cyclone

Click on Speedway Swap Shop, which is a site which has progs for swap, as well as a photo gallery of old progs & badges from 1928.

Was at that meeting and I recall he was introduced as a Yank from the East Coast.

Laurie Packer who rode for Edinburgh 1939 & Birmingham 1946 was either Canadian or Oz - can anyone confirm his nationality ?

Doug & Bob Serrurier , Fred Wills(South Africa) who rode @ Liverpool 1949/50, Buddy Fuller )South Africa) who rode @ Hastings & Liverpool, Roy Bester (Rhodesia) Edinburgh 1954, Arthur Duncan (S Africa) Birmingham 1956.

Aage Hansen of Norway who briefly rode @ Ipswich in 1957, but clocked some decent scores

It was Johnnie Faafeng who rode for Glasgow around 1966/67. He was killed in a car crash, and I remember the story doing the rounds that he had been a bit of nutter who used to use a brick on the accelerator when driving on the motorways.

Les Beaumont

The worst leathers I can recall were the one's that Rene Aas wore during his brief spell with the Monarchs. The looked like a pair that failed Warsaw Pact quality control standards and were obviously far too big for him, resulting in him doing a fair impersonation of an Eastern European version of Michelin Man on a speedway bike.

Think that Chum Taylor & Johnnie Chamberlain are other way round ?

It's up for swap on this site !!! :- Speedwayswapshop

Ron Johnston (nb the "t" was dropped off for some reason ?) was born at Milton Douglas, Duntocher & emigrated to Oz when aged six. A photocopy of his birth certificate appears in 1948 Stenners Supplement, page 213, with dob of 24/2/1907. Did Gordon McGregor never make the reserve berth in a World Final ?

Wouldn't by any chance be a mispronounciation of Dave Rattenbury - world famous purveyor of Speedway Souvenirs, the length & breadth of the country ??

I was on that train (apparently the longest passenger train in terms of carriages going across Europe at that time). It had two engines pulling it along (apparently red Russian diesel beasts !). It was magic & remember in particular :- A field in East Germany which was full of Russian tanks on manoevres. Passing through a massive rail marshalling yard in Poland early in the morning which had the awesome site of a multitude of steam locos (apparently the were US made, provided under the Marshall Aid Plan) warming up. Hassle with Border Guards returning when we were going into East Berlin & they wouldn't let the train move until all Union Jack flags were taken in from the windows. My mate having the foresight to bring bog rolls with him which were invaluable when there were none in the carriage WCs BTW tmc, there were quite a few Scots there supporting the British riders also. Definitely a memorable trip & I could fill pages on this.

The BBC has a website where you can download film clips from the programmes. Try :- .nation on film It mentions a a 30 second silent Motorcycling - Scrambling shot. As I'm not au fait with downloading film clips perhaps someone else can try

Surely Norman Parker was riding for Coventry or Harringay when you were born ??

Afraid not - your probably thinking of Dave Stevens. DW first started going to Speedway when Crayford opened up near his home in Welling in 1968.

Might well have been another Kiwi called Rim Malskatis who rode one in his first season with Long Eaton in 1965.

Same Guy - amazingly all his stats were calculated manually !! Believe he still pops up at the odd meeting - Bryn Williams should be able to provide more info. as Bryn, Dave & Chris Golding used to travel about together when they followed Crayford & Hackney in the 60s/70s.

Believe Graham Jones of Berwick was still riding JAPs in the late 70s/early 80s. Mike Broadbank apparently had a 4-valve JAP conversion when riding for Newport in the NL which some of the Bristol boys nicknamed the "Threshing Machine" !

Another film also made in 1933 called Britannia of Billingsgate starring John Mills also features Tom Farndon, Ron Johnson, Gus Khun, Colin Watson, Arthur Warwick, and Claude Rye as "Dirt Track Riders".

One of my favourites is the one in Ireland when Will Hay is the new station master and Moore Marriott and the tubby youngster his not so friendly colleagues <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It's called Oh Mr Porter and agree it's a classic

Done Exeter vs Reading & Reading vs Exeter also 3 in day Peterborough vs Berwick 11am Oxford vs Wimbledon 3pm Reading vs Exeter 7.45 pm & also remember doing Birmingham vs Wolves 11am Rye House vs Eastbourne in afternoon and ended up with Internationale @ Wimbledon in the evening

Thanks for correcting my ossified memory Norbold. It's one of those things that stuck out at the time but obviously I mixed up Ted with Alan. As it involved Rye House, wonder if this was the inspiration for Uncle Len to inflict his silly double point TR/TS rules on us last year

2. Fred Mockford introduced the starting gate - think it was at Crystal Place about 1932, though he could have done it later at New Cross in 1934 ?? 6. Johnnie Hoskins claimed it was him @ Wembley in 1929 7. Belle Vue & Exeter 12. I seem to recall it was Canterbury vs Rye House & it was Ted Hubbard with the split personality

There are pics of programme covers for Portsmouth Copnor & Portsmouth Tipnor in the Old Programme Gallery of the speedwayswapshop site . click here