The TV programme  “Who Do You Think You Are” traced previous generations for various personalities. Not all of them were too pleased with the results! Speedway promotions, too, have family trees and reminding them of their less grand forebears may not necessarily please them either! Doug Nicolson has a look.

 

Neath, All the Way to Hull

Hull Vikings, the very name conjures up images of pillaging Norsemen in their earlier history, but it was anything but that. – more likely quiet contemplation and evening prayers! Let’s go back to 1962.

Trevor Redmond’s Neath Dragons, based at the Abbey stadium, named after the nearby ecclesiastical building, were a success on the track. Surprisingly, they finished runners up to Poole, but things weren’t so great at the turnstiles. Located in west Wales, they had a limited catchment area and this was aggravated by a foot and mouth outbreak, the control of which restricted gatherings in the area. Some fixtures were switched to the not too handily placed St Austell, and at very short notice too! The Edinburgh program famously said they were racing the Dragons the following week but couldn’t say whether it would be in Wales or in Cornwall! The Dragons relocated to St Austell the following year on a fulltime basis, becoming the Gulls.

Things weren’t really much better at Parr Stadium and the season ended with Redmond again looking for a new base…. and he found one at the other end of the country, joining forces with Ian Hoskins who had the rights for Glasgow’s White City. Fortunately for the Tigers, Charlie Monk, a Redmond asset, agreed to come north after a season’s loan to Long Eaton. He very much held the fledgling side together and was joined mid season by Redmond, who forsook retirement to help the injury hit Tigers. 1965 saw the Provincial League and National League merge to form the British League and Tigers rather sensationally were the first league leaders. It couldn’t last and it didn’t. However this was a golden period in their history when they were in the “top league”. 1969 saw them move to Hampden, Scotland’s national stadium, ahead of the projected closure of the White City. Things peaked in Mount Florida with the staging of the British Nordic Final in 1971, but it was all downhill thereafter, leading to the Tigers relocating to Coatbridge. After an indifferent 1973 season, the First Division licence was sold to Hull with the Tigers dropping down into the lower league. Ian Thomas’s Vikings had an epic time at the Boulevard, signing World champions Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs and Egon Muller at different times. Despite this winning the league was beyond them though they did manage a runners up spot in the late seventies. Not at all bad for a team with some humble rural beginnings.

 

Aristocrats

When you think of speedway’s royalty which teams would you pick? Wembley, West Ham, Poole, Swindon, Coventry, Belle Vue would probably all spring to mind. The Bees and the Aces have a straight forward pedigree with no skeletons in their cupboards, but it’s not the same for the other four.

Wembley were one of the mainstays of the sport and it was a huge blow when they closed in 1956. Indeed the very existence of the sport was in some doubt at this time. However the Lions would roar again, suggesting perhaps that speedway teams believe in reincarnation! This time their roots were across the border in Scotland. Edinburgh were founder members of the Provincial League in 1960. Their team matured and made a strong challenge for the BL title in 1967, their last year at their still lamented Old
Meadowbank base, which was redeveloped as the 1970 Commonwealth Games venue. After much searching, and indeed soul searching, the Monarchs moved to Coatbridge some thirty miles west of the city boundary. Despite, or may because of, having two World Finalists, Eide and Persson, in their 1968 line up, there were concerns over their financially viability. 1969 saw Persson leave Coatbridge, while 1970 saw the Monarchs themselves depart, with the licence being sold to Wembley. The Lions only roared for two years but it gave the sport a huge fillip. With football making more and more demands on the stadium, it became impossible to fit in a full league season, and ultimately, the football conditions in the pitch versus track debate, meant that even the World Final could no longer be staged there. A very sad day!

Everyone knows that West Ham had their roots in the East End… but its highly possible that it was in the east end of Glasgow at Celtic Park! A handful of meetings were held there in 1928 before the promoting company, Dirt Track Speedways Limited, moved the whole operation down to “The Smoke”.  The Custom House track hadn’t been ready in time for the start of the season, and, rather than let their riders, including Paddy Dean and Sprouts Elder, sit around idly, they were shipped north for the early weeks.

