HertsRacer
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Posts posted by HertsRacer
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In the 1950s there was a cycle speedway track in what was the car park of the old Mitcham Stadium. It was home for several local teams managed by rider Jimmy Kilsby. I actually rode there in several matches as a visitor when I was with a south east London club Brockley Boomerangs.
I just wondered - does any BSF member recall the names of the teams run by Kilsby that used the Mitcham Stadium car park cycle speedway track?
Don't know much about the history of cycle speedway but I did find these teams that seem to be connected to Mitcham. Mitcham Broadsiders, Mitcham Broadsiders Cubs, Mitcham Kiwis, Mitcham Racers, Mitcham Tigers and St Hellier Saints.
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If i remember rightly Hungary did field a team in the lowest polish leage in the last 10 years,just like Prague had a team as well as Daugavpils from Latvia,who are the only survivors of the foreign teams
Sandor Levai is listed as having raced for Honved i think,but might have just been a club like Debrecen that organised meetings and had a few challenge matches against others?
Seeing Joe's list brought to mind another country with a long history of staging speedway, namely Austria. Did they ever stage league racing?
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Can anyone help me with information on Jack Dalton who was with New Cross in 1936 and 1937 and also rode for Bristol in the same period. I think he also rode at Luton in 1935.
Jack Dalton appeared in a couple of National League meetings for New Cross Lambs in 1934. In 1935 he was a regular member of the non-league Luton team before returning to New Cross the following season. Although he failed to make the Rangers side, he made 5 appearances for Provincial League side Cardiff followed by a further dozen meetings for Bristol. In 1937 he made 9 appearances for New Cross in what appears to have been his final year.
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I agree that my recollection of the Charlton and New Cross speedway affair is sketchy and you may well be correct HertsRacer. But I do recall the 1947 application for Crystal Palace and the use of the Selhurst Park ground. The man behind the application then was Frank Arnold who in later years was involved with the promotion at Rayleigh.
Just been looking through some old newspapers and found that there was a preliminary application for speedway at Charlton in 1948 along with Cheltenham, Worksop, Romford, Braintree, Brighton, Stainforth, Nottingham, Stepps (Lanarkshire) and Kings Lynn.
I know that Romford was turned down by the local council and Stepps was refused a licence. Anybody know why the other applications came to nothing at the time.
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That is the correct assessment in regard to an attempt to bring speedway to Charlton in about 1966. I have an idea there had also been a previous attempt around 1947 but that was objected to by New Cross because of its proximity to their stadium. There was one midget car meeting at The Valley in 1948 by an American team then based in London and it attracted a 50,000 crowd. But the Americans declined further midget car meetings at Charlton because of the odd shape of the track laid round the football pitch and its surface.
Not aware of any earlier attempts for speedway at Charlton. There was an application for the sport to be held at that time at Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace F.C.
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It's always interesting to read of the emergence of teenagers who went on to make the grade in speedway - as highlighted in this forum riders like Billy Bales, Ivan Mauger, Arthur Forrest and Michael Lee spring readily to mind.
At the other end of the age scale, how about the 'late age starters' who made a good standard? Two 38-year-olds who did just that at about the same time were circa 1949 onwards Harold McNaughton for Hastings and Tom Oakley for Southampton.
Over successive season, both riders were good scorers for various clubs and even won England representation at Division Two level.
I am sure there must have been a few more riders like them?
It's always interesting to read of the emergence of teenagers who went on to make the grade in speedway - as highlighted in this forum riders like Billy Bales, Ivan Mauger, Arthur Forrest and Michael Lee spring readily to mind.
At the other end of the age scale, how about the 'late age starters' who made a good standard? Two 38-year-olds who did just that at about the same time were circa 1949 onwards Harold McNaughton for Hastings and Tom Oakley for Southampton.
Over successive season, both riders were good scorers for various clubs and even won England representation at Division Two level.
I am sure there must have been a few more riders like them?
