lucifer sam

Arne Pander is a prime candidate for this one! It should also be pointed out that it wasn't just the injuries, but also his decision to prioritise riding in Britain, which didn't go down well with the Danish authorities. Arne took out British citizenship and entered the British qualifying rounds in 1966, having missed out in a few key seasons in the meantime.

Vic Duggan, Vic Duggan, Vic Duggan, Vic Duggan and Vic Duggan. Easily the best rider in the world for a number of seasons between 1946 and 1949, yet never World Champion. Even given CHR has used 1948 as the start-date and therefore Duggan's incredible 1947 season is missed out, Duggan was still far ahead in 1948, and won the biggest event of the year. Never has another rider been so utterly dominant and not ended up as a World Champion.

My track (Oxford) closed in 2007, so you have my sympathies. I go to Scunthorpe most Fridays during the season. Very friendly lot up there - you'd be very welcome.

Cocker was bloody amazing in that meeting - I remember his full throttle battle with Chris Morton. Awesome! Munkedal just never got it going at Oxford. Normally, Hans could take a fellow Dane and get him to up his performance. Per Sorensen was the classic example. For some reason, it just didn't happen with Lars. We probably should have dropped him before we did. I can understand why he was more popular with the Wolves' fans - especially as he was part of the '91 championship side.

I remember that meeting at Belle Vue - it was a double-header with Wolves and Oxford. We commented at the time how good it would be to have a reserve like Munkedal. The following year we had him and he was shocking. You'd have Hans Nielsen slowing down the whole race, by pinning the other two riders to the white line on the second bend in his trademark style, and Munkedal would turn the throttle off and stay at the back. Munkedal had some talent, but either lacked the belief or the desire.

New sponsors for Scorpions: http://www.scunthorpe-speedway.com/?p=9611

Not keen on team suits. I think back to Oxford in the 1980s, and we had Hans in sleek black leathers, Wiggy in distinctive day-glo green, Cocker in his chequered-leathers, etc. The leathers were an extension of the personality of each rider. Team suits and that's lost. Not only that, but it's a significant cost that most clubs simply cannot afford.

Wonder if we should actually start a 2020 thread for this http://www.scunthorpe-speedway.com/?p=9607 That's what you call forward planning!

Ht 11: Barker, Hack, Naylor, Hooper Ht 13: Naylor, Hack, Barker, Hollingsbee

Track in fine condition and prepared to take the rain today. All systems go for tomorrow.

Forecast looks fine for Sunday. Come along and give Ricky Ashworth a cheer.

Rider with the most misspelt name in British Speedway... Mike Broadbank. Mind you, if he was bothered about it, he would have pointed it out to the editor of the Swindon Speedway programme.

Sid, no need to get upset. It's just a discussion. I know people sometimes wind you up something rotten, nobody is trying to do that on this thread. We simply disagreed regarding Billy Sanders being a major threat to Erik & Hans at Bradford in 1985 and subsequent finals.

Indeed - Lance was young enough to come on strong again after signing for Bradford in 1986. He didn't reach another World Final after '85. You can't blame him for deciding to make some money from speedway, and prioritise that before chasing World Championship success. I was just adding another IF

Correct. Billy's best chance was in 1984, around his beloved Gothenburg, and he was nowhere near. Sentiment makes you want to believe he could have won a title, but for his tragic demise. Logic suggests otherwise.

If Lance King had stayed at Cradley in 1985, and the flow of his career not been interrupted... There's another But here's a counter IF... IF Erik Gundersen hadn't been seriously injured, what would have happened? At the time of his injury, Erik looked like capable of winning more, while Hans had won three out of the last four titles. So what were we looking at? Erik a 6-time champion and Hans a 8-time champion? The other way around? How long into the 1990s would the domination continued, with a fit Erik and an unfettered Hans?

And indeed Penhall, Carter and Sanders did not pick up career-ending speedway injuries either. The only one from Sid's list to be ruled out by injury was Sigalos. The rest ruled themselves out, one way or another.

Sid, some of those riders were still around at the start of the Erik/Hans domination period and couldn't do anything about it.

Sorry, don't buy that Sid. With the possible exception of Dennis Sigalos and given that Penhall actually chose to quit speedway (there weren't any other circumstances in his case), none of the above would have troubled the domination of the two Danes between 1984 and 1989.

I agree. Billy's big chance was around his favourite track in 1984, and he was nowhere near. He'd already been well-and-truly eclipsed by Gundersen and Nielsen in that meeting.

That was the last home meeting. At Reading in the evening, he trailed around at the back of Heat 13 and then refused to go out in Heat 15, and Aaron Lanney blasted him over the PA. Todd Wiltshire was ready to come in, so Rickardsson's stint was ended two weeks early. As I said, I think his interest in speedway was already slipped. It slipped further when Crump started giving him a good hiding in the GP series.

Tony Rickardsson got booted out of the team two weeks early and was replaced by Todd Wiltshire. The first meeting with Todd was a home win over Coventry, with the team spirit completely transformed. To be fair, I think Rickardsson had already lost interest in speedway – with hindsight, he should have retired on top of the podium in 2005.

I was mulling including Leigh Adams of Greg Hancock for Oxford. But, at the end of day, Todd Wiltshire rode for six seasons with Oxford, rather than two or three, and god knows what would have happened he had not come out of retirement in 2006. I don't think we'd have lasted that season. Todd was a loyal servant to Oxford - there was also the time he missed GP practice to ride for the club. The only "short term" Oxford rider I included was Ron How. But he was No 1 of a treble-winning-side in 1964 and the club's first World Finalist that same season.

But it would be a bit daft for e.g. an Oxford fan to pick Tony Rickardsson, just because he did a handful of appearances for the club. I'm sticking with what they've done for the club.

I think it has to be for the club.