steve roberts

You're coming up with right 'corkers' chunky. I'm going to check out Gordon Kennett's record during the 1977 season when at the commencement of the season he was often taking two Rider Replacement rides.

Good analysis.

Slightly off tangent but as much as I enjoy analysing rider's averages I've always believed there is much more to a rider's ability than just the statistical....that just tells part of the story. I always use John Davis and Gordon Kennett as parallel examples in that their averages for many years compared favourably with each other's but the way they went about accumulating their points was often very different. Two great talents but Gordon was the better all round rider in my opinion (and I did see a lot of them during theire fomative years at Cowley and elsewhere)

...whether it was moaning about wet tracks (he originally refused to ride at Wood Lane one year but then went out and got the track record) or tyres (recall the Spring Classic one year) or silencers...and he even used to moan to Ivan about Hans messing him up in one race or another. And, of course, he was never going to join the 'Rebels" which was great in hindsight as we got the majestic Dag Lovaas in his place! Even Anders was once quoted as saying of him that he was a miserable old so and so!

I guess when helmets became bigger with riders preferring the full face variety but helmet colours remained the same in design. I recall that there was a time when riders just placed the relevant colour under the goggle strap (remember, also, when riders wore colour identification on their right arm?) Eventually, of course, riders were required to invest in their own colours.

Olsen would moan about most things I remember if things didn't go his way.

Absolutely...recall it being televised also. Perhaps Speedway Researcher (which I've only recently accessed...a superb body of work) will confirm? Having checked it appears that Olsen wasn't excluded but retired from the race but was hoping for a re-instatement. Unfortunately I no longer have my programmes.

I was at that meeting...recall Olsen grinding to a halt and being excluded although he went to great pains wanting to get re-instated despite it being his own helmet colour that got caught up in his chain!

Recall King's Lynn winning at Hackney 57-20 in early 1980 and all appeared 'doom and gloom' only for the "Hawks" to turn their season round and nearly pulling off the championship.

John Dews was one of my favourites. It was John who kept Billy Sanders at the back in the last heat during the return fixture at Cowley thus earning the "Rebels" a win...payback time! Great memories!

...and, unfortunately, never likely to as long as Clark Osborne is involved.

If I recall it was a robust challenge made by Billy...a 'do or die' effort. However we got the better of the "Witches" at Cowley despite the over enthusiasm of Trevor Jones! I've just located a quote in the Oxford programme notes dated 17th April 1975 - "...Roger (Oxford Team Manager) was very angry at the tactics of one of the Ipswich riders in that final heat, who, he claims, gave Dag and Rickard a shove that a rugby forward would have been proud of, and protested strongly to the referee".

Oxford, as was the norm, during the early middle seventies were programmed to ride at Brandon the first match of the season in a league encounter...before they had ridden at home. 1975 was particularly irksome as the the Ole Olsen "will he or won't he ride for Oxford" saga continued into the early season and there was the bizzare situation when John Davis guest rode for himself at Coventry. The "Rebels" lost heavily (not surprisingly) 52-26 but returned later in the seaon in the Knock Out Cup to win 45-33 and then to hammer them 60-18 in the return leg at Cowley...sweet revenge indeed!

Used to go and watch Horspath "Hammers" run by Geoff (can't remember his surname) who was a well known face on the terraces at Cowley and elsewhere.

The Headley 'Hawks' cycle speedway team used to compete just across the road from there!

Ah the old White House Ground on the Abingdon Road! Remember it well.

Yes I saw thru' his 'veneer' many years ago.

I, like many others, used to have many a run in with him when he used to comment on the old Oxford forum. I met him once at Cowley but he wouldn't remember that...

Sounds to be a good investment for those with an interest in speedway's pre-war history.

Just watched the meeting...brilliant stuff and a great concept!

Was that before or after he attemped to run Ian Thomas over?

I second that!

...and that's always the dilemma with many of these things!

That's always the issue of course comparing riders from different eras...different criteria, bikes, tracks and it's very difficult attempting to pass judgement but fun all the same!

Most of my knowledge I have to go on memory...which is not always reliable...with the odd dabble in various speedway publications!