fatface Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Jessup certainly was leading and looked the rider of the night till his bike packed up , Malcolm Simmons subsequently claimed the failure was due to Jessups habit of drilling holes all over his bike to lessen the weight, a claim later denied by Jessup.Erm, wasn't it his first ride where he packed up? Bit early to say he looked rider of the night wasn't it? Edited January 13, 2015 by falcace 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbold Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 One other name to throw into this - Vic Duggan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wealdstone Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 Erm, wasn't it his first ride where he packed up? Bit early to say he looked rider of the night wasn't it? Maybe I am wrong but do not think it was his first ride again I may be wrong but think it was his last. I have no doubt someone has the records Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiheke1 Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Maybe I am wrong but do not think it was his first ride again I may be wrong but think it was his last. I have no doubt someone has the recordsit was his first.in 81 it was his 3rd & 4th Edited January 13, 2015 by waihekeaces1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wealdstone Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 (edited) it was his first. in 81 it was his 3rd & 4th Thanks for clearing that up.Anybody know the year Barry Briggs crashed and lost one of his fingers? Edited January 14, 2015 by wealdstone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiheke1 Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 1972. his second ride bernt perrson knocked him off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 One other name to throw into this - Vic Duggan. I support that claim Norbold. I first saw him ride in the UK when Harringay visited New Cross early in the 1947 season. Vic, his brother Ray and Frank Dolan brought a new dimension to the sport that season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midland Red Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 I still believe that, but for an incident not of his making, our Little Boy Blue would have been crowned champion in 1969! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted January 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 Vic Huxley - that's going back a bit and even before my time! Others that come to mind are Gote Nordin (the most stylish rider I ever saw), Peter Moore (probably the fastest 'gater' the sport has known), Tom Farndon (tragically killed when he was reaching his peek) and Arne Pander who suffered an horrendous injury and was never the same rider again. Apart from injury, the pause during the Second World War saw several potential World Champions prevented from winning the title when they were at their best. Gote Nordin was one of my all-time favourites...once rated as the best rider never to have won the World title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatface Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 I still believe that, but for an incident not of his making, our Little Boy Blue would have been crowned champion in 1969! I've never heard that story, Care to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBBATH Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 Hi Norbold-re heat 19 of 1951 World Final, enjoyed your post and I reckon its a bit of both. Before the race Aub Lawson had 5 pts.,Fred Williams 6 and Split 9. Split just had to win it, as you know. No doubt Jack Biggs was visibly nervous and the others would have observed this. However Split had no way of knowing that he would miss the gate. Knowing Split by reputation only I could see him talking to Fred and Aub and providing a bit of money for assurance they wouldn't screw him. No way these guys ganged up on Jack coz as it turned out, he didn't streak away from the gate.Tho' On page 11 of Speedway News 26 Sept 1951 is a review of the race. Just says"Biggs got into trouble on first bend and then badly tailed off". I dunno what the trouble was- it could be either explanation. Article goes on to say"Aub Lawson was away, followed by Fred Williams with Waterman third. Split tempered a moment of wildness and riding with grim determination passed first Williams and then Lawson to win one of the finest races ever seen". Reading that reminded me of one of the old second half "Rider of the Night Finals" where often the best race of the entire meeting occurred usually with the agreement of the 4 riders. So maybe Split didn't need insurance money to beat Jack by the others ganging up(although there is still the matter of the "trouble" on the first bend), but may be his investment paid off when he needed to pass the others. Always fun to speculate-I guess there may be no-one on Forumland who actually attended the meeting, and except for Split(always a smart operator)all the riders in the race are now gone.. I know you probably have the Speedway News issue I'm referring to Norbold -what do you reckon of my thoughts and do any others have views from -holy cow-almost 64 years ago 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbold Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 Thanks