i wrote this article some time ago  largely based on reports in the Speedway Stars of the time  but the book "50 Days of Speedway"  has a different and possibly more insightful take on how the Saints were sacrificed to shore up Mike Parkers other teams, with Newcastle and Wolverhampton being the main beneficiaries. It s certainly well worth a read.   

Doug Nicolson looks at the all too brief life and times of the Sunderland Saints.

Shortlived Saints

The team takes shape

With the Provincial League in expansion mode prior to the 1964 season, Mike Parker looked to add tracks to his portfolio and did deals to bring speedway to two hitherto untried venues at Newport in South Wales and Sunderland up in the Northeast. Before the start of the season, Eddie Glennon, Parker’s right hand man, admitted that they were a bit anxious as to how Newport would pan out but that they had few worries about Sunderland. After all, Sunderland’s Bolden Stadium was about a dozen miles from Newcastle’s city centre and the prospect of local derbies to rival their football equivalents was eagerly anticipated. How wrong they were.

While Newport based their side around the remnants of the defunct Southampton Saints (Dick Bradley, Peter Vandenberg, Alby Golden) the northern Saints had to rely on a mixture of age, although may be not experience, and Anzacs looking to make their way in the sport. The age came largely from the defunct Rayleigh side who provided three riders - Maury McDermott and Stan Clark, two thirty six year olds who had come out of six year retirements to ride for Rayleigh the previous year, and Vic Ridgeon another Londoner of similar vintage, who had ridden for both Wolverhampton and Rayleigh in the Provincial League. Add to that thirty six year old Dave Collins, thought by many to be a South African but who was actually born in London. He had pretty limited riding experience in the mid 1950s before emigrating but returned to the UK in 1962 when he had a couple of meetings for Parker’s Leicester. He didn’t ride in 1963 but was pencilled in for the Saints opening meetings, as was Ray Day, at a mere thirty years young. He too had ridden for Parker in 1962- but at Bradford- before also having a “sabbatical” in 1963.

The Anzacs were young Aussies Jim Airey and Gordon Guasco, who had shown some impressive form in Sydney, which it was hoped they could reproduce around the small 310 yard Bolden circuit. Joining them was Kiwi Graham Coombes who was a top man at New Plymouth and who revelled in heavy conditions and big tracks. He had been in the UK before, having had a couple of seasons as a tailender at Belle Vue while a teenager four years earlier. Speculation that Eric Boothroyd would be recruited to captain the side proved to be ill informed. Certainly Boothroyd was looking for a move away from Middlesboro as their Friday race night didn’t suit his business commitments, but, after some bitter litigation with Parker, there was no way that Reg Fearman would have considered releasing him to a Parker track.

Elsewhere in Mike Parkers empire

To try and understand why Sunderland were largely left to sink or swim with their obviously under strength team, let’s look at the state of the Mike Parker empire. Following the litigation and the dissolution of his partnership with Reg Feaman, he had retained control of Newcastle, Hackney and Wolverhampton to which he added Sunderland and Newport. The NL/PL split that winter had hit Hackney particularly hard, with many of their riders deciding against riding “black” and joining NL sides. Top scorer Norman Hunter and the promising Malcolm Simmons joined near neighbours West Ham, the NL’s newest side, while the middle order pair of Trevor Hedge and Tich Read opted for Norwich in their native East Anglia. Colin McKee headed off to Oxford, while Peter Sampson retired. In short, a completely new team was needed at Waterden Road. Sunderland seemed well staffed in comparison. It was no secret that crowds hadn’t been great during Hackney’s debut season in 1963 and a strong side was imperative for Parker as he was hoping to offload the track.

With Hackney’s team problems, they didn’t stage a home meeting until 29^th April, over six weeks after visitors Exeter had started, although they did ride in a challenge match at Wolverhampton a fortnight earlier, tracking three Sunderland signings – McDermott, Clark and Guasco – as guests, the former topscoring with ten. For their opener, Hawks roped in Ivan Mauger as a guest, joining new signings Colin Pratt and Roy Trigg who had left National League Swindon and Wimbledon respectively, unimpressed by their lack of fixtures. Len Silver rode for Exeter but it was announced he was becoming a co-promoter, buying a half share in the promotion. Naturally he became a Hackney rider, and equally naturally the Falcons wanted a replacement, leading to a three way swap, with McDermott leaving Sunderland for Exeter and Colin McKee going up to the North East.

