BL65

He rode at White City, London, on 26th May 1928. I have not noticed an earlier appearance than that in an official meeting.

The souvenir programme for the meeting on 4th October stated on the front cover that it was the FINAL MEETING of the season.

20th May Best Pairs, Ronnie Genz and Eric Dench. 5th August Reds (Butler, J Codling, Young, Bason res) 7 Blues (Cross, Maidment, Applegate, Dench res) 14 Whites (Flower, B Codling, Croombs) 17 Yellows (Genz, Swain, Knight) 21

23/03 Aldershot Easter Cup - Abandoned heat 3 - REASON FOR ABANDONMENT (HEAT TIMES DON'T POINT TO RAIN SO WOULD LIKE CLARIFICATION) The press reported that several Football League matches were postponed or abandoned on 23rd March (Good Friday) because of rain, snow and muddy conditions. The speedway meeting at Bristol was reported to have taken place when the weather cleared up after pouring rain all day had saturated the track. At Harringay, the racing was described as reasonably good in the rain soaked conditions. The Leicester meeting was described as good, considering the condition of the track. West Ham's meeting took place following torrential rain an hour or so before the match. The meeting at Southampton took place on a wet track. The Plymouth meeting took place under atrocious conditions according to reports. It seems highly likely that the meeting at Aldershot started in acceptable conditions but then succumbed to the rain, which appears to have been widespread across the country. 26/04 Long Eaton v Aldershot Juniors 31-53 - CONFIRM DATE POSSIBLY 26/05? 26th April, 31-53 (Speedway News, Speedway Gazette) 26/05 Norwich v Glasgow (Nat. Trophy) Abandoned heat 3 - rain - CONFLICTING INFO RE. SCORE AT THE TIME 15-03 OR 14-04 Speedway News recorded 15-3, but Bryan Tungate recorded 14-4 on his Norwich file, I have a programme which also shows the score as 14-4 and contemporary newspapers recorded the score as 14-4 at the time of abandonment. 04/06 Exeter World Championship QR - Hardy & Sargeant tied on 13 - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Sargeant beat Hardy in a run-off (Speedway Gazette) 11/08 Long Eaton v Cradley Heath Rained off - CONFIRM DATE & EVENT 11th August, Challenge (local press) 11/08 Swindon v Wolverhampton (NL Div. 2) Rained off - CONFIRM DATE 11th August, re-staged on 15th August (local press) 23/03 Southampton Charles Knott Trophy - Winner Harry (?) Edwards - CONFIRM DATE & WINNER Harry Edwards (Walthamstow) 15 pts (Speedway News, Speedway Gazette) 06/04 Southampton v Oxford (South Shield) Rained off - CONFIRM DATE 6th April (programme was used for the re-staging on 13th April) 18/05 Southampton v Norway 60-23 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT 18th May, 60-23 (Speedway News, Speedway Gazette) 19/06 Southampton v Ex-Saints 42-42 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT 19th June, 42-42 (Speedway Gazette) 10/07 Southampton World Championship QR Winner ? Oakley - CONFIRM DATE & WINNER 10th July, Tom Oakley (New Cross) 15 pts (Speedway News)

That's correct.

I have now been sent a copy of an article published in the Irish Independent newspaper on 30.05.52 which shows that the 'match' was not a team match, rather it was to be a 'best of three' series of match races between Perry and Monson. The Dublin Belt was to be the main individual event, contested by 10 riders, Ginger O'Beirne, Alan Marr, Mick Savage, Tom Kiernan, Tom King, Tom Cullen, Derek Edwards, Roy Spiller, Paddy O'Lone and Danny O'Neill.

From a contact in Dublin I am advised that on 30th May 1952 Chapelizod were due to meet a team labelled London. However, on that day the riders from London were unable to fulfill the fixture and so a hastily arranged challenge was set up between teams led by Don Perry and Des Monson, for the 'Irish Speedway Championship Cup'. There was also to be a competition for the Dublin Belt, to be contested by Danny O'Neill, Ginger O'Beirne, Mick Savage, Tom Kiernan and others. The meeting was then rained off!

According to the book 'Speedway in Scotland' by Jim Henry and Ian Moultray, nine meetings were staged at Ashfield in 1953, with one rained off on 14th July. There is a comment that there was a long break between the Best Pairs meeting on 4th August and the final meeting on 29th September, with crowds having dipped to an all-time low. This suggests that a decision was taken not to stage a meeting on 11th August or beyond (with the exception of the Ken Le Breton Trophy) and the date should not, therefore, be included in the fixture list.

