Bee

Hey BRYN how are you. Still chain smoking? I was really quite saddened to hear that Chris Galvin has passed on. Smashing guy, and helped me out a lot when I was messing around with the training schools (Remember they called me Skid!) Anyway those days at Hackney were great even when ANDY used to grab my bike and go for a burn up. Bacon butties and cards at Vic Harding was always worth hanging around for. Is SNOWIE still with us. I do hope so. Me? I live in the Philippines now. and happy to be in the sun all year around. Do I miss speedway? Not in the slightest really. I keep in touch with it via here, and the Coventry web-site etc. Saw your reports from Oz. U should stop off here on the way there, or back one time. Speedway looks a complete mess to me nowadays. The Premier looks a better thing than the Elite. I couldn't even imagine turning up week in week out to top league matches when you are getting no value at all. Two heat leaders if your lucky... And very long tails. Downgraded beyond belief IMHO. Bring Back the Hawks and the Bees of the 70's 80'and even most of the 90's. But 2000 + Nah Forget it. Best wishes anyway to all.

Has anyone not mentioned James Bond! Wolves in 70's How about some greats like Jim Airey Peter Vandenburg Rick France Dag Loovas Hasse Holmqvist Gordon Gausco Pete Smith! Geoff Mudge Ross Gilbertson John Jackson Chris Pusey And the list goes on.......

Nigel Boocock scored 17 out of 25 for Coventry there one year in 60's also won the Wills Internationale same year I think. That score was a British League record.

Sad, sad day to hear of the tragic death of Les Muscles Owen. I will remember him with fondness for the rest of my life. A giant of a man with a big heart and tremendous loyalty to the Bees from 1957 to his enforced retirement after a life threatening crash with John Harry against Cradley Utd at Brandon in 1973. Rest in Peace my valued friend. Gone but never forgotten along with, Charles Ochiltree,Jack Biggs, Ken McKinlay, Colin Cottrel and Ron Mountford.

1959. The National League dwindled once again. Down to just nine teams. Ipswich folded after a very poor 1958. With their closure we signed a man who’d ridden for three teams, during three previous seasons, with all three teams CLOSING. Not a good omen.. He rode at Bradford...They Closed. He rode at Birmingham...They closed. He rode at Ipswich, and they too Closed. And now in 1959 he signed for Coventry. With the climate as it was there were a few who wondered if this would be the end of Brandon....It was just the Dawn as NIGEL BOOCOCK opened a new chapter in the History of Brandon. The man became the KING OF BRANDON until he left in 1976.... Despite the decline a reserves league was formed and the Southern League also ran. Bees having lost JACK YOUNG, who as promised didn’t return, made efforts to sign BARRY BRIGGS who had fallen out with Wimbledon and refused to ride for them. Wimbledon refused to let him go. So we signed unknown Finland rider, ANTTI PAJARI who was wild, and reckless, but soon very popular.The team did much better remaining unbeaten at home until the mighty Wimbledon took the points at Brandon. Leicester also forced a draw late on. Away from the Hive, we managed only one win. A one point victory at Southampton. GRAHAM WARREN was signed, but the Blonde Bombshell as he was known, was never the force of the early 50’sJunior ALAN PEARCE lost his life in a track crash at Southampton which obviously cast a shadow over the team. The reserve team finished 5th and was not just for juniors but for anyone unable to get a team place. One youngster who came on and emerged in 1959 was RICK FRANCE. Eric Hockaday and Nick Nicholls moved over to Oxford during the season and Peo Soderman didn’t return at all.In the National Trophy, The Bees came up against the mighty Dons of Wimbledon. It was considered to be all over after the first leg thrashing 71-35 to the Dons. In the return leg at Brandon, Wimbledon were without Ronnie Moore. But the Bees were without Jim Lightfoot. After two races Wimbledon led 4-8 and extended their massive lead to 38 points. The tie looked dead and buried. However the Bees staged a remarkable comeback... After a shared heat in the third, Bees levelled the score on the nigh in heat four. Heat five was shared 15-15. Then Bees took a 5-1, followed by a 4-2, and another 5-1. (29-19) The lead had been reduced to 24. Dons took a 4-2 in heat 9 and led by 26 with just nine heats remaining. A 5-1 was followed with a 4-2 to the Bees and then THREE successive 5-1’s reduced the deficit too just 8 points with four races to go. Suddenly the great comeback was in sight.A 3-3 slowed the progress, but then a 5-1 and a 4-2 made the score 67-35. A 5-1 to finish would WIN the tie for the Bees... Mountford and Forrest lined up against How and Andrews in a terrific tussle. Ron came crashing down in a do or die effort giving the Dons a 4-2 to take the tie 106-110. Bees winning 69-39 on the Night. A match that will go down as one of the real Brandon highlights over it’s 50 year History. They may have failed...But, to comeback from 38 down to lose by just four in a last heat decider, was a titanic effort. KEN McKINLAY won the Midland Riders Championship. Coventry scorer’s 1959. 1. Nigel Boocock 171.5 2. Arthur Forrest 138 3. Ron Mountford 115 4. Guests 81 5. Morrie Mattingly 67.5 6. Jim Lightfoot 48 7. Nick Nicholls 45 8. Antti Pajari 35 9. Les Owen 31 10. Brian Meredith 9 11. Graham Warren 9 Reserves League scorer’s1. Brian Meredith 33 2. Graham Warren 27 3. Morrie Mattingly 23 4. Les Owen 21 5. Anttti Pajari 21 6. Rick France 14 7. Eric Eadon 5 8. Trevor Eadon 5 9. Peter Brough 4 10. Nick Nicholls 4 11. Nigel Boocock 0 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1959 1. Wimbledon 16 13 0 3 893 635 26 2. Leicester 16 8 1 7 759 768 17 3. Coventry 16 8 1 7 750 797 17 4. Norwich 16 8 0 8 784 763 16 5. Southampton 16 8 0 8 769 758 16 6. Poole 16 8 0 8 716 813 16 7. Oxford 16 7 0 9 733 773 14 8. Swindon 16 6 0 10 726 766 12 9. Belle Vue 16 5 0 11 735 793 10 1960. A new decade. JACK YOUNG returned, fresh and with renewed keenness. HENRYK ZYTO from Poland was signed. Out went Arthur Forrest and Antti Pajari. Hoping for improvement- It didn’t happen.! Young and Boocock didn’t get the support they needed. Ron Mountford was injured in a freak workshop accident. He got a slither of metal in his eye resulting in virtual blindness in the eye. Without question it obviously effected him and his form. Jim Lightfoot was unhappy and announced his retirement. Mattingly and Warren struggled. Warren breaking his collarbone. Les Owen was the one bright spot, as he showed his emergence as a regular team member. Nigel Boocock missed the opening meetings with a broken collarbone. Hopes remained high. The East Midlands Bowl was won and two comfortable wins in the Britannia Shield, using our reserves to cover for Nigel. In our second meeting in the Shield, Jim Lightfoot was missing having damaged his fingers in a crash with Zyto the week before. He was also kept out with ulcer trouble for a month. The Bees drafted in RICK FRANCE and moved GRAHAM WARREN in to replace Lightfoot. Two stars out, and two reserves in as replacements. Boocock was back for the return Britannia Shield Match at Leicester, but we lost at Blackbird Road 35-55. Oxford were crushed 61-28 at Brandon, again without Lightfoot (ulcer). By mid May Bees had a very comfortably won all four matches at Home. But, equally struggled Away, mainly caused by the injuries to Nigel, Jim and Ron. We lost at Home to Belle Vue in the Shield. Ron and Jim’s absence was too much on the night. Webounced back with a win at Ipswich and a big win at home against New Cross. In June Ron returned ahead of expectations. He returned as good as ever with 13 points against Southampton. The little Pole, Henryk Zyto won the Midland Riders Championship, with Arne Pander beating Jack Young in a run-off for 2nd place. Henryk Zyto bacame the first Bee to win the title in 8 years. Both Jack, and Henryk qualified for the World Final. We beat Leicester again in the Midland Cup Final. Ronnie Moore won the Brandonapolis with Henryk 2nd. Wimbledon knocked us out of the National Trophy in the first round. Coventry scorer’s 1960. 1. Jack Young 184 2. Nigel Boocock 171 3. Henryk Zyto 92 4. Les Owen 87 5. Ron Mountford 74 6. Nick Nichols 72 7. Jim Lightfoot 66 8. Graham Warren 40 9. Maurie Mattingly 17 10. Rick France 6 11. Col Smith 1 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1960 1. Wimbledon 17 13 0 4 838 691 26 2. Belle Vue 18 11 1 6 890 726 23 3. Oxford 18 11 0 7 816 797 22 4. Ipswich 18 10 0 8 751 863 20 5. Norwich 17 8 1 8 748.5 779.5 17 6. Leicester 18 7 2 9 793.5 825.5 16 7. Southampton 18 7 1 10 815 794 15 8. New Cross 18 7 1 10 770 840 15 9. Coventry 18 7 0 11 810 807 14 10. Swindon 18 5 0 13 754 863 10 * Norwich v Wimbledon never staged. **Coventry v Belle Vue was ridden at Belle Vue we lost 33-57 which was worse than our AWAY match at Belle Vue when we lost 39-51!!! The meeting was staged there due to late season rain off’s and no available date at Brandon. *** Jim Lightfoot’s ulcer trouble was infact a premature retirement following disagreements with the management.

