BOBBATH

Hi Steve-is that the one with just the Cheetah's head showing in the middle of the blue background. Didn't 'Oxford have a simple design of blue and gold quarters before that e.g. in 1963, maybe with a gold diagonal stripe-sort of like the 1964 Hackney uniform?

You are so right mate re the mish mash of modern race jackets

Firstly before I get into the subject , I just realised I am referring to things 55 years ago. That would be like me meeting an old geezer at Speedway in 1965 nattering on about events in 1910 FFS-how come time has gone by so quickly!! There was a thread about race jackets of the 70's etc. I hate the modern jackets with sponsors names and busy writing etc. and want to mention the simpler jackets of the mid sixties. I am old enough to recall Hackney in blue and red quarters with a gold sash from right to left (or was it the other way)-the checker board -which I thought too busy came later. I liked the simple designs -the green and white CH for Cradley (great)- the unadorned skull and crossbones of Poole(also great)- the black and amber quarters of Newport and the red and white quarters of the Bears. The great Black and White Diamond of Newcastle etc etc. My candidate for the best race jacket though was the Sheffield Tigers of 1965- see the front cover of Speedway Star 18 June 1965 with Jack Kitchen talking to Dick Fisher of Belle Vue- Jack is wearing the jacket I am referring to. Are any other forumlanders recalling this time -many other jackets of course West Ham, Belle Vue, Wimbledon etc.-all distinctive and continued for many years!! BTW for Tigers fans -always thought Sheffield had a strong team and enjoyed their visits to Long Eaton and Newport. I must be a traditionalist-I even got pissed off even Long Eaton changed the colour of their Archer from green to red.

Hi gustix,Thought you should know that I have greatly enjoyed reading your pages on the Defunct Speedway site-think John Skinner did a great job in setting that up. I also enjoy the photos you post on this site. Good for you for having a go at riding speedway-so now in a sense you are part of speedway history also. See you were born in 1933-same as Ove Fundin and Reg Fearman so keep well mate. One question-how did you come up with the moniker gustix.. its interesting the names people come up with. Some think my real name is indeed bobbath-but actually its Richard Penniman-so guess I won't be posting on here for a while. Keep smilin' mate!!

Yeh, well I got no complaints though-Canada has been good to me-do you think there is any chance of speedway racing here again- I recall meeting you once at , I think, Welland or Dundas. keep well mate!!

Oi!! BL65 -what are you doing up at this hour-it must be 1;30 a.m. in UK

Cheers andout-hope you are surviving our snow squalls-the coldest May 9th for fifty years-should have emigrated to OZ instead of the Great White North-at least we don't have snakes!!

I saw the one at Newport in 1965-never to be forgotten-Somerton Park was packed out, great atmosphere-wish we were back in those times-although the only beer they served at the bar was Whitbread Trophy!!

I know this is old time speedway but most of the posts are after 1965 folks. Wot about Graham Warren if there had been a GP system in 1950-he would have won it-gimme a break he would have totally outclassed Fred Williams and Wally Green outside a one-off WF at Wembley-also wot about my old mate Jackie Biggs. BTW on youtube I found a clip of a Golden helmet Match race at Birmingham between Warren and Parker-the thing that amazed me was the size of the crowd-the sort of which they now only get at Polish league meetings!!

When did Eric pass away and when did he cease riding??

Didn't Johnny Reason (before my time) end up a gazillionaire-and was his wife's family pretty rich-if so good on him.!!

Come on guys-even I know this -Frank Varey , the great promoter at Sheffield who always made sure the track was as smooth as silk and a great racing surface. God bless him.

I agree with Steve Roberts- I just enjoy reading this thread, I've learned a lot from it, and enjoy the contributions of everybody including Chunky, Sid and gustix . In fact I look at this site every day around 9 a.m. our time,when I get up (OK OK save the comments that I should get a life etc etc-I just enjoy the comments of folks who remember the era that I do and meant so much to me)

Somehow I knew Norbold would have this info-thanx mate. Was it calculated by various journalists voting-tough to disagree with these results.

