“Club” Sides?

     In many ways club tours often caught the fans imagination more than international test series. They were more intimate affairs with your own team racing against another club side from another country. The early British League years saw some pretty high profile club visitors, although they were often boosted by guests. Tours were generally a shop window for the tourists to display their talents and perhaps catch the eye of a British promoter.

 

Home and Away

Scotland’s first tour and tourists were home and away meetings with Holland in 1950, racing Rotterdam’s Feyenoord, who would go to make their mark in European football some years later. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Dutch were well out of their depth losing 62-22 in Glasgow.

In more modern times, there were initial proposals for an Edinburgh/Glasgow side to undertake a six match tour of Poland in 1965. However, with Glasgow having an unprecedented run of rained off meetings in the autumn,  it was Edinburgh, strengthened with the addition of Ray Wilson, Norman Storer, Geoff Penniket and Jon Erskine , that went to Eastern Europe. They lost all six but put up reasonable performances in four of them. Ian Hoskins recalls the post meeting banquets featuring vodka, vodka and more vodka!

 

Doctor Beaton, I Presume!

While the Glasgow Tigers didn’t go on tour as a team in the winter of 1970, the bulk of their side headed to sunnier climes at the end of the British season. Jim McMillan and Charlie Monk both headed for Australia to take part on opposite sides in the Australia v Lions test series. Most of the remaining Tigers, including Blantyre boy Bobby Beaton, were heading for Rhodesia, where speedway was being revived. Alex Hughson, who had ridden for the Monarchs at both Old Meadowbank and Coatbridge had emigrated there the previous year and had wasted no time in reviving the sport out there. One hundred years earlier Blantyre’s most famous son David Livingstone, a missionary explorer, had journeyed to Africa, where he had been met by Henry Stanley with the famous words “Doctor Livingstone I presume”. Whether anyone similarly met Bobby Beaton isn’t known! Hughson, aided by the irrepressible Trevor Redmond, had reopened tracks at Salisbury and Bulowayo and had opened a third track up country at Gwelo, the latter being necessary to establish the fledgling league. Each track would supplement their British League “imports” with local riders. Glasgow riders Oyvind Berg and Jim Gallagher were joined by Wembley’s Dave Jessup and Rayleigh’s Bob Young in the Gwelo Eagles team at the Newmarket Stadium, while Bobby Beaton and Bill McMillan became Monarchs that winter – sacrilege! – at Salisbury’s Glamis Stadium, along with Geoff Curtis of Crewe and his pal Gary Moore of Rayleigh. Bulowayo Warriors, riding at the Showgrounds, boasted Graham Plant (Leicester), Barry Duke (Swindon), Laurie Etheridge (Hackney) and Peter Prinsloo (Wembley). Bulowayo won the league thanks to an away draw at Salisbury, all the other fixtures resulting in a home win. Bobby Beaton won the Rhodesian Open Championship.

There were no Glasgow riders racing in Rhodesia the following year. Berg, by then an Oxford rider, returned to the southern hemisphere and rode with his usual distinction, while McMillan had retired and, controversially, Bobby Beaton had not been selected. It is believed Alex Hughson had fallen out with his father at the British Nordic final at Hampden, when back in the UK earlier that year. The only Scot to race was Brian Collins who went on to take the Rhodesian Open title. Sadly the season wasn’t the success previous one had been. Gwelo, always a risky venture, folded in mid season, although they managed to annex the league by then. However a second competition, the Handicap League, had to be abandoned.

This wasn’t quite the end of Scottish forays to that part of the World. Bert Harkins and Benny Rourke spent the 1978 winter there in the company of Nig Close, although it was nowhere near the heady days of the early 70s.

 

Swedes At Home

It was 1972 before Glasgow again had the chance to extend Scottish hospitality to a foreign club side, lining up against Bysarna, apparently the Swedish champions, although they had entertained both the Swedish and Polish national sides in tests against Great Britain in the preceding years.

Like a lot of other big events at Hampden, the meeting was a bit of a let down… but for an unusual reason! It was held on the night before the 1972 World Final at Wembley and Tigers’ Jim McMillan was going to be there, albeit as a reserve. Arguably, it was the biggest night in the history of Glasgow speedway. Over a dozen supporters club buses were leaving after the meeting, so it was understandable if Tigers fans already had their minds on the next night. The Swedes, too, may be weren’t too taken with having to travel all the way to Scotland before returning to “the Smoke” to watch the Wembley final.

A fairly weak Tigers side, with Bert Harkins guesting for Jim McMillan who had been allowed to stay in London after the pre-final practice, ran out fairly comfortable 43-35 victors. The score line was made more respectable than the meeting possibly deserved by a last heat 5-1 for the Swedes. Soren Sjosten and Tommy Johansson were the leading lights for Bysarna and both were familiar names to the home support. However they only really received support from Lars-Inge Hultberg, who certainly used this tour as a shop window, signing for Cradley the following year. For the remaining Swedes, Bengt Johansson, Toby Karlsson, Bengt Olssen and Svien Nielsen, this would be their one and only incursion on British tracks.

