steve roberts

Personally I think that Briggo and Fundin would have dominated with Peter Craven as a spoiler...but could one discount Ronnie Moore?

So right. Dave Jessup dominated during the lead up to the 1980 World Final but Michael Lee produced his party piece and ended up champion.

Which is why I think that winning a one-off Final wasn't perhaps as easy or straight forward as some would have us believe. The 1973 Final was a real old bizzare affair. Ivan by his own admission mis-calculated his move on Szczakiel and gifted it. Olsen was head and shoulders above the rest at Wembley in 1972 but threw it away in one mis-judgement and Michanek as previously mentioned was the rider very much in form in 1973 but fell at the final hurdle. One ride often made the difference in becoming champion or not and there's two ways of looking at the two systems. It's an interesting comparison study and great for debate!

...and of course, as we know, Loram never managed to win a Final during his World Championship winning year but obviously did enough to accumulate the neccessary points to end up as overall champion.

There was an interesting analysis in "Backtrack' some years ago when John Berry and Tony Mac went "head to head" and came up with their views as regards what may have been the outcome if the GP's had taken place in the 70's & 80's.

I think that Ivan would have dominated the series with a few interventions in between. As you say Anders was awesome in 1973 and personally I feel he would have won if it had been run under a GP system. One-off World Finals were not neccessarily 'easier' to win in my opinion and required a different approach and/or mindset...and an element of luck (either good or bad!)

My work colleague and best mate had no interest in speedway and never attended a meeting to the best of my knowledge but was aware of Barry Briggs.

"World of Sport"...great friend's of speedway. As I mentioned in another thread one of the reasons why speedway has suffered when the programme was dropped.

The demise of "World of Sport" was a major factor in my opinion...although not probably seen as that at the time. The likes of Briggs, Mauger, Collins etc were names that many outside of the sport had heard of as they plied their trade on national TV.

Personally I would say the early/middle nineties. We had good crowds at Cowley during the eighties but having a successfull team and a World Champion helped towards that. When Hans Nielsen left due to, we are told, the pay structure that was imposed crowds dipped and never really re-covered.

I recall during the Purchase (?) years at Cowley we were issued with questionaires on entry to fill in. Steve was a great bloke and would mingle with the crowd engaging with the fans before he became disillusioned with the sport.

Sure were! Dave Lanning was brought in to create a new image at Cowley (1972) and one such move was to adopt the name "Rebels" which when the promotion re-located to Wood Lane the moniker went with them (1976 - 78) whilst Oxford reverted back to their original name of "Cheetahs".

There's a local "Bangers" circuit near to Kirk Hammerton just outside York where I've seen no evidence, as yet, of any meetings being planned?

Apparently it ran as a Training Track (1985-87) and in 1988 as an Open and Training facility measuring 250 yards and was laid inside an autograss car racing circuit. There were issues with licenced riders taking part at the venue which was later sorted out and a license was issued in 1986. A challenge match with Iwade was planned to take part in 1988 but the track didn't operate into the 1990's due to a change of heart of the farmer who owned the land. I think that Standlake Arena had been earmarked by the Purchase Promotion but nothing came of it? Courtesy to "Homes of British Speedway"...a great publication.

It always intrigued me how Mike Broadbank(s) surname was apparently incorrect when riding and amended later. Where did the "s" come from or originate? I remember his son, Terry, riding but I think by then the "s" had beed dropped?

...They nicked the City "Rebels" design!

I'm sure that it was Faringdon (half way between Oxford & Swindon) as there was some talk of Oxford Speedway re-locating there during the Purchase years?

Went to one Banger meeting at Faringdon Raceway (?) many years ago and found it very uninspiring!

...they stole the image from Oxford/White City! I maybe incorrect but did the first Somerset jacket look exactly like the White City version with a confederate soldier pulling a wheelie with the flag as a backdrop?

Not sure if they ended up in the Speedway Museum?

I saw him at that same meeting...Bradford stalwart if I recall.

I always thought it odd that they adopted the Confederate flag when the significance of "Rebels" in Somerset historically is very different?

Martin Rogers touched upon the subject in "Backtrack" when I put the question to him which proved interesting.

...had their chance with John Berry and fluffed it!

George was a brilliant skipper during his twilight years at Oxford in 1978 & 79. His team riding skills were beyond question and he could dictate a race to perfection. Remember a classic second half final when he and Mike Sampson put in some tremendous laps passing and re-passing each other.