norbold

Good pics, Steve. You must have got there too late to take a picture of my stand... It was a good and very rewarding day for me and, I hope, the WSRA. It was like this....The World Speedway Riders' Association have plans to rebuild and expand their Memorial Garden dedicated to deceased former speedway riders, so I took along some of my books to flog with all the proceeds going to this worthwhile cause. My table was next to Jeremy Luckhurst. Jeremy was selling some speedway memorabilia such as race jackets and speedway related sign boards. So anyway, before the "Celebration" even opened to the public, I sold £50 worth of books to a dealer and then, once it opened, sold a few more to the general public. After about an hour Jeremy said to me, "How much do you want for the lot? I'll buy them all." So he did and we made a nice wodge for the Memorial Garden. Thank you Jeremy. Good to meet up with several old friends as well and a good day was had by all.

So sorry to hear that. I became quite friendly with Len over the years. He was always a very happy and cheerful sort with a great sense of humour. I used to enjoy our little get-togethers. Still, one thing I suppose you can say was that he had a good innings and was still fit and with-it almost to the end. R.I.P., Lenny. You've earned it.

I'm not really sure what the point of this discussion is. I go to Ipswich on a reasonably regular basis and as yet have heard no discussion about Frank Arthur, Vic Huxley, Bluey Wilkinson, Vic Duggan, Jack Young or even Cyril Roger. Does that in some way mean they were not great riders or worth remembering?

Who did he get rid of?

For the first decade of this century there were four outstanding riders, head and shoulders above the rest, and that included Hancock, who had to wait till they had retired or declined before he came back into prominence. They were Rickardsson, Pedersen, Gollob and Crump, with Crump probably second best of that lot. Yes, Crump has been out of the sport for a longish time, but he was in a different league to all but about three or four current PL riders. I can't see him being anything other than a major asset for Ipswich. Good on you, Chris, for signing up one of the all-time greats of speedway.

That's my boy!

Is there a picture of Bob with a young up and coming rider called John Hyam?

Whatever happened to John Hyam? Did he ever make the big time?

I beg to differ.

Yes, as long as you take it with a very large pinch of salt!!!

Some of those books are brilliant....

Not quite. 1957, 1958, 1964 and 1966.

Top. Oh, and don't forget Barry Briggs.

That's your page! I have no problem getting on to Terry Mussett's page.

The 1937 Norwich team consisted of Jock Sweet, Alec Peel, Dick Wise, Wilf Jay, Paul Goodchild, Bill Birtwell, Jim Millward, Alan Smith, the Australian Bert Spencer and, of course, Grosskreutz himself. Over the next couple of years he brought in Wal Morton and Fred Strecker as well as the South African, Keith Harvey.

Both are well worth visiting. Been there many times. There is a particularly good information board in the Museum, explaining "The Start of it All".

When Max Grosskreutz launched the Norwich team in 1937, one of the things he did was to build all the team's bikes.

Thanks for that. Phew! For a minute there, I thought Tom might lose.....

I hope you were reading it in Tom Farndon's biography.....

Yes, I saw that question and was going to reply much along the same lines as you. Case excepted, I would say there wasn't much in it between them.

Still got that sense of humour I see, mick.

Entertaining and exciting? Surely Sverre Harrfeldt is far too old these days....

I think they could be trying to talk Savalas Clouting out of retirement.

Yes, sounds right to me. Anyway, I think we can say that Lionel Wills was the first domiciled Brit to ride proper speedway as we know it.

Yes, because at the time the Golden Helmet was being touted as the World Championship, that's why the article mentioned the World Championship and not the Golden Helmet. You say the Daily Mail article said, "With it mentioning Eric Langton and Haig as outstanding northern riders , and Burton, Jack Parker and Dicky Case having a strong for the south. And as Tom Stenner writes the committee should start arranging eliminating races between these riders." If you think about it, that is exactly how the Match Race Championship was run, i.e., by finding challengers and was not how the Star Riders Championship was run.