Tracy Holmes continues his series on the World Pairs championship, taking a look at an eventful 1979 final at Vojens.
It's amazing what you can find on Youtube, here's Bruce Penhall being interviewed by Sally James on TISWAS shortly after his first World Final win:
Part 1 (from 6 minutes) and Part 2 (from start)
Jeff Scott's new book Strictly Shale received some praise in the Daily Telegraph yesterday:
Jeff has also published an article from his recent trip to Ashfield for the Scottish derby, you can read it on his blog.
"I have a little information about Sandor's Hungarian compatriot Zeke Zoltan who was mentioned by John Hyam. His actual name was Zoltan Zeke as Hungarians alway show their surnames first. He was a speedway rider in his homeland but I don't think he ever rode seriously after coming to England and he was quite a bit older than Sandor. Along with Sandor, Zolly as he was known, came to live in Birmingham and married a much younger Hungarian girl named Ancie. He had little to do with speedway afterwards apart from watching the occasional match at Cradley Heath when Sandor was riding, and he died fairly young some years ago."
"It was a great meeting and Ila and the fence is my lasting memory. He should never have been excluded. By the way, the England race jackets were excellent!"
"Call me a predant, call me anything you like, but the 1974 and 1977 World Pairs Final were held not in the afternoon but in the evening with both tapes upping at 7pm."
"I think Sidney Dixon was a mate of Franky Loco who is now living in Blackpool. Me and Franky met at Hyde Rd in the late 70s and have been mates since."
Tracy Holmes on the 1978 final, one that was decided by a run-off between England and New Zealand.
Robert Griffin collects pictures of the top three riders in each Grand Prix and would like to hear from others with a similar interest. He can be contacted on sparrowhawk3@ntlworld.com
Anna wants to contact Canterbury speedway coach driver Peter Baker. She can be contacted on 0770 499 0691.
"Tommy was my wife's all time favourite, we were Wimbledon fans. I was on the way to work when I heard the news, I turned round went home and broke the news. My wife never took any interest in speedway again."
"It wasn't Jeff Scott who made the comment - he was just bringing to note a remark made by Radek Sikorski. I agree that speedway is MORE than solo motorcycles and have previously given my views on the subject. And all Radek Sikorski said was 'speedway motorcycles' - no thing wrong in that anyway it was just defining a discipline of what speedway is. And let's not forget, so far doesn't seem to have been mentioned - the great sidecar racers so popular outside Europe and in the UK while not on speedway have an excellent following on the grass tracks."
"Peter Craven is a true legend and one of the all time greats. I watched him at Belle Vue for 3 years as a teenager and rode the sport myself to appreciate his wonderful talent . Magnficient, magical, graceful and with great humanity broke my heart when he lost his life at this exciting and dangerous sport. Regards and love to his family."
"Please note new address for anyone interested in ordering a Berkshire copy of this book.. Please contact Graham Morris at 45 Dalby Crescent, Newbury, RG14 7LB."
Belle Vue hosted the 1977 final, with home favourite Peter Collins linking up with Malcolm Simmons as the English duo. Tracy Holmes reports on the winners and losers.
That time of the year is fast approaching for the Friends of Speedway
organised Ninth California-in-England Speedway Reunion at an earlier date of
14th September 2014.
The full address is: California Country Park, Nine Mile Ride, Finchampstead,
Wokingham, RG40 4HT. This is situated on the B3430 coming from the A322
junction 3 off the M3. There is a large sign at the entrance to the park and
a pay and display car park; then there is a short walk to the display area
which will include a selection of machines covering over 80 years of
speedway.
If you have any memorabilia/memories please make yourself known to any of
the Friends of Speedway members bearing their name badges. We are still
searching for any cine film not only of the racing, but of the park in
general that could be loaned to be copied. It is a never-ending search for
items of interest of all the different activities that that went on in the
park; not only speedway.
On display will be speedway photographs and team body colours including a
reproduction California Poppies one. Also, a small display of memorabilia
from the days when it was a holiday camp with photos and postcards.
