Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best (With a Twist)
Part 7: Phil Crump
By Tracy Holmes

Twist? Wots he talkin aboot twist?"

Well, I named the following Brits in this series; Nigel Boocock, Ray Wilson, Malcolm Simmons, Dave Jessup and Chris Morton. These being contemporaries of Ivan Mauger who were no match when it came to 'winning' the World Final. But constantly on social media being labelled as 'should have been World Champion.' There is just one other rider I believe, who belongs in that line-up.

However, there's a catch. He's not a Brit. "WOT? You canna do that man! Black flag, excluded, banned for six months!"

Well actually, I can do what I like as it's my series. Besides, it's 2024. Men can be women, women can be men. I don't care if you're Barbie or Ken. So whatever part of the rainbow spectrum you ride, ladies and gentlemen, LGBTQIAN+, I present, representing Australia, Phil Crump! [ This is serious ]

When Neil Street discovered Phil at Mildura, on Boxing night 1970, he described him as "The best thing to come out of Australian Speedway since Jack Young." Such was his excitement that he arranged for Crump's first UK season at Crewe and the rest is history. But not the history Neil Street had envisaged. A snapshot of Crump's career saw him win a World Team Cup Gold Medal, a World Pairs Final Silver Medal with John Boulger, winner of the Daily Express Spring Classic and four times Australian Champion. As for the biggest meeting of all, he rode in three World Speedway Finals;

1975. Wembley. 10 points to finish 6th.
1976. Chorzow. 12 points to finish 3rd.
1982. Los Angeles. 4 points to finish 14th.

Neil Street had partnered with Ivan Tighe to create the 4 valve Jawa conversion. Crumpie rode this to win his first Australian Championship in 1975 at the Sydney Showground. Street said,

"The others might as well not bothered. Every single race he crossed the finish line with the second bloke just going into the third corner. That's a long way around Sydney. He took two and a half seconds off Jim Airey's record and that had been set on using a high percentage of nitro."

They took the bikes back to the UK and were a sensation alongside the Weslakes. Crump won the Daily Express Spring Classic at Wimbledon and was second to Ole Olsen at the Internationale, also staged at the famous London venue. Seeded as Australian Champion to the Intercontinental Final at Gothenburg, he survived a rainy night, qualifying to the European Final at Bydgoszcz.

The top three in Poland; Mauger, Olsen, Crump. That brilliant performance saw Phil all the way to Wembley for his World Final debut. Two rounds, two wins and then found himself in that infamous heat 9 alongside Anders Michanek, Ivan Mauger and Peter Collins. It's well documented what happened before the start with an irate spectator turning on a water hose to try and do something about the horrific dust. Crump had no answer to Michanek or Mauger but did keep Collins in last place. Another third place in round four behind Ole Olsen and Ray Wilson was followed by a second to John Louis in round five. An excellent debut that spoke well for the furure.

Scorechart; Ole Olsen 15. Anders Michanek 13. John Louis 12. Ivan Mauger 12. Peter Collins 10. Phil Crump 10. Malcolm Simmons 10. Viktor Trofimov 8.

Back down-under and Ole Olsen won the Australian Championship at Liverpool with the 15 point maximum, Crump second with 14. [ What was Olsen doing? Don't ask, another story ] But with Australasia hosting their own World Championship rounds, Crump won the Australian Final at Rowley Park unbeaten. That sent him to Western Springs for the Australasian Final where the top four would progress to the Intercontinental Final at Wembley. He simply threw this one away. Four wins but a tapes exclusion meant third place behind John Boulger and Billy Sanders.

It was a silly exclusion with no need for him to break the tapes. After three straight wins, he was clearly going to cruise through especially as Ivan Mauger had broken the tapes when up against Phil, John Boulger and Phil Herne in heat 11. Yes, the biggest race of the night, the biggest race of the entire Australasian season and Mauger goofed it! The groan around the stadium nearly uprooted the pine trees. But at the end of the night, he had joined the top three for the last round.

The 1976 UK season had no problems for Phil, continuing his league career at Newport and qualifying for the World Final, after a third place at Wembley, beating Malcolm Simmons in the run-off. The meeting that saw defending World Champion, Ole Olsen sadly eliminated. Neil Street had this to say in a Five-1 interview;

"In '76, Phil had been riding so consistently but had become utterly exhausted mid-way through the season. He was losing his touch and not riding as good as he could. The World Final was coming up and I felt Phil needed one or two weeks off. I went to Wally Mawdsley at Newport and suggested this. 'If you want a World Champion on your books, he'll have to have time off' I told him. Mawdsley went crazy, calling me every name in the book. I'd never seen a bloke go off his head like that.

He said he didn't want another World Champion on his books. He had Mauger at Exeter and reckoned he had sucked the place dry. I said that Phil was a young bloke and winning the World Final would be a terrific thing to achieve. Mawdsley would not listen so I said 'right, I've finished.' I told Phil to take the time off anyway but he wouldn't. He carried on riding and finished third in the World Final, but he wasn't riding a patch on what he was capable of. He would have won it so easily."

I'll come back to that statement in a minute. Yes, Phil took the Bronze Medal at Chorzow and to put it into perspective, that was a wonderful achievement, lets be clear. Winning round one was pure class. Beating Malcolm Simmons, Chris Morton and Vladimir Gordeev was awesome. He picked up his second win as Mauger had his famous engine failure in round two. Now this is where Neil Street may have been on the right wavelength. Dropping a point to Doug Wyer in round three was a ripple in the matrix.

