The White Knight

You may or may not be right. I don't think that you are. My point was that this particular argument has been flogged to death. Dragging it up again will, in all probability, just cause more trouble on this Thread. That said - you have every right to your opinion.

Ivan Mauger Barry Briggs Peter Collins Ole Olsen Anders Michanek Nicki Pedersen Gary Havelock Jason Crump Michael Lee That is all I can think of at present.

Crikey!! :shock: You are right Rob. It is a hell of a lot of money. Who gets the £1,000 by the way?

They can and do at Football - I hope I never hear of it at British Speedway.

That made me laugh fliss. :rofl: :rofl:

Pity that Skid. It would have been interesting - never mind though - you did well to get the Attendance Poll under way.

I think this has been done to death quite frankly. Or - are you just trying to cause trouble?

I thought Soren was brilliant, I didn't see too much of Christer.

Never mind Characters among the Promotion Staff. Where have all the characters gone amongst the Riders?

Hey - Dandelion - where's your kangaroo gone? :shock: I liked that Avatar. If I may be so bold - I'm not keen on the new one. :nono:

R.I.P. + Bryan Seery. A wonderful source of information in his days as Statistician on Speedway Star. They were the 'go to' Statistics for, it seemed to me, all Speedway Supporters of that era. He certainly gave me a lot of pleasure. As Lucifer Sam says, the first page to look at was the 'Stats' to see how our Riders, and others, were getting on. I don't know if he was ever wrong, but when I followed such things closely, I never spotted anything amiss. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

No characters like him in the Sport these days. In fact no characters at all I sometimes think. Certainly nowhere near as many.

I have to agree iris123. Both very entertaining Riders - they have burned brightly in the Speedway firmament and should be recognized as having done so. Lots of people go to see the Riders we love to hate.

Certainly not me. Another great Rider - yes - but not Top Class like the P. Collins, Mauger, Briggo etc. Not quite that level for me I'm afraid.

........................................ or the views of said Fans. :sad: Another good idea. Interesting to see the Results of this one. I think you can already guess where my Vote would go were there to be a Poll. :)

A great Rider - but another one who never did it for me.

Well I'm not annoyed. I enjoy reading your Posts and sometimes you make me smile. So - keep going.

Very depressing - but I suppose inevitable knowing Human Nature and the need to win at all costs.

Russ Dent held the Track Record at Hampden Park for a while, I believe.

Aaaaawwwwww - don't be like that. I enjoy her input. Keep on going Dandelion.

I was a Starting Gate 'Raker' and handed the various Flags and Indicators to our Start Marshall Bob Arnold as required. There were two of us 'Raking' making sure the 'white line' was not obliterated after each Race and repairing the Tapes had they been broken etc.. We used to pull down the Tapes too prior to the Race starting. Obviously if a Rider's Bike packed in we would try to assist by giving him a push. In Frank Auffret's case mentioned above - we never actually got the bike going again. To be honest we had to pack in pushing, by the time we got to the first bend I was knackered. Fortunately that was the only time that happened. Everybody else I pushed got started OK. We were all volunteers at Sunderland - we even paid to get in and bought our own Programmes. We, all of us, did what we could to keep our Speedway and also keep Costs as low as possible. Sadly, at the start of the 1974 Season we got two very poor Promoters. We lost nearly all of our Home Matches until we were sold, half way through the Season, to Elizabeth Taylor the then Berwick 'Bandits' Promoter. By then the writing was on the wall and we closed early for the Season. We were all fairly confident that Sunderland Speedway wouldn't see another Season. Unfortunately we were proved right. Brian Havelock won the last Race at Sunderland and there has been no more Speedway at Sunderland since. Some of us still live in hope though. You mention Vic Harding. Vic cut his teeth riding for Sunderland in 1974. He is still highly and fondly thought of by those of us who are left now. Vic was a very personable young man who was always ready to stop and have a chat with us Supporters. We really appreciated that. We were all really shocked about what happened that fateful night at Hackney. I still think of him now and again today.

What - TWICE!!! :shock:

Well said Skid. :approve:

I can remember the days when four or five Riders averaged over 10.00 in the same Season.

I can remeber Ena at Sunderland who used to knit Bobble Hats and Race Bibs for the kids - free of charge I might add.. My son had one set - he got it in the first Season and it lasted him the whole four years of Sunderland 'Stars'/'Gladiators' existance. Ena also knitted George Barclay's Bobble Hat. You shouldn't have started this Thread Tony - my mind is going back to better and happier times. I remember Frank Auffret conking out on the Start Line - I said I'll give you a push - by the time we arrived at the third bend I was regretting my offer.