Classic Matches

[norbold]

I have just been discussing possible future books with the sports editor at Tempus. One idea we came up with was a book on classic matches. Not just factual reports but fans' memories of "The best match I ever saw" type of thing and what made it a classic. I know we've done this sort of thing before on the Forum, but we thought it would make a good book. The obvious candidate for such a book is the 1981 World Final, whereas my own Classic Match of all time, for example, was the Wimbledon West Ham 1965 Knock Out Cup encounter. I may need to include some early matches that no-one on here will remember for completeness, but generally the idea, as I say, would be to get a fans' view. I would compile and edit the book.

 

Firstly, what do you think of the idea? Secondly, if the idea finds favour, what matches would you want to include and would you be willing to add your memories?

 

As we are looking for a lot of help from Forum members we thought that proceeds from the book could go to the Forum itself and FAST.

[Steve Turner]

Great idea Norbold

 

Photos will be important though, so that's something to look at. Impossible as it would be to get photos from every meeting you eventually cover, the more the better obviously.

 

I know mine would be Coventry against Hull in a league decider, but being short of time I'll have to come back to it later.

But a great idea and a generous offer mate, nice one.

[Guest cheetahhawk]

What a great idea Norbold. I think that my favourite meeting has to be the night that Hackney Kestrels won the 1988 league and also the same year when the Kestrels won the KO cup at Plough Lane both meetings were really great.

In more recent times one of my favourite meetings has to be the night that Oxford won the 2001 league title at Ipswich. Todd Wiltshire and Ales Dryml were fantastic that night!

 

I can think of a few more great races as well but won't put them on here.Would you want us to e-mail our memories ?

I think it is a brilliant idea that any proceeds from the sales of the book would go to the forum and FAST.Just make sure you put me down for a copy of the book

Edited April 21, 2004 by cheetahhawk

[robpeasley]

Norbold,

 

I'll contribute the 1985 Oxford v Ipswich KO Cup Final thriller, if you wish.

 

How do you want us to contribute?

 

All the best

Rob

[NJT]

Trelawny v Newcastle last season, Newcastle seemed to have the meeting tied up (34-44) going into heat 14 but Trelawny rallied with an 8-1 in Heat 14, Harris off 15 metres and a 5-1 in the last heat to win by 47-46.

 

My match report after the meeting read

Chris Harris and Pavel Ondrasik were the hero's for Trelawny in a meeting which did not see Trelawny lead the meeting until when it mattered, at the end of Heat 15. The meeting looked over after a brace of maximums in heats 12 & 13 gave Newcastle a 10 point lead. Team manager Mark Phillips turned to Captain Chris Harris to take a golden double ride in place of Malcolm Holloway. Not all went to plan though as coming onto the front straight Lawson suddenly slowed, following the loss of his chain, and Harris had nowhere to go except for the back of Lawson's bike. The ref excluded Lawson from the re-run leaving Lee Dicken defenceless to the fired up Harris who duly collected the win after a great team ride effort from Pavel.

 

Matej Zagar - An off night for Matej who ran the kerb too tight in Heat 1 and fell when he collected a bump on the infield. Followed up with a 2nd and 1st before running a last in heat 13.

 

Richard Wolff - Suffered yet more disappointment in his second meeting back with the Tigers having to pull out of the meeting with a suspected broken wrist. Left with nowhere to go when Matej fell and injured his wrist. Rode on but the pain became too much and had to retire from heat 6.

 

Steve Masters - A little off form, suffering problems with fuel flow as the meeting went on.

 

Pavel Ondrasik - Pavel was again on superb form which has sees him pushing for a heat leader berth when the averages change. Did his job well in heat 14 to ensure that the Tigers got a maximum benefit from Harris's golden double ride. A very brave move around the outside of turns one and two in heat 15 saw Pav joined Chris at the front for the 5-1 needed to win the meeting.

 

Chris Harris - Superb effort all night, visibly seen to be pulling the bike into line out of every corner. Lucky not to pick up any injury when Lawson stopped in front of him in heat 14.

