June 1965

Things were looking up for beleaguered Long Eaton who had lost new signing Peter Moore early in the season and had lost four of their six home meetings when it was announced that Terry Betts had signed for them. He made an immediate impact scoring eight as the Archers beat Glasgow 41-37 on the first day of June. However Betts crashed out of their meeting at Poole the following night sustaining a badly broken leg that kept him out for the season, and the Archers barely won another meeting all season.

Glasgow staged the third Scotland v England test match but the meeting was in doubt due to England call offs and was only saved by West Ham duo of Norman Hunter and Mal Simmons taking the booking at short notice. Unsurprisingly the Scots won 62-46 with their spearhead of Monk, McKInlay and Hunter all having things largely their own way. This Wednesday night fixture meant Monk and Willie Templeton rode at Long Eaton, Glasgow and then Oxford on successive nights.

McKinlay was Briggs next challenger in the Golden Helmet but his bid was no more successful than Monks as the Kiwi retained the title for another month.

Ipswich and Middlesbrough both stage non league challenge meetings against Hackney and Newcastle respectively, with sides being of BL standard, something that upset the BSPA who then insisted that future meetings were to feature junior riders. Neither club staged any further meetings.

Charlie Monk had a busy and very successful Whitsun Bank Holiday, riding in the Tigers league meeting at Exeter in the morning before winning the Internationale at Wimbledon in the evening. He was in the form of his life and also topped the qualifiers from the World Championship Qualifying Rounds. Ivor Brown sustains back injuries after being fenced in his opening ride, putting him out for the season and leaving the Heathens toiling and, with replacement riders just not available, joining Long Eaton in the cellar.

 Ivan Mauger returns to ride in the WCQR with his ankle in plaster and rides conservatively to ensure he qualifies. Newcastle rebut claims that they are too strong when Brett, ostensibly Mauger’s replacement is retrained when the Kiwin returns for the Diamonds, citing their 48-30 defeat at Sheffield. They are ordered to release a rider and Goog Allan is chosen but refuses to ride at Edinburgh against The Diamonds. Edinburgh are in the throes of an injury crisis and Tommy Roper refuses to join them and ends up at Halifax who swap out Austrian Alfred Sittzwohl. Reg Fearman certainly won out here as the Austrian is well short of BL standard.

Oxford follow up a narrow 40-38 home win over Newcastle with an away win in a tousy meeting at Glasgow to keep themselves in contention at the top of the league. Heat 2 is declared null and void after Oxford refuse to take part in a rerun, ordered after Nils Paulsen lays down to avoid his fallen partner Bluey Scott. The Cheetahs relent and the heat is run after heat four. Paulsen subsequently crashes out of the meeting after breaking his toes by trapping them under his footrest while Bruce Ovenden blows his engine clean out of its frame. The meeting is punctuated with arguments over use of the supplementary reserve and two minute exclusions. A further road win at Cradley puts them in pole position in the league.

Swindon win at Newcastle in the KO Cup and surprisingly Long Eaton edge out Coventry at Station Road to join the Robins in the draw for the next round.

Excitement mounts with the news of the up coming test match series against Russia to be staged at Wimbledon, Coventry, Sheffield, Belle Vue and Newport with representative meetings being run at Edinburgh and Exeter.