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| 20th January 2013 |
Freddie Williams: A Personal TributePhilip Dalling pays his own personal tribute to the two-time World Champion who passed away last week. |
Srai(gh)tened Times - HistoryWhat links Nelson Mandela, Reg Feaman and Karl Marx? They all get a mention in this final instalment of David Walsh's Strai(gh)tened Times series. We're confident this will be the first time the phrase "epistemological nihilists" has appeared on a speedway website. |
Riders to Remember: Colin GoadDavid Pickles relates the tale of the time that he and his friend met Colin Goad. |
The 110 page A4 publication covers the early days of racing in Ayr QLD through to recent years. There are over 60 photos, A list of riders, details of sidecars and midgets/TQ and an index. Details of lions tours and Canterbury and Exeter favourites Steve Koppe, Bob Spelta, Mike farrell and Terry Casserly.Foreword is by Peter Collins with input from Doug Wyer. Price posted in Australia is $22, overseas $30. Payment Paypal to binbooks@iinet.net.au. Cheque money order to 15 tranquil street Sunny Bank Hills 4109 QLD. 
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"Loved reading about my great Uncle Noel Johnson. I am his great neice and his legend still lives in the family to this day. I have a 12 year old and he knows about his great, great Uncle Noel. When I was in my teens we had his sister live with us for a while Aunty Ollie and she told us about him and how proud every one was of him. Bless you for keeping his legend alive." "Just to add, the Perth Motorplex at Kwinana was opened in 2000 and incorporates the Perth Motorplex Speedway and the Perth Motorplex Drag Strip. Motorcycle speedway rarely takes place at the Motorplex, with most major events for solo's and sidecars run at the 142 metres (155 yards) Pinjar Park, north of the city near the Wanneroo Park motor racing circuit." "I remember Eric riding for Boro Bears in the early sixties. A gutsy rider who never failed to excite." "Having first watched speedway in 1947, I love reading about the riders of those days. Is there any chance you could sometime include my favourites from those days - Vic Duggan, Graham Warren and Aub Lawson?" "Have just today spoken to Sky Sports who said there will be no grand prix on Sky this year. So once again speedway loses out on coverage. Not all of us can travel, Sky need to be told keep it going. Email them, ring them and threaten to take the sports package off. It needs lots of us to do it, not just one or two." |
| 20th January 2013 |
Book Review: Ivan Mauger - The Man Behind The MythA review of John Chaplin's new book about Ivan Mauger, told through the eyes of those who have known him these last fifty years. |
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Strai(gh)tened Times - Drones The penultimate part of David Walsh's series of articles. This one is quite unlike the preceding parts and will appeal to those with a shorter attention span. |
Track Pix: Kurri KurriWe have Phil Rice to thank for these pictures of the Kurri Kurri track in New South Wales. These were taken last weekend and Phil reports that Charles McKay was also present with camera in hand, so perhaps he'll supply further pictures when he returns from his latest speedway adventure. |
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"Thanks for expressing views I suspect many of us share but don't bother to articulate! The start line girls are certainly irrelevant to supporters who attend in person. They may encourage some of the more sick among us to watch Sky - which is surely why they're there at all! It's the racing that matters and long may that continue." "Excellent site and much needed these days as our never-to-be-repeated heritage fast disappears in these sad and maladjusted times. Make no mistake England is on a slippery slope and it gets more slippery and steeper with every passing day and a good wallow on sites such as this is a great tonic - even though it means coming back to earth with a bang when I shut my laptop! Ha ha . Keep up the good work." "Is Norden still used? Perhaps a bit of extra seating and a great prix could be held there!" "I was 11 years old when my uncle took me to the track for a couple of meetings, including the WCPR. The stadium was so laid back compared to Old Meadowbank, and autograph hunters had a field day. Youngsters from the Lothians also had the novelty of crossing the recently opened Forth Road Bridge. My treasured programme collection went AWOL a long time ago, but I still have a Fife Lions badge if anybody needs it for their collection. " "i have been a supporter of speedway since 1949 and have seen all the good days and all of the great speedway riders riding this superb track if it is allowed to close it will be a major loss to speedway and greyhound racing." |
| 13th January 2013 |
Track Pix: KihikihiPictures of this track on the North Island in NZ - courtesy of Harry Susemihl. |