So Jenny would your father John be John Bishop that road for Oxford. I remember him. Also re Phil Bishop I recall the Lokeren accident. Sad day indeed. Although I never saw Phil Bishop ride I did witness him as manager at West Ham in my days.

1959. The National League dwindled once again. Down to just nine teams. Ipswich folded after a very poor 1958. With their closure we signed a man who’d ridden for three teams, during three previous seasons, with all three teams CLOSING. Not a good omen.. He rode at Bradford...They Closed. He rode at Birmingham...They closed. He rode at Ipswich, and they too Closed. And now in 1959 he signed for Coventry. With the climate as it was there were a few who wondered if this would be the end of Brandon....It was just the Dawn as NIGEL BOOCOCK opened a new chapter in the History of Brandon. The man became the KING OF BRANDON until he left in 1976....Despite the decline a reserves league was formed and the Southern League also ran. Bees having lost JACK YOUNG, who as promised didn’t return, made efforts to sign BARRY BRIGGS who had fallen out with Wimbledon and refused to ride for them. Wimbledon refused to let him go. So we signed unknown Finland rider, ANTTI PAJARI who was wild, and reckless, but soon very popular.The team did much better remaining unbeaten at home until the mighty Wimbledon took the points at Brandon. Leicester also forced a draw late on. Away from the Hive, we managed only one win. A one point victory at Southampton. GRAHAM WARREN was signed, but the Blonde Bombshell as he was known, was never the force of the early 50’sJunior ALAN PEARCE lost his life in a track crash at Southampton which obviously cast a shadow over the team. The reserve team finished 5th and was not just for juniors but for anyone unable to get a team place. One youngster who came on and emerged in 1959 was RICK FRANCE. Eric Hockaday and Nick Nicholls moved over to Oxford during the season and Peo Soderman didn’t return at all.In the National Trophy, The Bees came up against the mighty Dons of Wimbledon. It was considered to be all over after the first leg thrashing 71-35 to the Dons. In the return leg at Brandon, Wimbledon were without Ronnie Moore. But the Bees were without Jim Lightfoot. After two races Wimbledon led 4-8 and extended their massive lead to 38 points. The tie looked dead and buried. However the Bees staged a remarkable comeback... After a shared heat in the third, Bees levelled the score on the nigh in heat four. Heat five was shared 15-15. Then Bees took a 5-1, followed by a 4-2, and another 5-1. (29-19) The lead had been reduced to 24. Dons took a 4-2 in heat 9 and led by 26 with just nine heats remaining. A 5-1 was followed with a 4-2 to the Bees and then THREE successive 5-1’s reduced the deficit too just 8 points with four races to go. Suddenly the great comeback was in sight.A 3-3 slowed the progress, but then a 5-1 and a 4-2 made the score 67-35. A 5-1 to finish would WIN the tie for the Bees... Mountford and Forrest lined up against How and Andrews in a terrific tussle. Ron came crashing down in a do or die effort giving the Dons a 4-2 to take the tie 106-110. Bees winning 69-39 on the Night. A match that will go down as one of the real Brandon highlights over it’s 50 year History. They may have failed...But, to comeback from 38 down to lose by just four in a last heat decider, was a titanic effort. KEN McKINLAY won the Midland Riders Championship. Coventry scorer’s 1959. 1. Nigel Boocock 171.5 2. Arthur Forrest 138 3. Ron Mountford 115 4. Guests 81 5. Morrie Mattingly 67.5 6. Jim Lightfoot 48 7. Nick Nicholls 45 8. Antti Pajari 35 9. Les Owen 31 10. Brian Meredith 9 11. Graham Warren 9 Reserves League scorer’s 1. Brian Meredith 33 2. Graham Warren 27 3. Morrie Mattingly 23 4. Les Owen 21 5. Anttti Pajari 21 6. Rick France 14 7. Eric Eadon 5 8. Trevor Eadon 5 9. Peter Brough 4 10. Nick Nicholls 4 11. Nigel Boocock 0 All riders highlighted I recall as my first season following the Bees started the following season in 1960 And Booey was the one I remember most even in black leathers, before the painted blue, and white boots. Les Owen was another favourite as was Rick and Ron... And so many others of this era NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1959 1. Wimbledon 16 13 0 3 893 635 26 2. Leicester 16 8 1 7 759 768 17 3. Coventry 16 8 1 7 750 797 17 4. Norwich 16 8 0 8 784 763 16 5. Southampton 16 8 0 8 769 758 16 6. Poole 16 8 0 8 716 813 16 7. Oxford 16 7 0 9 733 773 14 8. Swindon 16 6 0 10 726 766 12 9. Belle Vue 16 5 0 11 735 793 10 1960. A new decade. JACK YOUNG returned, fresh and with renewed keenness. HENRYK ZYTO from Poland was signed. Out went Arthur Forrest and Antti Pajari. Hoping for improvement- It didn’t happen.! Young and Boocock didn’t get the support they needed. Ron Mountford was injured in a freak workshop accident. He got a slither of metal in his eye resulting in virtual blindness in the eye. Without question it obviously effected him and his form.Jim Lightfoot was unhappy and announced his retirement. Mattingly and Warren struggled. Warren breaking his collarbone. Les Owen was the one bright spot, as he showed his emergence as a regular team member. Nigel Boocock missed the opening meetings with a broken collarbone. Hopes remained high. The East Midlands Bowl was won and two comfortable wins in the Britannia Shield, using our reserves to cover for Nigel. In our second meeting in the Shield, Jim Lightfoot was missing having damaged his fingers in a crash with Zyto the week before. He was also kept out with ulcer trouble for a month. The Bees drafted in RICK FRANCE and moved GRAHAM WARREN in to replace Lightfoot. Two stars out, and two reserves in as replacements. Boocock was back for the return Britannia Shield Match at Leicester, but we lost at Blackbird Road 35-55. Oxford were crushed 61-28 at Brandon, again without Lightfoot (ulcer). By mid May Bees had a very comfortably won all four matches at Home. But, equally struggled Away, mainly caused by the injuries to Nigel, Jim and Ron. We lost at Home to Belle Vue in the Shield. Ron and Jim’s absence was too much on the night. Webounced back with a win at Ipswich and a big win at home against New Cross. In June Ron returned ahead of expectations. He returned as good as ever with 13 points against Southampton. The little Pole, Henryk Zyto won the Midland Riders Championship, with Arne Pander beating Jack Young in a run-off for 2nd place. Henryk Zyto bacame the first Bee to win the title in 8 years. Both Jack, and Henryk qualified for the World Final. We beat Leicester again in the Midland Cup Final. Ronnie Moore won the Brandonapolis with Henryk 2nd. Wimbledon knocked us out of the National Trophy in the first round. Coventry scorer’s 1960. 1. Jack Young 184 2. Nigel Boocock 171 3. Henryk Zyto 92 4. Les Owen 87 5. Ron Mountford 74 6. Nick Nichols 72 7. Jim Lightfoot 66 8. Graham Warren 40 9. Maurie Mattingly 17 10. Rick France 6 11. Col Smith 1 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1960 1. Wimbledon 17 13 0 4 838 691 26 2. Belle Vue 18 11 1 6 890 726 23 3. Oxford 18 11 0 7 816 797 22 4. Ipswich 18 10 0 8 751 863 20 5. Norwich 17 8 1 8 748.5 779.5 17 6. Leicester 18 7 2 9 793.5 825.5 16 7. Southampton 18 7 1 10 815 794 15 8. New Cross 18 7 1 10 770 840 15 9. Coventry 18 7 0 11 810 807 14 10. Swindon 18 5 0 13 754 863 10 * Norwich v Wimbledon never staged. **Coventry v Belle Vue was ridden at Belle Vue we lost 33-57 which was worse than our AWAY match at Belle Vue when we lost 39-51!!! The meeting was staged there due to late season rain off’s and no available date at Brandon. *** Jim Lightfoot’s ulcer trouble was infact a premature retirement following disagreements with the management. To be continued and did you know that we could have had Ray Wilson in the Bees colours as well??? Coming soon

