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Nor do I Chunky. So who would you leave out to add in all those worthies?

Talking of "all-time" best who rode for West Ham, I've just remembered that Split Waterman rode a few times for West Ham in 1955 and then there's Colin Watson....oh dear, it gets worse.

Cripes, chr, that's a toughie.... Arthur Huxley Farndon Wilkinson Parker, J Milne, J Milne, C Blimey, that's seven and I've only just reached the War! Moving on.... Price Duggan Young Waterman Moore Briggs Knutson (And that's not counting the 17 year old Mauger's stint at Wimbledon or Ove Fundin's at Wembley) Hang on a minute...what about Fred Williams, Crutcher, Simmons, McKinlay, Nygren, Banger....oh dear, oh dear....

Thank you, Rob Well,my top seven depends on which definition we go for. All time best or best when they were actually riding for the club. For an all time seven I would go for: Bluey Wilkinson Jack Young Bjorn Knutson Aub Lawson Sverre Harrfeldt Eric Chitty Arthur Atkinson For a when they were actually riding for West Ham I would go for: Bluey Wilkinson Jack Young Bjorn Knutson Aub Lawson Sverre Harrfeldt Eric Chitty Arthur Atkinson er..... Other possibles to put in an "all-time" team would be Malcolm Simmons, Olle Nygren and Ken McKinlay. The problem with Eric Chitty is that he probably had his best days during the War so it's difficult to know where to put him. Arthur Atkinson is another who lost out through the War. Although Cordy Milne was favourite to win the 1939 World Championship, there were many who felt that Atkinson might win it. Taking away their War time records at Belle Vue and what might have been, maybe Malcolm should be included above both of them all-time. Who started this???

Of course. always difficult to compare, but from my forays into the past, reading reports, looking at records and statistics and so on and so forth, I'd say that Bluey Wilkinson should not only be included, but has a strong case for being no.1, the best Hammer of all time.

Wot no Bluey Wilkinson!?

Anyway, chr, how about a Best Ever West Ham team? You go first!

And Trevor Hedge and Reg Luckhurst

I spoke to Ove a few years ago about what he thought of speedway today. His first comment was that Ivan Mauger "ruined" the sport by making it too professional. He felt Ivan had taken all the fun out of it and turned it into a business where riders had to get the right backers, set up etc. and it became more about money and machinery than the rider. It is an urban myth that Ove Fundin won the world title on a track spare.

Wimbledon starts off ok... Ivan Mauger Barry Briggs Ronnie Moore Vic Huxley but falters a bit after that. Maybe Norman Parker Ron How Tommy Jansson

Ooops. You're right chr and waihekeaces1. Many apologies. As someone once said, "Where is my abacus when I need it?" Obviously foamfence we are talking about Individual World Championship titles.

Meanwhile Australia continues to throw up quality riders on a seemingly never-ending production line.

I make it 18 world titles, chr.

Ok, moving on..... Ivan Mauger Ove Fundin Jack Parker Peter Craven Peter Collins Jason Crump Eric Langton And now find another club team to beat that!

Tom Farndon....

I agree Hancock must now be considered in any list of all-time greats. As time goes by, he will move higher and higher simply because people forget the old stars and riders like Moore, Young, Craven will drop out - even Briggs and Fundin. As we can see in waihekeaces 1's list, there is not one pre-war rider because they are just forgotten. But what about Farndon, Huxley, Wilkinson? There's no doubt Hancock deserves a high place but as always the more modern the rider the higher up the list he will be.

If you don't want to you don't need to write an editorial, that's up to you. However it seems to me that what the SS should be doing is giving a bit more factual explanation about the FIM process given all these comments about poor Darcy and the amount of time it's taking. It must surely be the responsibility of the SS to explain to its readers what FIM regulations state and that this case is no different to those the FIM have dealt with before. Instead, by not doing this, you are tacitly supporting the idea that Darcy Ward is being hard done by and that, for some reason, the FIM seems to be picking on him personally when this is not the case. If you don't think the SS should give an opinion on the matter, surely you must agree it should state the facts.

Not forgetting Josef Hofmeister.

We don't know it is going to take 45 days. FIM regulations say it can be UP TO 45 days. Unless you've heard differently.

What you're making there, Phil, is a general point about the FIM. This case is nothing out of the ordinary. You might want to criticise the FIM for the time they take generally, but, believe me, this case is nothing special. They are not treating Darcy Ward any differently to how they would treat any other rider. It's just a shame people like you and Middlo don't know this.

Yes, ok, you've all convinced me. Move Dag up.

It's dry today.

1. Sverre Harrfeldt 2. Rune Holta (he was Norwegian once) 3. Reidar Eide 4. Basse Hveem 5. Aage Hansen 6. Lars Gunnestad 7. Dag Lovaas

Jimmy Ogisu Er... That's it.

Yes, I thought about Hans Andersen, but somehow he never seems to have lived up to his potential. A few years ago he looked like a World Champion in the making but it never quite happened. Good call with Bo Petersen certainly.