Doug Nicolson looks at Aussies who never did make it to the British League despite some impressive shows in their homeland in

Pity they didn’t come over

Some years, particularly in the late 80s, saw a tsunami of young Australians come to the UK to seek their fortunes – guys like Craig Boyce, Leigh Adams, Todd Wiltshire and others. Quite a few came over around the start of the Backtrack era too, particularly to staff the, by then, fast expanding Second Division. However, there were some who, despite some impressive showings back home, never came over much to the regret of BL promoters.

It was hard for promoters to gauge the form of Australians riding on their home track, made harder by a number of events being handicapped races. Sometimes they got recommendations from British riders wintering Down Under, but they could be a bit hit or a miss. Performances against the British Lions in test matches provided a more reliable yardstick. So let’s look at Aussies who caught the eye in these meetings

 

Jack White

Though in his 30s, Jack was a regular in test matches at most Australian tracks, other than far flung Perth, where he made only a handful of appearances.  A colourful and robust rider, he was popular with the fans and his double figure scores in test matches must have been noticed by British promoters, particularly with headlines like “White in form”, “It’s White again” and an action photo on the front of a Speedway Star showing him leading two British Lions and a match report inside the cover giving details of his 12+3 in the test match. Surely some British promoters must have approached him.  He rebuffed them all, believing that time in the UK wouldn’t improve his riding and saying that he could still beat those who did ride in the BL – a fact backed up by the record books. Judging by his international scores, he seems to have been on a par with John Langfield, both before and after Langy’s time at West Ham and Poole. He seemed content that speedway was a weekend hobby that paid well, possibly a widely held view by Australian riders of the time, including Charlie Monk whom  Eric Boocock recalled going out to work each day when he returned to Adelaide for the first time after a few years in the UK. White felt that there was no better recognition than representing his country in test matches.

 

Married with children

Trevor Harding had his early rides at Rowley Park, Adelaide and after a couple of years had moved to the 150 yard handicap line, along with established stars like Don Prettejohn. He also raced at Rockhampton and Bluey Scott must surely have told him all about racing in Britain, but,. married with children, it was too big a step to take. However, when his marriage collapsed a few years later he may well have been considering it, but a fearsome crash in the Australian Championship at his home track in Perth in 1971 ended all his hopes. His multiple injuries needed months of operations and, while he rode briefly four years later, he decided to retire but stayed involved in both the promoting and sponsorship fields.

John Dewhurst was another well-respected rider who, although his international caps were limited to appearances at Melbourne, received offers from BL promoters but he also had a wife and young family and always snubbed the chance to try his luck in the UK – possibly he could have been another John Langfield.

 

Laurie Hodgson

Like Harding, Laurie Hodgson no doubt harboured thoughts of going to “Blighty” prompted by double figure scores in the 1970/71 test series, while he was off the backmark at Rowley Park, even giving Charlie Monk, still at the height of his powers, a start. But he sustained life changing injuries when he clipped an opponent’s wheel and was struck by another rider, damaging his spine such that he would never walk again. It was thought that the new fullface helmet that he was wearing was a contributory factor in the severity of his injuries. American Chuck Jones suffered similar injuries while wearing one too. It is believed they had insufficient clearance at the back of the neck and that the design was soon revised.

 

 

The Perth boys

Perth’s Claremount Showground track was an incredible 641 yards and was so long that races were only held over three laps. Being so different, it was hard to decide whether riders who went well there would cope with a more traditional sized track.

The O’Leary brothers, Bob and Terry were leading riders there in the early 70s, with Bob playing a real captain’s role scoring 15 points in Australia’s narrow 55-53 defeat by Great Britain in the opening test in the 1973/74 series. Bob had also scored well, 10 and 7 against a strong Swedish touring side in 1971, containing Anders Michanek, Soren Sjosten, Bernt Persson, Bengt Jansson and Olle Nygren, so he was obviously a class performer in Western Australia. In the second test he was paired with brother Terry, who made a rare international appearance, weighing in with 6 points.

Les Leisk has been described as “one of Claremount’s finest”, frequently eschewing the inside line for a blast around the boards. Twice Western Australian champion, a title previously won by both Ove Fundin and Ivan Mauger, his best scores against the GB tourists were 6s but they need some scrutinising. In 1972 he had a heat win over partner Chum Taylor and Lions Nigel Boocock and Eric Broadbelt; the following year he managed two heat wins in his first two outings but failed to score any further points; while in 1976 he never actually finished ahead of a Lion – make of them what you will.

I have a vague memory of Les Leisk secondhalfing at West Ham, possibly around 1969/70. Perhaps some Londoner can confirm this rather sketchy recollection. It doesn’t seem that Les stayed long and he was soon back in his native Perth and appearing in test matches there in the early 70s. It seems he came back over in 1977 but failed to make an impression in a few meetings with Leicester, adding credence to the idea that Claremount specialists weren’t necessarily suited to BL tracks, although Mick McKeon’s performances for Glasgow and Halifax provided strong evidence to refute this.

 

Old timers

Over the years Australia tracked a number of old timers in their test sides and this too made drawing conclusions on relative strengths difficult. Don Prettejohn, Bob Sharp and Bill Bryden all got “caps” when about 40 years old, all having raced in the UK a number of years earlier. Sharp and Bryden were team mates at Ipswich in the mid 50s but Bryden had a pretty traumatic time and went home after his one and only year in the UK, probably deciding it wasn’t for him, so it would be hard to assess his UK level.  Sharp too had a tough first season but stuck at it and was a top man at Ipswich in 1956 but struggled when the NL and NL2 amalgamated in 1957. Still under 30 he would surely have been a target for PL promotions in the early 60s.

While a good few years younger, Brian Loakes scored well in the Brisbane tests in 1974/75 after not being too impressive at second division Hull a few years before.

 

Names to conjure with

It would be wrong to suggest some riders whose names appeared regularly on Speedway Star’s winter reports from Australia were near international standard, but might they have done a job in the early years of BL2 or would their names have been more memorable than their on track exploits? The guys I’m thinking of include Abe Schneider, Ted Lindskog, Helmut Schippl and Hec Haslinger. Only the latter made it to the UK where he was more or less second string standard with Doncaster and Birmingham in the lower division. It seems Schippl had considered getting a work permit allowing him to come to Britain in 1970. He planned to come via his hometown of Vienna and hoped to get a BL2 team place. However when he found out that, being classed as a foreigner, it was unlikely that he would be allowed to ride in the lower division. His only hope would have been to get an Australian passport and this seemed an insurmountable problem, a pity as this forceful rider may well have made the grade here.

 

Late 80s influx

Of the huge number of young Aussies who came over in the mid 80s, only Tony Rose seems to have missed that proverbial and literal boat. He had a few impressive looking scores at his local tracks in the Brisbane area in meetings against British tourist selects. The history of a short lived venue at Mango Hill which only staged two meetings lists Tony, along with John Titman and Todd Wiltshire as the leading names who briefly rode there, suggesting he was held in some regard locally.