Further information on the Ashfield postponement on 14th July. Speedway World reported that the meeting was scheduled to be ex-Giants v Scottish Select, with the meeting cancelled 'after monsoon-like rain had flooded the district in which the track is situated'.

A report in Speedway World gave the eight qualifiers for the final of this competition, to be held on 21st June. They were Dennis Newton, winner of the meeting with 15, Jim Tebby 14, Stan Bedford 13, Dave Slater 11, Gil Goldfinch 11, Stan Crouch 9, Bernie Aldridge 9, Alan Briggs 8.

24/03 Southampton Possibles v Probables 61.5-43.5 Abandoned heat 18 - CONFIRM DATE, RESULT & REASON FOR ABANDONMENT 24th March. This was a 20 heat match between teams of 12 a side, abandoned after heat 18 due to heavy rain. 29/03 Swindon v kaparna - Snowed Off - CONFIRM DATE 29th March. Reported in Speedway News as postponed due to snow and appalling conditions. 06/05 Southampton v Cardiff (Southern League) - Rained Off - CONFIRM DATE 6th July, postponed 30 minutes before the scheduled start due to rain. 25/05 Rye House Scratch Races - CONFIRM DATE & OUTRIGHT WINNER(S) IF ANY 25th May. Rye House Scratch Race comprising 4 heats, 2 semi-finals, then a final won by Stan Clark. Match Races, Den Cross beat Jimmy Grant. Rye House Handicap, final won by Jim Tebby. 17/06 Wolverhampton Midland Riders Championship QR - 4-way tie Eric Boothroyd, Arthur Payne, Cyril Quick, Jimmy Grant - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? The programme provided for a run-off in the event of a tie for first place, but none of the 3 copies I have seen have a result entered. Subsequent Wolverhampton programmes named the winner of the World Championship Round in the list of results, but left the MRCQR space blank, suggesting it was a 4-way tie and with insufficient space to include all of their names. 17/07 Ipswich v Aldershot (Southern League) - Postponed - CONFIRM DATE & REASON FOR POSTPONEMENT 17th July, reported in Speedway Gazette as being rained off. 30/07 Fleetwood Highbury Trophy - Tie between Norman Hargreaves & Jeff Crawford - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? No, this was the second of two meetings (the first staged on 9th July) to determine qualifiers for the final on 13th August. 29/08 Bristol World Championship QR - Tie between Dick Bradley & Brian Crutcher - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Dick Bradley beat Brian Crutcher in a run-off, when Crutcher fell. 09/09 Southampton v Exeter (Southern League) - Rained Off - CONFIRM DATE 9th July, reported in Speedway Gazette as rained off. 10/09 Fleetwood Best Pairs - Rained Off - CONFIRM DATE The Best Pairs meeting scheduled for 10th September was cancelled and the track closed down, due to poor support, as reported in Speedway World.

Stoke were indeed drawn against New Cross, with the meetings originally scheduled to have taken place on 27th June and 1st July. After the demise of New Cross, Stoke met Bristol on 27th June in a challenge match.

05/04 & 19/04 & 05/05 Rye House - All I have are the three dates - did anything take place? I am aware of a programme having been issued for a meeting on 5th April, but unfortunately I have no results or other details. The speedway press steered well clear of reporting on non-league tracks in 1953. 06/05 Southampton World Championship QR Winner: Maury Mattingley - CONFIRM DATE AND WINNER 26th May, not 6th; Maury Mattingley beat Ernie Rawlins in a run-off after both scored 14 points. 08/06 Southampton Best Pairs - Winners: B. McKeown & E. Brecknell - CONFIRM DATE & WINNERS 9th June, not 8th; McKeown & Brecknell won with 18 points, 2 points ahead of Jackson & McGillivray. 26/06 Bristol Best Pairs - Tie between D. Bradley & C. Boss and E. Williams & F. Williams - CONFIRM DATE AND IF THERE WAS AN OUTRIGHT WINNER 26th June; the two pairs tied and it was reported that there was no run-off to decide the winners, much to the disapproval of the crowd. 24/07 Ashfield v Scottish Select - Rained off - CONFIRM DATE & FIXTURE 14 This would have been 14th July not 24th if the meeting was to have been staged on Ashfield's usual race night, but nothing was mentioned in forthcoming fixtures in the speedway press; however, this could have been due to the track's non-league status. 28/08 at Motherwell - Glasgow v Edinburgh 61-47 - Listed as Scottish Coronation Cup Semi-Final - I've no mention of a final anywhere - CONFIRM COMPETITION AND DATE OF FINAL (IF THERE WAS ONE) Speedway Star referred to this as ‘their Coronation Cup match’, with no mention of it being a semi-final. The fixture list in the speedway press had described the forthcoming fixture as an open meeting and then as a challenge, with Motherwell riding away. It appears not to have formed part of a wider competition. The National Trophy meeting dates and results are correct.

