BOBBATH

Now here is a man after my own heart-don't know the answer to your question-but it could have been "Lion"(companion to Tiger)-or perhaps Wizard, Rover, Hotspur. There is a British Comics Home Page-think you can get to it by entering Rover Comic and links will take you there-extracts of old stories etc etc. I was beginning to think I was the only one on this forum who remembered this 50's 60's period-as stuff on the 70's is after my time.Think I will start a new thread on one of the riders of that period to get evryone's brain going again!!!!!!!!!!!

George Hunter-truckdriver, Stan Bradbury ran spares business in Canada,

What's the betting this will be a shorter list than the much maligned "riders who went to jail thread"!!!!!!!

Danny Carter-was he really Eric Linden writing under another name , to make it look like the Star had more contributors it they really did??

Went to trackindown website-excellent thanx team bouchard-one thing I got wrong was the result of the meeting on 27 July 1965-it was Long Eaton 32 Newport 46.LE had started the season off well with a couple of away wins at Edinburgh and Halifax and for a while looked like they could be the team to beat in that first BL season.Sadly Ray Cresp got badly injured and they went downhill from there. I was hoping Newport would get their first away win of the season and they did--partly because Ray Wilson had two e.f.'s. The scorers were for Long Eaton-Ken Adams 10,Kid Bodie 9,Norman Storer 6,Clive Hitch 3, Ron Sharp 2, Ray Wilson 1, and Rim Malskaitis 1. For Newport Jack Biggs 11, Jon Erskine 9, Alby Golden 8, Peter Vandenberg 8, Ray Harris 7, Geoff Penniket 2 ,Bob Hughes 1. Ray Harris at the end of his career and a reserve usually good for the odd point by then became the surprise of the meeting scoring two wins from three rides-including beating Ken Adams. A great meeting and one I still recall-thanx for starting this thread because it prompted me to get the old programme out and it brought back great memories-can still taste the fish and chips from the shop outside the Station Rd. gate!!!!!!!!!

Teambouchard -thanx for clearing this up.Actually when you said that the programme cover changed in late June 1965 I thought you must be wrong as I could only recall red ones, I checked(I still have all my programmes at my home in Canada) and I noted that my first visit to L.E.( a stadium I always enjoyed going to, ditto the pavilion pub and the fish and chip shop outside the Station Road gate) was in July 1965-LE 35-Newport 43(first BL season) after it had changed from green .Good for you and thanx for the memories!!

Thanx Midland Red- I really liked that pub-Measham that's it-do they still have car auctions there-a picturesque town on the way to Notm was Ashby .Thanx again mate

Paulco-they were indeed the "Archers", also jackof diamonds -that goes along with my memory-I'm in fact beginning to think it may have been 1967 they changed to red and yellow-the last year before they moved to Leicester as the "Lions"-I think we've established its either 66 or 67.

I recall this well -the Archers changed from a green figure on yellow background to red figure on yellow background-reason given was that green was an "unlucky" colour.For sure in 1964 the Archers were green and yellow, I thought also in 1965 -but that they changed in 1966. One guy who would know would be Philip Dalling who used to write their match reports in Speedway Star-don't know if anybody knows him.

Just be glad he didn't try to courier drugs into China!!!!!!!!

Do you think there is any chance of Caister Road reopening-if it did I'd come over from Canada just to go there.

Thanx mate-the demise of the English pub brings it home to me that England as I recall it has changed.Speaking tho' of pubs I associate with speedway, is the "Four Counties"-between Brum and Nottingham still there-?????may have been near Tamworth or the town they had the car auctions(the name of which I forgot). Used to stop there and have a pint with buddies on the way back from CH. to Nottm.

Speaking of boozers -did there use to be a pub called "Duke of Nottingham" or something similar outside West ham Stadium? Is it still there?

Thanx for directing me to this site mate-its great-also got on to various Cup Finals and reviews of the year e.g. 1956-did so many men really wear ties all the time-I'd forgotten that.

Thanx for the update Haggis -glad everything worked out for them in Aussie

Ditto me of course although I recall Dick at Somerton Park. Still think Wasps would have won the inaugural Brit League if Dick had been fit.!!!!!!!!!

The consensus so far seems to be Split-anyone else besides me vote for Olle -or any of the other riders.????

No way lucifer sam-I put in my post that it had to be a neutral track for the very reason you outline-no question that Wembley favoured home riders and to me Tommy Price's and Fred's wins are questionable-perhaps like Egon Muller's win at Norden. Pick any neutral track you like e.g. Cardiff, Costa Mesa or my own personal favourite-Paris, Ontario. The latter is a Canadian version of the frying pan at New X.

What's off topic about that??Olle is one tough Swede!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah it could have gone either way-how would you guys compare Fred Williams to Split-any disagreement with the top three being the top three!!

Anybody have any comments on the above -other than those of the nature of "you gotta get a life".In retrospect I may have been too generous to Billy Bales -but remember they are all riding at their peak-don't tell Danny Dunton I gave him zero points.How would some other forumlanders feel they would have finished up!!!!!

Now we know the 16 oldest surviving World Finalists I wondered what would happen if they had all met on a neutral track at the peak of their careers in the old one-off format.So I decided to give it a shot-I have the oldest riding in the #1 racejacket(Cyril Roger) then all the others in their age order down to the youngest as #16(Rune Sormander) Here's what I came up with. Ht#1 Waterman, Roger,Clark,Dunton #2 Williams,Bradley,Payne,Brand #3 Mardon,Boothroyd,Taylor,Close #4 Nygren,Sormander,Bales,Gooch #5 Roger,Payne,Taylor,Gooch #6 Bales,Bradley,Boothroyd,Clark #7 Nygren,Waterman,Close,Brand #8 Williams,Sormander,Mardon,Dunton #9 Sormander,Bradley,Close,Roger #10 Nygren,Mardon,Payne,Clark #11 Waterman,Williams,Bales,Taylor #12 Boothroyd,Gooch,Brand,Dunton #13 Bales,Mardon,Roger,Brand #14 Williams,Clark,Close,Gooch #15 Sormander,Waterman,Payne,Boothroyd #16 Nygren,Bradley,Taylor,Dunton #17 Nygren,Williams,Roger,Boothroyd #18 Sormander,Clark,Taylor,Brand #19 Waterman,Bradley,Mardon,Gooch #20 Bales,Close,Payne,Dunton Run-off for 2nd and 3rd: Waterman,Williams, Sormander Overall. Nygren 15,Waterman 13,Williams 13,Sormander 13,Bales 11,Bradley 10,Mardon 9,Roger 7,Boothroyd 6,Payne 6,Clark 5, Close 5,Taylor 4, Gooch 2,Brand 1,Dunton 0.

Yes the world is ending on 21 December 2012-I am OK though because I have all my investment certificates coming due on Dec 20th 2012-I am golden boy!

I think Basil was not Eric Linden-different guy altogether altho' Eric had many other names e.g. Angus Kix

Come on you guys -the best is yet to come-40 years ago I got worried when I didn't get invited to a party-now I get worried if I am invited to a party