Poole has run speedway continuously for more than sixty years but the current operation has its roots in the nearby seaside town of Weymouth. The Pirates went into liquidation at the end of the 1984 season and it is possible there would have been no speedway at Wimbourne Road had Weymouth not moved in at the start of the 1985 seasn. For the next two years the Poole team were known as the Wildcats and raced on Tuesdays in the National League, before reverting to their much loved Pirates moniker and their favoured Wednesday nights. They regained their place in the top league when the two divisions amalgamated in 1996 and have been a major player in the top league ever since….despite these modest origins! 

Swindon, too, have staged speedway on a continuous basis since 1949, a truly meritorious achievement, but they too have humble roots! Hull opened in 1948 at a disused aerodrome on the outskirts of the town at Hedon, where a railway halt was built specially to allow fans to travel out to meetings. However the boom was short lived and the quaintly   named Angels folded in the middle of the 1949 season. Their licence and four of their riders, Mick Mitchell, George Craig, Alf Webster and Derek Glover, were transferred to Swindon, who took over their fixtures.

 

 

Still On Ice

Middlesboro joined the Provincial League in 1961 under the Reg Fearman banner but it was always a struggle at Cleveland Park, culminating in 1964 when the Bears concluded their home season before August had ended! It was the most open secret of the time that they would not be reopening. All the smart money was on Halifax being their new base - and that’s how it turned out, with the Dukes opening up at the Shay in front of huge crowds in 1965. Throughout their time there the Dukes had some top stars including Eric Boocock, Dave Younghusband and Kenny carter. However their relationship with their landlords, Halifax FC, was always strained at the best of times. By the mid 80s these problems had grown to the extent that the Dukes moved down the road to Bradford’s storied Odsal stadium for the 1986 season. There were great times in Bradford, and none better than the 1985 and 1990 World Finals. However, like Halifax before them, there were problems over the pitch/track margins. This led to the licence being put on ice, and there it has stayed – although the ice has long since melted!

 

 

Out InThe Country

Oxford enjoyed a chequered existence. Their 1964 National League triumph came out of the blue, although looking back on the side they had, it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. They lost Goody, Genz and Geran of that side in the initial British League rider allocations prior to the start of the 1965 season, but the biggest blow was the mid season injury to Ron How, that saw him retire from the sport. Thereafter they seemed fated to be “also rans” in the lower reaches of the league. The early 70s saw them rebranded as “Rebels” by a new promotion involving Dave Lanning and Acker Bilk, a celebrated trad jazz musician – quite a combination! However they couldn’t bring better times back to Cowley and the Rebels moved to London’s White City in 1976. At Shepherd’s Bush, they found success on the track but not at the turnstiles. I always liken my visit there to children playing in a vast mansion house! Their league championship success was tinged with some controversy as they were permitted to use rider replacement for an entire season for the retired Dag Lovaas! Speedway couldn’t be sustained there and they moved to Eastbourne, where, without recourse to rider replacement for a “ghost”, they found the going considerably tougher. After half a dozen seasons of trawling the lower reaches of the top division, they dropped down into the National league, which seemed more to their liking, winning the title twice in 1986 and 1987. Eagles applied to move return to the top flight for 1991 and, when this was refused, they decided not to run at all! However, after just two home meetings, Wimbledon Dons found themselves in dire straits, and a move to Eastbourne was brokered. Once again the Eagles were in the top division and this has been their home to this day.

 

 

Ill Fated Everywhere

In the most unique move of all time, the Bombers of Rochester moved home before they even staged a meeting there! Was it really a home then? Well, the Bombers had raced three away meetings, when the news broke that there were too many obstacles to staging speedway in Rochester. Undeterred, promoter Wally Mawdsley did a deal with Romford FC and, thanks to some sterling work by Maurice Morley, a track was laid at Brooklands in record time. It was all done in a rush and little paperwork was completed on the planning side. Despite this the Bombers thrived for three seasons before a court action raised by a nearby householder ended the party. Enterprisingly, the Bombers flitted to West Ham’s Custom House stadium, which was vacant following Ipswich’s purchase of the First Division licence.   However, it was scheduled for early demolition, but this makeshift arrangement bought the Bombers some time. The last meeting at in London was in late May 1972 and there was barely a dry eye in the stadium that night. The Bombers new home was at Holker Street, the home of Barrow FC in Cumbria. Barrow were a non league outfit, rejoicing under the name of “Happy Faces” apparently reflecting their sponsorship with Duckhams Oils. The Bombers thrived for a few years despite the almost continuous problems of the track overlapping onto the football pitch. Things came to a head when the track was reduced to a virtually unusable shape, with four corners and four straights. The writing was on the wall and the Bombers flew for the last time at the end of the 1974 season.

