TonyMac

In the next issue (81) of Backtrack, Martin Rogers will be looking back at the Polish riders who competed in British League in the 70s & 80s and the memories they created. Alongside the main piece will be a column of supporters' comments about the Poles who raced in the UK during that era, so please either post your personal recollections, anecdotes, memories or opinions here or email us at: editorial@retro-speedway.com My own favourite memories mainly revolve around the daredevil thrills served up by one of my boyhood heroes Zenon Plech at Hackney, particularly in 1976 and '79, when he came close to winning the world title at Katowice. And then the impact made by Roman Jankowski in 1980. No doubt fans of Wimbledon and White City will recall fondly the efforts of Eddie Jancarz and Marek Cieslak respectively. At Leicester, Jerzy Rembas reached a high standard and did himself proud in the '78 World Final at Wembley, while Andrzej Huszcza was also a favourite with Lions' followers. Boley Proch and Henryk Glucklich had their moments for Reading. On the other hand, there were also a bunch of Poles who struggled in the BL . . . Greg Szczepanik (Leicester), Adam Olkiewicz (Halifax), Kazimierz Adamczak (Hull), Jerzy Trzeszkowski (Swindon), Robert Slabon, Jan Puk and Marek Kepa (Eastbourne), Eugeniusz Blaszak (Reading). Anyway, please let us have your thoughts . . . Thank you.

How much longer will Waterstones struggle on before they too go out of business? Weren't they subject of a Russian takeover in recent years? When we dealt with them and the likes of WH Smith it used to drive me crazy that publishers could no longer deal directly with branch managers, who understood the books' appeal and relevance to the shops' locations, and were instead told to try and deal only with some faceless, clueless bod at head office. Very frustrating. Having said that, WHS Ipswich was a rare exception a couple of years back, when the manager TOLD head office that the John Louis book would sell well in his shop, he was allowed to place an order with us directly, and he was proved right. If only all the individual branch managers were given the same authority and scope to use their experience and local knowledge. Before WHS and Waterstones, we had good relations with Ottakers and Books Etc - until the latter went under owing us about £2k for one of football books. Money that was never recovered. Sad that the future for bookshops, particularly the smaller independents, is so bleak.

Barry also provided the match reports and heat-by-heat results from Newcastle for Speedway Mail. Always looked forward to hearing his dulcet Geordie tones at the end of the phone (well before the advent of email or even fax) every Tuesday morning, as he was about to begin dictating the details. "Jaw Oorwin 3-3-3-3-12".

Steve, just out of interest, what was your favourite segment of the England World Beaters DVD? And I hope my waffle didn't spoil it for you too much!

Here you go . . . https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tragedy-Kenny-Carter-Love-Forget-ebook/dp/B0128VURS8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497312323&sr=1-1&keywords=Kenny+Carter+Tragedy Ah, if only the internet (Amazon) hadn't come along and killed off local, independent high street books shops, whose dedicated owners cared about the books they stocked and usually had a very good knowledge of them too. Interesting, yes, but also unprintable! Apart from working for Alf for a few years at Speedway Mail, I did have the pleasure of interviewing him at length for Classic Speedway magazine not long before he died but it was what he didn't say that intrigued me just as much. Alf knew many things about a lot of important speedway people . . .

Thanks, Steve, glad you enjoyed watching it. Amazing that this footage has come to light some 40+ years after that golden era but, as you say, the colourful cine film is of a high quality. When we told 'Crash' that the 1975 World Team Cup final is included on the England World Beaters DVD, he couldn't wait to get his hands on a copy and phoned our office last week to arrange for one to be posted to him. What pleased him, in particular, was that our footage doesn't only include all 16 heats of the main meeting, it has the all-England race in the second-half, which shows him coming from behind to beat PC, Simmo and John Louis before going on to win the Victor Ludorum. As you say, his career highlight.

Think King's Lynn may have used a reverse design in 1975, or am I mistaken and the green background with yellow stars saw them through the whole of the season?

