History of Brandon 1953 - 56 Champions as tracks close!

[Bee 1]

1953

 

After five seasons, The Bees finally reached the top of their Division finishing as CHAMPIONS at the fourth attempt in Division Two, having got promotion from Division Three on the strength of the crowds at Brandon.

We turned the tables on ‘52 Champions Poole, this time they had to settle for runners up. But, it was not all plain sailing.

 

The closing weeks gave the Bees a few flutters as we lost five consecutive meetings before securing the title with a draw at Wolverhampton.We had our usual problems too...

 

Pete Brough missed almost the whole season due to a spell in the NATIONAL SERVICE... Major changes took place at Brandon itself with the track being altered from 375 yards to 380 yards. Gone were the tight bends, as the fence was moved out over the dog track, and gave us a similar sight of the track as it is today. Out too went the Cinders base, and in came the red shale surface.

 

The league itself hit more problems with the closure of both Glasgow Ashfield and Cradley. Furthermore Oxford joined the Southern League as part of a cost cutting operation, and the National League Division Two was down too nine teams.

 

The Bees opened the season at Brandon with a away over Glasgow 43-41, but then lost at Motherwell, before opening the season at Brandon with a home win over Glasgow.

 

Unlike previous seasons the Bees stormed off to a great start in the League. All eight home matches been won and a staggering six out of eight away had resulted in victories for the Bees.

 

In the National Trophy our Cup luck continued with an injury to Les Hewitt he missed the first leg at Stoke and we suffered a 37-71 defeat. In the 2nd leg at Brandon Hewitt defied Doctor’s orders and scored 16 points to help Bees to a 69-39 win, but even that terrific effort was not enough, and the Bees were out at the first hurdle.

 

Crowds slumped in 1953 (Coronation Year.) and several tracks closed during the summer. New Cross (Div 1 ) Cardiff (Southern League) and Liverpool in our Division, which resulted in the Bees being deducted four points gained against the Chads.

 

 

Things went wrong in July, when Wolverhampto, just one place off the bottom, visited Brandon and won 52-32. But, Bees bounced back with a win at Blackbird Road, (Leicester) their first away win since May. A win at Stoke followed and that eased the pressure, only for the Bees to blow it again, when they lost for the second time at Brandon, this time beaten by Motherwell.

 

September saw the Bees lead the Championship race by five points. With six matches to race.

 

Five of those six were away. They won the remaining home match, and went on their travels. Lost, lost, lost and lost. The pressure was on as they went to Wolverhampton needing a point to be crowned Champions.

At the half way stage we trailed by TEN and things looked bad. But, then the Bees fought back in fine style to LEVEL the scores with one race remaining. In a pulsating finale, CHARLIE NEW won the heat under pressure from Jim Tolley for the Wasps. The match was drawn and the Bees were Champions.......

 

Charlie New won the World Championship Qualifier staged at Brandon, and also the Midland Riders Championship Qualifier. GRAHAM WARREN of Birmingham won the Midland Riders Championship Final, and JACK YOUNG won the Brandonapolis.

 

A new junior league was formed in ‘53 with the Bees proving far too strong for all the other Midland based clubs. The Bees won 18 of their 20 junior matches. GERRY DUNN was the pick of the bunch along with JIM LIGHTFOOT and PETER REASON.

 

Coventry scorer’s 1953

1. Charlie New 244

2. Johnnie Reason 205

3. Les Hewitt 203

4. Vic Emms 180

5. Reg Duval 175

6. Derrick Tailby 121

7. Stan Williams 120

8. Jack Wright 99

9. Peter Brough 46

10. Jim Lightfoot 1

11. Tommy Anderson 0

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE

Division Two 1953

 

1. Coventry 32 19 1 12 1394 1290 39

2. Poole 32 18 2 12 1492 1192 38

3. Yarmouth 32 18 0 14 1403 1281 36

4. Glasgow W.C. 32 16 2 14 1423.5 1262.5 34

5. Edinburgh 32 15 1 16 1349.5 1333.5 31

6. Motherwell 32 15 0 17 1313 1366 30

7. Wolverhampton 32 13 1 18 1282 1401 27

8. Leicester 32 13 1 18 1207 147 27

9. Stoke 32 12 2 18 1210 1472 26

Liverpool deleted 16 5 0 11 582 761 10

 

1954.

 

Dwindling crowds nation-wide, due to the Entertainment Tax and the Coronation year of 1953, saw Speedway still in dire trouble financially come the start of 1954.

