chunky

If only Jack Millen and Kelvin Mullarkey were in the GP's...

Don't forget booze! At Wimbledon we had the Skol Pairs, the Whitbread Trophy etc. Tolly Cobbold sponsored meetings at Mildenhall. I remember the outrage when Durex sponsored a Test series...

Couldn't agree more. It was unbelievable how he found himself in those situations, and how badly it turned out for him. I can certainly understand him "playing it safe", but in a sport like speedway, that can actually make things worse. After the last one. I just pray that it wasn't one too many...

Okay, here is an updated list... 01 - Ove Fundin - 23/05/33 02 - Dan Forsberg - 25/03/34 03 - Josef Hofmeister - 17/06/34 04 - Brian Crutcher - 23/08/34 05 - Mike Broadbank - 25/09/34 06 - Barry Briggs - 30/12/34 07 - Bob Andrews - 27/10/1935 08 - Reg Luckhurst - 11/11/1935 09 - Sverre Harrfeldt - 23/11/1937 10 - Leif Larsson - 16/02/1938 11 - Bjorn Knutson - 27/04/38 12 - Gunnar Malmqvist - 25/12/1940 13 - Andrzej Wyglenda 04/05/1941 14 - Jim Airey - 19/08/1941 15 - Bengt Jansson - 09/01/1943 16 - Anders Michanek - 30/05/1943 17 - Trevor Hedge - 30/08/1943 18 - Terry Betts - 15/09/1943 19 - Howard Cole 29/12/1943 20 - Martin Ashby - 05/02/1944 21 - Jan Simensen - 26/07/1944 22 - Zygfryd Friedek - 19/10/1944 23 - Jerzy Trzeszkowski - 10/01/1945 24 - Eric Boocock - 02/02/1945 25 - John Boulger - 18/06/1945 26 - Hasse Holmqvist - 18/06/1945 27 - Jim McMillan - 03/12/1945 28 - Ole Olsen - 16/11/1946 29 - Ray Wilson - 12/03/1947 30 - Doug Wyer - 16/08/1947 31 - Grigori Khlinovsky - 11/11/47 32 - Egon Muller - 26/11/1948 33 - Christoph Betzl - 13/02/1949 34 - Jiri Stancl - 18/11/1949 35 - Viktor Kuznetsov - 27/11/1949 36 - Georg Hack - 20/02/1950 37 - Marek Cieslak - 28/06/1950 38 - Alois Wiesbock - 31/07/1950 39 - Tommy Johansson - 21/10/1950 40 - Vladimir Gordeev - 30/11/1950 41 - John Titman - 26/01/1951 42 - Dag Lovaas - 25/02/1951 43 - Jan Verner - 03/03/1951 44 - Petr Ondrasik - 08/10/1951 45 - Phil Crump - 09/02/1952 46 - Henny Kroeze - 11/03/1952 47 - Valery Gordeev - 28/08/1952 48 - Dave Jessup - 07/03/1953 49 - Ales Dryml - 10/06/1953 50 - Scott Autrey - 09/07/1953 51 - Robert Slabon - 15/09/1953 52 - Peter Collins - 24/03/1954 53 - Larry Ross - 15/06/1954 54 - John Davis - 10/11/1954 55 - Finn Thomsen - 16/02/1955 56 - Mikhail Starostin - 24/02/1955 57 - Tommy Nilsson - 10/03/1955 58 - Jan Andersson - 07/05/1955 59 - Kai Niemi - 15/09/1955 60 - Jerzy Rembas - 18/04/1956 61 - Chris Morton - 22/07/1956 62 - Steve Bastable - 16/09/1956 63- Bruce Penhall - 10/05/1957 64 - Karl Maier - 24/08/1957 65 - Roman Jankowski - 05/10/1957 66 - Bo Petersen - 21/02/1958 67 - Les Collins - 24/05/1958 68 - Mitch Shirra - 27/09/1958 69 - Michael Lee - 11/12/1958 70 - John Cook - 18/12/1958 71 - Richard Knight - 26/05/1959 72 - Dennis Sigalos - 16/08/1959 73 - Erik Gundersen - 08/10/1959 74 - Hans Nielsen - 26/12/1959 75 - Olli Tyrvainen - 11/01/1960 76 - Phil Collins - 02/06/1960 77 - Sam Ermolenko - 23/11/1960 78 - Rick Miller - 12/01/1961 79 - Jeremy Doncaster - 16/06/1961 80 - Tommy Knudsen - 09/11/1961 81 - Zoltan Adorjan - 15/11/1961 82 - Shawn Moran - 19/11/1961 83 - Peter Ravn - 16/03/1962 84 - Zenon Kasprzak - 10/05/1962 85 - John Jorgensen - 18/07/1962 86 - Antal Kocso - 22/12/1962 87 - Sandor Tihanyi - 28/04/1963 88 - Lance King - 13/08/1963 89 - Armando Castagna - 22/09/1963 90 - Kelvin Tatum - 08/02/1964 91 - Marvyn Cox - 11/07/1964 92 - Zdenek Tesar - 30/07/1964 93 - Mikael Blixt - 08/08/1964 94 - Paul Thorp - 09/09/1964 95 - Tony Olsson - 13/03/1965 96 - Gerd Riss - 17/03/1965 97 - Conny Ivarsson - 15/04/1965 98 - Simon Cross - 31/05/1965 99 - Bohumil Brhel - 10/06/1965 100 - Slawomir Drabik - 06/02/1966 101 - Per Jonsson - 21/03/1966 102 - Andy Smith - 25/05/1966 103 - Jan Staechmann - 05/06/1966 104 - Ronnie Correy - 08/11/1966 105 - Jimmy Nilsen - 16/11/1966 106 - Brian Karger - 09/02/1967 107 - Jan O. Pedersen - 27/07/1967 108 - Craig Boyce - 02/08/1967 109 - Troy Butler - 22/09/1967 110 - Piotr Swist - 20/06/1968 111 - Todd Wiltshire - 26/09/1968 112 - Gary Havelock - 04/11/1968 113 - Stefan Danno - 10/02/1969 114 - Martin Dugard - 18/05/1969 115 - Gert Handberg - 30/05/1969 116 - Chris Louis - 09/07/1969 117 - Billy Hamill - 23/05/1970 118 - Greg Hancock - 03/06/1970 119 - Henrik Gustafsson - 14/08/1970 120 - Tony Rickardsson - 17/08/1970 121 - Mark Loram - 12/01/1971 122 - Tomasz Gollob - 11/04/1971 123 - Leigh Adams - 28/04/1971 124 - Josh Larsen - 12/05/1972 125 - Joe Screen - 27/11/1972 126 - Jason Crump - 06/08/1975

