With Glasgow making repeated and latterly daily attempts to stage their Championship Play Off Final meeting with Poole, Doug Nicolson looks at previous occasions in the 60s  when teams were asked

Can You Come Back Tomorrow?

Game shows on TV in the 60s invariably asked contestants “can you come back next week” to continue their quest towards the show’s top prize and Speedway had its own variant on this in the 60s with some teams asking visitors if they could race the next evening following a rained off meeting, something almost impossible today with fixed race nights meaning the next night would already be spoken for elsewhere.

Scotland No Go

It was only possible at a few tracks as most stadia had other events scheduled, notably dog racing and in these  Presbyterian times a Sunday restaging wouldn’t have been countenanced, ruling out any Saturday tracks from benefitting from this. Whilst saving a return trip to Scotland would have pleased most English teams, this was never really on the cards. Friday night Glasgow raced at The White City which staged dog racing every Saturday and Edinburgh’s local council would never have agreed to a Sunday restaging. By the time Glasgow moved to Hampden in 1969, the Monarchs were at Coatbridge and it would have been folly for both teams to race on the same night. However there were tracks who could take advantage of this double shuffle.

 

Newport set the trend

Newport opened comparatively late in 1964 with their first meeting being on April 17 so they were always going to have to cram in their fixtures and rain offs were particularly unwelcome. In early June they struggled to complete their international four team meeting. Legend has it that a crowd of 7000 showed up, insisting that the meeting went ahead and that the riders were persuaded to give it a go, but they had to admit defeat the following week when the home meeting with Long Eaton had to be rained off. However it was quickly agreed that it would be restaged the following night and, while the track was still damp and heavy, it seems to have benefitted from the extensive watering as Alby Golden set a new track record in the opening heat as the Wasps ran up a 52-25 win. It should be noted that despite their much publicised differences promoters Mike Parker (Newport) and Reg Fearman (Long Eaton) were prepared to cooperate in getting this meeting run.

A couple of months later no promoters’ discussion was required as Mike Parker controlled both the Newport and Hackney teams. The first attempt to race the PL fixture was abandoned after two heats in mid September and the Hawks were invited back for the final meeting of the season, but they again brought the rain with them. The BBC had planned to cover this meeting and had to be content with broadcasting a couple of rider interviews. Dozens of bags of sawdust were required to be scattered on the still saturated track to let the meeting proceed the following night. Hackney’s Roy Trigg made light of the conditions scoring a 15 point maximum and cleaning up in the second half, but got little support from his team mates as they went down 51-27.

Long Eaton

The Archers promotion went to some lengths to get their 1965 BL fixture with Sheffield raced. A morning cloudburst had flooded the Station Road track but the local fire service was persuaded to come and pump the water off the track although this proved to be in vain when more rain put the meeting beyond doubt. With fans already in the stadium, and after a hurried conference, it was agreed to try again the following night with readmission tickets being issued to fans.

With the 1967 season winding down, the Archers home fixture in early October against Kings Lynn was also rerun the following night to allow the next two Tuesdays to feature their home finale and an away trip to fellow Tuesday nighters West Ham.

Exeter

Falcons’ promoters Pete Lansdale and Wally Mawdsley readily understood the benefits of a quick restaging, saving the visitors from having to make an often lengthy journey back down to Devon and had a standing reservation for rooms at the nearby Prince Albert pub on a Monday night. The County Ground stadium was available on Tuesdays and practices were often held in the morning before the track was graded and prepared for the following week. Ironically Edinburgh, their furthest flung visitors, had their meeting abandoned after a four rider crash in heat eight but could not stay over as they were scheduled to be at Long Eaton the next night.

A meeting with Swindon was called off in mid afternoon and possibly saved the Robins riders from a fruitless journey but they were on the road just 24 hours later for the restaging which, thanks to extensive publicity on local TV and radio, attracted a near normal attendance. A couple of years later the May Bank Holiday Monday morning meeting was cancelled and restaged the following night. No happy ending though as Newport, inspired by new signing Torbjorn Harryson ran out narrow winners.

Another local follow on

Newcastle had a season of torment in 1969. They ended up with a permanent guest facility in lieu of the departed Ivan Mauger and had had five rained off or abandoned meetings prior to Glasgow travelling down for a second attempt at the end of July. It suffered the same fate as the initial attempt but with double headers already being contemplated to see the season out, the Tigers were persuaded to give it another go the next night. Again the rain seems to have helped the track as Ole Olsen took 0.2 seconds off the track record on his way to a five ride maximum as the 5 man Diamonds edged out narrow 41-37 winners. Dave Schofield didn’t arrive for the Geordies. Perhaps he hadn’t been told of the restaging?

 

Not tomorrow but the following night

International tours were usually quite hectic with around half a dozen meetings being fitted into a tight schedule of less than a fortnight. Often meetings were run in conditions that otherwise would have meant cancellation, notably the Russian visits to Edinburgh and Exeter. Swedish touring team Vargarna were rained off at West Ham in August 1966, and, while they couldn’t return the next night as they were at Poole, readily agreed to return two nights later.  

The fifth and deciding test of the 1967 series between GB and Sweden at Belle Vue suffered from typical Manchester weather on the Saturday but the BSPA must have regretted fixing up a new date just two nights later as the Swedes ran riot winning 63-44 to take the series, ending GB’s unbeaten at home record in international test matches.

 

But it doesn’t always work

Edinburgh’s Scottish Open fell foul of the rain gods in 1966, being rained off on the first Saturday in October. With home and away fixtures still to be run against fellow Saturday night track Cradley, due to earlier attempts being rained off and the BLRC taking up another Saturday, Edinburgh had run out of Saturday dates and promoter Hoskins opted for another try on the Monday, which proved even wetter. Along with a few school pals I took the train through from Glasgow and got absolutely soaked in the walk from the station in the vain hope the meeting might be on. An ambitious plan to run the meeting the following Saturday in the afternoon with the Cradley meeting in the evening was never a starter. The event was eventually run as the opening meeting in 1967 and is remembered to this day for Bill Landels form book defying victory.