Thanks, Steve. Wouldn't say we will never produce another printed book but it would have to be something special. Thanks Sidney. Different books pose different challenges. If they are written by a third party, the work involved out our end depends on the quality of the editorial content we are presented with. Booey was very easy to produce because it was 'ghosted' for Eric by a proper trained journalist in Martin Neal, who interviewed Booey at great length and then wrote it up in Eric's words, and I think the end result speaks for itself. You would believe that EB wrote the book himself, which is the true mark of the ghost writer's quality. On the other hand, it took a lot of subbing to convert Magnus Nystrom's Swedish book on Tommy Jansson into an acceptable English translation. But that was an exceptional case. Martin Neal also helped me to sub Alan Carter's book, although great credit to AC for typing the first draft himself and doing a very good job of it considering his total inexperience. We'd only be interested in publishing a book that was written (or 'ghosted') by a pro journalist, not an enthusiastic amateur who writes in his or her spare time, no matter how good their speedway knowledge is. We have turned down a number of opportunities for this reason. A poorly written manuscript needs to be heavily subbed, or re-written in some cases. It can more than double our production work and add a lot of unnecessary time to the project. We have recently spoken several times to Peter Collins about publishing his autobiography, with Richard Bott (his former manager, a national newspaper journalist and Backtrack/Classic Speedway mag contributor already primed and lined up to be his friendly 'ghost') but PC says he is not yet ready to sit down and commit his life to print. But we're ready, willing and waiting... As one of the greats, PC is one of the few special exceptions worth making. As I wrote the Kenny Carter and Mike Lee books, I had to do considerable research and then a number of interviews before the writing stage, which made them much more labour-intensive. I enjoy the interview process most, discovering new things from people who know the subjects much better than me (ie, Kenny's best friends and mechanic; and Mike's parents). To answer your specific last question, I'd say Tragedy was the hardest to produce for me personally - mainly because it centred around a very complex personality and a very difficult and emotive subject, so I was constantly questioning myself, attempting to strike the right balance and at times re-writing passages. It wasn't easy. I hope this has given you some insight into what's involved.

Speedway books, like the sport, are dying and you will see fewer and fewer published in printed form in the future (although we are in the process of converting more of our previously sold-out printed books to eBook format, which cost nothing but our time and effort). From experience, I can unfortunately confirm that sales are decreasing along with the potential market - and I'm not just talking about the retro sector in which we dominate. Who was the last current or ex-GP rider to bring out a book or have one published in his name? Jason Crump some 10 years ago? That tells you a lot about the viability and demand for speedway books targeted at any generation. There are a number of reasons for this, apart from the blindingly obvious that the sport itself is imploding and support in general is dwindling. Social media is becoming an increasing factor, as people spend more and more of their spare time posting and browsing on Facebook, Twitter and online forums such as this one. It seems they don't have much time left to read books. Facebook, in particular, is a free and easy way for fans to get their speedway fix, especially for those who have seen their income significantly cut in recent months and years. Relatively small print runs of books tailored to a very niche market are becoming increasingly costly to produce and generate little or no profit in return for the risk and effort involved. Often, the ones that do make it into print nowadays are a labour of love.

Mike Seery (Bryan's son) has emailed Retro Speedway to confirm that his father's funeral will be held on Wednesday (June 7) at 1.45pm at: Kent and Sussex Crematorium Benhall Mill Road Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent TN2 5JJ The Seery family is happy for anyone who knew Bryan to attend.

Instead of White City, I did the afternoon meeting at Rye House that day - between attending the other two you mention.

Sad to report the death of ex-BSPA statistician and former Speedway Star stats guru Bryan Seery. He passed away suddenly at his Kent home on May 24, aged 81. A full obit and tribute will appear in our next issue of Classic Speedway magazine.

When did they stop using the two-tier stand on the back straight at Ipswich? Remember when it used to be packed for league matches. An oddity at Wimbledon, which caught out the odd first-time visiting rider, was the start and finish line being in different places so that the circuit conformed to the minimum length requirement. Saw one or two shut the throttle off too early and be pipped at the finish line.

That's the idea, TWK, What were you doing on the centre green? You mean the Vic Harding 'Lounge'?