Speedway Star stated that the joint winners were Campbell/Bester & Cuppleditch/Lack. There is no indication of a decider in my programme.

The answer is none. In the programme for the meeting against Norwich the following week, Squib Burton wrote: "We allowed ourselves to be 'talked out' of last Friday's meeting! The 'Hammers' contributed, naturally, with some fine riding and were good value for their victory, but had I followed my original line of thought and asked for a start of about fifteen points we should just about have held them on handicap. Unfortunately I allowed myself to be verbally 'softened up' prior to the meeting by the tributes which the Londoners paid to the merits of the 'Hunters', and eventually agreed to start from level pegging."

Some of the answers found so far: 16/06 Harringay Television Trophy Best Pairs - Waterman & Hunt tied on 16 points with Biggs & Young - WAS THERE AN OUTRIGHT WINNER? There was a 4 rider run-off to decide first place, in which Hunt & Waterman scored a 5-1 against Biggs & Young. 06/07 Southampton W.C.Q.R. Winner Charlie May - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT 6th July 1954; Charlie May 14, Trevor Redmond 12, John Fitzpatrick & Fred Brand 11. 21/08 Belle Vue La Grande Trophy - Sharples & Young finished tied on 14 points - WAS THERE AN OUTRIGHT WINNER? Young beat Sharples in a run-off. 11/09 Belle Vue Best Pairs - Craven & Fisher tied on 14 points with Sharples & Bester - WAS THERE AN OUTRIGHT WINNER? Craven & Fisher won the run-off for first place 4-2; result Craven, Bester, Fisher, Sharples (excluded).

The results I have for Aldershot are: Home 55-29 v Eastbourne, 54-30 v California, 53-30 v Ringwood, 48-33 v Rye House, 41-42 v Brafield Away 45-39 v Eastbourne, 39-44 v Rye House, 31-53 v California, 33-50 v Ringwood, 29-55 v Brafield

12/04/1955 Southampton v Stockholm 59-37 - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT 12th April 1955 Southampton 59 Stockholm 37 confirmed. 17/04/1955 Ringwood Open - DID ANY MEETING TAKE PLACE? Although Speedway News included an Open Meeting in the list of forthcoming fixtures, Speedway Star and Speedway World did not; no mention of results or postponement was mentioned in any of these publications. 03/05/1955 Southampton v Ipswich Rained Off - CONFIRM DATE 3rd May 1955, rained off – confirmed. 13/05/1955 Bristol - DID ANY MEETING TAKE PLACE? No meeting; Bristol were due to have raced a Division 2 match at Weymouth on that date. 21/05/1955 Belle Vue Empire Day Best Pairs - Sharples/Craven tied with Young/Cuppleditch - ANY OUTRIGHT RESULT OR JUST A TIE? The declared winning ‘pair’ was Moore 14, How 2 plus Fisher (reserve) 1 and Williams (reserve) 1 totalling 18. 04/06/1955 Belle Vue Belle Vue Cup - Johnston, Craven & Sharples finished tied on 7 - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER OR JUST A TIE? Johnston won the run-off for first place, with Sharples second ahead of Craven. 05/06/1955 Ringwood Open - DID ANY MEETING TAKE PLACE? 19/06/1955 Ringwood v Brafield (SAL) - DOESN'T APPEAR TO HAVE GONE AHEAD, REASON? Neither took place - see comments by Sotonian. 05/07/1955 Southampton World Championship QR Winner: Dick Bradley - CONFIRM DATE AND RESULT 5th July 1955; Dick Bradley 12, Les McGillivray, John Fitzpatrick & Ian Williams 11. 11/09/1955 Brafield v Eastbourne (Challenge) - RESULT? Not staged. This should have been a Southern Area League match, but instead the meeting at Eastbourne the following week was raced for double match points. Brafield suffered low crowds and had been threatening to close for some time, but soldiered on as the withdrawal of Ringwood had left a league of just 4 teams. 13/09/1955 Southampton Open Trophy Winner Jack Geran - CONFIRM DATE & RESULT 13th September 1955; Jack Geran 13, Brian Hanham & Ken McKinlay 12. 20/09/1955 Swindon v Wimbledon 44-52 - NOT ON RESEARCHER WIMBLEDON FILE, CONFIRM DATE, EVENT & RESULT This should be Southampton 44 Wimbledon 52 (Challenge) at Southampton on 20th September 1955. 02/10/1955 California Supporters Handicap Trophy Gooddy & Goldfinch finished tied on 14 - ANY OUTRIGHT WINNER? Goldfinch won with 14 points, Gooddy scored 13. Both London White City & Middlesbrough appear to have run meetings but I have nothing for either - can anyone add anything? White City 24th May 1955; the annual Cavalcade of Sport, which included three ‘speedway races’ on the athletics track, with competitors usually riding Vespa machines in those events. ‘Speedway’ consisted of two flying start match races and a final; Ht 1 Aub Lawson beat Barry Briggs; Ht 2 Ronnie Moore beat Cyril Roger; Final Moore beat Lawson. This was the only meeting staged at White City that year. See the comments by Compost.

