International SPEEDWAY

THE SERIES THAT NEVER WAS		1 meeting - 3 programmes !
		The World Team Cup Final 1972. No less than 3 programmes were produced for this meeting. The red and yellow (left) was for officials, riders, and anyone given free entry ("Kein Eintritt"); the blue and white (centre) was for paying spectators; and the blue and yellow (right) was for the press. Both blue programmes had a small detachable triangular "ticket" in the bottom right hand corner. See HERE for details of a 1996 World Team Cup match at Prelog, Croatia, where two programmes were issued.
The long-awaited first trip to Great Britain of the Soviet Union team was given nationwide publicity in 1963. The programmes were printed (see above) but, just days before the first match, the tour was cancelled. It was a further year before that historic first tour actually took place
		ARTHUR "BLUEY" WILKINSON was unbeaten by an opposing rider in TWO SUCCESSIVE 5-MATCH Australia v England SERIES in the 1937-38 and 1938-39 seasons. In ten 9-heat matches he scored 29 race wins and 1 second place behind his partner.

On three occasions, to my knowledge, there have been Italy v England "Test Matches" - in 1979, 1988, and 1989. None of them were, in fact, Test matches! The final two were actually between Italy and English club teams. But the 1979 match is still a mystery. You can read the details HERE - and, please, let me know if you can help to solve the mystery, with an e-mail to internationalspeedway@yahoo.co.uk			The programme on the left (sorry for the poor scan) appears to be for a West Germany v Sweden international at Kempten on 18.09 1966. I have been unable to trace any details of this match so, once again - can anyone help? STOP PRESS - Details from Christian Weber here !
The BIGGEST SCORE ever recorded in an 18-heat Test Match was at Hackney, London, England on 12.07 1974. The final score was England 88 Poland 19. All the heats finished 5-1 - except for heat 17, when England's Ray Wilson was excluded for falling, and Zenon Plech was also excluded in the re-run. The remaining five England riders all recorded paid maximums, of course. Details of the 1974 series are here
Five riders also recorded paid maximums at the BIGGEST AWAY WIN in an 18-heat Test. This was at New Plymouth, New Zealand on 25.01 1968 when a weak New Zealand team were beaten 86-22 by England, in a match containing 14 5-1's for the visitors. The four 4-2's were achieved by two second-places each for the New Zealand skipper Bob Andrews and Rick Timmo - all against Terry Betts, the only Englishman to be beaten by a New Zealand rider. The previous day, an almost identical New Zealand team had beaten England at Napier! Details of the 1967-68 series are here

	ENGLAND v DENMARK 1947 - WELL, ALMOST!
		The sport began in Denmark in 1928, and quickly produced a star in Morian Hansen and, to a lesser extent, Baltzar Hansen (no relation). But it was not until the end of the 1970's, when Gundersen, Nielsen, and Knudsen joined Ole Olsen, that Denmark were considered to have a full 8-rider team of top international standard. But much earlier, on 20.07 1947, a young Danish team was due to ride against an England team at the unlikely non-league venue of the Bell End Speedway at Holbeach in Lincolnshire. This track was almost circular, with a sand and earth surface - it was a cross between a speedway and a grass track. The programme was printed - England v Denmark! The England team was Bill Kitchen, Bob Wells, Roy Craighead, Split Waterman, Bill Gilbert, and Wilf Plant. The Denmark team was Orla Knudsen, Aage Andersen, Aage Jakobsen, Bent Jensen, Svend Irwinger, and Svend Jensen. But the Danish trip to the UK was cancelled at the last minute, so we will never know how that Danish team would have fared, and it was to be another 34 years before the full Denmark team visited England for their first Test series.
	As an update to the above information, Roger Stevens tells me that the match was changed to England v Tiger Hart's Team. The result was 61-46, and Tiger's team seems to have been : Tiger Hart, Stan Dell, Joel Hodgson, Wal Morton, Bronco Wilson, and Jeff Goodwin. The England team was as programmed.

© Brian Collins 2005-08