When the Speedway World Championship used to be shown on Channel 4, and God I miss it, this Aussie used to win all the time. He was bad-tempered. And he did a daft clenched-fist win celebration, like he was trying to punch a cow's udders. I didn't like him. I liked Mark Loram. And Hans Anderson. And Leigh Adams. And Ryan Sullivan. In fact, I liked anyone but Jason Crump. Even Tomasz Gollob.
But a couple of weeks ago I went up to Sheffield to do a feature on old Speedway bikes that were being racing at a benefit meeting for badly injured speedway riders. And Crumpy was there, racing for free, in a week he will have already raced at four meetings in three different countries, with another four or even five meetings the following week. And he was majestic.
I got him all wrong. Sorry Crumpy.
Photo: Rory Game Cheers Rory.
That's because he's an Aussie mate! We have all sorts of victory salute's like Crumpies "punched udder". There is Michael Clim's (swimmer) "cobra tap to the forehead", which Leyton Hewitt (tennis) used for a while in the early days. He eventually moved on to the "punched udder" as well, but added a "C-mon!!!".
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