RobMcCaffery

It's fascinating to see, 25 years later that the true reason for Crayford closing has been revealed. Yes, the Hackney supporters did a secret deal with Terry Russell to steal the Kestrels. I am reporting what I saw and heard. Many, many Hackney Hawks fans did feel invaded by strangers from south of the river, despite as I have already posted the Crayford loss was of course far greater. The point I am making is that BOTH sets of supporters lost in some way. It is relative, not absolute! I am sure that nobody wanted Crayford to close. My view was that it was a dire track for racing and with questionable viewing angles, mainly upwards, and lacking in atmosphere but I still miss it, as I do my own far from perfect speedway at Rayleigh. At the end of the day we believe what we believe and we miss what was ours, no matter what its imperfections. I have seen no evidence of Hackney supporters believing they were victims of a "sting", merely that they were unhappy at losing their team, their entertaining racing circuit and finding strangers taking over the place. No amount of emoticons or extreme reaction will alter the fact that the opinions I have passed on were held. Now, let me see if I can unravel the truth of how the Rye House Red Devil supporters forced the Rayleigh stadium management to sell to developers and to get Len Silver to transfer his Rockets to their track. Maybe speedyguy can help? It's a pity that a thread that was so full of wonderful memories of Hackney has to a degree been spoilt. I guess I must take part of the blame so I shall refrain from posting further, except to summarise my own position - I enjoyed Hackney very much from 1973-83. It had a great atmosphere and wonderful racing. After 1984 it wasn't the same for me and many I know. Apologies, Rob.

Perhaps the truth is that both lost. Crayford lost their track and Hackney Hawks their team. Obviously the loss of the stadium is far greater but the old Hackney in many ways was lost too, with another set-up using the bricks and mortar. To me a Hackney Kestrels fan would talk about the all-conquering 1988 season whereas a Hackney Hawks fan would talk about the great racing, the great characters such as Barry Thomas and Zenon Plech, and how amazing it was when Hackney had a winning team. Ultimately when we lose these tracks it is like the death of a loved-one and supporters of more stable sports like football are far less likely to bear our losses. It helps when there's a separate set of rules for the national sport I guess. Rayleigh, Hackney, Crayford, I miss them all, and Wimbledon, Canterbury and all the others where I mis-spent my youth. Rob.

As someone who regularly attended Hackney either side of the 1984 changes I really have to say that it just wasn't the same place in the Kestrel era, not just due to the change in track and league. My wife was a committed Hawks fan but she totally refused to accept the incoming Kestrels as her team. They may have been named Hackney but they weren't 'her Hawks'. The mix of people changed. It was a new promotion with new ideas and wherever you looked in the place it was ex-Crayford people who were running almost everything. Yes London Road had been lost but there is no doubt that the Kestrels took over the Wick and not the reverse in the same way my old Rayleigh Rockets took over Rye House. It took years in Hertfordshire for the situation to settle. Sadly Waterden Road didn't have the chance. Rob.

With a technical eye like that I certainly would not be foolish enough to challenge so I retreat on Rackett ;-) Anyway, it was good to think of that old team again and with the Retro Speedway pictures brilliantly reviving old memories it's been a thought-provoking week. In response to Tony's questions I would suggest that Ipswich and Eastbourne were probably as 'beloved' of Rockets fans as the Bombers with John Louis, Tony Davey, Malcolm Ballard and Gordon Kennett not exactly big portrait-sellers at The Weir ;-) Of course with John Berry and Dave Lanning to spar with there was plenty of scope for the home programme writers like Paul Deal of the Southend Evening Echo to whip up some lovely if ultimately harmless rivalry. One that brings back memories was suggesting writing to "Looking at my riders through rose-tinted spectacles" c/o Ipswich Speedway, Foxhall Heath, or "I hear the Witches won't visit us on a Sunday - I wonder what they look like in their choirboys outfits". A few years later the Berry-Silver battle had obviously transferred to Ipswich-Hackney and the following gem in a profile of the visiting Hawks. "We start with Finn Thomsen who lives in Tiptree where they preserve raspberries". I don't think you dare wind up supporters today given the rather ugly views shown by so many in the contemporary sections of this forum. They were good days at Rayleigh and I'm glad I had that brief time with them. Rob.

