Notoriously Dirty Riders

[czechhero]

10 pages in and no mention of Cribby or Big Arthur! 

[zlata prilba]

17 minutes ago, czechhero said:

10 pages in and no mention of Cribby or Big Arthur! 

Pair of Pussies Czechy

[czechhero]

Mind you, the way Cribby unscrewed his exclusion light and trod on it that night at PB , no way could u call him a pussy, it was probably red hot, well white hot actually! 

[geoff100]

The sport could do with a few guys like these now! Hard but fair riders .

[TonyMac]

I recall Ole Olsen blatantly stuffing fellow countryman Bo Petersen in the first bend fence in a Hackney v Coventry match (1980-81 ish). Think Bo, young and eager at the time, might have ruffled the Great Dane's feathers at some Danish meeting - or may have been Nordic Final - the week before.

Bo picked himself up, ran along the home straight and, as he made a beeline for Ole in the pits - the two riders were pulled apart. Ole just smiled and shrugged his shoulders, as if to say: 'you won't do that again, will you sonny?'.

Bo was left out of the Danish Test team for a while and invites to Vojens were also thin on the ground. But they had 'kissed and made up' by 1984, when OO was team manager and BP was recalled to help Denmark win the WTC final at Leszno.

Finn Thomsen and Billy Sanders had a bit of a vendetta going, although I don't know where or when it originated. Billy, who would never take a backward step, took off his helmet and thrust it at FT in the pits after Finn had deliberately knocked him off on the first turn just after they had crossed the finish line in a Hackney v Hull match in 1981.

Simmo got some stick from Poole fans after he had Ron Preston - his club-mate - off during an England v USA Test at Wimborne Road in 1980. Simmo disliked the Americans only marginally less than Kenny Carter and I guess he regarded Ronnie as a young upstart looking to oust him as Pirates' No.1.

Some of the most skilful riders have the ability to disguise 'dirty' riding.

It would have been '79 or '80 when I wrote in my BLRC report for Speedway Mail that Hans Nielsen had ruthlessly caused an opponent to fall (can't remember who). Hans wasn't impressed and phoned me at the office to register his complaint.

Don't know the race in question, but I've heard tales of a savage bit or riding by Hans against Mark Loram in the GP.

Edited January 27, 2020 by tmc

[Triple.H.]

Remember reading somewhere that Kevin Smith was called Smelly because he didn't shower till he got home

 

[brylcream boy]

I take my hat off to people who can remember what happened on the 3rd bend between riders at Cradley in 1964, I cannot even remember what I had for tea.

 

[scottyfan]

2 hours ago, Triple.H. said:

Remember reading somewhere that Kevin Smith was called Smelly because he didn't shower till he got home

 

The story going round when he first rode for Poole was, He rode in a Grasstrack meeting in the afternoon and came off, landing in a cowpat....He then rode a Speedway meeting in the evening wearing the same unwashed leathers....hence the name “Smelly Smith” 

[martinmauger]

8 hours ago, tmc said:

Finn Thomsen and Billy Sanders had a bit of a vendetta going, although I don't know where or when it originated. Billy, who would never take a backward step, took off his helmet and thrust it at FT in the pits after Finn had deliberately knocked him off on the first turn just after they had crossed the finish line in a Hackney v Hull match in 1981.

 

Indeed.  This incedent ended Billy's meeting and season there and then.  There is still some doubt, however, whether Billy broke his wrist in the resulting crash or on Finn's head when they exchanged notes in the pits afterwards .....

Edited January 28, 2020 by martinmauger
added emoji

[Triple.H.]

7 hours ago, scottyfan said:

The story going round when he first rode for Poole was, He rode in a Grasstrack meeting in the afternoon and came off, landing in a cowpat....He then rode a Speedway meeting in the evening wearing the same unwashed leathers....hence the name “Smelly Smith” 

So I'm kind of, in a roundabout way, sort of more or less correct

[Stoke Potter]

Not sure if it got answered but it was Sean Wilson who had Staechmann off and ended his career.

Quite surprised to Pickering mentioned as dirty as I didn't pick up on it at the time and he never seemed to be overly forceful to me.  He was a 1 line rider though, out at the fence, so probably took a few out there with him.

There's world of difference between taking someone to the fence and putting someone through it though.

I get the impression that modern era riders think they have a divine right to pass someone and if they get taken to the fence it's dirty riding.

[topaz325]

A certain Scunthorpe rider....

[Tsunami]

5 hours ago, Stoke Potter said:

Not sure if it got answered but it was Sean Wilson who had Staechmann off and ended his career.

