mervjankefanclub

i remember liking john hack when i was a youngster and he had a few outings with glasgow am i right in thinking it was a fractured skull something similar to what happened to graeme dawson that ended his career miro

i think he got into sand track racing and was very successful

no problem steve i didnt even notice your signature its a very interesting and informative site great work

according to this memorium site gerry hussey died on march 7 1959 after a crash whilst racing midget cars at rowley park adelaide the night before if anyone hasnt seen the site it can be found at http://www.geocities.com/bullpointer/memoriam

cheers chris i also remember those rider profiles in the speedway star in the mid eighties and when asked for riders for the future alis name was usually mentioned along with havvy,silver,biles and dugard if i remember right chris pidcock and david tyler at long eaton are another two who looked to be going places until injury intervened

was it ali stevens who suffered a serious back injury when he fell through a ceiling or a roof whilst working or was it paul bosley or is my mind playing tricks i just seem to remember this happening to a rider around the mid eighties

no potential world champs up here at glasgow but i always thought martin mckinna was going to be the best of the brothers but he was always getting into scrapes and hardly a season went by when he wasnt on the injured list at some point and most of his crashes were through no fault of his own he was just one of these riders who always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time another was jim beaton who many thought was going to be as good if not better than his brother bobby until he had his accident where he nearly lost his arm and wouldnt let the doctors amputate it because he still wanted to ride and we all know what happened a few seasons later all speedway riders are obviously brave and are a different breed but i think the bold jimbos exploits take some beating another tiger that springs to mind is graeme dawson and wee merv janke had a troublesome shoulder which i believe hampered his career

didnt they both also won the nl pairs at swindon that same year burton and it may even have been with five 5 - 1s

andy grahame and didnt john davis ride for oxford early in his career

a report from glasgow promoter dave thomson in the home prog dated 11 june 1983 against weymouth funnily enough "on saturday many supporters travelled down to belle vue for the nl pairs and how close our representatives jimmy and steve came to lifting the title let me tell you how it went in the heats we met middlesbrough canterbury and peterborough and superb riding by jimmy with excellent support from steve saw us take 5 - 1 5 - 1 and 4 - 2 respectivley with jimmy unbeaten so we were through to the semi and that saw us meet mildenhall and again a winning ride by jimmy and we were in the final favourites newcastle had lost to weymouth in the other semi so like tonights match it was the wildcats we had to beat we lost the toss for gate positions and martin yeates made a superb gate with jimmy chasing and passing him twice on lap two so into lap four and jimmy leading fairly comfortably as he entered the third bend when his bike failed and although the motor managed to take him over the line in second place martin yeates was through to win the title for the wildcats we could never have come closer without winning so tonight give a big cheer to the new pairs champions martin yeates and simon cross and the ryunners up jimmy and steve......oh the pain and for the record the wildcats beat us on the night 54 - 41 in the ko cup

only because jimmy macs engine gave up the ghost yards from the line whilst well clear falcace stevie lawson had already started celebrating at the back a sad day for the tigers fans but i take nothing away from yeates as i have said he was a rider i always enjoyed watching at blantyre

i remember super stevie lawson relieving him of his silver helmet but i also recall something that stuck in my mind that i had never noticed previously to that and that was yeates' bike it seemed so shiny with stickers and purred along which was a trait of southern based riders i always thought their machines seemed superior to the old rattlers the northern based riders rode but everyone is right he was a class act i always had a soft spot for weymouth and enjoyed them visiting blantyre with the likes of yeates,wigg,schofield,bear,woodward,cross,biles etc and grachan you are right about the british final in 84 and i think he went all the way to the commonwealth and overseas final

what about kevin armitage didnt we sign him from the defunct stags in 85 and i dont recall him making too many appearances in the stripes jim burdfield in 84 was another who didnt last very long

i remember glasgow "signing" mark fiora and dick barrie interviewing him on the centre green but he p!ssed off to the moanarchs before riding for us we also signed german tommy dunker during the shawfield era but red tape kept him out i think we also signed hungarian csaba hell who never rode we also brought over aussie michael carter at the start of 1991 he had one or two second half outings at shawfield i think then was in the team at loomer road suffered a broken ankle and we never seen him again he looked a decent prospect aswell

didnt joe also have a life threatening crash while at hull and was very lucky to survive i can always remember reading one of those rider profiles i cant remember the rider but he did mention seeing joe in the dressing room a while after that crash and commenting on how horrific his scars were the thing i remember about tom was seeing him standing on the centre green at blantyre one year and how out of shape his leg was it curved inwards didnt he miss a whole season with this badly broken leg 1980 or 81 and the diamonds used R/R all season they also met each other for the silver helmet did they not and i have heard diamonds fans commenting on how when they faced each other in second halves they were no holds barred affairs

glasgow white city were the tigers from 1946 CC although in meetings during the thirties they were known as the lions

sorry steve i should have read it more thoroughly before diving in

think crump will go close next year but i will be sticking a few jimmys on AJ

its all been done before in different guises and didnt work then and theres no reason it would work now even the best CL side wouldnt stand a chance at home against the worst PL side in the past there were a few surprises but they were very few and far between and back then there wasnt as much of a gap between the leagues when at least the second division clubs had three genuine heat leaders nowadays some are lucky to have two and the main reason the ILKOC,british cup,BSPA cup were all scrapped was because the top leagues fans just werent interested and they voted with their feet and it was costing the promotions money

i think there may be crossed wires here spin king i think maybe trackman thought you were refering to ken le breton and not jon jon white when you said he never got past the novice stage

it certaiinly would be spin king as he was the intellectual type which is rare for a speedway rider

you got the name correct spin king he called himself "the black knight" with his leathers and bike he also played on the scottish thing by wearing a tartan scarf dont quote me on this but i think he claimed to be have been born up here on the isle of skye or something weird like that but brought up in england blackpool rings a bell he first appeared at blantyre during second halves around 85/86 and i seem to remember him turning out during shawfields first year aswell and he was very much a character and became a cult figure amongst those of us who stayed on to watch the second half racing he recentley wrote the book about "the white ghost" ken le breton graham the glasgow fan who reads this forum can correct me here hes pretty clued up about all things glasgow

mmmmm......jimmy mac or bertola harkins perchance? what about a piece on the middleditch's baillie house where riders,fans and promoters alike all used to stay i am sure there must be a tale or two to tell from there although i am sure someone will be on saying none of them printable

tom hedley 7th january 1988

said it before but neil mcfarlane and old jimmy beaton would be an interesting read