Daily Mirror International Tournament 1973

[Bavarian]

The final at Wembley of the 1973 Daily Mirror International Speedway Tournament is my ultimate favorite Speedway meeting of all-time !

http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/tourdmit73.htm

How I wish we could have a proper Speedway World Cup Tournament along these lines every four years !

 

This Meeting has all that I love about the sport. After 19 days of a round-robin tournament with twenty-one meetings held at tracks all over the country with the world's top seven international teams, followed by two semi-finals, the top two of England and Sweden met for the Grand Finale of this wonderful tournment at the greatest of all speedway venues, Wembley, with a fantastic crowd in attendance.

Even the tv coverage of this event is better than most of today's often drawn out live coverage, there are no boring breaks between the races, no restarts and warnings for riders moving at the tapes, it is action all the way in a condensed form that keeps everyone's attention high. The introduction of the Swedish and English team riders is beautifully shown before the racing commences. There is no track grading shown and no need for mostly boring interviews with the riders, to fill any gaps between the heats. Commentators Lanning and Briggs make this TV show even more enjoyable to watch. 

The sound of the old-style speedway bikes (plus the unmistakable smell of the burnt Castrol X oil), engines roaring majestically deep, instead of today's unpleasantly shrill sound, and the 13-heat format (remember: Happiness is 40-38!), and the main event to be followed by a full second half's racing which offered some variety for the spectators. This is all so damned good, I wonder why oh why they ever gave it up for what we have come to today. Poor fools we all are, to have let our once proud Sport go to pieces!

Today's speedway promoters and TV producers could learn a lot from how they did it back in 1973 !

 

 

Edited August 19, 2018 by Bavarian

[Sidney the robin]

Swindon          30th June  1973.     New Zealand v Sweden was certainly one of my favourite meeting's i ever went to.Legends Mauger,Briggs,Moore were  there the brilliant  Michanek  and both the Jansson's and Sjosten.I can remember the exciting Christer Lofqvist getting a paid max and breaking the track record in heat 1 great days.

[steve roberts]

Australia vs Poland at Cowley when the stadium was jammed pack! Zenon Plech's crash that was captured by Mike Patrick and 'soon to be' World Champion Jerzy Szczakiel's  only outing as far as the first bend when he got trapped under the kick board and an unlikely Polish hero in Jan Mucha...great memories of a great event during speedway's last 'Golden Era'!

Edited August 19, 2018 by steve roberts

[iris123]

Went to the New Zealand v Australia meeting at Plough Lane.Bit of a thrashing for the Aussies(Crump was out for the season and Airey wasn't really the rider of old) with a few Plough Lane experts in the line-up.Sadly now Ivan and Ronnie are no longer with us and neither is the stadium.NZ will never see their likes again and neither will London

Edited August 19, 2018 by iris123

[Hawk127]

Absolutely brilliant and that is what a team World Cup should be. Seven riders and a knock out tournament. No messing about at the start and a passionate crowd. I remember going to the round at Hackney and it was Russia but for the life of me I cannot remember the opponents but the stadium was packed. Oh happy days and if only they would give the same format a try today. 

[Sidney the robin]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Australia vs Poland at Cowley when the stadium was jammed pack! Zenon Plech's crash that was captured by Mike Patrick and 'soon to be' World Champion Jerzy Szczakiel's  only outing as far as the first bend when he got trapped under the kick board and an unlikely Polish hero in Jan Mucha...great memories of a great event during speedway's last 'Golden Era'!

I think that was one of Jim Airey's last ever appearances in Britain i think he might have rode at Wimbledon and Newport as well a great rider no doubt.

Edited August 19, 2018 by Sidney the robin

[steve roberts]

31 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

I think that was one of Jim Airey's last ever appearances in Britain i think he might have rode at Wimbledon and Newport as well a great rider no doubt.

He scored 10 points if I recall. Garry Middleton was programmed to ride but was replaced...apparently he didn't like Jim Airey and according to Eric Boocock when in Aussie Garry actually had a gun in his tool box and when Eric protested he explained that he had it in case Jim caused any problems!

[cityrebel]

I went to three meetings in the series and the final at Wembley. Australia v New Zealand at Wimbledon, England v Poland at Hackney and New Zealand v Russia at Reading. Happy days!

[Hawk127]

11 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

I went to three meetings in the series and the final at Wembley. Australia v New Zealand at Wimbledon, England v Poland at Hackney and New Zealand v Russia at Reading. Happy days!