BOBBATH. Always interesting to read others' views on this famous race - possibly the most famous single race in the history of speedway? My friend who was with Biggs at the London Riders' Championship was also at the 1951 Final, though in the crowd, but, as I said, his view has always been it was nerves and he was a Harringay supporter, so he would have had every reason to blame his loss on to Williams and Lawson. Eric Linden, writing later, also blamed Biggs's loss on nerves. He particularly made the point about the long gap between his fourth and fifth rides and commented on the number of people who came up to Biggs in the pits before the race prematurely congratulating him. "Why couldn't they have just left him alone?" he said. He felt this just made him even more nervous. My understanding of the race itself was that Biggs was drawn in gate four, made a bad start for the first time that night and tried to make up for it by blasting round the outside on the first bend but made a hash of it and went too wide, leaving the others to get too far in front for him to make up the ground. The fact that he also came last in the run-off was a further indication that by then his nerves were just shot. By the way my friend mentioned above was at the first meeting at High Beech on February 19th 1928! Sadly he can't remember it as he was only 8 months old at the time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBBATH Posted January 15, 2015 Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 Cheers Norbold, but forgetting all about Biggs for a minute-wot about Split and the likelihood of him providing some "insurance" by chatting to the other two. I know how to settle this-let's both fly out to Spain or Tenerife or wherever the heck he lives now and ask him-I will even buy him a scotch(you too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midland Red Posted January 15, 2015 Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 I've never heard that story, Care to share? As I recall it, Boocock took 5 points from his first two rides. In his third he clashed with Klementiev, who was excluded, and Boocock just about managed to complete 4 laps in first place in the rerun. But the damage was done - his best bike was no longer functioning as well as it had done, and his second bike didn't match up to the first, and Boocock only took two third places in his final two rides He could possibly have beaten Mauger in heat 14 and Briggs in heat 18, he was going so well early on - maybe he wouldn't have, but the chance was gone And he was denied the chance of a run-off for the bronze medal when Mauger allowed his Belle Vue team-mate Sjosten to win heat 20 But Sjosten too was a "nearly man", falling in heat 5 yet finishing on 11 points I know it's all "ifs and buts" - that was the "drama" of the one-off World Final! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted January 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 As I recall it, Boocock took 5 points from his first two rides. In his third he clashed with Klementiev, who was excluded, and Boocock just about managed to complete 4 laps in first place in the rerun. But the damage was done - his best bike was no longer functioning as well as it had done, and his second bike didn't match up to the first, and Boocock only took two third places in his final two rides He could possibly have beaten Mauger in heat 14 and Briggs in heat 18, he was going so well early on - maybe he wouldn't have, but the chance was gone And he was denied the chance of a run-off for the bronze medal when Mauger allowed his Belle Vue team-mate Sjosten to win heat 20 But Sjosten too was a "nearly man", falling in heat 5 yet finishing on 11 points I know it's all "ifs and buts" - that was the "drama" of the one-off World Final! No surprise I'm sure but I fully agree with your last sentence. Re Valeri Klementiev, it is my opinion that had he not met such an untimely end he could well have been the Soviet Union's best ever rider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbold Posted January 15, 2015 Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 Cheers Norbold, but forgetting all about Biggs for a minute-wot about Split and the likelihood of him providing some "insurance" by chatting to the other two. I know how to settle this-let's both fly out to Spain or Tenerife or wherever the heck he lives now and ask him-I will even buy him a scotch(you too) Sounds good to me, BOBBATH! It is one of my regrets that I never asked Fred Williams about this on the number of occasions I met him in later life. But it never seemed quite appropriate just to go up to him and say, "Did you deliberately prevent Biggs winning the World Championship because he wouldn't bribe you or did you allow Split to win that last race because he did? Just one other point. I do think that in the long run the better rider actually won the 1951 World Championship as he later went on to prove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sotonian Posted January 15, 2015 Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 I agree with that last point which is too often overlooked. Had this question arisen before 2010, I would have answered Tomasz Gollob. Now, I would say Plechanov. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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