Grachan

Anyone who thinks Steve is just stirring here should read John Berry's 'Confessions' book. He mentions a England v USA test match at Ipswich where the entire USA Team were acting, shall we say, unnaturally in the pits. I don't think you can blame anyone for Mike Lee's downfall other than Mike himself though.

It certainly makes less difference to match results than the old TS rule. I went through a few matches in 2004 to see how it might have gone under the old TS rules and there was little difference. Actually, in general the TS rule made matches closer. When Swindon lost at Oxford in 2004 I think it would have probably been 1 point closer if the TS when 6 points down had been used (using the same criteria - if the TR race was won, then assuming the on TS race would have been etc.) Since then, of course, it was changed from 8 points to 9 points before it can be used, making it even less likely to change a match than the old TS rule. It doesn't make matches closer than they were before. It makes them less close. Some people do complain about it being unfair, but it's no more unfair than the old rules - probably less so. The trouble is, it's just so damn stupid!

So what you are saying is that we cannot comment on the standards of certain speedway riders at the risk of causing offence. Is this not, to all intents and purposes, Political Correctness and has it not, in fact, gone COMPLETELY mad!! The classic Unsuccesful Americans were, of course, Mike Bast and Bruce Penhall in the 1977(?) Overseas Final at White City.

What about the legend that was Mickey Rooney! John Cook's mechanic who came in to the USA for one Test match because they were a man short. It's a mad, mad, etc etc.

Lance King did get to World no 3, so he didn't do too badly!!

Must say, I'm surprised he was averaging that, because I can't remember him doing much. Selective memory maybe, but that would make him on a par with Shawn McConnell and I just didn't see that at all. John Davis was a pretty good signing though. Certainly a better move than dropping Per Sorensen for Finn Thomsen. Bart Bast is still riding over in the States, and the last I heard his father was still riding too!

Not forgetting our own Bart Bast too, who turned out to be a big disappointment.

Dewayne Keeter was killed just after I started going to speedway, so it must have been 1974. The first I heard of him was this headline on a newspaper hoarding fixed to the Swindon safety fence on the first/second bend.

I believe it wasn't even a case of Penhall asking him. What allegedly happened was Stancl went up to him before the race and said not to worry as he wouldn't get in his way.

No more unfair than the old Tactical Sub rule, but much much much more silly.

I remember it quite well. It was The Sunday People, and must have been the early to mid 80s, because it involved Siomn Wigg in some way, though I'm not exactly sure how, although I do remember being at Wolverhampton soon after an Wiggy getting booed while walking round the track with Billy Saunders before the meeting. Saunders promptly leapt over the fence and confronted a supporter standing very close to me face to face, telling him to support the riders in this situation. There were all sorts of allegations of people throwing races etc. One rather amusing allegation was that when Bruce Penhall won the World Championship in 1981, Jiri Stancl let him finish ahead of him in the final race so that Bruce could be World Champion. It may sound ludicrous on the face ot it - Penhall being World Champ because Stancl let him, but if you get a chance to watch that heat on video bearing this in mind, it does make for interesting viewing (particularly Dave Lanning's commentry about Penhall and Stancl apparently 'playing to the gallery'). I also recall the headline in Speedway Star that week was 'Black Sunday', and there was a follow-up story the week after, where Chris Pusey sold his own 'fixing' story to the paper and received a right slagging in Speedway Star that week for doing so.

In that case, there's a definite case for an exclusion on the first bend. I bet the ref never had the use of a video replay or the guy off the inside would have been out of there! Rider in red - excluded - foot on ground.

It was quite a surprise to see just how slow they were going I have to say!

It's not great quality and fairly short, but I've downloaded it and you can see it HERE.

John Louis coming off at Reading on the second bend, his bike then getting up on its own and going down the back straight in a straight line all on its own before hitting the fence on bend three.

I can't remember the exact circumstances, but in 1975 Oxford used a guest for John Davis (who had signed for Reading) in their opening match. The guest they used was.......John Davis! Brian L's post also reminds me of a snowy day in Oxford - also in 1975 - when Cradley decided they had had enough and went home, leaving Oxford to ride on their own to win 58-14.

Lee is in there virtue of his nationality and nothing else, which is probably part of what Hans is complaining about. The thing is, though, if Lee wasn't in the GP there would only be one British rider, as he is still more deserving than any other British rider at the moment. As long as there is no qualifying system then this is the kind of decision that will be made. It is no surprise to see Zagar in the GP, but in reality is he any more worthy of inclusion than someone like, for example, Simon Stead who, in my eyes, is a year ahead of Zagar developement wise. Yet, Steady being British, he's not even close. If Zagar were British, or Danish for that matter, he'd be nowhere near to being in the GP. If Simon Stead was Slovenian he'd be as big a name as Zagar Worldwide and be in next year's GP. There simply HAS to be a proper qualifying system. Top 8 in for next year - fine, I wouldn't argue with that. The rest have to be in there through qualification. There's no other way that makes this a valid series. Ivan Mauger is right once again.

Woo hooo, he'll miss loads of Reading matches.

I think Canterbury closed because they forgot to apply for a license or something totally ridiculous like that. I went to the site of the old stadium a while back, just to see where it was, and was amazed there was still wasteland there and you could still make out the shape of the track (it was actually me who took the photos on the website, showing how the stadium looked at that time). I spent quite a while there justwandering about imagining speedway going on in the area. It was a really wierd experience.

Great race, though - young Ole's opening ride. I was on the edge of my seat for that one.

Ah, but Bernie shouldn't have even been in the run-off because he should have been excluded from his second heat! It was, though, a very good performance by said Heathen, if a little, shall we say, 'Pedersen-esque'. On the subject of the 1972 World Final - how daft was Ole Olsen to throw it all away like that in his first ride? I have this meeting on DVD. It's regularly available on ebay.

Maybe you could also interview Barry Briggs and get his opinion on Bernie Persson's in the 1972 World Final.

If you read the post, it says rode in 'a British league', rather than 'the British League', so the NL would qualify under that description had she ridden in it - which, apparently, she hadn't. If it wasn't her, then I suspect there wasn't another female rider who rode in a league, although I do remember there being another one around at the same time but can't remember her name.

Lisa Whibberley?

Possibly the same stuff I have from the early 90s. Coincidentally, I watched an old highlights tape the other day and was surprised by two things. One was the fact that Henka was totally amazing, and was passing anyone he wanted at will. The other was just how good Gary Havelock was. Not sure about putting him in Backtrack, though. He is in the Oxford team this year, after all. (Mind you, who isn't. Ho ho ho.)