Quite surprised to Pickering mentioned as dirty as I didn't pick up on it at the time and he never seemed to be overly forceful to me.  He was a 1 line rider though, out at the fence, so probably took a few out there with him.

There's world of difference between taking someone to the fence and putting someone through it though.

I get the impression that modern era riders think they have a divine right to pass someone and if they get taken to the fence it's dirty riding.

Agreed. Paul suddenly gained a lot of speed when he was at Reading and not all riders thought that was fair. 

Can anybody remember the details of the crash that badly finished his career ?

[Stoke Potter]

7 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

Agreed. Paul suddenly gained a lot of speed when he was at Reading and not all riders thought that was fair. 

Can anybody remember the details of the crash that badly finished his career ?

If I recall correctly it was at Hull, possibly coming out of the second bend on to the back straight, ran out of space on the outside (Hull was very narrow?) and his arm was very badly smashed.  Happy to be corrected, all from what I recall hearing/reading at the time, I didn't actually see it.

[bloom89]

1 hour ago, Tsunami said:

Agreed. Paul suddenly gained a lot of speed when he was at Reading and not all riders thought that was fair. 

Can anybody remember the details of the crash that badly finished his career ?

Didn't Pickering put Kenny Bjerre through the fence at Brough one time? 

Also remember Sean Wilson T-boning Robert Erikson I think when he was our number 1?

[steve roberts]

Andre Compton was always a bit of a "goon" to use an Ice Hockey term. Remember at Reading when Phil Morris was furiuos in the pits after Compton passed him in no uncertain questionable fashion on the track.

[hawkeyenz]

Malcolm Ballard, now that name is a blast from the past. Number 8 to Number 1 in one season. The second half finals in 1971 and 1972 at Eastbourne were like stockcars. I don't think he liked the Kennett's much. Reg Trott appeared to carefully avoided making the final!

I remember a punch up in an Inter divisional 4TT between Malcolm and Dave Kennett in 1972.

Mitch Shirra and Steve Gresham were 'hard' racers.

 

[Triple.H.]

If I remember correctly wasn't there a Golden live TV moment when Andre Compton won the PLRC. Being interviewed in what looked like a large Gazebo and some fan poked his head through and shouted something that implied AC had hairy palms.

[Tsunami]

4 hours ago, bloom89 said:

Didn't Pickering put Kenny Bjerre through the fence at Brough one time? 

Also remember Sean Wilson T-boning Robert Erikson I think when he was our number 1?

Yes I think he did. Pickering did some funny moves and was too fast at times. When he joined Reading he suddenly shot up the table to be one of the highest average  riders in our League.

In the race in 1999 Wilson, who later took the track record a few years later, missed the gate and was left trailing by the usual fast start Robert in heat 1. Derroll Keats followed him down the back straight and Wilson turned it on, passed Derroll on the back straight and by the time he got to the third bend he was going too fast to properly turn, and just went straight on and hit Robert midships.  Robert flew off the bike, landing on his shoulder when he came down. Broken collarbone for Robert and an exclusion for Sean. It was one of the plainest example of a rider just going for the rider and not only should he have been excluded, he should have gone from the rest of the meeting. Unfortunately the ref chickened out and it meant we had to use Dave McAllan for Robert's replacement for the rest of the meeting, but Sean was allowed to stay in the meeting and contributed to our loss on the night. I think I took Robert to the airport home are we had been to the hospital. Being retired I was the one that got those jobs, with both George and Peter working.

The worst dirty riding I have seen was the deliberate fencing of Christian Henry on the 4th bend by Magnus Zetterstrom in the early 00's. Christian hurled into fence probably not knowing what had hit him. This time, the ref Stuart Wilson, applied the not often used rule to exclude Magnus, who was not concerned what he had done,  from the rest of the meeting. Poor Christian wasn't up to riding after that, having lost a big chunk out of his bum flesh hitting the fence. Horrible smash, only followed by Rene's big smash many years later at the exact same spot.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Tsunami

[Tsunami]

43 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Andre Compton was always a bit of a "goon" to use an Ice Hockey term. Remember at Reading when Phil Morris was furiuos in the pits after Compton passed him in no uncertain questionable fashion on the track.

Yes, Andre did get himself a bit of a reputation. I was at that meeting BTW. Hard as nails he never backed off, as seen at Lakeside when an Arena rider was going round all the riders on the outside of the 1st and 2nd bends, when Andre went to the fence and the Arena rider when through the fence and took several sections of the fence with him.  All 4 back.   

Edited January 28, 2020 by Tsunami