When the Shawcross Enquiry findings were finally announced in December 1964, it was apparent that some form of equalisation of teams strengths would be necessary. The Speedway Star reported that “The promoters will endeavour to level team strengths themselves but many teams will lose stars to help the needy”, a bit patronising but the thought was there. Journalist Eric Linden later wrote an article that reflected the commonly held view that a radical exercise was both required and expected. It was an excellent piece of journalism and he advocated sending a National League heat leader to most Provincial League tracks, the most notable examples being Olle Nygren to Glasgow, Ron How to Long Eaton and Nigel Boocock to Sheffield. He also listed Provincial League heat leaders to move in the other direction – Peter Kelly from Newcastle to Belle Vue, John Poyser from Hackney to Oxford and Roy Trigg from Hackney to Wimbledon. In many respects the allocation should have rivalled the exercise undertaken prior to the start of the 1946 season when league racing was resuming after the war and team strengths were being sorted out. That process was far ranging and a once and for all event. Sadly it didn’t really happen in 1965

The Background

The newly constituted British League would be made up of eighteen teams, the twelve from the PL , with Halifax replacing Middlesbrough and six from the NL, Norwich having closed. Commuting foreigners were banned, meaning Fundin, Sjosten, Knutson, Nordin and Jansson would all be missing. However Nygren, Pander and Harrfeldt would continue to ride in Britain.

As a rough guide Belle Vue, now without Sjosten, would be used as the benchmark. This seemed a reasonable starting point as the Aces had finished mid table in the seven team NL, but obviously rather subjective judgement was going to be involved as the sport at this time paid little attention to averages. Those that were published simply divided the points scored by the number of matches ridden, no account being taken of bonus points, nor of tactical substitute rides. In any case, no formula was known for converting averages between the two leagues. It was also argued that NL reserve riders, who had the benefit of starting off the front gate, would have inflated figures. Eric Linden’s suggestion of each PL track being given a NL heatleader certainly seemed a worthwhile starting point

The promoters conference at Poole in mid January set the following guideline that ”there will be as little chopping and changing of team strengths as possible”. For reasons that were never explained, the NL conducted their own equalisation process, with the expectation of the PL doing likewise. There seemed no logic in having two sections that were balanced internally but not with each other. This strange decision would be at the root of just about all future gripes about equalisation and it is hard not to conclude that some were more equal than others! All NL teams could “protect” five riders with the remainder going into the “pool” for subsequent allocation.

What Happened With the Nationals?

Belle Vue being the “standard” would be untouched after losing Sjosten, although they did manage to sign Sandor Levai to replace Bill Powell. Swindon sadly would be without Tad Teodorowicz who had passed away after being in a coma for over four months following a crash at West Ham, and with Brian Brett retiring didn’t need to destrengthen.

Norwich had closed and their riders would require new homes anyway. Surely they should have been the first to go to Provincial League tracks. However it didn’t happen that way. Olle Nygren and Trevor Hedge, both based in Norfolk, were keen to ride for a London track. Billy Bales had announced he was retiring and Sandor Levai was off to Belle Vue.

Oxford opted to keep their heatleader trio of Ron How, Arne Pander and Jimmy Gooch intact, while releasing Jack Geran, Colin Goody and Ronnie Genz to the “pool” for onward allocation. The release of the latter after his brief dalliance with Exeter was always on the cards but it was Geran, an Exeter resident, who linked up with the Falcons while “Genno” joined Poole. Goody was initially allocated to Long Eaton but was resisting this, when Geran decided to retire and was replaced at the County Ground by Goody. With the promising Eddie Reeves and John Bishop making up their numbers, the Cheetahs had a strong looking top five.

Coventry played the cautious game you would expect of Charles Ochiltree. Leicester based Ken McKinlay was released but was immediately signed by West Ham, in whom his promoting company also had an interest. Coventry also released veterans Bryan Elliott and Jack Biggs, who had spent the season contesting the reserve berth along with Les Owen and Col Cottrell. This was obviously a move for the future as Elliott was expected to return to Australia permanently at some point while Biggs was described as having “the steam virtually gone from his racing”. However he was to make a mockery of this assertion in the first years of the British League. The Bees also hoped to retain Owen, despite already having five protected riders (Boocock, Lightfoot, Mountford, France, Cottrell)

Wimbledon would be losing Gote Nordin, Bob Andrews and Leo McAuliffe, the latter retiring. After the comings and goings of the previous year, it was no surprise that relations with Bob Andrews had long since passed breaking point, nor that he was heading for Mike Parker’s Wolverhampton. Olle Nygren and Trevor Hedge were signed from Norwich to plug two of these gaps. With Sverre Harrfeldt, Gerry Jackson and Jim Tebby all on the books, the Dons looked too strong and a deal was done which sent Harrfeldt to neighbours West Ham in return for Reg Luckhurst. Even then the Dons looked really powerful – more about this later!