 

In three short seasons, no less than TWELVE clubs had gone too the wall and closed down. Others were still fighting to survive. But in ‘54 more were to lose the battle.The Promoters of the day were well aware of the problems and had discussed ways of making changes to save the sport and their business (sound familiar ? )

 

They come up with a new formula, and the second and third Division amalgamated to form just two Divisions. They also went for a lower pay rate. (FUNNY HOW THINGS GO ROUND IN CIRCLES ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED IN RECENT YEARS TOO.!!! |)

 

Coventry felt the backlash of this as LES HEWITT quit to concentrate on a business in Australia, he felt that the rewards were not high enough for the risks involved, (ala Knudsen, Neilsen etc...)

 

 

Glasgow White City under new management decided to run, but sold off two of their stars to reduce debts. This ultimately left them weak and the crowds dropped off as fans stayed away.

 

Within a few weeks of the season starting Yarmouth, who had applied to miss the Brittaina Shield matches and only enter the National League in the summer (seasonal business on the coastal resort.) were refused permission o do this and consequently closed its doors to Speedway...

 

At Brandon Stan Williams handed over the Captains role too Vic Emms. Williams retired from the sport, only to return as team manager.

JACK HUGHES was signed from the now defunct Stoke, and JIM LIGHTFOOT was promoted from the juniors.

 

*Jim Lightfoot started this season and I hihlighted his name, as he was still in the side when I first went to Brandon in 1960.*

 

The Bees made the trip up to Scotland for the opening Shield matches against Glasgow and Motherwell.

 

The Bees won both matches....The Glasgow White City fans took exception to their weakened outfit when they also lost the following week and the fans stayed away in numbers. Glasgow White City closed....

This set an ALARMING trend, as we won at Wolverhampton in the Shield, then before the end of the Shield matches....

 

Wolverhampton closed...!!!

 

Later in the League we won at Plymouth, and guess what ? They closed too.!! It almost got to the point that we were afraid to win away from home!!!

 

REG DUVAL was missing for a while after suffering leg injuries in a crash at Leicester. The Bees eventually finished second in their section of the Shield. One point behind Motherwell.

 

In the National Trophy we managed a good run for a change. Both Southampton and Edinburgh were seen off in the first two rounds. However, first Division Bradford took us too the cleaners winning overall 150-69 in the third round.

 

In the League we opened with a win over Poole, but then lost Home and Away against Swindon.

 

Johnnie Reason going down injured once again and the second call up for Peter Brough into National Service did not help at all.

 

The Bees signed LES TOLLEY from the by then defunct Wolverhampton. By July things were not looking too good after a bright start to the season. And further bad news came when Edinburgh Closed....

 

By this time I think interest in Speedway was definitely on the decline.!! IT WAS LIKE A GAME OF TEN GREEN BOTTLES...AND THEN THERE WERE 11 !! ETC.

 

BOB MARK was added to the squad from Edinburgh at the end of July and we finished the month with home and away wins against Rayleigh. We almost expected them to close after that.!!

 

In August TOMMY MILLER having had a bad time at Motherwell where he had joined after the closure of Glasgow. Miller was the track record holder at Brandon at the time, and he made his debut for the Bees with a maximum at Brandon against MOTHERWELL. From then on we were undefeated at home.

 

In the Midland Cup we defeated Oxford and were up against Birmingham in the Final. We lost at Birmingham 40-55. In the second leg we won 55-41 to lose overall by just ONE point.

 

Also in 1954 Brandon staged its FIRST STOCK CAR MEETING on June 30th.

Injuries caused the Bees to use no less than fourteen riders in ‘54 and we were generally inconsistent. Derrick Tailby broke his wrist amongst many injuries during the year.

 

Coventry scorer’s 1954

 

1. Charlie New 184

2. Jim Lightfoot 108

3. Tommy Miller 97

4. Johnnie Reason 91

5. Vic Emms 88

6. Reg Duval 66

7. Les Tolley 44

8. Bob Mark 43

9. Jack Hughes 37

10. Derrick Tailby 24

11. Jack Wright 12

12. Peter Reason 9

13. Peter Brough 3

14. Peter Harris 1

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE

Division Two 1954

1. Bristol 20 14 0 6 908.5 769.5 28

2. Poole 20 12 0 8 896.5 781.5 24

3. Swindon 20 11 0 9 870 789 22

4. Leicester 20 11 0 9 829 765 22

5. Ipswich 20 10 0 10 873 806 20

6. Exeter 20 10 0 10 851 827 20

7. Oxford 20 10 0 10 807 868 20

8. Coventry 20 10 0 10 807 869 20

9. Southampton 20 9 0 11 800 878 18

10. Motherwell 20 9 0 11 759 819 18

11. Rayleigh 20 4 0 16 725 954 8

 

*Edinburgh and Plymouth records deleted, Glasgow and Wolverhampton pulled out before League started.*

 

GEOFF MARDEN won the 1954 Brandonapolis, and Coventry won the East Midlands Bowl beating Leicester.

