WHILE legendary sporting partnerships such as Torville and Dean and Toshack and Keegan are confined to the memory banks, Newport Speedway's relationship with Phil Crump lives on.
Yesterday at Hayley Stadium, former Wasp and world number-three Crump thrilled his army of fans by getting back in the saddle once again to roll back the years.
Described by many as the King of Somerton Park, Crump, father of current world champion Jason Crump, was at the venue as chief guest as Newport celebrated 10 years of modern-day speedway at the stadium.
His presence at last put a face to the name so many youngsters had heard about from their dads, brothers and uncles - all of whom still very much remember the mighty Australian with great affection.
"It's terrific to come back here and to see a lot of supporters who watched me at Somerton Park," said Crump. "I haven't seen some of them for 30 years and it's amazing so many still remember me. While everybody else hated Somerton Park, I loved it. It was terrific to look forward to riding there every Friday night and I still miss the old place.
"But it's all about the present and the future now and Tim (Newport promoter Tim Stone) has done a remarkable job here at Hayley Stadium."
The reunion held special memories, too, for Stone, who loves nothing more than describing the days when he was the top man's mechanic.
"Phil was an unbelievable rider, who I worked for with great pride," he recalled. "Phil could control a bike in situations and places that other riders didn't go and when I used to see him do certain things, I always wondered how he did it."
Also present were Swedish ace Anders Henriksson, who still holds cult status for his part in helping the Wasps finish as British Premier League runner-up and Premier Trophy winners in 1999.
"I'm delighted to be here for this event and it's really great to see so many good friends from my time with the Wasps," said Henriksson, now managing his father's engineering firm in his homeland.
There were also Henriksson's highly popular countrymen, Bjorn Gustafsson and Emil Lindqvist, who still rides competitively for Vargana in the Swedish Allsvenskan, Chris Neath, Scott Pegler plus current riders Phil Morris, Tony Atkin, Tom Hedley, Chris Schramm, Michal Rajkowski and Karl Mason.
One man who many believed would not be there was Australian Craig Watson, who joined Elite League outfit Poole Pirates before the start of the season after failing to agree terms on a new contract.
"I've great memories of my time at this track where we had some superb races and, of course, some success," said Watson, whose 58.38 seconds posted on August 3, 2003, remains a Hayley Stadium track record.
"There were great people here and we enjoyed great times. The fans here have always been brilliant, and hats off also to Tim Stone for doing such a good job here over these ten years."
It all started on May 4, 1997. Here's to the next ten years.
- Yesterday's meeting was won by Wasp Michal Rajkowski. Second was Steve Boxall (Rye House) with Wasp Tony Atkin third. Tom Hedley, another Wasp, was the fourth man in the event final.
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