I have now discovered that the meeting on 22nd September was to have been The Supporters Trophy (as advertised in the Aldershot programme for the meeting on 17th August), but it did not take place, being deferred to 6th October - see earlier post.

Having looked into this a bit further, I believe that the correct result was California 60.5 Rye House 46.5. An explanation is provided in the booklet ‘California Speedway, The Southern Area League Years of the Poppies 1954-57’ by Bryan Horsnell, which includes the following: In the first leg of the S.A.L. Cup Final, at Longmoor, there was the rare occurrence of a dead heat for second place, in Heat 8, which caused some confusion for the Announcer and the spectators. This resulted in some fans giving both California’s Phil Shepherd and Rye House’s Brian Brett – who dead heated – 2 points each in their programmes. It should, of course, have been 1.5 points each! The final match result should have been 60.5-46.5........ But Speedway Star gave the result as 61.5-45.5 and even their individual points scores – from both teams- didn’t tally with the two filled-in programmes that I have seen for the match. With other minor corrections the revised details would be: California Phil Shepherd 1’ 2’ 1½ 2 X 6½ 2 Peter Mould 2 3 3 2 3 1’ 14 1 Ron Sharp F 1 3 2 2 8 Ross Gilbertson 3 3 0 0 3 2 11 Jim Gleed 2 3 1’ 2’ 1 9 2 Ron Walton 0 X 2’ 0 2 1 Ron Webb 3 3 1 7 Roy Gutteridge 1 2’ 3 1 Rye House Brian Brett 0 E 1½ 0 0 1½ Vic Ridgeon 3 1 3 3 3 3 16 Porky Veal 1’ 0 1 1 1 4 1 Bobby Croombs 3 2 3 2 3 13 Gerry King 0 0 1 1 Dave Slater 2 2 0 F 2’ 0 6 1 Jim Chalkley 2 1 1 4 Les Searle 0 1 E 1 Ht 1: Ridgeon, Mould, Shepherd, Brett 67.0 3 3 3 3 Ht 2: Gilbertson, Slater, Veal, Sharp (f) ? 3 3 6 6 Ht 3: Croombs, Gleed, Ridgeon, Walton 69.0 2 4 8 10 Ht 4: Webb, Chalkley, Gutteridge, Searle 71.4 4 2 12 12 Ht 5: Mould, Croombs, Sharp, Veal ? 4 2 16 14 Ht 6: Gilbertson, Slater, Walton (ex), Brett (mf) 69.0 3 2 19 16 Ht 7: Gleed, Shepherd, Veal, King 70.4 5 1 24 17 Ht 8: Sharp, Shepherd & Brett (dead heat), King ? 4½ 1½ 28½ 18½ Ht 9: Mould, Walton, Veal, Brett 69.2 5 1 33½ 19½ Ht 10: Ridgeon, Sharp, Gleed, Slater 66.4 3 3 36½ 22½ Ht 11: Croombs, Mould, Chalkley, Gilbertson (nf) 68.4 2 4 38½ 26½ Ht 12: Ridgeon, Shepherd, Veal, Gilbertson 68.0 2 4 40½ 30½ Ht 13: Mould, Gleed, Searle, Slater (f) 69.0 5 1 45½ 31½ Ht 14: Webb, Gutteridge, Chalkley, Searle (mf) 71.0 5 1 50½ 32½ Ht 15: Gilbertson, Croombs, Gleed, Brett 71.0 4 2 54½ 34½ Ht 16: Ridgeon, Sharp, King, Walton 69.0 2 4 56½ 38½ Ht 17: Croombs, Slater, Webb, Shepherd (exc) 69.0 1 5 57½ 43½ Ht 18: Ridgeon, Gilbertson, Mould, Slater ? 3 3 60½ 46½

