Doug Nicolson looks at the latter months of the inaugural BL season in Scotland when, after a promising start, things rather fell away. But as The Tremeloes would later sing "Even the bad times were good!

Scotland’s Golden  Summer

Scottish speedway’s zenith was undoubtedly in the early 50s when Ken LeBreton, Jack Young and Tommy Miller were the leading lights, peaking with Jack Young winning the World Championship. However, the summer of 1965 when both Edinburgh and Glasgow were in the first division for the first time went pretty close to rivaling it. It certainly was a golden summer! Glasgow had finished bottom of the PL but certainly started the season on fire. A huge win over Coventry gave notice that they were a team to be reckoned with. This was further evidenced by away wins at Edinburgh and Belle Vue and a draw at newcomers Halifax and Tigers were top of the first BL table published in early May.

Charlie Monk was taking the new league by storm. He had won the Easter Trophy in the rain at West Ham and returned to London to win the prestigious Internationale at Wimbledon, despite having ridden in a league meeting at Exeter in the morning of this Bank Holiday Monday. He was the first Golden Helmet challenger. Indeed Scotland provided the first three challengers, Monk, Ken McKinlay and George Hunter, although Barry Briggs saw them all off fairly comfortably. The three however were mainstays of the GB team that beat Russia in a five test match series, and all rose for Scotland in a narrow defeat by the Russians at a rain soaked Old Meadowbank.

July ended with Monk winning the British semifinal at Glasgow, and would be a favourite at the British Final at West Ham, where the top six riders would qualify for the World Final at Wembley. Fans were now beginning to set tentative plans to get to Wembley to cheer him on in the World Final. Things were looking good, but by now the summer was drawing to a close, nights were drawing in and sadly things were beginning to go sour.

George Hunter walk out and suspension

Another rainy night at Old Meadowbank saw Coventry run out convincing victors but the big talking point was George Hunter walking out after one race saying “The track is absolutely ridiculous. I’m packing it in” At the time Hoskins took a fairly conservative line telling the public that Hunter was off colour and wouldn’t be riding again. However positions hardened later in the week, with Hunter, already reported to the Control Board, claiming he would do it again if no improvements were made. Hoskins retorted that he wouldn’t get the chance to walk out again and that he rides as an ordinary member of the team and sent him a strongly worded letter to this effect. Hunter turned up the following week, only for the meeting to be rained off, but said that he had no regrets as his requested improvements had now been made. A tentative truce for worried Edinburgh fans.

However this wasn’t Hunter’s only brush with officialdom. He broke down en route to Coventry and two days later failed to show up at Exeter, on a night when fellow Monarchs Alf Wells and Kevin Torpie were also “no shows”. The BSPA, taking into account that he had also failed to arrive for an open meeting at Newport, suspended Hunter for 21 days. Surprisingly nothing was said about his walkout.Wells and Torpie were banned from riding in open meetings for 21 days. Hardly a big deal. Hunter duly appealed and with him being required for the Monarchs tour of Poland,he got a sympathetic hearing and his suspension was reduced, such that he missed only one meeting at Edinburgh, being replaced by Ivan Mauger.

If only, if only!

The first attempt to run the British Final was rained off and it was restaged the following Tuesday on 31^st August, a night when stock car racing was also being held at Newton Abbot. – more about this shortly!  The meeting was held up for over an hour following a rider strike over pay rates. After three rides Monk had seven points from three starts and was well on course for a place in the top six, who be the British representatives in the Wembley World Final.

Things started to go awry in his fourth outing when he developed a puncture and was beaten into third place but with eight points he was still very much in the hunt. Heat twenty had three rivals in Ken McKinlay with nine points, Monk on eight and Jimmy Gooch on seven, and the final two qualifiers would almost certainly come from these three. All Charlie needed to do was finish ahead of Gooch. Whether he beat McKinlay or not was irrelevant. It is not known whether Charlie understood this position prior to going out on the track, but it certainly didn’t seem that he did. Monk and McKinlay got away from the tapes ahead of Gooch and diced for the lead for two laps until McKinlay, on the outside, slid into the fence. The red lights were put on and Monk was excluded – a real home track decision! Speedway Star reporter, Paul Parrish, wrote, “I didn’t think Monk had anything to do with McKinlay’s fall” but out he went and his dream of appearing at Wembley was over. The sad thing was that Charlie didn’t have to beat McKinlay at all, just finishing second ahead of Gooch would have been enough.

