BOBBATH Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Unlike some of the other humourous and pathetic posts ( I meantersay what idiot would post best Muslim team ever)-this is meant to be serious. PL was my favourite league. Qualification for this team is 2 seasons in PL. Here goes in no particular order Ivor Brown(well perhaps he should be #1) Ivan Mauger, Eric Boocock, Jack Kitchen, George Hunter, Jim Squibb, Dave Younghusband, Clive Featherby,Charlie Monk, Colin Pratt, Ross Gilbertson, Doug Templeton, Tommy Roper, Pete Jarman, Ray Harris(well he did ride for Newport for one season in PL after Stoke closed). Holy cow I'm up to 15 already and didn't get to mention Pete Kelly, Harry Bastable,Trevor Redmond, Len Silver, Geoff Mudge, Maury Mattingley and many others. What do other forumlanders who remember the Prov. League reckon-what a wonderful league that was!! Still remember all the rough and tumble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbold Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Reg Reeves, Brian Craven, Graham Warren, Tommy Sweetman, Ken Middleditch, Tony Lewis....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wessex Wanderer Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 The best league ever. Wonderful memories just reading those already listed. Great characters, mainly stable line ups. Each of us going down memory lane the list would be endless. Must add Bluey Scott and Howdy Byford though. And everybody (meaning mainly the crowds) seemed to enjoy themselves too. A different world than today but one I am glad I experienced. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Theoretically...today's EL and PL is the modern-day version of the 1960's NL and PL. As an old-timer give me the old PL any day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Maury Robinson, Ken Sharples, Gordon Guasco, Jim Airey. Edited February 10, 2015 by The White Knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbold Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Eric Boothroyd and my hero Stan Stevens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBBATH Posted February 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Great to see all these names mentioned-brings back memories indeed. I particularly agree with wessexwanderer re stable teams and everybody-and not just the fans -seemed to have fun. One question for whiteknight-Ken Sharples, Jim Airey and Gordon Guasco were great but I think they only had one season in PL. I do recall Maury Robinson-great trier and entertainer-not a super high scorer though. From your selections are you located in the north east?? Ken Sharples comeback after a long time was amazing to me-I recall he was in the 1964 PLRC -one of 4 Newcastle riders from the great Diamonds team of 1964-reckon the others were Bill Andrew, Ivan Mauger and Pete Kelly. That must have been a great meeting with run-offs for 1st and 2nd and also for 3rd and 4th. Norman Storer should also get an honourable mention for appearing in that PLRC-replacing the injured George Major(another name worth recalling). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Great to see all these names mentioned-brings back memories indeed. I particularly agree with wessexwanderer re stable teams and everybody-and not just the fans -seemed to have fun. One question for whiteknight-Ken Sharples, Jim Airey and Gordon Guasco were great but I think they only had one season in PL. I do recall Maury Robinson-great trier and entertainer-not a super high scorer though. From your selections are you located in the north east?? Ken Sharples comeback after a long time was amazing to me-I recall he was in the 1964 PLRC -one of 4 Newcastle riders from the great Diamonds team of 1964-reckon the others were Bill Andrew, Ivan Mauger and Pete Kelly. That must have been a great meeting with run-offs for 1st and 2nd and also for 3rd and 4th. Norman Storer should also get an honourable mention for appearing in that PLRC-replacing the injured George Major(another name worth recalling). Yes - I am. I'm from Sunderland. Ken Sharples was, as you rightly say, part of the great Newcastle 1964 Team. He should not have been. He started off as a Sunderland 'Saints' Rider but we, of course, were closed down after NINE Meetings in order to strengthen firstly Wolverhampton who were bottom of the League at the time - Airey, Guasco and McKee went there and Sharples went to Newcastle. Newcastle went on to win the League - Sharples was a revelation and Airey, Guasco, and McKee ended up at Wolverhampton who went on to finish Third in the Provincial League. The reasons given for closure of Sunderland were the Weather and low Crowds. At the penultimate 'Saints' Match there were 8,000 there (Source: Sunderland Echo) and we never had a rained off Meeting in 1964. Add to that that Newcastle didn't close and we are only twelve miles away from there and mostly share the same Weather patterns. YES!!! You could say that we had a lot to thank Messrs Parker and Bridgett for - but I don't think so. Am I bitter - YES I AM!!!! I've never - over the last FIFTY years - forgiven them for that. Add to my List: Vic Ridgeon, Russ Dent and Maury McDermott. Edited February 10, 2015 by The White Knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBBATH Posted February 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2015 Wot about Mike Watkin-nice guy also!