1959. The National League dwindled once again. Down to just nine teams. Ipswich folded after a very poor 1958. With their closure we signed a man who’d ridden for three teams, during three previous seasons, with all three teams CLOSING. Not a good omen.. He rode at Bradford...They Closed. He rode at Birmingham...They closed. He rode at Ipswich, and they too Closed. And now in 1959 he signed for Coventry. With the climate as it was there were a few who wondered if this would be the end of Brandon....It was just the Dawn as NIGEL BOOCOCK opened a new chapter in the History of Brandon. The man became the KING OF BRANDON until he left in 1976....Despite the decline a reserves league was formed and the Southern League also ran. Bees having lost JACK YOUNG, who as promised didn’t return, made efforts to sign BARRY BRIGGS who had fallen out with Wimbledon and refused to ride for them. Wimbledon refused to let him go. So we signed unknown Finland rider, ANTTI PAJARI who was wild, and reckless, but soon very popular.The team did much better remaining unbeaten at home until the mighty Wimbledon took the points at Brandon. Leicester also forced a draw late on. Away from the Hive, we managed only one win. A one point victory at Southampton. GRAHAM WARREN was signed, but the Blonde Bombshell as he was known, was never the force of the early 50’sJunior ALAN PEARCE lost his life in a track crash at Southampton which obviously cast a shadow over the team. The reserve team finished 5th and was not just for juniors but for anyone unable to get a team place. One youngster who came on and emerged in 1959 was RICK FRANCE. Eric Hockaday and Nick Nicholls moved over to Oxford during the season and Peo Soderman didn’t return at all.In the National Trophy, The Bees came up against the mighty Dons of Wimbledon. It was considered to be all over after the first leg thrashing 71-35 to the Dons. In the return leg at Brandon, Wimbledon were without Ronnie Moore. But the Bees were without Jim Lightfoot. After two races Wimbledon led 4-8 and extended their massive lead to 38 points. The tie looked dead and buried. However the Bees staged a remarkable comeback... After a shared heat in the third, Bees levelled the score on the nigh in heat four. Heat five was shared 15-15. Then Bees took a 5-1, followed by a 4-2, and another 5-1. (29-19) The lead had been reduced to 24. Dons took a 4-2 in heat 9 and led by 26 with just nine heats remaining. A 5-1 was followed with a 4-2 to the Bees and then THREE successive 5-1’s reduced the deficit too just 8 points with four races to go. Suddenly the great comeback was in sight.A 3-3 slowed the progress, but then a 5-1 and a 4-2 made the score 67-35. A 5-1 to finish would WIN the tie for the Bees... Mountford and Forrest lined up against How and Andrews in a terrific tussle. Ron came crashing down in a do or die effort giving the Dons a 4-2 to take the tie 106-110. Bees winning 69-39 on the Night. A match that will go down as one of the real Brandon highlights over it’s 50 year History. They may have failed...But, to comeback from 38 down to lose by just four in a last heat decider, was a titanic effort. KEN McKINLAY won the Midland Riders Championship. Coventry scorer’s 1959. 1. Nigel Boocock 171.5 2. Arthur Forrest 138 3. Ron Mountford 115 4. Guests 81 5. Morrie Mattingly 67.5 6. Jim Lightfoot 48 7. Nick Nicholls 45 8. Antti Pajari 35 9. Les Owen 31 10. Brian Meredith 9 11. Graham Warren 9 Reserves League scorer’s 1. Brian Meredith 33 2. Graham Warren 27 3. Morrie Mattingly 23 4. Les Owen 21 5. Anttti Pajari 21 6. Rick France 14 7. Eric Eadon 5 8. Trevor Eadon 5 9. Peter Brough 4 10. Nick Nicholls 4 11. Nigel Boocock 0 All riders highlighted I recall as my first season following the Bees started the following season in 1960 And Booey was the one I remember most even in black leathers, before the painted blue, and white boots. Les Owen was another favourite as was Rick and Ron... And so many others of this era NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1959 1. Wimbledon 16 13 0 3 893 635 26 2. Leicester 16 8 1 7 759 768 17 3. Coventry 16 8 1 7 750 797 17 4. Norwich 16 8 0 8 784 763 16 5. Southampton 16 8 0 8 769 758 16 6. Poole 16 8 0 8 716 813 16 7. Oxford 16 7 0 9 733 773 14 8. Swindon 16 6 0 10 726 766 12 9. Belle Vue 16 5 0 11 735 793 10 1960. A new decade. JACK YOUNG returned, fresh and with renewed keenness. HENRYK ZYTO from Poland was signed. Out went Arthur Forrest and Antti Pajari. Hoping for improvement- It didn’t happen.! Young and Boocock didn’t get the support they needed. Ron Mountford was injured in a freak workshop accident. He got a slither of metal in his eye resulting in virtual blindness in the eye. Without question it obviously effected him and his form.Jim Lightfoot was unhappy and announced his retirement. Mattingly and Warren struggled. Warren breaking his collarbone. Les Owen was the one bright spot, as he showed his emergence as a regular team member. Nigel Boocock missed the opening meetings with a broken collarbone. Hopes remained high. The East Midlands Bowl was won and two comfortable wins in the Britannia Shield, using our reserves to cover for Nigel. In our second meeting in the Shield, Jim Lightfoot was missing having damaged his fingers in a crash with Zyto the week before. He was also kept out with ulcer trouble for a month. The Bees drafted in RICK FRANCE and moved GRAHAM WARREN in to replace Lightfoot. Two stars out, and two reserves in as replacements. Boocock was back for the return Britannia Shield Match at Leicester, but we lost at Blackbird Road 35-55. Oxford were crushed 61-28 at Brandon, again without Lightfoot (ulcer). By mid May Bees had a very comfortably won all four matches at Home. But, equally struggled Away, mainly caused by the injuries to Nigel, Jim and Ron. We lost at Home to Belle Vue in the Shield. Ron and Jim’s absence was too much on the night. Webounced back with a win at Ipswich and a big win at home against New Cross. In June Ron returned ahead of expectations. He returned as good as ever with 13 points against Southampton. The little Pole, Henryk Zyto won the Midland Riders Championship, with Arne Pander beating Jack Young in a run-off for 2nd place. Henryk Zyto bacame the first Bee to win the title in 8 years. Both Jack, and Henryk qualified for the World Final. We beat Leicester again in the Midland Cup Final. Ronnie Moore won the Brandonapolis with Henryk 2nd. Wimbledon knocked us out of the National Trophy in the first round. Coventry scorer’s 1960. 1. Jack Young 184 2. Nigel Boocock 171 3. Henryk Zyto 92 4. Les Owen 87 5. Ron Mountford 74 6. Nick Nichols 72 7. Jim Lightfoot 66 8. Graham Warren 40 9. Maurie Mattingly 17 10. Rick France 6 11. Col Smith 1 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1960 1. Wimbledon 17 13 0 4 838 691 26 2. Belle Vue 18 11 1 6 890 726 23 3. Oxford 18 11 0 7 816 797 22 4. Ipswich 18 10 0 8 751 863 20 5. Norwich 17 8 1 8 748.5 779.5 17 6. Leicester 18 7 2 9 793.5 825.5 16 7. Southampton 18 7 1 10 815 794 15 8. New Cross 18 7 1 10 770 840 15 9. Coventry 18 7 0 11 810 807 14 10. Swindon 18 5 0 13 754 863 10 * Norwich v Wimbledon never staged. **Coventry v Belle Vue was ridden at Belle Vue we lost 33-57 which was worse than our AWAY match at Belle Vue when we lost 39-51!!! The meeting was staged there due to late season rain off’s and no available date at Brandon. *** Jim Lightfoot’s ulcer trouble was infact a premature retirement following disagreements with the management. To be continued and did you know that we could have had Ray Wilson in the Bees colours as well??? Coming soon

