Issue Number 50

[steve roberts]

An interesting interview with Roy Trigg and, of course, that infamous incident with Garry Middleton and the gun...although Roy's version is slightly different to other versions I have read.

Edited August 25, 2020 by steve roberts

[TonyMac]

On 8/25/2020 at 9:23 AM, steve roberts said:

An interesting interview with Roy Trigg and, of course, that infamous incident with Garry Middleton and the gun...although Roy's version is slightly different to other versions I have read.

Hello Steve,

Out of interest, how did it differ? What alternative version have you read?

[TonyMac]

2020 AUTUMN EDITION

Welcome to issue 50 of our quarterly magazine. Here is a taster of what it's inside . . . 

To read this issue, please subscribe at www.retro-speedway.com for just £20 per year (UK).

 

ROY TRIGG – exclusive new interview

Roy Trigg's dreams came true when he joined Wimbledon and the riders he'd idolised as a wide-eyed kid on the Plough Lane terraces. But as MARTIN NEAL reports, the South Londoner also went on to do well for Poole, Hackney, Oxford and Cradley Heath. ‘Triggy’ also talks about that bizarre night, in 1969, when volatile Aussie Garry Middleton pulled a gun on him in the Dudley Wood pits.

 

WORLD FINAL STARTS LOTTERY

Some 70 years after Wembley legends Tommy Price and Freddie Williams were crowned World Champion, DOUG NICOLSON discovers that starting positions for the first two post-war finals were arguably down to luck of the draw.

 

ANDRZEJ POGORZELSKI – Profile

ROMAN CHYLA reflects on the successful career of former Polish star Andrzej Pogorzelski. If his parents had their way, ‘Pogo’ would have been a priest instead of an international speedway star who went on to become a World Team Cup winner three times, appeared in four individual World Finals and throughout the mid-60s was a regular visitor to the UK with the official Polish touring party, often scoring very well.

 

EXETER: 50 Memorable Moments
ROB PEASLEY looks back at Falcons' highs and lows, including league and cup success at the ultra-fast County Ground. Ex-riders featured include ‘Broncho’ Slade, Cyril, Bert and Bob Roger, Don Hardy, Norman Clay, Arthur Pilgrim, Hugh Geddes, Jack Geran, Neil Street, Goog Hoskin, Eric Hockaday, Pete Lansdale, Len Silver, Jack Unstead, Jimmy Squibb, Colin Gooddy, Tommy Sweetman, Martin Ashby and Jan Holub.

 

BIG NIGHTS: Brandonapolis
British speedway's premier individual events, this time PHIL CHARD recalls the pre-70s era of Coventry’s Brandonapolis classic. Jack Parker, the former Bees co-promoter/rider, won the first staging at Brandon in 1949. Other past winners were: Les Hewitt, Eddie Rigg, Ronnie Moore, Jack Young, Geoff Mardon, Ken McKinlay, Nigel Boocock, Anders Michanek and Ray Wilson.

 

SHORT and SWEET

As well as costing hundreds of thousands of lives and infecting millions of others, the global coronavirus pandemic killed any hopes of league racing in Britain in 2020. DOUG NICOLSON recalls the last time 'factors beyond our control' curtailed UK track action, in the shortened 1945 season.

 

SECOND CHANCE

Name-checking all non-regular team members and others who never made the grade but rode in second-halves, junior matches and trials at four top flight tracks in the first five years of the British League, from 1965 until the end of '69 inclusive. This time Tony Mac revisits Edinburgh/Coatbridge, Oxford, Swindon and Wimbledon. See how many of them you remember having a skid at the end of the swinging 60s.

 

Plus . . . Maurice Morley and Tom Blackwood obits, your letters, photo quiz, crossword and a 1963 Southampton team photo.

 

 

[steve roberts]

6 hours ago, TonyMac said:

Hello Steve,

Out of interest, how did it differ? What alternative version have you read?

Hi Tony,

I thought that the business with the gun happened in the pits and not on the track in full view of the spectators as Roy  mentioned in the interview?

Edited September 9, 2020 by steve roberts

[TonyMac]

17 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Hi Tony,

I thought that the business with the gun happened in the pits and not on the track in full view of the spectators as Roy  mentioned in the interview?

Re-reading it, I think he probably meant to say Middleton "stood in the middle of the pits" (not the track), so that would be our mistake.

[salty]

Looking forward to reading Triggy's account of that night at Cradley. I was there as a wide eyed 7 year old, but standing on the second bend was obviously unaware of the gun incident. For the onlooking crowd the abiding memory of the night was Mike Gardner whacking Middleton on the head with his crash helmet following an incident near the end of the meeting, after which the nearest anyone in the crowd got to seeing Middleton was a blanket in the back of a car as it inched out of the stadium.