West Ham British final

Monk was probably everyone’s tip to be one of the six British Final qualifiers for the Wembley World Final. He was unbeaten in the competition having won the Glasgow semifinal with a maximum after topping the scorers with 45 from his three qualifying rounds at Cradley, Newcastle and the White City.

The first attempt to run the British Final was rained off and it was restaged the following week, a night when stock car racing was also being held at Newton Abbot. – more about this shortly!  The meeting was held up for over an hour following a rider strike over pay rates. After three rides Monk had seven points from three starts and was well on course for a place in the top six, the British representatives in the Wembley World Final.

Things started to go awry in his fourth outing when he developed a puncture and was beaten into third place but with eight points he was still very much in the hunt. Heat twenty featured the three rivals for the final two qualifying slots. (Ken McKinlay with nine points, Monk on eight and Jimmy Gooch on seven) All Charlie needed to do was finish ahead of Gooch. Whether he beat McKinlay or not was irrelevant. It is not known whether Charlie understood this before going out on the track, but it certainly didn’t seem that way.  Monk and McKinlay led from the tapes ahead of Gooch and diced for the lead for two laps until McKinlay, on the outside, slid into the fence. The red lights came on and Monk was excluded – a real home track decision! Speedway Star reporter, Paul Parrish, wrote, “I didn’t think Monk had anything to do with McKinlay’s fall”.

BBC Sportsview cameras were at the meeting and when Trevor Redmond saw the transmission he immediately slapped in a protest to the Control Board. Along with co promoter Ian Hoskins, Redmond travelled to London to argue the case. Hoskins relates that they sat through several showings of the film before the Speedway Control Board upheld Tigers’ appeal and ordered that heat twenty should be rerun at West Ham just four days before the Wembley final. This was a quite incredible outcome, but, from a Glasgow viewpoint, it seemed the correct one. Hoskins relates “The uproar that followed was unprecedented. The SRA and the promoters were up in arms and the Management Committee finally persuaded the Board to reverse its decision”

The verdict, had it not been overturned, would have set a dangerous precedent that umpires decisions on matters of fact could be reversed. On reflection they probably were correct. However, if Redmond hadn’t been promoting stock cars at Newton Abbot that night, he would surely have been at Custom House, and he would certainly have understood the position prior to heat twenty and advised Monk accordingly. Things could well have been quite different.

 

The British Final Aftermath

In a 1974 edition of Speedway Mail Ian Hoskins wrote “Could it be that the set back he received in 1965 when he was taken from the very brink of World acclaim at Wembley on a technicality had a lasting effect on his psyche. Could it be that he turned his broad back on greatness and deliberately settled for second best”. When I first read this comment, I immediately rejected such a notion but, thinking about it further, I can remember him being interviewed on STV’s “Scotsport” programme in 1967 ahead of the GB v Sweden test match at the White City. He was asked about his World Championship ambitions but replied quite enigmatically that ambitions changed as you got older. Make up your own mind as we look at his career after the black night at West Ham.

Obviously he was pretty drained and upset after his elimination but it didn’t show in his scoring. Rumours about him leaving Glasgow gained some credence when he didn’t show up for the Glasgow Open with it being said that he wouldn’t ride for the
Tigers again. This seems to have been a storm in a teacup which Redmond soon sorted and may have been down to a bit of burnout towards the end of the season, coupled with him being distracted by the prospect of returning home for the first time in nearly four years.

 

World Ratings

The Speedway Star published an annual World Ratings chart each winter. Correspondents from Britain, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Austria all gave their nominations for the top twenty riders in the World. Monk ended up twelfth in the list and would have been higher had he received any votes at all from the Polish writer. This certainly reflected his high standing at the time. Interestingly as late as 1967, he still figured in these ratings, finishing fifteenth and still attracted votes from Austria and Czechoslovakia.

 

Early Season Problems

After a winter in Australia dogged by machine troubles he bought an ESO there and brought it back to the UK. He nearly missed Glasgow’s opening meeting of the season in 1966 as his ship was not due to dock until a few days after the first meeting, but he flew in from Naples the day before. Not ideal preparations for the new season, particularly for one so meticulous.

