lucifer sam

Not necessarily in this order, but I'd go for: Fundin, Mauger, Nielsen, Duggan, Penhall, Gundersen, Rickardsson, Moore, Craven and Briggs. On a different day, I might include Young, Crump, Milne or Wilkinson. PS Norbold, I agree regarding Lionel Van Praag - a much better rider than he's given credit for! All the best Rob

Not that at all. It's to inform people to check the press on Thursday. All the best Rob

The current stadium is known as the Abbey Stadium. Not sure what the new stadium is due to be called. All the best Rob

Rosco talking about the World Under-21 round taking place next JULY.... at the ABBEY. All the best Rob

Sid, but you can say the same about any era. To play devil's advocate for a second, what about Briggo? Did he get a bit lucky? Ronnie Moore was the class rider for a few years, topping the National League averages, winning the World title in 1954, and finishing second in '55/'56. He retired in 1957 to try his hand in stock cars, only returning in mid-1958. Briggo won his first two World titles in these years. By the time that Briggo won his third title in 1964, Moore had retired again and Peter Craven was dead. Fundin was more-or-less in semi-retirement after the closure of Norwich in 1964. And Ove was suspended from the 1966 final, where Briggo won title No 4. Was Briggo actually the fourth best of the 'big five' and lucky to win more titles than Moore and Craven? Just to point out again that I'm playing devil's advocate and Briggo was obviously a great rider. Less sure about Parker, but Duggan has to be in the top ten, if not top five. All the best Rob PS Norbold, while researching the New Cross moments for the forthcoming Classic Speedway (including reading a rather good book called Out Of The Frying Pan), I've decided Jack Milne was the best of the pre-war speedway riders. Showed consistency in '37 and '38 that no other rider matched pre-war. I think I'd place Mr Farndon in third behind Mr Milne and Mr Wilkinson. But even across a relatively short period, it's so hard to judge, because e.g. Farndon and Milne's careers did not coincide.

All to be revealed on Thursday. All the best Rob

Mr Godfrey is also keen to do that! Check the Speedway Star / Scunthorpe Telegraph / Scunthorpe website on Thursday All the best Rob

What's happened to Crawley - are they no longer running in 2017? All the best Rob

The averages that people were quoting did not take into account the away match at Newcastle, which took place after the cut-off for the October Green Sheet averages. The BSPA website now has the final averages. All the best Rob

I had John Louis in my meeting in place of Neil Evitts. The Sunday People are investigating. All the best Rob

Maybe you're right. I didn't see the best of Carter. But I doubt if those other riders would have lost a run-off for the title to Steve Bastable, especially after gating first. Carter could put in indifferent performances - I remember the single point he scored in a test match at Oxford in 1985. Ironically he was fully fit on that occasion; unlike his heroics at Cowley with a broken leg in 1984. The bloke certainly had guts. He wasn't a PC (either one) or a Mike Lee. It is all down to opinions, and only two of us have been brave enough to put up our top ten so far All the best Rob

Mediocre will do me My record as assistant TM was far better than TM. And yes the Conference set up was cracking. The riders; their dads; Bryn and Waggy; the whole lot was fantastic. Rambo didn't need a gap - he created them. How exciting were Rambo and Cocker as a pairing at the end of '85? All the best Rob

Away at Belle Vue in 2005. We lost 43-52, but they were top, we were bottom, and we'd lost by 25 and 35 on our two previous visits there that year, so I'm claiming a moral victory That was amazing - managing a team with Greg, Billy, NKI and Travis in it!! Also away at Scunny in 2007 - quite a big loss that one (35-58). But Rob Godfrey came over at the end, shook me by the hand, and said we'd put up the best fight there that year and the lads were battling to the end of Heat 15, when Jordan Frampton ruined Josh Auty's maximum (no-one could stop Woffy's!). That Scunny team was the strongest team the third tier has ever seen, no shame in getting turned over by them! Plus our first race win was the TR (for Jordan), which suggests I was awake and doing my job!! I did it twice, and I was only allowed to be team manager away at the league leaders when we were on a hiding to nothing To be honest, though, even better than either of those was helping out Bryn in the away meetings in 2005 as assistant TM, when the OSMA lads won the league. Ben getting hurt at Stoke was a big low, as was getting stuffed at Newport with two-thirds of the team missing. But the lows makes the highs all the better. The 46-44 win at Rye House - which we did with three missing riders - was one of the best experiences of my life. We nailed that one and it made all the difference come the end of the season. I only told Millsy how crucial the win was in context to our season after he completed his paid 18 point maximum! All the best Rob

Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, wasn't it? All the best Rob

Don't rub it in - we know our team manager was a chocolate teapot that day. As soon as Heat 1 took place, we are puzzled how the supplementary reserve was replacing a non-injured reserve. To compound the error, having taken a 45-39 lead, our riders conceded the 5-1 in Heat 15 thinking it was all over, only for the appeal to then go in and the score-line be adjusted to 45-45. All the best Rob

Agreed - Tim Sugar was a very good team manager and knew the rulebook inside out. You couldn't get anything past him. All the best Rob

We're talking about a Champions Of Champions British Final meeting, though. All are good riders and some have to miss out. In my opinion, Carter would struggle to finish in the top ten against that kind of company. Nearly all the other riders are more decorated than him - KC won two British Finals, two BLRCs and a World Pairs and that's about it. Not much when you stack it against the other riders in the list, some of whom have a huge list of individual honours. Also, Carter lost the 1981 British Final to Steve Bastable. With all due respect to Stevie B, he's probably the weakest British Champ, and I can't imagine him winning e.g. against Louis/Simmo/PC were at their pomp in the mid-70s. Yet he beat Carter in '81. It's tricky when comparing eras. I would rate e.g. Joe Screen above Kenny Carter. Screen was amazingly good during his Bradford years. Others will disagree and place KC above Joe. All the best Rob

Ok, I'll nail my colours to the mast for the 10 qualifiers to the Commonwealth Final: 1. Peter Craven 2. Peter Collins 3. Michael Lee 4. Mark Loram 5. John Louis 6. Malcolm Simmons 7. Dave Jessup 8. Simon Wigg 9. Gary Havelock 10. Joe Screen (Reserve. Kenny Carter) All the best Rob

There's a four-generation Dugard dynasty, with Martin Dugard the best of them. All the best Rob

Middlo would probably admit that Neil Street was Poole's best team manager. He started the production line of Australian talent, that has served Poole well through to the current day. Neil Street bringing in Craig Boyce, Leigh Adams, Tony Langdon, Gary Allan, etc, started that trend. Bernard had an outstanding record. Team manager in 1985 - won the BL. Same in 1986. And then quit early in 1987. His record was 2 out of 2 at the top level - does any manager have a 100% winning record in top tier speedway? I think Bernard was ruthless with the tactics and very good at managing the riders and getting the most out of them. All the best Rob

Going by stats alone and awarding 3-2-1 to the top three places: 1 Joe Screen 19 (2-6-1) 2 Kelvin Tatum 13 (2-3-1) 3 Michael Lee 12 (2-3-0) 4 Chris Louis 12 (2-2-2) 5= Mark Loram 10 (3-0-1) 5= Andy Smith 10 (3-0-1) 7 Dave Jessup 10 (1-2-3) 8 Kenny Carter 9 (2-1-1) 9 Peter Craven 8 (2-1-0) 10= Simon Wigg 7 (2-0-1) 10= Gary Havelock 7 (2-0-1) 12 Peter Collins 7 (1-1-2) 13= Chris Morton 6 (1-1-1) 13= Andy Grahame 6 (1-1-1) 15 Neil Evitts 5 (1-1-0) 16 Malcolm Simmons 5 (1-0-2) 17 Eric Boocock 5 (1-0-2) 18 John Louis 4 (1-0-1) Although it should be pointed out that Craven scored his 8 points from only 3 finals, before his premature death. IMO Craven, Collins and Lee are the actual top three. All the best Rob

Local derbies with Eastbourne next season? All the best Rob

Slightly confused as how we're discussing the merits of the riders around Hyde Road, a track that never staged a single British Final. Surely any British Final Champion Of Champions would took place at Brandon, the spiritual home for the event. Of course, the BLRC Champion Of Champions would take place at Hyde Road. All the best Rob

Andy Grahame finished on the rostrum of three successive British Finals (1982-1984), with a win, second place and third place apiece... in a competitive era too. He probably has a better British Final record then several of the riders who have been included. All the best Rob

I think there's going to be hundreds with a "q" somewhere in their name. Beginning with Q seems much rarer. So far we have: Chris Quigley Allan Quinn Aston Quinn Bob Quick Cyril Quick Craig Quinn T(?) Quick Any more? Any first names beginning with a Q? No Quincy's? All the best Rob