customhouseregular

I'm assuming Krasnikov will not be a wild card in the non-Russian rounds. Pity as he has obviously lost none of his brilliance.

We will not see a team like that again...not from NZ anyway.

With the exception of Sjoston for Nygren you have it spot on Norbold, much as I admired Nygren.

I was tempted to include Malcolm and Norman Hunter but as an old "Hammer" might have been accused of bias.

Had I gone for 8 I would have included Jack. I did think Parker over Louis or Jessup, but as I never actually saw Jack but did follow Dave and John, I gave them the edge.

Peter Craven Peter Collins Split Waterman Eric Langton Dave Jessup John Louis Brian Crutcher

Hmmm!.

I'm not sure I follow grachan's reasoning.

I was thinking more of a massive 10-second low energy hand dryer, only inverted. Being tongue-in-cheek just in case anyone thinks I've finally gone awol.

I only got to see Ronnie Moore race in the twilight of his career, but he was a joy to watch.

Get Sir James Dyson on the case...I'm sure he could invent a track dryer!.

Is their not a case for qualifiers and the Challenge being held on indoor tracks...they only need to find 2 or 3.

I have always loved the tension building up to each heat and the short bursts of fast and furious action. Being an old West Ham fan I prefer 70 seconds to 54 though.

YES.

He supports Tottenham and plays Golf!. I take your point re 1996...my phraseology may be at fault.

My memory is playing serious tricks on me. I was sure I had been to all the Wembley World Finals in the 60's/70's. But I know I never saw Peter Craven ride so I could not have been at Wembley in 62 or 63. Therefore my first WF was in 65. Funny how the memory plays tricks.

2004 is after 1996, although quite a way after!. Did not want to use too many stats and bore the readers. I agree with you. In my case personal circumstances prevented me from watching speedway, but there must be thousands who stopped going out of choice. My son took me to Cardiff last year. It was his first time at a speedway meeting and he hated it. He could not get his head around 54 second races and only 20 minutes actual racing in a 3 hour event.

No surprise I'm sure but I fully agree with your last sentence. Re Valeri Klementiev, it is my opinion that had he not met such an untimely end he could well have been the Soviet Union's best ever rider.

Many people have commented upon the decline of British speedway via various threads on this forum. Using the Speedway Researcher web site I found the following statistics of interest. In 1967, the year I attended the most meetings there were 585 speedway meetings in the UK. In 1985, the year I attended my last meeting there were 1,025. On the face of it this would suggest our sport was more popular in the 80's than in the 60's, though of course these stats do not take attendance figures in to account. In 1996 the total number of meetings had fallen to 670, a 25-year low but by 2004 had risen to 1,095. The last year shown by Speedway Researcher is 2010 when the total number of meetings had fallen to 828. Without attendance figures it is difficult to comment properly on the sport's decline, but the above would suggest the current decline started after 1996. I would hazard a guess that 2014 saw more meetings than 2010, but not necessarily higher attendance. I think this shows that speedway's popularity is cyclical, but I would like to have attendance numbers over the decades to comment factually on the sport's decline in this Country.

I for one am amazed this topic has attracted 2,573 replies. Is there any more to say?.

Gote Nordin was one of my all-time favourites...once rated as the best rider never to have won the World title.

Plechanov certainly.

I was there...oh joy!.

I was being a tad "tongue in cheek" Norbold but you are right.

It occurred to me today that a number of forum members, like myself are in-betweenies. Why am I am in-betweenie?. I missed the first 30ish years of British speedway and have not attended for the past 30ish years, save for last year's British GP. There must be others like me, who caught the period in between. We saw many of the "greats"...Briggs, Mauger, Olsen, Penhall etc. etc., but missed the earlier greats such as Craven, Crutcher, Young and Williams. I and others also missed modern greats...Tony Rickardssom being a notable example. We all have a vast amount of knowledge and wisdom and many memories, but much of it not from personal experience. How good to have seen Peter Craven and Brian Crutcher et al, without having to be 80 years old!.