Though I can't think of any "oldie" who went on to have a successful career, I came across a story a while ago of a rider called Harry Denton who made his debut at non-league track Brafield in the 1966 Midland Junior Riders Championship when he was in his 50's. He even won a race. I can't find any further reference to him after this meeting so I guess his career was short but sweet.
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Wasn't there another London football ground where it was announced speedway might move into?Down at Charlton Athletic in the 70s.Not sure what happened there apart from nothing much
Though Midget Car racing was held at the Valley just after the war, the attempt to bring speedway to Charlton was at the greyhound stadium just up the road in 1966 (I think). Even got to the stage of signing riders before the stadium owner changed his mind and sold the place for redevelopment.
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You are right HertsRacer. There was a league of sorts in Rhodesia and mentioned way down this excellent article. Obviously another add to the list of countries where league racing has failed.
http://www.speedway-sa.com/resources/other_pdfs/75%20Years%2016-20.pdf
Thanks for that gustix, a wonderful read. It all comes flooding back to me now. They even feature 2 of the programmes I have. Must dig them out.
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I found this comment in regard to Finnish speedway in 2015:
http://www.monsterenergyswc.com/news/article/4107/fast-facts-finnish-speedway
LITTLE LEAGUE: While Poland, Sweden, Britain and Denmark attract riders from all over the world to race in their leagues, Finland’s SM-Liiga is a comparatively small competition, featuring five clubs.
Not sure about this one, but in the 70's speedway was held in what was then Rhodesia. I have some programmes somewhere. Think there was team racing but not sure if there was a league.
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So far the 'head count' for countries where league racing has failed is seven countries. To 'be naughty' we could I suppose add in Wales - i.e Cardiff and Newport?
Is an eventual failure likely elsewhere one wonders?
Didn't Finland have a league once, or have they still got one?
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On the subject of Staines as a speedway track, I was rather surprised when I visited one of my favourite websites 'Defunct Speedway Tracks' and found it was not itemised there.
There's a lot of old tracks not included on the site, simply because nobody has sent John any information about them. I'm sure if anybody has any photo's or articles on Staines he would love to include them.
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My proposal for a second half is after a 12 heat main event - i.e. 16 races in an evening. If a rider is missing through injury, a reserve could take the place of the missing rider. should beat most curfews
BTW - this is not a new invention of mine. This format was in place back in the 70's when there were 13 heats and 7 second half races.
The same 70's where most people left after Heat 13, and campaigned for matches to be longer and second halves abolished. Believe me they were a waste of time, Nobody (riders or spectators) was interested in them.
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Got me thinking on another thread of riders who used to travel long distances to ride for their clubs in Britain.
Chris Juiian must take some beating. Cornwall to Glasgow every week.
Mike Sampson and Bob Coles - Exeter to Barrow.
Michael Coles - Exeter to Edinburgh.
Considering that the motorway system was very different back during the sixties and early seventies that's some achievement but of course there weren't the number of vehicles back then and speed restrictions were a bit more lapse but impressive all the same.
Didn't Chris Julian used to fly to and from Glasgow?
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How did the reunion go guys?
Speedwayplus website now has a report and some photos of the event.
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I supported Wimbledon in the Tommy Jansson years. Never known a rider with such charisma. Total darling of the supporters, Remember as if it was yesterday going to Plough Lane for the meeting following his death, Many supporters just couldn't face going again, and for those of us who did the atmosphere was like a morgue. Always believed that the day Tommy died was the day Wimbledon Speedway died, it was never the same .
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As a Romford Bombers supporter, I remember him making his debut as a wobbly reserve in 1970. By the next season he had developed into our No 1 and become one of the best riders in the league. Super rider to watch and a firm fans favourite. So sad he was never able to reach his full potential.
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Bt and Sky are paying billions for the football. Why on earth didnt they meet up for a pint in a back street pub and say you have that, we have this and we wont bid more than a few million quid a season between us.
