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THE TEST SERIES THAT NEVER WAS
GREAT BRITAIN
v
SOVIET RUSSIA
1963
The dates were set
June 10,11,14 1963
So were the venues
Wimbledon, Southampton, Belle Vue
The programmes were printed
<-- see left
Posters were displayed
see right -->
Teams were announced
Russia Igor Plechanov, Boris Samorodov, Gennady Kurilenko, Valentin Moiseyev, Anatoli (Vitaly?) Shilo, Mikhail Kolpakov (?), Alexey Novikov (?)
Great Britain Peter Craven, Barry Briggs, Ron How, Ken McKinlay, Mike Broadbank, Ronnie Genz, Nigel Boocock, Jack Geran, Dick Fisher, Bob Andrews, Peter Moore, Peter Vandenberg, Gordon McGregor.
(Ronnie Moore was injured)
The visitors arrival date was set
Sat June 8 - by 3 cars in a 1,600 mile road trip from Moscow.
BUT
NOBODY ARRIVED!
The Russian authorities allegedly called off the tour at virtually the last minute - June 9th.
Strangely, the Speedway Star magazine - following a big preview of the series by Eric Linden and Ronnie Moore in their issue of June 8th - barely gave the cancellation of the tour a mention at all in their following issue of June 15th.
It was to be another year before the Russians made their British debut in 1964
(details here)

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Thanks to Roger Stevens for scans of the very rare poster and programme from this series.

1 meeting - 6 programmes !
The World Team Cup Final 1981. No less than 6 programmes were produced for this meeting at Olching,Germany, each for various parts of the stadium, press, free entry etc. This was because the programmes were also tickets, and had a small detachable triangular "ticket" in the bottom right hand corner. Programmes are here
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
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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 !
RHODESIA v USA ???

David Austin tells me that a 2-match series was arranged for these two countries in 1972.

A 4-rider USA team (comprising Rick Woods, Mike Curoso, Scott Autrey, and Sumner McKnight) was touring South Africa, and Tests were arranged in Rhodesia on 24.11 in Salisbury, and 25.11 in Bulawayo.

But injuries decimated the American team, and the matches had to be cancelled, though Woods did take part in individual events in Rhodesia on those dates.
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 BIGGEST SCORE in ANY international was a maximum 80-16 win by Denmark over Sweden in a 2001 Youth 80cc match (see here)

ENGLAND v DENMARK 1947 - WELL, ALMOST!
{short description of image} 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 due to a lack of shipping facilities, 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, though in a report in "Grass Track and Speedway" magazine Hart's team is referred to as The Rest. The result was 61-46, and scorers were as follows. England: Split Waterman 17, Wilf Plant 14, Bill Kitchen 13, Bob Wells 8, Bill Gilbert 5, Roy Craighead 4. Tiger Hart's Team : Tiger Hart 15, Geoff Godwin 11, Broncho Wilson 6, Wal Morton 5, Stan Dell 4, Jack Hodgson 4, Paddy Hammond (Ire) 1.

Contributors : Roger Stevens, Christian Weber, Norman Jacobs, David Austin
EXTRA !!! Page 2

© Brian Collins