Perhaps STV realised that a live transmission wasn’t the answer. It was three years later before they returned and this time to Glasgow who were staging the first ever British League meeting to be held in Scotland in April 1965. The STV cameras made the short journey across Glasgow from their HQ to The White City to film the Tigers meeting against Hackney, with highlights being shown the following afternoon. when English viewers were again enjoying their football cup final. Sadly, the racing was disappointing and the main camera, positioned on the centre green halfway between the tapes and the first bend, gave some strange “wall of death” shots. As for the meeting itself, Chris Julian had bike problems in heat two; Bruce Ovenden completely missed the gate and trailed in last in the next race; and Charlie Monk pulled up in heat nine while well in the lead. Otherwise the Tigers scored 5-1s in all the other heats, which didn’t really make for particularly exciting viewing, although Willie Templeton, making his Tigers debut, won heat one in 78.2 seconds, just half a second outside the track record.

STV must have been pleased with the meeting as they returned the following year to record our local derby, again showing it on FA Cup Final afternoon. This time, there was plenty of action for the cameras. Tigers got off to a bad start with both Bluey Scott and Jonny Faafeng falling in heat one. Then in heat two Bengt Jansson drifted into the pits bend fence and was carried off with a broken ankle. It was only in the last three heats that the Tigers managed to pull away and clinch the meeting by 43-35, but both the scoreline and the on track action made for far better viewing.

A few years later in 1969 Coatbridge was the venue for more TV footage, when the Monarchs had little difficulty in beating Hackney 53-25. However it came at a cost, with Doug Templeton getting broken ribs after falling in front of Des Lukehurst. Unconfirmed rumours of the time suggested this may have been staged for the cameras. The England v Scotland football international was televised live that evening and the Monarchs got their lowest crowd ever.  Rather naïvely Ian Hoskins wanted the Control Board to register a protest with the football authorities, pointing out that football is an afternoon sport and should respect other sports who operate in the evening.

Hoskins was quite down beat when summing up the meeting, feeling the cameras often just picked out one rider, giving the impression of a dull procession, and that it didn’t capture the excitement properly. He went on to say he wouldn’t be in a hurry to have the cameras back at Coatbridge. However he felt STV were keen to feature the Scotland v England meeting from Hampden that August and that a camera high in the stands might give a wider and more interesting perspective. Possibly STV picked up on his pessimism for they never came back for a few years.  

It was Tigers final year at Hampden, before STV were persuaded back, taking in the Tigers v Poole meeting. Dick Barrie shared the commentating duties with STV’s Alex Cameron, with timekeeper Stan Gardner taking over Dick’s announcing role. I was co-opted to mark up a programme for Alex Cameron and generally keep him informed about what was going on. He seemed well impressed by my description of John Langfield as “colourful and controversial” and used it on more than one occasion. My fee for being his assistant was two guineas - £2.10 – not enough to persuade me to give up my day job. The meeting itself was fairly drab, although thankfully blessed with a dry, bright night. The Tigers won by a large margin, one of their biggest of the season, with Charlie Monk and George Hunter recording full maximums, with Jimmy McMillan and Bobby Beaton getting paid maxes. In truth, it didn’t really provide a good advert for the sport and proved to be the last TV meeting for some time. Our TV exposure in the 60s was thanks to Don Cumming, the long time track announcer for both the Monarchs and Tigers, using his influence in his role as an STV producer at the time.

Double vision?

Rather strangely Cradley staged two best pairs meetings for BBC’s “Grandstand” in out of season February in 1962 - and on successive Saturday afternoons too - adopting a truly unique format, possibly for TV and one that has never been repeated. The top two pairs from the first Saturday, a 21 heat programme featuring 7 pairs – 4 from Cradley and one each from Exeter, Plymouth and Wolves - were seeded through to the following week’s semifinals where they raced the top two pairs from that afternoon’s meeting. The home pairings of Harry Bastable/John Hart and Ivor Davies/Derek Timms topped the first meeting, and their “reward” was not getting to ride in the first 15 heats which were contested by six pairs, of which only the third Heathens pairing of Ivor Brown and Tony Eadon had ridden the previous Saturday, the others being from Leicester, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Stoke and Wolves.  Possibly riding in the meeting proper gave Brown/Eadon an advantage in the semis and final, which they took 4-3 over Davies/Timms, thanks to Brown’s heat win, gaining 4 points in the 4-2-1-0 scoring used exclusively in these three races.

Morning All!

Westward TV proved to be good friends to Exeter Speedway broadcasted recorded highlights of individual meetings for their trophy each year from 1964. These meetings were usually held on the morning of Bank Holiday Mondays, Whitsun Bank Holiday in 1964 before settling for the August Bank Holiday from 1965 onwards. Presumably the morning meetings meant no additional lighting was required by the TV people. Some meetings were full individuals but others featured a challenge match with Poole followed by a seven heat individual - four heats, two semi finals and a final. That was the format of the meeting Iattended on that sunny morning back in 1969. 

Evening All!

Wimbledon's Internationale , an FIM inscribed event, was another to be run on a Bank Holiday Monday  and the BBC broadcast recorded highlights on their midweek Sportview programme for some years.  

Adverts

Alan Kidd of Poole appeared in TV adverts for Players cigarettes in the early 60s but with no reference being made to his speedway career, while adverts for Mars bars – “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play” – featured a fan watching the racing at Wimbledon.