Wandering Wal of Raceways

[Guest]

SPEEDWAY historian Mike Kemp was horrified when he found former speedway rider Wal Morton had been buried in an unmarked grave following his death on April 21, 1995. Kemp set up a fund to provide a headstone.

Kemp said: “Many speedway supporters helped to boost the fund, and I was also appreciative of people who were involved actively in speedway who sent donations. “These included former world champion Ove Fundin, who Morton rode with at Norwich in the 1950s. Former England international and one-time promoter Reg Fearman was another. So was Col Smith, who was a team-mate of Morton’s in the early 1960s at Liverpool.”  

Kemp added: “And it was good to see former Norwich area riders Billy Bales, Phil Clarke, Trevor Hedge, ‘Tich’ Read and Peter Atkins who were all team-mates of Morton’s at The Firs helping sway the fund.”

Another contributor was Bob Buckingham, the Londoner who set-up a memorial fund stone in the early 1990s for former New Cross and Australian rider Ron Johnson who was also buried in an unmarked grave.

Before he took to speedway Morton, who was born in Birmingham, was a competent amateur middleweight boxer and distinguished himself by winning the Midlands Championship. 

Morton’s speedway career spanned more than 30 years, and while he is best associated with Norwich, he also rode - more than once in his spells at various tracks - for West Ham and Wimbledon. And in 1947, he was team-partner to Vic Duggan at Harringay when the Australian was British speedway’s leading rider.”

Other tracks Morton rode for during his lengthy career included White City (Glasgow), Middlesbrough, Bradford, Newcastle and Ipswich.

He started 1951 with another spell at Wimbledon, had a few meetings at Ipswich when the Suffolk track entered the sport on a non-league basis, and saw out the season with Second Division side Newcastle.

At Brough Park Morton was involved in what appeared to be a serious accident. In one race Morton fell and his following partner hit him and pushed him under the safety fence. His anxious team partner rushed over, expecting the worse.

Surprisingly, Morton climbed to his feet, grinned and wisecracked: “An old champ may be put down but he’s never put out.” He then coolly walked away to take part in his next race.

In two pre-war seasons, 1935-36 and 1936-37 Morton led England teams against Australia in two unofficial test series based on the Claremont Speedway in Perth, Western Australia. The Australians won both series in which Morton was England’s overall top scorer.

To mark the fact that Morton rode for more than a dozen tracks - his last was Hackney in 1964 - the main inscription on the memorial describes his career adequately: ‘Wandering Wal of Raceways.’

It was originally used in April 1957 by myself when I was then ‘Speedway Star’ editor in a tribute article to Morton.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Guest