Paul

Of course I want the Rockets to return. But I’m sorry that ‘floating fan’ isn’t the fan you want. Very few people will travel from London to watch speedway at Rye House. Old speedway fans and I include myself in that statement, think when their club shut, speedway did. Very few people from Wimbledon, White City, Wembley, Romford, Hackney, Crayford, West Ham, New Cross etc.etc. have either passed away or moved out of London. You need local people from the Hoddesdon area to follow their team. Yes of course the floating supporter is welcomed but they the floating supporters are getting less and less. Sunday afternoon would mean Mildenhall racing against them. Yes in years gone by you could do that, but realistically that in my opinion is a no go. Monday to Friday [excluding bank holidays] is another no go. Rye House needs Saturday night speedway. After a massive push locally by whoever runs the club must get more locals in. The future generations [kids] don’t have school the following morning after Saturday night and Fridays, well I’m not even going to comment. If the club really want people travelling from the capital it needs mega publicity and that just isn’t going to happen, because good publicity costs. How many people travel to Kent from London on the train? Not many I guess. If money was no object then an all in one combined train/speedway ticket, similar to what the IOW used to do, but that isn’t going to happen. Then there’s the admission price. Not everyone can afford to take a family to speedway and free admission for kids is a must and a realistic adult admission price to. Anyway hopefully all the issues surrounding the return of speedway to Rye House will be overcome.

Tony Hurren reports on some sad news KEN ARCHER I have just taken a telephone call informing me that Ken Archer, one of the most well-know pit marshal's in the world of speedway racing, passed away at the weekend. He was 86. He had suffered from bad health for the last few years. Ken was a south-London man and lived in that area for much of his life, before purchasing a property at Caterham in Surrey, which he shared with his partner Esther. Ken's love affair with speedway began in 1947 when he attended Wimbledon's first meeting of the season. He saw his last meeting at the end of the 1992 season. Ken became pit marshal at Hackney half way through the 1964 season. He held the same position at Rye House, West Ham and White City. For many years he was the dope and oil man at Wimbledon before taking over as pit marshal. As a young man Ken rode cycle speedway for both the Battersea Eagles and Tooting Tigers. He excelled at this sport and won numerous championships. Ken missed only two post-war World Finals at Wembley's Empire Stadium and travelled to Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Germany and the United States to see World Finals and domestic meetings. We have lost a guy who was one of the best-known figures on the London speedway scene. RIP Ken.

Such a shame my enthusiasm has just drained away from a sport that I’ve gone to since I was 11. A couple of years ago I’d have gone to Mildenhall come what may. But the last couple of seasons it’s being getting worse that nowadays I can’t be bothered and today with the rain in London has made any thought of going nil. Although injuries can’t be helped the whole set up in the NL means yet again Drew Kemp is unavailable as he has to ride for Championship club Sheffield, farcical. After traveling to Poland to see league racing in all fairness shows how bad speedway is in the UK. Perhaps next season I will travel to regularly to see the Kings away from home. I hope today is a close meeting and those who go enjoy and can really only see a Tigers win, but what do I know!

Later this month on May 31st, Romford Speedway will once again come alive at 7:45! The RUSSC Club in Mawney Road, Romford which is just a stone’s throw away from the old Brooklands Road Stadium will be hosting a Romford Speedway Reunion. Invites have gone out to as many former Bombers as I’ve been able to trace. Ticket details at http://www.romfordspeedwayreunion.co.uk

My memories of the old Custom House were Ted Sear who was the announcer in a white glass fronted semi-circular box all on his own, midwat between the tapes and the refs box. Sitting in the home straight stand with my mum and dad and looking towards the first bend you could see the ships that were docked. Like City Rebel I never saw the stadium in its full glory. I can only imagine what an awesome venue it would have been prior the demolition of the back straight stand. I guess the writing was on the wall when that went. But after the demise of Romford and the short existence of the West Ham Bombers I travelled to Rayleigh on the train and Hackney with my parents. I loved the Bombers, Len Silver was of course their natural enemy and disliked the main and his team immensely. But by around the mid-seventies I began like the Hawks as the old school of Rayleigh riders moved on. Len was of course a masterful promoter. I began to take heed of what he said and did and realise now what a great showman he was, similar to the late great Mr Hoskins. Years later Bo Petersen [who was probably the most stylish rider ever to wear a Hackney bib] told me that Len was the only promoter he rode for that paid money on time, a true testament that although Len was unpopular with other tracks, that was because he wanted to be and it was great for publicity. A lovely article by the late great Dave Lanning entitled ‘when he got on Hackney’s Wick’ shows how the promoters worked along with each other to get publicity. The full article can be read here http://www.hackneyspeedway.com/DAVE-LANNING-WHEN-HE-GOT-ON-HACKNEY-S-WICK