They were one-legged ties.

I have this one as the SAL Cup Final, 1st Leg, with the score 61½-45½, but the scorers on the Speedway Researcher site do not add up to these totals and do not match those listed in the Speedway Star match report, which are: California - Shepherd 7½ (not 6½), Mould 14 (not 13), Sharp 8, Gilbertson 11 (not 9), Gleed 9, Walton 2, Webb 7, Gutteridge 3 Rye House - Brett 2½ (not 1½), Ridgeon 16 (not 15), Veal 3, Slater 6, Croombs 13, King 0 (not 2), Chalkley 4, Searle 1 (not 0)

30/03/1956 Southampton v Monarkerna 54-42 CONFIRM DATE & RESULT Date and score confirmed from programme and report. 10/07/1956 Southampton World Championship QR Winner: Len Williams DATE & RESULT Date confirmed; Ian Williams (not Len) 15, Alby Golden 12, Bert Roger & Pete Lansdale 10. 29/07/1956 California v Southern Rovers (SAL) DATE & OUTCOME (postponed?) Speedway Star fixture list for the week actually stated ‘Sunday 29th July California, no meeting’. 26/08/1956 Rye House Brian Crutcher Trophy DATE & OUTCOME (postponed?) Speedway Star reported that the meeting was abandoned without a race being run due to torrential rain, with a large crowd having assembled. 27/08/1956 Southampton Pictorial Trophy Winner: Edwards DATE & RESULT (forename?) Date confirmed; Bert Edwards 14, Ken McKinlay 13, Bradley, Hanham & Rawlins 11. 06/09/1956 Oxford King's Of Oxford Trophy DATE & OUTCOME (postponed? this meeting appears to have taken place 7 days later) Confirmed that the meeting on 6th September was rained off. The programme was re-issued for the staging on 13th September. 16/09/1956 Eastbourne Sussex Championship Winner: Merv Hannan DATE & RESULT Date confirmed; qualifying heats then a final won by Merv Hannan from Ray Cresp (Bettis and Gooddy both fell). 09/10/1956 Southampton Ernie Rawlins Memorial Trophy Winner: Dick Bradley DATE & RESULT Date confirmed; Dick Bradley 14 beat Brian Hanham 14 in a run-off, George White 11. 21/10/1956 Rye House v California (Challenge) DATE & OUTCOME (no result posted) The Rye House programme for the meeting on 14th October included a complete fixture list for the year, with that meeting shown as the last one, with no reference to a further meeting on 21st October. There was also no mention of such a forthcoming meeting in the Speedway Star. The Speedway Researcher California file carries details for a home match with Rye House but no date. Result 44-39. Any further info on this one since publication? The website http://www.speedwaychampions.com/br-match-race-champs.php shows that Vic Ridgeon only met Jimmy Gleed once in the Silver Sash and that was at the meeting on 6th May. The scratch race final on 6th May was the Hurricane Handicap, the same as in the undated meeting details shown on the Speedway Researcher file. The match result for this meeting on 6th May is correctly recorded. The riders in the undated meeting are identical to those in the meeting for 6th May and I believe that the undated meeting results shown are fictitious (as is occasionally found in old programmes), with no additional meeting having taken place. London White City shows as having run in 1956 but my list merely states "fixtures incomplete". Any info available? 30th May; this was the annual Cavalcade of Sport, which included a handful of ‘speedway races’ on the athletics track, with competitors usually riding Vespa machines. This was the only meeting staged at White City that year.