Wembley and world finals

[BL65]

Recollection of the Birmingham meeting in my previous post reminded me of a similar finish in another semi-final I saw, this time the British semi-final of the World Championship at Cradley Heath on 13th June 1966, in which the meeting was won with 12 points, just 2 points more than the lowest qualifing score.  In that meeting Martin Ashby totalled 9 points and finished 9th.  The qualifiers were Trevor Hedge 12 (4 heat wins and a fall), Colin Pratt 12 (3 heat wins), Mike Broadbank 11 (2 heat wins), Norman Hunter 11 (2 heat wins), Eric Boocock 11 (1 heat win), Dave Younghusband 11 (3 heat wins), Nigel Boocock 10 (2 heat wins) and Ken McKinlay 10 (2 heat wins).  There were run-offs for 1st and 3rd places.

in the other sem-final at Halifax Barry Briggs cruised through to the British Final with a 15 point maximum and Ivan Mauger secured the last qualifying place on 9 points.

[Sidney the robin]

On 8/2/2021 at 1:02 PM, chunky said:

While I agree with you regarding the change from 20 heats, 1951 IS relevant to the conversation. Bob is questioning how Mark Loram could win the title without winning a GP. I made the point that the winner was decided on points total, not meetings won. I further elaborated by stating that the old World Final was also decided by points total, and not on races won. Although it didn't happen, it was possible for rider to win the World Championship without winning a race...

Yes Mark was very consistent and rode to  the rules  that were in  place at the time  he deserved his win.A crazy rule though if you look back though , BUT  realistically was a rider ever likely to win a World Title on 10 points without winning a race.?

[steve roberts]

59 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Yes Mark was very consistent and rode to  the rules  that were in  place at the time  he deserved his win.A crazy rule though if you look back though , BUT  realistically was a rider ever likely to win a World Title on 10 points without winning a race.?

I would be interested to know which rider won an individual World Final with the least number of wins? I'm guessing that 12 points was the lowest total recorded but how many were winning rides I would be interested to know?

[Sidney the robin]

41 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

I would be interested to know which rider won an individual World Final with the least number of wins? I'm guessing that 12 points was the lowest total recorded but how many were winning rides I would be interested to know?

Don’t quote me on this Steve ( if  I am wrong BL65/ Norbold, will put me right !!!).            But  in my reckoning Jack Young, 1951.         ______       Tony Rickardsson.1994. all won the title on twelve points with only two wins each.YOUNG was behind Waterman ( 3 wins)    BIGGS ( 4 wins) in his title win Biggs ran a last in his last outing. Tony Rickardsson 1994 ————.  had two wins and beat Nielsen / Boyce in a runoff Hans was very unlucky had four wins and a exclusion in his 12 point total.

[norbold]

4 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Don’t quote me on this Steve ( if  I am wrong BL65/ Norbold, will put me right !!!).            But  in my reckoning Jack Young, 1951.         ______       Tony Rickardsson.1994. all won the title on twelve points with only two wins each.YOUNG was behind Waterman ( 3 wins)    BIGGS ( 4 wins) in his title win Biggs ran a last in his last outing. Tony Rickardsson 1994 ————.  had two wins and beat Nielsen / Boyce in a runoff Hans was very unlucky had four wins and a exclusion in his 12 point total.

Yes, Sidney. 1951 and 1994, the winners won with only winning two races, the lowest recorded. As you say, the first three in 1951 finished in reverse order to their number of wins - Young 2, Waterman 3, Biggs 4.

[Sidney the robin]

1 hour ago, norbold said:

Yes, Sidney. 1951 and 1994, the winners won with only winning two races, the lowest recorded. As you say, the first three in 1951 finished in reverse order to their number of wins - Young 2, Waterman 3, Biggs 4.

Norbold do you think that Biggs bottled it ( nerves got to him) in his last ride or you just think it was meant to be.? Young then became the first 2nd division rider to win a title and what a rider Jack was often think Aub Lawson gets forgotten though.Another year that i had forgotten about that was strange was in 1993 when SAM won it .He won his first four starts and then ran a last Hans Nielsen and Chris Louis  ending up  behind second and third on 11 points each.

[BL65]

1 hour ago, norbold said:

Yes, Sidney. 1951 and 1994, the winners won with only winning two races, the lowest recorded. As you say, the first three in 1951 finished in reverse order to their number of wins - Young 2, Waterman 3, Biggs 4.

Going off at a tangent, in 1958 Barry Briggs won only 5 races in winning the World Championship.  He didn't win any in qualifying, being seeded to the final as defending champion, so his sucess was down to preparation and 369.8 seconds racing on the Wembley track.

[steve roberts]

5 hours ago, norbold said:

Yes, Sidney. 1951 and 1994, the winners won with only winning two races, the lowest recorded. As you say, the first three in 1951 finished in reverse order to their number of wins - Young 2, Waterman 3, Biggs 4.

...and yet Olsen lost it after registering four wins in 1972!

