The Golden Helmet

The Golden Helmet was introduced in 1931 but was abandoned as a mark of respect when Tom Farndon was killed in August 1935. It was revived when speedway was restarted in 1946 after the war, retaining the previous format – the best of three legs, each being the best of three races. The first two legs were run at the holder’s and the challenger’s home track, with the decider taking place at a neutral venue, should it be required. The event, known as the “British Match Race Competition” was sponsored by the Sunday Pictorial, who paid a pension of Seven pounds a week to the holder. With the challengers exclusively from the First Division, there was never any possibility of the event being staged in the provinces and for years it rotated about the London – Midlands – Manchester axis, broken only the advent of Ove Fundin at Norwich and also the south coast pair of Brian Crutcher and Bjorn Knutsson at Poole and Southampton respectively.

Famously, it made headlines in the 50s when Split Waterman was summoned to a disciplinary hearing after walking out of his match race against Jack Young at West Ham. The first race had been stopped after both collided and, going back to the tapes for what he thought was a rerun – they were being ushered into the same gate positions used previously – was told that he had been excluded from the first heat and that this was the second race. In the ensuing chaos, Waterman pulled out of the meeting. Fans were incensed by his treatment and turned up at the hearing in Pall Mall with “Fair Play for Split” placards. All good stuff, which the press lapped up.

The Last Year of the NL

In 1964 holder Ove Fundin beat off challenges from West Ham’s Bjorn Knutsson, Coventry’s Nigel Boocock and Oxford’s Ron How, before losing his title to Barry Briggs of Swindon as the season wound down. Holding the title obviously meant a lot to Fundin and he said that, had he retained it against Briggs, it would have been an influence when he was contemplating retirement at the end of that season. However it was not to be. There were only four challenges that season, not great given that they were spread over six months. Certainly there were the added complications of the tests with Russia and the tour by Swedish side Vargarna but it still seems that there was a lack of urgency over some stagings. The event seemed to attract more than its share of rain offs and only the August challenge of Ron How was run in a timely fashion, despite it going to a decider which itself had to be postponed a week after a rain off. From the scanty records available, it looks likely that neither Wimbledon nor Belle Vue fans saw any of the action.

The BL Format

With the NL and PL merging in 1965, the promoters took the momentous decision that the helmet would be contested at neutral venues only. This may have been made in a spirit of sharing the event around all the member tracks, which was theoretically possible – though unlikely in practice - with six monthly challenges over three legs, should each require a deciding leg. Equally it may have been an attempt to make it easier to arrange dates once the most suitable challenger had been decided, rather than looking at what potential challengers could be fitted into the available dates. The downside of the new plan was that it was now more likely that neither rider was likely to be involved in the fixture being staged that night. At least that’s how it worked out in the early months. Certainly riders could potentially have a maximum five races – three in the helmet and two in the second half – but if he had a bad night it might only be three!  And some were being asked to travel huge distances to take part. As we will see, it was only in the closing months of the season, following rider unrest, that attempts were made to reduce this. From the fans point of view, it was no longer possible to see your favourite at home and again some lengthy journeys would be required to support your own star, hardly stimulating supporter interest in the competition.

The First Challenge

The first challenger in May was Glasgow’s Charlie Monk, who had taken the BL by storm in the opening weeks. He can’t have been overjoyed at having to traipse the length of the country down to Poole for the first leg, with the second leg being at Sheffield the following night, before both riders headed to Glasgow for a league meeting– an ideal fixture had the old scheduling rules of racing at both riders’ tracks been retained!  Briggo, having a far shorter trip from his Southampton base and brought an impressive array of equipment to the first leg – two ESOs, one JAP, numerous spare wheels and other parts. Sadly he seemed to have problems with his entire range!

