John Boulger's Wembley Woes
By Tracy Holmes

The following is a 'letter to the editor' I sent to Backtrack many moons ago. "I posted it at the post office." It's about one of my all-time favourites, John Boulger and three instances I saw as injustice at the time. [ Still do ] More information regarding the first one has come to light but for me, as Led Zeppelin sang, the song remains the same.

John Boulger had three Wembley woes that haunted his career. The first was the 1973 World Team Cup Final. But he wasn't even there! Exactly. In the previous six years, John would have been an instant starter. And in the last five of those years, with Ivan Mauger as Captain, Great Britain had won three times and were second twice, the squad being made up of the best in the Commonwealth. [ But still riding under the Great Britain banner ] In fact, the team for 1971 was; Mauger, Barry Briggs, Ronnie Moore, all Kiwis, Jim Airey from Australia and one Englishman, Ray Wilson. They took the Gold Medals in Poland.

Anyway, in '73, John had qualified for the World Final along with Mauger, Ray Wilson and Peter Collins, so those four were obvious choices for the Great Britain squad, seeded direct to the Wembley Final. But in the same year, English riders had won the Daily Mirror World League Series [ I got that wrong. It was the Daily Mirror International Tournament ] and the selectors went for an all-English team to represent Great Britain. Mauger wasn't just dumped as Captain, he was out full stop!

Yes, he was in a fight with authorities at the time but one feels that had little to do with it. Poor John wasn't even considered. Well yes, Great Britain won but the feeling Down Under wasn't one of triumph. It took Boulger and Mauger a few years but they would both get their revenge and the World Cup champagne tasted all the more sweeter!

[ It has since been pointed out to me by Martin Rogers, that in 1973, Commonwealth riders would not have been selected for the Great Britain team because, "Great Britain became a member of the European Union and for good or, in the opinion of many, for ill, the old relationships with Australia and New Zealand sporting and globally were immediately redrawn."

Interesting especially as John Boulger represented Great Britain in the three Test series, Poland V Great Britain, May & June of that year. And he was joined in the 3rd Test by, you guessed it, Ivan Mauger. mmm... Martin Rogers and Tony MacDonald, I really look forward to your comments ]

The second Wembley Woe for John was the 1974 European Final, the last round to the World Final. An engine failure while leading his fourth race of the previous round had cost him a place but he had beaten Jim McMillan in the run-off to be Western reserve. Things then looked good as Polish riders Jan Mucha and Eastern reserve Ryszard Fabiszewski did not show up. Surely common sense, fair-play and the interests of good sportsmanship would kick in! NO! John was refused a full place.

[ I had to leave this out but I will include it here. The previous year, Bernt Persson was in the same situation at the European Final. When John Louis was forced to withdraw from the meeting, finding himself under suspension, Persson stepped up and took his place in full. Yes, Persson was the Western reserve but he was not forced to share the rides with Eastern reserve Jiri Stancl. Why was Boulger not afforded the same courtesy? This smacked of something very sinister! But, the programme said, 17 Ryszard Fabiszewski, 18 John Boulger.

With 11 to qualify for the Gothenburg World Final, John was a firm favourite to avoid the bottom five. Who was in danger of going out? Terry Betts had unfortunately suffered a broken collar bone and was clearly going to struggle. Now with John Boulger stuck at reserve, that would take out one opponent for sure. And who was behind that??? Jim McMillan was brought in at 17. As 17 was the Eastern reserve, this rider would take the place of any Continental no-show. And so, McMillan should have taken all of Mucha's rides. Instead of being shared with number 18. What am I getting wrong? It was most certainly a shocking move and shock waves reverberated way down-under.

When John rode in heat 5, he made sure Betts got the win as he blocked the Russians Mikhail Krasnov and Mikhail Starostin. For sure, John Boulger was robbed of the opportunity to get to Gothenburg. Prove me wrong. ]

Letter continues; I asked John how he felt about being robbed that night and he said, "I just felt sick."

Wembley Woe number three was the 1976 Intercontinental Final, again, the last round to the World Final. After four rides, John had seven points. His opponents for the last race were Billy Sanders on six, John Louis five and Ole Olsen four. The win for Boulger will see him qualify. Second or otherwise and a whole range of possibilities exist. JB waits for the others to come into line. When they finally do, his clutch burns out and he breaks the tapes. Instant exclusion and no place at Chorzow.

What made that an even more bitter pill to swallow, was that in the run-off for first place between Peter Collins and Ivan Mauger, Collins broke the tapes and got away with it. In the re-run, he took the winners cheque. The referee was West German, Gunther Sorber, and maybe he was just saving his own neck, but why didn't the same hard and fast rule apply to both Boulger and Collins? A lot of serious journos asked the same question. The end.

I was pleasantly surprised by that because a 'serious journo', I have never been! And that was it. Good heavens, it's now well over 50 years ago and who could possibly care less?

Well, I think it's healthy to look back into history and bring back the passion, and hopefully introduce new ones to what happened to whom and when. I have found that social media has been the most wonderful invention but, also a tool for those hell-bent on re-writing history. Recently on facebook, there was a post in memory of Kelly Moran. And it read 1979, World Number 3. I was straight in with the correction and some replies were childish. Like, same points so what does it matter? My parting shot was, if you are using this platform to re-write history, you do yourself, Speedway and especially Kelly Moran no favours at all. If like me, you are a Boulger fan, I hope you enjoyed looking back and by all means, please comment, even if "what a load of bollocks!" Haha.

This article was first published on 17th August 2025