BL65

Birmingham v The Rest In one of a series of indoor meetings at the Whispering Wheels Roller Skating Rink in Temple Street, Wolverhampton, a Birmingham team was defeated 42-36 by 'The Rest' on 12th January 1972. The meetings at Wolverhampton and Granby Halls, Leicester in 1971/72/73 were the brainchild of Harry Bastable, with Alan Eagles the co-promoter. Howard Cole equalled the track record in this meeting. Does anyone have the full heat results please?

Reading v Arena Essex on 30th March was rained off.

I was at Stoke on 28th March. The time for heat 1 was 63.3 and heat 3 was 63.9. The second half match was described as Stoke v Nottingham in the 'Gold Cup - Reserve League Match - Southern Section'. I didn't pay much attention to the reserve match as I was engaged in conversation with one of the Stoke riders in the pits at that stage, but my daughter recorded the following in the programme: Ht 1 Hoole, Reed, Webb, Walsh (nf) 68.4 3-3 Ht 2 Powell, Naylor, Barlow, Geary 70.5 4-2 Ht 3 Hoole, Powell, Geary, Webb (mf) time ? 5-1 Ht 4 Reed, Barlow, Naylor, Walsh ? 2-4 Ht 5 Re-run Barlow, Geary, Naylor (f ex), Walsh (ns) ? 3-2 Ht 6 Re-run Hoole, Powell, Geary, Naylor (f ex), ? 5-1 This meant that there was a change to the Stoke riding order from the programme, with Powell moving from number 2 to 3, Walsh moving rom 4 to 2 and Barlow coming in at number 4. Read fell in the first running of heat 6 and was replaced by Geary in the restart. Naylor replaced Webb in heat 5. I haven't got the details of the Rye House meeting but the Stoke team was scheduled to be unchanged with Grahame, Chessell, Crabtree, Monaghan, Standing, Stead and Hoole.

Wolverhampton v Bradford was rained off. I was supposed to be going to the meeting.

Andy Nicholl was from Blantyre, Scotland.

I saw Gote at his immaculate best in 1966 and 1967, when two successive wins in the Internationale at Wimbledon were achieved with sublime 15 point maximums against very high quality opposition.

Steve Storm was Charlie New.

There are likely to be several other dates, but grass track speedway was definitely held at: Halcon Corner, Taunton, Sunday, 9th September 1945 (first post war meeting, attendance 6,000) Sellick’s Green, Pitminster, Thursday, 6th June 1946 Halcon Corner, Taunton, Sunday, 21st July 1946 Ash Meadows, Taunton, Sunday, 22nd September 1947 & 29th September 1947 (attendance 8,500) Plans for 1948 were affected by petrol rationing and lack of a suitable field. The committee were looking for 14 to 20 acres within 4 miles of Taunton. Blindmoor Farm, Buckland St. Mary, Sunday, 29th May 1949 Walford Farm, Walford Cross, Sunday, 21st August 1949 (attendance 6,000) – The Lord’s Day Observance Society had lodged a protest regarding the Taunton Motor Club’s Sunday meetings. In any event, meetings were cancelled for the rest of the year due to problems with dust affecting riders’ visibility at the site. Grass speedway events in Taunton seem to have lapsed in the 1950s but the club announced that it was proposed to revive the events in 1962.

It's incomplete, but see rideraverages2909 (speedwayresearcher.org.uk)

I am not aware of the exact location of the venue in Weston, but in the 1930s the Taunton Motor Club staged grass track racing described as ‘speedway’ at a number of locations in Somerset. In 1936 Taunton MC staged meetings described as ‘speedway’ on the grass, with the second meeting being held at Shoreditch, Taunton Dene on 10th June. Taunton MC again ran ‘speedway’ meetings in 1937. The first meeting staged at Holway Hill, Taunton, on Thursday, 3rd June was reported as grass track speedway, with Ivan Kessell, the grass track and speedway rider from Cornwall competing. A meeting described as speedway was held on the grass at Bridgwater Rugby Club on Sunday, 13th June 1937, comprising a mix of motorcycle and cycle races. The following week, on 20th June 1937, a ‘speedway’ meeting was held on the grass at Halcon Corner, Taunton. In August 1937 the local vicar complained about the adverse effects on attendance at Sunday Schools in Taunton which Sunday afternoon speedway would have and the owner of land subsequently withdrew permission for a field to be used for the ‘speedway’. Halcon Corner was the venue for ‘speedway’ on grass in 1938 on 8th May, 19th June, 10th July, 14th August (specifically advertised as grass track speedway) and 18th September, which was the last event of the season, attracting 165 entries in the various classes. On 14th July grass track speedway at Taunton Road, Bridgwater was abandoned when rain made the course too slippery. The final Bridgwater meeting took place at Castle Park on 1st September. In a team event at Halcon Corner on 13th August 1939, Taunton met Holbeach and Spalding (from the Bell End track) in a grass speedway match, Taunton winning 71-36. Reg Beer, Mike Erskine, Ivan Kessell and Broncho Slade were the leading scorers for Taunton, with Ted English, Roy Duke, Alan Smith and Buster Yeomans riding for ‘The Tulips’. On 24th August more ‘speedway’ racing was staged on the cricket field at North Curry, Taunton as part of the annual fete.