Strai(gh)tened Times - CapitalDavid Walsh this week turns his attention to London and citiies generally. |
Dream Team: Ian RobertsIan has been a Belle Vue Aces fan throughout the Kirky Lane era. Here he selects his favourite seven down the years - though he doesn't confine his selection to Aces' favourites. |
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"Wonderful to see the pictures of the old zoo, like the comments from the other fans we have fond memories and old friends, the family from preston and our close friends Ian & Judith East. I met my dear wife at the zoo, so we have a lot of good memories we don't go as often now living in Yorkshire." "Before I was born, my Parents were Wimbledon fans. Sometimes my mother, when exhorting us to do something, used to call 'Ride the White Line Bill Kitchen !'" "My memories of Bruce Cribb are from when he first started riding at the speedway in Palmerston North before he went to UK. There were a lot of good riders around in those days including Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs , Bob Andrew , Ray New and of course Bruce's father Kiwi. One particular Saturday afternoon I was at the speedway, I think it must have been a practise meeting. A bike race lined up, including Bruce.The field throttled up waiting for the tapes to drop at the start. Bruce must have overdone things as when the field took off his bike reared up and Bruce was left sitting on his backside on the track as the rest of the riders accelerated away. What a great career he has had since." ""Thats not pornography man Dennis, thats art !" Mans got a point like, what will the girls be doing next, pole dancing? All who just thought 'lap dancing' are excluded !!!" "I miss the Saturday nights on the old number 8 bus from Margate to see the speedway. It was a great time in my life and the Crusaders were the best, bring it all back! Seeing this website really takes me back, thank you all." "Correction re: poll tax. Should have read: "It was in Scotland where the hated tax was initially introduced in 1989." Apologies." |
| 6th January 2013 |
Snapshots of YesteryearPeter Colvin returns with his vintage photographs and accompanying captions. The first picture sees Tommy Miller greeting the captain of the 'Auld Enemy'. |
Strai(gh)tened Times - PornographyDavid Walsh with another wide-ranging article with themes that extend well beyond speedway. |
Track Pix: NordenThis year marks the 30th Anniversary of Egon Muller's world final win and here's where he won it. Pictures are courtesy of Ian Presslie. |
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"My name is Jenny Tuck, daughter of Fred Tuck. Just to set the records straight my Father Fred (Friar) Tuck did not travel to Canada, it was his son (my brother) Rodney Tuck who travelled to Canada and raced. Cheers." "Some great memories looking at those photo's I started to go as a boy Craven, Sjosten, Fisher, and Alan Morrie running the show, Stan Ford on the tractor, got bitten by the speedway bug, I can still hear and smell the place. All I wanted to do from then on was ride peedway but on apprentice wages had to wait until 20 to get a bike an old JAP and attend Dent Oliver's winter training school some weeks 50 lads would be there PC, Wilkie, Paul Tyrer, Graham Drury, amongst those at the time that made it, no place quite like "The Zoo" " "Most enjoyable reading,so many happy memories. I watched my first speedway meeting at Birmingham during the 1950s. Alan Hunt was my hero in those days. Some years later I followed Wolverhampton and remember Ole Olsen. The first time I watched Ole race, I returned home and told my wife...that I had just seen a future World Champion." "Another fan who wants a return to the Big Leauge, funny the Fans seem in favore but the BSPA does not, although again, another fan who saw the Glory of the big Teams like West Ham and Hackney, prehaps we need to time-warp the present promoters back to the days of the 60`s and 70`s when Speedway was a `King` Sport, now sadly a bit of a `Court Jester`!" "Noooo...don't get Ivan to 'cut the ribbon', get him to 'break the tapes'!" "I think one of Jack Young's Speedway bikes is in the Scottish Speedway Museum." "I could not see this track passing track inspection in England or Australia due to the light poles on the outside of the fence sitting right on the fence line. Apart from that quite a tidy little track and like the junior track in the middle." "My main memories of crowds at London tracks: when I first started following the sport at New Cross in April 1946 the 22,000 average gates. Then the last days at Wimbledon in 2005 with an average 700 attendance - yet also at Wimbledon in the late 1940s I stood among 20,000 plus spectators. And marvelling when more than 80,000 - also in 1946 - turned up at the Empire Stadium for a Wembley-West Ham clash. As the article's author Ivor Craine asks: "Where have the fans gone?""  "This is why the Japanese are so good, they hone their skills on a bicycle first. The guy in the picture is superb." |