E I Addio

A figure of speech to illustrate stupid behaviour one example of which is the number attending the Cheltenham Gold Cup a few weeks ago in confined spaces, and reports of some of things going on in London which seems to now be translating into higher statistics with London being ahead of the rest of the country. As I seem to keep repeating incessantly many of these measures are only necessary because a relatively small percentage don’t exhibit basic common sense in dealing with a dangerous disease.

I didn’t mention people in public parks. I don’t know what numbers were involved or how sensibly or stupidly they were behaving, Neither do you. Of the hundreds ,possibly thousands involved it is almost inevitable that some will be carriers. Your comparison with supermarkets is interesting. One is essential , one isn’t. One involved a relatively short period of potential exposure, the other much longer. I don’t know about your area but round here the supermarkets and our local farm shopare only letting a few in at a time on a one in one out basis,and the floors have been divided into squares so every body keeps to their own space. Totally different the thousands in a park. As with all health and safety the ones in the greatest danger are the ones who least recognise the danger. You can’t rely on everyone acting sensibly that’s why we need regulations.

Some are grasping it some aren’t. Same with the social distance rules. Some are behaving sensibly others as if they have a death wish. That is a big part of the problem

And those who are 64 ? Do they suddenly start staying in ? Like a lot of things in this, any figures will be completely arbitrary .

There is no true evidence that it would have killed any number. That is the problem. We are dealing with a disease that is not properly understood and every body is playing catch up based on models, assumption, experience and inspired guesses. The top line figures ( one of which estimated half a million deaths ) assumed no action taken at all but of course action is taken but it is a blunt instrument and nobody quite knew in advance how effective it would be. We can’t protect the elderly. They, like everyone else have to exercise good sense and protect themselves. Going on cruises, and taking their camper vans down to Newquay or going to off the gee-gees at Cheltenham, all of which many have done is not really good sense. Unfortunately the government can’t rely on common sense among the population as a whole. They have to work to and advise to the lowest common denominator, and the more stupid the behaviour of the minority the lower the lowest common denominator has to be, even though it is a pain to the rest.

I agree with every word, except he’s not even a particularly nice bloke. Even compared with some of the sports head honchos of recent years he is, as you say out of his depth, lacking the slightest modicum of flair as an administrator and unable to see beyond the end of his nose. I can only assume he’s there because the sport has reached such a low ebb nobody else wants the job.

You raise a good point Sid . I think Jack and Ronnie were probably very, very , similar in many ways. I only saw Ronnie Moore at the end of his career after he came back from retirement but boy he was good. His effortless style made an impression that still sticks with me today. Not surprising that many people say Ronnie was the most naturally talented rider that ever sat on a bike. Jack was said to have an “armchair ‘style in the sense he just sat on the bike as if he was sitting in an armchair, letting the bike do all the work, unlike many later riders that climb all over the bike. Leigh Adams was another like it . A very unspectacular style, but not an ounce of effort wasted, and with the bike under perfect control at all times, and an uncanny ability to find grip where others couldn’t.

Good post. The only thing I would add is that from everything I have read about Jack Young it seems that good as he was he wasn’t as good as he could have been. He didn’t even start till he was into his 20’s, and in a very different world in those days it seems he didnt take things too seriously. One might say he was perhaps one of the last of what we might call the paid “amateurs” . No special fitness regimes, no special engines, he seems to have relied on pure talent . I think he was world champion within about 5 years of taking the sport up on a converted road bike, and by his second season he was beating some of the top Aussies of the day. In his first season with Edinburgh in the Second Division he beat Jack Parker twice in a special match race. He was perhaps a tad lucky with his first World Final win, that Jackie Biggs nerves apparently got the better of him , but being World Champion means you have to overcome your nerves. I forget the actual statistics when he replaced the great Aub Lawson at West Ham but it was something like 19 maximums in 38 matches. But the speedway world was about to change when Fundin and Briggs came along.... I wouldn’t object to Jack Young being placed second to Crump but he certainly deserves a top two position. BTW, what happened to the under rated Aub Lawson when considering great Aussies ? Coming back to Crump J., though, he was somewhat unlucky to be around at the same time as one of speedways all time legends. If there had been no Richardson how many World Titles would Jason have won ?

Eric Chitty was said to be a good singer, often entertaining the crowds with a song, Len Silver, perhaps not so good but according to his book he would often entertain clients at his Silver Ski resort , singing and accompanying himself on the ukulele. I have heard Howdy Byford fancied himself as as singer after a few beers. Are there any other riders known for their singing ,? I use the word singing in the loosest possible way in Fred’s Case. Pity we don’t see Freddie over here any more though..

On the other side of the coin I have to say he guested for Lakeside several times over the years and always rode as if he was a home rider. I remember one occasion when he crashed and hurt his leg badly but he continued riding through the pain barrier and only withdrew once Lakeside reached the point that they couldn’t lose. When he had his bad crash in Poland Lakeside fans collected £750 for him. That’s a measure of how much he was liked. Yes, I know he could be a moaner and a whinger at times, but what I am saying is that it wasn’t all one way.

That’s what happened after Lee Richardson died. In fact I think it was about two months before Lakeside signed a replacement and Lee’s position in the pits remained empty in that period as I recall.

Half the Ipswich team were ex- scramblers at one point, as were Arthur Browning , Tom Leadbiter and a few others , including today, riders like Richard Lawson and the Worralls. I can’t think of any that started in Speedway and then moved over to an average standard I scrambling. They are totally different techniques. As a side point though, I remember about 6/7 years ago Peter Karlsson rode in a grass track in Kent , on a bike he borrowed from Paul Hurry. He had never sat on a grass track bike before but proved unbeatable in the heats but unfortunately the meeting was rained off before the Finals. Similarly I once saw Anders Michanek in an end of season grass track at Lydden. He absolutely whopped everybody. I don’t think anybody has mentioned Joe Screen yet. He didn’t particularly concentrate on grass track but used to ride in big money continental meetings , which were not always ovals but some included sweeping right hand bends and jumps . By all accounts he was pretty hot stuff. One thing I forgot to mention about Alf Hagon was that he was also winner of the famous Red Marley Hill Climb which adds to his claim to be top all rounder.

