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Oldest Surviving World Finalists


BOBBATH

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7 hours ago, norbold said:

The 1963 final was the first one I went to. I was sitting with my friend next to a group of Coventry supporters who we chatted to during the meeting. Perhaps we met in another life, jrs!

You never know Norman, I can honestly say at the moment I don't remember, the great thing about Wembley was that everybody seemed to get on with everybody else, it was like a great annual social event. I was a fan of Ove and enjoyed my trips to Norwich, and I nearly peeed myself as a second-halfer at Long Eaton one night when Ove's bike packed up and he borrowed my bike and went and won the race in his usual time and gave me a display of how my bike should be ridden. Needless to say it was never ridden again like that.  :D  Sadly some of my memories of fifties and sixties got affected by a fractured skull in '66. Loads of empty patches in my memory.  I know there was a lad near us at Wembley who reckoned he was gonna win a fortune on a TV programme. I wonder if he ever did.

 

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

...I have a feeling that Jim also went into partnership with ex-Bee Tony Lomas in the antique business?

I heard that Jim did antiques, but I don't know about Tony. I used to know Tony well, but then work took over my life and travels.

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1 hour ago, jrs said:

I heard that Jim did antiques, but I don't know about Tony. I used to know Tony well, but then work took over my life and travels.

...Tony's now based in Reeth apparently. Somewhere I used to visit regularly hoping to bump into him.

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2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

...I have a feeling that Jim also went into partnership with ex-Bee Tony Lomas in the antique business?

Wasn’t Tony a road tester for Triumph at one stage, along with Road racer Percy Tait ? I might be wrong but I have a feeling they were both involved with developing the Triumph 3 cylinder 750 cc. 

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43 minutes ago, E I Addio said:

Wasn’t Tony a road tester for Triumph at one stage, along with Road racer Percy Tait ? I might be wrong but I have a feeling they were both involved with developing the Triumph 3 cylinder 750 cc. 

You are perfectly 100% correct. Tony also used to race a 500 Triumph twin on grass.

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  • 2 months later...
13 minutes ago, Jonas H said:

Two fo the Swedish riders on the list passed away several years ago. Per Tage Svensson died on May 26, 2008 and Leif Enecrona as early as April 11, 2003.

Thanks for that, Jonas. Sad to hear...

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44 minutes ago, Jonas H said:

Peo Söderman is gone as well. He died already in July 1992, aged just 59.

Are you sure Jonas ? Hopefully wikipedia is correct and he is still alive and well aged 90. 

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25 minutes ago, jrs said:

Are you sure Jonas ? Hopefully wikipedia is correct and he is still alive and well aged 90. 

Peo is definitely dead. Well before Wikipedia even existed. Was a referee for many years, but died suddenly in July, 1992, some 3 months before his 60th birthday.

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With Peo and P.T. Svensson gone , most of the final 16 move up  2 places - it seems Doug Davies and Sverre Harrfeldt are now on the oldest 16 list -while we also have 2 new reserves at 17 and 18. Thanks for the update Jonas. 

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37 minutes ago, Jonas H said:

Peo is definitely dead. Well before Wikipedia even existed. Was a referee for many years, but died suddenly in July, 1992, some 3 months before his 60th birthday.

Hopefully Frigbo will see these posts as he is the fountain of knowledge on this thread.

AS well as Per Olof , commonly called Peo, wasn't there another Soderman of the same era also involved in speedway ?

 

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36 minutes ago, jrs said:

Hopefully Frigbo will see these posts as he is the fountain of knowledge on this thread.

AS well as Per Olof , commonly called Peo, wasn't there another Soderman of the same era also involved in speedway ?

 

There was no other Söderman. You might have thought about Rune Sörmander?

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7 hours ago, BOBBATH said:

With Peo and P.T. Svensson gone , most of the final 16 move up  2 places - it seems Doug Davies and Sverre Harrfeldt are now on the oldest 16 list -while we also have 2 new reserves at 17 and 18. Thanks for the update Jonas. 

I don't think that Doug Davies is still alive. As far as I recall it, he died in the early 2000s.

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Well, in light of recent information - thanks peeps - here is the updated list...