Result? Footballers on 200,000 a week can go elsewhere, the premier league will survive and in an ideal world subscriptions would reduce.(yer right)
Steve, BT were never a threat to Sky winning the main football contract, they were only interested in gaining more of the smaller packages of games on offer. Sky were spooked by rumours that Fox or one of the major Middle East companies wanted the main contract, so bid way over the odds. In the end neither of the others bid, so Sky were lumbered. The only way they could pay for it was to jncrease prices to the customer and drastically cut back on costs by dropping a lot of other sports.
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Agreed. LookEast have always given speedway good coverage over the years.
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Adrian's book was published in 2004.
If you can't find it in a shop you could try the publishing company: Tempus Publishing Ltd. The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucs GL5 2QG.
It's a great read if you're interested in the history of speedway in places such as Workington, Blackpool, Preston, Burnley etc.
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John
I have now dug out Adrian Pavey's book, and this is an abridged version of his description of the meeting.
"It seemed the people of Carlisle were just not interested in speedway with the crowd being less than 700. It was an individual meeting featuring competitors from the Workington track and several members of the Belle Vue "Merseysiders" team. The two main events were a scratch race and a handicap trophy, supported by a series of match races and novice events.
The first event was the scratch races.
Heat 1 was won by Eric Butler ahead of West Ham novice Ken Tidbury,
Heat 2 was won by Alan Butler ahead of another West Ham novice Denny "Crusty" Pye.
Former Preston rider Tommy Price won heat 3 from Norman Hargreaves, with Dennis Dennie third.
The 1st Semi-Final was won by Eric Butler, followed by Alan Butler and Ken Tidbury.
The 2nd Semi-Final was won by Tommy Price with Norman Hargraves second and "Crusty" Pye third.
The Final was won by Price with Hargreaves second and Eric Butler third.
The second event was the handicap competition.
Heat 1 Hargreaves from Tidbury with Price third.
Heat 2 Sam Marsland from Alan Butler
Heat 3 Maurice Stobbart from Eric Butler and Dennis Dennie
1st Semi-Final Marsland from Hargreaves and Tidbury
2nd Semi-Final won by Alan Butler
Final Won by Alan Butler after Stobbart, Hargreaves and Marsland all suffered engine failures.
In 2 lap rolling start match races Stobbart beat Alan Butler, Price beat Marsland and Hargreaves beat Charlie Oates.
Following the meeting all the riders travelled to Lonsdale Park, Workington to take part in a challenge match between Workington "Reds" and Belle Vue "Merseysiders".
The Carlisle project was a financial disaster with organiser Maurice Stobbart admitting that his efforts at promoting were not exactly prosperous."
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John
1937 was not the first attempt to introduce speedway to Carlisle. If you can find s copy of "Speedway in the North-West" by Adrian Pavey, there is a chapter, along with some pictures, on the history of the sport in Carlisle, which might be of interest.
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In New Cross second half results for 1963 (see 'Speedway Researcher) a rider whose surname was Freudanthaler is given. Is more known about him please.
His first name was Gunter, which sounds as if he could have been German or Austrian. Had little success in New Cross second halves and disappeared at the end of May.
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There was another rumour of speedway starting at Charlton in the 70s.Was this attempt at the Valley?
Going to Charlton for football at the time, I don't remember any stories of speedway being planned to be staged there. As the pitch was right up against the terraces, it would have been impossible to build a track there. Even by taking up/relaying the grass it would have been far too small.
I remember the greyhound stadium just down the road still standing in the 70's, and I think it was unused at the time. I do seem to remember a story of speedway being planned there before the owner suddenly decided to sell to developers.
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Thanks Alan,
I would have loved to have seen the midget car meeting at The Valley. Have been there hundreds of times supporting Charlton Athletic and can't imagine how they would have possibly built a track there. Would have been a wonderful place to view speedway though when they had the huge terracing, and would have been second only to Wembley capacity wise.
Countries Where League Racing Has Failed
in Years Gone By
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Weren't several teams backed by rich "oligov's". Remember many world stars competing in the league once. Now it seems to be limited to just home grown riders. Judging by clips on U Tube the existing clubs still get good crowds. I expect the travelling distance for some clubs didn't help the league much.