Here you will be able to talk with riders from the 1950's California Poppies
team. You are invited to ask questions at any time and all officials will be
sporting their name badges.
Machines will be started at various times during the day; you will smell the
intoxicating aroma of Castrol R and Methanol to bring back memories of those
earlier un-silenced days of speedway. Also we are hopeful of celebrity
guests of international fame and are keeping our fingers crossed that he
will be able to attend. Also attending will be the family of Poppies
Captain, Ron Sharp.
At the time of going to press the organisers can confirm that Bobby Andrews
(from New Zealand) an old Poppies rider and Barry Duke have said they will
attend. Also along with Eric Hockaday, Jim Gleed and others which rode there
as away team members.
Part of the presentation will be a guided walk where you can see the
original children's paddling pool from the holiday camp days which has been
cleared by Friends of Speedway personnel and part of the railway track that
took clay up to the brickworks which is how the lake was formed. Not only
will you will be able to stand on the concrete start/finish line with marked
out starting boxes (the only surviving one that we know of); you will see
the whole shape of the track which has been cleared with the councils
permission. An original member of the track staff will give a short talk of
his duties there. For those interested in walking to the track stout
footwear recommended.
The park offers a wealth of historic interest in itself, plus a cafeteria
with toilets including one for the disabled.
The display will be open between 11am 'till 4pm.
For further information please call Stuart Towner on 0208-397 6599 or
stuart.towner@blueyonder.co.uk
"John Hyam, I salute you, I had sadly forgotten Lloyd Goffe as a leg trailer, you are of course absolutely right to draw such to my attention, thank you."
"I just came across these drawings and was blown away by them, they are so good, the one's of the Witches realy interested me. The one of Billy Sanders has come about at a good time as I am trying to get Ipswich Witches to hold a meeting in 2015 to comemerate 30yrs since Billy passed away, find us on Facebook "Billy Sanders (speedway rider) event 2015". I taken the liberty of including the Witches drawings on this page, please let me know if you wish me to remove them. One last thing are these drawings available as posters if not I think they deserve to be."
"I am tracing the history of John Hoskins who was known to us as Jack Hoskins. He spent a long time at the Reichenback farm at Glenlee, Victoria .Australia. We have a few photo's of hiom in his younger days as he was good mates with Ryko,Ted Reichenback who rode his push bike From Adelaide to Darwin and broke the record for this, also Jack was with him and his mate Fayey in Darwin."
" As a lover of the sport I get quite annoyed when people claiming to be fans make incorrect criticisms based on sweeping generalisations that completely ignore the facts. Speedway has enough genuine problems without people needing to invent more. I am referring of course to "Nick's Notebook" which claims that parades have become a "pointless shambles " because the wearing of a helmet is compulsory and apparently we see most riders standing behind their bikes with their helmet on before they are even introduced. TOTALLY WRONG. At Lakeside for example the riders ride their bikes round to the front of the start /finish line without helmets where they are introduced by the promoter, often with extra information that Nick Lee claims does not exist, the captains toss a coin to determine gate positions, then they ride back to the pits still without helmets. Lakeside is by no means the only track where this happens, sometimes with riders on their bikes , others on a parade vehicle. Of course , some tracks do their presentations far better than others and of course, there are tracks where due to a curfew they want to get on with their meeting, or for whatever other reason don't do a decent parade but to make a sweeping and incorrect generalisation that the wearing of helmets on a parade lap is compulsory, when it obviously isn't and to infer that it reduces the parade to a so-called "pointless shambles" is grossly unfair. The pre-meeting parade always has been part of speedway. Some clubs do it well while others don't, but for goodness sake, where criticism of the sport is necessary let's make it accurate and constructive."
"Jeff Scott has to be the most unreadable , unfunny and condascending author I have ever read in any sport and the comments about speedway motorcycles again proves the point..it might be speedway in the UK but when I'm in Australia then if I say speedway then most assume I mean car racing, speedcars or sprintcars...they don't assume motorcycles, so I have to add motorcycles, or solos for them to get it...and speedways in America are car circuits arent they? One big fuss over one little word."