Going round to the tapes for the first race, his ESO started to play up and he returned to the pits, signaling for his second ESO to be brought out. He made a good start aboard the replacement bike but the engine blew while in the lead. Monk sportingly pulled up, feeling he didn’t want to win in these circumstances. Chaos reigned, with the referee ultimately ruling a “no race”! Briggo wanted to concede the leg there and then but Monk was having none of it, saying that if that was the case, he wouldn’t go to Sheffield the following night. Eventually the long suffering patrons of Poole were treated to some racing with Monk beating a struggling Briggs in the first heat by some distance. Briggs had no better fortunes on his JAP in the second heat. However Briggs’ mechanical woes were largely righted for the second leg at Sheffield, when he won by two nil. The deciding leg at West Ham brought some great racing as Briggs retained the Helmet with another 2-0 performance.

June and July

The June challenge was relatively straight forward with Briggs beating West Ham’s McKinlay 2-0 in the legs at Wolverhampton and Newport, neither posing huge travelling problems. Interestingly, had a deciding leg been required, it would have been at Coventry when Swindon were the visitors. Brandon, being McKinlay’s home track for a number of years prior to him joining the Hammers at the start of the season. George Hunter’s selection for the July challenge was more noteworthy. He was controversially dropped from the GB team for the test match against Russia at Sheffield as home promoter Frank Varey wanted a local rider in the team. At the time this was being discussed, Hunter was announced as the July challenger, with some feeling the two decisions were not a coincidence. In fairness, Hunter had been high in the scoring charts, although the figures in these days were calculated using a simple average  - points divided by meetings, taking no cognisance of the number of rides. With his Edinburgh side toiling, he probably had a higher number of tactical rides than others in the Top Ten. The choice of venues was problematic too. Briggs had a one off trip up to Newcastle for a Monday meeting for the first leg, which he won 2-0. Hunter had a similar distance down to the second leg at Hackney when Glasgow were due to be the visitors. There was no possibility that Hunter could share the trip with fellow Scots as Tigers had a meeting at Kings Lynn the following night. Hunter would be required to drive back to Edinburgh overnight to face West Ham in a league meeting. If he was less than taken with this prospect, think how he felt when both meetings were rained off! The second leg took place at Oxford, which fitted in well for Hunter as it was sandwiched between the Monarchs fixtures at Poole and Newport, but that’s where the good news ended, with Briggs again triumphing 2-0 to retain the titfer.

August Aggro

Unusually, the Speedway Star didn’t carry details of the venues and challenger for the August runs. The first mention was a report after the event saying “Commonsense prevailed and so saved the British Match Race Championship first leg clash at Glasgow last Friday. The Management Committee and the riders, Barry Briggs and Nigel Boocock, are tackling the problem of payment for this event in a sensible way. The management committee made it quite clear however that they were not going to negotiate with the riders while under pressure”. The first leg was to be staged ahead of the Glasgow KO Cup tie with Swindon, so Briggo could have had little complaint about the arrangement, being in line for eight or nine rides that night – not a bad little earner in anyone’s books! However things were different for Boocock. With KO Cup ties being run over sixteen heats, the second half was reduced. Indeed it is not certain he was actually being guaranteed a second half ride! The second half of Glasgow’s previous cup tie was just two heats, a top scorers race for each team. So Boocock might have been required to travel north for just two guaranteed starts. Alternatively if he was guaranteed a second half ride, then someone, presumably a visitor, was going to lose out. No doubt the SRA had something to say about this. As it turned out, the second half was revamped, featuring three heats, with the fastest time being declared the winner, and Boocock got a second half ride. After a long wait after his Helmet races, he finished third in his second half ride, behind Bluey Scott and Mike Broadbank.

While the riders case seems self evident, staging the event probably wasn’t a great deal for home promoter Redmond. Swindon’s visit in May for the league match had brought one of the biggest crowds of the season to the White City and a repeat was expected for the cup tie. Monk – Briggs clashes were certainly big box office! However it seemed unlikely that the addition of the Golden Helmet races would significantly add to the crowd numbers. For the first time that season the leg was run over three races, with Briggs winning 2-1. Just a coincidence? Possibly not, as Briggs was also taken to a third race at Hackney in the second leg. Some form of peace had been brokered but the helmet fixtures were now being scrutinized and questioned as never before.