West Ham would be without Swedes Bjorn Knutsson and Bengt Jansson and were also losing Ray Cresp, who went to Long Eaton. Possibly Trevor Redmond claimed him as an asset from the 1963 season and then arranged a swap which took Bluey Scott to Glasgow in exchange. The Hammers retained the promising trio of Norman Hunter, Malc Simmons and Bob Dugard and received Ken McKinlay and Sverre Harrfeldt as outlined above. They too looked really strong.

 

What Happened with the Provincials

Cradley gained Chris Julians and released John Edwards

Edinburgh lost Willie Templeton to Glasgow but signed Colin McKee and Norwegian

Henry Harrfeldt the younger brother of Sverre.

Exeter initially gained Jack Geran, but, when he decided to retire, got former Oxford team mate Colin Goody in his place

Glasgow swapped the retired Trevor Redmond and Chris Julians for Bluey Scott and Willie Templeton and added Norwegian Nils Paulsen

Hackney started the season with the side that finished second in the Provincial League, but had hopes of signing Gerry Jackson

Halifax replaced Middlesboro and pulled off a masterstroke by persuading Eric Boothroyd come out of retirement to sign for his home town team. Brian Elliott was enlisted from Coventry

Long Eaton swapped Bluey Scott for Ray Cresp and signed Peter Moore who had returned from Australia to replace Eric Boothroyd.

Newcastle, the Provincial league champions, had persuaded Brian Craven to return to ride for them to replace Bill Andrews. There were rumours of them trying to tempt Brian Brett out of retirement.

Newport added Jack Biggs to their side.

Poole had gained Bill Andrews to replace Chum Taylor who had returned to Australia, and gained Ronnie Genz from the “pool”

Sheffield hadn’t signed anyone but were interested in persuading Billy Bales to join them.

Wolverhampton had signed Bob Andrews and released Colin McKee to Edinburgh.

The PL teams may or may not have been equal, but, even with an additional rider, few were expected to challenge the top heavy Nationals.

 

And then the season started.

The season started with a lot of teams in a state of flux. Decisions and comparisons that had been avoided were now coming home to roost. The former NL teams were tracking inexperienced and in some cases unheard of juniors to make up their numbers. There were some startling results during April, notably Glasgow’s 56-22 humbling of Coventry. Many thought the result had simply been transposed. Poole won 44-34 at Oxford, although this was directly attributable to Jimmy Gooch still being en route from Australia and the Cheetahs having to use tractor driver John Hook in place of tonsillitis victim John Bishop. It was an exciting and wholly unpredictable time. Long Eaton won at Edinburgh, lost at home to West Ham before winning at Halifax in the Shay’s opening meeting. Swindon had dropped three league points at home and hadn’t won away but had never scored less than thirtyseven! They really were popular visitors! Glasgow won at Edinburgh before losing at home to Wimbledon but went down to Belle Vue and won the following night. It really was hard to come to any conclusions about teams’ relative strengths based on these fluctuating results, making judgements on whether a team needed to sign another rider fairly controversial.

And then came the problems and arguments

Wimbledon opened their home season with a narrow win over Coventry in a challenge match. They had Gerry Jackson in their line-up but were without Olle Nygren who had been barred from riding by SVEMO. The following week, they opened their BL campaign against Newport, who protested before the meeting that Wimbledon were too strong. Eventually Gerry Jackson was withdrawn and replaced by Reg Trott, with Ronnie Greene threatening to “raise hell about this”! The Dons narrow 40-38 victory certainly didn’t confirm the view that they were too strong! After sitting out a week, when he was reputed to have watched the early races at the Good Friday meeting at Hackney before driving over to Wimbledon to see the final races, Jackson finally signed for Hackney. The next week the Dons were due to race West Ham for the “Supporters Trophy”. Nothing unusual in that, but both sides wanted to include Bobby Dugard in their team! Once again there were frantic and heated discussions, but five minutes before the start it was announced that Dugard was a Don. Wimbledon had also included former Cradley rider John Edwards to replace the injured Mike Coomber, who had barely managed a point in his previous meetings, so it is hard to conclude that they were now any weaker.

The injury replacement seemed to set a precedent which allowed teams to draft in better riders from the pool. Indeed it didn’t have to be an injury, a retirement would do just as well!. Exeter’s Tim Bungay decided that his business commitments were getting too much and that he was quitting. The Falcons then managed to persuade Jack Geran to come out of retirement, which decidedly improved their team. Newcastle were rumoured to have been tracking Brian Brett but it seems doubtful that they would have got permission to sign him but things changed dramatically on Good Friday when Ivan Mauger sustained a badly broken ankle which was going to keep him out for some time. The Diamonds moved quickly to conclude a deal with Brett who would travel to Newcastle by train, getting the sleeper for his return journey. The arguments came later when they managed to retain him when Mauger returned, offering Goog Allan to the “pool” instead. Allan chose to sit on the fence for some time before eventually joining Cradley, significantly refusing to sign for Edinburgh on a night they were racing Newcastle with both Brian Brett and Ivan Mauger in their side.

