With pantomime season fast approaching Doug Nicolson looks at nights of drama from years ago north of the border in

 

Scottish drama

The Shawcross report said speedway was both a sport and a business. Perhaps he should also have added “theatre” to this list as there have been a number of dramas and farces over the years in Scotland.

 

The Empire strikes back

The second house on a Friday night at the Glasgow Empire theatre was generally regarded as the hardest “gig” in Britain. It was said it was the theatre that comics came to “die”. It closed in 1963 and possibly a goodly part of that crowd moved on to The White City the following year to continue their ritual humiliation of English visitors.

 

Short lived White City boos

Generally, the Paisley Road West crowd was pretty docile and sporting. They weren’t given to jeering guys like Ivor Brown, Ivan Mauger or Clive Featherby who often got a “hot” reception elsewhere on their travels. However, the fans were growling on the ill-tempered night that Oxford came to town. Without a team a manager, the Cheetahs threatened to walk out of the meeting when a decision didn’t please them. In fact heat two was decreed null and void, only for them to later relent and for it to be rerun after heat four. During the “discussions”, a number of the crowd moved down to the pits area to offer their advice.

Another to get the “bird” from the crowd was West Ham’s Sverre Harrfeldt, who ended up the sole finisher in the heat that ended Tigers KO Cup hopes in 1965. He just trundled around on the last lap and, as he came round the final bend, he slowed completely and using both hands to remove his goggles. He finished in a time of 97.8 seconds to a chorus of boos from the White City faithful. Cries for his exclusion for not making a bona fide attempt to race fell on deaf ears.

Coventry’s Ron Mountford greatly upset Tigers fans, despite the fact he was Charlie Monk’s partner for the GB v Sweden test. Set for a sure 5-1, he went hurtling into the third bend at an amazing speed – amazing that he thought he could get round the bend at that speed - and rammed Monk midships and skittled him towards the fence. Monk was badly shaken and his bike more so. He was out for the night. Mountford was roundly booed for the rest of meeting, and later claimed that his foot slipped off his footrest.

White City was the place for theatrical protests with the referees box a glass fronted enclosure high in the centre stand. Alf Wells and team manager Neil Macfarlane were adept at playing to the gallery, usually after a disputed tapes infringement. Gesticulating wildly after a perceived injustice they marched out from the pits and along the track to the tapes, with the crowd lending their support, chanting Alf-ie! Alf-ie! On reaching the tapes, they disappeared into the stand exit passageway, only to reappear up in the centre stand. The pair ripped open the door to the referees box but made a point of closing it too, possibly to ensure that no one heard that their protests didn’t exactly match their gestures. All good theatre and usually unsuccessful but entertaining none the less.

 

Oh no you’re not!

Glasgow’s visits to Sheffield in 1964 seem to have been the stuff of pantomime. Neither   Charlie Monk nor Bruce Ovenden had arrived by the start time for their first visit in the Northern League, both having broken down separately en route. The meeting was held up for over thirty minutes while bikes and leathers were borrowed from Sheffield juniors.

The indefatigable Bruce Ovenden had managed to hire a replacement car and pulled out the back seat to take the bikes. He arrived after heat seven by which time Tigers were 35–7 down. A still furious Frank Varey wouldn’t let him ride. Boo!

Things were considerably different for the Provincial league meeting. Glasgow trailled by two points as Chris Julian and Terry Stone lined up against Featherby and Alan Jay in heat eleven, which saw Jay fall after a very tight first bend. The race was stopped, and the riders were returning to the pits before it was announced that Terry Stone had been excluded. Jay then attacked Stone at the pits gate and a melee erupted as riders and mechanics joined in the fracas, which required police intervention before order was restored. Trevor Redmond was to be seen standing on a box shouting to Sheffield fans that Glasgow were the top Tigers. Oh no you’re not! All good stuff, though the meeting nearly ended in tragedy in the second half when Chris Julian lost control and hurtled into the fence sustaining a fractured skull and a broken arm. His condition was initially described as “critical” but thankfully he quickly improved.

 

Fee- fi- fo fum we want the blood of an Englishman.

