Careers Ruined By Injury

[REBELS77]

One rider who was very unlucky was Paul Gachet,Eastboune no1 in 1975

came to the Rebels,broke his ankle in a 2nd half crash at White City in 77

then Broke his thigh in the last meeting of the 1978 season at Mildenhall,

Never came back which was a shame as when the Rebels moved to Eastboune

in 1979 could have really worked for him.

[Canadian Star]

Here's one or two for you - Troy Pratt - looked a great prospect at Kings Lynn before getting hurt, David Crane would be another, never recovered or was as good after badly dislocating his shoulder at Leicester.

Ian Turner's progress was slowed considerably after suffering bad back injuries at Reading just two weeks after winning the British Junior Championship in 1971.

Howard Cole never was the same after his big crash at Leicester in the 1972 British Semi Final, up to that point he was looking really good that year.

Tony Davey as previously mentioned definately comes to mind, the same for Mike Lanham to a lesser extent.

[spin king]

Tony was another who had a number of serious injuries. He usually bounced back pretty well, but how much better would he have done without constantly having his career interrupted? I still remember seeing the photo on the cover of the Ipswich programme when he broke his thigh - yuk!!!

 

Steve

 

The thing I remember about Tony Davey was his riding style, had a nice easy style of riding as though he was sat in a nice comfortable chair.

[oddfossengen]

i think he got into sand track racing and was very successful

yes declan appeared many times at matchams park ringwood hants in the late 80s early 90s racing a standard mx bike against pukka sandracing bikes he was thrilling to say the least used to drive all the way down from liverpool each week to compete he must lost loads of money i was earning more as a commontater than they were as riders

 

[colincooke]

I've just looked through the whole of this thread with great interest.

 

I'll mention Bees riders 1st as they're the one's closest to my heart.

 

Les Owen of course stand out a mile for me. Les was never one to turn up any trees but as a team man he was 2nd to none,Les could win you match without scoring a single point,that's how unselfish he was.

 

Howling Gorgon has mentioned Andy Hackett. This lad was a joy to watch, it always seemed that when he was just getting his form back, injury beset him again.

 

Tony Davey is one i certainly agree with, John Berry raves about him in his books, if he hadn't sliced that finger i'm sure he would've beaten John Louis to the top.

 

 

There are of course riders who have reached the top despite horrific injuries & their courage & determination shouldn't be overlooked, Sam Ermolenko is 1 that springs to mind.

 

Steve Weatherley is another that comes into my thoughts.

Edited March 31, 2008 by colincooke

[madbiker]

Rolf Gramstad was a brilliant young rider who`s career was ended by a freak accident, he should never have got those green leathers !

[oddfossengen]

in a roundabout way eric broadbelt was accident prone and never reach the heights expected of him he even broke his ankle riding into the back of the grader at either leicester or sheffield

[spin king]

Must be something about green leathers as Eric too wore green leathers.

[dantodan]

Jesper Olsen. His career was dogged by dislocated shoulders. I remember him leading a race at Hull and he tumbled off the bike. His shoulder had dislocated just turning the previous bend. He was a great rider and with a bit of luck he would have achieved more.

[SCB]

Chris Manchester. At 21ish he was one of the top guys in the EL averaging 9+ by 25 he was a washed up EL rider who was riding in America.

 

He only broke a collarbone too.

[21st century heathen]

And he won the Intercontinental that never was.

 

I can't believe I didn't think of him for this thread. We were talking about him a couple of weeks ago.

[Garry1603]

Dave Morton always seemed to get injured when he was about to hit the really big time. He would probably have reached a few World Finals if he had avoided the big injuries.

 

 

[DW]

Andy Reid broke his thigh in the opening match at Edinburgh in 1981.He had made the breakthrough as a genuine heat leader the year before and had looked good that night until his fall.He came back that year but was not the same rider and he then made the mistake of going into the BL in 1982,was back mid season with Glasgow in 1983 before crashing at Edinburgh again at the end of that season.He had a reasonable 1984, a poor 1985 and made a handful of appearances in 1986. Had he not crashed in '81 he would almost certainly have been a 9 pt man that season (and Glasgow may have been genuine league challengers instead of their 5th place finish) and then who knows???

[Tigerblade]

Dave Morton always seemed to get injured when he was about to hit the really big time. He would probably have reached a few World Finals if he had avoided the big injuries.

 

I don't know about a few World Finals, but I do agree with you about the injuries - as well as his crashes for Hackney and Wolverhampton he was on fire for Sheffield in 1983 before he suffered a head injury at Ipswich which knocked him back a bit.

[tarabanko]

Roland Dannö - sadly paralysed after a crash in poland

Per Jonsson - worldchamp 1990 but think he could have done it again but was sadly left paralysed after a crash in 1994

Tommy Jansson - had what it takes to become the best but was sadly killed in 1976 in a crash here in Sweden

Mikael Blixt - was on the verge of making it big time before the crash in england that ended his career.

Joe Owen - Blistering star who could have gone further if not crashing in the last meeting for the year in the last heat at Ellesmere Port?