BBC Sportsview cameras were at the meeting and when Trevor Redmond saw the transmission he immediately slapped in a protest to the Control Board. Quite sensationally, the Speedway Control Board upheld Tigers’ appeal and ordered that heat twenty should be rerun at West Ham the following Tuesday, just four days before the Wembley final. This was a quite incredible outcome, but, from a Glasgow viewpoint, it seemed the correct one. However the Management Committee subsequently overturned this verdict ruling that it would set a dangerous precedent that umpires decisions on matters of fact could be reversed. . In modern day football, it would have been like a disciplinary committee upholding an appeal against a sending off and ordering that the part of the match after the sending off should be replayed! On reflection they probably were correct.

However, if Redmond hadn’t been promoting stock cars at Newton Abbot that night, he would surely have been at Custom House, and he would certainly have understood the position prior to heat twenty. Things could well have been quite different and Tigers may well have had a rider in the World Final. Would Charlie have won the title? Probably not, no rider has won the title on his debut in modern times, but, on a night when favourite Barry Briggs was beset by bike troubles, a place on the rostrum would not have been out of the question. What a night it would have been, undoubtedly the greatest in Glasgow’s history…..if only !

Glasgow’s KO Cup Run Ends

Tigers fans were quite subdued following Monk’s controversial elimination, but still had the KO Cup to look forward to. Glasgow had drawn Sheffield at home in the first round and had run up a large 64-32 win. Their luck in the ballot for the next round continued to hold, drawing Swindon at home. This was going to be a tough task. The Robins had lost 40-38 when in Glasgow earlier in the season and had won their first round tie at Newcastle, against a Diamonds side that controversially tracked both Mauger and his replacement Brett.

Tigers had to make two enforced late changes. First Willie Templeton was stricken with whooping cough and wasn’t able to ride and then Bruce Ovenden phoned to say he had broken down en route from his Manchester base. Bill McMillan and Red Monteith deputised. Charlie Monk was in scintillating form and was the only Tiger capable of containing the Briggs/ Broadbanks/ Ashby spearhead, beating Barry Briggs twice on his way to a five ride maximum. However the lesser lights won numerous battles with their opposite numbers, with the sterling efforts of replacements Bill McMillan and Red Monteith being vital in clinching a narrow 49-46 win.

Tigers were now in the semifinal, and again got a home tie, against the all conquering West Ham. The Hammers arrived at Glasgow unbeaten in the British League since the end of July and a 44-34 win at Edinburgh the previous week confirmed that they were in top form. Tigers welcomed back Willie Templeton after his bronchitis problems and Nils Paulsen who had been out with a broken collarbone. It was a tightly contested meeting and scores were level with two races to go, and what a race the penultimate heat was! There were four exclusions and cries for a fifth! First, Hammers Malc Simmonds was excluded under the two minutes rule and was replaced by reserve Tony Clarke. The race was stopped after Nils Paulsen fell, with the Norwegian being excluded as the prime cause of the stoppage while Tony Clarke was also ruled out of the rerun for not being under power when the race was stopped. Graham Coombes lined up against Sverre Harrfeldt but his bike failed on the second lap. He tried desperately to restart it but was eventually lapped while pushing it down the back straight. His red exclusion light glowed on the gantry. The lone Harrfeldt just cruised round. As he came round he final bend he slowed completely and used both hands to remove his goggles. He finished in a time of 97.8 seconds and got an appropriate reception from the White City faithful. Cries for his exclusion for not making a bona fide attempt to race fell on deaf ears, but it really was academic as McKinlay and Hunter took the expected 5-1 over Maury Mattingly and Bill McMillan in the final race. West Ham had now won two consecutive away KO Cup ties and went on to win both legs of the final against Exeter.

