speedyguy

Hey fellas! Cycle speedway is not men only! http://www.spokesman-online.co.uk/35.html http://www.spokesman-online.co.uk/page_149.html

I have now worked out how to get The Spokesman articles. There is a Topic Title in the centre, then go to the index on the left (there's a column of them) and click on the one that you wish to enter. Simple as that - except for me apparently.

Here's another good link. I assume the articles listed will open when clicked on? http://www.britishcy...k/cyclespeedway Sadly, I have tried the link to The Spokesman http://www.spokesman...o.uk/index.html and found the list of articles all neatly dated but cannot find out how to open them? Help please?

Is there going to be a history section on the website recalling past leagues of this type? There was a Junior League of sorts in the mid-1930s and certainly one in the 1949 season.

There was an Anglia Junior League in 1953. I found some details on the Speedway Researcher site when looking up Rayleigh. Their team included Pete Mould, Eric Ebbs and Bert Little.

The reason I gave the tram story was because it is that "essential" for all historical researchers - the primary source. When that is wrong errors will be repeated for perpetuity. There is no way that a researcher can know it was wrong - and subsequent errors and corrections will go unnoticed.

ELITE LEAGUE FIXTURES APRIL 2012 Sunday April 8 Horspath v Wednesfield Leicester v Ipswich Sheffield v Poole Sunday April 15 Wednesfield v Birmingham Sunday April 22 Birmingham v Sheffield Ipswich v Poole Wednesfield v Leicester

Well the passage of time for more than 60 years has got me! Firstly, the East End team I rode for around 1952 and run by Vic Duffy was NOT Beckton Aces as I "claimed" but Ferndale Stars. They were based on a track near the Ferndale pub by the entrance to one of the Docks. That was where we used to go to in convoy after meeting as a group near the old Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. I was already tired out by then having cycled to the meeting place from the Lewisham area. Nor were the Beckton Aces in Ellesmere Street, Poplar. They were members of the East London League and had a track in Manor Way in the area where there was - or still could be - a ski practice slope.

I have never had a reason to do that. I have only been to the Colindale newspaper library twice - once to research Canadiian riders arriving in the UK in 1938, the other time to do some research on the move by Crystal Palace Speedway to New Cross in the 1933-34 winter, both times through the 'Speedway News' files. I can see no problem if a race is described as being over a two-mile distance. It's surely the shape and size of a track that is the criteria. If, as we accept speedway today, the track was oval and a quarter-mike (440 yards or less) then it was on a speedway track. Two-mile distance is surely no problem - it only means the race was over eight laps. In more modern times we have seen races over longer distances staged on British tracks. Of course, if the description two mile distance is not in regard to the racing distance but the size of the track, then I do agree that it could not have been speedway.

The only team from that area I have a record of is Sydenham Stars but I don't know when or where they raced.

That's a good question: 1928-1932. 1932-39. 1946-50. 1951-1969. 1970-1994. 1995 to date. Please don't ask me to qualify them but your own research will show you various major changes took place in these periods. A quick one 1928-32 to standardisation of racing bikes fulffiled. Or from 1951 the eventual end for deep cinder tracks and disappearance of the legtrail riders. Have fun yourself going in depth in the periods I give. Sadly, these days I no longer have the will or interest to make lengthy obesrvations about these periods. And I have no doubt there are historians already preparing to debunk what my opinions. I admire and respect Vic Huxley as a speedway legend but he was in at speedway's beginings, and carved his name as a legtrailer, competed on deep cinder tracks with a bike that would be far from competitive on today's tracks against say Greg Hancock for example. But apart from in our imagination there is no way we can ever match them. Of course one can also theorise this with a reversal of that hypothetical race and most likely get a different result.

He was quite probably in his own era. That I don't dispute but how do you eventually evaluate him with the many developments in the sport from when he was racing to what we have now?

The records for the era when Vic Huxley raced the 1920s into the mid-1930s indicate him as an all-time great for that period. But the sport technically, racing styles, the tracks and equipment-wise for that time is so different to what we now have it is impossible to compare Huxley with the top men of present times.

Chasing youngsters is the name of the game these days! Not like the late good old 1940s when guys like Harold MacNaughton at 38 years and Tom Oakley about the same age came into speedway. Both went on to race at National League Division One level for New Cross and also win England international honours at Division Two standard.

I wonder if the mods have yet spotted an interest for cycle speedway and will decide to set up a special discussion section for the sport? The main season gets underway in a couple of weeks - and there is overseas interest including Holland, Australia and the USA.

I completely forgot about Ivan Mauger and South London Rangers. Wasn't Ernie Baker in the same side?

This interest in cycle speedway obviously indicates that a forum/discussion for the sport should be stablished ASAP on this site? It does have links with 'proper' speedway. Many late 1940s and early 1950s riders graduated from cycle speedway to the motorcycle version.

This Post is a valid reflection on the problems that face historians. You cannot always believe what you read in the Press. A case in point: When the last tram in London ran between New Cross Gate and Woolwich in the early 1950s, there was a major mistake in the report in the following edition of the 'South London Press.' In a further edition some weeks later, the mistake was corrected on the letters page. However, over the years when articles have been written about London's last tram, the original error is quoted. Then comes the usual corrections on the letters page - which are ignored when next the original article is quoted. That can happen in regard to what is now being accepted as gospel in regard to newspaper coverage of the "start of speedway" in 1923. Are we 100 per cent sure they are accurate accounts or are researchers assuming they are? It's what's known in the newspaper trade as the perpetuating error. West Maitland 1923 - did Johnnie Hoskins start speedway. Or did he NOT start speedway racing? How can we be 100 per cent sure either way?

I don't know. I'm a South Londoner - originally from Deptford. I think that I went to the track about three times. Then they dropped me!!! They didn't seem to like reserves who came in half a lap behind the other three riders!

My first speedway hero was Ernie Price of Bradford. I can't give a special reason now - but then the admiration did start in 1946 - that's 66 years ago! So I guess I can be forgiven for this memory lapse? Ernie's brother Tom rode with him at Liverpool and Belle Vue pre-war, and another brother Norman was a Bradford team-mate in the late 1940s. The Price brothers were potato merchants at Burscough Bridge, Lancs, and a haulier firm in the same area and run by Oliver and Ron Hart used to transport for them.

All details about Waikaraka Park can be found at http://www.waikaraka...index.php?id=21 You will find it is possible to contact them by email. The address is on their site.

New Zealand is not a speedway bike minded country. Of the 24 licenced tracks by Speedway New Zealand, only three of them are solely for bikes. The speedway bike track at Waikaraka Park is part of a more intensified car establishment. The cars race there throughout the season - about 25 meetings - while bikes go on about three times, then usually as a support item to cars. So far as speedway bike promotion is concerned, these are run by club members. There are no professional promoters for the bikes. It, perhaps, is similar to how grass track racing is organised in the UK.

I have been to the Waikaraka Park website and it gives this additional fixture to those in my previous message: Friday 30 Mar 2012 Special Event SOLO & SIDECAR SPECTACULAR

The Beckton Aces track was in Ellesmere Street, Poplar E4. This list of London cycle speedway clubs may be of interest to yoiu: http://londonspeedways.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sniffy336&action=display&thread=824

These are the only listed dates for the end of the month: MARCH 18 Moore Park Speedway Remembrance Meeting MARCH 18 Rosebank Speedway Meeting 8 MARCH 24 Oreti Park Speedway MARCH 31 FIM Speedway Grand Prix - Western Springs