Twas Fifty Years Ago
Ettienne Oliviere
Robin Adlington had spent the winter of 1972/73 riding in Rhodesia and was accompanied back to Britain by Ettienne Oliviere, a young South African, a nationality that was not permitted to ride in the Second Division. Neil MacFarlane signed him for the Tigers but his registration forms were saying that it was not possible to register a South African rider but there seemed to be little problem in him riding in our second half races. At least no action was taken to stop him.
In July most Division One tracks were allocated a fixture in the Daily Mirror International Tournament - in fact some lucky ones got two Cradley, Leicester and Halifax - but none were scheduled for Coatbridge. The BSPA felt that a shared event in Scotland would run at a loss and maybe there were right as no Tigers riders were likely to be involved. However to fill the blank week in their fixture list the Tigers rode against a Bert Harkins Globetrotters side which included Ettienne. Then it all kicked off. Harkins and the Glasgow promotion received letters from the Control Boardasking why this foreigner had been allowed to ride without a work permit. Tigers were also informed that he was not to ride in any second half races. It is thought that a certain “J. Smith” appeared in some second halves thereafter, although this may be another speedway myth! A petition, demanding that he be allowed to ride, was organised by Joyce and Ronnie Young, two Tigers supporters, and collected over 1000 signatures. This was sent to the SCB and provoked a rather “snotty” reply from Rowena Blackbird, secretary of the BSPA, which Coatbridge were obliged to print in their programme. However it had brought the matter to the attention of a wide audience, and after talks between the SCB, the BSPA and the SRA, Ettienne’s registration was accepted. He never actually rode in Tigers colours although he did ride in the Scottish Open before going home for the winter Sadly he never returned.
Kiss of Death for Newtongrange
The programme for the Edinburgh (Newtongrange) v Barrow meeting at the end of June 1973 said that the track would be closed for July, taking account of the local holidays. (Edinburgh “Trades”, the first two weeks in July, and the Glasgow Fair, the last two weeks in July). It went on to say that further fixtures would be announced in the press – unsurprisingly, they weren’t and no further meetings were staged at Newtongrange.
It was obvious to the Coatbridge promotion that they could not rely on English riders being prepared to come north. They decided that they would have to train up their own riders. With this in mind they sought to run Division Two challenge matches to give their junior riders more experience. With Jim Wallace on the board, they decided to reopen Newtongrange. Jim’s farm at Gorebridge was the proverbial stones throw from Victoria Park.
This was a brave, some would say fool hardy, move. The team would be known as “Edinburgh Monarchs” and would be captained by Doug Templeton. It was hoped that this would attract more fans from Edinburgh than had attended the last attempt at staging the sport at “Nitten” The venture got off to the worst possible start when the opening meeting against Teesside on 30th May was rained off. The fact that a number of fans got booked for parking outside the stadium that night didn’t help either!
The timing of the second meeting wasn’t great either as a “Young Scotland” v “Young England” test match was staged at Berwick the previous night. Travelling fans probably felt it was a more attractive fixture than the Edinburgh v Birmingham meeting. Certainly the turnout at Newtongrange was pretty disappointing.
However, crowds were even less for the following three meetings against Sunderland, Workington and Barrow, all of which were lost. Crowds still were not prepared to come out of town for their speedway
30/5/73 Edinburgh V Teesside Rained Off
6/6/73 Edinburgh V Birmingham 38-40
13/6/73 Edinburgh V Sunderland 37-41
20/6/73 Edinburgh V Workington 36-42
27/6/73 Edinburgh V Barrow 36-42
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