Speedway's Greatest Promoters

[mark cox 1]

I've got to mention Dan Mcormick.

The Scotsman who turned the tide at Cradley Heath.

Until Dan's arrival Cradley were traditional easybeats, Dan changed things dramatically.

He's the man that brought in Anders Michanek, then there was the likes of Bruce Penhall, Bobby Schwartz, Erik Gundersen, Phil Collins, Alan Grahame, etc.

So although Cradley didn't win the league until 1981 they made gradual improvements in the league until then and it was the basis of Mcormick's team that finally did it.

However before that there were the KO Cup wins, League Cup, etc, etc.

He was a no nonsense character who swayed the axe, it took plenty of guts to sack Heathens legend Bernie Persson prior to the glory years, and he did receive plenty of verbal from the Cradley fans, however he kept at the job and laid the foundations for future Cradley promoters.

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In the early to mid 1970's Cradley were the traditional wooden spoonists, so when this charismatic big-mouthed bloke turned up, telling us we had the best track around, it was about time we had a team and a stadium to match, it was a startling breath of fresh air.

Despite chucking down a couple of concrete slabs down on the first bend and repainting some old shacks, we didn't get the stadium, but 'Dan the Man' certainly had the ambition, ruthlessness and drive to get the riders he thought would bring his side success. Which they didn't do too bad at...

A big pity he tried to run Birmingham as well, which resulted in his leaving Cradley, but he definetly was the main architect of the gravy train years at Cradley, and gets my vote as one of the greatest promoters.

[squibby 44]

In terms of sheer volume I'd have to say Wally Mawdsley - he was involved in promotion at well into double figures track-wise, so if number of tracks promoted is the criterion , then Wally must be right up there

[Guest darren45.wanadoo.co.uk@fs]

John Perrin ????????????

[capone 35]

This section of the Forum contains a large number of interesting posts from those of us who can look back over many years of watching speedway, and also those who are keen to know more about what it was all like. We've had threads about who was the best rider, what was the best meeting, what was the best track and things of that type. Here's one, though. Who was the greatest promoter of his or her time?

 

I started watching the sport in 1962, so I have a few to consider in my list. But first we need to define what it is that makes a promoter "great".

 

Is it long-term commitment to a club? Is it showmanship? Personality? Business acumen? PR capability? Maybe it's a combination of these and other factors.

 

I suppose that Johnnie Hoskins would get a very high percentage of the vote if a poll were held. The Great Man's place in history is assured by the sheer volume of written and anecdotal evidence which surrounds him, together with the not inconsiderable advantage of being credited by many with having "invented" the sport. However, Johnnie was probably past his peak by even the early sixties so I'm not sure I could put him in first position.

 

I can immediately think of five from the 60s whom I would regard as "up there or thereabouts". Here they are.

 

Ian Hoskins during his Old Meadowbank era. A showman supreme, helped along by his experience and interest in acting. Ian could hold an audience of 6000 in the palm of his hand; he would run the whole gamut of emotions from A through to B (apologies to Dorothy L Parker!) and then on a bit further. Any small snippet of information would attain the significance of a worldwide exclusive; the arrival of his latest signing would be heralded as if it were the second coming. A home defeat for Monarchs called for every response short of actual invasion of the victorious team's town, or in the case of really heavy defeats, possibly even England. He managed to convey much of that personality through into the press too. Perhaps his most endearing characteristic was his capacity for letting us all laught at him as well as with him.

 

Len Silver at his best at Hackney. To be honest I always thought he had learned a lesson or two from the Hoskins family because there were some similarities. The nickname "Leaping Len" was certainly justified by the energy he would put into these Friday night shows. Who else could make such a major issue of throwing a coin into the crowd after the toss?

 

Trevor Redmond in the 60s promoted at Neath, then at Glasgow. Here was another larger-than-life personality who knew how to get a crowd going (and that's largely what "atmosphere" at meetings is about, isn't it?) I think Trevor drifted away from speedway after his spell at Wembley in the early 1970s, and I always felt that was our loss.

 

Here's a controversial nomination - Mike Parker. After the disastrous slump in attendances in the middle 1950s, the long climb back to a golden age for speedway started in 1960 with the formation of the Provincial League. Mike Parker started that league, and I seem to remember that he owned about half the teams that participated. I never saw a Mike Parker-promoted meeting; perhaps he was a thoroughly dull individual. But it can't be denied that Mike, along with partners like Reg Fearman and Bill Bridgett, really went for it and may have been speedway's salvation. Controversial? He certainly would have been on this Forum. After all, he looked like a guy who was making money, and he owned more tracks that the Russell brothers have had hot dinners. If the greatest promoter is defined as the one who makes the biggest success of the largest number of tracks then Mike's the boy. He was astute enough to resist trying to be popular - that was a job for the riders.

