chunky

Dammit! I thought I had New Cross listed! Sorry!

Personally, I think my dream league would be Wimbledon, Wembley, West Ham, Hackney, White City, Walthamstow, Harringay, Barnet, Romford, Rayleigh, Rye House, Crayford, Reading, Lea Bridge, Stamford Bridge, Arena Essex, Crystal Palace, Dagenham, Greenford, and New Cross. EDITED: 'Cos I'm a pillock, and left off New Cross...

And scored 9, 11, 8, 7, and 9.

Well, we had the 1930 Southern Speedway League. On June 30, 1930, the Wimbledon prog states, "First Speedway Test Match" when England took on Australia. Also, there was a series of collector's cards issued by "The Rover for Boys", and the series was called, "1930 Speedway Stars". On Jack Ormston's card, it states that, "then became a speedway racer at Middlesbrough".

Tsk, tsk... Time of the month, eh? Not like you to not read things, Norman...

We're going to quibble over one year - or more precisely, a couple of months? It seems strange that you would argue that point when neither Soderman nor Kaiser "retired" in the 1950's either...

Closely followed by Brian Crutcher...

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with you. Look at the problems we had with the World Pairs. Trying to change things 75 years down the road is never easy, and as you say, they never WERE "World Championships", despite being considered as unofficial ones.

Surprised you never mentioned it before?

Who?

