norbold

It depends what you mean by 'nearly men'. There are a number of riders who never won the World Championship like Tom Farndon, Vic Huxley and Vic Duggan, but that's because they were at their peak when there was no World Championship, so they weren't really 'nearly' men. Of those that were around and failed to win for one reason or another, I think maybe Aub Lawson and Gote Nordin should be in the final along with Jack Parker (not just at reserve). As to the result I think Igor Plechanov would be hard to beat.

Harold was one brother, TWK. In fact he was the England captain. The other brother was riding on a Norwegian license.

I wonder how many people will understand this...

Thank you, chr. You never made it to Stamford Bridge then....

Yes, I agree, BWitcher. You're right. I wonder how the old time showman promoters like Johnnie Hoskins, Ronnie Greene and Freddie Mockford would have got on with today's audiences...

I remember seeing a challenge match race at West Ham between Barry Briggs and Bjorn Knutson. Briggo said that the fastest way round Custom House was round the outside, while Bjorn said it was round the inside, so they lined up with Bjorn off gate 1 and Briggo off gate 3. As soon as they started they crossed over with Bjorn taking the outside line and Briggo round the inside. Bjorn won, thus proving Briggo right!

Yes, you're probably right there. It's interesting you mention Ronnie Moore as well as one of the most naturally talented riders as he was a bit like Jack in regard to his approach to speedway. He was much more of a team man and once said that the most important thing to him in speedway was to see Wimbledon win. He used to treat the World Final just like any other individual meeting. He said, "If I won, I won, if I didn't, I didn't. It wasn't the end of the world. I used to look round the pits on final night and see other riders literally shaking they were so nervous. I thought that was just silly."

I took part in a BBC London radio broadcast and phone in a few years ago with the author of the book and the man behind the website, Paul Talling. He talked about lost sports stadiums in general and I spoke about the speedway tracks. I think there is a thread on it somewhere on the Forum.

This is the web site: http://www.derelictlondon.com/londons-long-lost-sports-grounds.html

In a way gustix raises an interesting point on your discussion with sommelier, Bwitcher. We know about riders like Jack Young, Jack Milne and Peter Craven because they were World Champions and had the record to prove how good they were. For all we know Cyclone Billy Lamont (for example) may well have been the most exciting rider of his era - or even of all time - but he is not as well remembered because he didn't get the results to go with it. The same will be true of Hancock over Gollob in 50 years time.

Actually, RP, joking aside, you're absolutely right and it is undoubtedly a good thing that that practice has been done away with.

The big question now is, what about stewed eels? Pick out your eel from the writhing plate of live eels in the shop window, watch the chef drop it into a pot of boiling water and be ready in time to have with your pie 'n' mash. Luvverly!

Thank you, chr. I might send you a bowl of jellied eels for Christmas.

Yes, now you mention it, I recall that incident. I'm not sure myself if that was the crash. I'll see if I can find out.

Call yourself an Eastender? Bah!

You know, chr, I never thought of that. Hmmm....could be good, though maybe a bit of a limited market?

Thank you, Ian. The review is up on Amazon.

Thank you, TWK. I am so glad you liked it and that it brought back so many happy memories. Now to keep my side of the bargain....... It all began innocuously enough when our Internet at home went down and I could only get on to the Speedway Forum (and every other site of course) by using my work computer. This was some time early in 2002. I reported the fault to BT who sent someone round to investigate. The engineer at first couldn't find out where the fault lay other than it obviously wasn't working. After several days, BT finally discovered that Tendring Hundred Waterworks Company (my then water supplier) had cut through a cable in front of a house five doors away from mine when doing some work there and it was this that was causing the problem, so they said it should be easy to fix. BT then dug a hole in the road to get at the cable. This was the famous norbold's hole. However, before they could start work, the local Council came round to investigate a hole in their road and demanded that BT put up safety notices round the hole and fence it off. So another day passed while they did this. We were then told by BT that as it was the Water Company's fault they had asked them for a compensation payment before they would start the work. More time while the Water Company arranged a visit. When they did, they denied it was their fault and wouldn't pay. I can't remember the exact sequence of events after that but, apart from the hole being there, nothing was getting done in spite of further numerous visits from BT, The Water Company and the Council, who all peered into norbold's hole, tutted and went away. During the course of all this, I gave a daily update on the Speedway Forum from work, which, as you can imagine, brought forth many comments, serious, humorous, lewd and any type you care to mention. It was this and the length of time it went on for that made it easily the longest thread seen on the Forum at that time and, I guess, ever since, until the Darcy Ward thread and became quite a cause celebre. Sadly, the thread got lost when the Forum was revamped some years later. I did screen shot and keep some of it, but I've lost that now as well. The outcome of all this was that it eventually got done something like a month after the hole was first dug. At the time - I don't know if it is still the case - BT paid huge compensation for every day over three days that a customer couldn't receive their Internet services. It was so much that it paid for a four week family holiday to Australia and New Zealand, where, incidentally, I had a great day out with Bob Andrews, who showed me the sites of Auckland, including the speedway track and speedway museum, finishing with dinner with him and Tommy Sweetman. That, as far as I can remember, is the story of norbold's hole. I don't know if any Forum old timers would care to add anything to the story or their memories of it. Oh, I do still have a photo of the hole. Incidentally, TWK, as you bought the book on Amazon, is there any chance you could review it on there, pretty please? It does help and would be most appreciated.

Double World Champion, Jack Young was a poor gater. He once complained to Tommy Price that he wished he could gate better. Price replied to the effect, "If you could gate, Jack, the rest of us might as well just pack up and go home."

Thank you for your review, Tigerblade, much appreciated. Glad you liked the book.

It was on a Monday night. Whether it was televised or not I don't know.

Absolutely waihe (if I may call you that). I personally saw Dave Wills, Teo Teodorowicz and Vic Harding killed on the track. And, only a couple of weeks after I started going to speedway, Tink Maynard was killed. There were many more fatalities in the 60s and 70s than now. It was Ove Fundin at the 1965 Internationale who did for Ivor Brown. He suffered serious spine injuries. Though he did come back eventually, he was never the same rider again.

Who's to say? I think it depends very much on him and whether he's learnt any lessons from his ban. If he has, there is no doubt he is capable of winning the World Championship. But even then, there is still an element of luck involved and who he comes up against. Tai could hold him off and if Emil comes back. Someone relatively unknown at the moment might come through by five years time. Who knows?

I think the general concensus is that the incident was really Fundin's own fault. He led from the gate but Briggs forced his way past on the second lap. Fundin tried to repass on the outside but lost control and hit the fence. Briggo was involved in another similar incident in a run-off for second and third places in the 1955 final when he collided with Eric Williams and both riders went sprawling. Briggs was able to get back on his bike and ride home for overall third place, Ronnie Moore having won the run-off. Williams had to push home, but he did so as he, like the crowd, who cheered him home, were convinced that Briggo would be excluded for causing the accident. However, the referee saw it differently and the result was allowed to stand, giving Briggo third place overall to much booing. I think you'll find there were far more fatalties and career ending injuries back in the 50s-70s than there are these days.

In my book mentioned above, I also asked Ove for his view on Briiggo. This is what he said, "I had a bigger rivalry with Barry than Ronnie. I was more worried about being in front of Barry than Ronnie, because you could never be sure what Barry would do. Ronnie was more of a gentleman on the track.....Although we were rivals on the track I was very friendly off the track with both of them, and although Barry was probably my biggest rival, his wife would stay with my wife during the winter season."