 

Malcolm Holloway - 5 points from 6 rides was a good effort after being asked to take Richard's rides.

 

Tom Brown - Not on great form but managed paid 3 from 3 rides.

 

I have photos as well.

[Steve Turner]

If you're having them by e-mail, I'll delete this later.

If not, then here's mine

 

Saturday 13th October 1979 and an eleven-year-old boy called Steve Turner had joined more than 25,000 other fans at Coventry Stadium.

 

It was a double-header, starting with a British League match against the Hull Vikings.

Coventry had led the 18-team table all season until a few days before. Hull had finally overtaken them.

For both teams it was the last League match of the season. The rewards were simple. Whoever won would be crowned Champions.

 

Coventry had won the League the year before. But Hull were on a roll. They’d stuffed Coventry at home in the League and knocked them out of the Cup. They were led by Ivan Mauger, who’d recently won an unprecedented sixth World Title. He’d also won the League with each of his four previous clubs.

 

The press, particularly the Sunday Mirror, all seemed to be hoping Hull would win. They said Hull deserved it more. Coventry manager, Peter Adams had traded jibes with Hull boss Ian Thomas.

I remember arriving at the track, scared of losing. All the home fans I knew or recognised looked just as scared.

Local rivals Leicester were also in town, to watch the Midland Cup final which was to follow the big one. Understandably they too were cheering on the Vikings.

 

The racing isn’t too strong in the memory, all I really cared about was the score. Two points up after Heat 7. Still scared.

A 5-1 from the dodgy Alf Busk and Kevin Hawkins put us six up, but that meant Ivan came in as a tactical. Incredibly, 16-year-old Dane, Tommy Knudsen beat him ! Not so scared now.

A Heat 12 5-1, thanks to the team-riding skills of Ole Olsen, sent the bulk of the massive crowd berserk. And once the pointless Heat 13 had finished, the party really started.

 

It was a totally unforgettable night, one that now feels like it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Fantastic….

 

For the record, we went on to hammer Leicester in the Cup Final.

And it was also, apparently, the first time I ever got drunk !

 

Thanks for reminding me Norbold

[847084]

The night wolves lost the title by one point after so many injuries.

 

But the funniest was a largely irrelevant match between Wolves and Leicester. The Lions hadn't won away for a very long time. 37-34 to Leicester after 12. Garry middleton gated and led for three laps. george hunter drove under him on the first turn of final lap. Jim Mcmillan 20 yards back. George took Garry wider and wider. The pace slowed and slowed. both throttled off. They almost stopped. Jimmy Mac chugs around the white line. george opens up, leaves Middleton almost stationary. 5-1 to Wolves. Leicester couldn't believe it. we laughed for weeks.

Happy days.

[norbold]

Thanks for the response so far. Very encouraging. Two points arising from the contributions so far:

 

1. Yes, we spoke about the problem with photographs. Obviously it will be very difficult to get photos of some of the meetings - they may not even exist. As I said, my own contribution would be the 1965 Wimbledon v. West Ham KO Cup encounter. I don't know that any photos exist. Where they do, of course, we would use them. Where they don't we'd just have to use photos of the riders involved or of the track or team photos of the time etc.

 

2. I am currently working on another book, so it will take me a bit of time to get round to doing this, though hopefully I can start in the summer. When I do, I think it would be best for people to e-mail me their reports/memories etc. I will save those that have already been posted on here. I may need to come back to contributors with questions, further info and so on. What you could do in the meantime is just to let me know if you are willing to take part and what match you are proposing. Go to my profile and e-mail me through that.

 

Thanks everyone.

[fatface]

I'll just jump on Norbold's back here (if you don't mind) and make a similar appeal. I'm writing the "Happiness is 40-38" feature for Backtrack magazine and would like to hear of any matches from the 70s and 80s with the famous scoreline that hold particularly fond memories for some.

[Leo]

....October 1979 against the Hull Vikings.....

