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Do You Remember The 70's & 80's When Uk Teams Signed Unknown Foreigners? Some Good, Most Were Pants!


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Ulf after a slow start not helped by an early season injury began to register some decent scores. It was a shame he missed the following season (due to family commitments) and subsequent seasons because he could have gone on to be a very useful rider.

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I remember Ulf signing for Cradley at the end of the 1973 season. We were a weak side to start with but ended the campaign decimated by injury - missing Persson, Cole and Cribb - the 3 heat leaders, so Ulf was definitely a sight for sore eyes in a team being patched together by guests. He acquired himself well in the circumstances and would have been welcomed back in 1974.

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23 hours ago, salty said:

I remember Ulf signing for Cradley at the end of the 1973 season. We were a weak side to start with but ended the campaign decimated by injury - missing Persson, Cole and Cribb - the 3 heat leaders, so Ulf was definitely a sight for sore eyes in a team being patched together by guests. He acquired himself well in the circumstances and would have been welcomed back in 1974.

Apparently according to the late Bob Radford who was the manager at Cowley in 1974 Ulf wished to return to Cradley after signing for Oxford and agreeing terms. Bob Radford only lasted half a season before resigning his post.

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Apparently according to the late Bob Radford who was the manager at Cowley in 1974 Ulf wished to return to Cradley after signing for Oxford and agreeing terms. Bob Radford only lasted half a season before resigning his post.

Bob wasn't a big fan of Ulf. Nor Mike Ferreira for that matter.

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4 hours ago, frigbo said:

Bob wasn't a big fan of Ulf. Nor Mike Ferreira for that matter.

Radford never fitted in at Cowley and the last resort was when Gordon Kennett phoned Radford to see if the meeting against Swindon was to go ahead to be told that it had been cancelled. It did take place and Oxford had to cover for Gordon and subsequently lost to Swindon...Radford resigned soon after and he wasn't missed.

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55 minutes ago, Skodaman said:

When DeWayne Keeter joined Leicester but Ron Wilson persisted with him and by the end of the season he was picking plenty of points

in the days when there wasn't a blind panic to win at all costs and fans could appreciate even low scoring riders. I believe Lions had the same 1-7 for all but one of their fixtures that season

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On 2/11/2024 at 3:50 AM, mikebv said:

I remember watching someone ride in the 2nd half at Belle Vue called "Charlie Brown"...

His real name turned out to be Giuseppe Marzotto, and rather than being an animated American cartoon character, he was actually an Italian fella....

Wonder what happened to him? 

Couldn't see him making a career in Speedway to be honest... ;)

Rode for Wolves.

(didnt see the post from 847084)

Wolves rode a match at Lonigo in Italy, I wonder if it was anythng to do with the link to Marzotto ?

Edited by Beowulf
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 2/3/2017 at 1:33 PM, billybikespeedway said:

back in the 60's Newport signed the Wonderful Einar egedius, and movin closer 2004 in fact Newport signed a rider who was going to swweep all before ,came with a great pedigree,the wonderful Dawid Kujawa ( what a Flop )

Just been reading through this thread to see if I recognised any names - Dawid won the World Under-21 final when it was staged at Peterborough in 2001, which was a major upset as no one had ever heard of him.  This meant he qualified for the Grand Prix Challenge, as the U21 World Champion did in those days, but didn't take his place and runner-up Lukas Dryml got in as a result (the immense irony of Lukas Dryml profiting from someone else's absence in 2001 instead of the other way round!!!) and ended up qualifying for a GP place in 2002.

Kujawa then surfaced as a surprise signing by Newport three years later, and I think lasted one challenge match before either leaving or being kicked out, depending on which story you believe.  Possibly speedway's biggest one-meeting wonder.

I was going to mention Torben Hansen, one of the seemingly endless stream of Danes signed by Wolves in the 70s and 80s in their attempts to find the next Nielsen/Olsen, and who scored a grand total of two points in seven matches, but I see @THE DEAN MACHINE beat me to it. :P 

(edit) On the subject of Wolves, whatever happened to Eric Carrillo, the American who spent a few matches with them one season in the 2000s?  It was about the same time as the equally unsuccessful Bryan Yarrow, who was sacked by Coventry after they were infamously beaten by 50 points at Oxford and I think the Bees axed about half their team.

