Home Contact Us Stadia Pix Articles All About You Riders to Remember
DVDs Books Pictures Archive Dream Teams Programme Generator
22/09/2024
More Memories
Dream Team: Norman Johns
Your Feedback
 
01/09/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 8: Eric Boocock
Your Feedback
 
25/08/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 7: Phil Crump
Your Feedback
 
18/08/2024
Book Review: Hampden to Workington
 
21/07/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 6: John Louis and John Davis
Rose Tinted Spectacles
 
14/07/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 5: Chris Morton
Your Feedback
 
23/06/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 4: Dave Jessup
Your Feedback
 
16/06/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 3: Malcolm Simmons
Your Feedback
 
02/06/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 2: Ray Wilson
Your Feedback
 
26/05/2024
Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 1:Nigel Boocock
Your Feedback
 
06/05/2024
Silver Machine Win Gold
Ivan's Fantasy Island
Your Feedback
 
02/04/2024
Tidying Up The Parade
NZ v Australia 1980
Your Feedback
 
24/03/2024
2024 is Off and Running
The Story of Noddy Holder
Your Feedback
 
28/01/2024
1975/76 NZ v England
Your Feedback
 
17/12/2023
DVD: Great Races of the 80s
What's Wrong With Ambition?
Your Feedback
 
29/10/2023
Book Review: Walthamstow
When the Rangers Roared
High Beech Revival of 1954
Your Feedback
 
16/10/2023
Western Springs Winged Wheels
Grand Pricks?
Your Feedback
 
01/10/2023
Blind Speedway Rider
Track Pix: Oxford
Farcical Guest
Your Feedback
 
17/09/2023
The Ole Olsen Tapes
Dream Team: Richard Cleaver
Plus Points
Your Feedback
 
23/07/2023
1974/75 BL V New Zealand
Heat Details Required
Your Feedback
 
04/06/2023
Northside Arena
 
14/05/2023
Review: Tigers at White City
Your Feedback
 
19/03/2023
How to halt the decline
 
12/03/2023
NZ v Poland - 1st Test
NZ v Poland - 2nd Test
NZ v Poland - 3rd Test
NZ v Poland - 4th Test
 
05/03/2023
Track Pictures: North Brisbane
It's All About You: Lionel King
Your Feedback
 
15/01/2023
Dream Team : Geoff Langley
Your Feedback
 
04/01/2023
Gerald Dunn's JAP
Your Feedback
 
27/12/2022
1975 World Final. Heat 20.
Your Feedback
 
11/12/2022
Peter Collins Autobiography
Your Feedback
 
23/11/2022
DVD Review: 70s - A to Z
Your Feedback


Ivan Mauger V Britain's Best
Part 8: Eric Boocock
By Tracy Holmes

Thanks to Steve Haire, I had to go one more lap. And of course, the subject is Eric Boocock. Not that I ever considered Eric to be any sort of threat to Ivan in the World Final, but he was almost in the same bracket as John Louis and John Davis.

From the mid 60s to the mid 70s, Eric was a true Speedway Superstar. Twice on the podium at the BLRC. 1968 Barry Briggs 14, EB 14, Ivan Mauger 13. 1970 Barry Briggs 13, Anders Michanek 13, EB 13. A World Team Cup Silver Medal and a World Pairs Final Bronze Medal with brother Nigel. British Champion and a Gold Medal winner with England at the 1973 Daily Mirror International Tournament. Riding in three World Finals;

  • 1967 Wembley. 9 points to finish 7th.

  • 1971 Gothenburg. 4 points to finish 12th.

  • 1972 Wembley. 2 points to finish 15th.

    After that debut in 67, Eric would miss the next three for completely different reasons. In 1968, he qualified for the last round, the European Final at Wroclaw, but illness prevented him from taking his place. 1969, 8 points at the British Final, he lost the run-off to Arnold Haley for the reserve position at Wembley. Then came the 1970 campaign. To get to the Final at Wroclaw, Western riders would have to get through the European Final at Leningrad in the Soviet Union. Was Eric one of the Brits who had no intention of making that trip? I don't know. Here was his qualifying stats;

  • Leicester 10 points 4th.

  • Wimbledon 15 points 1st.

  • Halifax 13 points 3rd.

  • British Semi-Final, Sheffield. 3 points, failed to qualify.

    Eric had this to say,

    "I was at Poole the previous night, with Halifax, and I couldn't do a thing wrong. I got a maximum in the League match and only dropped one point in the second half. So I was laughing, or so I thought. But I had a bad first ride at Sheffield. Next time out, the big-end went. So I borrowed Dave Younghusband's bike. But two punctures convinced me that it just wasn't my night."

