Re: [CR]Was Jimmy Saville, now Patrick Sercu

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2004)

From: <inexpertbrit@tesco.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR]Was Jimmy Saville, now Patrick Sercu
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:48:08 +0100


Ray, Said "Can't say that I'm a fan of Jimmy "Oscar" Saville but he did a great deal of charity work including running numerous marathons. However I am a fan of Patrick Sercu who was mentioned in connection with Jim. I regret that I never got to see Sercu/Merckx ride a madison. Just how good must they have been? Surely the perfect combination of sprinter and stayer". The ultimate modern day 6 day pairing in my opinion would be Patrick Sercu and Peter Post "The Blue train", I can still hear the Wembley boos! And Greenford is a good mile away from Wembley. How we hated them. My personal favourites were Tony Doyle and Danny Clarke who were deliberately split up to stop them getting near the record of the previous two but I think they got it in the end. Tony just gets into the CR time frame on this one as he rode his first Professional 6 Day at Wembley in 1980 with Udo Hempel. Would'nt it be marvellous if both these famous pairings could have ridden against the pre-war North American track stars. I wish. Finally I thought the dig on Jimmy Saville (Just a publicity stunt) was well below the belt. Jimmy was a great rider in one day league road races. He was still working as a scrap metal dealer and part time wrestler when he cycled raced. He was completely unknown to the greater British public back then so how could it be a stunt? He was just well out of his depth riding in a stage race like the Tour of Britain against opposition in the form of Steel, Taylor, Greenfield, Audemard etc. Bert Plamer Greenford UK. Jimmy came from a very poor working class background one of seven kids and started work in the pits and on the coalface at the age of 14. Lets face it he ain't done bad for a Jewish Catholic lad from Leeds. He was a porter at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for many years and pushed one of our members on a trolley and still smiled at the Jim'll Fix it jokes. Wonderful man who has done so much unsung charity work. The only thing I can say against him was he was so supportive of Maggie and him an ex pitman, but we can't be all perfect, he really is in a League of his own. See you all at Mildenhall Grass Track this weekend. Taraa for now Bert Palmer Greenford Middx.