So, here is the current list, and hopegully there won't be any other changes this year. Must admit, it's nice to see four Dons at positions 9-12! Looking at World Champions, I found this very interesting! Looking at how many surviving World Champions (World Fnals) were born in each decade, we find: 1930's - 3 (10 titles) 1940's - 3 (5 titles) 1950's - 5 (11 titles) 1960's - 4 (4 titles) 1970's - 1 (1 title) 01 - Arthur Payne - 28/08/23 02 - Chum Taylor - 04/04/27 03 - Ian Williams - 04/08/31 04 - Ove Fundin - 23/05/33 05 - Dan Forsberg - 25/03/34 06 - Josef Hofmeister - 17/06/34 07 - Brian Crutcher - 23/08/34 08 - Mike Broadbank - 25/09/34 09 - Barry Briggs - 30/12/34 10 - Bob Andrews - 27/10/1935 11 - Reg Luckhurst - 11/11/193512 - Sverre Harrfeldt - 23/11/1937 13 - Leif Larsson - 16/02/1938 14 - Bjorn Knutson - 27/04/38 15 - Rick France - 12/07/1938 16 - Gunnar Malmqvist - 25/12/1940 17 - Andrzej Wyglenda 04/05/1941 18 - John Louis - 14/06/1941 19 - Jim Airey - 19/08/194120 - Bengt Jansson - 09/01/194321 - Anders Michanek - 30/05/194322 - Trevor Hedge - 30/08/194323 - Terry Betts - 15/09/194324 - Howard Cole 29/12/194325 - Martin Ashby - 05/02/194426 - Jan Simensen - 26/07/194427 - Zygfryd Friedek - 19/10/194428 - Jerzy Trzeszkowski - 10/01/194529 - Eric Boocock - 02/02/194530 - John Boulger - 18/06/194531 - Hasse Holmqvist - 18/06/194532 - Jim McMillan - 03/12/194533 - Soren Karlsson - 23/10/194634 - Ole Olsen - 16/11/194635 - Ray Wilson - 12/03/194736 - Doug Wyer - 16/08/1947 37 - Grigori Khlinovsky - 11/11/4738 - Egon Muller - 26/11/194839 - Christoph Betzl - 13/02/194940- Jiri Stancl - 18/11/194941 - Viktor Kuznetsov - 27/11/1949 42 - Georg Hack - 20/02/195043 - Marek Cieslak - 28/06/195044 - Alois Wiesbock - 31/07/195045 - Tommy Johansson - 21/10/1950 46 - Vladimir Gordeev - 30/11/195047 - John Titman - 26/01/195148 - Dag Lovaas - 25/02/1951 49 - Jan Verner - 03/03/1951 50 - Petr Ondrasik - 08/10/195151 - Phil Crump - 09/02/195252 - Henny Kroeze - 11/03/195253 - Valery Gordeev - 28/08/195254 - Dave Jessup - 07/03/195355 - Ales Dryml - 10/06/195356 - Scott Autrey - 09/07/195357 - Gordon Kennett - 02/09/195358 - Robert Slabon - 15/09/195359 - Peter Collins - 24/03/195460 - Larry Ross - 15/06/195461 - John Davis - 10/11/195462 - Finn Thomsen - 16/02/195563 - Mikhail Starostin - 24/02/195564 - Tommy Nilsson - 10/03/195565 - Jan Andersson - 07/05/1955 66 - Kai Niemi - 15/09/195567 - Jerzy Rembas - 18/04/195668 - Chris Morton - 22/07/195669 - Steve Bastable - 16/09/195670 - Bruce Penhall - 10/05/195771 - Karl Maier - 24/08/195772 - Roman Jankowski - 05/10/195773 - Bo Petersen - 21/02/195874 - Les Collins - 24/05/195875 - Mitch Shirra - 27/09/195876 - Michael Lee - 11/12/195877 - John Cook - 18/12/1958 78 - Richard Knight - 26/05/195979 - Dennis Sigalos - 16/08/195980 - Erik Gundersen - 08/10/195981 - Hans Nielsen - 26/12/1959 82 - Olli Tyrvainen - 11/01/1960 83 - Phil Collins - 02/06/1960 84 - Sam Ermolenko - 23/11/1960 85 - Rick Miller - 12/01/1961 86 - Jeremy Doncaster - 16/06/1961 87 - Tommy Knudsen - 09/11/1961 88 - Zoltan Adorjan - 15/11/1961 89 - Shawn Moran - 19/11/1961 90 - Peter Ravn - 16/03/1962 91 - Zenon Kasprzak - 10/05/1962 92 - John Jorgensen - 18/07/1962 93 - Antal Kocso - 22/12/1962 94 - Sandor Tihanyi - 28/04/1963 95 - Lance King - 13/08/1963 96 - Armando Castagna - 22/09/1963 97 - Kelvin Tatum - 08/02/1964 98 - Marvyn Cox - 11/07/1964 99 - Zdenek Tesar - 30/07/1964 100 - Mikael Blixt - 08/08/1964 101 - Paul Thorp - 09/09/1964 102 - Tony Olsson - 13/03/1965 103 - Gerd Riss - 17/03/1965 104 - Conny Ivarsson - 15/04/1965 105 - Simon Cross - 31/05/1965 106 - Bohumil Brhel - 10/06/1965 107 - Slawomir Drabik - 06/02/1966 108 - Per Jonsson - 21/03/1966 109 - Andy Smith - 25/05/1966 110 - Jan Staechmann - 05/06/1966 111 - Ronnie Correy - 08/11/1966 112 - Jimmy Nilsen - 16/11/1966 113 - Brian Karger - 09/02/1967 114 - Jan O. Pedersen - 27/07/1967 115 - Craig Boyce - 02/08/1967 116 - Troy Butler - 22/09/1967 117 - Piotr Swist - 20/06/1968 118 - Todd Wiltshire - 26/09/1968 119 - Gary Havelock - 04/11/1968 120 - Stefan Danno - 10/02/1969 121 - Martin Dugard - 18/05/1969 122 - Gert Handberg - 30/05/1969 123 - Chris Louis - 09/07/1969 124- Billy Hamill - 23/05/1970 125 - Greg Hancock - 03/06/1970 126 - Henrik Gustafsson - 14/08/1970 127 - Tony Rickardsson - 17/08/1970 128 - Mark Loram - 12/01/1971 129 - Tomasz Gollob - 11/04/1971 130 - Leigh Adams - 28/04/1971 131 - Josh Larsen - 12/05/1972 132 - Joe Screen - 27/11/1972 133 - Jason Crump - 06/08/1975

So sad to hear that. How come we have only just found out?

Nah... It's 'cos so many of the GP's are in Poland! There are a bunch on here who will tell you that! He's just lucky...

