BOBBATH

Glad you got to interview Jim for Classis Speedway Tony, it was a great article and gave a real insight into Jim, btw as per my previous post does anyone know if Jim was the oldest guy to make a World Final, he must surely have been the oldest to become a World Finalist for the first time being I think 41 when he made his initial and only appearance in 1965.

Also Newport 1967 and 1968. When Jim reached World Final in 65-he must have been in his early forties-was he the oldest guy ever to reach the World Final??-great rider who once had a punch up with Ove.Ex paratrooper I think

Another link to the past sadly lost-other than Dick Bradley are there any of the old Bulldogs of the 1950's now left?? R.I.P. Chris

Thanx D-my buddies and I will be meeting for a beer or two again in a few weeks and will doubtless have more questions for Norm-just a note I think Norm's seasons of 64 and 65 were with Poole not Newport-I think he joined Newport later. Please pass on our continued regards and thank him for his patience in answering our questions from Canada.

Hi grand daughter and Norm-so glad this thread is going again-first of all can you tell your grandad that there are a number of expats in Canada who remember him well. Also universally everyone recalls him as a real gentleman who always had time for the fans, and as a rider always gave everything his best shot. People like Norm in our view were the real backbone of speedway. Tell him if he ever gets over to Toronto we'll buy him a beer (or two). Questions from the assembled Canadian multitude- who was the team mate he liked to ride with the best -in 64-65 we think he usually rode with Geoff Mudge-what did Norm reckon - whether Geoff or Ross Gilbertson(RIP) was the best rider. Another question-did he like riding at Old Meadowbank and how did he rate George Hunter?? Also did he like riding at Glasgow White City?What does Norm think his best season was?? Did he ever ride at Yarmouth or Norwich??What was his take on Tim Bungay?? Many questions I know but I think the fact that people are interested in his opinions show what high regard he is held in-as Geoff Bouchard's posts show. BTW -two of Norm's old team mates are now in Canada-Alan Kidd and Dave Dodd. Another question-did he like Somerton Park as a place to ride(before he became a Newport rider) or was it as bad as everyone said? Does your grand dad know if Jon Erskine is still alive? Also overall who would he rate as the best rider in the Prov. League(1960-64) not just based on one season? the reason the question re Ivor Brown cropped up in our previous post was that a number of PL riders were totally intimidated by him- (think Ivan Mauger may have been one) Next time you see him granddaughter , can you ask him these q's and also tell him he has a real Canadian fan club going!! Cheers Bob

Great to see this thread resurrected, glad Norman is still enjoying life and pass on my best from Canada-if he likes to answer could you ask him what was his most favorite and least favorite tracks(exc Poole) and was there one particular rider from Prov. Lge. days he had problems with or who he felt gave him a hard time(I think a number of people would say Ivor Brown to this.)!!

Thanks Frigbo-really enjoyed learning that-never knew it before.

In the mid sixties , any item in Speedway Star" that referred to Swindon and was written by Dave Lanning used to contain the words "down in Moonraker Country"-at least I think so-anyone know why that was-something to do with dairy products for example-as I seem to remember a brand of butter called moonraker-if so why so??

Thanx Norbold for that interesting info-so Jack Young came back in 1957 , when did he finally quit and was his second stint with Coventry the whole time??

H Frenchy -true re Crutcher beating Jack Young-I'd forgotten he'd come back to UK and joined Coventry-does anyone know why he quit in the first place-I think he took a year off in 1957-perhaps because West Ham closed in 56-nevertheless he was earning good money and why pass it up.

BTW see Dick Bradley had good scores in both those fixtures

Hard to believe it was almost 25 years ago- Ken and Pam would now be 49 years old-hope their children are ok.

In a previous thread someone mentioned Stan Bradbury(now the doyen-like that word??-) of Canadian speedway).Talking to Stan last year about the "old " days-he mentioned that Gil was one of the best-if not the best-of riders he was partnered with at Stoke. I think Gil has passed away but it sounds like he was one of the top Div 2 riders in the fifties-anybody know anything about his career? And when he passed away??

Many things to say-firstly and most importantly to Tigertom- I am one year younger than you since you are 30 and I am 29 -like Jack Benny(just using that name dates me)-secondly I do think that the Seery calculation method was officially adopted by the BSPA-it does make mathematical sense - and good for him for devising it. He was a real speedway enthusiast.He must have done all his calcs. by hand too because it was before computers. I am sorry to hear that he may have passed away-surely he was a young guy when he died. There is a photo of him in an old Speedway Star that I have-with Garry Middleton-does anyone know the answer to the mystery of Garry-like where he disappeared to???? He was pretty tall-but not of course the tallest rider ever-who was that again?? BTW I am freezing my ass off here in Toronto-all the witches are walking around with double padded bras here!!

Yeh, but would Eddie have just got 1pt. in a field like that?? Or was he at the end of his career.

I agree with Tigertom for the reasons he outlines- Bryan Seery the statistician for the BL starting in 1965 developed this and the CMA with similar rationale- btw is Bryan still with us-if not when he passed was another person appointed by the BSPA to keep the official stats?? Many forumlanders will hopefully recall the page "Seery's statistics" in the Speedway Star of that era. Amazing that he kept all these numbers updated before the age of the computer. I hope Bryan is still with us -but if not God Bless.

Interesting thread -did Charlie Monk ride for St. Austell then?? -I thought he rode for Neath and then went to Long Eaton-is the St. Austell track still there or has it been built over??

Was it Roy Taylor??

Speaking of which is Brian McKeown still around?

Is Johnny still with us-Yarmouth etc altho I recall him best as a member of the first PL champs in 1960(Rayleigh).Have I got this right??

Good for you Norbold, I always thought the News was a more literate mag than the Star which seemed to replace it. Reading old copies of The News I am struck by the erudite nature of the columnists and the vocabulary used. I think it shows how much more literate folks were in those days-reading the Speedway News is like reading The Times newspaper of today-and don't get me started on the writing in the sports mags of today. Shows a sad decline in the usage of the English language comparing 40 years ago with today!!!

How are you guys able to track down this data, its amazing e.g. Norbold do you have complete sets of Speedway News or have you photocoped stuff from Colindale?? I went there once and found the staff most helpful. BTW did Alf Elliott ride in those meetings?Always great to read these posts from the "old days" and its great that folks are still doing research on this. BTW does the Wombwell stadium still stand and where the hell is Wombwell anyway?????????

Sorry Tigertom-plus who are you calling a Southerner-I am from Wales-or do you mean Southern Ontario-anyway my remarks on the great visits to Owlerton still stand-is it much the same as it always was-used to look great at night with the track lights on-just pass Hillsborough on the other side of the road as I recall.