    Mmm

    Eric's appearances in 71 & 72 were anything but spectacular and we all remember him walking out of the 1973 British/Nordic Final at Coventry, throwing his race jacket to the ground.

    Back at Coventry the following year, he wins the British Final, despite serious pain from an arm injury! Crashing out of the next round in Denmark. The facts are that, had he qualified for both of those World Finals, Chorzow and Gothenburg, the chances of him scoring any more than a few points in each would not have been great.

    To justify that, we need to analyze his three World Final scorecharts;

  • 1967: 3 2 1 1 2. 9 points.

  • 1971: 0 0 3 1 0. 4 points.

  • 1972: f/x 0 0 0 2. 2 points.

    It's clear that Eric lost his best years after his debut. Speaking to Peter Oakes for 'Five-One', Eric spoke about Gothenburg, 1971;

    "I didn't get a point in my first two rides when I should have done very well. I remember riding my balls off getting nowhere. I sat down at the front and was watching the starts and I didn't see anyone stop still at the gate. I decided in my next race I would just drop the clutch when I was ready and I won that race by a mile. [heat 9; EB, Soren Sjosten, Nigel Boocock, Tommy Jansson] All I had done to win a World Final race was to cheat at the start. As long as you didn't break the tapes you could do anything you wanted and Ivan was the best conman. The referees would be determined to get him but they still couldn't catch him. He could push the tapes four times and the ref would say, 'I'll have you' and he would still make the gate."

    From the same interview; What stopped you from becoming World Champion?

    "My problem was all my career I was absolutely superb mentally when in a normal open meeting or League or Knock Out Cup. But when it came to the really big bastards, I didn't have what it took to jump that last step. I don't know why. I can honestly say in all my career I was never dirty. I can never remember going out for a race thinking, I'll have you. I rode hard but always left everybody some room. If a bloke had more balls than me to go outside between me and the fence, I'd give him room.

    When it comes down to the nitty-gritty you can't do that in a World Final. I saw Fundin for years and he was ruthless. Briggo would ride over you if he had to. I weren't like that, I know now to be better than I was, you definitely had to have a killer instinct when it came to the crunch. I'm not saying I'm a nice guy but I was just too nice a guy in those sort of circumstances.

    There's them that have it like Ivan. He weren't half as good a speedway rider as Nigel [Boocock] but I have seen Ivan do the most diabolical things when at the back. He hadn't a clue how to pass anyone but in fairness he never had to pass anyone, only his shadow. He once stuffed me so bad in a League Riders Final that I went from first to third. He hit me so hard in the first and second bends that when I got off my bike I were hopping mad and asked, "What did you do that for?" He just said, "Well, you'd have beat me!"

    I've been friends with Ivan for hundreds of years and that probably summed up why he was World Champion six times and I never made it. I think I had the ability to have won it, I'd certainly got the background in the workshop and I'd certainly got a quick enough brain. But there was something missing and maybe if I knew exactly what it was I would have done it! Even though I never did very well in a World Final, there were three to four hundred riders who never even got there. Getting to the World Final was the difficult part, sometimes at the British Final, only the top five would get through and two of them were Mauger and Briggs. On my night I could beat them both but you knew they were down for two places."

    And there you have it. Now you can see why Eric was not in my original line-up. Yes, one of THE finest riders of his era. But this series is all about why Ivan Mauger had it all over those on my list when it came to winning the World Final. From 'The Champions Book of Speedway Number Two', Eric said this,

    "I'm in Speedway to make a decent living and my bread and butter is British League racing."

    Ivan Mauger made no secret of the fact that he was only ever in Speedway to be the Champion of the World.

    Four time World Final winner Barry Briggs "would ride over you if he had to." 1955 World Final, 2nd place run-off putting Eric Williams in the fence, case in point. Five time World Final winner Ove Fundin "was ruthless" and Six time World Final winner Ivan Mauger did whatever it took, on the track or off it, some fair, some not so fair but for the sake of the 'Mauger is god' brigade, we won't go there. Jaysus, I'd better hide from the Vicar.

    Okay, the chequered flag has fallen and this really is the end of this series. "Wait till Valery Nelson hears about this!"

     

    This article was first published on 1st September 2024

    [ Use Mobile Version ]
     

     

    Comment on this Article | Contact Us | Go Back to Main Menu

  •    Please leave your comments on this article or on the site as a whole