1959. The National League dwindled once again. Down to just nine teams. Ipswich folded after a very poor 1958. With their closure we signed a man who’d ridden for three teams, during three previous seasons, with all three teams CLOSING. Not a good omen.. He rode at Bradford...They Closed. He rode at Birmingham...They closed. He rode at Ipswich, and they too Closed. And now in 1959 he signed for Coventry. With the climate as it was there were a few who wondered if this would be the end of Brandon....It was just the Dawn as NIGEL BOOCOCK opened a new chapter in the History of Brandon. The man became the KING OF BRANDON until he left in 1976....Despite the decline a reserves league was formed and the Southern League also ran. Bees having lost JACK YOUNG, who as promised didn’t return, made efforts to sign BARRY BRIGGS who had fallen out with Wimbledon and refused to ride for them. Wimbledon refused to let him go. So we signed unknown Finland rider, ANTTI PAJARI who was wild, and reckless, but soon very popular.The team did much better remaining unbeaten at home until the mighty Wimbledon took the points at Brandon. Leicester also forced a draw late on. Away from the Hive, we managed only one win. A one point victory at Southampton. GRAHAM WARREN was signed, but the Blonde Bombshell as he was known, was never the force of the early 50’sJunior ALAN PEARCE lost his life in a track crash at Southampton which obviously cast a shadow over the team. The reserve team finished 5th and was not just for juniors but for anyone unable to get a team place. One youngster who came on and emerged in 1959 was RICK FRANCE. Eric Hockaday and Nick Nicholls moved over to Oxford during the season and Peo Soderman didn’t return at all.In the National Trophy, The Bees came up against the mighty Dons of Wimbledon. It was considered to be all over after the first leg thrashing 71-35 to the Dons. In the return leg at Brandon, Wimbledon were without Ronnie Moore. But the Bees were without Jim Lightfoot. After two races Wimbledon led 4-8 and extended their massive lead to 38 points. The tie looked dead and buried. However the Bees staged a remarkable comeback... After a shared heat in the third, Bees levelled the score on the nigh in heat four. Heat five was shared 15-15. Then Bees took a 5-1, followed by a 4-2, and another 5-1. (29-19) The lead had been reduced to 24. Dons took a 4-2 in heat 9 and led by 26 with just nine heats remaining. A 5-1 was followed with a 4-2 to the Bees and then THREE successive 5-1’s reduced the deficit too just 8 points with four races to go. Suddenly the great comeback was in sight.A 3-3 slowed the progress, but then a 5-1 and a 4-2 made the score 67-35. A 5-1 to finish would WIN the tie for the Bees... Mountford and Forrest lined up against How and Andrews in a terrific tussle. Ron came crashing down in a do or die effort giving the Dons a 4-2 to take the tie 106-110. Bees winning 69-39 on the Night. A match that will go down as one of the real Brandon highlights over it’s 50 year History. They may have failed...But, to comeback from 38 down to lose by just four in a last heat decider, was a titanic effort. KEN McKINLAY won the Midland Riders Championship. Coventry scorer’s 1959. 1. Nigel Boocock 171.5 2. Arthur Forrest 138 3. Ron Mountford 115 4. Guests 81 5. Morrie Mattingly 67.5 6. Jim Lightfoot 48 7. Nick Nicholls 45 8. Antti Pajari 35 9. Les Owen 31 10. Brian Meredith 9 11. Graham Warren 9 Reserves League scorer’s 1. Brian Meredith 33 2. Graham Warren 27 3. Morrie Mattingly 23 4. Les Owen 21 5. Anttti Pajari 21 6. Rick France 14 7. Eric Eadon 5 8. Trevor Eadon 5 9. Peter Brough 4 10. Nick Nicholls 4 11. Nigel Boocock 0 All riders highlighted I recall as my first season following the Bees started the following season in 1960 And Booey was the one I remember most even in black leathers, before the painted blue, and white boots. Les Owen was another favourite as was Rick and Ron... And so many others of this era NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1959 1. Wimbledon 16 13 0 3 893 635 26 2. Leicester 16 8 1 7 759 768 17 3. Coventry 16 8 1 7 750 797 17 4. Norwich 16 8 0 8 784 763 16 5. Southampton 16 8 0 8 769 758 16 6. Poole 16 8 0 8 716 813 16 7. Oxford 16 7 0 9 733 773 14 8. Swindon 16 6 0 10 726 766 12 9. Belle Vue 16 5 0 11 735 793 10 1960. A new decade. JACK YOUNG returned, fresh and with renewed keenness. HENRYK ZYTO from Poland was signed. Out went Arthur Forrest and Antti Pajari. Hoping for improvement- It didn’t happen.! Young and Boocock didn’t get the support they needed. Ron Mountford was injured in a freak workshop accident. He got a slither of metal in his eye resulting in virtual blindness in the eye. Without question it obviously effected him and his form.Jim Lightfoot was unhappy and announced his retirement. Mattingly and Warren struggled. Warren breaking his collarbone. Les Owen was the one bright spot, as he showed his emergence as a regular team member. Nigel Boocock missed the opening meetings with a broken collarbone. Hopes remained high. The East Midlands Bowl was won and two comfortable wins in the Britannia Shield, using our reserves to cover for Nigel. In our second meeting in the Shield, Jim Lightfoot was missing having damaged his fingers in a crash with Zyto the week before. He was also kept out with ulcer trouble for a month. The Bees drafted in RICK FRANCE and moved GRAHAM WARREN in to replace Lightfoot. Two stars out, and two reserves in as replacements. Boocock was back for the return Britannia Shield Match at Leicester, but we lost at Blackbird Road 35-55. Oxford were crushed 61-28 at Brandon, again without Lightfoot (ulcer). By mid May Bees had a very comfortably won all four matches at Home. But, equally struggled Away, mainly caused by the injuries to Nigel, Jim and Ron. We lost at Home to Belle Vue in the Shield. Ron and Jim’s absence was too much on the night. Webounced back with a win at Ipswich and a big win at home against New Cross. In June Ron returned ahead of expectations. He returned as good as ever with 13 points against Southampton. The little Pole, Henryk Zyto won the Midland Riders Championship, with Arne Pander beating Jack Young in a run-off for 2nd place. Henryk Zyto bacame the first Bee to win the title in 8 years. Both Jack, and Henryk qualified for the World Final. We beat Leicester again in the Midland Cup Final. Ronnie Moore won the Brandonapolis with Henryk 2nd. Wimbledon knocked us out of the National Trophy in the first round. Coventry scorer’s 1960. 1. Jack Young 184 2. Nigel Boocock 171 3. Henryk Zyto 92 4. Les Owen 87 5. Ron Mountford 74 6. Nick Nichols 72 7. Jim Lightfoot 66 8. Graham Warren 40 9. Maurie Mattingly 17 10. Rick France 6 11. Col Smith 1 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1960 1. Wimbledon 17 13 0 4 838 691 26 2. Belle Vue 18 11 1 6 890 726 23 3. Oxford 18 11 0 7 816 797 22 4. Ipswich 18 10 0 8 751 863 20 5. Norwich 17 8 1 8 748.5 779.5 17 6. Leicester 18 7 2 9 793.5 825.5 16 7. Southampton 18 7 1 10 815 794 15 8. New Cross 18 7 1 10 770 840 15 9. Coventry 18 7 0 11 810 807 14 10. Swindon 18 5 0 13 754 863 10 * Norwich v Wimbledon never staged. **Coventry v Belle Vue was ridden at Belle Vue we lost 33-57 which was worse than our AWAY match at Belle Vue when we lost 39-51!!! The meeting was staged there due to late season rain off’s and no available date at Brandon. *** Jim Lightfoot’s ulcer trouble was infact a premature retirement following disagreements with the management. To be continued and did you know that we could have had Ray Wilson in the Bees colours as well??? Coming soon

Me too Lt .. and I know it .. it goes dum de dum de dum te dum, te dum, te dum tee tee Nope that sounds like radio 4's The Archers too me

1957. The numbers continued to dwindle during the close season, and the remaining teams amalgamated into One Division for 1957. The Bees were allocated a Aussie, Jack Geran. However, before a wheel could be turned we were forced to release him, in order to accommodate the popular PEO SODERMAN. The signing of Soderman backfired on the Bees as he was to be absent on frequent occasions due to commitments in Sweden. The Suez Crisis brought in Petrol rationing and the season was delayed as a result. Poole and Bradford closed and later Sir Arthur Elvin, Boss at Wembley died, and with him went the famous Lions. It was these extra closures that brought about the amalgamation. We were allocated Both, ARTHUR WRIGHT from Bradford and Geran from Poole. VIC EMMS returned as Team Manager. Birmingham then closed mid-season. The Brummies had not recovered from the death of Alan Hunt in South Africa.. They also had the problem of some of their stars being “blacked” for racing in South Africa.Odsal took over their fixtures, but RON MOUNTFORD joined the Bees in preference to the trip up North. With Soderman often absent and both BOB MARK and NICK NICHOLLS struggling against tougher opposition, the Bees had a poor season finishing 8th of 11 EIRC HOCKADAY made no progress, JIM LIGHTFOOT and NICK NICHOLLS were both given a 14 day suspension for their trip to South Africa. REG DUVAL returned after he had failed to get his beloved Liverpool Chads going. Ron Mountford made his debut on 17th of August and scored 8 in a 49-47 win over Wimbledon. JIM TOLLEY also joined the Bees from the Brummies. LES OWEN replaced Hockaday at reserve and although we held our own at home, we lost most of the time on our travels. We used a lot of guests for the absent Soderman and we used Alf Hagon and KEN McKINLAY for the last three matches at Brandon. By the end of the season the only good news was that World Champion JACK YOUNG was to return, and Coventry were hot in line for his signature.... When Norwich visited Brandon they were missing a certain HARRY EDWARDS. We won by just two points. Norwich came up with the excuse to end all, for Edwards absence... He hadn’t broken down en route, neither had he been taken suddenly ill. His excuse was that he’d been out sailing in the morning, miss read the tides and ended up marooned on a sand bank for 12 hours, with no radio too call for help. !! JOHNNIE REASON came out of retirement. He rode in a World Championship Q.R. at Brandon. He scored just two points, and at the insistence of his fiancee, Quit again there and then. Coventry Scorer’s 1957 1. Jim Lightfoot 149 2. GUESTS 140 3. Charlie New 123 4. Reg Duval 121 5. Ron Mountford 111 6. Peo Soderman 98 7. Nick Nicholls 31 8. Les Owen 23 9. Jim Tolley 20 10. Arthur Wright 18 11. Eric Hockaday 18 12. Bob Mark 15 13. Brian Meredith 1 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One. 1957 1. Swindon 20 15 1 4 1103 817 31 2. Belle Vue 20 15 0 5 992 830 30 3. Wimbledon 20 12 0 8 997 919 24 4. Norwich 20 11 0 9 1015 905 22 5. Leicester 20 10 1 9 938 977 21 6. Southampton 20 9 0 11 1002 911 18 7. Birmingham/Odsal 20 9 0 11 884 939 18 8. Coventry 20 9 0 11 868 1050 18 9. Oxford 20 7 1 12 880 1036 15 10. Ipswich 20 6 0 14 885 1032 15 11. Rayleigh 20 5 1 14 885 1033 11 1958. The League dwindled further, to just ten teams when Bradford closed. The Bees who had found the going tough in ‘57 and needed additional team strengthening, were given a major boost when former World Champion JACK YOUNG signed.With Bradford’s closure we signed another Brandon favourite in ARTHUR FORREST. Whilst MAURIE MATTINGLY moved to Brandon from Southampton. But, even the added strength was given a knock when Jim Lightfoot broke a wrist in pre-season practice and missed the first three months of the season. Charlie New decided to move on, and joined Oxford. Jim Tolley retired, and Peo Sodermann did not return for the start of the season. Bob Mark also retired. Coventry opened the season with the Britannia Shield matches, and won Home and Away against Leicester, but within a couple of weeks Belle Vue came to Brandon and won easily 41-55. So it was apparent that we were still not strong enough. We also hammered Oxford Home and Away, but it was obvious too all that Leicester and Oxford were also very weak. We opened our league campaign with an away win at Poole who’d come back into the League and who had took over the Rayleigh License. But, we lost our first match at Home to the eventual Champions, Wimbledon. We won three times away from Brandon, and also collected a draw. Once again our ultra fair Brandon Bowl coupled with a team that were not that strong, slipped up to three home defeats. (A occurrence that has repeated itself down the years...) Ironically, had we have remained unbeaten at home, we’d have won the title ourselves and not finished 7th out of 10.!!!REG DUVAL followed Charlie New and moved to Oxford. The Bees tried Eric Hockaday again, with little success. Les Owen also got his chances and his erratic style thrilled the crowd. As Jim Lightfoot returned it was Morrie Mattingly’s turn to go on the injury list. Peo Soderman returned after initial difficulties getting permission to use him again. No doubt caused by his frequent absences of the previous season.In the National Trophy we lost out, home and away to Southampton. The trophy was raced over 20 heats in 1958 with TEN man teams. With the return of Soderman the Bees faired much better and gave YOUNG the much needed support. But, all was not well for Youngie. In the World Championship he was drawn at Wimbledon and Leicester. He won his opening race at Plough Lane, but there was a protest and the race was re-run AFTER heat FOUR... In heat five he took a fall and then walked out of the meeting, far from happy. He failed to qualify as a result and was fined a mammoth £100. YOUNG sailed home in September and vowed never to return. So even though we ran 2nd for most of the season, we ended up near the bottom but, with a little more luck could have been on top as Champions. Coventry scorer’s 1958. 1. Jack Young 237 2. Arthur Forrest 161 3. Ron Mountford 122 4. Peo Soderman 104 5. Jim Lightfoot 97 6. Morrie Mattingly 68 7. Nick Nicholls 64 8. Reg Duval 18 9. Les Owen 15 10. Eric Hockaday 7 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division One 1958 1. Wimbledon 18 12 2 4 991 737 26 2. Norwich 18 12 0 6 945 782 24 3. Southampton 18 11 0 7 909 818 22 4. Leicester 18 11 0 7 869 858 22 5. Belle Vue 18 10 0 8 908 819 20 6. Swindon 18 10 0 8 875 851 20 7. Coventry 18 9 1 8 893 833 19 8. Oxford 18 5 2 11 783 943 12 9. Poole 18 6 0 12 754 973 12 10. Ipswich 18 1 1 16 707 1020 3 Next part 1959.....Bradford Close.... Birmingham Close.... Ipswich close and little Boy Blue rode for them all, now he arrives at Brandon!!!!!!