In the 70s and 80s, when I attended regularly, it was common practice for certain riders to save their best engine/bike for a World Championship round or the World Final and ride their spare in domestic meetings around that time. In terms of riders deliberately dropping points in order to lower their average, Malcolm Simmons admitted in his 2006 autobiography that he did exactly that while riding for Swindon in a home BL match near the end of the 1985 season. He needed a zero score so that his average for the following season enabled him to fit into the (NL) Hackney team (think his Robins CMA would have converted to something like 10.00-plus per meeting for the Kestrels). The tricky part for Simmo was that he had to ride badly enough not to score but not woeful enough to be taken out of one of his rides and replaced by a reserve. He needed to take all four of his programmed rides to achieve the 'right' final CMA for the season. He did what he needed to for very selfish reasons (from memory, I think Swindon still won the match) but later regretted it and said he was ashamed of what he did, which was apparently unbeknown to anyone at Swindon.

Known to locals as Ken Dozer.

I would be very interested to read what others remember from their visits to British tracks. Not talking about riders, races or actual meetings, but the different characteristics of all the different stadiums . . . track shapes and sizes, the people you met there, characters on the terraces and in the bars (whether you can put a name to them or not), those little idiosyncrasies that stood out and still stick in your mind today. If someone mentions a certain track, type what instantly comes into your head. I'll give some personal examples of the type of thing I'm looking for below (although my main interest is defunct venues, or ones that were running 1965-90). Please feel free to add your own anecdotes, a brief tale or two, and general memories. If we all had a little bit of local knowledge to our regular tracks, it will build into a nostalgic collection of memories and Be interesting to see who remembers what. Thanks for taking part.... Arena-Essex/Lakeside A track without a safety fence. Nice guy Pete Thorogood. Dave Lanning's 'Loonie Tunes'. Hi-Ho Silver Lining blasting out of the speakers as Andrew took the check flag. Paul Hiscock, Steve Brown, Bryn Williams. Belle Vue (Hyde Road) The fun-fair. Dulcet tones of announcer Ken Wrench. Centre green presenter Dick Barrie's commentating over the end of races in the 80s. Six-man races at Ivan Mauger's 1985 farewell. Barrow (Holker Street) ??? Barrow (Parkl Road) ??? Berwick (Shielfield Park) Berwick (Berrington Lough) Dick Barrie on the roving mike, winding up the opposing fans and team. Being in the middle of nowhere. Birmingham (Perry Barr) ????? Birmingham (Bordesley Green) The rough access road. Boston How bloody cold it was there in March. Bradford The very wide, long pits area with a great view looking down on the third/fourth bends. Bristol (Eastville) Sheer size of the crowd. Canterbury Harry selling Speedway Mail. Announcer Malcolm Mitchell forgetting to read out the winning times. 3-lap races in the second-half due to the 9.00pm curfew. Johnnie Hoskins, on the centre green, frantically waving his arms around to get everyone to hurry up because they were in danger of breaching the council's curfew. Coatbridge ????? Coventry Joyce & Malcolm who ran the souvenir shop. Packed out British Finals. Peter Morrish. The CO's slick military-style operation. The CO's unique programme notes. Linda Ochiltree in the office. Trying hard to gain entry at the pass gate without a passport and DNA evidence. Cradley Heath Alf Ferkins selling Speedway Mail. Margaret Hardiman (supporters' club secretary) Pork scratchings. The first bend bar. The feat of finding Dudley Wood Stadium. Crayford Noise of the bikes reverberating due to the hemmed in enclosed stands. Looking up at the bikes from the low-level terracing. Nice guy Pete Thorogood. Dave Welsh. Crewe ???? Doncaster ???? Eastbourne Hot Sunday afternoons. Bob Dugard watering the track. Edinburgh (Old Meadowbank) ???? Edinburgh (Powderhall) Superfan Mike Hunter. Ellesmere Port ???? Exeter The narrow, banked track. The solid steel fence. Tony & Ted Lethbridge. Another Graham Hambly leading the war cry: "1-3-5-7 let's hear the roar from glorious Devon!" Glasgow (White City) ????? Glasgow (Hampden Park) ???? Glasgow (Blantyre 1) ???? Glasgow (Blantyre 2) Dodgy track. Dodgy refereeing by Scottish refs. Jimmy Beaton (snr) driving the tractor. Glasgow (Shawfield) Excellent main stand bar. Hackney Snowie Beattie doing the interval raffle draw. All kinds of smells from the factories around The Wick. Len Silver throwing a 50p coin into the crowd. The Magnificent Seven theme tune. Bert Busch, Rose (tea lady) and Carol Stock, Terry Heath, Paul