lucifer sam

Keep a lookout on the Scunny website later this evening. All the best Rob

Hi everyone, a reminder that Oxford Speedway needs you in attendance at the Chequers, Headington Quarry on Thursday (7pm). We need to be there in numbers. All the best Rob

Yes, that's a great deal of help with whether Brian Crutcher (Southampton) or an unattached Norwegian was reserve at the 1957 World Final. Mind you, the matter is settled now, as both John Hyam and Danny Carter (aka Eric Linden) reported that he was there in contemporary reports. All the best Rob

Krasnikov wins with a round to spare and then goes easy in the final round. He's still the best rider by far, isn't he? All the best Rob

Arnie, I suggest Troy Butler was a rather better rider than you suggest. 1986 Australian Champion; 1988 NLRC Winner; World Finalist; World U-21 Finalist; twice British League champion (with Oxford in 1985 and 1989); a successful ride in the last-heat-decider of the 1985 KO Cup, defeating Jeremy Doncaster, to help the Cheetahs to the silverware; 23 points in the semi-final in the 1989 World Paris semi-final; reached the Inter-Continental Final in 1990, a year after being on parade at Munich; regular Australian international. All the best Rob

Speedway Star - October 5, 1957 Page Four: Danny Carter's Gossip'N'Gas Mentions the riders down the pits helping others: "1950 and 1953 World Champion, Freddie Williams, was looking after Ian Williams. Swindon team manger, Bob Jones, an ex-Robin, assisted Bob Roger and George White. Another Swindon rider, Neil Street, came along to help Jack Geran. Former Belle Vue and Stoke star, Harold Jackson, was with Peter Craven and Ron Johnston; Bert Crouch-er came up with Brian Crutcher, while Ray Cresp was ready to aid his Oxford team mate Jack Biggs, should he have been called upon to ride." All the best Rob PS The filter on this site is doing something very strange with Bert Crouch-er's name, hence the dash in the middle.

Taylor Poole has quit: http://scunthorpescorpions.co/?p=4644 All the best Rob

For those of you interested in The saga of Oxford stadium , Councillor Bob Price will be coming to The Chequers Quarry at 7pm next Thursday 7-1-16 to tell every...body what the council feel the future of the stadium will be ! If you'd like to ask any questions or hear it first hand feel free to come along .....

Speedway Star. It's a compilation of all their World Final reports from the 70s, but on proper paper and all in one place. Lots of new photos, additional material from Tony Mac from his subsequent interviews with riders, plus a new interview with Jerzy Szczakiel. Highly recommended - I've read it virtually cover-to-cover since getting it for Xmas. All the best Rob

How Szczakiel performed at Wembley is immaterial. The World Final was about who was the best rider on the day - and he was the best rider on the day in Katowice. He gained every one of his 13 points fair and square, and wasn't involved in any controversial incidents (Mauger's fall in the run-off was completely of his own making). Szczakiel deserved to win the meeting. If Plech had been in the run-off and won, the highly controversial events of the fixed Heat 16 would have been the big story. And it would have given the Sunday People even more ammunition come 1984. It's just as well things shaped out as they did. All the best Rob

It is a public meeting at Chequers Quarry. Q&A session with leader of City Council Bob Price. 7th January at 7pm. All the best Rob

Ref could not give it to Plech... big hole in the rules at the time, which meant once a race had finished, positions had to be awarded in the order that (non-excluded) riders had finished. FIM rules changed after this - the race still had to finish before it could be awarded, but ref could award positions at time of incident. Technically, the referee was correct, although he had put on the red lights, Plech would have got a re-run. Lanning probably unhappy about Heat 16, when Jancarz moved aside to let Plech gain an extra point. Just as well that Szczakiel won the meeting - a rider who didn't receive any favours from anyone else. He beat Mauger twice and was a deserving winner. All the best Rob

Dekks, you been on the Christmas wine early or summat? You're making no sense. All the best Rob

Dekks, have you confused Nicki Pedersen for Ryan Fisher? Here's a clue for you. One of those two is a multi-World Champ; the other is a never-will-be. All the best Rob

Norbold, no Arne Pander? All the best Rob

Because otherwise when we die out, speedway dies out. Very interesting to read the thoughts of Grachan's 12-year-old. I think the fascination of working how to fill the programme was something that really helped drag me in around the age of 7 or 8. In football, unless the player is a striker, it's quite hard to monitor how an individual player compares to the rest of his team. In speedway, every rider gets a result in every race. More should be done to appeal to the inner nerd that lies inside most young lads. All the best Rob Yes, trying to second guess the team managers. And sometimes you were convinced actually, e.g. John Tremblin, got that wrong - I could have done the tacticals better than that!! All the best Rob

And don't forget Hannah Cockroft, despite the BBC's attempts to ignore Paralympic Sport. All the best Rob

"Would of"? No, he never "would of" Sid. Would have, maybe. Olsen was a fantastic rider at his peak, no doubt, but Mauger - apart from at Wembley - tended to have his measure. Olsen's record away from Wembley: one win, one third (both in Gothenburg). Never finished on the rostrum in Poland. Mauger was a real force in every country - two titles in GB, two titles in Sweden, two titles in Poland. Mauger would have won over 12 rounds most years. All the best Rob

Ivan's great season was '75 rather than '76. There was no one rider massively ahead in 1976, although PC won both the Inter-Continental Final and the World Final. It was in 1977 when PC was injured, just before the World Final. Ran over a drain cover at Belle Vue, He finished second in Gothenburg, in agony with his leg. Before that, he was on awesome form. All the best Rob

Mauger won have been hard to stop from 1968 to 1975, although Olsen might have just about achieved it in 1972, and Michanek had an exceptional season in 1973. Around 1976, it would have become a bit more open, PC was flying by then and Olsen also had some very good years. And then Lee came along and would have been a very serious contender in 1979. IMO I think Ivan would have won around 7 to 9 titles. All the best Rob

Yet both Starman and TWK have flouted forum rules with bigoted comments and foul-mouthed outbursts and yet are still posting on here. All the best Rob

What strikes me as very odd was the massive decline in Lewis Hamilton's vote from 12 months ago. Winning a third world title is a better achievement than winning a second and moves him into the ranks of the all-time greats. How odd that he received a mere fraction of the votes he did 12 months ago. Nothing to do with the BBC's announcement the following day that they are dropping F1, I suppose? A cynic would suggest that someone is making up the voting figures. All the best Rob

I think the only club with that level of financial resources would be Glasgow. They didn't want to move up for 2016 - I'm not sure beyond that. All the best Rob

I'm going to reserve my prediction for when all 13 teams are complete. At the moment, Glasgow, Workington, Scunthorpe and Sheffield seem to have the most room for improvement within the averages of their seven riders. We'll see what Edinburgh and Newcastle look like when we have a full 1-7. All the best Rob

Yeah, Nicki totally dominated in 2007 and 2008 - completely deserved. He was fortunate that Crump lost points to engine failures in 2003 - Crumpie was not a rider who had sub-standard machinery, he just had e/fs at the wrong time. Especially the one in the semi in Slovenia, which put Crump out of the final and Nicki into it. Huge swing of points there. But Nicki still had to go out there and get the points, and kept his cool in the decider in Norway. And maybe the luck went the other way in 2012. With one single refereeing decision being made another way, Nicki might have nicked it from Chris Holder at the death. All the best Rob