chunky

You ARE old! We are ALL old if we can remember this! Just had a thought, though... Speedway was still something of a new sport on TV, and in fact, I really can't remember any speedway shown in anything more than a newsflash prior to 1972.

As I said before, my parents got rid of a ton of old programmes (including most of the 1950's World Finals, and Malmo 1961), Speedway Stars and other mags, and a lot of the old Astorias annual. Even now, it kills me to think about it...

I have no idea where mine are! As far as I know, I never got rid of them when I emigrated (I certainly never intended to), but I have all my other books, and I'm just missing them...

I had forgotten when they were sponsored exactly. Problem is, I haven't gone through any of the old Speedway Stars for photos, and the Retro Speedway website doesn't have any 1978 photos for either team!

Thanks for your input, but this list is for living riders only; Viktor Trofimov passed away in 2013. Also, the list includes riders who actually rode in a World Final; non-riding reserves do not count.

Good call! It was 1978.

That's interesting. Obviously a few years before the English got in on the act... Does anyone know the first English sponsored footy shirts?

Updated after the recent sad loss of Billy Bales, here is the COMPLETE list of surviving World Finalists. If you spot any mistakes, please don't hesitate to let me know. 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 - Aage Hansen - 13/04/35 11 - Gote Nordin - 02/07/35 12 - Bob Andrews - 27/10/1935 13 - Reg Luckhurst - 11/11/193514 - Sverre Harrfeldt - 23/11/1937 15 - Leif Larsson - 16/02/1938 16 - Bjorn Knutson - 27/04/38 17 - Rick France - 12/07/1938 18 - Gunnar Malmqvist - 25/12/1940 19 - Andrzej Wyglenda 04/05/1941 20 - John Louis - 14/06/194121 - Jim Airey - 19/08/194122 - Bengt Jansson - 09/01/194323 - Anders Michanek - 30/05/194324 - Trevor Hedge - 30/08/194325 - Terry Betts - 15/09/194326 - Howard Cole 29/12/194327 - Martin Ashby - 05/02/194428 - Jan Simensen - 26/07/194429 - Zygfryd Friedek - 19/10/194430 - Jerzy Trzeszkowski - 10/01/194531 - Eric Boocock - 02/02/194532 - John Boulger - 18/06/194533 - Hasse Holmqvist - 18/06/194534 - Jim McMillan - 03/12/194535 - Soren Karlsson - 23/10/194636 - Ole Olsen - 16/11/194637 - Ray Wilson - 12/03/194738 - Doug Wyer - 16/08/1947 39 - Grigori Khlinovsky - 11/11/4740 - Egon Muller - 26/11/194841 - Christoph Betzl - 13/02/194942- Jiri Stancl - 18/11/194943 - Viktor Kuznetsov - 27/11/1949 44 - Georg Hack - 20/02/195045 - Marek Cieslak - 28/06/195046 - Alois Wiesbock - 31/07/195047 - Tommy Johansson - 21/10/1950 48 - Vladimir Gordeev - 30/11/195049 - John Titman - 26/01/195150 - Dag Lovaas - 25/02/1951 51 - Jan Verner - 03/03/1951 52 - Petr Ondrasik - 08/10/195153 - Phil Crump - 09/02/195254 - Henny Kroeze - 11/03/195255 - Valery Gordeev - 28/08/195256 - Dave Jessup - 07/03/195357 - Ales Dryml - 10/06/195358 - Scott Autrey - 09/07/195359 - Gordon Kennett - 02/09/195360 - Robert Slabon - 15/09/195361 - Peter Collins - 24/03/195462 - Larry Ross - 15/06/195463 - John Davis - 10/11/195464 - Finn Thomsen - 16/02/195565 - Mikhail Starostin - 24/02/195566 - Tommy Nilsson - 10/03/195567 - Jan Andersson - 07/05/1955 68 - Kai Niemi - 15/09/195569 - Jerzy Rembas - 18/04/195670 - Chris Morton - 22/07/195671 - Steve Bastable - 16/09/195672 - Bruce Penhall - 10/05/195773 - Karl Maier - 24/08/195774 - Roman Jankowski - 05/10/195775 - Bo Petersen - 21/02/195876 - Les Collins - 24/05/195877 - Mitch Shirra - 27/09/195878 - Michael Lee - 11/12/195879 - John Cook - 18/12/1958 80 - Richard Knight - 26/05/195981 - Dennis Sigalos - 16/08/195982 - Erik Gundersen - 08/10/195983 - Hans Nielsen - 26/12/1959 84 - Olli Tyrvainen - 11/01/1960 85 - Phil Collins - 02/06/1960 86 - Sam Ermolenko - 23/11/1960 87 - Rick Miller - 12/01/1961 88 - Jeremy Doncaster - 16/06/1961 89 - Tommy Knudsen - 09/11/1961 90 - Zoltan Adorjan - 15/11/1961 91 - Shawn Moran - 19/11/1961 92 - Peter Ravn - 16/03/1962 93 - Zenon Kasprzak - 10/05/1962 94 - John Jorgensen - 18/07/1962 95 - Antal Kocso - 22/12/1962 96 - Sandor Tihanyi - 28/04/1963 97 - Lance King - 13/08/1963 98 - Armando Castagna - 22/09/1963 99 - Kelvin Tatum - 08/02/1964 100 - Marvyn Cox - 11/07/1964 101 - Zdenek Tesar - 30/07/1964 102 - Mikael Blixt - 08/08/1964 103 - Paul Thorp - 09/09/1964 104 - Tony Olsson - 13/03/1965 105 - Gerd Riss - 17/03/1965 106 - Conny Ivarsson - 15/04/1965 107 - Simon Cross - 31/05/1965 108 - Bohumil Brhel - 10/06/1965 109 - Slawomir Drabik - 06/02/1966 110 - Per Jonsson - 21/03/1966 111 - Andy Smith - 25/05/1966 112 - Jan Staechmann - 05/06/1966 113 - Ronnie Correy - 08/11/1966 114 - Jimmy Nilsen - 16/11/1966 115 - Brian Karger - 09/02/1967 116 - Jan O. Pedersen - 27/07/1967 117 - Craig Boyce - 02/08/1967 118 - Troy Butler - 22/09/1967 119 - Piotr Swist - 20/06/1968 120 - Todd Wiltshire - 26/09/1968 121 - Gary Havelock - 04/11/1968 122 - Stefan Danno - 10/02/1969 123 - Martin Dugard - 18/05/1969 124 - Gert Handberg - 30/05/1969 125 - Chris Louis - 09/07/1969 126 - Billy Hamill - 23/05/1970 127 - Greg Hancock - 03/06/1970 128 - Henrik Gustafsson - 14/08/1970 129 - Tony Rickardsson - 17/08/1970 130 - Mark Loram - 12/01/1971 131 - Tomasz Gollob - 11/04/1971 132 - Leigh Adams - 28/04/1971 133 - Josh Larsen - 12/05/1972 134 - Joe Screen - 27/11/1972 135 - Jason Crump - 06/08/1975