I'd heard it was like the 1960s - if you can remember you can't really have been there

I go with the Bob Young verdict but I'm sticking with Rackett the Rocket although I never did get to see Roger Wright in his Rockets' days. I do remember Roger turning up at Rye House in 1974 with, I think Teesside, taking a look at the track and complimenting it as a great training circuit before asking where the real race track was. As for the freebie, well I'm glad to see nothing changes I've spent half of the evening going through the Retro speedway photo-site and it's had a surprising and sobering effect - so many lost people and so many lost places. Those 1972/3 colour shots of the Rockets could have been taken yesterday. Just for a while I was back with a sport I loved and wondering why it just isn't the same now. Living in the past, or remembering better, not perfect, but better days? It did seem to be much more about fun whereas today seems to be about a gritty fight to survive, and any fun a rare or contrived bonus. Rob.

This must be a reaction to being driven to a BLRC at Belle Vue via Oldham v West Ham back in the eighties. That was cold enough to drive anyone to drink in Brisbane Road ;-) (I'm not sure if Tony and his friends ever realised that the 'best pint of lager' they'd ever had after the meeting was in fact Boddingtons Bitter - well it wasn't nationally-known, or certainly in the uncivilised south then). Rob McCaffery.

Delighted to hear about Backtrack covering Rayleigh ex-ed. Put me down for a freebie The rider in the black leathers looks like Nigel Rackett - see his portrait shot. The second is tricky, bearing in mind several of the Rockets had blue & yellow team leathers long before many had moved away from plain black. It's most likely to be pre 72 because we had numbers on the front of the jackets that year - and the name Rayleigh was added in 793. Rob McCaffery.

Yes there was a noise test at Southend Stadium in Prittlewell, but the council listened to the usual voices of doom of hell's angels running anok. I remember one pathetic claim was that "we'll end up with gardens full of discarded programmes". Maybe they were confusing speedway fans with those of the local football club who'd used the stadium until the mid-fifties? Either way it was no-go, ironically for a stadium that was reputedly built pre-war for speedway without ever staging a public race. As you can imagine its site is now marked by a "Greyhound Retail Park". You mention the thrill of a battle with Romford at the Weir. In fact that was my first-ever speedway match, Rayleigh-Romford, albeit in the league, not the Essex Gold Cup. I only ever saw one of the latter, the meeting that closed the '71 Weir season and which produced a huge 56-22 win for the Rockets. Of course I was too young to know that this was a huge turn-around in the local pecking-order or that the Bombers were heading for oblivion with us tragically following suit so soon after. Still, at that first match Len Silver had a rant over the pa about Wally Mawdsley and Romford's use of Bob Coles so I guess I got a crash-course in speedway politics right from the first night. London and surrounding areas have lost so very much speedway over those years, almost certainly far too much. Rob McCaffery

A pair of outstanding postings Sean, reviving such clear memories of an excellent speedway and its lifeblood, its people, especially your fine late grandfather Alan. Regards, Rob McCaffery.

I met my wife in the Vic Harding Lounge. Still I have many happy memories of the place despite that. Rob McCaffery

In the mid eighties I was sent to commentate on a series of pro-celebrity bowls matches for Screensport at the first British-style bowling green in Spain, at Estepona, just outside Malaga. During a break in proceedings we were asked if we were the crew that covered speedway and were told that a former rider who'd retired out there would like to meet us. As someone whose original speedway love was Rayleigh I was amazed and delighted to be introduced to Roy Uden. It wasn't just the roundabout that was called the Weir. Like the neighbouring Fortune of War roundabout on the A127 it was named after a large roadhouse pub called the Weir Hotel, a useful stopping point for coach trippers visiting nearby Southend. I remember being in tears as a 15 year old reading in the local paper that my newly-discovered passion of Rayleigh Speedway was to close. In the end our fixtures were published for 1974 before the heart-breaking news that the closure was finally scheduled for the very ironic date of March 15th. The team actually raced for one last time as Rayleigh at Boston. By the time of the second meeting, away to Canterbury the change to Rye House had been made. At the time Rye House was a surprise since after early hopes for a new stadium at Rawreth, to the north of Rayleigh, and latterly at Basildon it seemed we were set to move into Crayford. Yes we nearly had the Crayford Rockets. The following year the Kestrels opened with most of the Rayleigh riders transferring along with many of our supporters who weren't impressed with the trip to Hertfordshire for daylight racing. With the Kestrels regularly taking heavy wins in those early days against the Rockets I think even Bryn and Parsloes would understand why it was so satisfying to turn the tables a few years later. Rayleigh was a primarily a greyhound stadium and also saw us give up occasional Saturday nights for Stock Cars, promoted by Chick Woodroffe who went on to found Arena Essex as a replacement. So, had things happened a little earlier at Purfleet we could today be watching a team called the Lakeside Rockets. I lost the Weir before I'd really got to know it properly but even now, 34 years since the final meeting I still mourn my club. Rye House was never the same. Rob McCaffery.

