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One saturday night at bradford, in 1990, the aces were there........

 

Terry Hardaker was doing the 'honours' on the centre green......

 

Proudly alongside him stood seven cheerleaders resplendent in their new 1990 uniforms...

 

Each had a square sign which they proudly held above their heads which spelled out 'D U K E S 9 0' to the grandstand, who gave the girls a round of applause......

 

We on the back straight obviously at that stage didn't have a clue what the signs said until.......

 

Terry then shouted 'that's fantastic girls, now turn round and show the back straight'...

 

This they did in unison and we on the back straight were met with the immortal '0 9 S E K U D' :D ...

 

And let's be honest, in the 24 years since then, centre green presentation hasn't really got much better than that has it?? :o:D

Edited by mikebv
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With three riders only in the race Rob Lambert retired and had half a wheel through the pits gate when someone waved their arms in the pits and got him to complete the race for a point. He was then promptly excluded for having outside assistance though nobody actually touched him or the bike at any stage.

 

Apparently advice from the pits is now classed as assistance and the Ref got it 100% right.

 

It was a new one on me and had the Sky boys bamboozled for a while too.

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With three riders only in the race Rob Lambert retired and had half a wheel through the pits gate when someone waved their arms in the pits and got him to complete the race for a point. He was then promptly excluded for having outside assistance though nobody actually touched him or the bike at any stage.

 

Apparently advice from the pits is now classed as assistance and the Ref got it 100% right.

 

It was a new one on me and had the Sky boys bamboozled for a while too.

 

Which he did doing wheelies ..Whack whack ooops lol

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One saturday night at bradford, in 1990, the aces were there........

 

Terry Hardaker was doing the 'honours' on the centre green......

 

Proudly alongside him stood seven cheerleaders resplendent in their new 1990 uniforms...

 

Each had a square sign which they proudly held above their heads which spelled out 'D U K E S 9 0' to the grandstand, who gave the girls a round of applause......

 

We on the back straight obviously at that stage didn't have a clue what the signs said until.......

 

Terry then shouted 'that's fantastic girls, now turn round and show the back straight'...

 

This they did in unison and we on the back straight were met with the immortal '0 9 S E K U D' :D ...

 

And let's be honest, in the 24 years since then, centre green presentation hasn't really got much better than that has it?? :o:D

 

 

The late Terry Hardaker, he put so much into the junior dukes back in the day but there really was no way, even by the pitiful standards of the day, that he should ever have been allowed a centre green microphone

Edited by Oldace
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The late Terry Hardaker, he put so much into the junior dukes back in the day but there really was no way, even by the pitiful standards of the day, that he should ever have been allowed a centre green microphone

Agreed, bless him...

 

Terry used to stand in at BV occasionaly and one night he was introducing the riders...

 

He came down the list of riders till he announced 'and at number six Ales Dryml'...

 

However not pronounced as 'Alice' but 'Ales' as in 'the Bitter'!!!!! :D

 

Brilliant...... ;)

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Birmingham's visit to Hackney in 1982 was quite a close run affair until heat 10. With the Hawks two points in front, their pairing of Finn Thomsen and Jens Rasmussen gated and were on an easy 5-1 over their Brummies counterparts of Ales Dryml Snr and Ari Koponen, until Rasmussen's bike went entering the third bend on lap 2.

 

Straightening the bike up, Rasmussen collided with Thomsen, and the pair both fell off. Whilst they were sorting themselves out, the Brummies pair raced past completely unconcerned. Thomsen eventually remounted and proceeded to pootle round, and when the flag came out, he was well over half a lap adrift. However, instead of taking the flag, Thomsen decided to ride straight into the pits, only to be greeted by an irate Len Silver, who told him very loudly, and in no uncertain terms to "Bl***y well get out there and finish the race", which he did. Too late though, as the referee had already switched on the red exclusion light....

 

The announcer read out the result, and added that "The rider in red has been excluded for leaving the track without the referee's permission"! Priceless! :D

 

The resulting 5-0 also had great bearing on the final result. The Brummies won 41-36. Happy days! :)

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John Langfield at Poole. He had broken his ankle a week or so before and came out for an interview at the interval.

 

In typical Lango style, he didn't hobble out. He hitched a ride on the tractor, right on the front, complete with crutches.