I don’t agree. Speedway takes a bit of time to the idea of controlling the whole thing with the throttle but according to Chris Louis , once he learnt to control the bike he found it quite easy. I don’t think you can limit it to just Speedway and grasstrack. Speedway in particular is not really regarded as part of motor cycling by the main motor cycling fraternity. In fact there are plenty of speedway riders that have never even ridden any other sort of bike, not even a road bike. The point is that if anyone is successful in any other discipline there is little financial incentive to turn to speedway. Greatest British all rounder ? Alf Hagon must be in the frame. Ridden in all disciplines, usually on bikes he built himself , decent speedway second string , British Grasstrack Champion and World Speed Record Holder at something like 209 mph on a bike he built himself.

Even Vissings friend and flat mate Henning Beger said Vissing was a looney and on and off track had a few screws loose.

Was that when he came back with one leg shorter than the other ?

Thanks. I love when these old memories come back. I am not sure if I ever saw Ron Mountford ride but I knew of him. Coventry in those days seemed to have a very stable team back then, keeping the same riders year on year. While we have Coventry under the spotlight, what memories do fans have of Tony Lomas and Ken McKinlay. Tony Lomas was a tester for Triumphs in Meriden. I only saw him a couple of times but if I recall correctly he was an all round motorcyclist, who came to speedway a bit later than most and if my memory is right he was a road racer before that. As for Hurri-Ken McKinlay I loved watching him at West Ham. Probably the best tactician and team rider I can remember, on a par with Leigh Adams. What was he like at Coventry ?

Thanks Sid.

Yes thanks for that correction. I had forgotten about Ron Mountford. Now I come to think about it, was Ron Mountford, rather than Les Owen that seemed to be regularly getting injured , or were they both somewhat injury prone ?

Wasn’t Les Owens entire career plagued by injury? I think he lost the sight of one eye in a workshop accident, and I believe he had one leg a bit shorter than the other as a result of a track crash. I think he was one of those riders like Paul Hurry who spent more time on the injury list than he did on the track . Is that correct Sid ? Did John Harrhy race again after that crash?

Norman Hunter owned a motorcycle shop.

Fantastic pictures. Not sure they answer my query but at least I now know why the Harley Peashooter was called a “peashooter” . Just my guess work again, but looking at the position of the handlebars and footrests it sort of leads one to take up a leg trailing position. Interesting also is the front fork design which remained almost unchanged for 40 years. Probably the best pictures of a bike from that era I can ever remember seeing. Thanks for posting them

Does anybody know what sort of tyres they were using in the early days of broadsiding ? I would imagine that they must have been basically road tyres. I doubt if the sport was big enough to make it worthwhile for a manufacturer to produce special track tyres, and even if they did technology was probably no advance enough to make it financially viable. This very likely affected the way the bike handled and might well have had something to do with the riders style ( maybe one of a number of factors). Even as late as the sixties they were using trials tyres with the treads on one side cut at an angle to help with cornering. At a guess I would say specialist trials tyres only came available after WW2 when trials bikes themselves became more specialist and as far as I know purpose made Speedway tyres only became used in the UK and Australia when Ove Fundin started using Barums around the mid- sixties( even then I think they were bannned at first ) . This is something I’ve never thought about until this discussion and my thoughts are more or less guess work, but does anyone know any more about it ?

Yes that was a nasty article by a nasty man. I think the article was actually in the Sunday Mirror and the farce was that Leitch was trying to say that most of the public had never heard of Speedway, when it was the Sunday Mirror that sponsored the World Final and contained a regular Weekly column on Speedway by Don Clarke. The thrust of Sam Lietchs article was that Speedway was not a proper sport. Subsequently there was a strong reaction from Speedway fans and Briggo went to lunch with Leitch explaining what was involved in riding a Speedway bike , and Leith wrote another article more or less climbing down, no doubt in part because the editors were concerned at maintaining the readership of Speedway fans in a sport that was much more popular then than it is today

I suppose the question has to be asked WHY riders started to ride foot forward. Certainly in the ‘30’s most riders leg trailed so obviously that was the most effective style at the time . I have heard it said that foot forward enabled the rider to take the shortest route round the white line whereas leg trailing was better round the fence but I don’t really buy that one . My Guess is that it is connected to frames and engine development but I can’t think how. Anybody have any ideas on this ?

You might very well be right Norbold, especially as I think Jack Biggs had been dominant in the qualifying rounds and topped the list of qualifiers . However there is another version that I am sure I got from Classic Speedway . That version was that as Biggs started to get troubled by an old back injury and started to get an attack of nerves as he got closer to the possible tile. That could possibly explain why he came last in his last two rides, especially getting passed by Young and Waterman in the run off . However who of us really knows what was going on in Jack Biggs mind at the time ? It’s a funny old sport. Jack Young was only about 10th highest qualifier in the qualifying rounds, but had a good night, got second bite of the cherry in the run off grabbed his chance with both hands, and as a result got into the history books as a great rider and the first to win back to back World Finals whereas the history books view Biggs as something as an also ran . Time to recognise both as great riders. I was gutted when Jack Biggs lost his life in such a freak accident. A real solid servant of Speedway , as by all accounts a really nice guy behind the scenes, always with time for the fans, as was Jack Young.