 

01 - Arthur Payne - 28/08/23
02 - Chum Taylor - 04/04/27
03 - Ian Williams - 04/08/31
04 - Ove Fundin - 23/05/33
05 - Dan Forsberg - 25/03/34
06 - Josef Hofmeister - 17/06/34
07 - Brian Crutcher - 23/08/34
08 - Mike Broadbank - 25/09/34
09 - Barry Briggs - 30/12/34
10 - Aage Hansen - 13/04/35
11 - Gote Nordin - 02/07/35
12 - Bob Andrews - 27/10/1935
13 - Reg Luckhurst - 11/11/1935

14 - Sverre Harrfeldt - 23/11/1937
15 - Leif Larsson - 16/02/1938

16 - Bjorn Knutson - 27/04/38

17 - Rick France - 12/07/1938
18 - Gunnar Malmqvist - 25/12/1940

19 - Andrzej Wyglenda 04/05/1941

20 - John Louis - 14/06/1941
21 - Jim Airey - 19/08/1941
22 - Bengt Jansson - 09/01/1943
23 - Anders Michanek - 30/05/1943
24 - Trevor Hedge - 30/08/1943
25 - Terry Betts - 15/09/1943
26 - Howard Cole 29/12/1943
27 - Martin Ashby - 05/02/1944
28 - Jan Simensen - 26/07/1944
29 - Zygfryd Friedek - 19/10/1944
30 - Jerzy Trzeszkowski - 10/01/1945
31 - Eric Boocock - 02/02/1945
32 - John Boulger - 18/06/1945
33 - Hasse Holmqvist - 18/06/1945
34 - Jim McMillan - 03/12/1945
35 - Soren Karlsson - 23/10/1946
36 - Ole Olsen - 16/11/1946
37 - Ray Wilson - 12/03/1947
38 - Doug Wyer - 16/08/1947
39 - Grigori Khlinovsky - 11/11/47

40 - Egon Muller - 26/11/1948
41 - Christoph Betzl - 13/02/1949
42- Jiri Stancl - 18/11/1949
43 - Viktor Kuznetsov - 27/11/1949
44 - Georg Hack - 20/02/1950
45 - Marek Cieslak - 28/06/1950
46 - Alois Wiesbock - 31/07/1950
47 - Tommy Johansson - 21/10/1950
48 - Vladimir Gordeev - 30/11/1950

49 - John Titman - 26/01/1951
50 - Dag Lovaas - 25/02/1951

51 - Jan Verner - 03/03/1951

52 - Petr Ondrasik - 08/10/1951
53 - Phil Crump - 09/02/1952
54 - Henny Kroeze - 11/03/1952
55 - Valery Gordeev - 28/08/1952
56 - Dave Jessup - 07/03/1953
57 - Ales Dryml - 10/06/1953
58 - Scott Autrey - 09/07/1953
59 - Gordon Kennett - 02/09/1953
60 - Robert Slabon - 15/09/1953
61 - Peter Collins - 24/03/1954
62 - Larry Ross - 15/06/1954
63 - John Davis - 10/11/1954
64 - Finn Thomsen - 16/02/1955
65 - Mikhail Starostin - 24/02/1955
66 - Tommy Nilsson - 10/03/1955
67 - Jan Andersson - 07/05/1955
68 - Kai Niemi - 15/09/1955

69 - Jerzy Rembas - 18/04/1956
70 - Chris Morton - 22/07/1956
71 - Steve Bastable - 16/09/1956
72 - Bruce Penhall - 10/05/1957
73 - Karl Maier - 24/08/1957
74 - Roman Jankowski - 05/10/1957
75 - Bo Petersen - 21/02/1958
76 - Les Collins - 24/05/1958
77 - Mitch Shirra - 27/09/1958
78 - Michael Lee - 11/12/1958
79 - John Cook - 18/12/1958
80 - Dennis Sigalos - 16/08/1959
81 - Erik Gundersen - 08/10/1959
82 - Hans Nielsen - 26/12/1959

Edited by chunky
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Just for bit of fun; Jason Crump is the YOUNGEST surviving world finalist, nearly three years younger than the next - Joe Screen.

Yes, I now have the complete list of surviving world finalists...

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