On Sunday, 3rd September 1939 Holbeach & Spalding Tulips were due to meet The Dominions at Bell End, Holbeach on what had originally been a grass circuit, but by mid-1939 had been levelled to form what was a dirt-surfaced track. There are references to the circuit having cinders on the bends immediately after the war, but it is not clear if this was the case in 1939. Meetings staged at Bell End followed the format for speedway meetings, with individual events over 20 heats and team meetings regularly taking place, sometimes against teams from league clubs. The meeting against The Dominions was cancelled following declaration of war earlier in the day, but in defiance of a government ban on public assemblies impromptu races took place that afternoon, with around 400 spectators present. In the final race of the afternoon Alan Smith beat Buster Yeomans.

8th August 1964. It was not a pleasant day, some rain and thunderstorms locally. Very slow race times throughout the meeting.

They are CMA. Alby dropped to 7.76 in the British League in 1965, with the rejuvenated Jack Biggs (9.05), Dick Bradley (8.23) and Peter Vandenberg (7.91) ahead of him. In 1966 he was on 5.35, behind Gote Nordin (10.53), Biggs (7.23), Jon Erskine (6.17) and Geoff Penniket (5.52). In the following final three seasons with Newport he averaged 6.29, 5.62 and 5.78 as a second string rider, with spells at reserve.

In 1964 Alby Golden ended with a league average of 9.20, ahead of Vandenberg on 8.85 and Bradley on 8.23.

That reminds me of Colin Pratt spending a few meetings at reserve for Hackney after a slow start to the season in 1965, but he kept the captaincy and eventually only missed out on finishing top of the averages by a narrow margin.

I believe that John Dews topped the Sheffield averages in 1966, Doug Templeton did likewise for Edinburgh in 1960 and 1962, with Alby Golden top at Newport in 1964.

Although not a massive away win, Bristol 41 Norwich 42 on 21st July 1939 was remarkable as the result in the match on the same track 4 weeks earlier was Bristol 63 Norwich 18, both National League Division 2 meetings.

Another big turn-around occurred at Brandon in 1981. In a League Cup match in April Coventry beat Cradley Heath by 34 points, 65-31, but in the league fixture in August the result was a 26 point win for the Heathens, with the result being 26-52.

Exeter v Wolverhampton in 1965 saw a change in fortunes in the space of 4 weeks. The Falcons won the Knock-Out Cup match on 6th September 59-37, but the Wolves gained revenge in the league fixture on 4th October, winning 48-30. The same 14 riders took part in both meetings.

Chum Taylor 'retired' from British speedway after his season at Cradley Heath in 1966. However, when Glyn came over from Perth to ride for Peterborough in 1973 Chum followed shortly afterwards, believing he had agreed a deal with promoter Danny Dunton to also ride for the Panthers. Chum was told there was no team place for him and so a deal was done for Glyn and Chum to ride for Crewe. Glyn had a team place there for the rest of the season, but Chum was set to ride in the second half until race fit. Unfortunately, he fell in his first ride and broke his shoulder. That was his final race in Britain.

Off the top of my head, I think Charlie finished riding in 1946, John first appeared in 1957 and Bob a couple of years later.

Ken and Paul Sharples rode together at Sunderland in 1964.

Glasgow 2002, Les and Aidan Collins, Mark and Scott Courtney.

Leo McAuliffe captained the Wimbledon team containing Sverre Harrfeldt and Gote Nordin in 1964. In the same year Reg Trott was Norwich captain, when the team included Ove Fundin and Olle Nygren, with Jack Geran captain of the Oxford team containing Arne Pander and Ron How. The year before that Dick Bradley was Southampton captain, with Barry Briggs and Bjorn Knutson in the team.

Yes, Nigel Boocock averaged 11.09, with Monk on 10.22, Hunter 9.41 and Eric Boocock 9.44. Ivor Brown ended the season on 9.27, having averaged 9.83 up until his serious injury in the Internationale at Wimbledon. Jack Biggs improved his average from 4.86 to 9.05.