When the Heathens were rain gods

When Cradley Heath visited Glasgow’s White City in 1966, a local bible class came along to study “Heathens” at first hand, as good a reason for coming as any I suppose. With fans in the stadium, a heavy shower just before seven o’clock ruled out any prospect of racing. While we were waiting for the meeting to be officially called off, the bible class were invited to the centre green to give a Tigers war cry. Looking back it would seem that the Heathens had held a rain dance in the pits, given the hex that seemed to attach to further attempts to run this fixture. A restaging was rearranged for the end of July, traditionally the local Glasgow Fair fortnight holiday, when, as locals would tell you, it always rains.  And it did - another rain off. Not only did the Cradley team have the misfortune to drive all the way to Glasgow for no useful purpose but on the way home team manager, Ted Flanaghan was involved in an accident when a minivan went out of control and managed to hit no fewer than five other vehicles, including his.

The Heathens returned to Scotland again in mid August, but this time to Edinburgh, in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival, when, as locals will tell you, it always rains. And it did -  another wasted journey but fortunately a safe journey home this time. The following week’s Scottish Cup tie was abandoned after five heats, so may be the locals were right.

 The Glasgow v Belle Vue programme in early September carried the standard advert for the next meeting, billing Cradley as “the team that has made a record three visits to Scotland without turning a wheel” – tempting fate? Unsurprisingly it rained all day. The meeting was called off at 6pm and both teams headed off early to Cradley for the away fixture.

Glasgow’s final meeting of the season was the fourth attempt to race the Heathens that year, and, with a firework display planned, it was no surprise that again it poured all day. However both sides were determined to give it a go, perhaps because it was now apparent that there could be no further attempts to restage this meeting.Riders were slipping and falling all over the place and times were in the high eighties. Tigers built up a comfortable lead on a night when no one was taking any rash chances. Any prospect of getting through all the thirteen heats ended when there was an almost tropical downpour during last lap of heat eleven. The time was charitably given as ninety seconds but it was possibly more and no one disagreed with the decision to abandon the meeting. Nor was there any disagreement about Tigers being declared he winners, despite the 36-29 scoreline meaning it was still theoretically possible for Cradley to run out 39-38 winners and despite the precedent of the previous year when Halifax secured a rematch after a heat nine abandonment. Cradley travelled over to Edinburgh the next night and, on a better night weatherwise, lost 49-29. However the Cradley v Edinburgh fixture the following week was rained off …again. This meeting was never restaged, as the Dudley Wood stadium was closed for extensive refurbishments, including the installation of new drainage!