No it's not! It's the greatest ever! All we need is a suitable nickname... Like the "Sheffc****s"...

Well, my first thought was Harry Bastable...

Absolutely he did. Thing is, coming from a country where speedway didn't exist made it very difficult. He did ride in odd meetings on the continent, but obviously, was more successful on long track and grass.

I know you don't think it's worth more than twenty quid, but...

With McKinlay, I don't think it could be considered "something" of a collapse! 7 points from his first three, and then nowt from his last two. Worst thing is, he couldn't even beat Glucklich, Mucha, or Klementiev in those... I was there that night.

Ron Mountford 1965 - 8.74 1966 - 9.29 1967 - 8.66 1968 - 9.62 Over those four years, his average was 8.92. Compare to some of the other riders I mentioned. From 1965 to 1969: 10.73 - Nigel Boocock 10.31 - Eric Boocock 9.46 - Martin Ashby 9.44 - Terry Betts 9.43 - Ken McKinlay 9.27 - Ray Wilson 9.22 - Trevor Hedge 9.14 - Norman Hunter 9.03 - Dave Younghusband

Here are the Top Ten averages by year (over 9.00) 1965 11.12 - Nigel Boocock 10.83 - Ken McKinlay 10.48 - Mike Broadbank 10.16 - Ron How 9.90 - Jimmy Gooch 9.65 - Cyril Maidment 9.45 - Ronnie Genz 9.43 - Eric Boocock 9.42 - Norman Hunter 9.35 - George Hunter 1966 10.54 - Nigel Boocock 10.46 - Eric Boocock 10.00 - Colin Pratt 9.67 - Ken McKinlay 9.60 - Mike Brooadbank 9.55 - Cyril Maidment 9.42 - Norman Hunter 9.41 - Terry Betts 9.39 - Trevor Hedge 9.29 - Eric Boothroyd 1967 10.52 - Nigel Boocock 10.43 - Ray Wilson 10.29 - Eric Boocock 9.74 - Terry Betts 9.53 - Ken McKinlay 9.37 - Roy Trigg 9.12 - Dave Younghusband 1968 10.74 - Nigel Boocock 10.72 - Martin Ashby 10.17 - Eric Boocock 9.71 - Norman Hunter 9.62 - Ron Mountford 9.58 - Colin Pratt 9.45 - Terry Betts 9.40 - Malcolm Simmons 9.37 - Ray Wilson 9.15 - Trevor Hedge 1969 11.08 - Eric Boocock 10.78 - Nigel Boocock 10.56 - Ray Wilson 10.35 - Norman Hunter 10.33 - Trevor Hedge 10.01 - Jim McMillan 9.97 - Martin Ashby 9.39 - Reg Luckhurst 9.38 - Dave Younghusband 9.35 - Terry Betts

Hurriken, definitely. If you're looking at league figures, Eric Boocock will be there too.

Here are the results I've been able to find. Southampton 51 - 45 Belle Vue Leicester 45 - 51 Birmingham Swindon 51 - 45 Poole Coventry 50 - 46 Wimbledon Ipswich 60 - 36 Norwich Rayleigh 46 - 50 Poole Coventry 59 - 37 Birmingham Ipswich 57 -39 Bradford Oxford 37 - 59 Belle Vue Leicester 49 - 47 Bradford Oxford 60 - 36 Bradford Leicester 55 - 41 Norwich Rayleigh P - P Wimbledon Southampton 55 - 42 Norwich Ipswich 54 - 42 Belle Vue Swindon 33 - 63 Wimbledon Oxford P - P Birmingham Coventry 55 - 41 Poole Southampton 64 - 32 Wimbledon Southampton 48 - 47 Birmingham

Oh, that's so sad to hear. I know he was still very active on Facebook, but I haven't been on there for a few days. Thanks for that...

I'm just trying to work out what language he's speaking...

Make that three reasons... I've often said that they state at the GP's, " the track takes a few heats to settle down". Same with league; if the juniors get out there first, the track will be in great shape from the start.