Thanks for confirming the Hackney meeting. Memory not what it use to be. Time to crawl back under the stone.

[Bavarian]

3 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

Absolutely brilliant and that is what a team World Cup should be. Seven riders and a knock out tournament. No messing about at the start and a passionate crowd. I remember going to the round at Hackney and it was Russia but for the life of me I cannot remember the opponents but the stadium was packed. Oh happy days and if only they would give the same format a try today. 

The match You attended at Hackney was Sweden vs USSR on Friday, June 25th, 1973, and the Swedes won 49-29

Anders Michanek AND Bengt Jansson each scored a twelve point maximum on the night. Best of the Russians was Vladimir Gordeev with 13 paid 14 from six rides !

 

All the results and point scorers of the 1973 Daily Mirror International Speedway Tournament, team photos, plus covers of the programmes, can be found on the excellent INTERNATIONALSPEEDWAY website, following this link http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/tourdmit73.htm

 

This tournament really was what a proper Speedway World Cup should be like.

 

 

 

 

[Grachan]

Before my time, as I started going to Speedway in 1974! However, when I did go I realised I had seen it on television, and I'm pretty sure that this is the meeting I saw.

[longlivefrankie]

Great memories of this tournament 

 

went to my home match Sweden v Australia @ newport and the Swindon Match 

 

it should have been held four yearly from then on 

 

 

 

 

 

[steve roberts]

I recall the furore caused when John Louis was dropped by Team Manager, Len Silver, for the second half match (vs. Rest of the World) during the Wembley showdown. 

[Guest WTF1]

On 8/19/2018 at 12:10 PM, Bavarian said:

The final at Wembley of the 1973 Daily Mirror International Speedway Tournament is my ultimate favorite Speedway meeting of all-time !

http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/tourdmit73.htm

How I wish we could have a proper Speedway World Cup Tournament along these lines every four years !

 

This Meeting has all that I love about the sport. After 19 days of a round-robin tournament with twenty-one meetings held at tracks all over the country with the world's top seven international teams, followed by two semi-finals, the top two of England and Sweden met for the Grand Finale of this wonderful tournment at the greatest of all speedway venues, Wembley, with a fantastic crowd in attendance.

Even the tv coverage of this event is better than most of today's often drawn out live coverage, there are no boring breaks between the races, no restarts and warnings for riders moving at the tapes, it is action all the way in a condensed form that keeps everyone's attention high. The introduction of the Swedish and English team riders is beautifully shown before the racing commences. There is no track grading shown and no need for mostly boring interviews with the riders, to fill any gaps between the heats. Commentators Lanning and Briggs make this TV show even more enjoyable to watch. 

The sound of the old-style speedway bikes (plus the unmistakable smell of the burnt Castrol X oil), engines roaring majestically deep, instead of today's unpleasantly shrill sound, and the 13-heat format (remember: Happiness is 40-38!), and the main event to be followed by a full second half's racing which offered some variety for the spectators. This is all so damned good, I wonder why oh why they ever gave it up for what we have come to today. Poor fools we all are, to have let our once proud Sport go to pieces!

Today's speedway promoters and TV producers could learn a lot from how they did it back in 1973 !

 

 

Yes a fantastic meeting and atmosphere and with a controversial ending,  was Peter Collins pushed or did he fall under pressure,  Michanek was clearly the quicker rider and hard riding Was The order of the day back then, unfortunately the closure of Wembley Was The start of the downward spiral for speedway. 

[steve roberts]

12 minutes ago, HerniaWise said:

Yes a fantastic meeting and atmosphere and with a controversial ending,  was Peter Collins pushed or did he fall under pressure,  Michanek was clearly the quicker rider and hard riding Was The order of the day back then, unfortunately the closure of Wembley Was The start of the downward spiral for speedway. 

...I would agree with this observation. Personally I don't think that it's loss has been totally recognised and the effect it had on speedway in this country.

As regards the Collins/Michanek clash I think that Ivan Mauger hit it on the head when he observed that there was no way that Peter was going to be blamed for his fall as it took place on an English track in front of mostly English fans and presided over by an English referee (Arthur Humphreys...who, much to Anders' disgust, apologised to him at Reading's next home meeting!)

[Guest WTF1]

5 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

...I would agree with this observation. Personally I don't think that it's loss has been totally recognised and the effect it had on speedway in this country.

