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Post by thebaldeagle1932 on Mar 29, 2009 15:31:22 GMT
From the start, it was something of a clean sweep for the London tracks Just look at these early days winners:
1936 - Lionel van Praag (Wembley and Australia) 1937 - Jack Milne (New Cross and USA) 1938 - Bluey Wilkinson (West Ham and Australia) 1938 to 1948 - not held 1949 - Tommy Price (Wembley and England) 1950 - Freddie Williams (Wembley and Wales)
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Post by crossedhammers on Mar 31, 2009 15:02:45 GMT
From the start, it was something of a clean sweep for the London tracks Just look at these early days winners: 1936 - Lionel van Praag (Wembley and Australia) 1937 - Jack Milne (New Cross and USA) 1938 - Bluey Wilkinson (West Ham and Australia) 1938 to 1948 - not held 1949 - Tommy Price (Wembley and England) 1950 - Freddie Williams (Wembley and Wales) Jack Young, as an Edinburgh rider, broke the trend in 1951. But he won again the following season as a West Ham rider, and then through until the end of the 1950s, London continued its domination. Here's how it went: 1952 - Jack Young (West Ham and Australia) 1953 - Freddie Williams (Wales and Wembley) 1954 - Ronnie Moore (Wimbledon and New Zealand) then 1955 Peter Craven (Belle Vue and England) and 1956 (Ove Fundin Norwich and Sweden) followed by 1957 - Barry Briggs (Wimbledon and New Zealand) 1958 - Barry Briggs (Wimbledon and New Zealand) 1959 - Ronnie Moore (Wimbledon and New Zealand)
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Post by mrsgustix on Mar 31, 2009 16:23:35 GMT
I think that's a good cut-off date so far as London tracks are concerned. From the 1960s there was the Ove Fundin (Norwich and Belle Vue) domination, followed by hosts more. I don't think there was a London world champion after the end of the 50s.
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Post by tungate on Apr 1, 2009 15:27:57 GMT
You are quite right, except the Swedish Authority always insisted Ove Fundin was not ours and he should be listed without "Norwich" getting a mention. They even saw fit to stop Ove riding in some meetings over here in the week before the Final, probably to prevent him getting injured. I think he missed about a couple of matches due to injury in his years with us at Norwich. Gote Nordin came and took his place then so the Swedes gained even then. It didnt stop the Sweden Authorities banning Ove during the 1960s and stopping his entry to the World Title qualifying round one year either.
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Post by mrsgustix on Apr 5, 2009 13:52:22 GMT
The obvious answer to the early years domination of the World Championship by London especially Wembley riders is that those with the Lions always had home track advantage.
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Post by tungate on May 19, 2009 8:10:50 GMT
Having said that I suspect the riders concerned would still have been up there without the home track "advantage" angle of their success. Price & Williams were quite awesome riders around the First Division in their day and certainly deserved their victories. It would be interesting to have a listing of London track based riders who rode in the finals of the "one-off Wembley nights". Perhaps John will set this up for us on here under this World Championship header ?
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Post by Administrator on May 20, 2009 6:50:43 GMT
Having said that I suspect the riders concerned would still have been up there without the home track "advantage" angle of their success. Price & Williams were quite awesome riders around the First Division in their day and certainly deserved their victories. It would be interesting to have a listing of London track based riders who rode in the finals of the "one-off Wembley nights". Perhaps John will set this up for us on here under this World Championship header ? An excellent idea regarding London riders who qualified for world finals. I have started to set up this up, but it will take time to completely format.
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Post by tungate on Jun 1, 2009 16:30:43 GMT
Even in the days of the "Star" Championship London had the majority of placings ---- 1929 - Frank Arthur (Harringay) beat Vic Huxley(Wimbledon) (Overseas Section) and Roger Frogley(Crystal Palace) (England only Section) were winners 1930 - Huxley reversed the result winning against Arthur. Top Englishman Ormston finished third 1931 - London swept the board - Tauser (Wimbledon), Huxley (Wimbledon) & Croombs (West Ham) were the top three 1932 - Huxley (Wimbledon) & Case (Wembley) took 2nd & 3rd places 1933 - Farndon (C Palace), Johnson (C Palace), Wilkinson (W Ham), N Parker (Clapton) & Phil Bishop (Clapton) took the top five places 1934 - J Parker (Harringay) (1st), Lees (Wembley) (3rd) & Colin Watson (Wembley) (5th) 1935 - Frank Charles (Wembley) & Jack Ormston (Harringay) were the top two
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Post by tungate on Jun 1, 2009 16:39:14 GMT
The British Riders Championship had Tommy Price & Bill Kitchen ( both Wembley) leading the way in 1946, Bill Kitchen (Wembley) & Bill Longley (New Cross) in 2nd & 3rd in 1947 and the top 5 of Vic Duggan Harringay), Johnson(New Cross), Statham (Wimbledon), Gilbert & Waterman (both Wembley) in 1948 To be fair to the other areas of the U K only Belle Vue & Bradford, together with the lower league sides, were operating during these seasons
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Post by Johnnie Spey on Oct 14, 2009 19:50:19 GMT
The obvious answer to the early years domination of the World Championship by London especially Wembley riders is that those with the Lions always had home track advantage. Perhaps a more (or at least equally) obvious answer, Mrs Gustix, is that there were more teams, and therefore top quality riders, in the metropolis. Regards, Johnnie.
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Post by oldskidkid on Feb 3, 2010 18:20:41 GMT
Even in the days of the "Star" Championship London had the majority of placings ---- 1929 - Frank Arthur (Harringay) beat Vic Huxley(Wimbledon) (Overseas Section) and Roger Frogley(Crystal Palace) (England only Section) were winners 1930 - Huxley reversed the result winning against Arthur. Top Englishman Ormston finished third 1931 - London swept the board - Tauser (Wimbledon), Huxley (Wimbledon) & Croombs (West Ham) were the top three 1932 - Huxley (Wimbledon) & Case (Wembley) took 2nd & 3rd places 1933 - Farndon (C Palace), Johnson (C Palace), Wilkinson (W Ham), N Parker (Clapton) & Phil Bishop (Clapton) took the top five places 1934 - J Parker (Harringay) (1st), Lees (Wembley) (3rd) & Colin Watson (Wembley) (5th) 1935 - Frank Charles (Wembley) & Jack Ormston (Harringay) were the top two Not one non-London track riders in any top three at any time. Interesting to see in 1933 that dear old Phil Bishop got a high placing at the final.
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