After 120 years in the Scottish Football League, Coatbridge's Albion Rovers are facing an uncertain future following their relegation to the Lowland League. It seems an appropriate time to look at the contribution this club has made to Scottish Speedway.

Coatbridge’s Cliftonhill stadium was home to both Edinburgh and Glasgow at different times. Neither set of fans recall their time there with any great affection, but Doug Nicolson believes that this generally unloved ground saved the Tigers from closure at least once, and possibly twice, in their chequered history. Let’s return to 1967 to pick up the story.

 

The End of the Road for Old Meadowbank

     The long hot summer of 1967 was pretty memorable, bringing us “Flower Power”, and Radio One to our airwaves in September. However things were less than rosy for the speedway fraternity. Edinburgh Monarchs were certainly making a concerted push in the league race but their late bid was undermined by the news on the future at Meadowbank. They had started the season, knowing it would be their last at the, by then, dilapidated Old Meadowbank stadium, which was due to be demolished at the end of the year. A new athletics stadium was to be built on the site for the 1970 Commonwealth Games. Monarchs seem to have had a rather vague plan to relocate elsewhere for three years and then return to the new stadium in time for the start of the 1971 season. Then came the bombshell! It was decreed that, as the new stadium was being built by public funds, no professional sport could be staged there on a regular basis. In these rather simplistic and Corinthian times, this didn’t really raise any eyebrows. Nowadays there would be a political storm over who should use the new facility and how much they should pay – just look at London’s new Olympic stadium! The search was now on for a new permanent home.

 

Monarchs’ Search for a New Home

Many venues were examined in the search for a new home for the Monarchs. The most obvious choice was Powderhall but the GRA did not want their neatly manicured lawn and flowerbeds being disturbed by anything as coarse as a speedway track. Other venues were considered. Marine Gardens was long closed. Cowdenbeath now had stockcars and in any case the sport hadn’t flourished there a few years previously. Newtongrange was no doubt considered but was rejected by the shrewd Hoskins as being too far out of Edinburgh. This certainly proved the case a few years later when the non-league venture closed after a handful of meetings. Broxburn was considered but the cost of excavation meant it was a non-starter. Sites in and around Edinburgh proved even less likely. The quarry at Wester Hailes was just a hole in the ground. Stenhouse stadium was derelict and partly built upon. Saughton Enclosure was simply a football pitch with a running track surrounded by a hedge perimeter. In short there were no suitable venues in or around Edinburgh. The net was now cast wider, throughout Central Scotland, with football grounds being the main targets. Stadiums as far away as Stirling and Kilmarnock were visited before coming to Albion Rovers ground at Coatbridge. In truth it was the last card in the pack!

 

What If Coatbridge Hadn’t Been Available?

But what would have happened if the Monarchs hadn’t moved to Coatbridge?

Well lets look at the state of Scottish speedway as the season closed. 1967 had seen SVEMO agree to their riders turning out for British sides and what great box office they were! Previously little known names like Hasse Holmquist, Bernie Persson, Anders Michanek were overnight sensations and became their teams number ones, with the last two turning out in the Wembley World final that year. Others like Bengt Larsson, Gunnar Malmquist and Bo Josefsson proved to be solid performers who looked like developing further. Sadly the agreement with the Swedes proved to have more strings than an acoustic guitar! By far the biggest drawback was that they had to return to their own country to race in their own league too. During the summer some rarely turned out for their new British teams. Ian Hoskins summed up having a Swedish rider as being like owning a Rolls Royce, nice to have but hugely expensive to run! Some British promoters were questioning whether it was worth the expense, while others were suggesting that the Swedes be banned, something that would happen a couple of years later. In Scotland there was a huge question mark over the futures of Edinburgh’s Bernie Persson and Glasgow’s Bo Josefsson.

      Edinburgh, as well as searching for a new home, were also looking for a replacement for Bill Landels, who had just got married and was emigrating to Australia and had no plans to return. Consequently, they had only five confirmed starters for the following year – Reidar Eide, Doug Templeton, George Hunter, Oyvind Berg and Bert Harkins – and no track!

