cityrebel

i was there that night it was an awful accident and one i will never forget. it's hard to believe it was so long ago RIP vic.

the fire brigade rowed down my street and put ladders up against the upstairs windows because all of the rooms downstairs were under water!.

the 1968 laurels won by barry briggs was the first meeting i ever went to. i remember the stadium was still wet from the floods caused by the river wandle bursting it's banks earlier in the month. i lived near to the track and had to be rescued by rowing boat from my upstairs bedroom window!!!.

ebay is your best bet.

i last went there on royal wedding day 1981 to see the dons get a 39-39 draw against the vikings thanks to a 5-1 in heat 13. one memory for me was all the street partys going on all around the stadium celebrating the big day.

i did'nt like to ask cyril his age but he looked very well. most of my questions were about long gone tracks he had ridden at such as neath, bristol (knowle), stoke (sun street), bradford (greenfield) and many others. i told cyril i was a lifelong wimbledon fan and he told me a few stories of his rides at the london tracks i went to as a kid. i will visit newport again this season as my inlaws live in carmarthen, when i do i will look him up and pass on your messages.

i went to the newport v rye house meeting yesterday and ended up sitting next to ex woves and wasps rider cyril francis. we had a very interesting chat about cyrils career and memories. i thought it was good to see a speedway veteran like cyril still taking an active intrest in the sport.

seeing as there is a lot of talk about london speedway at the moment, i thought i would refresh my topic on my top track as a child west ham. any more memories anyone?.

as with all forms of collecting you have to draw the line somewhere. the greater london boundary is as good a line as any.

as a collector of most things to do with london speedway this is the method i use. i only collect tracks that operated within the present greater london boundary. if they extend this area to include high beech, rye house and arena essex i might have to think again!.

i've been to plenty of sittingbourne double headers, i expect delays at conference league level. some of the doubles at white city took four hours to run which was a long time for 26 heats at a top flight track. there is a big difference between sitting in the sunshine in kent for five hours compared to being a schoolboy waiting for a bus at midnight in a dodgy part of london.

being a dons fan living in earlsfield i could'nt believe my luck having a new track opening only a bus ride away on the 220. i remember sitting on my own in the glass fronted back straight enclosure, i could only do this in the summer months because all the power was turned off!. i used to love watching the riders emerge from the changing rooms beneath the centre green, the longest running double headers ever staged and running for the last bus home. so many good memories enough to bring tears to a glass eye. RIP wood lane.

for any south london fans that want the new cross book they had four copies in the colliers wood branch of wh smith a couple of weeks ago.

the plough was the pub opposite the main entrance. it was closed down a few years ago.

well i enjoyed going to the shay, odsal and hyde road. all great race tracks and all sadly missed.

west ham was always my favourite track as a child. as for romford i was lucky enough to go there once to see the czechs ride in 1970, as a dons fan i was at plough lane most thursdays. the venue i regret not going to the most must be crewe. i would have loved to have seen phil crump blast round that massive track!

david hamilton and ed stewart announcing at wembley ronnie moore team riding christer lofqvist scraping the fence at custom house vaclav verner blasting around brooklands punch ups at eastbourne v rayleigh meetings bengt jansson riding the boards at hackney watching the trains go past at tilehurst league racing at the white city garry middleton throwing a wobbly olle nygren's white boots end of season flour and egg fights wimbledon coach trips belle vue zoo and funfair sverre harrfelt's comeback at wembley bank holiday mornings at the weir watching tommy jansson ride i must stop before i start to cry!!!!!!!

speedway in london!

a golden era for me was definetly 1970 to 1980. being taken as a child to famous tracks like wembley and west ham was brilliant. another highlight for me was when white city opened in 1976 and making my own way there by bus. all the big meetings staged at wembley seemed to have decent crowds to me.

i was at the white city that day and remember the incident like it was yesterday. penhall made no attempt to race and just cruised round at the back. on the parade truck he was loudly booed and pelted with all kinds of objects. he looked really shocked at the crowds reactions but in my eyes he deserved it. all he had to do was go through the tapes or have an ef. to cheat like that with no regard for fair play was a disgrace.

the photos do bring back memorys of the wimbledon coach trips from the 1970's and early 80's. some good and some bad!.

i found mike to be a really nice bloke. he gave me his wimbledon race jacket when riding for the dons in 1983. it's really sad to hear he is going through hard times.

i went to park road twice, first in 1981 for berwick v wimbledon and again in 1984 for blackhawks v hackney. i thought it was a great little track, a bit basic but fast with plenty of racing lines

in my opinion the sport did die at wimbledon when tommy was killed in may 1976. it might of been a very slow death but it was never the same afterwards. it was like a big black cloud hung over the stadium and never went away. you have to admire the way belle vue recovered after cravens death in 1963. although having success as a team does help the healing process.

lofqvist along with ronnie moore were my big heroes as a child. i saw his first meeting in this country against my beloved dons at west ham. his 15 point maximum for the hammers at wembley has to be one of the finest perfomances at a new track. although watching pavlic get a 21 point maximum at arena last night runs it very close.