norbold

It's a very interesting question and one which goes to the heart of when did speedway begin. A rider called Don Johns who started around 1909 and won the National Dirt Track Championship in Chicago in 1912 may have been the first to slide round a bend without brakes. A contemporary description of him goes like this, “Don Johns preferred to barnstorm the 1-mile dirt track circuits of California and the Midwest, gaining experience as well as a reputation as the hardest fighting rider in the no-holds-barred game. By 1914, Johns had improved to such an extent that the Excelsior could not hold him. He would ride the entire race course wide open, throwing great showers of dirt into the air at each turn.” How else could you throw great showers of dirt into the air on the bends if not by sliding? Was Johns the first speedway rider in the world? He was followed shortly afterwards by another American called Albert “Shrimp” Burns who was killed in a track crash on 14 August 1921. Part of his obituary written by C.E.B. Clement, which appeared in Motorcycle and Bicycle Illustrated reads, “I strolled down the track to watch him take the turns. Here he came with that motor humming a great tune and into the turn he went. Watching him handle that machine in the long slide all the way around, I saw in fancy, the then great battler of the day, Don Johns. For Burns was holding the pole and fighting the rear wheel in a manner that very closely resembled the work of the then known hardest fighter of the racing game.” After the War, in the late teens and early twenties, two more Americans, Maldwyn Jones and Eddie Brinck, were renowned for the way they threw their bikes in to the bends and broadsided round, using what was known as the pendulum skid. Now, whether any of this was actually leg trailing is another matter. And so we move on to Australia... If any American may have influenced any Australians as to the advantages of broadsiding, it would have been Cecil Brown an American who rode in Australia in the early to mid 1920s. However, Brown didn't race all over Australia during the establishment of the popularity of racing on small tracks so it maybe that, just as speedway evolved, the art of "broadsiding" evolved on tracks throughout Australia as riders fought for ways to gain an advantage over their opponents while cornering aboard their powerful machines on the tighter tracks. For example, in Brisbane during the 1926-27 season, Vic Huxley was given the nickname "Broadside" Vic Huxley. He wouldn't have seen Brown nor Eddie Brinck nor Sprouts Elder (who came over later) race, so we can't be sure it was an American who taught him the art of broadsiding. He may just have developed it himself independently. By the time the Australians came over to Britain in 1928, leg trailing was well established as the preferred (and only) method of sliding round the bends.

Lees once explained his reasons for changing to this new style by saying that if you didn’t have to lean your bike so far over sideways entering a corner as all the leg-trailers had to do, it would become upright much earlier leaving the bend and so give more tyre traction.

This has become quite a far reaching topic now, so just going back a bit to one of the other issues raised...I have just looked up Stenner's rankings for 1946/7 and 1947/8 to see where Eric Langton and Jack Parker were placed. 1946/7: Parker 2nd, Langton 7th 1947/8: Parker 4th, Langton 14th Though I think it is safe to assume that Langton was past his best by then and that was his last appearance. Parker went on to be ranked 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 7th over the next four years..

A friend of mine - who had been to the first meeting at High Beech in 1928, so he knew a bit about speedway! - told me that Jack Biggs was always very nervous. He remembered seeing him in the pits at various meetings and he was just a bag of nerves. He felt he would have won many more trophies and individual events if he hadn't been so nervous. His view of the 1951 final, which he was at, was that nerves once again got the better of Jack, both in his final race and in the run-off and that's why he lost.

It was Fred Williams who spoke to Split Waterman. However, I'm sure Jack Biggs felt there was no need to say anything, he had been totally dominant that night and probably felt that he would get at least one point out of the race as that was all he needed to become World Champion.

Good stuff, Bavarian. i notice it says that Eric Langton "practically" invented the foot forward style. Now I have always been led to believe that it was, in fact, invented by Ginger Lees and that Eric Langton was an early convert. An interesting field of study!

Fairly sure it was 2001. Can't be bothered to amend Wiki - It's too complicated these days!!!