 

One Offs

Long Eaton and Newcastle fans were both dealt the shattering blow of losing not just their First Division place, but also their speedway. However both came back after a fallow period and enjoyed a further stay in the sport. Talk about reincarnation!

Long Eaton were founder members of the new British League in 1965, and, after a pretty traumatic debut year, went on to boast the services of Ray Wilson, Anders Michanek and briefly Ove Fundin, all World Finalists in 1967. This was to prove to be a high watermark in the Archers fortunes as the promotion relocated to Leicester for 1968. The Lions roared around Blackbird Road for sixteen years, a record for this venue which had an “interesting” history. However the Lions end was shrouded in bitterness when the stadium owners put the stadium up for redevelopment with little notice.

Newcastle was surely the success story of the Provincial League, with Ivan Mauger joining them in 1963 and cutting a huge swathe through the opposition. A serious leg injury in 1965 halted his progress to World Championship glory but it was only delayed and he captured the crown in 1968. However things started to go wrong for the Diamonds as he demanded a transfer to Belle Vue and was prepared to retire unless it was granted. He won that particular battle of wills and Newcastle never got a replacement, just the facility to use a guest for the entire season! Unsurprisingly this hit attendances badly. Indeed had it not been for the dramatic emergence of Ole Olsen then they might have closed mid season. Promoter Mike Parker saw the writing on the wall and managed to sell out to the Allied Promotions consortium, but not before taking Olsen with him to Wolverhampton, another terrible blow for the Geordies. The new promotion installed Ian Hoskins as track manager and sent Anders Michanek north, but this was never going to appease the fans. After just one season the Diamonds licence was transferred to Reading’s thriving Tilehurst stadium. It was a tough time for Newcastle but just like Lazarus, they managed a comeback – or two!

 

 

Final moves

Unlike Long Eaton and Newcastle, Crayford, Nelson and West Ham fans saw their team depart, never to be replaced.

For the Hammers, it was inevitable that there was no way back when their Custom House home was sold for redevelopment and their licence was sold to Ipswich. No such fate was hanging over Nelson at their Seed Hill Road stadium when the Admirals sailed out to Bradford’s Odsal stadium in 1970. It was ironic that the venue that probably spawned the relaunch of Division Two in 1968, didn’t share in the boom times that this league enjoyed in the early 1970s. Nelson had staged a handful of open meetings in 1967 against British League “B” sides, made up from second strings and juniors, and were founder members of the new division. However crowds were never great and Mike Parker eagerly took the chance to link up with Les Whaley who had acquired the rights at Odsal. The Admirals moved to Bradford midway through the 1970 season despite a protest from nearby Halifax. Ironic that the Dukes would later move there in the mid 80s!

Crayford were also part of the Mike Parker empire in the late 60s, and, like stable mates Nelson, were founder members of Division Two. They also shared the dubious fate of being closed after a couple of seasons when crowds didn’t live up to early expectations. Unlike the Admirals, they reopened a few years later as “Kestrels” under the Len Silver and Peter Thorogood banner. Among their achievements was a 65-12 win over hapless Workington in 1980, but a record number of rained off meetings put their future in jeopardy. Thankfully local businessman Terry Russell stepped in to save them and his first signing was none other than Barry Thomas! The Kestrels flew for four further seasons before they jumped at the chance to move into Hackney for the 1984 season. While it may not have been appreciated at the time, this was probably a shrewd move as the stadium was sold the following year to a supermarket. Incredibly, a tiny dog track has been squeezed into the small space remaining between the supermarket and the railway line. Sadly it is far too small to consider a speedway track. The end of the line for Crayford!

 

Franchises No More

Nowadays, franchise arrangements seem to have followed second halfs, rosettes and one off World Finals into the history books and it is unlikely that speedway family trees will have any further generations.Hh