The Tigers management probably had their doubts over the attractiveness of this fixture and had booked Bert Harkins to challenge Jim McMillan over three legs for the Scottish Match Race title. With Jim staying down in “the Smoke” this was held over until the following week. Probably just as well as a further three races would have extended the second half on a night everyone was looking for an early finish to board the buses to Wembley. Indeed, extra races were the last thing that was needed as sections of the fence had to be taken down and stowed away to allow football spectators an unimpeded view the next afternoon!

 

Norwegians Away

Sadly just two weeks after the Bysarna meeting, Sven Kaasa was killed in a track crash at Hampden. As a tribute to his memory a Tigers team travelled to Norway and rode in two late season challenges. The first was against a Norwegian Select in Bergen, which a 39-39 draw and the second against Sandnes and Jaeren in Stavanger, a 44-34 defeat. The following year a Tigers Select, comprising Dave Gifford, Bobby Beaton, Robin Adlington, Ettienne Olivier and John Wilson augmented by Doug Wyer and Reg Wilson of Sheffield again made the trip. Honours were even with tigers winning the first 40-38 before losing the second by the same margin. Tiger Kjell Gimre rode in both meetings for the Norwegians and was joined by Ed Stangeland, while Ulf Lovaas and Reidar Eide rode in Bergen and Sandnes respectively.

 

The “Return” of the Germans

        1975 saw a West Germany side roll up to Paisley. The Lions management had been making noises about signing an EU rider, although there was considerably more smoke than fire on this one. All the same there was the slight hope that a German could be lined up for the Lions. This soon disappeared as the hosts ran out convincing winners by 55-22! Only Otto Barth won a race, although no Lion in the main body of the team managed a maximum, leaving reserve Mick Sheldrick as the only unbeaten Lion. All in all, not a night to get excited about as none of the visitors looked anywhere near league standard. In these politically incorrect times the some of the crowd were making comments about it being revenge for the Clydebank blitz! Clydebank being just over the River Clyde from Paisley.

 

Czech Mates

Fast forward to 1980, a dozen years since Red Star had last turned a wheel in Scotland. Things had changed a lot since that balmy night at the White City in 1968. The Russian tanks had invaded Czechoslovakia ending Dubcek’s liberal reforms and the country was in turmoil. The visitors must have been more concerned about their families than racing in Glasgow, but it has to be said that the welcome they received from the Glasgow crowd probably took their minds off these troubles for a couple of hours. A couple of weeks later, Czechoslovakia would get a similar welcome in the World Team Cup final at Wembley. The Tigers were having a torrid season and, with Swedes Ake Andersson and Bo Josefsson having returned home, never to return, they drafted in former Tiger Charlie Monk as a guest. The big news that night was that Charlie Monk was indicating that he wouldn’t be averse to returning to the Tigers. This was a chink of light at the end of the very dark tunnel that was the 1968 season

Both Scottish and Czechoslovakian speedway was now in “reduced circumstances”. Monarchs and Tigers were now in different homes and were racing in the lower league, while Red Star were now racing on Second Division tracks too. Days of World Team cup glory were long gone. And yet some things seemed the same……the names of Kasper and Verner were familiar to long time fans, but it was sons and nephews of the previous guys. All of a sudden we began to feel a bit old! Just as Red Star had problems with the White City on their last visit, so they didn’t really adapt to either Powderhall or Blantyre, both tight technical tracks. Again the Czechs were at the wrong end of big score lines, losing 50-28 to Edinburgh and 54-24 in Glasgow on consecutive nights. George Hunter of the Monarchs and Tigers Steve Lawson and Andy Reid all scored full maximums. Jiri Hnidak was injured at Powderhall and Tigers junior Ken Hall became a Czech for the night at Blantyre, scoring two points and beating Tigers reserve Adrian Pepper twice in the process. Jan Verner and Petr Kucera both got six for the Czechs, while a young Antonin Kasper junior managed just two points.

 

Blantyre 2 – maybe NOT the place for guests!

      It would be a further ten years before another foreign side would be welcomed in the west of Scotland. Tigers moved across the lane into Craighead Park at the start of the 1982 season and their new home was best described as “Spartan”! It certainly wasn’t the place to entertain, and hopefully impress, foreign guests. Indeed it was barely a place to take any of your family! So there were no real complaints that it was never included on tour rotas.

    While Edinburgh’s Powderhall was decidedly upmarket, disappointingly, it got few allocations when tour schedules were being drawn up, although perhaps they didn’t miss too much if the visit of a Norwegian side in 1981 was anything to go by! The Norsemen came over in early July, in the middle of the traditional Edinburgh Trades holiday fortnight. Thankfully Monarchs tracked a fairly weak looking side, allowing regulars Chris Turner and Ivan Blacka to take a break and replacing them with juniors Pete Erskine and Guy Robson. They had little difficulty winning by close to twenty points, with Neil Collins, George Hunter and Dave Trownson winning eleven heats between them. Dan Haaland managed ten points through five second places to head the Norwegian score chart in a meeting that was eminently forgettable.

  It was six years later before further tourist meetings were scheduled in Edinburgh and they seemed to have been cursed by dreadful weather! In 1987, the National League versus Poland meeting was rained off, while the following year a similar event against the Swedes managed only three rained soaked heats before it was abandoned!