star ghost

Dennis was a journeyman rider as they say. He was with Wembley 53, Southampton 53, Swindon 52, St Austell 53, Oxford54 then then joined Norwich in 58 where he was injured in a qualifying race at his first meeting. He returned to the Firs for the 60 & 61 seasons where he was a second string rider averaging around 4 points per meeting for the Norwich Stars in the National League. Dennis was English but went to S Africa, when he left Norwich I think, and then rode there for a time as well as in what is now Zimbabwe, becoming South African at that time. He returned to the U K for the 66 season with Long Eaton in the British League but left having got 150 points for the Archers team. I cannot find him riding in the U K after that season however. Whilst at Norwich Dennis was a popular rider with the supporters often attending the functions they ran there. I suppose he and his wife still rteside out there in S A

I can't recall Goog ever joining any other team except Exeter but feel sure he could have made it in a higher league than the Falcolns rode in. Goog chose his team to ride for and it was Exeter. They were kept out of higher divisions because of travel distances, not by how good or who their riders were, some will obviously say he could have transferred to another team, they would be right, he could have, but why should he?

the ? Timms at Middlesbrough has been a long-time question with researchers. I don't think it was Derek either.

I think Len Tupling (captain of Wombwell Colliers in the 40s) was the father of Peter Tupling, England Golfer. I seem to recall Len saying to Fred Rogers that his son never had cinders under his fingernails like his father did Perhaps this was why a young DJ never took up the greatest sport in the world

I regret that I cannot trace Bert Ivey in any records I have access to. As stated he maybe rode in secondhalf and Junior racing nonleague events Perhaps he rode under another name, as some people did in the old days????

I always thought dear old Archie Windmill was the tallest there was

Yes Tony. Some of the old Norwich programmes have Supporters Club Notes and the names of Syd & Fred often appear in them as being good "rod-men"

Thanks for that Nevs. It is an excellent site. Obviously contains some "Lethbridge" writings. His "Exeter - Early Days" book is superb reading It is a pity all old tracks haven't got that sort of write-up. But we do try and help out where possible when questions get raised.

Norbold is correct. Fred was a particular favorite of mine at Norwich but no relative of the Rangers Roger brothers. It was a sad day when I heard of his passing. Fred was President of the V S R A for a year and it was always a pleasure to meet him and his mate Len Tupling when at High Beech. They both had that distinctive Yorkshire accent. Fred was a regular Angler and was in the "Angling Club Team" run by the Norwich Supporters Club and could often be seen on the river banks with the other members. Fred eventually retired from the Firs but was talked into returning for the Aces at Belle Vue and Norwich got dear old Harry Edwards in exchange for Fred at that time.

Hi Bob Regrettably Bert & Bob have both gone now. We regularly seem to have queries about Cyril and he has been reported as passed on before but it seems to be incorrect. Cyril was with Exeter, then recalled to New Cross where he was an immediate star then joined Norwich when the Rangers folded in 53 with Bert going to West Ham and Bob to Birmingham . Cyril also had spells with Ipswich, Poole and finally Southampton whilst Bob was last with Swindon before injury caused his retirement from Speedway. Whilst at Norwich Cyril proved an excellent team-man. He would not allow himself to be messed about and a number of riders found this out as Cyril would often "sort them out afterwards". One night at Wimbledon springs especially to mind. I think he was fined £50 for it once but the supporters ganged up and got the money collected for him so he was not out of pocket afterwards. This was when he was with the Stars. Cyril also made the World Final on a few occasions but never did much on the "big night". In fact, like the Williams brothers all 3 of the Roger brothers reached a World Final. Bert missed out due to injury whilst Bob always looked likely to reach the top, until injury struck. Both Bob & Ian Williams both qualified the season when Swindon took the First Division title at the first attempt. They formed a potent spearhead with little George White and Ken Middleditch for the Robins in that season when the League's were first amalgamated.

Mike rode for the Scottish Junior side when they came to meet the Anglian Junior Side at Kings Lynn. I have the programme somewhere and can let you have race details if you want them. The "Allthread Scottish" & "The Anglian" were the 2 Junior second half competitions of the time and met in a "testmatch" on one track in each league that season. There was also a midland Junior Section run as well but I can't remember them being involved in the Inter-League events of the day.