Things hadn’t really been much better at Wolverhampton. The side was at the centre of the NL/PL split, when Mike Parker refused to obey the Control Board’s directive to take them into the NL. However most of the team had left Monmore Green. Maury Mattingley had joined Trevor Redmond’s newly opened Glasgow, possibly in a swap deal that saw Redmond asset Jon Erskine join Parkers Newport side. Graham Warren and Les Jenkins had retired while Rick France and Ernie Baker went to NL tracks Coventry and Wimbledon respectively. Wolves had hoped to sign Peter Jarman from Stoke who had a closed that winter, but he was initially reluctant to go “black” and seemed to be Wimbledon bound. The Wolves opened their season with a comfortable challenge match win over Cradley but had three guests wearing their colours – Ivan Mauger, Alby Golden and Jack Kitchen. They only had one guest the following week, with Bill Andrew scoring a solitary point as Poole murdered them 52-26 at Monmore Green, after which Jarman was persuaded to sign. However a string of further home defeats by Exeter, Newport and Long Eaton highlighted that they were still in need of strengthening and Ivan Mauger became an almost resident guest for a spell.

Wet Bolden opening nights

Opening night challenge match against local rivals Newcastle wasn’t a roaring success. Firstly Stan Clark had injured his arm at work and was ruled out. Indeed he never returned to the track although he was involved briefly in promoting non-league events at Rayleigh. Graham Coombes had just arrived in the country the day before and was scrambling to get organised and get up to Wearside. The meeting was ruined by a thunderstorm in the afternoon, which left the track flooded and the twenty strong track staff spent hours clearing thousands of gallons of water off the track. Parker never was one to cancel a meeting, but this may well have come back to bite them, as newcomers can’t have been impressed with what they saw. There were numerous falls and bike failures in the latter races, with two heats having only two finishers. The electrical system burnt out leading to races being started using an elastic rope and the inevitable false starts. While the Saints had five riders who won a heat, only Jim Airey managed two wins and Newcastle’s all-round strength saw them through 44-32. Ivan Mauger rather controversially was credited with setting up a new, track record of 64.2 in the second half.  Although little was said about this at the time, it was later pointed out that it was some five seconds faster than anyone else had managed and you sometimes have to wonder about timekeepers and their times. Indeed it was rare for anyone to get within three seconds of this time throughout Sunderland’s short season.

A couple of nights later the Saints were at Sheffield and lost 58-20 to a rampant Tigers side which had previously run up 59 points at against a weakened Glasgow side. Saints actually won a heat when McDermott and Coombes took a 4-2 over Dews and Bagley in the latter stages. Apart from this only Gordon Guasco provided any real resistance, winning his first outing and keeping the Tigers riders honest in his other races

Another wet Tuesday as Edinburgh rolled into town the following week.  Another night of engine failures and another home defeat. The Monarchs provided twelve race winners as they cruised to a 47-30 victory. Jim Airey was the sole Sunderland heat winner. Doug Templeton and George Hunter both scored full maximums for the Monarchs, while machine troubled Wayne Briggs won both the heats he managed to finish. Bolden fans got a rare chance to see the Silver Sash when holder George Hunter successfully retained his Silver Sash by beating Saints top scorer Graham Coombes. Monarchs brought Australian Kenny Cameron, who was unable to gain a team place at Old Meadowbank, to have trials for the Saints. To be fair to “Casper”, so called because of his white leathers, it was top end strength that was required not another reserve.

As the second part of a Scottish double header, Sunderland travelled up to Glasgow the next night and drew the first four heats before the Tigers, missing heat leader Chris Julian, cut loose to run up a 50-28 win. Both Ridgeon and Coombes won a heat, a fact no doubt noted by promoter Redmond who later recruited them when the injury bug hit the White City outfit in the summer.

Time to make changes

By now it was obvious that the Saints needed strengthening and the PLPA sanctioned the use of a guest and also the signing of veteran Ken Sharples who came out of a four year retirement to join the Saints and to accompany son Paul who was second halfing at Bolden. Incidentally Paul would later be programmed as “Paul McCartney” to stimulate interest. Don’t think it worked.

With guest Ivor Brown joining debutant Sharples and replacing Collins and Day, there was a hope the Saints could make a fist of it against Sheffield and, had Coombes not had severe bike problems, they could well have achieved the Holy Grail of a home win. Brown with eleven and on Sharples six got good support from the McDermott/Guasco pairing as the Saints narrowly lost 41-37. Buoyed by this improvement Saints fans headed down to Middlesboro in better spirits. Jimmy Squibb proved a good choice of guest as the Saints again featured in a last heat decider… and again lost out. On the face of it this seemed a good performance, but it should be remembered that the Bears, who weren’t in great form, having lost their two previous home meetings, only got an uncharacteristic one point from Eric Boocock.

At last a win

The trip to Edinburgh proved fruitless, being rained off after just one heat but the visit of Glasgow brought great joy. With guest Pete Jarman leading the way with ten points, a solid and workmanlike performance from the Saints brought a healthy 48-30 win. Charlie Monk scored an untroubled maximum for the visitors, who really gave him little consistent support. Airey and Guasco seemed to be finding their feet and Sharples was shaking off the retirement rust. However to put it in perspective the decent results in the last two meetings were against two of the weakest PL teams.