[customhouseregular]

On 7/21/2021 at 5:32 PM, steve roberts said:

There's a great article about the Internationale in the latest edition of the "Classic Magazine" covering the sixties but no mention about why Harringay was the chosen venue as far as I can see.

Internationale meetings at Wimbledon were a must for me.

[steve roberts]

44 minutes ago, customhouseregular said:

Internationale meetings at Wimbledon were a must for me.

I never made one unfortunately.

[Midland Red]

49 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

...and yet Olsen lost it after registering four wins in 1972!

Oh dear, how sad, never mind!!

[Midland Red]

46 minutes ago, customhouseregular said:

Internationale meetings at Wimbledon were a must for me.

Loved the Whit Monday trips up to London

[steve roberts]

10 minutes ago, Midland Red said:

Oh dear, how sad, never mind!!

Yep and he had the audacity to criticise Hans when he fell in a vital race during the 1995 Grand Prix for over doing it!

[Sidney the robin]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

...and yet Olsen lost it after registering four wins in 1972!

Barry should of won it on 14 though Steve !!!     but Bernie the bolt ( RIP i held no grudges against him) had different ideas.

[steve roberts]

31 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Barry should of won it on 14 though Steve !!!     but Bernie the bolt ( RIP i held no grudges against him) had different ideas.

Barry had a good chance having beating Ivan in his first race (why was that race not coverered by ITV at the time?) but not sure if he would have gone on to win the meeting as he would have still had Olsen to beat as well as the likes of Lofqvist, Louis & Michanek who were all capable of a win when they were due to meet? Makes for good debate though!

Edited August 4, 2021 by steve roberts

[norbold]

7 hours ago, Sidney the robin said:

Norbold do you think that Biggs bottled it ( nerves got to him) in his last ride or you just think it was meant to be.? Young then became the first 2nd division rider to win a title and what a rider Jack was often think Aub Lawson gets forgotten though.Another year that i had forgotten about that was strange was in 1993 when SAM won it .He won his first four starts and then ran a last Hans Nielsen and Chris Louis  ending up  behind second and third on 11 points each.

Some time ago, I posted this under another topic in this Forum.

"I once read in an excellent book (!) called Speedway's Classic Meetings that it has been said that Aub Lawson went to the other two riders (Split Waterman and Freddie Williams) in Biggs's fateful last heat and asked them if Jack had ‘said anything’ to them, i.e. offered a small inducement for them to let him win They replied he had not. The story goes that when Biggs said nothing  to them, they decided to ‘fix’ him.

Biggs said later when this story began to circulate that he hadn’t ‘said anything’ to them because he was confident he would win – or at the very least get the third place he needed to become World Champion, as one point was all he needed. He had been by far the fastest gater all evening and Lawson and Williams were having poor evenings – Lawson in particular as he was suffering from a hand injury. To him – and probably the whole crowd there that evening – it was unthinkable that he wouldn’t at least get third place.

So, even if they did decide to ‘fix’ him, it wasn’t easy to see how they would be able to manage it. The book go on to say, “Nerves seem a much more plausible explanation.” He had a long gap between his fourth and fifth rides and he just sat in the pits getting more and more nervous.

The book quotes Ken Taylor, a long time speedway fan who was there that evening, as saying, “It was nerves that beat him.” He said he had seen Biggs in the pits some years previously in the London Riders’ Championship Final when, again, he was in with a chance of winning and his hands were shaking so much, Ken was surprised that Biggs could even hold the bike, let alone race it.

It should also be remembered that Biggs came third in the run-off as well – again a race on the previous form of the evening he should have won. But his nerves were shot to pieces by then."

I don't know if Aub Lawson gets forgotten. I've never forgotten him. He won the first race I ever saw (beating Split Waterman funnily enough, given the above). There is no doubt he was one of the all-time greats and a must for consideration in the perennial topic, "Greatest Rider Never to Win the World Championship". Between 1955 and 1963 he was one of only three riders to make the podium in the World Championship other than the "Big Five". That was in 1958 and considering that his best days were in the late 1940s and early 1950s, that certainly took some doing!

[customhouseregular]

2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

I never made one unfortunately.

Obviously Wimbledon wasn’t Wembley but the Internationale was second only to the World Final for me. You would have really enjoyed them. 

[Sidney the robin]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Barry had a good chance having beating Ivan in his first race (why was that race not coverered by ITV at the time?) but not sure if he would have gone on to win the meeting as he would have still had Olsen to beat as well as the likes of Lofqvist, Louis & Michanek who were all capable of a win when they were due to meet? Makes for good debate though!

How the Briggs v Mauger clash was never shown on ITV is baffling i have only seen it on a Polish edition video in which Bob Radford lent me.

[steve roberts]

6 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

How the Briggs v Mauger clash was never shown on ITV is baffling i have only seen it on a Polish edition video in which Bob Radford lent me.

Did Barry win by a big margin Sid?

[Sidney the robin]

9 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Did Barry win by a big margin Sid?

Not really Barry gated and  if he had  made a mistake Ivan would of been through.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Sidney the robin