Edited by Dave Goddard
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On 2/3/2017 at 4:20 PM, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

in the 90s when I was riding at stoke we signed a dane called Fredrick Petersen I think his name was , he turned up at press and practice with no bikes and looked a bit bemused by it all , I think on a bit of a scout mission they had heard of a young dane called Fredrick Petersen that was worth a go but they got the wrong guy , he is on the press team photos but never turned a wheel for the potters

I'm certain I remember reading somewhere at the time that Fredrick was a highly rated rider from either the Danish or Swedish junior leagues, but having signed him Stoke realised he wasn't old enough to drive in the UK so couldn't get to meetings and therefore never rode here.  Or has my mind just made that up?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/11/2024 at 5:32 PM, Dave Goddard said:

Just been reading through this thread to see if I recognised any names - Dawid won the World Under-21 final when it was staged at Peterborough in 2001, which was a major upset as no one had ever heard of him.  This meant he qualified for the Grand Prix Challenge, as the U21 World Champion did in those days, but didn't take his place and runner-up Lukas Dryml got in as a result (the immense irony of Lukas Dryml profiting from someone else's absence in 2001 instead of the other way round!!!) and ended up qualifying for a GP place in 2002.

Kujawa then surfaced as a surprise signing by Newport three years later, and I think lasted one challenge match before either leaving or being kicked out, depending on which story you believe.  Possibly speedway's biggest one-meeting wonder.

I was going to mention Torben Hansen, one of the seemingly endless stream of Danes signed by Wolves in the 70s and 80s in their attempts to find the next Nielsen/Olsen, and who scored a grand total of two points in seven matches, but I see @THE DEAN MACHINE beat me to it. :P 

(edit) On the subject of Wolves, whatever happened to Eric Carrillo, the American who spent a few matches with them one season in the 2000s?  It was about the same time as the equally unsuccessful Bryan Yarrow, who was sacked by Coventry after they were infamously beaten by 50 points at Oxford and I think the Bees axed about half their team.

Don't know if he's been mentioned, Wolves signed a dane Fleming Pedersen. My group of friends nick named him Spit the Dane.

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Not sure if this was the late 80s or 90s, but Frenchman Thierry Hilaire for Long Eaton. Came in with bit of a fanfare, and at times we were not even sure if he knew how to turn the bike. Don't think he lasted long.  I think he rode for another British club after us, with similar results. 

 

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20 minutes ago, TheReturn said:

Not sure if this was the late 80s or 90s, but Frenchman Thierry Hilaire for Long Eaton. Came in with bit of a fanfare, and at times we were not even sure if he knew how to turn the bike. Don't think he lasted long.  I think he rode for another British club after us, with similar results. 

 

Yeah, positively terrifying to watch.


1989..Long Eaton..10..35..12..0..1.37
1990..Milton K..27..102..83..11..3.68
1992..Sheffield..6..20..3..0..0.60

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On 1/25/2024 at 3:09 PM, Andy Downes said:

I remember Billy Lellmann riding a challenge match at Hackney and he looked pretty decent - I heard he left as he was homesick

It's going back yrs but Billy Lellman im sure came over the same yr as Shane Parker and if i remember correctly looked on par with Shane what i saw of them at Foxhall, i think he did leave and return to Australia because he was home sick

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1 hour ago, kevin bass said:

It's going back yrs but Billy Lellman im sure came over the same yr as Shane Parker and if i remember correctly looked on par with Shane what i saw of them at Foxhall, i think he did leave and return to Australia because he was home sick

Yes. 1990

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21 hours ago, TheReturn said:

Not sure if this was the late 80s or 90s, but Frenchman Thierry Hilaire for Long Eaton. Came in with bit of a fanfare, and at times we were not even sure if he knew how to turn the bike. Don't think he lasted long.  I think he rode for another British club after us, with similar results. 

 

Thierry Hillarious as he got renamed...:D

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5 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Who remembers Alfred Sitzwohl at Edinburgh 1965.Austrian Champion1964.I match I think.

https://wwosbackup.proboards.com/thread/2496/alfred-sitzwohl

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