BOBBATH

Amazed nobody has posted to this thread-thought Norbold/Starghost/Brian Hamilton would have remembered-but are you all younger than I think!!!????I guess Don has faded from memory.

I recall Maurie riding for Exeter-good middle order guy-wasn't he with Rayleigh when they won PL in 1960??

I never had the privilege of seeing Don race.My understanding is that he raced for Edinburgh in early fifties-was a top liner in Div 2 and turned down opportunities to race in Div 1. Then when Edinburgh closed he moved to Belle Vue in Div 1 -but was a good middle order guy at best then retired. Is that about right-anybody have any other info on him e.g. good or bad gater, tough or easy to deal with,fair or unfair. When he was born-has he died etc etc

Can this be right?? was Charlie Monk still riding in 1977??

ta mate

Coppers/Coopers-oops it wuz me folks who got it wrong!!! I had a Speedway Digest of 1963 in which Dave Lanning wrote an obit of Jack-he did indeed say cooper-but I jumped to the conclusion it was copper.Mea Culpa-I have sadly run across a few coppers in my time but never a cooper!!!.Are these folks still around or has the job been mechanised/outsourced out-or perhaps there are now just metal barrels and they ain't needed any more -any coopers out there in Forumland??????????

Going back to my era of 13 heats any whitewashes in the PL/BL era of the sixties.I remember a 64-14 Wolves v. Newport in October 1965-and Newport had a good team too!! But don't recollect any 65-13's!!

Anybody got Kevin's stats?I thought he may have ridden for Edinburgh in PL but not sure

Hiya SALTY -wot a drag, we wuz robbed!!

Interesting posts-hey SALTY what was the order they finished in-hope it was a Newport 1-5 and that Newport won the meeting.Amazing that Jon Erskine was in both races eight years apart .Also to Norbold two of those riders Waterman and Gooch are still with us 48 years later!!Good for them.

A post on the thread of F riders by FASTGATER mentioned that Cyril Francis was in the first race he had ever seen, got me thinking of this.The first race I ever saw was at Newport in 1964(Sat 13th June) heat one Southern League v. Long Eaton.It was a 5-1 to Newport, Alby Golden won it and broke the track record finishing ahead of Jon Erskine, Ken Adams and John Mills. I kept the program all these years which is how I know-anybody else have similar memories??

Pretty sure he rode for Weymouth(non-league) in 62 or so.

Sorry for confusion-he went to school in Wolverhampton-did not realise he was born in Cardiff(like me actually!!!)

Howard was born in the Midlands-Wolverhampton I think-didn't he ride for CH after LE and later again King's Lynn?

Thanx all:oddf-would like to be there, but the the bus service to Toronto was cut off last year!!

Anybody know when Jack was born so how old he was when he died?? As Brian Hamilton said this all took place 46 years ago but seems like yesterday. To put 46 years in perspective that is like us being at the track in 1962 and hearing guys talk about the Somme in 1916-it would have seemed unbelievably far in the past-some of us must be getting old and that is why it is important to keep these memories alive....

Re Briggo/Gresham which I recall reading about-which track did that occur at-also Gresham was a tough guy-did he knock out Briggo-or were they separated and it was a tie on points!!

Thanx for everyone's comments.Couple of questions-I reckon Jack Unstead had been transferred to Exeter in the PL-so how come he was riding for Ipswich that fateful night-also,in Peter Morrish' excellent book"British Speedway Leagues 1946-64"-,Jack does not show up as an Ipswich scorer in 1962-even if he made one appearance and scored nothing -he probably should have showed up as having scored zero.So ...did Jack die in his first ride in the first Ipswich NL League match of that year, and did he ever appear for Exeter at all that year.Also OddF who made the comment you alluded to??-everyone is dead now so what does it matter-my guess it was Alby !! What's the answer??(Your secret is safe in forumland!!!)

I recall Jack Unstead died in a track crash at Ipswich that evening -he had been transferred to Exeter in the PL at the start of that season-Len Silver was the star of that team-a real tragedy-anyone remember Jack and any memories to share??I think a middle order NL rider at Ipswich, I reckon he would have been a top PL rider-a big guy-ex-policeman I think-anyone recall the crash details or have other recollections of him??

Starghost do you recall the date of the meeting as weren't there a few Oxford- Norwich meetings that season-NL, Britannia Shield? etc-and didn't teams meet twice home and twice away in the NL at that time.??

Re previous post-good for Pete Munday-re Brian Hamilton post-I recall also Colin(Joe) Goody as a tough guy -gave no quarter-but the nicest guy you could meet off the track.I remember him mainly at Exeter-he was one of the NL guys who in 65 was posted to an ex PL track-along with Genz to Poole.I think you must be an ex Oxford supporter so will recall the wonderful Cheetahs team of 1964 who cleaned up the NL. Let me think here : I reckon the 64 Cham[pionship winning team was How, Genz, Gooch,Pander,Goody, Eddie Reeves and Bishop in no particular order -does that sound right to you??

HalifaxTiger/Paulco are you talking about the new Newport or the old one(Somerton Park) I'm talking about the old one-P.S. to Railway end -don't recall the smell you mentioned-but the street I recall in Hackney was Carpenters Rd., the street of a thousand smells.Cradley is still top in my book-as someone said a real speedway stadium in a real speedway area and real dedicated speedway fans!!

I should have mentioned Leicester also-I still think Speedway at night was the most evocative-Sheffield stadium when lit up was beautiful, the lights on the shale etc etc.There was a pub right near Leicester stadium, going from Blacbird Rd I think you went up a little hill, all residential streets and there was a pub a block or so before the main front entrance-anyone remember that? Glad to see CH got a few mentions from others.By the way speaking of smells-there was a street of nasty smells on the way to Hackney-slaughterhouses or something-anyone recall the name of that street??

I always recall Bill Andrew and Peter vandenberg going at it in a Newport v Poole match in 65(Wasps won 41-37)

OK I was a Newport person-but my favorite away track was definitely Cradley Heath. Why? Because of the great people.I recall going there in Oct 1964 on a supporters coach for the 2nd leg of the PL Knockout Cup-Newport lost the meeting but won by 2 pts. on aggregate.After the meeting we all went to a pub near by-would anyone recall the likely name?? -it was full of Speedway people and they were great. CH was always special to Newport-the opening meeting in 64 was against CH(we lost 38-40)-everyone hated Ivor Brown and CH in general-but the CH people were wonderful. There was nice food at the stadium(pork sandwiches??)-it was a misty October night in 64 and everything was perfect-I went back several times to CH-the last for old times sake in the 90's from Canada. Not the same tho'-too many ghosts present.In the sixties weren't there stone seats in front of the bar near the pits??.I regret greatly the loss of Cradley speedway and its wonderful history. Having said that I think the classiest track I visited was Sheffield(are u there TigerTom)-perfectly prepared-again super people.Anyone else have memories of favorite tracks visited-I realise its too much to hope for that any away fans would recall Somerton Park with affection-but you must admit that there was wonderful camaraderie among speedway supporters of that era-home and away. I would be particularly interested in Railwayend's thoughts on this-plus of course all the usuals(even you Brian Hamilton!!!!!!!!)