Tadman, Tony Hurren, Bryn Williams. Hawkeye's programme column. Big Arthur Caton bellowing "Speedway Mail, all yer results 'n' pictures!" at the top of his voice. His missus, Iris, on the pass gate. Snoopy's Disco (under the main stand) Ipswich fans invading in force... and leaving with another 2 league points. Halifax Banking like no other. The Shay bar behind the back straight stand. Riders walking across the football pitch from dressing rooms to pits on the first bend. Dougie Adams in the announcer's box. Eric Boothroyd's Russian hat. Kenny Carter's motorhome. Harringay ????? Hull Ian Thomas ducking and diving. Ipswich Walk in the Black Forest theme tune played at the start and end of the night. John Earrey on the roving mike - one of the first - and doing such a professional job. John Berry's scathing programme comments. Start marshal Ray Chinnery, James Easter, Nigel 'Noddy' Fordham and the bugler on the back straight (anyone know his name, or anything about him?) King’s Lynn Martin Rogers' ultra smooth pre-meeting introductions. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... a warm welcome to Sunshine Speedway, Saddlebow Road!" Watching the racing from the officials' box, next to announcer Edwin Overland (in 1983). Stopping in Brandon on the way home for fish & chips. Leicester (Blackbird Road) Soldier Boy shouting the odds when he was supporting Ray Wilson. Long Eaton ??? Middlesbrough The flyover that went over the first/seconds bends. The burnout main stand. Mildenhall Nice fish and chips. Milton Keynes (Groveway) ???????? Milton Keynes (Elfield Park) Going round in circles, but a good view of the action. Newcastle Barry Wallace on the mike. Ian Thomas ducking and diving. Nelson ????? New Cross ??? Newport (Somerton Park) ???? Norwich ???? Oxford 'Kojak' selling Speedway Mail and arguing with fans. The Cheetahs motif on the large concrete building beyond the pit gate. Bernard Crapper and John Payne mingling with fans in the bar after racing. Paisley ?????? Peterborough Trying to find an exit gate at The Showground that was still open in the pitch dark and dead of night (after a few jars n the bar). Poole ???? Rayleigh The cockle shells in the car park leading to the main turnstiles. Announcer Terry Ripo. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Reading (Tilehurst) ??? Reading (Smallmead) Dave Lanning, Bob Radford. The playing of Monday Monday by The Mamas and The Papas. Rochdale Romford The concrete 'safety' fence. The wooden bridge over the pits. Getting the No.86 bus from Chadwell Heath High Road. Rye House The Rye House pub just over the little hump-back bridge over the River Lea. Lovely on a hot Sunday afternoon. Big Arthur Caton bellowing "Speedway Mail, all yer results 'n' pictures!" at the top of his voice. St. Austell ???? Scunthorpe (Quibell Park) ?????????? Scunthorpe (Ashby Ville) ????? Sheffield Mick & Joan Gregory running the track shop. Dave Beresford. Great close-up view into the pits behind the main stand as the riders warmed-up. Stoke (Sun Street) ???? Stoke (Loomer Road) Cars parked on the terracing. The steep slope from the pits to the track. Sunderland ????? Swindon Ham sandwiches from the main stand. Glynn Shailes, Clive Fisher and Bob Radford. West Ham The swathe of empty wooden seats in the upper tier of the massive main stand (1971). The green corrugated fence in the pits. The little wall outside the greyhound track where young fans sat to get closer to the action. Alf Weedon's rosette and badge seller (can't recall his name) Wembley Twin Towers. Bert Harkins' white boots. Weymouth ???????? White City (London) How the bikes seemed so slow because the track was so far away from the terracing. Riders having to walk the length of the centre green before disappearing underground to enter the tunnel that led to the dressing rooms. Big crowds for most World Championship meetings. Dusty track conditions under the Sunday afternoon sun. Wimbledon Eddie Toogood's stand outside the main entrance, selling Speedway Star, books and all sorts. Alan selling Speedway Mail. The indoor area of the pits where home riders were nearly choking back fumes. And the outside area for the away team. The main grandstand, plushest in the land. Tears for Tommy Jansson. 10,000+ crowds for The Wills Internationale on Whit Bank Holiday Monday night, and that gleaming winner's prize of the JAP/Jawa spinning round on the centre green Dave Lanning's razzmatazz. Drinking with Richard Clark (Speedway Star) in The Leather Bottle pub before the meeting and going for a curry at The Somraz Tandoori (with Roger Johns and the Tatum bros) after the meeting. Clapham Common and all the bloody traffic lights between east and south London during Thursday night rush-hour. Wolverhampton Dave 'The Rat' Rattenberry and his souvenir shop. Alf Ferkins selling Speedway Mail. Workington ??????