 

 

1955.

 

The league was given a new formula yet again, with seven man teams being introduced instead of eight man teams. And 16 heats instead of 14 heats.

 

All of which again sounds familiar with the sport today, as cost cutting exercise’s were being introduced.Tactical Substitutes were introduced as was Guests. The league was once again raced over the two at home, two away formula.

 

Division Two consisted of 11 teams again. With Motherwell dropping out and Weymouth replacing them, albeit, briefly.... as they too were to close.

The C.O. put it that it was no surprise, as seaside promotions invariably struggled with crowds stating that they can only draw from three sides of the venue...

 

As you can’t draw crowds from the sea.!! slightly tongue in cheek one feel’s....There was no Britannia Shield in 1955, and the League became a two horse race between the Bees and the Pirates from Poole, once again.

The two clubs sharing the top two positions for the third time in four years, this time the Pirates coming out on top, after finishing second too Coventry in 1954.

 

The home defeat for the Bees against Poole obviously did not help, and that was the Bees only home defeat of the season in the League. We did lose at home in an Inter Divisional Challenge Match against the Brummies. We also only managed a draw at home against Southampton in the National Trophy. (Cup jinx once again.) A draw also at home in the Midland Cup against Leicester.

 

Away from Brandon wins at Weymouth (deleted jinx again...) Southampton and Swindon twice, and a further win at Ipswich, helped keep the Bees in the challenge.

 

We won the East Midlands Bowl with wins Home and Away against Leicester. In the National Trophy, we beat Oxford before going down to Southampton on the strength of their draw at Brandon.

 

Leicester also managed to knock us out of the Midland Cup in the semi-final.

 

Leicester star KEN McKINLAY won the Brandonapolis. Also in ‘55 Brandon held its first match against a foreign league side in April, when they entertained Swedish Club side Stockholm, which the Bees won 52-44.

 

The C.O was calling for promotion and relegation after several successful seasons in Division Two. At the very least he wanted a play off system at the end of the season.

 

A Leicester junior came across to Brandon looking to make his name. BRYAN ELLIOT later went on to join the Bees.

 

Also a name in the second half during 1954 and 1955 was a former St Johns helper ERIC CROFT who’s home was to lead him to being called “ WYKEN CROFT” But, he was in need of his own service’s when a fractured leg and broken wrist at the end of May.

 

Eric was to drift away from the Speedway scene. Another more familiar name to enter into the second half scene in ‘55 was none other than LES OWEN...Meanwhile up at the Odsal in Bradford a certain NIGEL BOOCOCK was taking his first appearances in Speedway.......T

 

here was little change in the riding staff at Brandon. Jack Wright had retired, Les Tolley started the season in hospital for an internal operation, and in June Derrick Tailby was released when he could no longer claim a team place.

 

With him went the last remaining link from the original Bees of ‘48.The jinx of clubs closing down AFTER we’d beaten them continued with not only, Weymouth closing but Bristol as well losing us another 4 points....

 

Injuries to Charlie New did not help. Charlie hit a sand bag at Southampton and injured his knee. With him unfit for the second leg of the National Trophy, the Bees went out by just four points. The score we’d lost at Bannister Court (Southampton)Jim Lightfoot too was hit by injury, and juniors BRIAN MEREDITH and NICK NICHOLLS were called upon.

 

By the end of the season we were eight points a drift of Poole and we then suffered the blow of the announcement of Johnnie Reasons retirement.....

 

Reason, had been plagued by injuries during his career and his form slipped in ‘55. He was quite brilliant when he managed to avoid the fence and sadly all the knocks had taken their toll.Reg Duval was also no longer the force of old and new faces looked certain for 1956.

 

Coventry scorers 1955

 

1.Bob Mark 322

2.Tommy Miller 276

3.Charlie New 235

4. Vic Emms (capt) 183

5.Jim Lighfoot 166

6.Johnnie Reason 120

7.Nick Nicholls 68

8.Reg Duval 59

9. Peter Brough 11

10. GUESTS 94

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE

Division Two 1955

1. Poole 32 23 0 9 1689 1380 46

2. Coventry 32 19 0 13 1534 1535 38

3. Rayleigh 32 15 2 15 1573 1495 32

4. Oxford 32 15 1 16 1424 1644 31

5. Southampton 32 15 0 17 1445 1621 30

6. Ipswich 32 13 3 16 1537 1531 29

7. Leicester 32 14 0 18 1539 1529 28

8. Swindon 32 14 0 18 1515 1556 28

9. Exeter 32 13 0 19 1553 1518 26

 

Bristol 14 5 1 8 622 720 11

Weymouth 7 1 0 6 271 400 2

both records deleted.