I agree . BTW on youtube are very touching videos of Bruce Penhall taking a lot of Kelly's old mates to see him in hospital to cheer him up-he was clearly very ill. He also brought along Kelly's wife and daughter -very moving. There is also a video of the memorial he held for Kelly at Costa Mesa-again along with Kelly's old racing buddies. I think Bruce was a great gentleman and had a very kind heart.

The first and only Jewish World Champ-we live in a primarily Jewish area (Thornhill) and I mentioned this to my Jewish mates-none of whom had heard of speedway. Good on Lionel, the only other Jewish speedway rider I am aware of was Gil Goldfinch. Before you ask - No I am not Jewish-I tried to join but they wouldn't have me because I didn't have a good enough sense of humour (allusion to the Seinfeld show!!!),,

Or if it had been held at Newport maybe Jackie Biggs could have finally made it-after all he almost did at Wembley in 1951

You are right Mike but so did the other 15- I would not dispute that Fred qualified fair and square (like the others) but fact is 14 of the other 15 were riding away from home unlike Fred- Same thing in 1953. Also in 1952 Fred finished second on his home track and at third was Bob Oakley -another Wembley rider in his only WF appearance who by no means was one of their top stars. Again home track advantage . BTW the 1952 win of Jack Young of West Ham shows his greatness in overcoming the 2 Wembley riders, again just think how manty times Ove for example would have won if the WF had been held on his home track of Norwich.

I was able to figure it out-even Salty for Brine (Re Ray Tauser-am not so good on pre War history chunky)

That is fascinating Sid, thanks for doing all the research-wouldn't this make Ivan the overall "best"-over to the Ove fans (thinking of you Norbold!!)

This one I did know-Wimbledon-what year was it though. Also did not recognise all the riders so thanks Chunky> BTW Chunky don't know why I should have figured you knew Ray Tauser-did he live in Ohio or something!!!

So who the f**k is it then??

I always enjoy your threads BL65 (before anybody gets their nose out of joint- I enjoy many others also) I would have to say though that there should be an asterisk next to Fred Williams name-as he rode all his rides on his home track- I wonder how many others would have surpassed his stats if they could also just have ridden on their home tracks also e.g. Fundin at Norwich, Moore at Wimbledon, Craven at Belle Vue., Nigel Boocock at Coventry?? Also thinking about it some more shouldn't Jack Young be on that list somewhere.

My pleasure Sid, and thank you because it prompted me to look at my old programmes- I have every programme for every meeting I attended-all here in Canada. I looked back at other 1965 programmes and while many of the top ex NL stars lived up to their reputation-some did not (may have been the Somerton Park track)-don't know if others noticed similar things at those early BL meetings.. Getting back to that programme there was a section called Bryan Seery's notebook, and he noted that the biggest BL victory so far had been Glasgow defeating Long Eaton 60-18 (Long Eaton had done well in the first couple of matches but then suffered dreadful injuries and ended up finishing with the wooden spoon), but then last Saturday before the Swindon meeting this feat had been surpassed by Halifax winning 62-16 against Cradley Heath. the great man predicted that this would surely last the season out. Sadly the great man was wrong because in October(on my birthday no less) Wolves defeated the mighty Newport(my team) 64-14!!! What a disaster. I did admire Bryan's contribution to Speedway Stats. however -he came up with the idea of CMA in 1965, previously the old idea was number of points divided by number of meetings-which was in my view not an accurate comparator e.g. one guy could score 8 points from 3 rides while another could score 8 from 5 rides so the former would rightly have a higher CMA. I think the wonderful folks at Speedway Researcher have gone back before 1965 and figured out riders' averages using the CMA system. Bryan was quite a numbers guy(think he may have been a maths teacher) -I am pretty sure he has passed away-do any forumlanders know when or anything else about Bryan.

Beg your pardon Iris123-- since I thought it was just about grass track didn't look it up-I have now-many apologies, thanks for taking the time to post and I'm glad that Tony had a successful career on the grass. - Apologies again .