arnieg

There is a similar set of Swedish stamps. Ove Fundin, Olle Nygren and Tony Rickardsson all have a stamp devoted to them.

Not a bad idea - and maybe it'll be warmer than your last visit

WE went up to the Hunter Valley wineries yesterday (and after a little wine-tasting) - Maitland is just 15 miles up the rode. When we arrived the place looked all deserted and locked up, but we found an open gate where a water tanker was at work. So we got in to have a quick peek. The Showground is fairly easy to find. The site feels like Peterborough, although the buildings have the same air of modernity as those at Long Eaton. There is a greyhound track inside a trotting track. The large very elderly looking grandstand has a plaque (very discretely) attached to it commemorating the origins of speedway For more on Maitland: http://vintagespeedway.homestead.com/Maitland.html [more recent pix on www.speedwayplus.com (under West Maitland)] For more of the debate: http://www.historicspeedway.co.nz/Start%20...y%20(world).htm My observations: Sports aren't created, they evolve. So there can never be a meeting truly described as the first, just a series of events that converge into what we now recognise as the codified sport. Secondly history is determined by those who write the history books not those who actually make it!

From memory (as my reference books are 11,000 miles away - see my other post) the reference should be to nearby Charlton who were mentioned as a possible starter around this time. (As was Reading - as a replacement for Norwich)

Glad to hear it

Ward - awesome Adams - great win from back over Holder says it all Gathercole much better than Wednesday 44 races in 2 and 3/4 hours - very slick show (125cc races went on on centre green while main track was being graded) Sidecars and 125cc support were very good announcer said Arthur Sissis was reting - is this true? (Mind you he said a lot of things that were wrong) and I've been to warmer meetings in England! PS I did resent having to pay $5 for another programme (identical to the 2 I purchased in Mildura) just to get the insert with tonight's racecard)

Compared with his 2008 EL form Holder was fairly pedestrian. Doyle was certainly the stand out rider and had he not fallen the scrap for the minor places would be even tighter. Darcy Ward and Ty Proctor looked good, but Corey Gathercole disappointed. Including junior programme (including Declan Adams and Jack Holder) we got 44 heats of racing. As usual with this format the whole thing fell flat as the semi and final took 45 minutes to complete (a combination of the usual crap about riders choosing gates and Doyle's crash. ..and all for AU$25 (£12.50)

I find this one the best of the three that seem to be around. I agree that below about 250-300 the ranking becomes more random, but even in the lower places it gives a good idea of rankings within countries. The one thing I don't like is the inclusion of retired riders who have ridden just one meeting (often a testimonial). Most of the complaints along the 'why is Rider X so high?' can generally explained by looking at Polish and Swedish league form. For example Coventry fans might think that Rory Schlein should be higher than 34, but given his Swedish form (where he averaged less than Ludvig Lindgren and Kim Nilsson (242 & 178 in the rankings) but a Swedish speedway supporter might be surprised to find him that high. Riders from East Coast America and Argentina are included - but along with Canadians they are difficult to rank because they ride so little against anyone else. In past years the rankings of New Zealanders have been very erratic but with riders like Aldridge and Cunningham rising in the Conference league that may be less of a problem this year. (Although I note that David Bargh is third and Larry Ross fifth among the New Zealanders listed!) There is no element of past reputation in the ranking metric. The one thing I don't like is the inclusion of retired riders who have ridden just one meeting (often a testimonial) which is the cause of some of these odd positions. But overall I'm a fan

does that make him son of David?

The rest of this post has been deleted on grounds of good taste. This has really changed the way I think about you Doug

Yes, she is his daughter

Sabrina Bogh is probably the most significant female rider in the modern era. In 2001 she reached the European Junior Championship FINAL, finishing two points behind Neils K Iversen, ahead of Rinat Gafurov (and was watched by reserve Matej Zagar). To qualify she finished ahead of Peter Ljung, Jonas Davidsson and Mads Korneliussen She also won the Danish Junior Championship that year - Ulrich Ostergaard finished third

Thanks for confirming my guess Arnie

Look at http://www.speedway.org/history/ Shows first league as 1948 - champs werre Filbyterna (it also shows Individual Championship from 1936)

I've been looking at the Division One Final table and there appear to be several (17 infact) match points missing. Looking at the results it's 3 points for a win, 2 for second and one for third. With 28 matches that should give 6 x 28 = 168 points, but the league table only shows 151! Can anyone more familiar with Danish League speedway possibly explain this discrepancy?

A kindred spirit. I've always (well for 30 years or so) taken the view that there should be 4 points available in each heat. (So a 5-1 becomes a 4-nil - with two points each for the winning pair; a 4-2 becomes a 3-1 with the race winner scoring two points and second and third both getting one point). Some how I don't think we'll convince the BSPA though

San Bernadino (the only reason for Wednesday nights) and in the UK California (Wokingham), Norwich and Southampton

Yes you can - afraid I don't have his dob though

Started riding at California (winter 1956 I think) and rode for Aldershot Poppies in 1957. Known as 'Golden Boots' because of his footwear. Second halfed at various tracks, including Oxford in 1967 before becoming a member of the Reading team that rode at Plymouth in their first ever fixture. (7 June 1968)

Try http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/ Then select from: Speedway Ekstraliga • I liga • II liga • in the blue bar across the top Then select statystyki You can also get Swedish stats on this site [ Szwecja • - on the blue bar] Best site for Swedish stuff is www.speedway.nu nb Sweden no longer records bonus points

Probably a good time to set up a page for Tilehurst as well

A quick bit of degree level number theory. It is what is known as a Steiner system. A steiner system is where 'n' numbers can be put in groups of size 'a' such that they share a common group with any other number 'x' and only 'x' times. Known as an (n,a,x) Steiner system. The 20 heat formula is a (16,4,1) Steiner system. In an individual competition 16 riders meet in groups of 4 (a heat) and meet each other only once. The World Cup race-off formula (when they had 5 teams competing) was also a truncated (i.e. they didn't race the heats where 5 riders from the same team met each other!) Steiner system. In this case it is a (25,5,1) Steiner system. There are relatively few sets of numbers for which this works [(9,3,1) is another handy one] and there are various mathematical proofs that demonstrate the circumstances in which a Steiner system will work. 30 years ago I got a question about this on my Oxford entrance exam and once I realised they were asking me about the formula for a speedway meeting I found it a remarkably easy question. It probably made the difference between me getting in and not getting in to Oxford

:approve: inspired (which is not something you can say about BSI/IMG)

1) Decent sponsors - 'Keith's Janitoral Supplies' is typical of the not exactly glamorous sponsors we now get. And while their financial support is appreciated who ever left a meeting thinking "I must buy a Meridian Lift tomorrow"? Remember Marlboro, Daily Mirror, Volkswagen, Golden Wonder, Leyland, Durex etc. 2) Big Individual meetings that meant something. 15,000 on a Wednesday for the British Final at Coventry. The big October trip up to Belle Vue for the BLRC. And every track had its own individual meeting - Brandonapolis, Blue Riband, The Manpower, Golden Hammer and many others 3) The 1973 Daily Mirror International Series - 24 test matches featuring all the world's greats, including some very rarely seen Russians - all culminating in a 39 all draw and the infamous Michanek v Collins run-off

My comiserations to those who travelled to Germany (at a considerable cost) for nothing Personally I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theories - most of the parties involved are too incompetent to organise a decent conspiracy