MajorMauger

Yes the tragic death of Tommy Jansson led to a decline but many others say that when big Wimbldon heros like Trevor Hedge and Ronnie Moore left the club many fans also stopped going. Also the fact the club was highly successful in the 50s and 60s meant that the struggles in the British League years up until the drop down in to the NL in 1985 was hard to swallow for many fans who drifted away! I'd agree that the consortium NL years of 1987- 1990 saw a big upsurge about the place and it was a pleasure to go Plough Lane in those days. I think if the amalgamation hadn't taken place in 1991 then Wimbledon speedway would of carried on the same but the changes in League set up in 91 which led to the Dons competing in the top flight with a very weak team added to the recession at the time which meant their was no main team sponsor all contrbuted to the tracks death. The GRA had long before lost interest in speedway at Plough Lane by this time so didn't lose any sleep when speedway stopped. Whilst the 4 season spell in the CL was hard work getting going, eventually it started to become a success until the GRA stopped things. This CL spell proved that speedway at Wimbledon could still be a success if it was done properly and was well financed! Hopefully one day we'll see the Dons back at Plough Lane!

Also rode for St Austell in the CL!

Rode for Glasgow in 2003! After that couldn't get a team place and only rode in odd individual meetings like the Telford ice meeting!

Neville Tatum, Andy Grahame,

Nothing wrong with the Firs at all except it no longer exists! Just saying that Wimbledons Plough Lane stadium was more plusher if there is such a word!

The track is much to tight to be the Firs and the stadium looks far too plush as well! I'd say its Plough Lane Wimbledon.

Good idea and there is already a healthy amatuer scene in speedway that could do such a thing but how many defunct tracks are available now? Oxford is there but I doubt the GRA would consider renting it out for a handful of amatuer meetings! Newport will probably come back into league racing once Tim Stones legal affairs have been sorted out. Is the Hull track still in place? There are more than a few stadiums still about that once staged speedway but have either been rebuilt or the speedway track doesn't exist anymore.

Bert was a great rider in the 50's in the early days of Ipswich speedway! Amazing that he became a top rider after only starting up the sport when in his early 30's!

Nice sentiment, but all being well Newport won't be defunct for very long. A speedway only stadium with no restrictions in an area that would support a well run set up in large numbers - there must be a few people looking into it! Maybe a piece on the Newport speedway, Tim Stone years 1997-2008 would be appropriate.

Ipswich speedway legend Tony 'Shrimp' Davey had a good 10 year career but lost a finger in a 1972 good friday crash against Hackney when they had to cut his hand out of the sprocket with bolt croppers. Shrimp also broke his thigh at Leicester in 79 I think when his footrest got caught in the wire mesh fence stopping the bike and throwing him up in the air and down the track. He packed up pro speedway in 1980 after another crash. I feel without these bad smashes Shrimp could of got much further!

What happened to the Felton training track? It seemed to be a hive of activity in the 1980's and provided a great training facility for many riders. Shame its not running nowadays!

Get in touch with the promotors father and son duo Nigel and Gordon Meakins. I believe the track is still in place though but without the fence and spectator facilities and has been used for plough pulling events which has rendered it unusable for speedway. Carmarthen ran for 3 seasons 2002-04 in the CL but never got crowds of a decent level despite the considerable efforts of the promotion so pulled out and the owners of the showground wouldn't let anyone else extend the lease to keep speedway at the venue. I believe the promotion are still to this day paying of their debts

I'd like to see speedway return to the Milton Keynes area cause I think the area could sustain a CL track. A Milton keynes speedway set up would have no links whatsoever with the old Wimbledon speedway set up so comparing speedway to the hideous demise of Wimbledon FC is not relevent! I'd also like to see speedway return to Plough Lane cause I'll feel the stadium could sustain PL racing at the very least and stage some high profile meetings! Although something successfull is being built up at MK Dons I'll never accept it cause it was franchise football, the rape of a famous old club, although the demise of Wimbledon FC started when they moved from Plough Lane to Selhurst Park. Its been proven that the old Plough Lane site could of been turned into an all seater stadium holding the best part of 20,000 more than enough for the club. If Mr W**kelman would of formed an MK football team starting in the lower non league pyramid, cutting loose any old ties with the old Wimbledon FC like the Dons nickname then I'd accept them! The real Wimbledon team is AFC Wimbledon who do have a very feasible future!