 

Glasgow’s Situation

      Over at Glasgow things were possibly worse. There was a long-term threat to their White City home, which lay in the path of the proposed west extension to the M8 motorway. New promoter, Danny Taylor, felt that it would only be necessary to shorten the track and relocate the pits to the third bend – sadly it wouldn’t prove to be that simple! The Tigers certainly weren’t in a robust state as far as the team was concerned. In successive weeks in October, Dave Lanning’s page in the Speedway Star, somewhat gleefully, pointed out that neither Charlie Monk nor Alf Wells were likely to ride for the Tigers the following year. In Wells case it was somewhat stronger, saying that he would never ride for a Scottish team ever again - obviously he was well upset! This may well have stemmed from a mid season run in with promoter Taylor when he didn’t travel to the away meeting at Wimbledon, claiming he was still suffering from an ankle injury. He did turn up, ready to ride, for the following night’s home meeting but Taylor then dropped him as a disciplinary measure. The BSPA later fined Wells for missing the Wimbledon meeting, and he refused to pay, arguing, with some justification, that he had already been punished for this – “double jeopardy” in legal parlance. Wells was then suspended until the fine was paid and never rode in the few remaining weeks of the season.

      Charlie Monk had been based in Wakefield with the Boococks and was now looking for a home track nearer his base. Maury Mattingly was drifting into retirement. Nils Ringstrom, after a catastrophic loss of form, had also retired. Russ Dent had been on loan from Newcastle, so his future was uncertain too. Brian Whaley had gathered rides and experience but few points during 1967 and was still some way short of team standard. Bill McMillan was still recovering from his badly broken ankle and unsurprisingly had shown little form or confidence in the few meetings in which he rode towards the end of the season. He needed a spell in the second half the following season to regroup. In summary, the Tigers had only TWO certain starters for the next year - Jim McMillan and the ever reliable Willie Templeton.

 

Amalgamation?

    On top of all this, Taylor was looking to sell his shareholding in the Tigers. Hoskins, as the majority shareholder would have had the right of first refusal under the terms of the Company’s Act. If Monarchs hadn’t secured Coatbridge, it is entirely possible that Hoskins would have done the arithmetic “two plus five equals seven” and taken his five homeless Monarchs through to the White City to join the two remaining Tigers riders. The combined team would have comprised Eide; D Templeton; Hunter; W Templeton; Berg; Harkins; J McMillan with Bill McMillan, Brian Whaley, Brian Collins and Alex Hughson as second halfers and potential recruits for Second Division Berwick. Hoskins would have faced the same problems and prejudices, which caused the Scottish Monarchs ill-fated experiment in 1996 at Shawfield to fail dismally, but, doubtlessly, had both the personality and the thick skin to succeed with such an amalgamation.

        If it had gone ahead, the team would probably have had two years at the White City before Wembley came along with their predatory offer. During this time, it would be expected that the numbers travelling through from Edinburgh each week would have tapered off, and with the motorway getting ever closer, it would have been a surprise if the London bid was refused. That surely would have been the end for the Glasgow Tigers, and possibly for Scottish speedway. With such an abundance of second half talent, it would seem likely that the development of the 16 year old Bobby Beaton would not have taken place nearly as fast. Indeed he may well have had to spend a couple of seasons in the Second Division, honing his skills, and it is entirely possible that his father James would not have had the opportunity to become a promoter – and that would have had dire consequences for Scottish speedway’s long term well being.

     Fortunately Hoskins found Coatbridge and Les Whaley took over the Tigers, and life continued as normal, although there were to be many surprises in the roller coaster ride that the coming years would bring!

 

 

Sweden's Soren Sjosten and Olle Nygren lead GB's Jim McMillan and Charlie Monk at Coatbridge  before the largest crowd at Cliftonhill in quite some time. 

Tigers move to Hampden

        Les Whaley had a traumatic debut year as the Tigers promoter in 1968. He got a truly raw deal from the annual rider allocation process and Tigers ended up with a below strength team that would have sunk without trace had it not been for Jim McMillan’s meteoric rise from reserve to number one that year. Crowds fell alarmingly and there was some doubt about the Tigers future around midsummer but, with Whaley’s calm control, they weathered that storm. There was a question over the Tigers’ long term future at the White City, but that seemed to be a problem for another year. However a chance invitation from Tom Fagan, Albion Rovers chairman and Monarchs’ landlord at Coatbridge, for Ian Hoskins to attend the Queens Park versus Albion Rovers game at Hampden in January 1969 would prove to be a pivotal point in the Tigers history. Queens Park were in financial difficulties following a serious fire and this proved to be a unique window of opportunity. Hoskins was quick to get speedway’s steel shoe into the Hampden door!

        The Queens Park management was not hard to deal with, and, within four weeks, the Speedway Star carried the news that Hampden was to be Tigers new home. It must be emphasised that without Fagan’s glowing endorsement, it seems certain that Queens Park, despite all their problems, would not have been prepared to consider a speedway proposal – something else Tigers fans have to thank Coatbridge for.