Ray Wilson’s visits to Scotland were rarely dull. His first, while still a teenager, was probably a foretaste of what was to come. Riding for Long Eaton at Edinburgh in the old Provincial League, he went diving into a gap that a few thousand Scotsmen would tell you just wasn’t there, and Willie Templeton ended up in a heap. However he was soon on his feet and was quickly putting young master Wilson right as to what had happened. Brother Doug was quickly on the scene too and was waving a fist under Ray’s chin. Ian Hoskins said that Wilson was going to one of two places, either the top of the speedway pile or to hospital! Ray had certainly got a name for himself north of the border. A few years later - after having been in hospital - he showed he was destined for the top by scoring sixteen points for England as they hammered Scotland in the last ever test match at Old Meadowbank.

Edinburgh moved to Coatbridge, but the drama continued there. First, Ray was the only Leicester Lion to arrive for their league meeting, with the rest of the team held up by truly horrendous traffic jams on the motorway north. When Leicester did make it back for the BL fixture, they were on second in a double header that also featured Exeter. This meeting took nearly all night and finished with a controversial Silver Sash match race between Wilson and Eide. At the first attempt, Wilson got a flyer and left Eide at the gate, claiming an unsatisfactory start. The referee agreed and put on the red lights, but Wilson carried on regardless, waving aside the starting marshal brandishing a red flag. In the rerun, Wilson’s bike failed and Eide sportingly pulled up to have a rerun. With the hour getting decidedly late, not everyone was pleased by this. At the third time of asking, Eide made the gate and annexed the sash…and we all got home to bed.      After a couple of almost mundane visits to Hampden, he returned to Glasgow for the Nordic British Final and “that race”. In the excellent “World Cup Willy” DVD, Ray recalls the incident with a nostalgic smile. He reckons it had a real England versus Scotland flavour to it, and that “some of the local people perceived that I was going a bit quick” and gave him a fair bit of stick, when he clattered into Bert Harkins. This was another night when he had to “keep his head down going out of the stadium”. However Ray remembers that “there was no malice, and it wasn’t serious” and he would go up later and “enjoy racing and be appreciated” and that’s how it should be.

KO Cup heroes and villains

Edinburgh’s KO Cup tie at Cradley in 1964 was best described as “tousy” with a number of incidents and doubtful refereeing decisions. Coming out for the last heat, Monarchs needed a 5-0 to win the tie, and, tracking the Templeton brothers, apparently went for it. Willie Templeton was slow from the gate, allowing brother Doug to take the two home riders out. Both fell and Doug was excluded as pandemonium ensued. Another wild night at Dudley Wood.

 

 Yogi but not bear

The Tigers had made good progress in the 1953 National Trophy, and after four rounds had drawn Birmingham, the powerful First Division side in the quarter finals. The Brummies ran up a huge 70-38 win at Perry Barr, leaving Hoskins with a virtually “dead” second leg. This would be staged just days before the Glasgow Fair holidays, traditionally a poor crowd night. However, always a showman, he secured the services on an Egyptian “yogi” who it was said would “will” the Tigers to victory. This got extensive press coverage and a larger crowd than could otherwise have been expected showed up to see the fun. The yogi lay on a bed of nails and had a concrete slab placed on him which a Tiger subsequently broke with a sledgehammer. All good stuff! May be the yogi did influence the outcome as Tigers won 56-52, although this may be more due to the Brummies tracking their reserves in the final race.

 

Coatbridge farces

Starts at Coatbridge were often criticised by visitors, but the Northern Riders round in August plumbed new depths with no fewer than ten tapes exclusions, nine for Monarchs riders. Hunter with three and Eide and Harkins with two each topped this particular chart. Not a great night at all. The meeting reporter said it was a night “when either the referee or the starting gate mechanism was intent on setting up an alltime record for tape breaking” You choose, both were frequently blamed.

The Scotland v Norway international is still remembered to this day for the referee starting the first heat after the interval while the pipe band were leaving the track. Pipers and drummers had to scramble over the fence to safety that night, and we found out what a Scotsman wears, or doesn’t wear, under his kilt. All the fun of a Brian Rix farce.

 

Not exactly Abbott and Costello

While Ian Hoskins and Trevor Redmond could be relied upon to play off each other, the same could not be said of the Ian Hoskins – Les Whaley duo. Indeed it is questionable if they really were a duo.

