More TV Memories
Thanks to Mike Hunter for sharing his memories of speedway on the TV.
- Prior to the televising of Monarchs v Wolverhampton 29/7/61 George Hunter had a practice spin which was televised. He had been injured the previous week v Stoke. My dad was a physiotherapist and correctly predicted that he would not ride in the match, having spotted something about how he was riding. This was sufficiently earlier than the match to allow us to watch it before leaving the house.
- In the second half of the televised match v Plymouth, there was a 5-heat 4 team tournament Scots v Aussies v Anglos v Britons. As I was at the match I don’t know if it was televised but you’d imagine that would be the reason for having it.
- As well as Glasgow v Hackney, the cameras were there for Glasgow v West Ham in the KO Cup with a few races shown. I can’t remember if they were shown on the day or some time later.
- For the Glasgow v Edinburgh match in 1966, the cameras were late arriving and missed the first two heats, therefore did not show the Bengt Jansson crash. As this was televised the next day I did see this one.
- The crowd for the KO Cup match Monarchs v Hackney, as you say, was the lowest of the decade to that point, more than 1,000 lower than the meeting before and the meeting after. Later in the season there were a couple of crowds for Wednesday matches which were lower, though all very much higher than modern crowds.
- I also watched the 1972 Glasgow v Poole match, it was a really awful one with one overtake which the cameras missed. The matches at Glasgow were the only ones I saw.
- I’d agree that the matches they did show unfortunately were of below average standard of entertainment, other than the 1966 match. I was given a hard time at school after the 1962 match because my friends were all scornful of the quality of racing with the old “first out of the gate always wins” being cast up. It was annoying because racing at Meadowbank was usually very good.
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