His bike was still on board so he borrowed George Hunter’s new ESO. However the bike failed first time out and Charlie then had to borrow Maury Mattingly’s new ESO, winning in a time just 0.6 seconds outside the track record but it too expired in his next ride. Having blown up two borrowed bikes, there couldn’t have been a queue to lend him a mount for his final ride! The following week brought more woes for Monk. After a promising start when he scored five from his first two rides against West Ham he reared at the start and looped over, hitting his head on Ken McKinlay’s back wheel. He was carried off unconscious. While he was back for the next meeting he was plagued by machine problems in the following weeks. It is reckoned he had nine retirals in ten meetings, during which his average plummeted to an all time low of just over six. It took him till mid May to conquer the gremlins and, although over them, his World championship hopes disappeared at the semifinal stage when he crashed in his second ride at Halifax. Despite these trials and tribulations he buckled down and a look at his scores from June onward shows he was back to top form, averaging over ten points again from then on. However he had rather dropped off the radar as far as international call ups were concerned. With the Russians being faced by England, he was no longer eligible to race them but he put down a marker by scoring fifteen at the White City in Scotland’s meeting against them. He held the Silver Sash briefly, beating Olle Nygren at Glasgow but losing it in the next defence at Wolverhampton to Peter Vandenberg. Two falls in the Glasgow Open put him out of the running as the season drew to a close.

 

Back in the Old Routine

As a stark contrast to the previous season, he started off 1967 like a proverbial train! He set a blistering pace which took him to the top of the BL averages for almost the whole season, only to be pipped in the closing weeks by Barry Briggs. He didn’t manage to annex the Scottish Open Championship in Edinburgh’s opening meeting finishing runner up to Bill Landels in one of the biggest shocks in Scottish speedway. On the way to the rostrum he remarked to third placed Ivan Mauger that at least Landels had gated him while Mauger had been taken from the back by the new champion! The Golden Helmet had now been discontinued and he had no success in the Silver Sash, losing to Ray Wilson in May and being unable to race Barry Briggs in August. He was withdrawn from the meeting by the doctor who said he was suffering from exhaustion and was unfit to ride, something a southern journalist saw fit to comment on rather sarcastically, remarking that most riders would have wished to be unfit enough to beat Briggs. Hardly called for.

He was doubly unfortunate in his World Championship quest. Firstly bike trouble in his third ride in the semi final at Sheffield scuppered his hopes of a British Final place. He did however make it as reserve and, had the final not been rained off, may well have replaced Rick France who had broken his shoulder just four days earlier. With an extra week to recuperate France not only rode but qualified for the Wembley World Final as well!

On the international front, he was selected for two tests against Sweden and three against the Poles. The Swedish test at Glasgow is still remembered for partner Ron Mountford quite unaccountably ramming him when on a safe 5-1, putting him out of the meeting. No such dramas against the Poles though uncharacteristically he recorded eight bonus points in three meetings, almost as many as he clocked up in three seasons in the BL!

Now based in Wakefield with the Boococks he faced a five hundred mile round trip and it led to his transfer request for 1968.

 

Sheffield

His move to Sheffield in 1968 brought no real improvement in his fortunes, although he met his wife there so it was quite a memorable season! Another ten point season, although slightly less than the previous year at Glasgow. One GB cap, ironically in Scotland at Coatbridge where the Swedes absolutely massacred the Brits. A British Final appearance but well down the scorers list. Good but no cigar on a number of fronts. Then the big news. Guesting for Glasgow in the meeting against Red Star Prague, he let it be known he wouldn’t be averse to returning to the White City, a chink of light in a truly disastrous season for the Tigers.

 

Home Again

He got his desired move back to Glasgow for 1969 although the Tigers were moving out of their beloved White City going to the huge Hampden bowl. For Monk, it was 1968 all over again. Good but not great, and that little bit less than the previous year. Another British Final but again no real chance of progressing as both he and fellow Tiger Jim McMillan were at the lower end of the scorers list. The extent to which he was hampered by illness wasn’t known and Charlie would have been the last person to tell you about it. Although it was not readily apparent at the time, his career had now reached a tipping point. For the first time in years, he no longer topped his team’s averages, with Jim McMillan edging him out and representing Glasgow at the BLRC, but there was still the feeling among his faithful fans that a winter in the sun would see him back as good as ever.

