Brafield Looks Promising.

John La Trobe had gained a licence for Brafield, or Brafield-on-the-Green, to give it its Sunday name, a small village about four miles south east of Northampton, a place for which the phrase “in the middle of nowhere” seems to have been especially coined. It had previously operated in the Southern Area League in the mid 50s, with a young Colin Goody being among their riders. The track, described as small, was about 335 yards and was fitted inside the stockcar circuit. Entrepreneur La Trobe had other commercial interests including “Radio 390”, a pirate radio station operated by Estuary Radio Limited. Pirate radio stations were very much of the mid 60s. They operated off shore, just outwith the prescribed coastal limits and played pop records of the time without paying any royalties or fees. They were hugely popular with the public but were hounded out by the authorities through some fairly draconian legislation. Their tale is told dramatically in the film “The Boat That Rocked”, which, while by no means a documentary of the time, is well worth watching. They were amazing times while they lasted.

It was a short season, unusually starting in mid August The team was called the Badgers and had black and white colours. Ted Spittles, who had previously ridden in the Southern Area League for Aldershot, was on the comeback trail and brought his experience to an otherwise inexperienced team. Long Eaton juniors Pete Wrathall and Ian Champion and Oxford juniors PeteSeaton and Wayne Barry were joined by Hungarian exile Laslo Munkasci in the Badgers line up.

The opening meeting was the Midland Junior Championship, won appropriately enough by Ian Champion from Pete Seaton and Cradley’s Joe Weichlbauer, with Pete Wrathall fourth.  A fortnight later Hackney B won 44-34 in a far slicker meeting when most of the teething problems of the opening meeting had been straightened out. Sadly the crowd wasn’t large. The Hawks side included four riders, Brian Davies, Malc Brown, John Poyser and Alan Jackson from the BL side. Home wins against the “B” sides of Coventry, Cradley, Wolves and Long Eaton followed and these meetings were generally two teams of riders who had little or no previous BL experience. At last meetings to give juniors the racing experience they needed for their development!

A False Dawn!

Brafield reopened bright and early in late March 1967 with a sixteen rider individual event won by Hackney’s Brian Davies, a late minute replacement for Buddy Greer. Thereafter there were challenge matches more or less fortnightly against the junior sides from King’s Lynn, Coventry, Wolves and Hackney. Crowds were never great but the Badgers were let down by a lack of publicity in the Speedway Star. They got the bare minimum of a match report and nothing else. Visiting fans had to be keen and vigilant to find out in advance when their junior team was going to be at The Green. The match report for the Hackney meeting contained the fateful last paragraph

“This is the last speedway meeting at Brafield as speedway has been suspended until further notice owing to lack of support”

Sadly the stockcars crowds on the alternate weeks greatly outstripped the speedway attendances, and it seemed that most of the potential visitors had already ridden at Brafield. La Trobe’s appeal to be allowed to book stronger fields for his meetings fell on deaf ears and he received no support from the BSPA. Perhaps, just perhaps, if things had been different for La Trobe, he might have been able to ride out the attendance problems despite officialdoms indifference, but he was heavily involved in court actions with the government turning the screw on pirate radios. Estuary Radio had a staggering twenty eight summons served on them for broadcasting without a licence Before mid August when The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect, his company was one of many fighting a rearguard action against officialdom and no doubt speedway was the last thing on his mind. The Badgers had been culled along with the radio pirates!