Yes it was done with a lot of research from old Stenners annuals and magazines and programme collection. All of which I no longer have As I sold up and moved to the Philippines. The history of Brandon was stuff I was working on with the Speedway Star and was planning on doing a video and usinga lot of this info on a video. Unfortunately that has all gone by the wayside now. Coming over to do your Newport stuff would be too costly I'm affraid LOL. Thanks for the comments. Also I'm affraid it ends at 64. Don't know what happened to the stuff from then to the 80's and 90's seems to have been lost in transit here 5 years ago.

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]

1949 The Bees entered their second season with a place in Division Two, Promoted on the strength of their crowds, and ambition. The C.O. (still manager at the time.) felt concerned at the end of ‘48 that the Bees would not be strong enough for Division Two One has to remember that Division Three in them days was really of junior standard, similar to the Academy/Conference League’s of today. The Bees had been made up from Belle Vue Juniors in ‘48 and promotion into Division Two was going to be hard to adapt too, on track.Not surprisingly the Bees finished BOTTOM of Division Two... Pre-season efforts to strengthen up the team were not that successful. New face’s JACK GORDON from Bristol/Fleetwood, J.D. WHITE from Sheffield, and ROY MORETON from Cradley were the first to be added. They then signed LES WOOTON from Wimbledon.From the 1948 team, the Bees lost Vic Emms, who was re-called by Halifax.They also lost a talented teenager, George Smith who Belle Vue snatched back. It was certainly a troubled season as the Bees struggled on track, and all efforts to strengthen the side, were doomed to failure. Belle Vue agreed, eventually too sell Coventry Fletcher, Lacey and John Yates outright. They joined Crusty Pye and Derrick Tailby. Those along with Gordon and White formed the basis of the team. With poor results the Bees added during the season, JACK WINSTANLEY in exchange for Fred Yates, and Australian LES HEWITT was drafted into the side. Also during 1949 a local hero was discovered and made an impact on the scene. JOHNNIE REASON. The Bees started O.K. with a win at Brandon over Newcastle 47-37. but, in their second match the 1948 Division Two Champions, Bristol came and beat us at Brandon 35-48. By May Lionel Levy was allowed to re-join us from Wimbledon, having earlier been re-called, but to no avail. The Bees took some hammering’s on their travels and after three successive defeats at Brandon, won only their second match of the season against Cradley 42-40.By mid-season Jack (J.D.) White had lost his form and place in the team. Jack Gordon likewise. Hewitt, the Aussie was finding it hard riding on tight tracks compared to his country’s big circuits. The bulk of the scoring was down to Fletcher and Levy. Offers were made for several riders, but nothing materialised, and the Bees struggled on.The team continued to lose matches, three more at home, before we won two successive meetings at Brandon over Glasgow White City and Fleetwood. Away from home, still more hammering’s... 16-67 at Norwich, and the same again at Walthamstow.It was around now that WOOTON and MORETON were added to the team but, again both struggled and failed to average more than six per match. Hewitt began to score better as the season progressed, and as late as October Johnnie Reason came to the fore with 11 match winning points AT Glasgow White City, where the Bees won their only Away match of 1949. Dispite all the defeats the average crowd size at Brandon actually increased to a staggering 20,000 in 1949. And the record crowd for the Stadium was shattered in August when 27,000 people saw JACK PARKER win the first BRANDONAPOLIS and lower the track record in the process from 75.00 too 72.4 seconds..... The “White Ghost”, KEN LE BRETTON won a World Championship qualifier at Brandon that year too. NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division Two 1949. P W D L For Ag Pts 1. Bristol 44 34 1 9 2290.5 1393.5 69 2. Sheffield 44 29 1 14 2015.5 1667.5 59 3. Norwich 44 27 0 17 2031 1649 54 4. Cradley 44 25 0 19 1908.5 1772.5 50 5. Edinburgh 44 24 0 20 1804 1877 48 6. Walthamstow 44 21 3 20 1841.5 1833.5 45 7. Southampton 44 21 3 20 1741.5 1924.5 45 8. Glasgow 44 20 0 24 1757.5 1924.5 40 9. Fleetwood 44 18 1 25 1765 1916 37 10. Newcastle 44 17 1 26 1735 1949 35 11. Ashfield 44 12 1 31 1645 2034 25 12. Coventry 44 10 1 33 1540 2134 21 Coventry Bees scorer’s 1949 1. Bob Fletcher (Capt) 317 2. Bert Lacey 245 3. Lionel Levy 155 4. Jack Gordon 152 5. John Yates 133.5 6. Les Hewitt 129 7. Derrick Tailby 126 8. Les Wooton 63.5 9. Ray Moreton 56 10. Ed Pye 55 11. Jack D White 54 12. Jack Winstanley 34 13. Johnnie Reason 20 1950 Tyre regulations.!!! A problem of the game today ?? WRONG... Like most of the Sports problems, tyre regulations were with us long ago. In 1950 the rules were changed and riders were told to use one make or another with different width’s etc. And like the saga of 1996, there were those in favour and those against.The Bees entered their third season still in Division Two, dispite finishing BOTTOM of the League in ‘49. Out of the team went, Lacey and Gordon, and in came STAN WILLIAMS and CYRIL COOPER. Les Hewitt continued to improve, and showed he was one of the best Aussies around in the U.K. Also on the improvement front were locals, JOHNNIE REASON, DERRICK TAILBY and newcomer PETER BROUGH. Bob Fletcher again led the side as Captain, but he did not have the most successful of season’s in 1950. The Bees however, rocketed up the table to finish fourth. With four Away wins, at Cradley, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Fleetwood.The Championship could have been won, only narrow defeats at Glasgow Ashfield (40-43) Southampton (40-44)| and Hanley (40-43) prevented us being possible Champions.... Johnnie Reason broke the track record, previously held by Jack Parker, in April with a time of 71.0 seconds. Stan Williams suffered a knee injury, which opened the way for PETER BROUGH to make his debut. The title seemed to go beyond us when Norwich won at Brandon 33-51 in August. This came only a few days after Bees had won at Fleetwood with Les Hewitt scoring a maximum, and breaking the Fleetwood Track Record on THREE occasions... Another defeat at home to Southampton in September, finished off Coventry’s hopes, and eventually they finished just five points behind Champions, Norwich.Les Hewitt won the 1950 Brandonapolis, beating First Division stars SPLIT WATERMAN and RONNIE MOORE in the process. Only Bob Fletcher and Lionel Levy remained from the 1948 team and the Bees were beginning to establish themselves on track as well as on the terraces, with the crowds still amongst the highest in Speedway at that time. NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division Two 1950 1. Norwich 28 18 1 9 1310.5 1038.5 37 2. Glasgow White City 28 18 0 10 1272 1074 36 3. Cradley Heath 28 18 0 10 1258 1090.5 36. 4. Coventry 28 16 0 12 1273 1072 32 5. Walthamstow 28 16 0 12 1212 1127 32 6. Halifax 28 16 0 12 1212 1134 32 7.Southampton 28 14 1 13 1215.5 1133.5 29 8. Edinburgh 28 14 1 13 1176 1166 29 9. Plymouth 28 13 0 15 1170 1177 26 10. Shefffield 28 13 0 15 1158 1193 26 11. Ashfield 28 12 0 16 1141 1205 24 12. Yarmouth 28 12 0 16 1059 1287 24 13. Newcastle 28 10 0 18 1072.5 1274.5 20 14. Hanley 28 9 2 17 1046 1295 20 15. Fleetwood 28 8 1 19 1020 1329 17 Coventry scorer’s 1950 1. Les Hewitt 220 2. Johnnie Reason 198 3. Cyril Cooper 178 4. Stan Williams 168 5. Derek Tailby 164 6. Bob Fletcher (Capt) 160 7. Lionel Levy 109 8. Peter Brough 39 9. Roy Moreton 36 10 R. Jackson 1 1951 The Sport was hitting troubled times. The Government Entertainment Tax was crippling most clubs. (V.A.T. as it is today) inevitably some clubs fell by the wayside, unable to survive financially. In June, Division Two side, Southampton closed after only seven league matches. Before that Sheffield folded. As a result a certain CHARLIE NEW came to Brandon from the defunct Yorkshire club. The Tax was a crippling 48% !! of income. It was raised to the ridiculous figure of 52.5%. If that were applied today there would be NO SPEEDWAY, OR ADMISSIONS PRICE’S WOULD BE AT LEAST DOUBLE....