Grachan

Which was added three days after I asked the original question - possibly because I did.

Well, is it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Autrey Certainly the same year of birth according to my ever reliable 1975 Who's who of British Speedway.

Radio Swindon are doing it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire A shared broadcast apparently, so probably thew same one as Radio Suffolk.

Bob Kilby was always entertaining when he broke the tapes. High spot of the night, that was. Anyway - Shawn McConnell was/is the most entertaining rider EVER.

Swindon v Sheffield. April 10th 1976. Doug Wyer rode at no 5. Swindon won 53-25. Doug scored 13 - more than half the Sheffield total. Reg Wilson at 1. R/R for Arnold Haley at 3. What else? Bob Kilby won the second half from Tommy Jansson (who was there for the Golden Helmet).

So he had British parents, was born in Britain, but is half Aussie? Shurly shome mishtake. Anyway, if Tai was born in the UK to an English father and Aussie mother then he is probably proud of both nationalities. It's not his fault he has to choose one. If he wants to be Australian rather than British then it's up to him. It might have nothing to do with speedway issues. He might just love the country.

Has to be a good decision. I can't remember the last time I was actually looking forward to watching a British Final! It would be nice to see a youngster like Stead or Kennett getting it, but if they get beaten then fair enough. A little bit of qualification for the GP - no matter how small - goes a long way.

Nope. That was me. Because he was.

There's no kerb at Peterborough.

Irrelevant. I was responding to your original comment, not comparing the two leagues. Of course I picked the weakest team. That was the team that proved the case.

The original comment was: "any Swedish team would beat any British team any day and you know it" so, obviously, I picked one that wouldn't. Not a lot else to say about it, really.

Absolutely. I have no doubt that a team of: Magnus Zetterstrom, Kaj Laukkenen, Piotr Protasiewicz, Roman Provazhny, Simon Gustafsson, Niklaus Kingberg and Henka Gustafsson would have the teams in the EL shaking with terror!

Looking at the footage from the first High Beech meeting it didn't seem to have much in the way of speed either!

That is correct. I was always taught that when 'they' fits use 'who' and when 'them' fits use 'whom'. Shame you forgot about the question mark though!

Winning race times perhaps?

Stuart Mountford was/is Phil Herne's cousin.

Although I don't recall the meeting personally, I do have Speedway Star with the report of the 1967 British Final. Barry Briggs won it. France came 5th with 11. The comment in the magazine about Rick France says: The number one surprise qualifier and the most courageous rider of the night. Rick had the dislocated shoulder he sustained at Hackney ten days earlier well strapped and padded and still rode suberbly. His heat 1 scrap with Boocock was one of the best races of the night and while he was never content with second place he finished in front only once - when he beat Eric Boocock. We should all be thankful that we have riders with the guts of Rick France at Wembley. According to the report, the track was excellent - so good that riders rarely made mistakes so the quality of racing was something of a disappointment. Nigel Boocock broke the track record in that opening heat with France when he finished in a time of 71.2, yet failed to qualify.

I quite liked the system in a way as it made each race seem more important throughout the match. It's certainly fair way to decide the points. Slight negatives though. The final didn't seem to be quite so important as it did in the past, and Nicki's celebrations seemed slightly muted as he must have already known that he had the meeting in the bag. Also, I do think the top scorer should be meeting winner rather than the winner of the final - like they used to do (still do?) with Long Track meetings. Overall, though, I think it's a pretty good system, but my guess is it won't last long as the final isn't quite so dramatic.

Ask him why he turned up for a World Team Cup final with just one bike.

I did see the 'Far East' mentioned too in Speedway Star, which I suppose could mean places like China (Hong Kong?) or Japan. I'm sure there would be a massive market in these places if it was promoted well.

It must have been mid/late 80s when the ban was lifted. I think it was Maxine Hill who was the first female rider to emerge, and Lisa Whibberley was also around at that time. I guess it was the emergence of these two who got it lifted. I know Julie Cross rode some indoor meetings, but I don't remember her doing conventional speedway. I might be wrong though.

Thanks for that LW. Whatever happened to Savalas Clouting?

Ah, the year of the 6 man teams. Very strange. Not a bad top 4 though, was it? How good was Scott Nicholls back then?

In the Speedway Star Preview edition Jon Cook compared this year's Swindon side to the Ipswich side of 1998. I have vague memories of Ipswich having a great side then, but they are a bit dimmed as I wasn't paying much attention in those days. I just wondered what that side was and what it achieved. After all, it is cited on Wikepedia and the Ipswich website as being one of the greatest sides ever. Must be going some to beat Cradley 1983.

It says in Speedway Star this week that the England v NZ match in 1973 was in Leicester. However, this match was rained off. The semi-final of the Daily Mirror Tournament was England v New Zealand, and was staged at Belle Vue.