BOBBATH

I am interested in Tommy also- I got the impression he may have flamed out a bit too soon, wasn't he a heavy drinker? Toured Oz a few times, not sure if he came close to a World Final spot (can anyone tell me anything about how close he ever came to qualifying?) How would speedway historians compare Tommy to say Junior Bainbridge another White City rider. Think Junior kept going longer. Also didn't Tommy die at a youngish age?

Was interested to read your post chunky about Ernie Lessiter and Swindon-anybody know when Ernie retired. I wonder if he had continued to 1960 he could have graced the Prov. League as his old "oppo" Alby Golden later did.

Most interesting chunky, thanks for the post. I had a lot of respect for Streety -brought far more to a team than simply his riding skills. Reckon he continued to do so throughout his long career both as a rider and in coaching and management..

Glad we are back talking about speedway-all I wanna do here is learn about Old Time Speedway (or as I am beginning to think VERY old Time Speedway). Re the post mentioning Ken McKinlay in the 1956 World Final- I have the Maurice Jones book"World Speedway Final -A History from 1929" Great book easy to read and ended with the World Final of 1978( it was published in 1979). So I am aware of Ken McKinlay's outstanding performance in the 1956 WF. In 1979 I had moved to Calgary in my so-called oil industry (boo) career. I used to have to travel to all sorts of places in Saskatchewan- remember being in Kindersley, Sask and reading this book at a local steakhouse ( I dined alone but you are never really alone if you have a book to read)- however I digress. My main point is does anybody in forumland recall this WF and did they think Ken McKinlay was bound to be a World Champion one day . BTW -a tip to those in a restaurant dining alone who are trying to catch the eye of a waiter-just pull out a book start reading it like you don't give a s**t how quick the service is and it looks like you are taking root there- they're over like a shot to take your order. Trust me it works(if you want super fast service pull out a copy of "War and Peace"!!). As an aside is Maurice Jones still with us or has he checked out to the big publishing house in the sky??

See I learned something-I didn't connect the Swindon win with the loss of Ronnie Moore to Wimbledon in 1957

Could it be that John is not well. Perhaps age related??

Blimey!!

How can you be banned from this site that's just about "old time speedway" ,- bad language, political incorrectness posting that you like Ghislane Maxwell or all of the above. Or have I omitted another category??

Somebody said on another thread, haven't heard from gustix for a while made me think, I thought he was bound to post to this thread. He was certainly around then, hope you are well John-none of us are getting any younger in forumland. Miss your posts mate.

More excellent research, thanks BL65 for taking the trouble to compose this detailed list. Greatly appreciated.

At the Berwick meeting the star seemed to be a guy called Danny Bird for I.O.W.-did he end up having a good career. Score was 17-19 when I left but just couldn't get interested in the racing. Sorry for being off topic here!!

What year did the old second halves come to an end-were they abolished all together or was it a slow decline. They were going strong when I left but by my last ever speedway meeting in UK they'd gone. BTW the last ever meeting I saw was at Berwick on 19th October 2002 v I.O.W-Young Shield Semi Final. Not a success- I of course knew none of the riders, weather was cold, was standing up on terraces , my back was aching and left after Heat 7 to drive back to Edinburgh-got too used to comfort I guess. Following day saw Hearts lose 0-6 to Celtic at home, but a comfortable seat and had a pint in the bar with some friendly and good natured Hearts fans!!

According to the Malcolm Simmons book, he reckons his mum had an affair with Bert and that was one of the reasons his folks split up-don't know whether to believe Simmo though.

Thanks Sotonian-I sure got that the wrong way round-good on Alby winning-one of my favourite riders and the first captain of Newport Wasps-he broke the track record in the first race of the first meeting I ever attended. Again,thanks for the post correcting me.

Guess it's so long ago that nobody on forumland actually got to see this team, although am sure many people have seen some of the riders. In fact even I got to see three of them- Mike Broadbank Neil Street and Glyn Chandler (although Glyn only scored 1 point that season and may have ridden only a couple of meetings) Never got to see Bob Roger (the top scorer), George White, Ian Williams, Ken Middleditch, Ernie Lessiter (one time SAL Riders Champion) and Al Sparrey (who I think may have been a bit of a character). In that team there were four future World Finalists-not too shabby. Anybody get to see all the riders mentioned even if only with other tracks or have any knowledge of Ernie Lessiter-is he still with us?. I think he just beat out Alby Golden for the SAL Champion that year-could be wrong though.

Sorry to hear that-it was in 2017 that I met up with Ian. R.I.P. Cyril

Thanx BL65 re Bob Hughes and Cyril Francis-how could I forget. Cyril was indeed a local boy and still lives in Newport. I met up with Ian Terrar a couple of years ago. He is still in touch with Cyril, he still lives in Newport. Sad to say he's not been that well has a touch of dementia

Well Norbold I was born in Cardiff and never rode for them-my excuse is I was only 7 when they closed!!!

Sorry Iris, you are quite right-apologies.

Thinking of the Jolly Rogers and Bob Roger -got me thinking of the achievement of Swindon 1957-a second division track which when the Leagues amalgamated finished top of the combined NL-even beating out Wimbledon. Anybody in forumland recall that team (gustix maybe)and seeing them ride that season. It was quite an accomplishment. I recognise that we are talking 63 years agobut I'm only 73 and would loved to have seen them as an 11 year old.!!!

That might be stretching it re Taffy Owen , Iris, Taffy was born in Anglesey -much closer to Manchester than any of the Welsh speedway tracks that operated in Taff's era-thinking of Neath and Newport-the other end of Wale snot sure of any Welsh riders who rode for them- Fred Powell maybe? Probably someone in forumland will know though.

I recall Maido as one of the heatleaders for Belle Vue-nice bloke-though didn't he get Jim Tebby fired from the Dons.

Anyone in Forumland see all three , Cyril, Bert and Bob ride. I didn't see any -although starting in 1964 just missed out on Cyril. How would you rank them-maybe Cyril #1 , guess Bob had a bad accident which cut his career short. Would be interested in any memories.

Any Prov. League fans remember Geoff, I recall him as a middle order rider for Newport in 1964(was with Long Eaton in 1963 I reckon) and then in the BL in 1965-not sure about 1966, but am pretty sure he was riding in 1967 for Poole-partnering Gote Nordin. Recall him scoring a max for Newport-maybe in 1964, I also think I recall he had an accident and lost part of a finger. Had an armchair style of riding. One of the stalwarts of speedway that we shouldn't forget-anyone know how he is doing these days, I think Vic White was in touch with him for a number of years.

Do you mean they've changed the track layout, I have fond memories of the Abbey Stadium-first visited in 1965, last visited in 1972. I used to get there by driving along the M4 and turning off to Acton Turville and then going across lovely country-via Minety (where Mike Keen lived) Malmesbury, Cricklade ( maybe not necessarily in that order)-last time I was over tried to duplicate the journey but the roads had changed and got lost despite helpful instructions from people I asked. One year stayed at the Blunsdon House Hotel-think it may now be a Best Western . Was there (or still is ) a pub called the "Cold Harbour". Think it is too bad how many of the British pubs have closed. We have pubs in the Toronto area that are more British than the British ones-one near me called "The Owl" where I sometimes go and watch English football.