Many of the tracks in my golden era of speedway were dangerous. Many tracks like Hackney, had lamp posts with the lights hanging over the track. Yes Hackney's track was perhaps a bit too fast especially when the 4 valves came in. But we all know the riders new the risk they were taking way back then and indeed still do in today’s modern era of speedway, although of course still extremely dangerous safety has become paramount in modern day speedway. Probably the safest track in the land at the time was London rivals Wimbledon. The catch fence [which of course was used in modern day Rye House under the reign of Uncle Len] had no posts and if a rider was unlucky enough to fly through the fence there were no nasty surprises. Even the fantastic old Hyde Road track at Belle Vue wasn’t without danger. It had manhole covers on or near the track and Peter Collins famously rode in the 1977 World Final in Sweden with a bad leg injury after the manhole cover was dislodged and clouted PC in the leg. Yes in post war Hackney there were fatalities at The Wick and one pre-war with Dusty Haigh. Two certainly post war were as a result of the lamp posts, one wasn’t. I’m not sure on young Alan Clegg. These guys paid the ultimate price for entertaining me and many thousands of other speedway fans at Waterden Road. The Len Silver era had top quality riders from around the world and racing was excellent. I have to say the Russell/Pavitt era had very good racing to. Scofield, Galvin and of course Thommo were brilliant when they missed the gate coming from the back. Going back to the sixties and seventies so were Banger, Middleton, Plechy, Thommo [that man again] Lord Morton of Hackney and numerous others, but the track was different and had far more dirt than in later years. In 1996 I’m so pleased they were called London as the track and viewing was awful and they didn’t use the name Hackney, because Hackney was a brilliant race track despite its danger and produced far better racing than any other track in the country.

There indeed was a mesh fence along the home straight. If my memory serves me correctly Tony the mesh fence was attached to a much smaller wall than ran along the home straight. The reason for the smaller wall was the football dugouts were along the home straight in front of the main grandstand. Before the new grandstand was constructed the higher concrete wall did go all the way around, but was demolished on the home straight when the new stand was constructed. The other area that had a bit of meshing of course was the pit gate on the first bend.

Romford Speedway......track cut out and laid in nine days. Maurice Morley with the help of Alan Cowland, Colin Clark and Johnny Guilfoyle did an amazing job. Just a shame one man who lived in Willow Street shut it down. But with a brick wall as a safety fence, perhaps had a mesh or wooden fence needed to be erected it may have taken longer. Shameless plug, Romford Speedway Reunion 31st May 2019, more details at https://www.facebook.com/romford.speedway

Update on this year’s Romford Speedway Reunion. Tickets will go on sale at the Celebration of Speedway held at Paradise Wildlife Park on the 17th February. Tickets are £9 in advance and £10 on the night, but there will be limited availability on the night so best to get your ticket in advance to guarantee admission. Tickets can be bought directly from me by contacting me by either email:romfordspeedway@outlook.com Or Telephone: 07831 333904 There’s a car park at the rear of the RUSSC venue with its entrance via Linden Street, parking is available in local streets nearby. The pedstrian entrance to the club is in Mawney Road at the junction with the ring road. It's about a 10 minute walk from Romford station. There is a licenced bar and for those wishing to eat their will be food available behind the bar at very reasonable prices. Hoping to be able to start naming some Bombers who have said they’ll be in attendance soon. It really will be a great night of pure Romford Speedway nostalgia, it’s coming home, Romford Speedway’s coming home……..

This makes grim reading [apologies if this link has already been quoted] or am I miss interrupting what’s been written on the link? I just can't see speedway happening at Swindon. It’s gone from their farewell meeting [4 years ago was it?] with a definite new stadium the following season, to midway through the following season, to next season, to resubmitting plans, remarking a new track in the present arena to this lovely quote from the article to "if it is rebuilt"! I read somewhere the Oxford main grandstand is a bad state of disrepair so unless someone with mega money steps in at Sandy Lane that'll be a no go. I did here the reason why John Cook moved swiftly into Rye was there were other interested parties in going in there, make of that what you may! https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/17207636.changes-to-swindons-abbey-stadium-plans-to-be-decided/

Birmingham 46 Hackney 32 1. Finn Thomsen 10 2. Bobby McNeil 3 3. Barry Thomas 6 4. Bo Petersen 7 5. Keith White 0 6. Vic Harding 4 7. Sean Willmott 2 If you pm me your email address I'll scan my proggy and mail it to you. Regards Tadders

Plans are in full swing for a Romford Speedway Reunion in 2019, yes you read that right, 2019! Next year it will be 50 years when the smell of methanol and the sound of speedway bikes were heard for the first time at the Brooklands Road Stadium! The venue and date for the Bombers reunion will be announced next month at the annual ‘Celebration of Speedway’ event on February 18th, which is held at Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, home of the Nati...onal Speedway Museum. More details on the Celebration of Speedway can be found at:- https://www.pwpark.com/whats…/events/celebration-of-speedway Exciting plans are in progress for an evening of pure Romford Speedway nostalgia, with hopefully some ex Bombers riders in attendance. More details will be available in the coming months. If you were a Bombers fan you really won’t want to miss this!See more

Goodness me, always enjoyed our chats. Very sad news indeed and RIP my friend.

Available soon will be the Barry Thomas Story. Thommo started his career at Division 2 Canterbury before moving full time to Division 1 Hackney, and then had spells at Crayford, Rye House and finally ending his 20 year association with Hackney back at The Wick with his 20 year testimonial in 1989. More details on pre ordering this must book will be available soon. The book launch will be on Sunday 18th February at the Celebration of Speedway at Paradise Wildlife Park.

Are they not running in the KOC now? Lakeside has only had a handful of meetings! I’ll be lucky to get to 30 meetings this year. Gone are the days when I was doing a 100 plus a year. With Lakeside running every few weeks and in Rye Houses case it seems every couple of months I'm loosing interest in speedway. But in saying that I’d like to think I’ll go this match, providing the meeting isn’t beaten by the weather tomorrow. Being as it’s a Lakeside v Birmingham thread I recon quite an easy win for the Hammers, rain permitting!