 

Steve- if my memory serves me right, just a week or so before this meeting we nearly lost at home to Exeter. Verners and Dryml's had Tommy Knudsen in particular, more off his bike than on it. Tommy seemed injured in one of the later heats, being carried from the track on a stretcher. The lord and master Ole strode out to the track, said something to Tommy, who then got off the stretcher and walked back to the pits(quite gingerly though) Tommy came out and won the re-run and Coventry went on to win the meeting 40-38 in a last heat decider, won by O.O. of course(who else)

What memories, and what t.v. those meetings would have made. My husband used to be has keen as me, but hasn't bothered with speedway for years(rules etc.) He doesn't even bother to watch it on sky either, not even Coventry, but if he does see a bit, it always amuses him to hear the sky presenters saying what a fantastic meeting it is that they are showing and the racing is brilliant.

[norbold]

Just another thought about illustrations. The programme cover for the meeting would be good.

[longlivefrankie]

can't someone sort out a poll for this?

like narrow it down to the ten top matches of all time?

i would to nominate thr belle vue v reading ko cup classic of the seventies involving a awesome run off between PC & michanek..

 

in my dream world id have a BBC2 programme like the recner..great britons or sit coms lol

[norbold]

I think we can run to a few more than ten in the book. I don't really want to restrict it unless we really get too many, but I don't think that will happen somehow. I would be only too pleased if we did.

[2ndBender]

Great idea. The one that sticks in my mind is a GB v USSR test match at the old Somerton Park track in '65. GB won fairly comfortably but Plechanov and Kurilenko were outstanding for Russia on a track which many British riders considered "difficult". They either broke or equalled the track record about five times, (I can check the programme). I was 11 years old and I was gob-smacked by the whole occasion - there were 18,000 in the old place and the traffic was gridlocked on the roads to the stadium. We had to walk to get there because the buses couldn't get through. I also remember Nigel Boocock performing acrobatics to stay on his bike after hitting the fence. A truly amazing occasion. Let me know if you want more detail!

[Grachan]

I'll just jump on Norbold's back here (if you don't mind) and make a similar appeal. I'm writing the "Happiness is 40-38" feature for Backtrack magazine and would like to hear of any matches from the 70s and 80s with the famous scoreline that hold particularly fond memories for some.

So did you write the Belle Vue v Sheffield article in Edition 1 then Falcace?

[Merlin]

Would my 'Blast from the Past' thread (last post 22 December 2003) be of any interest? It's only about a Provincial League match between the Edinburgh Monarchs and Rayleigh Rockets from the 1960s but for me it was one of the all time classics.

[fatface]

I'll just jump on Norbold's back here (if you don't mind) and make a similar appeal. I'm writing the "Happiness is 40-38" feature for Backtrack magazine and would like to hear of any matches from the 70s and 80s with the famous scoreline that hold particularly fond memories for some.

So did you write the Belle Vue v Sheffield article in Edition 1 then Falcace?

Aye Grach. Got a cracker lined up for issue 2 (out soon).

[WATigerman]

I'll just jump on Norbold's back here (if you don't mind) and make a similar appeal. I'm writing the "Happiness is 40-38" feature for Backtrack magazine and would like to hear of any matches from the 70s and 80s with the famous scoreline that hold particularly fond memories for some.

So did you write the Belle Vue v Sheffield article in Edition 1 then Falcace?

Aye Grach. Got a cracker lined up for issue 2 (out soon).

 

Happiness is 40-38 of course depends which side of 39 you're on...............

[norbold]

Would my 'Blast from the Past' thread (last post 22 December 2003) be of any interest? It's only about a Provincial League match between the Edinburgh Monarchs and Rayleigh Rockets from the 1960s but for me it was one of the all time classics.

Of course. Doesn't matter which league and I could do with a few older matches.

Thank you.

[Grachan]

[Aye Grach. Got a cracker lined up for issue 2 (out soon).

Let me guess. Swindon 40 Belle Vue 38 from 1976?