Split

Kwoczala's seventh place in the 1960 world final at Wembley would suggest that he had no problem mastering the western European tracks. I had the pleasure of seeing him ride in Britain and he certainly looked like a world class rider to me. Sadly his promising career was cut short after suffering a fractured skull in a crash at Kraków in 1961.

I think I've mentioned it before but I remember reading a stat that said that Vic Huxley has the best number of starts - number of wins ratio in the history of the sport. Even if most of us never saw him ride that alone must get him into the top 7 riders. Others like Farndon, Duggan etc. should also be included. As with most sports though it's difficult to compare sportsmen of different eras.

Bum fancier eh?

So did I and I also saw the crash that killed Australian rider, Dave Wills. Both at West Ham back in the 60's.

I was at every one of those meetings but no longer have the programmes. I gave my whole collection to a chap named Derek Neave who was well known around the London tracks in the 60's selling programmes for charity. I collected autographs in those days and always asked the riders appearing to sign the back of the programmes. I imagine that would have increased the value. Norbold, just imagine if that New Cross programme you have from 28 August 1935 had been signed on the back by Tom Farndon. It would be priceless.

Didn't Pete Jarman start his career as a cycle speedway rider and move on to the motorised version later in life?

And in 1966 he was riding against British League opposition. He finished well up in the averages that season and just look at some of the names beneath him: http://edinburghspeedway.blogspot.com/2014/03/british-league-averages-1966.html

Tommy Sweetman never really made it at New Cross but 'went provincial' by moving to Wolverhampton where he performed with distinction for a number of years. I think he must have been close to 40 years of age when he finally retired.

Am I reading this incorrectly or are Brett and Gooch only shown in the heat results and not in the team line ups? Were there not 8 man teams in the National League in 1960?

Bernt Persson?

It might not have been practical or commercially viable but I always thought that it might have been a good idea to consider building a speedway track at the New Den. Millwall football club and New Cross Rangers would have been reunited as neighbours. Seeing riders once again wearing orange and black would have been a dream come true. Sadly it's likely to remain just a dream.

This might have been discussed here before so apologies if I’m simply bringing up an old topic. Apparently New Plough Lane is a proposed stadium on the site of the old speedway/greyhound stadium in Southwest London. Once built, it will be the home of AFC Wimbledon. Was there ever any talk of including a speedway track?

Hello Norbold, I think I've mentioned before that you beat me by a few months as my first meeting was in September 1960 when New Cross took on their South London neighbours, Wimbledon. I do remember it was raining quite heavily and records show that the meeting was abandoned but only after most of the heats had been completed. Not sure who was riding in that first heat but my guess would be Waterman, Gooch (Luckhurst?), Moore and Brine.

I only picked up now that my “namesake” is no longer with us. So sad to hear that Split has died but his name will come up again and again as one of the best riders (or maybe THE best rider?) never to be crowned World Champion.

I recall an end-of-season mechanics race at Wimbledon where the time was printed in the programme as hours ...... minutes ...... seconds......

I certainly remember Ernie Hancock from when he ran the New Cross Supporters Club in 1960-61. I recall seeing him in a vibrant orange and black (New Cross team colours) pullover which was probably knitted by his mum who was often seen at his side at meetings. I think he liked calling himself Ernest C. Hancock when his name appeared in print and used various other noms de plumes (such as ‘The Grader’) in that 1963 publication which I purchased but no longer have in my possession. A mate and I were attending a meeting at Crayford during a rail strike back in the late 60’s. We spotted Ernie and his mother in the car park and asked if he was driving back to South East London. When we told him we were ex-New Cross supporters he was happy to give us a lift. Nice bloke!

From the forum's (self appointed) South African correspondent : Ah, those were the days.

I seem to remember seeing a team photo of the 1960's Wimbledon team with Percy Brine as team manager.

My mother was there that night and was so upset that she couldn't bring herself to ever attend another meeting.

Stefan Kwoczała was a rider whose career was sadly cut short by injury after suffering a fractured skull in a crash at Kraków in 1961. I saw him ride once and remember being impressed by his spectacular riding style. He was a rider of undoubted world class. Having won the Polish championship in 1959 he reached the World Final in 1960, and finished 7th.

Maybe we could start a list of riders who didn't ride under their real names. Igor Baranov and Kid Bodie come to mind. Raymond Arthur (Billy) Bales, Edwin Vernon (Chum) Taylor and of course Squire Francis (Split) Waterman are others.

Definitely Beckenham. I recognise the race jacket that I wore when I rode for them.

What about Eric Langton who does qualify as a post-war rider as he rode for Belle Vue after the war averaging 10.93 in his comeback season. He was a winner of the Star Riders' Championship, the forerunner of the World Championship in 1932 and runner-up in1934 . He was also runner-up, after a run-off with Lionel Van Praag in the inaugural world final in 1936.

Brian Crutcher was second in the 1954 World Final. That alone should see him in any list of the top 30 British riders. There were 5 English riders in the top ten that year - those were the days! A certain Peter Craven finished 15th that year with another newcomer, Ove Fundin 16th. Craven won the title the following year and Fundin in 1956. There is no doubt in my mind that Ron How also deserves to be there too. I saw a lot of him riding for Wimbledon back in the 60's and on his day he was a match for anyone. I see there was a typo in the first post misspelling his surname as Howe. There was actually an Eric Howe who was a contemporary of Ron’s and rode for Exeter.

I imagine that the fact that we English often simply ignore the umlaut must be a constant source of irritation to German speakers. Iris is correct that Müller can be written as Mueller for those who haven't discovered the alt129 entry. Bearing this in mind, the name of Bjorn Knutsson that we saw printed in so many speedway programmes back in the 60's actually contained two errors as Björn Knutson would have been correct. I have little knowledge of Scandinavian languages but I do know that they include letters such as Ø and å which I imagine should have appeared in the printed names of various riders from Scandinavia but I've never seen them used in an English programme. Norbold beat me to it with his New Cross team but how about this Wembley Lions line up: Ove Fundin, Tommy Price and Split Waterman heat leaders Lionel van Praag, Freddie Williams and Brian Crutcher second strings Dave Jessup and Bill Kitchen/Ginger Lees as reserves. Four world champions plus three runners-up in that team!