star ghost

I cant remember the track. The name Jack Ladd comes to mind however from the late 40s. Jack was a member of the Tamworth Hounds Club in the Third Division. Jack was having a short holiday on the Continent in Holland. He was persuaded to ride at a Speedway Meeting. Unfortunately he crashed and lost his life at that event.

Norwich staged numerous "neutral track" challenge matches in the 40s. These often took place when Norwich were riding Away to other Saturday Tracks. The home & away League meetings with Edinburgh one season were staged at Middlesbrough & Sheffield. I think this was due to upcoming end of season and distance involved making it easier to ride "halfway". As stated Wembley often used to ride home meetings "away" and also use Plough Lane whilst the Empire Stadium was used for Olympics and football. Yarmouth also staged Norwich v Cradley or Birmingham on nights when the Bloaters were away.

Quite right Speedyguy. It was 1953. The Hammers junior team was selecteed from Ron Butcher, Jim Chalkley, Harry Eyre, Frank Grant, Arthur Harrison and Len Morris. In an early season match Ron Butcher and Arthur Harrison both decked their bikes when Dons Ken Holmes crashed. Ron broke bones in his foot and missed a chunk of the season. Ron was due to ride at the Firs later in the season in a Junior Championship event but was a non-starter, his replacement was Harrison who scored 5 points. Of these 6 riders Jim Chalkley went on to ride for Rye House in the S A L and I think Harry Eyre lost his life in a track crash.

Both these riders were in the West Ham Junior League side when 2 heat matches were run as part of the second half events in the past. I do not know if full records exist of those matches but the Speedway Researcher Website includes details of some matches from those seasons.

I am sorry if I have ruffled a few feathers but this forum has numerous items regarding Continentals who fail to fulfil their commitments in the U K. My remark was only repeating this angle on things.

I expect T T was too busy with fulfilling his obligations to his English team to be able to go back and compete in these meetings Pity some other Continentals don't think of it also.

At one time the Brafield Flying Foxes were promoted by Paddy Mills in the real Southern Area League but problems arose and a number of riders got suspended when the track licence was revoked. Another local track around there was Earls Barton but they were not in the League.

Sweden saw Ove, Knutsson and Nordin as the top 3 when the final was first staged in Malmo, the first time outside Wembley. Michael Lee & Dave Jessup of Kings Lynn took the top two places at Ullevi in Sweden. Maybe in the future we may well see Speedway back in London. What is happening about Walthamstow?

Is Wembley ever going to be ready for football, let alone anything else?

The Rye House track mentioned above was the one used for training and also the real Southern Area League days of the 50s when the League consisted of Aldershot, Brafield, California, Eastbourne, Ringwood and Rye House. This was taken over and turned into a go-kart track, beyond the present-day Stadium.

As the item is under "Years gone by" section and the poster is asking about restoration I assumed it was an older bike he had got. I do not know much about the bikes subject but can say that people on the sites I mentioned do know quite a lot and could be a big help on this matter.

Try the Veteran Speedway Riders Assoc website and the Vintage Speedway Forum. Plenty about old bikes on them

I went to that final also but I thought I would see Michael Lee beat everyone in sight. It didn't happen. He should have been a multiple Champion but things didn't work out that way. Incidentally this is the 50th Anniversary of Ove Fundin's first World title this month also. Time really does fly.

Aussies and Danes were all listed earlier this year in this forum

I'm glad someone remembered the Chiswick Nomads. They were a great bunch who were always ready to ride anywhere. I think Ken Shepherd came from this team.

If I recall correctly this persons real name was Ray Humphreys. He was stated to be changing his name by deedpoll to Tyburn Gallows and was in training to be a hangman. This was probably a publicity stunt but could likewise be true. I know he rode at Rye House for a time and also tried at other tracks. It looks as if I was posting this the same time as Norbold, but at least we are both on the same track.

One of the oddest points about the tac sub and such things is in two-legged matches the home team can win by 20 points. When they become the away team in the second leg and get nine points behind they can do a tac-sub. But they are still 11 in front at the time as the totals are on-going. One season the t-s was dropped from Cup matches but it was back the next from what I remember. As has been said so many times - Remember when the rules were easy to understand.

If its just in Britain and not British League then there are all the Americans like Johnny Roccio, Nick Nicholaides and Don Hawley who rode for the Shelbourne team in Ireland. Also Bud Reda, East Coast U S A taxi driver, who came to the U K and rode at Norwich. He proved no match for Bob Leverenz and Phil Clarke however.

The old Firs Stadium at Norwich had a whitewashed board fence throughout the existence of the track. A midget car took out some of it one night. Little Johnny Chamberlain had a collision with Roy Moreton one night and took out some of the fencing. The track "carpenter" soon had it o k again on these occasions. As has been stated Kings Lynn had up to the fence racing with a board fence for many years. It is only relevantly recently that people have been kept back from the fence.

There were some team colours made up for a side using the Norwich Stars name which raced at Weymouth a short while back. I expect they might have been kept by the riders concerned ???? They had the Yellow Star on Green as the old days did.

At one time they had a star on the back as well. When Aub and Ove were there the numbers were always yellow as you state

Mr Snackette's report attributed to James Easter is indeed correct. Over the last two years reports have been floated that the Horse Race course near to the Caister Road Stadium was lined up for Speedway and then the Stadium was rumoured to be considering a revamp with room for Speedway in the plans. So far nothing has happened and locals doubt whether it will ever see the light of a planning application at either site

In heat 17 Tesar had engine failure and Miller was excluded I agree with the other figures, quoted by Steve.

If you haven't already got them you should rush out now and buy 3 books about the history of Leicester written by Alan Jones of the Leicester Mercury. They cover the records in 3 sections, The Early Days (Pre-War), The Hunters Era and finally The Lions Era. Well worth the money

A Chequered Flag item in the V S M stated some time back that Bert had passed away in the Summer of 1995. If your contact rode for Eastbourne try Norbould. He has just co-written the Eastbourne story. I expect the person you know might have been one of the S A L riders in the 50s