norbold

I've just had my latest Royalties statement for Pie 'n' Mash & Prefabs. Between July and December 2016 it sold a further 3305 copies, making a total now since it came out of 20,969.

Ove Fundin and Barry Briggs. Enemies on the track; friends off it.

I think it's all a bit shrouded in the mists of time, Rob. There are various claims and counter-claims about where speedway started but it depends to a great extent on what we mean by speedway. There are many examples of motor cycles racing round oval tracks from America, Australia, Ireland, Great Britain, Austro-Hungary and South Africa amongst other places from the late 19th century onwards. If we mean sliding round dirt tracks with no brakes, the earliest actual description I have come across is of Don Johns in 1914: “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.” "Wide open", "showering dirt into the air". Sounds like speedway as we know it, though perhaps the length of the circuit might rule it out. But, who knows, he may not have been the first. He may have learnt his art from some as yet undiscovered rider or riders and we are still waiting for that all important contemporary first hand or news report to turn up What is certain is that there was some form of recognised speedway in both America and Australia well before the West Maitland meeting of December 1923!

Don Johns, American, and very probably speedway's, original pioneer:

Well I guess the real American pioneers were the likes of Don Johns and Albert 'Shrimp' Burns, who were sliding round dirt tracks from as early as 1914, followed by Maldwyn Jones and Eddie Brinck round about 1920 with their famous pendulum skid. The Americans pre-dated anything that was going on in Australia. As far as speedway as we more or less know it goes, the American pioneers would have to be Sprouts Elder and Art Pechar who rode in this country in the late 1920s. When the Milnes and Wilbur Lamoreaux later came to Britain in the 1930s, along with many other Americans, it has to be said that they became an established part of the British speedway scene. In the early post War years (late 1940s and 1950s), there were the likes of Ernie Roccio and Nick Nicolaides, Of course there have been some gap years, but the tradition of American riders certainly goes much further back than Scott Autrey and DeWayne Keeter.

"Here’s something I bet you didn’t know. The first ever speedway race was held in Maitland, about two hours north of Sydney, on the 15th of December 1923." Oh dear! Mind you, the article does go on to give the Amercans some credit for "inventing" the sport, but not that it was already an Australian spectacle before 15 December 1923.

If it hadn't have been for me and my mate, John, those attendances would have been 11,998 and 14,998!

Thank you, Tb. It's shot up the charts again today!

If you say so, Doug. Let's all agree that Ole Olsen was the greatest rider that ever lived and Jack Parker was useless. How's that?

Vic Duggan resigned the title because he said he wasn't interested in defending it and didn't want to be nominated again, as gustix said, I don't know why he came to this decision but that's why he wasn't nominated again.

Yes, but as you already pointed out above, these were under two different systems. You can't compare them just by numbers. In answer to you previous question I believe the old monthly 2 out of 3 challenge was best. You could build up the excitement, you knew you were going to have two riders worthy of the challenge, whereas under the newer system, the best rider in the world might never get a chance.

Yes, that's correct.

I think mine was Barry Briggs v. Ove Fundin in 1960 at New Cross. Fundin absolutely destroyed Briggo, breaking the track record and also breaking the old track record in the second race. The time of 57.0 stood till New Cross closed in 1963.

Oh, you did see me then. No sense in wasting a good outfit.

They weren't my team then.

Very well put, chr. I have been trying to rack my brains thinking of one but so far none come to mind!

I was hooked well before I actually saw a meeting live. I was steeped in a family speedway tradition. Two of my uncles were regulars before the War, sometimes doing the traditional six in a week. After the War, in the late 1940s, my dad and brother went to Harringay on a regular basis. When I was born I was named after Norman Parker. I remember seeing some of the World Finals of the 1950s on television and I avidly followed all speedway results in the newspapers. By the time I was about eight or nine I used to ride my bike around the field where I lived and usually pretended to be Split Waterman, Aub Lawson or Brian Crutcher. The reason I went to the meeting on 11 May 1960 was because I saw it advertised in the Evening News my dad brought home from work that night and I asked if we could go so I could actually see the sport I was already madly in love with long before I ever went!

I was at that meeting. I don't remember seeing you there!

Of course I can't claim to be a neutral either, having been first of all a New Cross supporter, then West Ham when New Cross closed. I also went to Hackney every week for many years. In addition Wimbledon and Wembley were fairly regular venues while open. I also saw racing at White City, Harringay and Romford. My favourite was New Cross, the smallness of the circuit seemed to induce close racing. Also, if a race was boring it was over quicker! West Ham was great when riders like Sverre Harrfeldt and Christer Lofqvist were blasting round the outside. Although I only saw two meetings there, I have fond memories of Harringay too. The atmosphere just seemed electric, but then it was two big meetings I saw there with very large crowds which always helps.

Well, of course the first meeting at High Beech was nothing like the race between Emil and Darcy, firstly because, apart from the two Australians, this was the first experience any of the riders had had of this type of racing and secondly and mainly because the ACU ruling was that riders weren't allowed to put their foot down and all the bikes had brakes. You really can't use that first meeting to make a point like that! In the course of my researches in speedway over many years I have read hundreds and hundreds of first hand reports of meetings and races from 1928 onwards and as far as I can see right from the early days to the present day there have been great spectacular races and very poor processional races, great meetings and poor meetings. As far as spectacle goes for example, taking a mid-point, I used to see Sverre Harrfeldt every week at West Ham and I don't think you could get anyone more spectacular than him week after week either before or since. I am sure everyone will be able to point to a rider like that at their home track over the years, from Billy Lamont to Darcy Ward.

I think the best leg trailing photo I've seen is the one I use as my avatar (is that the right word!?) It's of 'Cyclone' Billy Lamont riding round the outside of Vic Huxley at Wimbledon. Click on my photo to expand it.

I have the complete set of Astorias' annuals. Many of the leading riders of the 50s advertised Astorias, though I believe a number of them didn't actually smoke!

One of my all-time favourites. One of the heroes of that famous Cup win over Wimbledon in 1965 and played a very important role in West Ham's treble winning season that year. Sorry, don't know what he's doing now though.

They did indeed, gustix.

Alby Golden rode for Ringwood in the SAL