Exodus

A seemingly innocuous article in the Tigers programme in mid September said that Charlie Monk, Bluey Scott, Graham Coombes and Bruce Ovenden were all intending to return to their respective homes in Australia and New Zealand. Nothing much to that but a daily newspaper took the story further by saying that none would be returning. The same story appeared in the Speedway Star, where for good measure, it added that Willie Templeton was only on loan to the Tigers and speculated that he would be recalled to Edinburgh for the following season. Promoter Redmond hit out at these stories, saying they were malicious and that Bluey Scott was definitely wintering in Lanarkshire. He went onto add that both Charlie Monk and Bruce Ovenden would be coming back for next season, while Graham Coombes was undecided about what to do.

The Glasgow Open Championship was staged on a Thursday night and for once a better night weatherwise but there was a gloomy feeling as Charlie Monk was reported to be in dispute with the promotion and was refusing to ride in Glasgow EVER AGAIN!

Bruce Ovenden made his last White City appearance, scoring two points on borrowed machinery. He had a good reason to head for New Zealand – he was getting married! Trevor Redmond was reported as keeping his fingers crossed that Bruce Ovenden would be returning. Not a great night and I was a worried teenager as I returned home that night. It would be the following week before I learnt that Monk had patched up his differences and had ridden for the team at Hackney, the night after the Glasgow Open.

Hello..and Goodbye Bernie

Bernt Persson was a late season signing who boosted the Monarchs team and gave the fans a much needed lift too. He looked a real prospect, one for the future, but then the bad news broke. He could not ride in Britain in 1966 as he had compulsory military service. Disappointed but undaunted, Hoskins said he was prepared to wait until 1967 for the young Swedish star.

Rain and more Rain

Glasgow comfortably beat Belle Vue at the beginning of September but we little knew that the season would run for a further seven more weeks but this will prove to be Tigers last win of 1965! By mid September it seemed to be the rainy season in Glasgow. There was never any real prospect of the home meeting with Sheffield going ahead and it was rained off at 6.30 with the track flooded. Tigers probably weren’t too disappointed as it is doubtful that they could have tracked a full strength team. The following week saw Tigers very much in control against Halifax, leading 31-17 at the end of heat eight. Heat nine started in a drizzle but a deluge mid race quickly saturated the track and Charlie Monk slid into the pits fence on the last lap. The race was stopped and, with no prospect of further racing, the meeting abandoned. It was ten minutes before the rain abated sufficiently to allow the crowd to disperse. It was widely assumed that Tigers would be awarded the league points. But not so! Reg Fearman successfully persuaded the Management Committee that the score wasn’t conclusive, which it wasn’t arithmetically – but it was still a big stretch to suggest the Dukes could have won! Strangely the following week Glasgow were staging a challenge meeting against an Edinburgh/Newcastle Select rather than bringing back either of the two rained off victims. However it proved academic as the rains came once again! This was the third successive home meeting to be ruined by the rain.

By now both Ovenden and Paulsen had returned home, the latter apparently nursing another collar bone injury and the weakened Tigers ran into further misfortune when Halifax and Sheffield returned for a further attempt. Against the Dukes, Coombes broke his frame in hid first ride and pulled out of the meeting, soon to be joined by Mattingly who was decidedly ill at ease in the heavy going.

For once a dry night when Sheffield arrived at the White City but that was the end of the good news. Maury Mattingly was fog bound in London. With the second half being curtailed due to the firework exhibition, no juniors were present and Tigers had to track a six-man team. In the final analysis Tigers could not overcome the loss of three regulars and ended up thirteenth in the first ever British League, a position depressed by the defeats in their last two home meetings. Had they been able to track a full team they would surely have won both fixtures and would have nestled in mid table. However it certainly was an improvement on the previous years wooden spoon. A firework display brought one of the most eventful seasons in Tigers history to a fitting end.

While the crowd was leaving the stadium, a small figure clad in leathers a couple of sizes too big but with a red football jersey holding them in place went out on to the track. Despite being a bit tentative down the straights, he attacked the corners with some style. Those present had witnessed the White City debut of one of the finest Tigers of all time, Jim McMillan, so perhaps the season had ended on a high note after all.