BOBBATH

Come on tell us-who was the rider-it can't be Ivor Brown cos he lived in Wymeswold-I guess it was a visiting rider!!

Tony,In the 72 Cradley picture Roy Trigg is definitely the guy standing on the left

Hi BFD-thanx for bringing this topic forward.I can confirm with the others that it was associated with the Prov League but it survived for at least the first two years of the BL-65 and 66 but perhaps longer.I have the British Speedway Handbooks for 1966 and 1967(covering the seasons 65 and 66).The last Silver Sash race for 65 was at Wolves on Oct 22nd when Colin Pratt defeated Tommy Sweetman..the last one in 66 when Briggo beat Peter Vandenberg also at Wolves. Perhaps someone will know whether the SS survived beyond 1966. Interestingly the 1967 hand book shows past winners starting in 1955 and going thru to 1960(with the exception of 1958).From the list of winners it looks like it was a SAL competition-first winner shown in 1955 is Eric Croft-other familiar names are Colin Gooddy,Jim Gleed, Jimmy Heard, Leo McAuliffe.Last holder in 1959 before PL was Dave Hankins. As Nigel posted the first winner in 1960 was Reg Reeves. The last PL holder was Ivan. The first British League defence should have been at Wolves at the start of the 65 season when Newcastle were the visitors.Ivan Mauger had already been injured and couldn't ride so the title went to Pete Jarman by default as the top Wolves scorer that night. The way it worked was the SS holder defended his title against the leading scorer of the opposition in (I think) the next League meeting-thus it was the first race of the second half that night.It was a simple system-these races always added to the fun of the night-pity they got rid of it. BTW the longest holder in the first season of the BL was Ken Mckinlay with 8 successful defences and next Eric Boocock with 7. Following this post I would like to be declared the honorary Canadian anorak of this message board!!!!!!!!

How old was Bob??-rode for Norwich and made a World Final I think

I recall the lighting-not floodlights but they were like strings of lightbulbs over the track-is that right or is my memory failing me

Thanx Roger-have a good trip to UK but hope to see you at Paris sometime.

The New X Russ Conway tune might have been called "Side Saddle" listen to it on youtube and check it out Jim

I have many great memories of Custom House=the lights over the track-much better atmosphere than floodlights- the British Final(rerun) 1965, a GB vs. Poland test in 1966-as I recall Colin Pratt was top scorer for England.British Final 1967 where Rick France amazingly got thru to the World Final but Terry Betts didn't.Also my last ever WH meeting on Aug 6th in 1968-before I emigrated from UK following Saturday(Aug 10th).It was the Nordic -British Final and Barry Briggs was eliminated big upset.Rainy night as I recall. In 2006- on a visit to UK-I caught the underground to Plaistow and walked down my usual route to where the old stadium was(Greengate Lane etc) for old times sake.Believe me this was not the East End I remembered, I got on the LRT just past the stadium site and was glad to get back to Central London.It was in the evening and to be frank I felt like an alien.The UK I recall has disappeared.

Hey Ron, what years was the Gazette published-I have read old copies of the News before it merged with the Star and that was written in an extremely literate way-contained words of more than one syllable even-today's Star sems like junk to me and I can't read it yecch!! It seems to be aimed at the semi literate-perhaps a comment on modern British education!!

Back on topic-remember other local reporters like Frank Drake(Exeter reports), Peter Morrish(Midlands) Howard Jacobi(Midlands)-were these people all real-??also I think there was a real Dave Stevens but what about Danny Carter(Gossip 'n Gas)-??also I always liked the way they would put obviously made up comments as being spoken by the riders-Dave Lanning often did this, also the way Swedish riders were quoted in a sort of pidgin English.(Probably other "alsos" also!!!!!!!!!!)

Starghost -which closure do you mean -after 1962-when they dropped out of PL? or much later when the stadium was redeveloped?

BTW re the Motherwell race colours-was the eagle in the middle of the white circle also black??

What later problems do you mean starghost??

Yes Ernie rode for Swindon-Alby Golden always spoke very highly of him and often referred to the night he got beat out as SAL Riders Champion by Ernie-those were the days.!!

Hi Al Stewart-dug out my old Newport progs-and in 1965 shows Stan Williams as "General Manager and P.R. and it was definitely Len's brother. Did you go to Newport in 65 also-what a great season for the Wasps.

OK speedyguy as an SAL guy of 50+ years -do you(or anyone) know what happened to Ernie Lessiter-who just beat out Alby Golden(RIP) for the SAL Riders Championship in -was it 1953??I know Ernie later went on to ride for Swindon.

Tony Mac's posting re the Leicester 1955 picture(can't believe its 53 years ago-am I getting old or what!!) got me thinking-I noticed Ron Phillips had a jersey on and I reckon its the one he used to wear at Motherwell-so my question is -what were the Motherwll colours-I think black and white -but not sure.Forumfolks does anyone know the answer.Also Chunky in Kahokia(and what the heck are you doing living there anyway!!) I should have known Johnny Green was next to Derek and that the guy on the far left was Len Williams-I recognise him now-was his brother Stan Williams who was Clerk of the Course at Newport in the 60's and did Stan ever ride for any team??

Well done Gemini-great to see some of those faces again-just on this subject is Ron Phillips still with us-I think he retired after Leicester but not sure

Guy on far left next to Ron Rhillips could be Johnny Green, Johnyy and Ron came to Leicester when Motherwell closed as did Derek.I agree with Chunky that Brian Elliott is not in picture.

On further thought the manager could be Ted Flanaghan.

OK Tony, here is my effort.Standing:?,Ron Phillips, Charlie Barsby ,?(manager),Gordon McGregor, Derek Close , ?.Hope that helps

I can't follow this stuff-is speedyguy really John Hyam-enlighten the rest of us guys.

Speaking of standards of literacy-Paul Parish's report of the U.K. Final of 1964 in the Speedway Star(4 Sept 1964) was very good -I just dug it out-I had remembered after all these years him starting off his article"The Beatles record of 'Things we said today'................." and how he was able to recreate the atmosphere for your imagination. I think you had to use your imagination more in those days-only black and white photos etc.

I recall Howard Jacobi, Frank McLean,Philip Dalling(he became the communiucations guy for Nottingham Univ. I think) and James Oldfield. Hi to Ron, Frank McLean the speedway writer was not killed in the Man Utd. air crash-must have been someone else.

I've often wondered what happened to the writers in the Star of that era-I realise Eric Linden wrote under a number of names e.g. Angus Kix, Danny Carter etc. But the guys I am thinking of here are Paul Parish, Philip Rising and the Newport meeting reporter Robin (or Ross -never sure which) Martakies. They were a real and important part of 60's speedway and does anybody know where they are now, do they still follow our great sport and are they still with us.Can anyone in forumland enlighten us on this?? And by the way with all due respect to the current Star writer I would have to say the standard of English of these guys was much higher than the writers today(perhaps a reflection of a more rigorous education system in UK in those days). What do others think??.