Hope it's alright to add to this post considering it dates back to 2014.Sonny & Betty Dewhurst use to be our neighbours when they lived in Skelmersdale,Lancashire I was only a teenager at the time and he use to tell me about his younger days when he was a speedway/grass track rider.Infact he took myself and my dad to quite a few grass track meetings.
That was the first time that I witnessed any form of motorsports seeing it live and in person.The smell of burning fuel the noise and speed of the bikes was a sight to be hold.
A few days later Sonny came to our house and said I have somethink for you,I was pretty shocked and said what is it Sonny you will have to come next door and see.My dad knew what the surprise was as he use to go round to Sonny & Betty's on a daily basis have a coffee and cigarettes as Sonny smoked like a chimney,Read the paper and fix cars outside on the back road etc.
I didn't really know too much about Speedway and the history of the sport back then.Sonny opened up a box and inside was a set of leather's that were worn by the late Peter craven of course I didn't know who he was at the time,The leathers were a little smelly as they have been kept in the cardboard box for some time .I was told a story about the leather's that inside there was a horseshoe which was still visible but when Peter craven died the horseshoe snapped into two pieces.
Sonny sadly lost his wife Betty I am not sure of what the cause of death was.But he moved to south wales that's were Ivan dewhurst and his wife eva lived near the coast,Our family were also very friendly with Ivan and we stopped at his house over the years throughout the summer holidays back in the 1980's. Sonny's health was not always the best at this time and he lived on his own but I still enjoyed listening to his stories.
As time went by my dad told me that Sonny had passed away.Which I was upset about as he was a very close friend of our family but I also chuckled remembering him because he and Betty use to argue like cat and dog's but Betty always put him in his place as she was a large woman and he was only a short man.