Make no mistake, Wyer was relishing his World Final debut and the Sheffield Tiger was for years, right up there with the best. BUT, he should not have been a match for Crump on that day. Round four sees him clash with the unbeaten Peter Collins. And Neil Street was bang on target. Collins easily won as Phil dropped two points, following home Scott Autrey. The young American, just like Wyer, enjoying his World Final debut should not have been in the same class as Crump, on that day. To complete the program, a win in round five saw the Bronze Medal safely in the Kangaroo's pouch.

Scorechart; Peter Collins 14. Malcolm Simmons 13. Phil Crump 12. Ivan Mauger 11. Zenon Plech 11. John Louis 9. Doug Wyer 8. Egon Muller 8.

So, back to Neil Street, "He would have won it easily."

I don't believe he was right because, even if Phil had scored 14, as he should have, Collins would simply have beaten Mauger in heat 20 for the maximum. As Collins has made clear many times, he had 20ks on everyone that day except Egon Muller. He did not race Mauger, just tucked in behind to secure the Gold Medal. Had he needed to, the win would have been easy. Crump just did not have that speed. His 'Street 4 valve' was fast, yes but not as fast as Collins' Dave Nourish tuned Weslake. On that day in that meeting, Phil was no match for PC. No-one was.

And that was as close as Phil Crump ever got the ultimate prize. And even more jaw-dropping, he would not qualify for another World Final for six years! Right off the pace, mechanical issues, illness, time and unfortunate occurrence, all crippling his efforts over those lost years. Then somehow, he got to Disneyland in 1982. At the expense of such talent as Erik Gundersen, Tommy Knudsen, Bobby Schwartz, John Davis, Chris Morton and Shawn Moran. But it was a disastrous night at the Coliseum with a mere four point return.

This was from an interview in 1998;

"I haven't finished the 1982 World Final yet. I was so unbelievably slow that night." But he did have one claim to fame, lining up in heat 14 with Bruce Penhall, Kenny Carter and Peter Collins. With Collins well out in front, he had the best view in the house of the Penhall/Carter free-for-all, "Both did enough to be excluded, but the referee had to judge it on the incident when Carter fell. It was as hard a race as you'd ever see, but it was the World Final. You also felt the whole thing was set up for Penhall to win, just as we all saw it was for Egon Muller in 1983 and it would have taken an incredibly brave or foolish man to exclude Bruce. Anyway, Kenny had the choice to shut off, but neither was going to do that."

Scorechart; Bruce Penhall 14. Les Collins 13. Dennis Sigalos 12. Kelly Moran 11. Kenny Carter 10. Dave Jessup 8. Hans Nielsen 8. Jan Andersson 8.

For those who say, "Phil Crump should have been World Champion", they may like to know why that is just not the case. In his own words taken from a Five-1 interview,

"To be World Champion you have got to be able to do more than ride a bike. Unfortunately I never had much more than riding the bike. I probably rode as good as anybody but I wasn't able to deal with people and sort stuff out and lift myself for different meetings like Mauger. Coming from a place like Mildura where you live a pretty shadowed life didn't help. I had a lot of things done for me and I suppose it might have been better if I had to do a lot of things for myself.

Also, I could never work out how blokes could kind of lift themselves for different meetings because I always wanted to do good in every meeting and you can't do that. I used to try 100 per cent every meeting, every race and when it came to a World Final, I never had any more to give. Ivan was that good he could still win all his races but not appear to be putting into it a hell of a big effort. But when it came to the World Championship rounds he could lift himself that little bit more. The Phil Crump in the World Championship rounds was the Phil Crump in league matches. I could go out there and ride to the best of my ability all the time and, looking back, you can't do what I was doing and expect to win the World Final.

I wasn't looking ahead far enough or maybe deep down I didn't give myself or have enough confidence to win the thing anyway. I didn't think I couldn't win it but, to be honest, I didn't think that I would win and that is the big difference. I never went into a World Final saying or thinking I would win it and if you never think you are going to do it, you never will do it. As soon as you start thinking he's too hard to beat, he will beat you for sure and that was probably my biggest downfall. I was always just going out there to ride the thing.

There was something in my make-up that was missing, I was without that vital thing that made the difference between the rider I was and a World Champion. I didn't have that bit extra that Ivan or Peter Collins had. I could beat any of those blokes at a lot of tracks but, when it really mattered in a World Final, I couldn't. The World Final at Wembley in 1975, probably that was one time I might have been able to win but in 1976, even though I did finish up third on the day, I don't know if I ever thought I could win it that year!"

Phil Crump had the exact same outlook as Nigel Boocock. The World Final at Wembley or a league match at Newport, he rode them the same. And so, when it came to the World Speedway Final, it is Ivan Mauger 6. Phil Crump 0.

Phil continued speaking for Speedway Star,

"But I've got no regrets on how I did things. Knowing my character and make up, if I'd changed from my usual approach I might not have been able to handle the situation."

Refreshing honesty from a man who can happily live with his choices and decisions. And lest we forget, in the tyre-tracks of Nigel Boocock, Phil Crump was a true 'legend' who thrilled crowds around the Speedway world from the year he started until the year he finished.

I started this with a twist, I will twist again. [ like we did last summer ]. Neil Street was convinced Phil Crump was to be the next Jack Young. He got it wrong, but only by one generation. The next Jack Young turned out to be Jason Crump, Phil's son and, the grandson of Neil Street. HOWZAAAAT !!!

This article was first published on 25th August 2024