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Forgotten Europeans...


chunky

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At Wolverhampton, they tried Jerzy Kowalski (who tragically died after a crash later in 1978), Hans Christensen, and Knud Ellegard. Someone given a little more time at Monmore without really showing anything was Leif Berlin.

Steve

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It was also pot luck if you saw some of these guys.Halifax and Sheffield didn’t visit Wimbledon often and you’d sometimes be wishing they didn’t kick a rider out before we met them

Another was Jan Jakobsen at Cradley.Can't really remember him.We were in another league by then anyway.But subsequently met him and his son.He managed Vojens,i think and his son was one of the best on the 80cc.From memory I was there when he won the junior world championship 

Edited by iris123
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In 1975, Swindon announced that they were going to sign Kenneth Selmonsson from the touring side Kaparna.

Sadly we missed out on him in the end and went for Jan Andersson instead. So that worked out pretty well!

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3 hours ago, chunky said:

Yeah, the Tigers have had their share of mediocrity over the years!

Iris, you say you don't remember them? You may have blinked; they both had a British career that lasted a whopping two races!

Jan Zabik was a little better; he averaged over 4, and managed a maximum.

Steve

Wieslaw Patynek had two races at Eastbourne,failing to score.He then crashed on the Sheffield training track breaking his back,so never got to appear at Owlerton.

Zan Zabik was built like a tank,or so it seemed to a young me!

Allan Fogg.Came on loan from Eastbourne,nice equipment,no idea how to use it.

 Rob Steman.He rode one meeting for the Tigers, v Reading in 1995,hopelessly out of his depth he trailed in a distance last in each of his three rides.However,Roman Matousek had bike problems,so he borrowed Steman's machine and somehow he managed to win the race on it,even though it was belching out smoke from various places !

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A few more 'legends'

Johannes Fransden

Thomas Ravn

Nano Righetto

Finn Jensen (Eastbourne)

Christoph Betzl

Markku Helminen

Frits Koppe

Toni Pilotto

Jorgen Hultgren

Torben Hansen

Csaba Hell

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56 minutes ago, frigbo said:

A few more 'legends'

Johannes Fransden

Thomas Ravn

Nano Righetto

Finn Jensen (Eastbourne)

Christoph Betzl

Markku Helminen

Frits Koppe

Toni Pilotto

Jorgen Hultgren

Torben Hansen

Csaba Hell

When I made that post about Wolves riders earlier, I was also thinking about Helminen and Frandsen...

Edited by chunky
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A worryingly large number of these riders rode for Sheffield!!!!  As well as the ones others have already mentioned, I distinctly remember Lars Eriksson, Heinrich Sprenger, Trond Skretting and Hank Stemen having second half races at Owlerton, and also Lennart Bengtsson appearing in a 4TT at Halifax at the end of the 1978 season. 

Don't diss Allan Fog... he came in on a (I think) 7.00 average, then got injured and his rider replacement did us proud :D  

 

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2 hours ago, Tigerblade said:

A worryingly large number of these riders rode for Sheffield!!!!  As well as the ones others have already mentioned, I distinctly remember Lars Eriksson, Heinrich Sprenger, Trond Skretting and Hank Stemen having second half races at Owlerton, and also Lennart Bengtsson appearing in a 4TT at Halifax at the end of the 1978 season. 

Don't diss Allan Fog... he came in on a (I think) 7.00 average, then got injured and his rider replacement did us proud :D  

 

 All of those have already been mentioned too!

Steve

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1 hour ago, Sotonian said:

Guiseppe Marzotto (aka Charlie Brown) didn't pull up any tress for Wolves in 1976. Clearly his talents lay elsewhere.

That is exactly why I didn't mention him; he has hardly been "forgotten!

Steve

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3 minutes ago, Sotonian said:

His racing exploits have which was rather the point.

Funny, isn't it? There are probably posters on the BSF who didn't even know he rode in the BL!

Seriously, while he wasn't "great", he wasnt anywhere near as dire as most of the names mentioned on here...

Steve

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4 hours ago, chunky said:

 All of those have already been mentioned too!

Steve

Yes, maybe I should have worded the first part "the ones who have already been mentioned in relation to Sheffield" lol.   I think it was Andrew who mentioned Jan Zabik, I liked him too,  but he was 34 when he rode here, and whilst he did all right, didn't achieve the necessary average (6 points?) which enabled foreign riders to return for the next season.

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Remember the Falcons having a really odd look in 1994 (or 93?)  - Henk Bangma, Andy Bossner and Toni Svab. All came out of the blue. Svab turned out to be a solid signing, Bossner had the odd moment, but was really inconsistent, Bangma was well out of his depth.

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On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 2:49 PM, iris123 said:

I guess what I mean is not only did I miss their UK career I missed their whole career even on the continent.At least with Bøgh I did subsequently hear of him.Same with Kurt Hansen from Halifax

A number of these riders in the past few days the first I ever heard of them was when someone posted something here!!! Even living in Germany I have never heard of Odematt. But most of my speedway friends here come from the old East Germany so riders like Tetzlaff ,Ernst or Mike Ott are mentioned more than the West Germans

 

Useless piece of trivia. German TV produced a version of Till Death Us Do Part  and called it Ein Herz und eine Seele  (literally "One Heart and One Soul") and Alf Garnet's character had the name Alfred Tetzlaff.

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