Erik Gundersen - The little dane who had it all, had been world champ but could have done it all over again if not that crash at Odsal, Bradford in 1989 had happen.

Tommy Knudsen - A real star, but was sadly injured to many times to reach his real limit

Jan O Pedersen - World champ in his own class in 1991 and had become worldchamp again if not that crash happened in Denmark.

 

 

 

/ Mikael

Edited April 18, 2008 by tarabanko

[chunky]

Okay, it's time to clarify again... Sorry Tarabanko (and others), but if you go back and reread my original post, this thread was not intended to list those who suffered tragic career-ending injuries. This is for those, such as Dave Morton, Ronnie Genz, Tommy Knudsen (excellent example, incidentally) and others who simply got knocked back one or more times when they could possibly have gone on to greater things; those who carried on riding AFTER their injuries (sometimes serious, sometimes just niggling little things), pehaps not quite fulfilling the potential they possessed before the accident.

 

Sorry if I seem a little pedantic, but that's the way I started the topic.

 

Steve

 

PS Thanks to all who have posted some excellent cases here.

 

 

[briggo]

I think Mike Keen is worth mentioning in this topic. So, o.k. he was never a top notch rider, but on occassions when he was fit and flying he could dice it with the best of them, especially at Blunsdon.

 

He always seemed to get niggling little injuries that would set him back for a while. Late on in his career he often struggled to come back from these injuries and was never quite the same rider.

 

Injury free he could have been a quality third heat leader for many a year, in my opinion.

[4thbender]

In my very first season as a fan of the shale sport - 1966 - I remember Bob Paulson being hotly tipped (with sound justification) to be future championship material. In that same season he was involved in the crash at Cradley Heath that saw the tragic death of Ivor Hughes, and subsequently succombed to two shoulder injuries in quick succession, each one costing him several weeks on the sidelines.

 

Although Bob went on to be a much-respected and loyal servant of Sheffield - ultimately becoming a cup-winning captain - he never fulfilled the promise of those early years. I think the 1966 season took a lot out of Bob in lots of different ways, but one of my abiding memories of speedway is of Bob beating Barry Briggs in four scintillating laps in a British semi-final at Owlerton. Sheer poetry!

[speedybee]

I remember Paulson and agree.

 

Another one not mentioned here so far is John Harrhy, who I also remember beating Briggo a couple of times in classic races. I think it was midway through the 72 season, when John had been recalled to Coventry from Ipswich because of injuries and Ron Mountford's retirement (Ron - now there's another example!) , that he started to really click, which also coincided with the first appearance of those resplendent gold and black leathers. He popped out and beat Briggs in heat 1 riding at no2 with Nigel Boocock finishing third, and went on to have a great end of season, which peaked at home to Hackney with a 12 point max and temporarily holding the track record (which I remember Bengt Jansson also broke that night). He started 73 like a train and was averaging 8.50 or so when that fearful smash happened in early May against Cradley 'United' which Les Owen and Bruce Cribb were also involved, entering turn three when they all tangled at high speed, with Harrhy breaking his neck and ankle I think. Up to that point I really felt that John could have gone all the way, and done it very spectacularly too.

 

Also he was forced to sit out 73, he came back - very tentatively - the following year. Now 74 was almost a carbon copy of two years earlier, with Harrhy really struggling until June, and the suddenly clicking into the sort of form that saw him account for the likes of Phil Crump and other top riders at Brandon as he started riding wider and wider, and delivering some quite spectacular racing, especially on the faster away tracks such as Halifax. I think he finished 74 on 6.68 average, and certainly took some more knocks - on one occasion riding being flipped into the crowd at the start of the back straight in Heat 13 versus Exeter at Brandon.

 

75 - the year the 4 valve came in big time - was even more enigmatic, struggling in the the third heat leader berth and only occasionally showing glimpses of form, such as the home match with Hackney in July when he went through the card unbeaten. The away meeting at Wimbledon was a case in point, a track where he'd done diddly squat before (he even named it as his bogey track) and I think he'd scored two from three rides in another Bees away mauling, and then he goes out at the end and ruins Briggo's maximum.....That year, John was having some problems with his riding technique, and at one stage even had Ken McKinlay studying his style looking for ways to turn it around.

 

76 saw a further slide, starting as third heat leader and ending the season in and out of the team, before quitting at the end of the year (although he came back later with Stoke for a couple of years). As I say, a rider who quite possibly may have gone all the way, but ended up more as a great team servant.

 

Other riders? Rick France was one, as was Roger Hill. And quite possibly Andy Smith, who must have broken most bones in his body.

 

Tony Briggs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[25yearfan]

Ipswich speedway legend Tony 'Shrimp' Davey had a good 10 year career but lost a finger in a 1972 good friday crash against Hackney when they had to cut his hand out of the sprocket with bolt croppers.

 

Shrimp also broke his thigh at Leicester in 79 I think when his footrest got caught in the wire mesh fence stopping the bike and throwing him up in the air and down the track. He packed up pro speedway in 1980 after another crash.

 

I feel without these bad smashes Shrimp could of got much further!

Edited May 17, 2008 by 25yearfan