Celticman

Ove certainly gave my Wimbledon Dons fits!

Now 102 !!!

Perhaps speedway will return to Canada one day. The track is still there in Welland

Good to know my memory is still working.

I live in Toronto and to the best of my knowledge there is no speedway racing in Ontario anymore. There was racing in Welland down in the Niagara peninsula until recently. I am not sure about the rest of Canada.

Sorry Norbold but you will need to be more specific. Which day, time, forum, thread and thread page

Fools Gold?

On a real longshot I checked youtube to see if there was a clip of him racing. No luck. Too bad as there are clips of boxing going back before then

Seems odd to think that he would be 109 years old now....yet still remembered with reverence

I keep doing that !!! In my defense, he rode for the Dons

No relation

Nevertheless, inquiring minds need to know.

They got lucky

Wimbledon won 7 out of 8 championships from 1954 to 1961. Peter was a key rider in many of those, always a top three rider on the great Dons teams. the other top Dons at different times with Peter were Ronnie Moore, Don How and Barry Briggs. Peter was key to those champion teams that were so dominant in a way that has never been equaled. He often partnered with Cyril Maidment and sometimes Bob Andrews or Gerald Jackson. In those days Cyril Brine always rode with Ronnie Moore. Peter was truly fast out of the gate but did not have Don How's aggression coming from behind. I remember when they had the second back marker gate ten yards back. Peter of course started from the back and more than once he rocketed away and was leading coming out of the first turn.

Clearly, given these advantages for wrong handed riders they should, in all fairness, be obliged to ride in the opposite direction

David, thanks for the great feedback Sean

Glad you are a pendant and not a pedant !!! Unless you are pending of course

Actually I invented the science of archaeology shortly after I popularized the idea of history. The egg came before the chicken on this one. I was going to have the user name Father Time but for the sake of brevity settled on Celticman. Is it too late to change it? I was an avid Speedway fan in the UK from 1955 to 1967 and of course living within walking distance of the all-conquering Wimbledon Dons were my team. The Dons Cyril Brine was a good friend of my father. When I was 14 I would sometimes meet Cyril at Plough Lane in off hours and learn about bikes while he worked on his machines. Cyril taught me how to ride bikes. I started by just cruising around the track on one of his old bikes and one of the mechanics brought an old BSA C11 OHV 250 which I drove around the empty parking lot. It certainly felt better with brakes on the 250 vs the speedway bike. I ended up buying the BSA. I notice that you have an affinity for sidecar racing. One of the bikes that owned before I left for Canada was a big old Norton with a Watsonian sidecar. Bike riders that have never operated a sidecar usually are quite surprised at the different riding skills involved. Cyril helped me on a life long passion for bikes. I have owned a bike or two continually for nearly 60 years and currently have a Suzuki S3 1400 and Suzuki Hyabusa 1300. I left the UK for Canada in 1967 and still live in Toronto. Alas Speedway was left behind except for my treasured memories. I have only discovered this website. I find it amazing how much I remember as I browse through the Years Gone By section. As you have observed I started on page 185 and have worked forward LOL. I noticed your affinity for Leicester. Commiserations J

And so sadly Peter Craven died at the young age of 29

No question Ronnie was up there with the best and those Wimbledon teams back then dominated like no other team has before or since. You can look it up.

Formby, like Vera Lynn, did a lot of traveling in WW2 to entertain the troops. As a kid I remember his song "Leaning on the lamppost"

These were the riders from 1949 at Wimbledon 1949 National League One Alec Statham, Bill Pitcher, Mike Erskine, Cyril Brine, Norman Parker, Les Wotton, Dicky Harris, Reg Trott, Huck Fynn, Jimmy Gibb, Jack Wright, Wal Morton, George Butler, Jimmy Coy, Arch Windmill, Bill Rogers, Mick Piquet Juniors: George Butler, Reg Trott, George (Huck) Fynn

From mid fifties to mid sixties…… and good luck beating this team Ronnie Moore Barry Briggs Ivan Mauger Ron How Peter Moore Bob Andrews Cyril Maidment

Would that be too hot or too dangerous for Polish Speedway riders?

Sorry, Ron How