The World Pairs Final 1974
By Tracy Holmes

The famous Belle Vue in Manchester, UK would host this year's Final and the home team would be Belle Vue's own Peter Collins and Leicester's Dave Jessup. An awful lot was placed on these very young shoulders, maybe too much.

Defending Champions Sweden by Anders Michanek and Tommy Jansson safely qualified along with Australia and New Zealand. Denmark missed the boat. Ole Olsen's 16 points with Finn Thomsen's 2, weren't quite enough. Norway and Scotland also eliminated.

Then at the last minute, but in time for the programme to have been printed [!], the Swedish powers that be, pulled Tommy Jansson from the team and replaced him with the Belle Vue 'Ace', Soren Sjosten. Jansson was devastated and said, "Anders and I qualified from Germany and I was told I would be riding at Belle Vue. Then a couple of days before the meeting I was told I wasnt riding."

Jansson was not the only one to be dropped. The Czechs Jiri Stancl and Milan Spinka had safely qualified but were replaced altogether. Easily their best two riders, Spinka had won the previous years CZ Golden Helmet ahead of Ole Olsen and Ivan Mauger! So just what was going on there, who knows? While Barry Briggs had qualified with Mauger for New Zealand, I was hoping that Graeme Stapleton would have got another go. Or Bruce Cribb or Ivan's Exeter team mate, Frank Shuter. Could any one of them had done better than Briggo on the day? Maybees. Maybees not though! Sadly, we will never know.

So to the World Final on July 13, a sunny afternoon saw the Sensational Swedes demolish the opposition with ease. Ivan Mauger was the only one to beat them, it was all too easy!

Australia's John Boulger and Phil Crump finished a proud second. They would however kick themselves for a dismal scrap against the Swedes! The Kiwis kept out the home team, just! Mauger had a magnificent day, beaten only by Jessup in round one but Briggo had a day to forget. Apart from his beating the Ruskies in their last heat. New Zealand's hopes of the Bronze Medals were in doubt until the very last heat. They had 21 points while a 5-1 for England would see them also score 21. So Mauger loaned his bike to Zenon Plech who did not let his Kiwi friend down. Collins won ok but Plech's second place ahead of Jessup secured NZ's place on the podium. Ah the joys of the English countryside!

Heats

1 Crump Boulger Holub Hadek
2 Plech Jancarz Gordeev Chlinovski ex
3 Jessup Mauger Collins Briggs
4 Michanek Sjosten Holub Hadek
5 Crump Boulger Gordeev Chlinovski
6 Mauger Jancarz Plech Briggs fall
7 Sjosten Michanek Collins Jessup
8 Chlinovski Gordeev Hadek Holub
9 Crump Plech Boulger Jancarz
10 Mauger Michanek Sjosten Briggs
11 Collins Jessup Hadek Holub
12 Mauger Crump Boulger Briggs
13 Collins Jessup Chlinovski Gordeev
14 Michanek Sjosten Plech Jancarz
15 Mauger Briggs Holub Hadek
16 Crump Boulger Collins Jessup
17 Sjosten Michanek Chlinovski Gordeev
18 Plech Jancarz Hadek Holub
19 Sjosten Michanek Boulger Crump
20 Mauger Briggs Chlinovski Gordeev
21 Collins Plech Jessup Jancarz

1st Sweden 28
Anders Michanek 3 2 2 3 2 2 14
Soren Sjosten 2 3 1 2 3 3 14

2nd Australia 23
Phil Crump 3 3 3 2 3 0 14
John Boulger 2 2 1 1 2 1 9

3rd New Zealand 21
Ivan Mauger 2 3 3 3 3 3 17
Barry Briggs 0 f 0 0 2 2 4

4th England 20
Peter Collins 1 1 3 3 1 3 12
Dave Jessup 3 0 2 2 0 1 8

5th Poland 18
Zenon Plech 3 1 2 1 3 2 12
Edward Jancarz 2 2 0 0 2 0 6

6th USSR 10
Grigori Chlinovski x 0 3 1 1 1 6
Vladimir Gordeev 1 1 2 0 0 0 4

7th CZ 6
Jan Holub 1 1 0 0 1 0 3
Jan Hadek 0 0 1 1 0 1 3

This article was first published on 17th August 2014