(And you thought V.A.T. was bad enough.)A long with the Tax problem, the God’s above decided to throw as much of the wet stuff at us as possible.! in the wettest summer since 1939. With the closure of Southampton and Sheffield the League was reduced to 16 by mid-season.However, it was an optimistic Bees that went to the tapes, hopeful of doing well following their 4th place in 1950. Just one enforced change after LIONEL LEVY decided to quit because of a business he’d started up, back in Sydney. Initially the Bees promoted reserves to replace Lionel, but it all started to go wrong from day one, when Les Hewitt was injured at Leicester in the first match of the season. Then Stan Williams struggled with a reoccurrence of the knee injury of 1950. Then as early as in the second week of April, local flyer Johnnie Reason fractured his ankle in an Open meeting in Dublin. JOHN YATES was recalled from third Division St Austell, and we also drafted in WILF PLANT from Fleetwood. We bought JACK WRIGHT from first Division Wimbledon, as well. None performed too well, and in the early season Britannia Shield (Southern Section) The Bees finished Bottom of their group with only one win. Before the start of the League campaign Charlie New had come in from Sheffield and some of the early season injured riders returned. The Bees released CYRIL COOPER to Glasgow Ashfield and ROY MORETON to third Division, Wolverhampton. The first League match was won against the ill-fated Southampton, and the Bees were unbeaten in their first 8 matches... Wins at Edinburgh, Halifax, and Newcastle, along with Draws at Liverpool and Oxford helped consolidate the Bees with another 4th placing in the final table. The biggest Home win coming against Fleetwood 60-23 and although we beat Norwich 45-39 at Brandon this time, the Stars were runaway winners of the League. Bob Fletcher again Captained the side, Wilf Plant was later released to join Long Eaton and Johnnie Reason equalled the track record of 69.1 seconds in July. The signing of Charlie New from defunct Sheffield was no real surprise, as just after they closed down, New rode at Brandon in a Challenge Match representing Lancs & Yorks. Charlie scored 8 points after a pointless first ride, helping the visitors to two 5-1’s and a 4-2. His last ride being in a match winning 5-1. He then qualified for the scratch race final and beat Bob Fletcher twice, no doubt this convinced the C.O. to sign him up..... Coventry won the first staging of the East Midlands Bowl beating Leicester 91-77. Brandon also staged its first Test Match between Great Britain and the Overseas. Jack Young led the Oversea’s to a 60- 48 victory. Sweden’s Sune Carlsson won a World Championship Qualifier at Brandon, and First Divisions Eddie Rigg won the Brandonapolis, from Cyril Brine and Ronnie Moore. The first Midland Cup competition was staged with the Bees drawing Oxford in the first round. They lost at Cowley 38-58, but managed a remarkable 59-37 win at Brandon to go through to meet Leicester. However, The Hunters won that on the strength of just a 4 point defeat at Brandon. Coventry Bees scorer’s 1951. 1. Les Hewitt 232 8.53 2. Bob Fletcher (Capt) 217 8.20 ave 3. Johnnie Reason 188 8.04 4. Stan Williams 181 7.05 5. Charlie New 141 6.50 6. Derrick Tailby 140 5.71 7. John Yates 84 5.57 8. Peter Brough 66 5.00 9. Jack Wright 53 5.95 10. Wilf Plant 9 N.A. 11. Alan Hailstone D.N.R. NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division Two 1951. 1. Norwich 30 24 0 6 1526 990 48 2.Leicester 30 19 0 11 1350 1169 38 3.Edinburgh 30 18 0 12 1333 1179 36 4.Coventry 30 16 3 11 1311 1199 35 5. Walthamstow 30 17 0 13 1394 1116 34 6. Halifax 30 17 0 13 1300 1219 34 7.Motherwell 30 16 1 13 1277 1237 33 8. Ashfield 30 16 0 14 1287 1228 32 9. Hanley 30 15 0 15 1242 1268 30 10.Glasgow W.C. 30 14 1 15 1303 1215 29 11. Yarmouth 30 13 1 16 1158 1355 27 12. Oxford 30 12 2 16 1183 1330 26 13. Liverpool 30 12 1 17 1211 1300 25 14 Fleetwood 30 9 2 19 1049 1453 20 15.Cradley Heath 30 9 0 21 1139 1372 18 16. Newcastle 30 7 1 21 1039 1472 15 Sothampton record deleted 7 4 0 3 297 291 8 1952 Once again the Bees improved. Which was surprising as First Division Belle Vue, finally decided to recall our No1 and skipper, Bob Fletcher. This left just Derrick Tailby from the 48’ squad. VIC EMMS returned as Bob’s replacement. Emms joined when he was left out in the cold with Halifax’s closure during the winter. The Bees upped their form and finished runners-up in the League to Poole, and if it were not for a three month injury to Johnnie Reason, with some slip ups both home, and away, once again we COULD have been Champions. Wins away at Edinburgh, Leicester, (twice), Liverpool, Oxford, Stoke and Glasgow White City, with draws at Glasgow Ashfield, Liverpool and Motherwell set us up for the title. Narrow defeats at Ashfield 41-43 and Oxford 40-44, along with home points dropped against Ashfield and Leicester both matches being drawn, were to cost the Bees dearly. The second Division had lost Norwich, (promoted) and had also lost through closure, Walthamstow, Fleetwood and Newcastle. Only gaining Poole from the third Division. The league consisted of 12 teams racing over the two at home, two away format. The Bees opening League Match at Brandon resulted in defeat 41-43 at the Hands of Glasgow Ashfield. The result was down in no small way to Charlie New not returning in time from Australia. The Bees continued to struggle until he did arrive in May. When New finally arrived, the Bees lost the services of Johnnie Reason again, this time out with a broken shin-bone. In June, Leicester came to Brandon and hammered us by 20 points and they also put us out of the National Trophy (K.O.Cup.) One point from out first 11 away matches and things did not look to hopeful. LIONEL LEVY returned, but was almost immediately injured. He didn’t regain his form and that lost him his team place.New, Williams and Hewitt did the baulk of the scoring with Vic Emms, and when we finally hit a purple patch the Bees shot up the table and finished 2nd. In the Midland Cup we beat Cradley, then Oxford in the semi-final and had the First Division Birmingham Brummies in the Final. We held the to just 10 points in the first leg. At Brandon in the second leg we had a six point lead after heat 7 and was battling hard to try and keep in contention. But, then we exploded into life, with six 5-1’s and two 4-2’s in the final eight heats to win with ease 110-82.England beat Scotland 62-46 in an international at Brandon. Vic Emms won the World Championship Qualifier, and Ronnie Moore won the Brandonapolis at his third attempt. The absence of New early on, and the injury to Reason in particular cost Coventry that elusive title. One should remember, that in those days no Guests, or Rider Replacement was allowed, only reserves moving up or new signings could help an injury hit team. Amongst the names in the second half junior events that year was non other than JIM LIGHTFOOT who was to go on to be a major star at Brandon. Coventry scorer’s 1952 1.Vic Emms 391 2.Les Hewitt 365 3.Stan Williams 257 4. Charlie New 204 5. Pete Brough 191 6. Derrick Tailby 189 7. Johnnie Reason 181 8. Jack Wright 76 9. John Yates 73 10. Lionel Levy 7 11. Tommy Anderson 4 12. Reg Reeves 0 NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division Two 1952 1. Poole 44 31 1 12 2217 1477 63 2. Coventry 44 25 5 14 1938 1756 55 3. Leicester 44 25 2 17 1882 1756 52 4. Cradley 44 24 0 20 1870 1821 48 5. Glasgow w.c. 44 23 1 20 1837 1853 47 6. Edinburgh 44 21 4 19 1926 1763 46 7. Ashfield 44 19 3 22 1752 1940 41 8. Motherwell 44 19 2 23 1825 1861 40 9. Yarmouth 44 20 0 24 1812 1883 40 10. Stoke 44 18 1 25 1774 1916 37 11. Liverpool 44 16 3 25 1726 1967 35 12. Oxford 44 11 2 31 1587 2101 24 To be continued -- If there is any interest?

