish it.

That's excellent news. Thanks Jim.

I've just spent ten days in Mandurah...but I didn't see him! Is that where he lives?

Thanks for the update David. It's really good news that Split is back home, but not such good news about Ove. I hope it's nothing serious. You're absolutely right about Brian Crutcher too!

It's always a problem compiling a list of top 1, top 5, top 10 or whatever, riders because of the comparison between different eras, differnt styles, different bikes, different tracks, different rules, different class of opposition etc. The other question to consider is do we mean the best rider on his day or the best rider over a long period? Just to give an example of that of two riders from the same era, I would say that, on his day, Ole Olsen was better than Ivan Mauger, but certainly not as consistent over as long a period of time. Also, is success in the World Championship the sole criterion or do we look at team men like Ronnie Moore, Ken McKinlay, Olle Nygren and Nigel Boocock who were perhaps not so successful at an individual level as they might have been (yes, even Ronnie Moore!) Most of the suggestions for best rider ever on this thread only go as far back as Ove Fundin. From my own observation of riders I have actually seen I would certainly go along with the suggestion that Ove was the greatest ever. Though I have to say Tony Rickardsson is, to my mind, fast catching him up. But what about riders we've only read about? Vic Huxley, Jack Parker, Tom Farndon, Vic Duggan? A look at their records would suggest they must be worthy of consideration, but any question like this is bound to be skewed to the present or very recent past. It's an impossible question to answer. Having said all that, my top 10, going on observation and records would be: 1. Ove Fundin 2. Ivan Mauger 3. Vic Duggan 4. Tony Rickardsson 5. Barry Briggs 6. Tom Farndon 7. Vic Huxley 8. Jack Young 9. Hans Nielsen 10. Ronnie Moore And I agree with Custom House Kid that Sverre Harrfeldt would have given Rickardsson a run for his money, certainly around Custom House. Think I'll go and have a lie down now....

Having spent a day with Bob Andrews in Auckland I now have lots of good Ivan Mauger stories. But I think Ivan's lawyers would be on to this Forum a bit sharpish if I repeated them here!

Or Tom Farndon...or Vic Huxley...

And that includes Jack Parker?

If this means riders we've actually seen my seven from Heaven would be: 1. Ove Fundin 2. Split Waterman 3. Aub Lawson 4. Jack Young 5. Ken McKinlay 6. Chris Louis 7. Stan Stevens

I'll see what I can do, Gem... Johnnie Chamberlain joined Yarmouth in 1952, went to Ipswich in 1954 and in 1958 moved to Norwich. Following Aub Lawson's departure at the end of 1960, Chamberlain became the Stars' second rider behind Ove Fundin but his average was only 6.71 compared to the great man's 12.47! He left Norwich at the end of 1962. He rode in several Test matches for Australia but his main claim to fame is that he is reputed to be the smallest rider ever to ride in speedway, His other claim to fame is that he took part in the first match I ever saw, coming last twice!

I'm with you Ian H...

Just to let all you Crusaders know that I have just been interviewed by a journalist from the Kent Gazette who will be doing a piece on my new book and Canterbury speedway in the next couple of weeks. I believe the paper is part of the Kent Messenger group so could appear in Sittingbourne and Maidstone papers as well. Hopefully the piece can generate some feed back and show support for speedway returning to Canterbury.

Good to hear that Split is on the mend. One of the all time greats of speedway and certainly the greatest "character" of them all.

"Happiness is watching speedway in the British Summer and going to Oz in the winter! " Couldn't agree more Bryn, as long as you include NZ in that.

I'd quite like to have my team back first. Where are you, New Cross?

Sorry, couldn't let this go, even from New Zealand, without saying that Romford never actually rode at Rochester. They rode their first four matches AS Rochester but the stadium never got planning permission to stage speedway, which is why the team moved to Romford.

Read it Saturday morning then Addy :idea: :clown Some of us are going of to Oz first thing on Saturday morning and not comimng back for a month. The suspense will kill me...or would do if I didn't already know the answer!