Survivors of old World Finals

[BOBBATH]

OK OK before anybody gets on my case I know I have to get a life. For the heck of it I looked up the great book -"World Speedway Final A History  from 1929" by Maurice Jones.. I wanted to see if any of the riders  of the old one-off World Finals are still with us.

 Obviously all the pre -war World Finalists have left us, so I looked at the 1949  Final and they have all gone too.  Going to 1950 we do have one survivor -Arthur Payne, scored zero from 5 rides including one exclusion but he was there-good on him.(my buddy Reg Fearman visited him a couple of years ago in Oz).

 I then went to 1951-there is also one survivor-Dick Bradley. Dick was a reserve and got 2 points from one ride -Heat 17 -looks like he replaced Ernie Roccio  and finished second behind Louis Lawson but ahead of Alan Hunt and Norman Parker. Incidentally I always felt that Dick-who was a real gent- never got the recognition his career deserved. I was privileged  to see him ride in his last year at Newport in 1965-still leading the Wasps averages until  his accident at Newport against Sheffield with Clive Featherby(also RIP)-don't think there was anything intentional but Clive was a take no prisoners kind of guy.

On to 1952-now there are a few more still with us -and we are talking about 67 years ago here folks. Arthur Payne made it again - 9 points this time. After not doing so good in his first two rides he scored two points in his third ride finishing behind Jack Young in Heat 12 but ahead of  Brian Crutcher and Arthur Forrest, then he won Heat 16 ahead of Graham Warren, Cyril Roger and Ron How, and Heat 20 ahead of Split Waterman, Jeff Lloyd and Dan Forsberg. A not too shabby performance I would say.

The other 1952 survivors are the aforementioned Dick Bradley, Dan Forsberg, Brian Crutcher and Derek Close. So 5 of these great rides are still with us.

 Just a final comment-after three rides -Dick Bradley was still in with a real chance with 8 points. In Heat 4 he finished ahead of Split, Brian Crutcher and Cyril Roger.   Then in heat 8 he finished behind home rider Bob Oakley but ahead of Arthur Payne and Henry Long. Heat 9 he won ahead of Derek Close, Dan Forsberg and Ron How (another favourite of mine). So after 3 rides Dick was in with a great chance-Jack Young had nine points and then there was Fred Williams, Bob Oakley and Dick all on 8 points. I still reckon that Fred and Bob as home riders had an advantage-if the meeting had been held at Bristol  it may have gone the other way.

Sorry to bore you guys with all this-just wondering if any forumlanders were at the  1950,1951 and 1952 Finals- anybody-gustix maybe? I sure wish I had been able to attend!!

-