Exeter Deciders, Or May Be Not!

In fairness to the Management Committee, it looks like they had put some thought into the last two challenges of the year. Certainly the first two September venues – Wimbledon and Coventry - seemed like excellent choices with both Briggs and challenger Sverre Harrfeldt having bookings at The Laurels and the Brandonapolis events being staged there.Briggs blanked Harrfeldt  2-0 in London and went on to take the Laurels title with a fifteen point maximum, while Harrfeldt tied for third with Olle Nygren and Nigel Boocock.  While at Brandon, Harrfeldt had the consolation of taking a heat win as his challenge sank following a 2-1 defeat. Neither rider annexed the Brandonapolis trophy, with Briggs tying for third with Arne Pander and Harrfeldt finishing down the field .`

Exeter had been penciled in as the venue for a possible decider. This may not have been hugely popular, but it did show a commitment to spreading the event around all BL tracks.

For October, Halifax followed the trend by booking both Briggs and Olle Nygren for their Champions Individual event ahead of the first leg. It was a bit of a tour for the pair of them, as they were also scheduled to ride at Glasgow the next night in their Glasgow Open Championship before heading over to Edinburgh for the second leg of the helmet at Edinburgh’s league match, and final meeting of the season, against Briggs’ Swindon.  As it turned out, the Halifax meeting was rained off, and, rather than going to Exeter on the night of their KO Cup Final against West Ham, the pair returned to the Shay a week later. The Falcons management, like Glasgow before them, may well have concluded that the Helmet was unlikely to add further crowd appeal to a national KO Cup final  Briggs was again successful winning at both Edinburgh and Halifax, meaning that no third leg was necessary, and finished the year as holder.

1966 The Best of One!

After all the problems of the 1965 challenges, it was probably no surprise that the BSPA decided to limit the monthly challenges to just one leg. Without actually mentioning it, they quietly reverted to the earlier model of centralizing the event around London and the Midlands, the furthest north being Sheffield, with Poole being the most southerly. For Briggs, it was a season of triumph, seeing off the challenges of Nigel Boocock, Gote Nordin, Arne Pander, Mike Broadbank, Ivan Mauger and Sverre Harrfeldt. Pleasingly he met team mate Mike Broadbank at Blunsdon, allowing the Swindon fans to finally see the action at their home track, and what a night it was too with Broadie winning the first heat before Briggo took the next two.

Disappointingly there seemed a preoccupation with the ‘old guard” when it came to selecting challengers, with rising star Eric Boocock being overlooked and Ivan Mauger needing to become European champion before getting the nod. Mauger certainly gave it a good go at Sheffield, winning the first race and was winning the second race until a ‘do or die” last bend by Briggs saw him gain the verdict in a blanket finish. Many present were convinced Mauger had just held on to win. Briggs made the most of this reprieve, winning the decider almost comfortably. He ended the season as the holder, and in a lot of ways was “the last of the Mohicans”!

Not Quite the End

It was probably no surprise that the Golden Helmet was discontinued in 1967, with the Silver Sash being retained as the only match race competition. While there were extensive reports of the lengthy promoters conferences, there was practically nothing about the demise of the Helmet. It certainly was done on the quiet. The Silver Sash’s holder had to defend his title against the opponents’ top scorer following every league meeting. Run over a single race and having no fixturing issues, it was a far more elegant and efficiently run trophy. In 1970 the Golden Helmet replaced the Sash in name only, being the trophy for this one off match race. However, in 1974 the traditional monthly challenge was reinstated. This lasted for ten years before the competition swung back to the one off model after every league meeting for a couple of seasons. Thereafter match races were abandoned completely, and other than a brief revival between 1997 and 1999, they have never been staged since, another piece of speedway heritage disappearing in the name of progress and economy.