Terry

Has Zmarzlik been getting gating tips off Chris Harris?

Zmarzlik? One year wonder!

Couldn't bare to drag themselves away from the football.

I went to the last four world finals at Wembley and the first six Cardiff gp's (sickened I missed Bomber winning) and Cardiff doesn't compare, although I appreciate how good it is. I just wish we had Cardiff and Manchester. I don't see why not, Poland has three.

Love the names of the old-time riders. Crasher, Buggie, Chippy, Stiffy, Smoke, Ham and Turnip..What a side that sounds!

He wasn't very good. One might even call him a 'Mickey Mouse' type of rider!

Good tune. Looks like Rye House...I can't imagine they'd ride in those conditions anymore!

Not sure about Dugard but I know they had Jeremy Doncaster lined up as their number 1. It would've been interesting to have seen how the fans had taken to 'our' Andy..I'm sure he would have won them over!

I was there. Todd Wiltshire and Neville Tatum wasn't it? I remember Dave Lanning telling the home fans to calm down!

Yeah Andy scored 10 points in both his world finals. I always think of Andy and Chris Harris as similar riders. Great to watch but could have achieved much more.

I've mentioned 76 but I've got to talk about 2 other years. 1980. After finishing bottom in 79 and making just one change in Roman Jankowski for Bobby McNeil we were slaughtered by King's Lynn 20-57 in the early season gold cup. I think that result gave us the kick up the backside we needed. We had a great year with Bo Petersen topping the national averages for most of the season, before eventually finishing fourth. Losing at home to Cradley in early October ended our title challenge, but after being used to finishing near the bottom of the table it was was great to hit the heights and finish second to Reading. I've got to mention 'the year of the Kestrel.' 1988, what a year, two draws and two defeats both by 47-49. Winning both legs of the London KO Cup. An all British team. Captain fantastic Andy Galvin team-riding Chris Louis home for so many 5-1's. Cheering on Loramski to the British U-21 title at Eastbourne at the grand old age of 17...that's when I knew he was a future world champion.

It was the second round in Sweden. Mark clearly knocked off Tony and was very lucky not to be excluded. Mark Loram was my favourite rider so obviously I was over the moon when he won the championship. But there's no denying things did go his way that year.

I always felt that Andy Smith was underrated. Ok he never did much in the gp's but he always used to qualify through the challenge, ahead of such riders as Ermolenko and Crump. He never had to rely on any wild cards. 3 consecutive British Championships-when it was still a strong line-up-confirms his quality. I remember Tony Rickardsson saying something along the lines of "I don't care if I'm racing Jason Crump or Andy Smith, I still want to beat them." Which I thought was a bit disrespectful.

I thought it was a terrible decision by the ref not to award Plech the win or at worst a rerun after he was clearly knocked off by the Russian. Nielsen and Ermolenko should both have been excluded in my eyes in 86 and 93..I still regard Ermolenko as the luckiest world champion ever. In my opinion Szczakiel and Muller were worthy world champions. I should add I don't mean when Sam was clearly knocked off by Hans. I mean when he stopped in the rerun and was hit by Hamill. I don't know what the ref was looking at!

Len said the same thing about Les Collins when Brucie won in 82!

I always enjoyed my visits to Plough Lane in the late 80's. There was a great atmosphere with Dave Lanning's 'golden oldies' and friendly (most of the time) banter with the Dons supporters. The London cup final in '88 stands out for me obviously, and the sense of anticipation when those two great professionals Steve Schofield and Andy Grahame met in '90. It was such a shame it went wrong for both clubs the following year.

I think a good example of not knowing what's going to happen is comparing Tony Rickardsson and Henrik Gustafsson. There was not much to choose between them early on, if anything Henka probably had the edge in the early 90's. You'd never have guessed at that time that Tony would win 6 world titles and Henka wouldn't get anywhere near.

Beating Ole Olsen twice from behind and setting a new track record soon after rejoining Hackney in 79. Leading the Hawks to an amazing win at Halifax, after being 16-31 down after eight heats. Being the only rider to make it to Sheffield for the inter-league 4TT final, after riding in the world pairs in Vojens the previous day. He said he was determined to ride as a tribute to Vic Harding who had his fatal crash in Hackney's round. Giving me his NGK cap that he wore on the world final rostrum in 79, (I'd like to think it's the same one anyway!) Being an all round great chap whom you never heard a bad word said against.

I like the bloke stepping casually out of the way while eating his burger!

I'd say 99% of Hackney fans would have Thommo as their favourite Hawk. He had a totally unique riding style, almost as if he was fighting his machine! Zenon Plech was another huge favourite of mine. I remember as a young lad screaming at the tv during the 79 world final for him to pass Kelly Moran, but Kelly rode a blinder and blocked his every move..ahh well.

..And poor old Martin Ashby discovering that he was on a few grand less than the others!

I think it was Sky's Keith Huewen who started the whole professor thing. I remember in those days they used to have three or four guests (Briggo, PC, Wiggy, Tatum) in the studio at once...a lot better than just Natalie and Scott.

One of my abiding memories of the summer of 76 was the great ladybird invasion. We had a caravan down on the Essex coast and when we arrived we thought that somebody had painted the sea-wall red..but we didn't let it bug us!

Aah, from Bridget Jones's diary!

You're right. I didn't know what he looked like, I just remembered the white leathers.