Kevin was a quality rider who had the ability to of gone higher than what he did but like he says he seemed to lose momentum after leaving Ipswich for near rivals King's Lyunn in 1983! Great article in backtrack, just a shame they omitted his 1986 year at Boston. This year he was meant to gone back to Mildenhall his first club but disagreements over the financial elements of the deal led to him being loaned out to Boston. His move to Boston came late casue he was included in all of Mildenhalls pre season photos! Mildenhall didn't open in the league until 1975 but did ride in training school challenges against the like of Iwade before then. I believe Kevin was involved in these meetings!

To be fair to speedguy I don't think he was trying to defend the GRA. He was only stating fact, the GRA do only have speedway at two of their stadiums now and must of 'lost interest' at Wimbledon and Oxford cause otherwise we'd still be seeing them two famous old teams in the British League! Yes it was unexcuseable of the GRA to just wipe out 2 clubs with such a rich history and the potential to this day to reopen and become stable clubs thus making the GRA money!!

Very interesting article with lots of correct views on speedway from someone without a lengthy history of involvement in the sport but all these views were what we already knew to be fair and its unlikely this sort of finance would ever be chucked at speedway as the chance of getting a return back on your investment is unlikely! Afterall Posselwhite (or however you spelled his surname) tryed to be innovative and chuck lots of money at Reading during his short spell in charge at Reading but ended up broke and nearly saw the clubs demise! Lots of things sound good in theory but until they are actually tryed we don't know for sure what is the best way forward or not.

Speedway was staged in P N G in the early 70's at the capital Port Moresby I believe and one of the top riders was a P N G native!

I'm convinced Billy Bales retired in 1967 but I maybe wrong! The period from 1964 to when Norwich closed up until when Ipswich reopened in 1969 was when I didn't see too much speedway as I have in other eras although I did go to King's Lynn probably 30 - 40 times in between! Another long career I can think of - Rob Hollingworth - 1972 - 1986, 1999-2007, though like some of the other ones I thought of a few of them years wern't in league racing, things like 2nd halfs and amatuer racing!

Billy Bales retired at the end of 1967 not 1969 as my fellow ex Norwich Stars fans Star Ghost suggests! Though hes right in saying that Billy begun his career at Great Yarmouth in the late 1940's, so he enjoyed a long career! Geof Pymar first rode at Norwich in about 1930 and I believe rode his last season at Middlesbrough or Bradford in about 1962 though I'm sure Star ghost will correct me! Les Collins first rode league speedway for Crewe in 1975 and was still going in 2003 with Glasgow! Neil Collins first rode in about 77/78 and finshed in 2006 with newport. Ivan Mauger first rode speedway in 1955 in New Zealand and finished riding competitively in 1986! Olle Nygren also rode for many years from possibly the late 40's till the mid 70's. If you don't count league careers and just total years spent racing then some riders have had massively long careers. For instance I remember seeing Chris Louis/gary Havelock/Mark loram riding on junior grasstracks in the late 70's/early 80's and others like Phil Morris, Scott Nicholls and Leigh Lanham riding in the mid 80's!

That is quite obvious - many of the spectators who followed Southampton speedway up until the early 60's closure wouldn't now be with us just like many who I stood with at the Firs, (Norwich speedway) but that doesn't mean that a new, young generation of fans couldn't be found. I bet theres quite a lot of old Southampton Saints fans still about anyway! Southamptons a big place so the population is there to draw a crowd from. How many people from Southampton go to Poole speedway or IOW speedway the nearest tracks to the city? - Probably not many, but if speedway returned to Southampton I bet many persons from the area would be enticed to go. Southampton remains in my opinion like Norwich, Bristol, Halifax, Exeter, Cornwall, Wimbledon, Cradley, Leicester and no doubt others a totally untapped potential hotbed of speedway. If only the local Council could see this! Good luck with the reunion!

Southampton would be a great place to reopen speedway as I'm sure it would be well supported!

Hope it comes off but like everything else in speedway I'll believe it when I see it! Good luck!

Ellesmere Port stadium still stands to this day. Tony Mole was twice turned down in 2001 when trying for planning permission there despite strong local support, which was evident at the very well attended public meetings they had. The reasons given for turning the application down were parking issues and the dreaded noise aspect though speedway had been staged there up until the end of 1985 from 1972 when the bikes were much more noisier. I'm sure that CL or even lower budget PL racing could work at Ellesmere Port.

Graham Clifton is Luke Cliftons uncle so I'm led to believe!

Agree totally! Regionalisation goes on now anyway as it is - Look at all the northern tracks that make up a big chunk of the PL. They stay there cause they know they'll get local away fans coming to meetings which wouldn't happen if they went in to the EL. I'm sure that with their large support, Workington would of moved up into the EL by now if they were more central.