And Jim Kempster.

John Chaplin always put forward the story that Van Praag and Langton came to an agreement that whoever reached the first bend first would take the title and the other rider wouldn't overtake him. Langton reached the first bend first but later in the race Van Praag overtook him, thereby reneging on the agreement. I have always been very doubtful about this as John got the story from Eric Langton and I can't help thinking there may have been a bit of sour grapes about this, but I don't know - it may be true, maybe not.

There are Stenner rankings from 1946 - 1954 and then the Speedway Star rankings from 1956 onwards.

"Greatest ever" lists always tend to favour the more recent riders as people will have direct experience of seeing them. For those further back in time, all we can go by are their records and contemporary reports of their races. It's not surprising that most people tend to favour those they have seen. I would guess the only person who may have seen Eric Langton here is Gustix, possibly Mick the Muppet.

I wouldn't say Langton has gone under the radar. He won the Star Riders'' Championship in 1932 and was runner-up in 1934. He was also involved in the famous run-off for the first world championship in 1936. He qualified for all three pre-War World finals. He was also instrumental in making Belle Vue the outstanding pre-War team, winning the National League four times and the National Trophy five times. Even after the War he was still a top rider, averaging 10.93 in 1946. Undoubtedly one of England's finest ever riders

It was Bluey Wilkinson and Eric Langton who beat Tom Farndon at Belle Vue and neither of those results would have been that surprising. All three were very much on a par really. As far as I know Ray Tauser didn't have a brother but he may have done!

You are dead right, Sidney. Frank Arthur was the sport's first "superstar". He was the leading rider in Australia before speedway started in this country and then in the first two British seasons (28 and 29) was the top rider in this country. He was probably then overtaken by Vic Huxley but there is no doubt he deserves to be spoken of in the same way as other dominant riders of their time like Duggan, Fundin, Mauger, Nielsen, Rickardsson etc., but too early really for him to be properly remembered and lauded. P.S. Ray Tauser was an American.

Thanks Bavarian and chunky. Very interesting.

Thank you for that bit of extra info. I'll see if I can find out any more. The date is the reason I am interested in him.

A very interesting but very sad site, Bavarian. Do you have any information on Hans-Peter Finn, who was killed in 1920?

I saw the crash that killed Teo.

And don't forget Dusty Haigh in 1936 at Hackney.

Yes, Sidney, it was the scratch race final at New Cross. Ron Johnson ran into the fence on the back straight and fell. With less than two yards separating him and Tom, the latter had little time to take avoiding action, though those that were there that night say that Tom deliberately tried his best to turn away from his fallen skipper, choosing instead to plough into his machine. Tom and his bike were thrown into the air and flung a considerable distance before Tom landed on his head. Both riders were rushed to hospital, where Tom sadly died.

I asked John Somerville about my autograph book about 15 years ago. It contained autographs of Tom Farndon, Vic Huxley, Johnnie Hoskins, Gus Kuhn, Lionel Van Praag, Colin Watson and several other prominent riders of the time and he offered me £100 for it. But I still have it!

I used to buy programmes off Derek Neave. Good thinking about Tom Farndon, Split. I have his autograph in an autograph book...perhaps I should try forging it!

Incidentally, my biggest regret in the speedway programme world is that back in the 1970s I was offered two complete years of New Cross programmes, 1935 and 1936. Sadly, I had just returned from a two weeks holiday in America where I had bought some valuable comics (another collecting fad of mine at the time) which were practically unobtainable in the UK, so I just couldn't afford the asking price. I did manage to get the seller to agree to break them up and I was able to buy a few single copies, such as the night Tom Farndon was killed and the subsequent two meetings as well as a few other choice meetings.

I still have the programmes for every match I've been to - 1960-2019 - plus a number I have purchased or otherwise obtained (!) over the years going back to the first Crystal Palace meeting in May 1928. A couple of thousand altogether.

Does that mean I can cancel my BT Sport contract?