chunky

As long-time speedway journalist John used to be a regular on the 'Years Gone By' thread, I thought it best to make a quick post on here. John sadly passed away on October 14 at the age of 91. There is a thread on 'General Discussions', so I don't know if it would be possible to combine the two on here.

Zyto Zaman Zarzecki Zabialowicz Zaluski Zubenko

Thing is, I know he never won a World Title (individual, anyway), but i just feel it's a bit of a stretch claiming that he wasn't a "major force". I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me...

I didn't, so here goes... Rune Sormander, Alf Jonsson, and Peter Smith never met the 10-match minimum. 8.78 - Per Olof Soderman 8.46 - Bjorn Knutson 8.31 - Soren Sjosten 7.47 - Dan Forsberg 6.38 - Birger Forsberg

I agree with you there!

As you seemed to ignore Gote Nordin, then, I checked his figures! I was a little disappointed to find that he averaged less than 7 in his first year (1960) at Hyde Rd.

Well, he came to the UK when he was 19, and stayed for 7 years, so I'm not sure he is a suitable answer to the original question...

Thanks to a comment by frigbo on another thread, it got me thinking... I checked Tommy Nilsson's average in his first year in the UK, and thought it was pretty good. So, I just started checking the first-year averages of other Swedes, and looked to see who made the biggest initial impact. I decided to stick with the BL era until 1980; after that, i feel that British speedway started to go a little weird with leagues and foreign riders! So, here is a list of first-year averages of Swedes who made their debut in the upper tier from 1965-80. I have excluded riders who had been riding here before (Sjosten, Nygren, Nordin), but I did throw in the one first-timer from 1964 (Bengt Jansson) just because. I have also excluded riders/seasons where a rider appeared in a handful of matches (10 is the minimum), whether they came back or not, so a first year here should be considered a "full" year. I just think it's interetsting to see how some riders developed long and successful careers (Jan Andersson, Richard Hellsen), yet others (Bengt Andersson, Bo Wirebrand) were never able to really improve on an impressive start. Some great names on here, though... 10.05 - Torbjorn Harrysson 9.29 - Hasse Holmqvist, 9.19 - Bernt Persson 8.74 - Anders Michanek, 8.21 - Gunnar Malmqvist, 8.03 - Tommy Johansson 7.82 - Christer Lofqvist, 7.51 - Jan Simensen, 7.48 - Tommy Jansson, 7.32 - Tommy Bergkvist. 7.30 - Bengt Jansson*, 7.08 - Bengt Larsson 6.90 - Bo Josefsson, 6.41 - Tommy Nilsson, 6.38 - Christer Sjosten, 6.03 - Bo Wirebrand 5.86 - Lars Jansson, 5.22 - Bengt Andersson 4.75 - Richard Hellsen, 4.65 - Soren Karlsson, 4.57 - Bengt Brannefors, 4.56 - Jan Andersson, 4.17 - Conny Samuelsson, 4.14 - Stefan Salomonsson, 4.12 - Nils Ringstrom, 4.00 - Tommy Pettersson 3.70 - Hasse Danielsson, 3.61 - Jan Davidsson, 3.44 - Lars-Inge Hultberg, 3.19 - Leif Soderberg

I always wondered why Blixt never fulfilled his early promise, but I'm pleased you mentioned Nilsson. I just checked, and didn't realize he was only 17 when he rode for Hackney. He had a great first year, and had he stuck around for a bit longer, who knows?

I'd thought about Holta, but good call with Chris Watson. I was just thinking that this thread had developed into a discussion about DJ, and how he could have been a force...

Funny... As you mentioned it, I just decided to check his figures. It does seem that after 1989, he just went backwards. Not something I'd ever thought of before...

I certainly think he would have achieved more had he not broken his leg...

A little later I know, but there was also Valeri Klementiev, who lost his life way too young... Interesting that you would mention Sokolov, as he is largely forgotten. I do agree though, he was certainly capable of making a huge impact.

Following on from the discussion about Mike Bast, who (from years gone by) could have become a true great, had they ridden in Britain? Or at least come to Britain earlier than they did? Okay, he was a great rider as it was, but how much better could Edward Jancarz have been, had he started riding in the UK in the late 70's? Staying with the Eastern European, what about Gennady Kurilenko? Or even Igor Plechanov? I know why he didn't, but what if Egon Muller have stayed when he first tried out? One American I would loved to have seen here was Jeff Sexton.

And he makes more bad decisions. However, I agree.

Again, however likely it was, there is no guarantee. The history of speedway world championships is littered with copious "what ifs", "if onlys", and "coulda, woulda, shouldas"...

Lindgren and Doyle aren't enough for you?

So, you want speedway to become a contact sport? The more riders in hospital the better, eh?

Oh, I agree. As I said earlier, while Fricke has been disappointing this year, I do think he has been hard done by. I feel exactly the same as you with wildcards, but it amazes me some of the stuff I read on here. People want the "strongest" lineup available, yet they want Woffinden and Doyle out, because they are "past it". They want "new blood", via the qualifying system, then they complain about Kim Nilsson and Jan Kvech getting in! I will admit, next year's lineup does look weak, but sometimes it happens. It used to happen in the World Final days too. The problem is that there is a gulf between the top few, and the rest. On this year's form, Janowski shouldn't be anywhere the GP's, but to be honest - he is (or should be) far better than his results show. Dudek shows flashes of brilliance, but can't do it consistently. Leaving Sayfutdinov and Laguta out of the discussion, let's look at the top 25 riders in the world. From places 13 to 25 (approx), there really is so little to choose between them, and it's hard to say who would "improve" the series, and who wouldn't. Again, this has happened before, and I'm sure it's only temporary, but it just doesn't look great right now.

You have to stop making sense on here. The posters don't understand...

Which also indicates that the "better" riders either finished Top 6, or received wildcards. And these "better" riders are the ones that people want to see kicked out to make way for "new blood" - like Kim Nilsson and Jan Kvech...

You do know about the drought and floods they've been having, don't you? Costa Mesa is still going, but not quite as regularly as it once was.

He also had his say on the Zmarzlik deal in Vojens. And your point is? Just because he was a rider doesn't mean he is right...

Yeah, I see no reason they couldn't have two or three - even if they were in Poland. 24 riders, 2 meetings each; sounds okay to me...

As it did in the old World Final days... Perhaps the answer would be to have the SGP Challenge run as a series also?