One out, one in and no guests

As mentioned earlier Mike Parker had to send a rider to Exeter to allow Len Silver to join Hackney, a requirement for him becoming a co-promoter at Waterden Road. Maury McDermott got the nod, with the move possibly being sold to him as involving less travelling – although there couldn’t have been much in it. In return, Sunderland got Colin McKee who had initially refused to ride in the PL fearing the blanket ban may later stop him riding again in his native New Zealand. However after finding only limited opportunities in the NL, he relented and agreed to join a PL side, hoping to return to Hackney, but with the Hawks now well stocked in contrast to the start of the season, he was off to Sunderland. From the Saints point of view, this swap didn’t strengthen them, and a few feature writers in the Speedway Star were suggesting that one of the top PL sides could easily afford to send a heat leader to Wearside. Sadly it never happened.

Quite inexplicably the Saints didn’t track guests in their next four meetings – away meetings at Cradley, Newcastle and Wolverhampton and a home fixture with Middlesboro. Exactly why isn’t known. A relatively narrow loss at Cradley (44-34) was followed by thumping defeats at Newcastle (53-25) and worse still at home to Middlesboro (53-24). Ironically the Wolverhampton fixture featured a “guest”. At least that was the somewhat euphemistic description given to the appearance of Bob Andrews in the Wolves side. This one really brought the pains on in the PL/NL “war” with court orders and injunctions flying about. Possibly Parker was cute in using the fixture between his two sides to track Andrews for the first time as any other opponents would surely have objected to his inclusion. Andrews was warming his bike up in the Hackney pits –another Parker track – when he was served with an injunction preventing him riding in the PL.

The last stands

A big effort was made, both on and off the track, for the local derby visit of Newcastle in late May. Many complementary tickets were given out in the area, leading to a huge crowd, reported to be around eight thousand and they saw a cracking meeting. Saints booked Ivor Brown as a guest, their first in recent weeks and his “history” with Ivan Mauger certainly added to the appeal of this fixture. For once Saints managed to win a last heat decider when Brown and McKee shut Jack Winstanley out of the minor placings to share the last heat, although the 5-0 they took earlier in the meeting was probably pivotal to their success. The win came at a cost with Guasco sustaining a broken foot which would keep him out for a number of weeks.

Wolverhampton’s arrival the following week coincided with a day of torrential rain, and it was a surprise that the referee agreed to run the meeting, a view not shared by the visitors Jarman, Francis and Bond, who refused to ride, depleting an already weak looking Wolves side. Somehow Wolves managed to track seven riders, including Peter Adams, Ivor Hughes, Ray Day, Milton Caisley and Chris Harrison in their side, which may  have shared the points had they not conceded a late 5-0. Other than Caisley, the other four recruits all managed a heat win, with Adams top scoring with nine. Not a great night for the few home fans that were there, and this was the final nail in the coffin for the Saints and the promotion took the decision to close after they had honoured two further fixtures. The away meeting at Edinburgh had an air of finality about it. Already without Coombes, who had sustained a broken wrist in a workshop accident, only McKee and guest Boothroyd offered any resistance in a 57-21 tousing.

The final curtain

The final meeting was run in a sombre atmosphere. The scheduled fixture between Scotland and New Zealand had been cancelled, possibly due to both Guasco and Coombes being injured. Although Guasco was an Aussie, he was included in the Kiwi side for these meetings, as were fellow Aussies Jim Airey and Bluey Scott. A more likely reason was the cost as this meeting was over eighteen heats and required sixteen riders. The replacement meeting, the “Cock o’ the North” trophy was a cost reduced twelve man individual run over twelve heats. Ironically it was a fine night. Ivan Mauger won the trophy with a maximum of twelve, maintaining his unbeaten record at the circuit. The news of the tracks closure was broken at the interval. It was no real shock as it had been a really open secret. So much so that McKee and Airey turned out for Wolves the following night at Glasgow and not only were their names in the programme, but Airey’s photo adorned the front cover, suggesting the moves had been known for a few days or longer. 

Time

Perhaps all Sunderland needed was some time. Time for their riders to develop. By the following year McKee, Airey and Guasco were heat leaders with their new tracks and Coombes was an all action fan pleaser. Time for the weather to improve too. Most of their meetings were run in pretty poor conditions. Time to build up a fan base. The experiment of giving out 10000 free tickets for the Newcastle meeting didn’t really work with barely 1000 returning the following week. Equally the timing of the racenight on a Tuesday, the night after Newcastle may be wasn’t the best. It is no coincidence that Sunderland’s longest, and arguably most successful, run was when they adopted a Sunday afternoon raceday in the early seventies, although its doubtful that Sunday league racing would have been permitted at that time

Time was something Mike Parker possibly didn’t have. Following his litigation with Reg Fearman he was required to buy out Fearman’s share at Wolverhampton and Newcastle. This he did over two years, suggesting perhaps that he wasn’t in a position to bank roll the Saints through an unprofitable season to better times. He had already faced this situation in Leicester’s ill fated PL season in 1962 and wasn’t going to get stung twice.

Bolden stadium is still there and with Newcastle now closed for good, who knows!