 

How about Dave Lanning at West Ham in 1965, first year of the British League? A fabulous team and a brilliant front man. I remember the night they came to Meadowbank as one of the most memorable meetings I ever saw. We were beaten, but did it really matter? There was a virtuoso performance by Big Dave and Ian Hoskins each doing their bit to get the crowd going. Sheer theatre of course, but theatre of a very high standard. Dave went on to bring his enthusiasm to many an ITV speedway broadcast, and may well have won over new fans in the course of doing so.

 

That's my five for today, with apologies to all the good guys whom I didn't mention. Incidentally, they all had one common understanding which I sometimes think is lost on some of today's promoters - they knew the importance of projecting the personalities of their riders to the fans, and they were smart enough to let the riders get on and do that.

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[miro 9]

Two promoters who blew in from nowhere (well the West Country actually) driving matching Volvo sports cars and had instant success were the now forgotten Cy Melville and Rodney Rycroft at Oxford in 1964.

 

Hiring a team (as legend has it in a meeting at the buffet of Paddington station) just two weeks before the start of the season they went on to win the treble of National League, National Trophy and Britannia Shield, a phenomonal first season, in the last year these competitions were staged.

 

The double act quit at the end of the campaign and were never heard of again, allegedly because they were only getting gates of 3000, when they thought they should have held the 9000 they claimed for the Good Friday slaughter of Swindon, happy days.

 

Melville, I believe, held important talks with Mike Parker towards the ammalgamation of the PL and NL and obviously was a promoter who should have been kept on board, but it was the old guard NL promoters who did for them I suspect, as stories at the time circulated ... Oxfords historic role in the sport has been to make up the numbers as another successful outsider, Steve Purchase, discoverd years later...

[Onceadon 0]

Ronnie Greene and Johnnie Hoskins definitely.

 

The other for me has to be Charles Ochiltree. I have heard many other promoters (such as John Berry, Reg Fearman & Ian Thomas) say how they copied and admired his methods, and imitation is always the sincerest form of flattery.

 

Nigel Boocock once said that Coventry Speedway was run like a solicitors office, it was that professional, and John Berry's comment was that the CO never forgot that the business of speedway was entertainment, and that the entertainment of speedway was a business.

[Celticman 21]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2005 at 2:38 PM, norbold said:

Two other names I would like to add - Ronnie Greene. A strict disciplinarian by all accounts but his riders loved him and he produced arguably the greatest team of all time in the late 50s and early 60s with Wimbledon.

 

No question Ronnie was up there with the best and those Wimbledon teams back then dominated like no other team has before or since. You can look it up.

[False dawn 2,294]

3 minutes ago, Celticman said:

On 3/5/2005 at 7:38 PM, norbold said:

Two other names I would like to add - Ronnie Greene. A strict disciplinarian by all accounts but his riders loved him and he produced arguably the greatest team of all time in the late 50s and early 60s with Wimbledon.

No question Ronnie was up there with the best and those Wimbledon teams back then dominated like no other team has before or since. You can look it up.

Are you an archaeologist Celticman? You've dug up more really old threads than any other forum member I know. 

[Celticman 21]

41 minutes ago, False dawn said:

Are you an archaeologist Celticman? You've dug up more really old threads than any other forum member I know. 

Actually I invented the science of archaeology shortly after I popularized the idea of history. The egg came before the chicken on this one. I was going to have the user name Father Time but for the sake of brevity settled on Celticman. Is it too late to change it? 

I was an avid Speedway fan in the UK from 1955 to 1967 and of course living within walking distance of the all-conquering Wimbledon Dons were my team. The Dons Cyril Brine was a good friend of my father. When I was 14 I would sometimes meet Cyril at Plough Lane in off hours and learn about bikes while he worked on his machines. Cyril taught me how to ride bikes. I started by just cruising around the track on one of his old bikes and one of the mechanics brought an old BSA C11 OHV 250 which I drove around the empty parking lot. It certainly felt better with brakes on the 250 vs the speedway bike. I ended up buying the BSA. I notice that you have an affinity for sidecar racing. One of the bikes that owned before I left for Canada was a big old Norton with a Watsonian sidecar. Bike riders that have never operated a sidecar usually are quite surprised at the different riding skills involved. Cyril helped me on a life long passion for bikes. I have owned a bike or two continually for nearly 60 years and currently have a Suzuki S3 1400 and Suzuki Hyabusa 1300. 

I left the UK for Canada in 1967 and still live in Toronto. Alas Speedway was left behind except for my treasured memories. I have only discovered this website. I find it amazing how much I remember as I browse through the Years Gone By section. As you have observed I started on page 185 and have worked forward LOL.  