As for memory.... my first season was 1960. This stuff is from research and out of old mags and books etc I came across. Thanks

Thanks, like you I think this thread has died so reposted part one and now part two in new topics. I don't have anything on Leicester but you will find stuff that involves bees v hunters and bees v lions later. The works convertor I need doesn't work salvaged most of it up to 1964 but from then on I think I have lost the stuff

A History of Brandon...50 years with the C.O. 1947. In 1946 Coventry were issued with a permit for Racing at Brandon. However, the track and the Stadium needed massive construction work before they could open the doors to the Shale shifters once more. The legendary Jack Parker held the promoting rights at this time and employed one, Charles Ochiltree as Technical Advisor. The Stadium itself had been used during the War by Aircraft Companies with workshops. The construction work hit problems immediately with the lack of a building permit.! Permits were issued at this time, for constructions using cement. More valuable than Gold at the time... It was refused, and Parker’s plans were put on hold for the 1947 season. The actual Promoter’s license was held by Mrs Jack Parker and the C.O. who had moved up from Hackney and Haringey. The C.O. being appointed Manager. Parker himself was not allowed to Promote as he was still riding at Belle Vue.During 1947, Jack himself hit upon the idea of using self-locking prefab slabs. Hence No cement, and No Permit required. Those slabs are still in evidence to this day in places.... With all the work completed, and the new track ready, everything was set for the Grand re-opening in May 1948. 1948 The Team was made up mainly from Belle Vue assets, another connection of Jack’s. six of the first “Bees” team were from Hyde Road. BOB FLETCHER (via a spell at Cradley in ‘47) RALPH HORNE, BERT LACEY, BERNARD TENNANT JOHN YATES, and ALEC EDWARDS. The Grand Opening was scheduled for April 24th but, a problem with the track lighting pushed back opening day until May 1st. The “Bees” first ever match, was Away at Hanley (Stoke) and resulted as 1n 1929 with a hammering. Losing 28-55. That was also their first League match. They did not have to wait long for an opportunity of revenge, as they travelled back to Sun Street the following week in a National Trophy Match. They lost this as well 43-64. They also lost the services of Ralph Horne who picked up an injury and missed the first match of the new era at Brandon. The very first match at Brandon was the 2nd leg of the National Trophy against Hanley. On Saturday May 1st 1948. Bob Fletcher led the side, and won the opening heat setting up a track record of 80.8 seconds. Just as in 1928, the weather was wet and cold. The Brandon track in 1948 was 375 yards and of a Black Ash surface. Coventry lost at home that night 48-59. The next Home meeting, saw Plymouth visit in the League, on May 8th. The Bees lost this match too, 37-45. On May 15th the Bees won their first Home match, when they beat Yarmouth 45-38 in the League. Another Belle Vue asset, GEORGE SMITH made his debut for the Bees in this match.. Later in the season, VIC EMMS was signed from Bradford and shortly afterwards LIONEL LEVY was signed from Wimbledon. Although the Bees struggled in those early weeks, they did manage THREE Away wins in the League. (more than any other of the newcomers that year managed together.) Those wins coming at Wombwell 47-37 on September 3rd. Poole and Yarmouth. ED (CRUSTY) PYE also signed in August from Newcastle. The Bees 65-18 victory over Hastings at Brandon in September was the Bees biggest win of the season. Vic Emms won the Supporters Trophy meeting the fore-runner of the BRANDONAPOLIS. NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE Division Three 1948 P W D L For Ag Pts 1. Exeter 44 32 1 11 2150 1523 65 2. Cradley Heath 44 29 2 13 1979.5 1702 60 3. Southampton 44 29 0 15 2113.5 1568.5 58 4. Tamworth 44 23 4 17 1954.5 1725.5 50 5 Hanley 44 24 1 19 1925 1751 49 6. Hastings 44 22 0 22 1756 1924 44 7. Plymouth 44 21 1 22 1861.5 1812.5 43 8 Coventry 44 19 1 24 1670.5 1998.5 39 9. Hull 44 19 0 25 1757 1909 38 10. Poole 44 17 0 27 1760.5 1916.5 34 11. Yarmouth 44 13 1 30 1606.5 2058.5 27 12. Wombwell 44 10 1 33 1514.5 2159.5 21 Coventry Bees Scorer’s 1948 1. Bob Fletcher (capt) 303 2. Bert Lacey 221 3. Lionel Levy 209.5 4. Vic Emms 188 5. George Smith 173 6. Ed Pye 126 7. Ralph Horne 120 8. Bernard Tennant 103 9. John Yates 103 10. Fred Yates 97 11. Derick Tailby 18 12. B. Greaves 7 13. O Greenwood 1 14. R.Carvill 0 15. A . Edwards 0 Crowds at Coventry continued to rise all season. By the end of 1948 the average crowds were around the 15,000 mark. As with today, promotion and relegation was more down to finance than results. At the end of the season the Bees were “invited” to move upto Division Two on the strength of those crowds. The team’s strength and ability too hold there own in the higher sphere, was another question......... to be continued.......

History of Brandon Part One - 1928 - 1933 the pre war days 1928 Over 3,000 fans braved the elements of a rainy day to witness the first ever meeting at Brandon Stadium. The date, Saturday 29th September. The track was officially declared open by Mrs. Glanfield, wife of the Managing Director of Motordromes Ltd. The newly built Stadium, was constructed largely by Black Ash and Cinders transported by horse and cart from Rowleys Green Gas works by Tom Bell of Smorrall Lane , Bedworth. Some evidence of which can still be found at the Stadium today, mainly in the Car Park and at the top of the terraces on the Coventry bend. The first meeting consisted of a full programme of open events and the Star of the show was the legendary JACK PARKER. Riding on a B.S.A. machine, Jack just about “cleaned up” winning his heat and the Grand Final of the main event. The Open Scratch race. With George Povey of Birmingham 2nd and Australian Jack Bishop 3rd.Jack set up a new “lap” record then after Freddie Hore set up a new four lap record, he promptly knocked two whole seconds off that time... Just to round of the proceedings Jack took on Welsh Champion Taffy Williams in a match race and won that too.There were handicap heats too with plenty of passing to thrill the crowd, with the main Handicap event being won by Midlands favourite at the time, Wally Lloyd. Later to become the Perry Barr skipper. A week later the first Floodlit meeting was staged at Brandon. Again it was Jack Parker who was successful in the Scratch Race Final, this time ahead of Hall Green’s Billy DallisonLEW LANCASTER, who was to go on and give Coventry great service in the following years, won the Brandon Handicap on a Rudge and beat Freddie Hore in a Match Race. 1929 In 1929 the emergence of a Coventry side occurred, and they became one of the founder members of the Southern League. This competition was dominated by side’s from the Capital, with only Birmingham, Southampton and Coventry being based outside the Metropolis. In May 1929 the Coventry Team went into action for the very first time, taking a hammering at West Ham and then losing their first Home match to Hall Green (Birmingham) by 19-23. in a six heat contest. The club colours were not the famous Gold (Yellow) & Black in those far off days but, Red and Green.!!! Wilmot Evans topped the score chart, with Lew Lancaster offering good support. The “star” men were considered to be too good in these early days and were not allowed in team matches, hence no Jack Parker.!However, the authorities relented eventually, and under Jack the Coventry team settled down to become one of the major contenders for the League title. Eventually, after a close fight, they ended up in third place, only six points behind the Champions, Stamford Bridge. Apart from Jack, other prominent members of the side were, Jack’s brother, NORMAN PARKER and FRED WILKINSON.A very young TOM FARNDON progressed from novice too heat leader by the end of the season. Others adding support were, GEORGE ALLBROOK, WILMOT EVANS, DILLY GITTINS, BUNNY WILCOX and the improving BILL STANLEY. 1930 The team were doing very well in 1930, and by June were sitting on top of the League.But, injuries hit, noticeably to Jack Parker, which caused a temporary slump. Nevertheless, they managed to finish in the top six.A memorable performance came the night they entertained the visit of Champions Stamford Bridge, with little hope of success through injuries they rose to the occasion and won by a single point. Tom Farndon was the hero of the hour with a magnificent maximum. It was Farndon and the Parker’s who led the way for Coventry in 1930, with support coming from JOHN DEELEY, BILL STANLEY, ARTHUR TIMS and LEW LANCASTER. 1931 The season started with the shock that The Parker’s and Tom Farndon had moved onto pastures new. Leaving the Coventry team in a transitional period, trying to re-build the side.They signed SYD JACKSON from Leicester, but they never got the balance of the team right and struggled badly. The introduction of CYRIL TAFT from Birmingham and ALBY TAYLOR from Leicester gave them more strength, but little seemed to go right for the side. High Beech pipped them by one point to leave Coventry holding the wooden spoon. Jackson missing a vital match through a bout of flu. Jackson’s form was the highlight of the season with fighting performance’s from Tims and STAN GREATREX. 1932 It was a different story in 1932, as the team began to become a formidable outfit once again. Jackson was inspirational and finished the season as second highest scorer in the League. Solidity being provided by New Zealander ALF MATTSON, ROY DOOK, BILL (Skid) PITCHER, the TAFT brothers, STEW FAIRBAIRN and TIMS. Although they didn’t win anything the Brandon name was back on the map, lifting themselves up to seventh in the League. 1933 Coventry had high hopes of improving on seventh in 1933, but those hopes were quashed when No1 Syd Jackson was lured to London and signed a contract with Wimbledon. Without Jackson, the club made a disastrous start to the campaign but after a few weeks were fortunate enough to secure the signature of Australian Star, DICK CASE. He settled in well and quickly proved an adequate replacement for Jackson. Under his leadership, Coventry pulled themselves together to climb the table and finally finish in seventh place. The damage had been done two years earlier with the loss of star’s like The Parker’s and Farndon, the crowd levels at Brandon had dropped off, and at the end of 1933 Motordromes Ltd pulled the plug and the floodlights went out for 15 years...... End of Part One