 

As they approached the tapes, he raised one of the crutches and deliberately broke them!

 

Said the ref had it too easy with without him riding.

 

Poor old Bert Ball, the Start Marshall, moaned about it for weeks.

 

Another Lango classic was at Cradley. We were queuing up outside the main entrance, when we saw Police. Sirens blaring, they swung into entrance, scattering us fans in all directions. Turns out Lango had got lost and got himself a police escort!

 

Great character. :rofl:

Edited by Penny Cross
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Back in the Day when Belle Vue in Manchester had a zoo , fun fair and concert . The league riders final was held there every year. one year it was rained off. It had been a late call and most fans were there. How ever the same night wrestling was on in the concert hall with some of the big names from the telly on the bill. I don't know who got the bigger surprise the local wrestling fans or the wrestlers themselves to find the place packed with noisy speedway fans complete with air horns

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Birmingham's visit to Hackney in 1982 was quite a close run affair until heat 10. With the Hawks two points in front, their pairing of Finn Thomsen and Jens Rasmussen gated and were on an easy 5-1 over their Brummies counterparts of Ales Dryml Snr and Ari Koponen, until Rasmussen's bike went entering the third bend on lap 2.

 

Straightening the bike up, Rasmussen collided with Thomsen, and the pair both fell off. Whilst they were sorting themselves out, the Brummies pair raced past completely unconcerned. Thomsen eventually remounted and proceeded to pootle round, and when the flag came out, he was well over half a lap adrift. However, instead of taking the flag, Thomsen decided to ride straight into the pits, only to be greeted by an irate Len Silver, who told him very loudly, and in no uncertain terms to "Bl***y well get out there and finish the race", which he did. Too late though, as the referee had already switched on the red exclusion light....

 

The announcer read out the result, and added that "The rider in red has been excluded for leaving the track without the referee's permission"! Priceless! :D

 

The resulting 5-0 also had great bearing on the final result. The Brummies won 41-36. Happy days! :)

Good old Finn, always being accused of having an oversized engine but never proved!

 

I remember the night Ole Olsen fenced Bo Petersen with Bo running back to the pits like a madman before being stopped by a wall of trackstaff.

 

They were never the best of friends and I'm sure Ole had a hand in Bo being suspended for a while for turning up late for practice for a meeting at Vojens.

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maybe apocryphal as this was told to me by a third party (though he is someone who worked in the pits at BV at the time so I would suggest hopefully true)..

 

one night one of the younger riders in the BV team was having a poor match so therefore sought out the advice of the world's best rider who just happened to be his captain.....

 

he asked Ivan Mauger, 'Ivan, what can I do to go faster'?

 

Ivan replied that maybe the young man should consider cutting off two inches from each side of the handlebars on his bike..

 

the lad looked a bit perplexed so asked Ivan 'but how will that help me to go faster exactly'?..

 

'It won't' replied the great man 'but you'll now be able to fit your bike in the bin!!!' :D

Edited by mikebv
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Does anyone remember the air brush painting on the back of Preben Eriksen's van?

 

Suffice to say it was of a rather attractive lady with not a lot on and the story was that the Police made him apply sticking plaster to cover bits of it.

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I recall a couple of incidents from the early 70s involving starting gates.

 

The first was Rick Timmo riding for Oxford ar Cradley. The tapes went up and got caught under his full face helmet ( a novelty at the time) leaving him dangling in mid air with his legs kicking away.

 

Exactly the same thing happened to Bernie Persson at Newport (Somerton Park) a couple of years after. Strange starting date there. They brought it out and installed it before the start of the match!

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Agreed, bless him...

 

Terry used to stand in at BV occasionaly and one night he was introducing the riders...

 

He came down the list of riders till he announced 'and at number six Ales Dryml'...

 

However not pronounced as 'Alice' but 'Ales' as in 'the Bitter'!!!!! :D

 

Brilliant...... ;)

 

Yup, when Ales first came to Britain, Oxford fans were often amused by the way that away announcers said his name. :D

 

It's not "Alice" either, that's also wrong. "Al-leesh" is closer.

 

All the best

Rob

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can remember going on a southern tour in 1987 with Berwick, all the riders and fans were in the same hotel all took some cans to Rob Woffindens room to discover his bike in the middle of the room.

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