Bob Garrad Marvyn Cox Karl Fiala Ted Hubbard Kelvin Mullarkey Jens Rasmussen Brian Foote (for being almost all we had at first in 74) Fond memories and thanks to them all for those memories of far happier days. Rob.

Plausible but that has to be weighed against the promotion having already used it at King's Lynn. I think it was perhaps more a personal Nigel Wagstaff "brand". Did they play Lemmy's gentle little ballad at Lynn or Cowley?

Amazingly they did in the early seventies. The progression from the 1968 BL2 revival was Middlesbrough Teessiders - Teesside Teessiders - Teesside Tigers - back to Middlesbrough Bears. As you might imagine the racejacket for the Teessiders was a T.

I believe it was related to the West Riding-based Duke of Wellington's army regiment which used the elephant emblem. http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/033DWR.htm

I didn't know Rye House Rockets were defunct, unlike Roosters/Red Devils. All that just because they lost at home to King's Lynn? Has anyone told their rather charming forum members?

Barrow were called Happy Faces for one season, 1972. They had a sponsorship deal with Duckhams whose logo was a Q. With the smiley being newly in fashion then they put inside the Q - and the Happy Faces entered our sport. I think it was a late change from "Boys" - I seem to remember seeing an away programme with that name in it, just before they took over the West Ham place in the BL2. Yes, an open licence side did get away bookings back then. I expect I was wrong about Ashington. Did the team actually race? I remember an opening meeting in 72 but little more. Picking up on shazzybird's point about Infradex Rockets I didn't realise we were including sponsorships. If so we will need a larger forum.

I'll tackle those from my time about in the sport. Sorry if some of these coincide with lists from others but I don't have time to cross-check, going roughly north to south: Motherwell Golden Eagles Newtongrange Saints Paisley Lions Coatbridge Monarchs/Tigers Barrow Happy Faces/Bombers/Blackhawks Workington Tigers Ashington Saints Sunderland Saints/Gladiators Middlesbrough Bears/Teessiders/Tigers Teesside Teessiders/Tigers Bradford Northern/Barons/Dukes Nelson Admirals Ellesmere Port Gunners Crewe Kings Halifax Dukes Castleford Kings Long Eaton Rangers/Invaders Nottingham Outlaws Scunthorpe Saints/Stags Chesterton Potters Boston Barracudas Norwich Stars Rye House Roosters/Red Devils Milton Keynes Kinights Leicester Lions Birmingham Brummies Cradley Heath Heathens Newport (no nickname - 1973-6) Exeter Falcons Weymouth Eagles/Wizards Southampton Saints Canterbury Crusaders Rochester Bombers Crayford Highwaymen/Budgies (sorry, Kestrels) Hackney Hawks/Kestrels West Ham Hammers/Bombers Romford Bombers Wimbledon Dons Wembley Lions White City Rebels I'm sure there are some glaring omissions but it's just off the top of the head.

Sadly I sold my speedway records and programme collection after leaving Rye House so I don't have anything but memory to go on but I'm pretty sure Laurie had outings at Rayleigh and Hackney at least. Okay Ken, as soon as I can rub a few fivers together you have a sale That reminds me, I must order some of my own programmes from the Tape 2 Tape video vault - I have very few copies ironically.

Thanks, I am delighted to learn something. That was one that never made it into the public domain. Was it at the Great Leighs site?

That was in the list of meetings on a historic DVD and had me confused - it must have been a typo because the closest I remember Chelmsford ever getting to speedway came about as follows: About the time Rayleigh's number was coming up there were proposals to run speedway at the Essex Showground at Great Leighs near Chelmsford. Despite being in a remote location there were noise objections.

I am reminded of Bruce Cribb's advice on coping with Exeter's metal fence... "Don't hit it". Was Halifax's better to hit on a warm afternoon?

I am reminded of Bruce Cribb's advice on coping withe Exeter's metal fence... "Don't hit it".

Ah but are we sure that's not just a tax dodge? You know what these promoters are like........