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBBATH Posted February 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 Hi whiteknight-why do you reckon they closed down Sunderland in 1964 then? Only reason I can think of is that Sunderland and Newcastle might compete for the same crowds-perhaps they thought they could get the crowds at Newcastle without having to operate 2 stadiums-so now they had 2 profitable tracks(Newcastle and Wolves) instead of 3 -but had lower expenses(one less stadium to run etc.) Were the Sunderland later teams also profitable -Stars etc. Whatever I would be pissed off just like you tho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 Hi whiteknight-why do you reckon they closed down Sunderland in 1964 then? Only reason I can think of is that Sunderland and Newcastle might compete for the same crowds-perhaps they thought they could get the crowds at Newcastle without having to operate 2 stadiums-so now they had 2 profitable tracks(Newcastle and Wolves) instead of 3 -but had lower expenses(one less stadium to run etc.) Were the Sunderland later teams also profitable -Stars etc. Whatever I would be pissed off just like you tho Hi BOBBATH Nothing to do with Newcastle from the Crowd point of view, nothing to do with the weather either. Both of those were the reasons given by Bridgett and Parker for closure. As I said - Crowd at penultimate Meeting was 8,000 according to the Sunderland 'Echo'. Now that doesn't seem too bad a Crowd to me. As for the weather - we never had a 'rain off' in 1964. Granted we did have a couple of wet Meetings but they went ahead. No - I am convinced, in my own mind, that Sunderland was closed in order that primarily Wolverhampton and also Newcastle could be strengthened at Sunderland's expense. As for the Seventies - we never had Crowds like in 1964 - but we were doing reasonably well under Allied Presentations - but - we were sold and eventually ended up with a couple of Promoters who were new to the Sport - and frankly not very good. In 1974 we never won a Home Meeting until half way through the Season. We lost most of the Crowd as well as the Meetings and we were sold on, yet again, to Liz Taylor the Berwick Promoter. She did her best, strengthened our Team and we started winning Meetings at Home - sadly the missing Crowds never came back and we closed at the end of the Season. I do not blame Liz Taylor one bit as she tried her hardest for us. The other Promotions though are a different matter. Sunderland has never, ever been given a fair deal. Had we stayed with Allied Promotions - I reckon we would have survived far longer than we did - it was that Sale that did for us ultimately. So as you can see from this - I am very jaundiced about Speedway Promoters. I am grateful to them in a way - they gave me a lifetime love of Speedway - however - they gave it to me twice and snatched it from me twice in, what I consider for different reasons, preventable circumstances. I hope you can see why I am so bitter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 Hi BOBBATH Nothing to do with Newcastle from the Crowd point of view, nothing to do with the weather either. Both of those were the reasons given by Bridgett and Parker for closure. As I said - Crowd at penultimate Meeting was 8,000 according to the Sunderland 'Echo'. Now that doesn't seem too bad a Crowd to me. As for the weather - we never had a 'rain off' in 1964. Granted we did have a couple of wet Meetings but they went ahead. No - I am convinced, in my own mind, that Sunderland was closed in order that primarily Wolverhampton and also Newcastle could be strengthened at Sunderland's expense. As for the Seventies - we never had Crowds like in 1964 - but we were doing reasonably well under Allied Presentations - but - we were sold and eventually ended up with a couple of Promoters who were new to the Sport - and frankly not very good. In 1974 we never won a Home Meeting until half way through the Season. We lost most of the Crowd as well as the Meetings and we were sold on, yet again, to Liz Taylor the Berwick Promoter. She did her best, strengthened our Team and we started winning Meetings at Home - sadly the missing Crowds never came back and we closed at the end of the Season. I do not blame Liz Taylor one bit as she tried her hardest for us. The other Promotions though are a different matter. Sunderland has never, ever been given a fair deal. Had we stayed with Allied Promotions - I reckon we would have survived far longer than we did - it was that Sale that did for us ultimately. So as you can see from this - I am very jaundiced about Speedway Promoters. I am grateful to them in a way - they gave me a lifetime love of Speedway - however - they gave it to me twice and snatched it from me twice in, what I consider for different reasons, preventable circumstances. I hope you can see why I am so bitter. I can for one. As for West Ham...the Lokeren tragedy did it for us, plus the lure of megabucks for the stadium site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBBATH Posted February 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I understand. Whiteknight-since Newcastle only 12 miles away did you then go and follow Diamonds for your speedway fix-1964 they had a great team. -I guess 12 miles was a longer distance in the 60's than now-less people with cars but maybe better public transport?. Ditto customhouseregular because I think Wimbledon (and Hackney?) kept going for a while after West ham closed. I can see the problem though-I lived in Nottingham 65-68 and went to Long Eaton. When they moved to Leicester started going there-but it was a hell of a bind-train from Beeston to Leicester than Leicester bus to Blackbird Road-same on return. There was -inevitably- talk of a train strike, and checking how to get there by bus from Nottingham it seemed to be really inconvenient and not worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I understand. Whiteknight-since Newcastle only 12 miles away did you then go and follow Diamonds for your speedway fix-1964 they had a great team. -I guess 12 miles was a longer distance in the 60's than now-less people with cars but maybe better public transport?. Ditto customhouseregular because I think Wimbledon (and Hackney?) kept going for a while after West ham closed. I can see the problem though-I lived in Nottingham 65-68 and went to Long Eaton. When they moved to Leicester started going there-but it was a hell of a bind-train from Beeston to Leicester than Leicester bus to Blackbird Road-same on return. There was -inevitably- talk of a train strike, and checking how to get there by bus from Nottingham it seemed to be really inconvenient and not worth it. Not in 1964 - but I went quite a few times from 1974 onwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I could not bring myself to support Hackney but I attended open meetings, Tests, WC rounds etc, at both Hackney and Wimbledon, and later at White City. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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