chunky

Unfortunately, I don't have any REAL memories of that, even though I was there. My main memories from the Laurels was from 1980. That's when I spent the second half of the meeting (and several ensuing hours) unconscious in St. George's Hospital after head-butting the concrete arch on the pits bend...

Sad news. Very underrated rider, and I first saw him at Wembley in 1969. So soon after we lost Jerzy Szczakiel too...

I knew you'd come up with something! As I thought, we have a few fours, but has anyone done five in a row?

2nd September, 1976, at home to Hull. Carl rode in the last four heats.

Already looked at him!

Thanks for that! At least I have something specific to look for.

Earlier I referred to a case where a rider rode in four consecutive races. It was on 14th June, 1973, in a BL II fixture at Long Eaton. Crewe's Geoff Ambrose appeared in heats 9, 10, 11, and 12. In those four, he dropped just the one point, to home Number 1 Geoff Bouchard (heat 10). It's not unusual for riders to take three rides in a row, and I think there may have been a few others on four. Do we know of any? Has anyone ridden five on the spin?

For what, exactly?

That's what I was thinking!

I'm only 58!!! Still, I've worn glasses for over 50 years...

Ah yes, the colour Marshall...

Wyer you asking me??? Olsen only scored 8, so he must have bean off-form. Losing to the same rider four times would have left him with egg on his face...

If ever you have any questions, please feel free to ask! So, you think that was your problem? I do want to redo all the World Finals for them as there are many spelling mistakes. That shouldn't be two difficult or time consuming.

I think I can explain... It's not always easy to tell the difference (for us old gits with bad eyes) but if there is a working link, the text is green , but otherwise, it is black. As I said, it's not always easy to see, so I think that may be your problem. It particularly affects the late 70's onwards. Now... You told me about Trevor Geer at Poole in 1977. There is no active file for Poole OR White City in 1977. However, if you search by year (rather than by team), you will find a file for the 1977 complete season results, and that is where I found it. Again, it is no criticism of Matt, Jim, or anyone else who has worked on the site, but not everything is available in every section. A lot of the time, the info just hasn't made it to the site, but sometimes it is, but just not available on team AND year. That is why I'd like to find time to help; it's not necessarily a case of searching for information, just collating the stuff already there.

I love it. Problem is there is still a lot of stuff that hasn't made it on there. I really wish I had time to help Matt, but it is such a huge undertaking.

Only three. He rode in heats 2, 3, 4 (he won all three), then 6, 8, and 9.

That's great; thanks! I'm sure that's the record...

Thanks; I'll check that out!

Interesting... Obviously, we've had different formats which can change the odds, but five seems a lot. Have to look into that!

I'm trying! Thing is, I love stats, and I constantly go through meeting reports and scores looking for weird stuff. As I said, this is one I just stumbled on. Another one I found recently was a rider riding in four successive races in a team meeting. I'm sure there are others, but has anyone done five on the bounce?

My next question is the result of stumbling across an incident in an old Speedway Star. We've gone through cases of riders not meeting a certain opponent during a whole meeting, but what about the opposite? On 24th June, 1976, Sheffield took on Coventry in a BL fixture, and Doug Wyer scored a 15-point max. In FOUR of his five rides he faced Ole Olsen! I know rider replacement and tac subs can increase the chances of that, but four out of five seems excessive! Does anyone know of any similar cases? Has anyone ever faced the same rider five times in an evening? Have any two riders met in every race? Over to you...

I've always said that statistics do not lie - but they don't always tell the true story behind them.

This post is one of the best I have ever seen on here! You sound just like me! I have often got into arguments with people over statistics (particularly averages and probability), and they seem to be offended by me questioning whether samples are large enough. I got into a really heated argument on a speedway group when I suggested that averages could never be considered accurate when they will constantly change over an infinite number of cases. Also, statistics are only a reflection of what HAS happened, and not what is LIKELY to happen. I must admit that I have never heard of Steiner systems (I'm smart, but not an intellectual), but I will definitely look into them, because I am nerdy like that!

I think the bands on the right arm were introduced at the 1982 World Final in L.A.? I didn't think it was a bad idea, particularly when the helmet colours came off. Remember also the large, bright, Polish-style helmet colours that came in for a while at certain meetings... They seemed a better fit.

I already did! In Heat 10!