Tigers fans were aghast when an item on “Scotsport” said that Charlie Monk had been transferred to Halifax. Immediately Danny Taylor issued a statement denying this. Within a week things had changed dramatically! Taylor had sold his shares in the Tigers to Les Whaley and it was announced that Monk had requested a move. Whaley was fairly relaxed about Monk moving on, saying that an appropriate replacement would be allocated – some hope! He was obviously unaware of the problems of enticing any riders north of the border, never mind top class heatleaders.

Rider allocation had been necessary when the British League was formed in 1965 but it was becoming obvious that it would be an annual preseason ritual. Jim Airey, who was locked in a bitter dispute with Wolves, was allocated as a replacement for Monk. On hearing of the proposal, he suddenly decided that Monmore Green was not such a bad place after all! I have always felt that the next move was highly cynical. Wally Mawdsley, the Exeter promoter, was on the Management Committee. He surely knew that Malmquist, like the previous year, would be working on a contract with the Swedish government until mid June and consequently would be unable to ride in Britain until then. With time pressing on, Whaley took matters into his own hands and secured the services of Lars Jansson, the younger brother of World number two and former Monarch, Bengt -  a promising rider, but hardly a ready made replacement for a rider who had finished second in the British League averages the previous year.

As expected, neither Wells nor Mattingly would be returning but, after some impressive performances at the White City, Oyvind Berg would be donning the red and white. With Wells moving to Newcastle, Dent’s move to Glasgow would now be permanent. A table showing the team totals after the allocation exercise was published in the Speedway Star

Cradley           49.44

Belle Vue        49.06

Swindon          48.17

Coventry         48.04

Newport          48.00

West Ham       47.93

Wolves            47.84

Sheffield         47.83

Wimbledon     47.57

Halifax             47.30

Exeter              47.16

Hackney          47.05

Newcastle       47.04

Coatbridge      46.78

Poole               46.27

Leicester          46.15

K Lynn            46.11

Oxford              45.92

Glasgow          41.81

Glasgow had obviously got one of the biggest raw deals of all time, and remember that the 41.81 figure included Malmquist, who had averaged just over eight. There was no certainty that Lars Jansson would reach this level immediately! While all the writers in the Speedway Star were sympathetic to our plight, there was never any suggestion that we should be given further strengthening. While we had riders who could be expected to improve their averages, we could expect a season of hard times.

.