BOBBATH

Thanx Tigerowl-greatly appreciated. Apologies to Norbold and Cyril Roger(can't get used to this metric system!!)-still I hope Cyril is with us at 101 nevertheless. Lets hope we don't lose any more for a while yet!!!!!!!!!!

The oldest 16 surviving World Finalist list was last updated in 2011 and sadly we have lost a couple since then e.g. Fred Williams. can anybody e.g. Tiger Owl update the list(plus 2 "reserves") . Incidentally Cyril Roger was top of the last list in 2011 and Cyril would now be 101(born 27.12.1921) assuming he's still with us. Hope so.

Wow, glad to see another post on this topic-started in 2009-great link thanx mate

Thanks Jess tell your grandpa many people still remember him-hope he(and you) are fine

Indeed Eric is still with us-one of the oldest surviving World Finalists.

You could also stand right by the fence at good old Somerton Park-I never liked a greyhound track between the crowd and the racing.

I reckon that's Eric Boothroyd, second from left!!

Hi whiteknight-this is the deal . The top 5 riders of various speedway nationalities were listed in "Legends in what Order" thread this then got to include best 5 riders of smaller countries e.g. Wales(guilty as chaged ref!!!). During this discussion the question of whether Bob Hughes was Welsh or not got raised. This has never been satisfactorily resolved-hence hoped that making him a separate thread might solve the mystery!!

Felt I had to start this topic after endless discussion on legends in what order( of various countries) Here goes#1 Is Bob welsh #2 Is he still alive #3-can't remember the third question!!

Het Drac is that Newport Somerton Park or Queensway Meadow??

This is one of the best speedway sites I know of-well worth vsiting-keep up the good work John

Different guy-Mike Wells not Alf Wells-also Peter Jackson in 1966

That must be it-Kid Bodie is English and Howard C. is Welsh-or maybe the other way round. BTW did they ever race against each other???????????????

Is everybody named Hughes Welsh then-just like all Aussies are supposedly called Bruce. I can tell you of one Aussie who wasn't-Billy Hughes-Australian P.M. in WW1- and come to think of it he WAS Welsh. Not sure where I am going with this??

Hi ww, gotta say the only times I've seen Howard Cole mentioned in speedway literature he is always identified as English e.g. Maurice Jones book on the World Final- Howard Cole appeared in1969 and is shown as English. Bob Hughes interesting case -does anyone know where he was born??

Is Bob Hughes Welsh-he rode for Newport for a long time but I thought he was born in England-surely also Howard Cole was English?Pugh of Cardiff is indeed Welsh but I think his name is Gerald Pugh not Graham.

Fair enough Steve -Phil Morris after my time-reckon he becomes #5 Wales rider displacing Cyril- think he can't displace Leo McAuliffe tho as Leo got to the World Final-think it was 1963?

Who he Steve??

Wot about Wales then??-1. Fred Williams 2. Eric Williams 3. Ian Williams 4. Leo McAuliffe(all World Finalists) 5. Cyril Francis.-actually only other two Welsh riders I can think of are Taffy Owen and Brian Woodward!!!

Yeh, but I still think my five hold up-the other three mentioned never progressed as far in the World Champs as my top five. Thought about Doug T-but had to drop him to sixth in favour of Bertola. great riders all tho.

What about Scotland-1. Ken Mckinlay. 2 Tommy Miller 3. Jim McMillan 4.George Hunter 5.Bert Harkins. Other nominations??

Come on guys -surely Charlie Monk is one of the top ten Aussies, also Jackie Biggs-the people posting on this thread are too young for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a great thread everybody's comments are interesting-here is my two cents. While indeed Trofimov put Michanek in third place in the critical heat with Olsen in 1975 World Final(I wuz there ref.!!!!)-he still ended up with only 8 pts. Not knocking it , just commenting -as regards the 2 Gordeevs(also great) could never figure out who was who-god bless 'em. Great to see Kadirov's name mentioned-is he still with us?? How about somebody taking a shot at the top 5 CANADIAN riders.Are you there Tiger Tom-clearly Eric Chitty is #1-perhaps Jimmy Gibb #2. Can't think of many others-wait a minute -Shane Legault, Mike Tims(R.I.P.)- Dave Dodd- should Stan Bradbury get a mantion-after all he is now a Canuck like me........

On second thougts would replace Rembas with Waloszek-Pogo and Wyglenda also rate honorable mentions. Agree with whiteknight- should have put Chlynovski in Russians.

I reckon the three top Russians would be Plechanov, Samorodov and Kurilenko in that order.Poles-Gollob, Plech, Jancarz then Woryna and Rembas