As regards the Collins/Michanek clash I think that Ivan Mauger hit it on the head when he observed that there was no way that Peter was going to be blamed for his fall as it took place on an English track in front of mostly English fans and presided over by an English referee (Arthur Humphreys...who, much to Anders' disgust, apologised to him at Reading's next home meeting!)

Yes,  in hindsight which is a wonderful thing Michanek should have bided his time and he probably would have got past as he was a rider who took no prisoners, 

I suppose a few years later if the Penhall/Carter clash in the 1982 American world final had been in England there might have been a different outcome.

 

[Trotter65]

I haven't watched much of this yet but I started watching in the 70's and I certainly think you can look back with rose tinted glasses...sure league racing back then was in a different level to now due to more teams, regular matches and settled teams...

 But this was highlights and not live so of course it's packaged well with no delays etc..if it was live it would have the same delays as today.. and it does have the crowd with helps..but to say the starts were better back then with less messing about ?....I remember starts taking an age with tape pushing all over the place and basic cheating going on..they are actually quicker on the start line getting underway  now with starts 100 % fairer than back then.....and I've watched old videos from meetings I was at and a lot of racing was underwhelming to say the least...and I watched every week at Hyde Road in the 70's ..speedway racing will never get the crowds on this video again but I certainly think it looks more professional now than ever and the racing when a track is good is probably better than back then on the whole..

I still like to look back at these though but I'm on that say sport moves forward and progresses in all sports...GP's can equal this racing wise 

[waiheke1]

Ok I'm sure this meeting was great to be at, big crowd, great stadium, as close a finish as you could wish for but...

The starts, while not as bad as some meetings of thst era, typically had the riders already strung out by the first bend.

The track was rubbish with just one line - if that was a GP today everyone would be complaining about the poor track prep and lack of passing. The racing certainly not a patch on the SWC or what SON served up this year.

I disagree with the poster who suggested Mich could have bodes his time - what were there, two passes round the outside all meeting?

Camera angles have certainly improved- not sure how people praise the production when there is no replay of the heat 12 close finish, and heat 2 was missed altogether. I'd also suggest that Briggs as comments guy adds far less than Tatum.

I get why people enjoy this meeting, and fully understand it being memorable due  to the dramatic finish but - I certainly wouldn't trade thst meeting for the world class fare served up the last few seasons in the SGPs plus SWC/SON.

[steve roberts]

On 9/30/2018 at 2:31 PM, waiheke1 said:

Ok I'm sure this meeting was great to be at, big crowd, great stadium, as close a finish as you could wish for but...

The starts, while not as bad as some meetings of thst era, typically had the riders already strung out by the first bend.

The track was rubbish with just one line - if that was a GP today everyone would be complaining about the poor track prep and lack of passing. The racing certainly not a patch on the SWC or what SON served up this year.

I disagree with the poster who suggested Mich could have bodes his time - what were there, two passes round the outside all meeting?

Camera angles have certainly improved- not sure how people praise the production when there is no replay of the heat 12 close finish, and heat 2 was missed altogether. I'd also suggest that Briggs as comments guy adds far less than Tatum.

I get why people enjoy this meeting, and fully understand it being memorable due  to the dramatic finish but - I certainly wouldn't trade thst meeting for the world class fare served up the last few seasons in the SGPs plus SWC/SON.

Wembley was never a particularly good racing track...too flat although apparently was the same shape as Dudley Wood. However despite the anticipated starts the 1972 World Final must go down as one of the classics with all the drama that unfolded which always adds to the overall experience and excitement whatever the meeting however important in the grand scheme of things. I remember watching the highlights on ITV (yes terrestrial TV in those day!) later that same evening.

Edited October 2, 2018 by steve roberts

[cityrebel]

On 10/2/2018 at 9:23 AM, steve roberts said:

Wembley was never a particularly good racing track...too flat although apparently was the same shape as Dudley Wood. However despite the anticipated starts the 1972 World Final must go down as one of the classics with all the drama that unfolded which always adds to the overall experience and excitement whatever the meeting however important in the grand scheme of things. I remember watching the highlights on ITV (yes terrestrial TV in those day!) later that same evening.

Wembley was never a great track, far too narrow for my liking. The sense of occasion made up for it. As a kid, i loved going there for league matches in the 1970's. March of the gladiators at parade time, David Hamilton on the mic and big crowds. The quality of racing didn't seem to matter much back then.