BOBBATH

Great August edition. I remembered the Scottish Cup of 1964. Why not reintroduce a Match race event- I always enjoyed the Silver Sash??

I hope you are right. BTW is the Speedway Star mag. still on solid ground despite the decline of speedway. it was a must read for in 1964-67

Didn't Reg live in South Africa for many years but left when the security situation deteriorated after1994??

I learned a lot from this topic. Thank you all.

Interesting comment Norbold- valuable insight . As you know I sadly never got to New Cross or saw Peter Craven ride.

I always figured Clive Featherby was the king of non team riding. Getting back to the Big Five we didn't mention the team riding of Peter Craven and Bjorn Knutsson- I would imagine Peter was just behind Ronnie -what about Bjorn was he more like Ove in that department- what do you think Norbold, I know that you saw Bjorn at West Ham every week in 1964.

Thanks Norbold, If good old Bob Andrews says it then I believe it! Would the same apply to Ove, Peter and Bjorn do you think?

Of the big 5- Craven, Fundin, Briggs, Moore, Knutsson, I would guess that Ronnie Moore was the best team rider of them all. I'm wondering how forumlanders would rank the other four as unselfish team riders e.g. who would rank worst - Ove maybe or Briggo perhaps- not sure about Craven (the only one I never saw ride) and I don't think Bjorn was really into team riding. I look forward to others' views on this as always. I learn a lot from the forum.

Obviously in speedway history Ove ranks far above Bjorn, no question. Nevertheless I'm wondering how they did both against each other when Bjorn was at his all too brief prime. Also I think in some of those years Bjorn might have had a higher league average and better performances in some prestigious Open Meetings. I think Bjorn consistently let himself down in World Finals because of his nervous disposition when the pressure was on. It was significant to me that he won his only World Final in 1965 when the pressure was less because he along with other Swedes did not ride in the inaugural BL season. That was the first World Final I ever saw. Great atmosphere it started off with Nigel Boocock beating Ove in Heat 1 and in Heat 3 Bengt Jansson beat Bjorn . Ove lost another point when he met Bjorn in Heat 8. Ove finished with 13 to Bjorn on 14. Ove finished third behind Igor Plechanov in a run off for 2nd in a terrific race. The run off was heat 21 of course and tied for the fastest time of the night at 69.0 secs along with Heat 3 and Heat 4- Igor finishing Heat 4 also in the fastest time. It was amazing to me that Heat 21 was still the fastest despite be after 20 races!!! I would be interested in other forumlanders views on this topic

Having said all that, at least he had a go and gave it his best shot- 84 this year, guys like Bill were some of the backbone of speedway

" The dingo ate my baby!' courtesy of Elaine in Seinfeld

I also recall him appearing in WSQR in 1964 at a non-league track I think

I'd be interested in learning the answer to this myself

Great article on Maury Mattingly- I really appreciate you sharing Classic Speedway memories with us. Thanks Beirao

Obscure names to some but they were around in the mid sixties . I recall Leo and maybe Lew appearing in WCQR in I think 1964-perhaps at Rye House or maybe later at Brafield. Perhaps they drifted out of the sport !! Freddie think rode for B.V. at about the same time-was he the brother of Bernie Collier? Are any of these gents still with us, is anybody in Forumland still in touch with any of them??

A stunning array of Stanleys then-thanx guys.

Is Tiger Beech still with us? Actually I don't find these first names strange at all- my first name being Stanley (like Stan Stevens). Any more Stanleys you can think of in speedway!!!

Didn't Vic appear on the TV show "Mastermind" once? Did anyone out in Forumland see his performance? If so how did he do?

Thanks Norbold I was interested to listen to it and just did-through the wonder of youtube Cheers mate

Happy Birthday Ove, I reckon you've got a good few laps to do still.

Sorry to hear this- I well recall seing Vic race many times-he always had a word with everybody-top bloke. He was part of the inaugural Newport Wasps team in 1964. R.I.P. Vic

Good for Stan, a great guy and a stalwart of the sport-- Spoke to him and saw him ride many times. A top bloke is Stan.

Newport- Welsh championship

I recall Norman Nevitt, also Bill Powell and Jim Yacoby- about the same vintage and level. Are any of these guys still with us-I hope they all are. If memory serves I think Bill Powell was the most successful of the three , but I could be wrong (not for the first time!!!!!)

That's depressing chunks- so many teams gone. BTW Roy Trigg alive and well- unfortunately his wife passed recently. I think Roy now lives in NZ. Tommy Sweetman also still with us and also in NZ