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Scottish Special


TonyMac

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There will be a strong Scottish flavour to our next issue (No.33), on sale in early August.

 

Richard Bott has interviewed former Scottish No.1 Bobby Beaton, who had successful spells with Glasgow and Edinburgh at either end of a career that also took in Hull.

 

Martin Neal is interviewing Bob's father, Jimmy Beaton snr, on his years as Glasgow Tigers boss.

 

He will also be photographing each of the Tigers' different venues with a resume of each stadium - from Hampden, to Coatbridge, Blantyre, Shawfield, etc, etc, and, sadly in some cases, what became of them.

 

Mike Hunter will be presenting his 'Scottish Dream Team'.

 

Which seven riders do you expect to be included in it? Remember, it's the Backtrack time scale of 1970-90.

Edited by tmc
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Suppose you can't look past McMillan, Beaton, Hunter and Collins from the 70's. Throw in a McKinna (or 2) and maybe even Bert Harkins who was a heat leader in the British League for the first half of the 70's.

 

Hope there is something about Jim Beaton Jnr as the way he came back after his serious arm injury was some story.

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More or less picks itself I think, although his powers were on the wane, the fact that Ken McKinlay was still around in the early 70s makes him eligible and the others mentioned are a given, ie; Jimmy McMillan, George Hunter, Pogo Collins, Bobby Beaton, Bertola Harkins and Kenny McKinna. With a nod to the likes of the Templetons, Benny Rourke, Chas and Martin Mckinna, Scott Lamb and wee Colin Caffrey :approve:

 

Looking forward to reading it though, especially what auld Jimmy Beaton has to say, what a character he was :D I think it is safe to say that if it was wasnt for him the Tigers would have folded many moons ago. The hard work and money he has ploughed into Scottish speedway down the years should never be underestimated. How the club survived the Craighead Park years I will never know.

Edited by mervjankefanclub
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How about Eddie Argall, Alistair Brady, Maury Robinson and Alan Mackie - I think (hope) that all of these are Scots. :unsure::unsure:

 

Eddie Argall was an Aussie, Ian. Brady is obviously a Scot and so too was Mackie, I believe. Not too sure about Robinson, but I get the feeling he was from south of the border :unsure:

 

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I was hugely impressed with Bobby Beaton when he was a Diamond. For the first six weeks of his career with us I used to stand there thinking "where on earth is he going now?" as he covered every square inch of the Brough Park track but he was just sussing out out all of the possible lines and he later became capable of passing people on lines that no-one else had ever used around the place.

 

Great rider.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got Backtrack in the post yesterday. Great read as ever. However being an Edinburgh fan I particularly enjoyed the interview with Bobby Beaton who was one of my favourite Monarchs. Also enjoyed reading about Mike Hunter's dream team. Just one little error on the Monarchs team photo though. Toni Franchetti was the promoter but it is in fact Martin Buck who is pictured. Martin was team manager for a spell along with Eric Boocock that season.

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Recieved my copy yesterday, top read again, like the article about Bobby Beaton, plus Paul Thorp winning the NLRC. :rolleyes:

Same here, s'pecially the stock car racing with Dennis Sigalos & Kelly Moran; wonder whose idea that was, LOL!...

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Same here, s'pecially the stock car racing with Dennis Sigalos & Kelly Moran; wonder whose idea that was, LOL!...

 

Kelly Moran mad as a hatter, but a total legend!!!!! :lol: If only the aces had a rider with half his talent now, rather than that tosh i watched lastnight!!!!! :cry:

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I think Backtrack has been a great publication, and I must admit I've quite enjoyed the past couple of issues. However, it's perhaps starting to take on a bit of fanzine feel, with slightly ad-hoc articles that don't obviously fit into the overall theme of a particular issue. It's not really a criticism as such, as I appreciate it must be difficult to constantly find interesting material, let alone find willing contributors, but one does wonder whether the best stuff has now mostly been covered... :unsure:

 

I would say that I think Malcolm Simmons could be a good addition, as I thought his autobiography was surprisingly good and was up there with the Berry tomes. Usually the books of sportspeople are deathly dull, but his was a rare and enjoyable exception. :approve:

Edited by Humphrey Appleby
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I would say that I think Malcolm Simmons could be a good addition, as I thought his autobiography was surprisingly good and was up there with the Berry tomes. Usually the books of sportspeople are deathly dull, but his was a rare and enjoyable exception. :approve:

Berry Tomes,the Hackney rider?Didn't know he had a book out

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  • 3 weeks later...

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