The second leg of the Scottish Cup at Coatbridge saw the Monarchs run out 45-33 victors, taking the cup by a single point on aggregate with both Tigers supporters and riders fuming. Indeed the Tigers riders were all for pulling out of the second half in protest, but saner counsel prevailed. They made their point by adopting the Monarchs tactics and took a clean sweep in the final, finishing in formation. Les Whaley would write in the following week’s programme “I have protested at every meeting (with the Monarchs) at the tactics employed and tolerated by officialdom, but it would seem that the matches are not being held on equal terms…...These meetings must be excluded from future fixture lists…….Tigers have no wish to ride against the Monarchs except in statutory league meetings”

All strong stuff. So what was Les Whaley complaining about? The inside line at Coatbridge was nothing more than a sawdust trail and the second bend was a favourite spot for the homesters to cut inside the line to pass opponents. Doug Templeton and Brian Collins were particularly adept at this manoeuvre. The starting gate was notorious for malfunctioning although it seemed to function ok if there was only one tape strung to it. The home riders took advantage of this by putting their front wheels under the single strand. The starting marshal didn’t seem to see anything wrong with this. However the obvious question of why Glasgow riders didn’t adopt this approach in the meeting was never asked!

Was Whaley right to make such a stand? Probably not, as a fair bit of controversy never went amiss and added to the atmosphere. As it turned out, it was a bit academic as the Monarchs wouldn’t be about to contest any challenge matches with the Tigers over the next seven years as their licence was sold to Wembley.

 

 

Reidar Eide boo! boo!

Reidar Eide defeated Charlie Monk in the Scottish Match Race Championship at Hampden in June 1969 and rounded off his night by winning the second half trophy final. While neither heat win was greatly appreciated by the Glasgow faithful, it was his attitude to both promoter Whaley and the public that drew the most comment, with Whaley describing his conduct as “inexcusable”. While thumbing his nose to grandstand patrons was hardly crime of the century, Hoskins subsequently made an apology saying Eide’s conduct was mischievous rather than malicious.

By the end of the season Eide was “public enemy number one” and was included in the

Tigers’ final home meeting, the Scottish Western Championship. Ivan Mauger won from Nigel Boocock, with Arnold Haley, Ole Olsen and Eide all tied for third. In the runoff, Olsen pulled up early on, while Eide had a huge lead over Haley who was now trundling round. Going down the back straight on the last lap Eide slowed and looked back and waved to Haley, seemingly inviting him to catch up and make a race of it - a truly pointless and graceless gesture. Eide eventually finished in a time of 85.4 seconds, probably the slowest race win ever at Hampden. Predictably, the crowd gave him the bird as he cruised over the finishing line. Tigers team manager Neil McFarlane got on the phone to the referee and persuaded him to exclude Eide – presumably for either looking back or for ungentlemanly conduct.

 

The show must go on.

The star has gone sick, call for the understudy.  Coatbridge’s home meeting with Belle Vue needed all the understudies that Ian Hoskins could lay his hands on. Aces Cyril Maidment and Soren Sjosten had broken down and had phoned to say that, although the replacement van had now arrived, they weren’t going to get to Coatbridge before 9.00! It was obvious the crowd wouldn’t wait that long. The show must go on. Hoskins moved Doug Templeton and Bernie Persson into the “Belle Vue” team and replaced them with Jimmy Tannock and Lex Milloy and the hurriedly arranged challenge meeting proved to be good entertainment.

However, just a week later, Hoskins ingenuity and the fans patience was tested to the limit. Leicester Lions were the visitors and this time only one of their riders, Ray Wilson, made it to Coatbridge. The other six Lions were on a coach stuck in a traffic jam at Penrith, where there were extensive road works. Fortunately Glasgow’s Jim McMillan, Oyvind Berg and Bobby Beaton had come along to spectate, and all were pressed into service. Berg managed to return home and get his own equipment, while McMillan borrowed leathers and rode on an assortment of loaned bikes. Again a meeting was magicked up. Hoskins must have been relieved to know that the next week’s visitors, Hackney Hawks, were scheduled to ride in Glasgow on the night before their Coatbridge fixture.

 

Stop your tickling Jack

Harry Lauder was reputedly the highest paid entertainer in the World before World War 1. Some of his songs are “standards” even to this day but others like “Stop Your Tickling Jock” are very much of their time and are cringeworthy today. He went into semi-retirement in the mid-1930s and apparently took an active interest in speedway. He was a guest at a meeting at Glasgow’s White City in 1938 when Americans Wilbur Lamoreaux and Jack and Cordy Milne were riding. He was asked to present the trophy to Jack Milne, and ever the showman, took the microphone saying “I have had the pleasure of sitting next his father in the stand and do you know his father comes from Aberdeen. So Jack, you’re no (sic) an American, you’re a Scot”. No doubt this was the inspiration for Ian Hoskins to claim a few star riders were Scottish. Charlie Monk springs to mind.