The Eldest McMillan
Doug Nicolson looks at a career less reported in
The eldest McMillan
Old Meadowbank years
As far as I can determine a twenty year old Bill McMillan had his first official rides in the Discovery Race in the second half of Edinburgh’s first home meeting of 1961, a challenge meeting against New Cross Colts. He followed home race winner Jimmy Cox who started off the 50 yard mark but ahead of Ian Kinnear, Bob Cummings and Robert Harkiss, the latter not a mis spelling Bert Harkins. The following week saw him win this race from Kinnear, Tom Collins and Roy Penman – wonder what became of them. His winning time was 76.2, some five seconds more than the winning time for the rider of the night final. He rode in most second halfs that year but had his racing licence suspended for a time because it was found that he only held a provisional driving licence. Apparently a full licence was required!
He was drafted in by short handed visitors Sheffield and Bradford in early 1962, scoring 0 and 2+1 respectively. He partnered Willie Templeton in that years Scottish Best Pairs and outscored his uncle 5 to 4 as they finished at the bottom of the scorechart. However this was a prelude to outings in the team proper at Bradford, at home to Exeter and away to Wolverhampton.
While he started 1963 in the second half, he grabbed his chance in May, scoring 4+2 from 2 rides against Hackney, a reserves paid maximum, and was on course to get a paid full house at Newcastle shortly thereafter but lost it to a last heat fall. Such scores saw him promoted into the team proper where unsurprisingly he found the going tougher. He subsequently dropped back to the reserve berth where he spent most of the season, latterly in competition with the returning Bill Landels for the spot.
In all he rode in nearly twenty meetings in the blue and gold
Glasgow White City
Trevor Redmond brought speedway back to Glasgow in 1964 and both Bill McMillan and Red Monteith were recruited from Edinburgh to be in the Tigers team. While the latter only held his team place throughout the early months, Bill was a regular, only missing the way meetings at Poole and Hackney, possibly due to holiday arrangements. He usually rode at number two and was partnered by skipper Maury Mattingley. A solid start in the early season Northern League saw him achieve a home average of just over six but things were to prove tougher in the Provincial League campaign by which time most teams had beefed up their line ups, helped by Sunderland’s closure. His best score was seven at home to Long Eaton.
.The National League and the Provincial League amalgamated to form the combined British League in 1965 and the reshuffle of riders saw Willie Templeton, Bluey Scott and Nils Paulsen joint the Tigers. Promoter Redmond then had to select two from Bruce Ovenden, Graham Coombes and Bill McMillan to complete his team. He perhaps shrewdly selected the two Kiwis, knowing that, being Manchester based, they would be snapped up, probably by Belle Vue if not offered a team place. This left McMillan as the team’s number eight. Chances were fairly limited early on but when the injury bug hit the team in mid summer and he ended up riding in nearly twenty meetings, averaging about 4.00.
Ill-fated Cowdenbeath opened for a short open licence season and Bill turned out for the Lions in four of their opening fixtures before moving to the opposition – “The Rest” and Charlie Monk’s Select – during which time he won the Scottish Junior Championship on a rare Saturday afternoon meeting.
Bluey Scott and Bill McMillan on a 5-1 at The White City
Neither Coombes nor Ovenden returned for 1966, Coombes being allocated to Newcastle and Ovenden returning home to New Zealand, and Bill started off the season as reserve. However he soon handed over the number seven racejacket, first to Maury Mattingley and then to Norwegian new signing Jonny Faafeng. He spent the bulk of the season being paired with Charlie Monk and all that that entailed! His White City form continued to be good, achieving nearly 7.00. Was it just coincidence that he scored his first paid maximum (9+3) in the 60-17 win over Poole on the night that younger brother Jim made his Tigers debut. There certainly was no sibling rivalry with Jim later saying how much he appreciated Bill’s help.
While very much a team man, he scored well in two individual meetings at the Paisley Road West track that year, scoring 10 in both the Superbike Round and the Glasgow Open.
Danny Taylor took over the promoter’s role from Trevor Redmond in 1967 and Bill, along with the rest of the team, had a pretty mixed start to the season. The Tigers drew at Hackney and, joy of joys, won at Edinburgh but lost at home to Newcastle and drew with Poole – all before May had started. However he hit form scoring his first full maximum in Tigers home win over Sheffield, but in his first heat the following week took a large handful of throttle and drifted into the fence, hitting the access gate at the apex of the bend and sustaining a badly broken ankle. This kept him out for the bulk of the season and he only made a few second half appearances as the season wound down.
Danny Taylor sold his shares to Les Whaley and opened Second Division Berwick. Charlie Monk had secured his transfer and Whaley got the rawest of raw deals from the Rider Allocation Committee for his replacement, with Jim Airey and Gunnar Malmquist both refusing to come to Glasgow. In the end Whaley signed Lars Jansson, the untried younger brother of World Number Two Bengt. The weak Tigers team had a traumatic time as did Bill, who was dropped for a time during which he turned out for Berwick in a handful of meetings, setting the Berwick track record in one of these meetings. He was recalled to the Tigers team who received Alf Wells, freed by Newcastle, but lost Swedes Bo Josefsson and Ake Andersson, neither of whom returned from Sweden. Possibly only now fully recovered from the previous years injury, he enjoyed better scores in August – 10 in the Northern Riders Qualifying Round: 7s against Prague, King’s Lynn and Newcastle at The White City and 6 including two heat wins in Tigers surprise 42-36 win at West Ham.
The Tigers moved to Hampden in 1969 but Bill didn’t! He had emigrated and didn’t return till midway through the 1970 season, solving the Tigers problems in filling the troublesome number seven slot. While rarely hitting the heights he solidified the tailend as Tigers went unbeaten at home to finish eighth in the BL, equaling their highest finish. He had a nasty crash which saw his bike fly over the fence and fall into the enclosure below.
Following a winter riding in the sun in Rhodesia, it was back to Hampden for what proved to be his swansong. After being dropped in favour of Jim Beaton for the home meeting against Poole at the end of April, Bill was an ever present until the middle of August. He was promoted into the team for the double header against Sheffield and Oxford but was right out of luck. He crashed into the safety fence while avoiding Doug Wyer who had seized up right in front of him, sustaining a cracked bone in his wrist. He reported fit for the Poole/ Wimbledon trip just under two weeks later but had a pretty dire time at these venues and then faced the overnight drive back home from London, so no doubt wasn’t in the best frame of mind for the visit of the league leading Belle Vue Aces. Really nothing went right for the Tigers that night in early September. Monk, Willie Templeton and Bill were all toiling badly but the decision to pull a double tactical move in heat eight replacing Monk with Hunter and Bill by brother Jim seemed overkill particularly as Aces were tracking Ken Eyre who hadn’t beaten a Tiger in two starts.. A lot of hard words and home truths were being dispensed in the Tigers’ side of the pits, with the upshot being that Bill decided he had had enough and was calling it quits. Hoskins rather gracelessly announced that Bill had retired but that no one retired on him during a meeting and that he had sacked him! However you cut it, Bill had ridden his last speedway race.
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