November Obituary – Len Silver

Len passed away last month at the age of 92. As a teenager he took up cycle speedway in his local area and joined the Stratford Hammers where he honed his organisational skills along with his on track exploits. He was part of the team that raced in Bradford on the afternoon of the Bradford v West Ham meeting at Odsal in the evening and he took part and won an interval cycle race around the large oval.

He graduated to power, practising at Rayleigh and having junior rides at West Ham, where Johnnie Hoskins augmented his pay with FOM – fall off money! He joined Ipswich in 1953, riding in the Southern League and moved up to NL2 with them the following year. He had three seasons at Foxhall Heath, mainly at reserve before retiring to concentrate on his car sales business….. and that could have been the last speedway saw of him – and what a loss that would have been! – but unusually he decided to place a £10 each way bet on the first classic horse race of 1960, having got a tip from his father. It came in big time and he used the money to persuade his wife to let him have another go at speedway. After a season back at Ipswich in the National League, he was persuaded to join the Provincial Leagues Exeter by long standing friend Wally Mawdsley, the Falcons promoter.

He quickly took to the big County Ground track and became one of the top men in the league, winning PLRC at Belle Vue in 1962. Injury stopped him defending his title in 1963 but he continued his fine form averaging over 9.00. He is remembered for taking an impromptu part in a high diving interval attraction at Exeter. Having been ruled out of his second half ride with a blown motor, he stripped to his shorts and climbed the high tower. He made a mistake by jumping rather than stepping off the platform and knocked himself out and being dragged out of the small tank.

The 1964 season started with great uncertainty with the PL/NL split but he nailed his colours to the mast by phoning all the riders due to take part in the first “Black” PL meeting at Exeter when dire threats were made by the SCB about what would happen to those riding in it – enough to put Ivan Mauger off from riding. In the background he had been exploring the possibility of opening at Charlton but, when this fell through, took up Mike Parkers offer of a half share in Hackney for £1000 and lined up with the Hawks, though his time on track was limited to half a dozen meetings when he injured his neck, shoulder and wrist. While the Hawks chased Newcastle all season, finishing runners up, the crowds were poor and the promotion lost £3000, so Len had to pay Parker £1500 for his share of the loss. Parker was all for closing down but agreed to sell out to Len for a further £300, so in all Len had paid £2800 in the few months, but at least he had total control of the operation.  

Len set about improving the Waterden Road track which in its first year under Parker had been known as “Agony Wick” due to its rough state. He also went out to promote the Hawks, running a fly poster campaign. Freed from the strictures of the rather strait laced SCB he ran a ladies match race, featuring local girl Mary Mansfield who ran out an easy winner over Rosita Mattingley, wife of Tigers skipper Maury. The Evening Standard gave it extensive coverage and the crowd was boosted by about 500 that night. He later dressed as a lady and staged a stunt race, falling off the bike. Other stunts included his famous battle of flour on the last night of the season.

His Hawks team led by Colin Pratt and Bengt Jansson were pipped on race points difference by Coventry in 1968 and were also runners up in 1980 when Bo Petersen and Zenon Plech were the main men. Len was deeply affected by the track deaths of Vic Harding in 1979 and Denny Pyeatt in 1982 and played a big part in his decision to sell out in 1983 and concentrate on his Silver Ski travel business. He still ran Rye House but sold this to the Russell brothers at the end of 1985…but that wasn’t him finished with speedway. With son Andrew now riding for Eastbourne and Len was persuaded by Bob Dugard to join him in 1992 when Wimbledon moved down to Arlington where he stayed for a couple of year as promoter until Andrew retired.

Again that looked like the end of his speedway involvement but he led the Rye House revival in 2002 and was involved with the Rockets.

He was also the promoter at Sunderland and Crewe with Allied Promotions and for a spell had Hackney on Fridays Rayleigh/ Rye House on a Saturday, Sunderland on Sunday and Crewe on Monday.