Well I thought Splot wanted info, and no responses. So I guess no one is interested.

History of Brandon Part One - 1928 - 1933 the pre war days 1928 Over 3,000 fans braved the elements of a rainy day to witness the first ever meeting at Brandon Stadium. The date, Saturday 29th September. The track was officially declared open by Mrs. Glanfield, wife of the Managing Director of Motordromes Ltd. The newly built Stadium, was constructed largely by Black Ash and Cinders transported by horse and cart from Rowleys Green Gas works by Tom Bell of Smorrall Lane , Bedworth. Some evidence of which can still be found at the Stadium today, mainly in the Car Park and at the top of the terraces on the Coventry bend. The first meeting consisted of a full programme of open events and the Star of the show was the legendary JACK PARKER. Riding on a B.S.A. machine, Jack just about “cleaned up” winning his heat and the Grand Final of the main event. The Open Scratch race. With George Povey of Birmingham 2nd and Australian Jack Bishop 3rd.Jack set up a new “lap” record then after Freddie Hore set up a new four lap record, he promptly knocked two whole seconds off that time... Just to round of the proceedings Jack took on Welsh Champion Taffy Williams in a match race and won that too.There were handicap heats too with plenty of passing to thrill the crowd, with the main Handicap event being won by Midlands favourite at the time, Wally Lloyd. Later to become the Perry Barr skipper. A week later the first Floodlit meeting was staged at Brandon. Again it was Jack Parker who was successful in the Scratch Race Final, this time ahead of Hall Green’s Billy DallisonLEW LANCASTER, who was to go on and give Coventry great service in the following years, won the Brandon Handicap on a Rudge and beat Freddie Hore in a Match Race. 1929 In 1929 the emergence of a Coventry side occurred, and they became one of the founder members of the Southern League. This competition was dominated by side’s from the Capital, with only Birmingham, Southampton and Coventry being based outside the Metropolis. In May 1929 the Coventry Team went into action for the very first time, taking a hammering at West Ham and then losing their first Home match to Hall Green (Birmingham) by 19-23. in a six heat contest. The club colours were not the famous Gold (Yellow) & Black in those far off days but, Red and Green.!!! Wilmot Evans topped the score chart, with Lew Lancaster offering good support. The “star” men were considered to be too good in these early days and were not allowed in team matches, hence no Jack Parker.!However, the authorities relented eventually, and under Jack the Coventry team settled down to become one of the major contenders for the League title. Eventually, after a close fight, they ended up in third place, only six points behind the Champions, Stamford Bridge. Apart from Jack, other prominent members of the side were, Jack’s brother, NORMAN PARKER and FRED WILKINSON.A very young TOM FARNDON progressed from novice too heat leader by the end of the season. Others adding support were, GEORGE ALLBROOK, WILMOT EVANS, DILLY GITTINS, BUNNY WILCOX and the improving BILL STANLEY. 1930 The team were doing very well in 1930, and by June were sitting on top of the League.But, injuries hit, noticeably to Jack Parker, which caused a temporary slump. Nevertheless, they managed to finish in the top six.A memorable performance came the night they entertained the visit of Champions Stamford Bridge, with little hope of success through injuries they rose to the occasion and won by a single point. Tom Farndon was the hero of the hour with a magnificent maximum. It was Farndon and the Parker’s who led the way for Coventry in 1930, with support coming from JOHN DEELEY, BILL STANLEY, ARTHUR TIMS and LEW LANCASTER. 1931 The season started with the shock that The Parker’s and Tom Farndon had moved onto pastures new. Leaving the Coventry team in a transitional period, trying to re-build the side.They signed SYD JACKSON from Leicester, but they never got the balance of the team right and struggled badly. The introduction of CYRIL TAFT from Birmingham and ALBY TAYLOR from Leicester gave them more strength, but little seemed to go right for the side. High Beech pipped them by one point to leave Coventry holding the wooden spoon. Jackson missing a vital match through a bout of flu. Jackson’s form was the highlight of the season with fighting performance’s from Tims and STAN GREATREX. 1932 It was a different story in 1932, as the team began to become a formidable outfit once again. Jackson was inspirational and finished the season as second highest scorer in the League. Solidity being provided by New Zealander ALF MATTSON, ROY DOOK, BILL (Skid) PITCHER, the TAFT brothers, STEW FAIRBAIRN and TIMS. Although they didn’t win anything the Brandon name was back on the map, lifting themselves up to seventh in the League. 1933 Coventry had high hopes of improving on seventh in 1933, but those hopes were quashed when No1 Syd Jackson was lured to London and signed a contract with Wimbledon. Without Jackson, the club made a disastrous start to the campaign but after a few weeks were fortunate enough to secure the signature of Australian Star, DICK CASE. He settled in well and quickly proved an adequate replacement for Jackson. Under his leadership, Coventry pulled themselves together to climb the table and finally finish in seventh place. The damage had been done two years earlier with the loss of star’s like The Parker’s and Farndon, the crowd levels at Brandon had dropped off, and at the end of 1933 Motordromes Ltd pulled the plug and the floodlights went out for 15 years...... End of Part One

Sorry to have to agree that Somerton Park was a terrible shape and track for visitors... Ron Mountford 1968 Broke a thigh very badly and didn't comeback til 1970 when he was only a shadow of his former self. I recall trips there every year and we all wondered not whether we'd get a result or not, but whether we would get all 7 riders back un-injured. Never been to your new track... But it has to be better.

I think most teams over the years have probably had what could be termed a 'tough one' in their line up. At Coventry. No question for me was Les Owen. A long time Bee who was tragically very badly injured in 1973 v Cradley Utd along with John Harrhy. Also at Coventry of course in more recent years Mitch Shirra and Gary Gugliemi both in the same team! And Roman Matousek.... Who remebers his long awaited debut, when he turned up late, wheelied all the way to the tapes, and then got excluded for touching them. Others I can think of at this point. Ove Fundin - He was hard as well as good. Jack Millen & Kelvin Mullarkey but like I said just about every team most years could point to a rider and say he was a tough one.... Dirty and tough may not always go hand in hand by the way.

Simplistic, But can anyone tell me, what would be wrong with two leagues of equal status with promotion and relegation? Yes, I know it has been discussed before and costs etc. But they did an almagimation in 64 and it worked big time. If the two leagues combined and new team strengths were set with say only ONE GP rider per team allowed And Obviously Elite teams would have to scale down to meet PL standards. Wouldn't that re-kindle some interest? Even regionailise it to North and South if necessary with top two from each section playing off at End of season and the winners meeting in Grand Final. I think Speedway needs something like this.

The World League consisted if I remember right of England Australia New Zealand Sweden a combined Norway/Denmark and Rest of the World I think Poland were in it as well. Oh and Gem.... Hi, how is old pawprints. Does Bill and Anthony still get up Brandon and stand with you? If so say 'hi' from me in the Philippines. (John)

Yes I remember him too. He was a reegular at many meetings down south. I saw him a lot at White City in 76/77. Used to go to all the London Tracks every week from Coventry on the old 2 pounds return fare after 4pm - Now anybody remember that train fare! From Coventry in the 70's!