 

1956.

 

The decline in numbers continued in 1956. And the TYRE regulations were changed again..... Poole got promotion too Division One and Exeter closed down reducing Division Two too just SEVEN teams....

 

The C.O. was behind the idea to introduce a inter divisional tournament, but although it did happen, WEMBLEY considered themselves far too good to take part in such a degrading exercise and their management refused to take part. This in effect ruined the tournament.

 

The idea was for each second division track to race against three first division teams at Division Two venues. Three points were to be awarded for away wins to encourage the “big boys” from division one. Coventry were drawn in the group that included Wembley and thus had only two matches.....

 

More problems with the officials, when Coventry had to cancel the BRANDONAPOLIS as it was fixture planned too close to the World Final and the S.C.B. didn’t like that.On the team front Charlie New took over from Vic Emms as Captain, when Emms decided to join Reason and retire. Les Tolley returned after missing all of 1955 through illness.

We started quite well in the League. But were immediately dumped out of the National Trophy by Ipswich having lost at Foxhall Heath 40-68 having only winning by two at Brandon.

 

The league campaign continued to go well, but in May Peter Brough announced his retirement from the Sport. About this time, Bob Mark dislocated a shoulder in a crash at Brandon. He was only out for a couple of weeks, but the injury was to leave its Mark (excuse the pun !) in the future...

 

Brian Meredith was drafted in from the juniors, others in line for team places were, BRIAN MILLER, ERIC and TONY EADON and LES OWEN.

We continued winning at Home, including both those inter divisional matches against first division sides, Wimbledon, and Birmingham.

Away from Brandon we had only one win at Leicester to show from the first seven fixtures away from the hive.

 

Tommy Miller was beginning to be a concern as he lost his form, first on his travels and then alarmingly at Brandon. By the end of July he was on his way to Oxford in a transfer, but he never regained his form and he too retired at the end of the season.

 

Two weeks after Miller left, his replacement made a SUPERB debut at Brandon. Per Olaf Sodermann was the first foreigner to don a Bees race jacket and he was an instant success. He arrived on August 11th, fitted his own handlebars too Speedy Bee (The track spare bike.) and roared to a five ride maximum against Oxford.... A truly remarkable performance if you take into account the fact that Speedy Bee as A machine rarely lived up to its name.!!!

 

In the following six matches at Brandon he was only beaten twice into second place, by two riders who later would have Coventry connections, McKinlay, and Biggs....

 

Per was nicknamed Olle, and also was known by his initials P.O. One bright journalist of the day asked him about his name. in broken English P.O. said it was “P.O.”....

 

The journalist continued thinking he was not getting through with his limited English. Again P.O. replied “P.O.” With that the journalist gave up.. Later in the Bar the same journalist in conversation with a colleague was reported to have said.”Don,t bother with that Swede, he is a real mean guy, he kept telling me to P*** Off.!!!”.

 

Per also dropped just one point from his first two matches away from Brandon and collected the Track Record of 66.0 seconds. His appearance came too late to improve the teams position in the League, especially as both New, and Duval were out injured at the time.

 

Coventry lost the East Midlands Bowl to Leicester, and Ken McKinlay won the Midland Riders Championship. The C.O. also found fault with the Tactical Substitute rule in Cup matches, when Leicester used them to full effect at Brandon, dispite being ahead on averagatte.....

 

ERIC HOCKADAY was another newcomer for the Bees in 1956.

 

Coventry Scorer’s 1956

 

1. Bob Mark 186

2. Charlie New © 176

3. Jim Lightfoot 172

4. Nick Nicholls 163

5. Reg Duval 156

6. Tommy Miller 100

7. Peo Soderman 91

8. Les Tolley 81

9. Eric Hockaday 27

10. Brian Miller 3

11. Peter Brough 1

12. Brian Meredith 0

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE

Division Two 1956

1. Swindon 24 16 0 8 1196 1102 32

2. Southampton 24 15 1 8 1223 1081 31

3. Rayleigh 24 14 1 9 1248 1053 29

4. Ipswich 24 13 0 11 1151 1149 26

5. Coventry 24 12 0 12 1150 1149 24

6. Leicester 24 6 1 17 1088 1214 13

7. Oxford 24 6 1 17 996 1304 13

 

To be continued........[/i]