star ghost

Its Billy SANDERS (not SaUnders) In the 1940s it was George & Harry Saunders)

I remember the Diamonds being Red with a white Diamond on them in 1946 at least I also remember the Hodgsons riding for Newcastle in white shirts with a black " N" on them. This was obviously after the Middlesbrough/Newcastle/Ashfield shunt round had taken place. Middlesbrough went out of existence at the time and their riders became Newcastles team as the Newcastle team went to Glasgow Ashfield at the whim of some promoter. It was not a clever idea to my mind.

I consider the Romford staging as an open meeting and no way connected with the true LONDON CHAMPIONSHIP. If it had counted for anything Jessup would have had an e/f I expect.

Today I went past the site of the old Firs Stadium and happened to look across at the Firs Pub opposite which had also seen many happy hours passed away. It was apparently closed up and finished. Another person on the bus told me the people running the Firs had closed it down last week. It appears the good old things of Norwich are all going down the drain

Stenners Annuals, People Guides and the Speedway Researcher website will give you a lot of information on Wimbledon Dons down the years.

I think we did a bit about Eddie some time back. He was married to a film star I know and rode for a while for Kings Lynn Stars following transfer from the Oxford Cheetahs and partnered Terry Betts in the line-up at Saddlebow Road. Martin Rogers in his History of Kings Lynn would have covered Eddies time at Kings Lynn and I am fairly sure Eddie had some rides at Boston later but the Control Board put a block on Eddie, like Ian Turner, from joining the lower league outfit at that time

Pierre Brannefors was with Kings Lynn before he was in the Reading team

Richard Davey started out at Kings Lynn but I could not say if he made a senior appearance for the Stars but he did appear in Junior matches

Sorry Bob but ............................................. George White rode for New Cross Rangers & Yarmouth Bloaters before joining Swindon Robins in the "good old days"

Phil Clarke rode for Norwich 13 seasons whilst Bob Leverenz & Alec Hunter were one team riders whilst here in the U K. Could Billy Bales be considered as he rode for Yarmouth (a Dick Wise promotion under the eye of Norwich). His time at Sheffield was also with good reason, someone had built houses exactly where Billy would have ridden at Norwich

This has been an enduring thread which has brought to the fore a number of riders who have graced Speedway Racing over many years and many Clubs, a lot of the riders would probably not have been mentioned otherwise, but they have played a part in the history of the Clubs & Leagues concerned and deserve mention for that fact. Well done to Steve and the other posters who have joined in to make this so interesting

The rider I recall was Allan Quinn, who was at St Austell and Harringay in the 50s. In 1952 both rode for St Austell in Southern League matches. Allan topped the Gulls scorers that season with 265.5 just ahead of Norman Street on 258.5 whilst Aston got 49 in a side which included Harold Bull and the great George Newton and Max Rech, the ex-Polish fighter pilot from W W II. The Gulls finished bottom of the League with just 11 wins in the 36 matches that season. This seemed to be the fate for St Austell teams

Well, Gemini tried Maybe a Leicester fan may know the right Alan and get the info from him

I did not see the item mentioned but at a W S R A Event here in Norwich a few years ago Jimmy had all the attending riders line-up outside the Hall and then marched them in to the accompiament of Bagpipes, played by another Scottish Rider, if memory serves me right. It was the slowest I ever saw Ove going.

Alan Jones, who wrote the "History of Leicester Speedway" series of 3 books a few years ago would be able to answer this. Unfortunately I have not got his address now, but he used to write for the "Leicester Mercury" newspaper

The Golden Helmet (Div 1), Silver Helmet (Div 2) & Bronze Helmet (Div 3) were all raced for in the 40s and 50s when we had up to 3 divisions I think. There was also a Scottish Match Race held by teams north of the border

When I first went to the Firs in 1946 riders were on a sliding scale under rider pooling system.)Programmes were 6d each. In 1964 we paid 2/6 for the terraces but this was reduced to 2/- if we had supporters cards.Programmes were still 6d each. I reckon we got it cheap as we had the Worlds best ever in our team

Bob could well have been World Champion if he had "wanted" it. Bob did in fact come back to the U K in the 1980's when we had a get-together at the home of Phil Clarke to celebrate Max Grosskreutz coming in 1937 to take over and bring Norwich into League racing in 1937. When Bob was at Norwich he was the star among Stars.. The Stars won Division Two in 1950 & 51 with Bob, Fred Rogers, Phil Clarke, Alec Hunter, Paddy Mills, Jack Freeman, Ted Bravery, Johnny Davies, Trevor Davis, Bill Codling, Huck Fynn and Fred Pawson who passed away at Xmas

"Less Dag Lovaas" was it. I think Dag had told them he wasn't coming over but was still named and they had the pick of the league as guests to replace him. It probably made "Dag Lovaas guest replacement" the top rider at White City that season. Also they decided to let the fabulous Rick Hellsen go but that was a big advantage to the great Kings Lynn Stars and he gave K L some magnificent service over the years following that

First Official International Test Match @ Firs Stadium, Norwich - Saturday 20 June 1953 England 46 - Billy Bales 13, Ken Sharples 9, Split Waterman 8, Arthur Forrest 7, Alan Hunt 3, Fred Williams 3, Fred Rogers (Res) 2 Brian Crutcher (Res) 1 Aussies 62 - Ronnie Moore 18 max, Jack Young 17, Aub Lawson 13, Arthur Payne 7, Jack Biggs 3, Johnnie Chamberlain (Res) 3, Peter Moore 1, Keith Gurtner (Res) did not ride With Ronnie racing to a maximum it was wondered if anyone could stop Jack matching that feat and it was little Billy Bales who did it just after the midway interval. Billy then came out and beat Aub and for good measure equalled the track record later in the match. It was the first test match Billy had been selected for the full England team. Another great International, with a shock result was at Plough Lane when Birger Forsberg finished alone to give the Swedes a 1 point win over England and also give the Sweden team a 2 match lead over England in their first ever full test visit here. It was limited to a 3 match series so Sweden had won a famous victory. Had it been Ove or Rune Sormander it might have been expected but Birger was only a second string rider in the Sweden team with Olle Nygren the third heat leader.

Harringay staged a number of double-headers to complete the schedule for their last season but even then I think some were left "not-run". This was during the 1950's. I do not recall Norwich Stars staging a double-header at all before the closure in 1964 althogh we rode in some "away" during the time the team were in existance

A double-header meeting was usually used to enable the re-run of a rained-off meeting before they allowed the score to stand after a pre-determined number of heats had been raced on the rain-off date

The later problems which were said to have led to the closure of Leicester

Stan Williams was one of the finds of Bluey Wilkinson and rode for Sheffield before the 1939 War at the same time as Paddy Mil[s & Aussie Powell. Stan was selected/retained by Sheffield Tigers in the 1946 share-out called "pooling" where he was joined by Tommy Allott, Tommy Bateman, Jack D White and Jack Bibby for the Northern League campaign. After yeoman service to the Tigers Stan joined Coventry. In view of later problems it was somewhat ironic that brother Len joined Leicester

J didnt know Andy but he was obviously a "great guy" so I hope the efforts he made are kept going. R I P