It didn't have the name on the jacket, but the 1972 Barrow team were sponsored by Duckham's, had the logo on the jacket, and were called the "Happy Faces".

Yeah, they had the logo on the team jackets as well.

Indeed it was. None of the body-colours up to and including 1987 had any sponsorship on. As for 1977, Belle Vue had that silly one-off white jacket with the diagonal lines, a small logo in a circle, and the year. Wimbledon (LBC), Hackney (HL1), and Edinburgh (Stelrad) all had sponsored body-colours before Belle Vue. Just thinking, what about Rye House? They had the Infradex logo on there as early as 1976, I believe - plus the team leathers.

For some reason, I can't think of anything before White City either...

I said it was 1969. And Malcolm is wearing the EXACT same leathers as everyone else in the photo.

Oh, you never got there, then? Last time I went to the Fairground would have been for the KOC Cup match in 1980, and we had fun on the go-karts. It closed down in October that year. When we went up for the KO Cup Final in 1970, I dropped my hot dog in the Fairground...

And the legs...

Are you being facetious?

Well, everyone is wearing them here... https://www.retro-speedway.com/extras/autogallery/autogallery.php?show=1.British Club Teams and Riders%2FLeicester%2F1969_Leicester_Lions_(2).jpg

1969... https://www.retro-speedway.com/extras/autogallery/autogallery.php?show=1.British Club Teams and Riders%2FLeicester%2F1969_Leicester_Lions_(2).jpg

Johnsy beat PC twice one night - both from the back - at Plough Lane! That wasn't totally surprising, but in the KOC at Hyde Rd, he beat PC three times on his way to 16+1! Never came close to that again up there...

No biggie, but that was just a six-week period, and we all know that riders can go through a purple patch. What was particularly noticeable after that run of maximums was that he was sticking a last place on a regular basis.

While he was good, I think you are over-estimating him a tad. In his first year, he averaged less than 8 (which as still pretty damn good), and he followed that up with just under 10. which placed him at 7th in the Division II averages. He may have been better at home, but he had only 6 full maximums that year, with the last coming as early as 6th July. I really wouldn't call that "dominance"... When he moved up with Reading, he spent three years between 6.05 and 6.38 - pretty consistent, eh? At Poole the following year, he kept it going with 6.31. His last three years were all around the 5-point mark.

That was "young" back then! He was four years younger than John Louis...

Thing is, looking back over the years, there have been many, many brilliant youngsters who were going to be the next "superstar", yet so few of them ever actually established themselves at the top level. A quick look at the Division II/NL Riders Championship and the British Junior Championship will show you that. I just don't get why...

Nobody. I'd much rather see a procession with no passing... That's why everybody hated riders like Collins and Morton.

Yeah. I was a die-hard Dons fan, but I would drive all over the country to watch speedway at different tracks. Results didn't matter to me; I just went to watch the racing...