 

Step Change

As the 70s dawned, Wembley had bought Coatbridge’s licence leaving Glasgow as the only track in Scotland. For Scottish Speedway the downward spiral had started – and so too for Monk. His average fell below 9.00 for the first time in the BL, no longer appearing in Seery’s Statistics in the Speedway Star but the real step change occurred in 1971 when he lost his heat leader status to the emerging Bobby Beaton. With his track manager role at Newcastle ending with the track’s closure, Ian Hoskins was now more involved in the Glasgow promotion, and what he saw of Monk at first hand possibly led him to  the opinion that he was settling for a quieter life. He was now less prepared to ride in the wet and along with George Hunter and Jim McMillan, was usually one of the first to advocate postponing a meeting. In one spell three meetings out of five were cancelled and fans were pretty upset by the rather cavalier attitude taken by some of the team. However Monk was unrepentant and said he would be quite prepared to ride if the referee took the roof off his box and if fans were to drive home after the meeting without a windscreen in their cars! With the weekly travel from his Yorkshire base taking its toll, it was no real surprise that he sought a move to a track with less travelling. He got his wish by joining Halifax for whom he rode for four years.

 

The Last Hurrahs

The move to the Shay probably extended his career and he generally filled the third heat leader/top second string role there. However he tended to be overlooked by the Aussie selectors during his time there. While he rode in the 1973 Daily Mirror tournament, he wasn’t selected for any of the three meetings in 1975, despite having a higher average than the likes of Titman, Humphreys and Middleton. With his time at Halifax drawing to a close, he sought a move into the National League in 1977. At the time there was a suggestion that he would reunite with former team manager Neil Macfarlane at Paisley, barely three miles from the White City, the scene of his former glories. It's not clear whether there was anything to this story, but Paisley didn't reopen and instead he joined the newly reformed Edinburgh Monarchs - that was both a surprise and a disappointment for Glasgow fans! Monk didn't really take to Powderhall and found the going considerably tougher than might have been expected.

He subsequently joined Barrow in 1978 and finished his career on a high note, topping their averages, with Glasgow fans remembering his final Glasgow appearance at Blantyre when he top scored for the Flyers with an eleven point score.

 

Track Records

Surprisingly for a rider of his dominance, he held comparatively few track records and often just briefly. He was initially the record holder at both White City and Hampden during the early weeks of their first seasons but was surpassed by Ivan Mauger and Nigel Boocock respectively. However in an amazing twenty four hours in April 1965 he captured both Scottish tracks records, at the White City and Edinburgh. While the Glasgow one only stood for a few weeks until Barry Briggs visit with Swindon, his name was on the Edinburgh one for over a year before being topped by Reidar Eide. His tenure at open licence Cowdenbeath lasted only one heat, his heat one time being bettered by Bert Harkins in the following heat in what proved to be the second last meeting in Fife. These three tracks closed with Briggs, Eide and Harkins times still on the books, so, while he was that close to an immortal hat trick, his name is lost forever.

 

The Ultimate Enigma

He really was the ultimate enigma, promising so much but ultimately achieving comparatively little, topping the league averages but not showing the same form in “big” meetings. His numerous appearances in BLRCs and British Finals rarely saw scores of more than five. Despite this, he would be a ready candidate for the list of “Best riders never to have reached a World final” but, after his sensational Internationale win in 1965, he never won an individual title of note - Scottish Open, Glasgow Open, Australian title etc, the little known Shaytona at Halifax being his only trophy success. Its hard to believe how he was a contemporary of Ivan Mauger in the mid 60s and just how far their careers diverged.

To this day he is still revered in Glasgow despite twice leaving the team in its time of need – in 1968 when he got a transfer, the club nearly folded, while his departure in 1973 marked the clubs last season in the First Division – although both these years may be just under score just how important he was to the Tigers during his time in Glasgow. Tigers fans colloquially refer to an area of Ashfield’s back straight as the Charlie Monk Stand, showing that he certainly hasn’t been forgotten. Fittingly he was an early inductee to the Glasgow Hall of Fame and when I think of him I still make the same wish “If only the 1965 British Final hadn’t been rained off. If only….”