Norway …. and Lasse Fredriksen!

Taco Friday: Every Friday it is estimated that up to a million Norwegians celebrate fredagstaco (tacofredag in some regions), eating tacos as a family to celebrate the start of the weekend.

The modern cheese slicer – known as an ostehovel – was invented by Thor Bjöklund in 1925.

Norwegians’ annual consumption of coffee, 9.9kg each (around 2.5 gallons), is surpassed only by those living in Finland (12 kg). Norway is also pipped by the Finns for the title of Happiest country in the world as compiled by the Happiness Foundation.

Fittingly for a country which is the home of Knut Hamsun, Henrik Ibsen and Jo Nesbo, Norwegians are renowned readers with over 2,000 new titles published annually in the country.

If you plan to emigrate to Svalbard, an island 2,000 km north of Oslo, you will be legally required to be armed when leaving home due to the danger polar bear attacks.

In 841 AD Norwegian Viking, Turgest established the first permanent settlement on the River Liffey in Ireland giving it a name which translates into black pool – Dubh Linn, now the capital and largest city in the Republic.

In Longyearbyen, a region of Norway’s Arctic, dying is illegal. When occupants of the archipelago are close to death, they are transported to the mainland to live out their final days. This is because the temperatures are so cold that bodies don’t decompose.

Author Roald Dahl, although born in Wales, had Norwegian parents and based his most famous book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the Freia chocolate factory in Oslo.

Fredriksen is a patronym meaning son of Fredrik.

The Vikingskipet (Viking Ship) stadium in Hamar is the only venue in the world to have staged both ice and motorcycle speedway. Tony Rickardsson won the first of three SGPs staged at the indoor arena in 2002 which has also staged a handful of ice racing events.

Lasse has been crowned Norwegian Individual Champion – a title first claimed by Ragnars C Erichsen in 1938 – twice to date, in 2018 and 2021. He also finished runner-up to Glenn Moi in 2019 and Mathias Pollestad a year later, the two riders who joined him on the 2021 podium. Lars Gunnestad – who had two spells with Poole leading up to the Millenium and also rode for Sheffield – won ten national titles in total including five in a row – a run halted by Rune Holta in 1996.

Lasse was born in Varhaug, a town in southern Norway with a population of 3,314 famed for its temperate climate and based on agriculture. One of the major employers is Fjordkjokken AS, a company specializing in producing ready meals for the Norwegian brand Fjordland. Around six kilometres east of Varhaug is the  speedway and motocross facility run by the Motorsykkel Elgane Klubb, which has been the venue for World Championship and WTC qualifiers along with the 1994 World under-21 Championship won by Mikkel Karlson from Rune Holta with Jason Crump third. The track also staged 15 national finals between 1982 and 2021.

Eight-times Norwegian champion and three-time Longtrack world champion Basse Hveem was the first Norwegian to make his mark in British speedway joining West Ham in 1953 while Sverre Harrfeldt was a member of the Hammers’ side which won the first British League title in 1965.

In 1971 a combined Norway and Denmark side competed in the World Team Cup. The merger was justified at the time because it allowed Denmark’s one World class rider, Ole Olsen, the opportunity to ride in a competitive side.

Norway has twice won bronze in the World Pairs – Odd Fossengen and Oyvind S Berg flying the flag in Germany in 1968 while Gunnestad and Einar Kyllingstad finished third at Poznan in 1991.

Lasse was due to make his British debut in 2020 but hours before he was due to set off his cross-Europe trip Norway’s borders were closed due to Covid. “A day later and I would have spent Covid in Scotland,” Lasse said. Post-Brexit visa issues meant that when speedway resumed in 2021 Lasse was still confined to European racing, finally making his Monarchs debut in April 2022, scoring five points from the number two berth in Edinburgh’s 50-40 victory over the Bandits.

In addition to Elgane in the five-team Norwegian 1 Divisjon, Lasse has also ridden for Valsarna and Griparna in Sweden, Grindsted and Esbjerg in Denmark.

Lasse turns 29 on June 8 – the Christian Feast Day for Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart – sharing his cake with, among others tennis stars Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters, actress Julianna Marguiles, singers Mick Hucknall, Bonnie Tyler and Kanye West, crime writer Sarah Paretsky, the sixth Dr Who, Colin Baker and, in 1851, Jacques-Arsène d’Arsonval, French physicist and inventor of the moving-coil D’Arsonval galvanometer.

Norwegian Wood (the Bird has flown) was a track on The Beatles 1965 album Rubber Soul. Written by John Lennon about a clandestine affair rather that relating to an actual forest in Norway such as Finnskogen or Trollmarkaa, the title refers the sort of cheap pine wall panelling popular in the trendy London flat owned by the woman the narrator of the song is having an affair with.

Lasse’s regular mechanic, Duns-born David McAllan was, as a 15-year-old, a member of the Bandits’ Conference League team when speedway returned to Shielfield Park after a 15-year absence in 1996. The 1997 Scottish Junior Champion also rode for Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stoke, Boston and Sittingbourne before a serious back injury in a controversial crash – which saw current Premiership CEO Phil Morris ejected from the meeting by the referee – at Ashfield while riding for Glasgow ended his career in 2007. It left David, thankfully temporarily, unable to walk.