I noticed your affinity for Leicester. Commiserations J

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Celticman

[False dawn 2,294]

59 minutes ago, Celticman said:

Actually I invented the science of archelogy shortly after I popularized the idea of history. The egg came before the chicken on this one. I was going to have the user name Father Time but for the sake of brevity settled on Celticman. Is it too late to change it? 

I was an avid Speedway fan in the UK from 1955 to 1967 and of course living within walking distance of the all-conquering Wimbledon Dons were my team. The Dons Cyril Brine was a good friend of my father. When I was 14 I would sometimes meet Cyril at Plough Lane in off hours and learn about bikes while he worked on his machines. Cyril taught me how to ride bikes. I started by just cruising around the track on one of his old bikes and one of the mechanics brought an old BSA C11 OHV 250 which I drove around the empty parking lot. It certainly felt better with brakes on the 250 vs the speedway bike. I ended up buying the BSA. I notice that you have an affinity for sidecar racing. One of the bikes that owned before I left for Canada was a big old Norton with a Watsonian sidecar. Bike riders that have never operated a sidecar usually are quite surprised at the different riding skills involved. Cyril helped me on a life long passion for bikes. I have owned a bike or two continually for nearly 60 years and currently have a Suzuki S3 1400 and Suzuki Hyabusa 1300. 

I left the UK for Canada in 1967 and still live in Toronto. Alas Speedway was left behind except for my treasured memories. I have only discovered this website. I find it amazing how much I remember as I browse through the Years Gone By section. As you have observed I started on page 185 and have worked forward LOL.  

I noticed your affinity for Leicester. Commiserations J

 

Starting at the end of your post.....

Leicester are the auld enemy. I've been a Bees fan since 1970 and Leicester and Coventry were always the biggest rivals. Leicester sadly closed in 1983 and we switched our rivalry to Cradley Heath and later, when Cradley lost their home, to Poole.  Leicester came back, finally, in 2011, but in the second tier. We resumed our rivalry in 2014  when Leicester returned to the top flight. Sadly that lasted only 3 seasons  before the Bees "lost" their home. I say lost. The stadium is still there and it's future as a speedway/stox venue is under depute (Google Save Coventry Speedway if you're interested in the sad and complicated story). We've had a year in the third tier in 2018 using Leicester as our home but that's another sorry tale.
So, rather than give up speedway all together, I swallowed hard at the start of 2019 and went to do some missionary work in Leicester. That's not fair. I put on my Bees gear and went and supported both Leicester teams (one now in the second tier once more and the other in the National Development League). I convinced myself it wasn't totally disloyal as Leicester sported a few former Bees riders. The reality was that I got into supporting both teams in a big way. And my support paid off, they both won their respective league championships. 

As to your adopted home. I have relatives there who I sadly lost touch with many years ago.

Your biking experience is interesting. Mine is a little different. I rode road bikes as a kid but gave it up when I started driving cars in my early twenties. Jump forward a "few" years. I attended a sort of training school at the now defunct training track at Sheffield Speedway. I fell in love with riding having already watched speedway for a some years from the terraces. The truth was that I realised that my boyhood dream of becoming World Speedway Champion had not totally died. Unfortunately time was not on my side. I was already 48. Undaunted, I bought a half share in a bike and set about making records, for falling off. My final claim to fame was going out on my own and falling 6 times in 6 laps. It was time to rethink my racing future. And then as if by chance another path opened up, on here. I "bumped into" a grasstrack sidecar driver looking for a passenger. After a rush of blood and a training day in Kent off we went racing. That lasted 8 years during which time I took up sidecar speedway racing as well and even dabbled with sidecar road racing. I raced all over Britain including on numerous speedways, all over Europe and twice in Oz. I appeared in the World Sidecar Speedway Final three times. At 56, having trouble making the weight, I decided it was time to retire. I resumed my solo fanaticism and resumed my time on here.

And finally. Your user name. I think you can change it. You might need help from Phil or one of the moderators. I've never tried. Don't set up a second one. We have a few people who morph into different disguises and it's not considered the done thing.

David

[Celticman 21]

David, thanks for the great feedback

Sean

[iris123 20,939]

Have to say reading the reports etc from Hoskins' time at Maitland and one thing you have to say is he was highly respected and managed to get the Carnivals in the newspapers. Before a meeting there was a little snippet every day and a decent Ad also. Also a report on him entitled 'Born organiser' and how he since he came to the Society their membership had doubled etc

Report say's he left though to go to the RAC in Sydney !!! And wasn't their too long before a better opportunity opened to be secretary at Newcastle speedway 

[mickthemuppet 976]

Surely Sir Arthur Elvin without whom there would be no  Wembley Lions or World Individual Championships

[norbold 7,101]

1 hour ago, mickthemuppet said:

Surely Sir Arthur Elvin without whom there would be no  Wembley Lions or World Individual Championships

He wasn't the promoter. He owned Wembley Stadium.