Sheffield managed to persuade Billy Bales to ride for them but had to release Tommy Roper who wanted to ride for Halifax. Initially he was assigned to Edinburgh and claimed he would have joined the Monarchs if there had been a better air service between Manchester and Edinburgh. Apparently there was only one flight on a Saturday and it was in the early morning. As excuses go, that one takes the biscuit! Roper rode two meetings for Long Eaton before getting his desired move to Halifax. Edinburgh’s Ian Hoskins was none too happy and demanded Halifax sent someone to Edinburgh. This they did in the rotund shape of one Alfred Sitzwohl, apparently an Austrian champion. Boy did Reg Fearman get out of jail on this one! He was well off the pace in the one meeting in which he rode. When George Hunter and Doug Templeton crashed in the Scottish Best Pairs, Hoskins was so desperate that he got in touch with Chum Taylor who was back in Australia and was prepared to fly him back to the UK. Taylor turned down the move saying Edinburgh was too remote but he would be prepared to ride for either West Ham, Wimbledon or Swindon – now that really would have caused trouble!

Coventry had persevered with Howie Booton and Frank Hodder but the duo found points really hard to come by. Chris Harrison and Ron Bagley were drafted in, and while they didn’t score hatfuls of points, they certainly were an upgrade. Bagley faded from the scene and Bees got their wish to bring back Les Owen. In his first meeting back, he beat Barry Briggs, and Bees went on a charge that took them right into title contention. Ironically late season defeats in London to Hackney and Wimbledon meant that West Ham were the champions. Not everyone felt that Owen should have been allowed to sit out until Coventry came for him

Top Liners Injuries

Injuries to top liners were causing havoc to teams’ seasons. Long Eaton lost Peter Moore after just two league meetings and after nearly two months managed to get Terry Betts to join them. He too managed a brace of meetings before a broken leg ruled him out for the season. From that date, the Archers won just three out of twenty league fixtures. Cradley, too, lost their number one, when Ivor Brown crashed in the Internationale at Wimbledon. Leo McAuliffe was signed as a replacement but, with a late start to his season, never really got up to speed. They too were toiling to win meetings for the rest of the season. Contrast this with Oxford, who lost Ron How following a crash at Wimbledon in the Great Britain v Russia test match. With How in their team all season, they undoubtedly would have run away with the BL title, but even without him, made a fair fist of it to finish joint third with Coventry. Indeed it was only late season home losses to West Ham and Wimbledon that cost them the title.

 Problems Carried Forward to 1966

It was apparent that top end strength was the way to go. West Ham had been virtually unbeaten since June, while Wimbledon, Halifax, and Coventry had been in hot pursuit for the top position. They all had potent spearheads. The season ended with demands for a further equalization. Certainly Cradley and Long Eaton couldn’t be allowed to continue without further strengthening, and in the latter months Edinburgh had secured the services of young Swede Bernt Persson, but he was due to serve two years national service, and they too would require a replacement.

However those at the top were arguing that they weren’t that strong and that “someone will always come last”. Their argument was backed up by the fact that in terms of race points scored at home, the top teams actually scored less than the likes of Poole and Wolves. Indeed Glasgow, thirteenth in the league had scored more home race points than any of the former NL teams with the exception of Belle Vue, who were fourteenth! A look at the away performances was more revealing, showing the top five to be West Ham, Wimbledon, Coventry, Wolves and Swindon, with the first three also being the first three in the league.

This debate was further intensified with rumours of a super league of ten teams and a similarly sized second division. Eric Linden, the respected Speedway Star journalist quoted a leading promoter, “a powerful figure in British speedway”, as saying “at the end of 1966, a split in half would be workable”. This smacked of the NL being resurrected and Mike Parker hit back with his personal view that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Newport, Exeter and Sheffield should shut down until “we do get balanced teams” adding “We all need our fair share of the decent top quality riders. The North and the more remote areas just don’t get them”. All good stuff!

In mid March a fourteen hour long promoters meeting decided on some sweeping reallocations, the major ones being Wimbledon losing Olle Nygren to Sheffield in return for Clive Featherby, and West Ham losing Sverre Harrfeldt to Long Eaton but gaining David Crane and Ron Sharp. Also Kings Lynn’s application for league membership was turned down. Interestingly, only twelve promotions were still at the table when the final allocations were made! Boy did it kick off! Wimbledon were rumoured to have threatened to pull out of league racing, while six northern teams were going to form their own Northern League.  A further meeting was held. Kings Lynn’s application was accepted after the SRA made some concessions on the use of Swedish riders. Nygren and Harrfeldt stayed with their London teams. Long Eaton got Ove Fundin, Newport Gote Nordin, Edinburgh Bengt Jansson and Glasgow Bengt Brannefors. Cradley got Chum Taylor and Clive Featherby, neither a likely number one and once again the Heathens had a season of toil. Swindon’s signing of Clive Hitch attracted little attention but he was the vital piece in the jigsaw that was to transform the Robins fortunes dramatically.

And So It Went On!

Halifax won the league from Coventry, Swindon and Wimbledon, with West Ham again making a late charge once Sverre Harrfeldt returned from a hernia operation. Cradley and Long Eaton again finished bottoim of the league. Again some teams were more equal than others! The final opportunity to have a radical rebalancing had been passed up and annual reallocation exercises were here to stay.