Terry

Hackney v Exeter 1977 for me. The Falcons needed a last heat 5-1 to grab a draw and Ivan Mauger and Scott Autrey gated and team-rode perfectly with Barry Thomas and Keith White trying desperately to find a way by. Off the final bend Thommo went for a tiny gap between Mauger and the fence and squeezed by to win the race by the width of a tyre. Probably the most famous race at Hackney and one that I'll never forget...It even had a snippet in the Daily Mirror the following day!

I guess it's not out there then. I didn't go either. The only one I went to it rained all night..82 I think.

I've often wondered if the classic 1980 test was televised. I've never come across it on youtube.

Tom(my) Knudsen

Andy Galvin was a hard but fair (mostly) rider. He used to fall foul to a lot of refs who automatically reached for his exclusion light when his opponents got blown off by the breeze of Andy overtaking them so quickly. He also managed to orchestrate the odd 5-0 when we needed it!

I've got all the Hawks/Kestrels books and dvd's. I'll have to buy this.

You were the lucky ones! We got Christer Lofqvist as a replacement for Dag but he was a big disappointment. Missing meetings and refusing any offers of help with his equipment. Len Silver said that Christer took an instant dislike to him for some reason, although Hackney team-mate Ted Hubbard said he could've been suffering from his illness at that stage. He died a couple of years later.

The first Scandinavian I remember was Dag Lovaas in 74. My first speedway memory is of a rider in yellow leathers gliding effortlessly around the Wick. I remember how sad I was when he wasn't there the following year.

Barry Thomas, Zenon Plech, Mark Loram, Tomasz Gollob, Darcy Ward, Andy Galvin, Chris Harris, Bartosz Zmarzlik, Alan Mogridge, Erik Gundersen.

Darcy Ward - The most naturally talented rider I've ever seen. Gutted he's not entertaining us in the gp's. Craig Boyce - Livened up a boring '95 British gp. Leigh Adams - Superb stylist who wasn't hard enough to be world champion. Jason Crump - Son of the animal! Phil Crump - the animal! A strong bloke who won a lot of 16 lappers. Jason Doyle - The most worthy world champion ever. Todd Wiltshire - Fastest alive over the first 25. Garry Middleton - The only rider who packed a revolver in his kit bag. Ryan Sullivan - Smooth as silk around the EOES. Should've beaten Crump to the world championship. Dave Hamnett - A fast gater. He should have achieved more. A Hackney favourite r.i.p.

Plech, Jankowski, Gollob, Zmarzlik, Protasiewicz, Cegielski, Kolodziej, Huszcza, Skornicki, M Drabik.

Finn Thomsen, Bo Petersen, Erik Gundersen, Jan O. Pedersen, Hans Andersen and Nicki Pedersen-although only the last few years, as he's been the only rider to interfere with the nauseating Monster 'love-in' in the gp's.

Tony Rickardsson (the guv'nor), Roland Danno, Henka Gustafsson, Bengt Jansson, Richard Hellsen, Peter Karlsson, Erik Stenlund, Christer Lofqvist, Freddie Lindgren, Antonio Lindback.

Kelly & Shawn...I'm with Carter on the rest of 'em. Too much whooping and yee-hawing for my liking. Oh Randy Green, even though he was hopeless.

Barry Thomas, Andy Galvin, Mark Loram, Alan Mogridge, Dave Morton, Paul Whittaker, Steve Schofield, Kelvin Mullarkey, Peter Collins, Chris Harris.

No doubt declaring the highest scoring pair after 42 heats the winners, will prove to be too sensible an idea and the final will once again finish with the two novelty races.

Done

'Good old' Bernie Leigh as he was known. A Reading institution. RIP

I only realised the meaning of this character a couple of years ago, even though I was a big Everett fan..I felt such a Stupid *unt.

Interesting read. You never forget your first slag!

Alan Grahame was reserve in 84 and scored 5 pts from 2 rides.

I don't know why anybody cares about this play-off nonsense anyway. The last real league champions were Oxford 17 years ago.

Is there a Belle Vue v King's Lynn play-off anywhere? I could only find heat 1 on youtube.

I've seen no evidence of Zmarzlik being a dirty rider, hard and aggressive certainly. But you have to be to get anywhere these days..unless you have Hancock's gating skills. I think Woffinden tends to get a bit precious over a bit of hard riding, although Nicki's move on him in Malilla wasn't even hard, never mind dirty. I don't know how Woffy (and Janowski) would've coped against Olsen and Nielsen! Being British I guess I want Tai to win, but I wouldn't mind if it was Zmarzlik, simply because I love watching him race.

Easy one for me. The great Barry Thomas chasing down the team-riding Ivan Mauger and Scott Autrey before flying past them off the final bend, winning the meeting for Hackney and the league for White City.