Having seen a lot of Bo Petersen at Hackney between 1978 and '83, I'm surprised by his inclusion in this debate, which mainly features one-paced riders. Bo was fast and though a decent enough gater, he could pass the very best - inside or out. And he had a tough streak too. From a rigid-looking, upright riding style when he first arrived, he developed into a more spectacular racer who looked good on a bike for one so tall. Remember the night Olsen rode him into the fence on the first bend when Coventry came to Waterden Road (1980?). To be honest, I didn't see much of him - except in Test matches - after '83, so maybe he lost much of his hunger? Definitely one who failed to fulfil his potential and retired from UK speedway all too soon. Would like to catch up with him in Denmark for a Backtrack interview...

JD was another who relied heavily on making fast starts. Don't recall him passing too many rivals of real quality in important meetings. He'll kill me if he reads this! I know where you're coming from. Although Kelvin became a renowned gater who won most of his races from the front, he was very good to watch in his early, harem scarem days as a raw rookie at Wimbledon in 1983-84. I've always liked him for being 'different', the public schoolboy persona and his ability to articulate.

Fair point, I can't argue against what you say about Ross at Hyde Road, as I rarely saw him ride there and possibly never for the Aces. I'm probably being influenced by the hours spent ploughing through reels of old video and cine footage and repeatedly seeing Larry pushing the tapes and trying to out-fox the ref and steal a march on his opponents. A sure sign of how much fast starting meant to him. Nice bloke, though.

Any reason why you never took to Simmo? Obviously you're not referring to his riding style, accomplished racing ability, or achievements. And, as far as I know, he was generally popular with fans as someone who always had time for us?

Some strange choices there, TWK, but each to their own. Between his debut season 1975 and going off the rails completely in the mid-80s, Lee was great value - not just in terms of his points scoring for King's Lynn and his individual achievements, but for making things happen in a meeting and being one of England's all-time greats. His motorcycling skill was world class. The more 'new' old footage of Gordon Kennett I see (we've just uncovered a mountain of action cine film of him at his best for Oxford and White City), the more I appreciate just how good he was and also how much he always put into his racing, especially given his diabetic condition since 1979. Considering he spent most of his life with two small track teams, Eastbourne and Oxford, he learned to adapt and master the big 'uns too. I don't think him finishing second to Olsen at Wembley in '78 was a fluke and believe he has still never been given the full credit he deserved for his contribution to the sport over many years. The riders who never got me excited were the renowned gaters, 'one trick ponies', who were hard to beat when they made the gate but rarely did anything from the back and achieved relatively little in terms of big titles . . . the likes of Larry Ross and Jan Andersson. Does Jessup deserve to be in this category? Probably. I can't decide. You look at THAT epic Heat 10 from the 1974 World Team Cup final and you would never have him down as a trapper incapable of coming from the back. Nielsen and Gundersen were consistently quick starters but could pass people when they really needed to, and they made the most of their starting technique by winning big.

Phil (whom we've interviewed in the next issue of Backtrack, by the way) did in fact use the Street/Jawa SR4 engine in British and international meetings throughout 1975 - around 18 months before the '76 World Final. The thing about Phil, and many other stars of his era, is, winning the world title wasn't the be all and end all. Some thrived more in a team environment rather than as single-minded individuals. As history suggests, only a relative few riders possessed the temperament and commitment to make it to the very top.

Without having ploughed through all 80 back issues contents (which can all be viewed on our website at www.retro-speedway.com)... yes, I think so!

We've already interviewed or done features on most of those. www.retro-speedway.com