Eric Linden was all of those 4 mentioned as far as I know

Buddy Holly ---- Gods gift to the music industry. I think of him nearly as much as Speedway

It would not surprise me if it was Eric Linden. He used to do articles under so many names that he could fill the Star many times over. Is Eric still with us nowadays ??????

This is another of the articles Ross has researched and written for posterity. I just hope those that follow make use of the facts and look beyond their own "fantasies" they always seem to rely on. Well done Ross, as always

Hi Bob I dont recall Bert being a ciggie man. He was certainly one hell of a rider though with the enemy down the road at Ipswich where he captained the team for a while. He was one half of the Edwards/Bainbridge attack with the Witches. He also rode for Aldershot and Cardiff in Division Three and Walthamstow in the 2nd Division Harry was an excellent team-man at the Firs and for a while partnered Billy Bales as the 3rd pairing in the side. His whisps of hair had Stan Buxton, the Firs announcer, saying Harry was never alone with a strand, using the advertising blurb from the Consulate Fag Company. Harry was "cool as a mountain stream" under the pressure of carrying the number 6 position in a Stars team led by the likes of Aub Lawson, Ove Fundin, Billy Bales & dear old Clarkie. Incidently, for all his fans, Phil was unwell and missed the recent Police Gala Day ReUnion here in Norwich.

That is good to hear .... Eddie is still with us .... how he used to try his last bend dash, even if all seemed lost, I used to think he could have made the effort earlier, when he was with Kings Lynn Stars. Does he ever have to make a "time gents please" dash to the bar at 11pm nowadays I wonder ?????????? or has he got like me and avoid dashing to the bar at any time, you know what it means when you are an old pensioner and todays prices bite hard into your few quid a week.

Brian Collins International Speedway Tiscali site has details & programme cover scans for all the meetings under the section "1973 Tournament"

I went to the Final and a few of the "League Matches" which led up to Wembley. This was an excellent tournament with all the World Stars coming over here to ride in it. The only senior track not to have a meeting allocated to it was Coatbridge, but why I do not know. Some tracks had two meetings so it should have been possible to stage one of the matches in Scotland. It was all sponsored by the Daily Mirror who were backing Speedway at that time. This bought countrywide recognition. Unfortunately a couple of the early matches fell victim to the British weather but it soon turned for the better. The Grand Final @ Wembley finishing in the Collins - Michanek incident divided opinions and some still say Mitchanek "did no wrong". Rather like Carter - Penhall in fact. Also on Final night the Empire (Eng/Aust/NZ) Select took on The World Select consisting of the other Countries in the Tournament. It would be impossible to have such an event nowadays I suppose. If it could happen there would have to be big backers for sure, Speedway just doesn't get that sort nowadays

In 1963 we had an odd occurrence in the reserve positions for the World Final @ Wembley as the British Reserve was a Pole naturalised as either English or Dutch (Tadeuz Teodorowicz) and the Continental Reserve was an Englishman (Ron Mountford) as the original reserve Antonin Kasper (Czech) was unfit to attend. After all that neither Ron or Teo were called on to ride after the opening parade. Then, just a year later, Teo fought his last great battle following his West Ham crash.

Max Grosskreutz had in his Norwich programme of 11 June 1938 the following .......... Everyone will join in our deep regret at the tragic death of Mr Spencer Stratton, the Manager of Newcastle, in a car crash whilst returning from a meeting. There was also a mention that ........ Three Newcastle boys, Bruce Venier, Bob Sparks & Elwood Stillwell, were also seriously injured in the crash.

Ron Mountford was in Birmingham's team from 1950 until the promotion folded in 1957, then he moved over to Coventry.

1960 Provincial Final I think it was at the end of September at Cradley Heath

I think I saw on the speedwayplus site recently where Jim was trying to get some info. If he sees this he may be able to enlighten us on it.

The first running at Green Lanes followed a series of Qualifiers with invited "Europeans" not usually seen here in England. Josef Bossner & Timo Laine both came over for the event. Then it became "invitation" Unfortunately the Internationale suffered the same fate as the "Daily Mirror" World League, another excellent event.