That's very sad. I've looked online for more details, but haven't found anything yet.

I thought you were next in line?

You're probably too busy following Curts now...

Why do you call him "BZ"? Everyone on here seems to call him Smarslik...

Also needs a different bloody name!

So, it was Bewley that kept Poland in this. They would have been outside the Top 3.

I would have been happy with a 6-3 from that heat...

I heard it's going to be renamed the World 7-2 Championship in future...

Go back 50 or 60 years, and it was no less sporadic then as far as TRUE world-class British riders.

What? That's a bloody common name up north on t'Yorkshire moors! I honestly don't get the modern outrage at individuals switching nationalities. It's nowt unusual, and as we said, it's been happening for years.

You telling me that Tony Greig and Basil D'Oliveira weren't 100% English???

You complained when an Australian rode for New Zealand against Australia (Ronnie Moore)? You complained when an Englishman rode for New Zealand against England (Bob Andrews, Dave Gifford etc)? Happens all the time, in all sports. I'm English, but represent USA in international darts events - against England...

Yeah, that's why nobody is interested in football these days. An eighth place team being promoted above a third place team. ONLY in speedway...

Do not - I repeat, DO NOT - trash them. I would take them at the drop of a hat, but obviously, I can't. There is too much important history to just dump them.

I don't know why people still claim that. Doubling up WAS a feature in the 70's and 80's - actually from the time the Second Division started. Many BL teams adopted a second-tier team to provide riders. Riders like Eric Broadbelt, Ken Eyre, and Steve Waplington rode for both Belle Vue teams, and Gary Peterson appeared for Nelson and Newcastle. Terry Shearer turned out for Doncaster and Newport, while Peter Murray featured for Canterbury and Wimbledon. Geoff Ambrose was at Crayford and Wolverhampton. Later on, Hull and Newcastle were linked (same promotion, I know). Colin Richardson was a staple at both Plough Lane and Arlington, as was Andy Grahame at Birmingham and Milton Keynes. No, it wasn't called "doubling up", but it certainly wasn't uncommon.

They're special machine brushes, though...

Very sad. Yet another one from my era gone... R.I.P. Graham

Surprised nothing has been posted on here, but there are many posts on Facebook reporting that legendary speedway photographer Mike Patrick has passed away. R.I.P. Mike

Um, this aged well, eh? 🙄

Trouble is, back in the day, the tracks allowed you to do that...

You know they'll still whine...