steve roberts

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!

Perhaps Ronnie would have won more Championships if he hadn't 'retired' prematurely before making a come back? As like most of these discussions pure conjecture but fun anyway! I'm not sure but did Norwich win any team honours when Ove rode for them?

I's agree that Rickardsson is up there with the best of them but I always questioned his team ethic and leadership qualities which is something I always base any assessment (rightly or wrongly) on who was the best etc. I tend to look beyond just World Championship honours although obviously important within the grand scheme of things. The likes of Mauger, Olsen, Nielsen etc developed a team around them and nurtured their potential and Ronnie Moore was probably regarded as the best team rider during any era and some regarded him as being the most naturally gifted rider of his generation.

Yes there's some truth in that. I guess that the development of bikes and riders adapting their styles to suit added to the changing way in which the sport developed. The old J.A.P. was apparently notoriously difficult to ride. Trailing one's leg as riders tend to do now wouldn't have been possible on the basic J.A.P. and JAWA bikes and I would hazzard to guess that the advent of link forks, lay downs and the many other adapations to a modern bike requires differing techniques and, dare I suggest, easier to ride? White line riding became somewhat rare as riders went hell for leather chasing the dirt mid track keeping the throttle full on...something that wasn't possible in years gone by when tracks were regarding as somewhat grippier and, dare I suggest, bumpy? There were slick tracks in my day but have they become more of the norm enabling riders to keep the power on? Heavier tracks required better throttle control which I guess added to the hesitancy of some rider's approach to combating track conditions. Just my thoughts for what they're worth...

Per's signing was inspirational and he really added that vital ingredient that made a good side into a great one in 1986. A vastly under-rated rider in my opinion.

Some great names there Sid. I wonder if things would have been different if they had been around during the Nielsen/Gundersen years and at their prime? We can only speculate.

Some interesting views Sid. I'm obviously very biased when making comparsions but I do believe that Hans was a better all round rider than Erik (something that Erik admitted to in an an interview some years ago in "Backtrack"). Hans' ability to team ride was second to none and I don't recall Erik excelling in that particular role (I saw a lot of both riders during the middle/late eighties). I also believe that Hans was a better exponent at passing opponents. I would be the first to admit that Erik had great mental strength (how much that was down to having Olsen in his corner is open to conjecture) and had the beating of Hans in both the 1984 Final (with a little help from Kelly Moran getting in the way) and 1985. The 1986 Final will be debated for as long as there are people willing to talk speedway. Erik suffered a bad second ride after being intimidated by Neil Evitts as the tapes rose. The infamous incident between Knudsen and Nielsen could have gone either way and personally, although not at the time (I was present) I felt that Hans was lucky to get away with it. However Knudsen style of riding was always questionable as he tended to ride 'square bends' and he attempted to correct himself only for Nielsen to have filled the gap. I saw Knudsen many times attempting to ride opponents wide and being caught out as opponents switched lines to pass him up the inside (there was a classic race at Cowley when Marvyn Cox out-witted him after such a move). All three were great riders but personally I would list them in order as Nielsen first, followed by Gundersen and Knudsen fending off Jan O Pedersen...possibly? It's been debated many times but I strongly believe that if the GP's had been operating during the middle/late eighties Hans would have been successful in most, if not all, of them.

I think that the punch up may have been in 1971? Rayleigh were, I think, the only team to win at Arlington during Eastbourne's Championship winning year? As you say a long time ago now. I remember well the 1972 drawn match as it took an age to locate the stadium as we drove around the Sussex countryside and arrived after about four heats had taken place!