BL65

Arthur Westwood was optimistic about staging Provincial League speedway at the Luton track in 1937, but when that was not possible, he turned his attention to opening a track in Reading, again without success. Undeterred, he looked at re-opening the Tipnor track at Portsmouth only to be frustrated for a third time. Portsmouth did stage a couple of meetings later in the year. It proved to be fourth time lucky when he finally got permission to re-open Hall Green, Birmingham. Les Bowden and Cecil De La Porte were included in the Hall Green team, both originally destined for Luton.

That's the same Clem Thomas who was with Lea Bridge, Walthamstow and Hackney. He was in the Hackney reserves team for the match at Luton on 8th June 1935. He also rode for Hackney reserves in matches at Seaforth, Cardiff and Plymouth that year, as well as representing West Ham reserves at Plymouth.

From the little information I have regarding Clem Thomas I believe he was born in around 1913. He rode for Lea Bridge/Walthamstow in 1934 and spent the 1935 season with Hackney. I understand that although he was known as Clem he was sometimes referred to as W.C. Thomas. I would be interested to know Wally's date and place of birth. There was a photograph in the Daily Mirror on 4th April 1934, showing Clem Thomas, N. (Jack) Bibby and J. (Fred) Tracey. They are described as 'three new Australian riders who will be riding for Lea Bridge this season'. The Daily Mirror, 16th February 1934, stated that Clem Thomas was attached to the Melbourne track in Australia and only recently came into the limelight. The London Daily News, 5th April 1934, said that Clem was 5 ft 2 ins tall and weighed just 8st.

Speedway also took place at White City in Glasgow and Nottingham.

I take your point there. There was no league speedway at Brandon after 1933 until 1948 though, so the unbroken run started after the war.

Wembley hosted league racing in 5 decades (1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 70's), Odsal in 6 decades (40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's).

Not that I recall. Eric moved from Reg Fearman's Middlesbrough team to Reg's Long Eaton track for the 1964 season, as the change of race night enabled him to continue to combine riding with running his greengrocery business. A trip abroad would have been at odds with his business commitments. Eric toured South Africa with other members of the Birmingham team in the winter of 1956-57. The tour was disastrous for the Brummies. Alan Hunt was killed in a track crash and Boothroyd and Ron Mountford were subsequently suspended during the 1957 season for riding on unlicensed tracks. Birmingham then closed in July and Bradford took over the remaining fixtures.

It was Liverpool's Tom Price.

Ted 'Sandy' Sturgess was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1920 and became a prominent road racer and dirt track rider in Canada. He was invited to try his luck in UK speedway in 1939 and his first appearance was as a reserve for The Possibles against The Probables in the opening meeting of the season at West Ham. His only appearance in the West Ham team was as a reserve at Belle Vue in a challenge match the following day, although he also rode as reserve for the West Ham Hawks (reserve team) at Bell End in May 1939. He was otherwise restricted to a few unsuccessful second half rides at West Ham during April and May. After the war he continued road racing and worked in the family motorcycle business in Hamilton.

Wimbledon home meetings were mainly staged on Saturdays during 1965 and 1966 before switching to Thursdays in 1967.

"Birmingham romped home in true holiday style at Perry Barr on Saturday with a 51-33 Division II League victory over Norwich. It was announced on the track that Tamworth rider Arthur Payne - a 23-year-old Australian - has now been signed by Mr. Les Marshall, the Birmingham promoter." Birmingham Daily Gazette, Monday, 17th May 1948 The local newspaper believed Arthur was born in 1924, according to their report. The Control Board had previously refused to sanction the transfer of Arthur Payne from Tamworth to First Division Wimbledon as he was considered to be too inexperienced.

The Wembley World Final programmes for 1950 and 1952 gave his age as 26 and 28 respectively, with the meetings taking place after his August birthday, suggesting he was born in 1924.

In the build-up to his World Final appearances Arthur was reported in the speedway press as being born in Sydney in 1924. Matt Jackson of the Speedway Researcher website also records his date of birth as 30th August 1924.

Peter is currently the announcer at Wolverhampton.

Norman scored 18 against the USSR at West Ham in 1966. When he moved to Wolverhampton in 1969 his performances in the first three meetings were fairly ordinary, but he then showed great form and when his season was halted at the end of June he was averaging close on on 10.5 points per match. He had also been highly impressive in individual events.

George Cole Junior, full name George Howard Cole and briefly known as Kid Bodie, started riding on Midlands tracks as a 3 or 4-year-old. He first appeared at Birmingham, perhaps also at Tamworth, in around 1947/48. An unrelated George Cole is believed to have been a mechanic who assisted Keith Gurtner and although he may have had practice rides on southern tracks in the mid 1950s he did not appear in official races.

In my youth I enjoyed turning up early at the tracks, watching the riders arrive, gathering autographs and generally soaking up the atmosphere. Now in old age I am quite happy to arrive much closer to start time, although taking care to ensure safe parking will be available within reasonable distance. The earliest I have arrived was 2 and a quarter hours before start time at Blackbird Road, Leicester and 2 hours before the start of the 1967 Internationale at Wimbledon. A friend persuaded me that it would be a good idea to travel by train to the Leicester match, which was the re-opening fixture against King's Lynn on 9th April 1968. In order to get there in time for the meeting an early start was required, as we had to change trains twice. We were very early arrivals, even though walking slowly from London Road station to the track. We were first through the turnstiles and within 20 minutes we had been offered three regular jobs each. As we wouldn't be attending regularly we had to decline. It was a very good match, with a large crowd and wonderful atmosphere. The downside was that we didn't get back home until 8.00 a.m.

I answered this question in a previous thread about Oxford 1964, started by BOBBATH on July 9, 2021 in Years Gone By. I concluded that if teams had not been affected by injuries it was likely that Oxford would have finished third instead of fourth in the league table.

Garry Lindsay made just one appearance for Liverpool in 1960, scoring 11 points from 5 rides. He had last appeared as Ken Sharples in 1956 at Belle Vue and subsequently returned using his real name of Sharples at Sunderland in 1964, before moving on to Newcastle.

There is now a great deal of doubt over this. A number of sources say that Lawson was in fact his real name, as confirmed by his birth record.

He broke his wrist when changing a car tyre.

He was late in arriving, having attended a meeting with Bill Rose, the scriptwriter for the film 'Once A Jolly Swagman'. Still wearing the suit he had hired for the meeting, he needed the umbrella to keep it dry.

Peter is the announcer at Monmore Green for Wolverhampton meetings. He is a keen follower of Worcestershire County Cricket Club too I believe.

Best I can do is that he was known as 'the umbrella man' for a short time afterwards.

On the wet night in question I am sure that he was uninjured.