Speedway's Greatest Promoters

[Onceadon]

Ronnie Greene and Johnnie Hoskins definitely.

 

The other for me has to be Charles Ochiltree. I have heard many other promoters (such as John Berry, Reg Fearman & Ian Thomas) say how they copied and admired his methods, and imitation is always the sincerest form of flattery.

 

Nigel Boocock once said that Coventry Speedway was run like a solicitors office, it was that professional, and John Berry's comment was that the CO never forgot that the business of speedway was entertainment, and that the entertainment of speedway was a business.

[Celticman]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2005 at 2:38 PM, norbold said:

Two other names I would like to add - Ronnie Greene. A strict disciplinarian by all accounts but his riders loved him and he produced arguably the greatest team of all time in the late 50s and early 60s with Wimbledon.

 

No question Ronnie was up there with the best and those Wimbledon teams back then dominated like no other team has before or since. You can look it up.

[False dawn]

3 minutes ago, Celticman said:

On 3/5/2005 at 7:38 PM, norbold said:

Two other names I would like to add - Ronnie Greene. A strict disciplinarian by all accounts but his riders loved him and he produced arguably the greatest team of all time in the late 50s and early 60s with Wimbledon.

No question Ronnie was up there with the best and those Wimbledon teams back then dominated like no other team has before or since. You can look it up.

Are you an archaeologist Celticman? You've dug up more really old threads than any other forum member I know. 

[Celticman]

41 minutes ago, False dawn said:

Are you an archaeologist Celticman? You've dug up more really old threads than any other forum member I know. 

Actually I invented the science of archaeology shortly after I popularized the idea of history. The egg came before the chicken on this one. I was going to have the user name Father Time but for the sake of brevity settled on Celticman. Is it too late to change it? 

I was an avid Speedway fan in the UK from 1955 to 1967 and of course living within walking distance of the all-conquering Wimbledon Dons were my team. The Dons Cyril Brine was a good friend of my father. When I was 14 I would sometimes meet Cyril at Plough Lane in off hours and learn about bikes while he worked on his machines. Cyril taught me how to ride bikes. I started by just cruising around the track on one of his old bikes and one of the mechanics brought an old BSA C11 OHV 250 which I drove around the empty parking lot. It certainly felt better with brakes on the 250 vs the speedway bike. I ended up buying the BSA. I notice that you have an affinity for sidecar racing. One of the bikes that owned before I left for Canada was a big old Norton with a Watsonian sidecar. Bike riders that have never operated a sidecar usually are quite surprised at the different riding skills involved. Cyril helped me on a life long passion for bikes. I have owned a bike or two continually for nearly 60 years and currently have a Suzuki S3 1400 and Suzuki Hyabusa 1300. 

I left the UK for Canada in 1967 and still live in Toronto. Alas Speedway was left behind except for my treasured memories. I have only discovered this website. I find it amazing how much I remember as I browse through the Years Gone By section. As you have observed I started on page 185 and have worked forward LOL.  

I noticed your affinity for Leicester. Commiserations J

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Celticman

[False dawn]

59 minutes ago, Celticman said:

Actually I invented the science of archelogy shortly after I popularized the idea of history. The egg came before the chicken on this one. I was going to have the user name Father Time but for the sake of brevity settled on Celticman. Is it too late to change it? 

I was an avid Speedway fan in the UK from 1955 to 1967 and of course living within walking distance of the all-conquering Wimbledon Dons were my team. The Dons Cyril Brine was a good friend of my father. When I was 14 I would sometimes meet Cyril at Plough Lane in off hours and learn about bikes while he worked on his machines. Cyril taught me how to ride bikes. I started by just cruising around the track on one of his old bikes and one of the mechanics brought an old BSA C11 OHV 250 which I drove around the empty parking lot. It certainly felt better with brakes on the 250 vs the speedway bike. I ended up buying the BSA. I notice that you have an affinity for sidecar racing. One of the bikes that owned before I left for Canada was a big old Norton with a Watsonian sidecar. Bike riders that have never operated a sidecar usually are quite surprised at the different riding skills involved. Cyril helped me on a life long passion for bikes. I have owned a bike or two continually for nearly 60 years and currently have a Suzuki S3 1400 and Suzuki Hyabusa 1300. 

I left the UK for Canada in 1967 and still live in Toronto. Alas Speedway was left behind except for my treasured memories. I have only discovered this website. I find it amazing how much I remember as I browse through the Years Gone By section. As you have observed I started on page 185 and have worked forward LOL.  

I noticed your affinity for Leicester. Commiserations J

 

Starting at the end of your post.....

Leicester are the auld enemy. I've been a Bees fan since 1970 and Leicester and Coventry were always the biggest rivals. Leicester sadly closed in 1983 and we switched our rivalry to Cradley Heath and later, when Cradley lost their home, to Poole.  Leicester came back, finally, in 2011, but in the second tier. We resumed our rivalry in 2014  when Leicester returned to the top flight. Sadly that lasted only 3 seasons  before the Bees "lost" their home. I say lost. The stadium is still there and it's future as a speedway/stox venue is under depute (Google Save Coventry Speedway if you're interested in the sad and complicated story). We've had a year in the third tier in 2018 using Leicester as our home but that's another sorry tale.
So, rather than give up speedway all together, I swallowed hard at the start of 2019 and went to do some missionary work in Leicester. That's not fair. I put on my Bees gear and went and supported both Leicester teams (one now in the second tier once more and the other in the National Development League). I convinced myself it wasn't totally disloyal as Leicester sported a few former Bees riders. The reality was that I got into supporting both teams in a big way. And my support paid off, they both won their respective league championships. 

As to your adopted home. I have relatives there who I sadly lost touch with many years ago.

Your biking experience is interesting. Mine is a little different. I rode road bikes as a kid but gave it up when I started driving cars in my early twenties. Jump forward a "few" years. I attended a sort of training school at the now defunct training track at Sheffield Speedway. I fell in love with riding having already watched speedway for a some years from the terraces. The truth was that I realised that my boyhood dream of becoming World Speedway Champion had not totally died. Unfortunately time was not on my side. I was already 48. Undaunted, I bought a half share in a bike and set about making records, for falling off. My final claim to fame was going out on my own and falling 6 times in 6 laps. It was time to rethink my racing future. And then as if by chance another path opened up, on here. I "bumped into" a grasstrack sidecar driver looking for a passenger. After a rush of blood and a training day in Kent off we went racing. That lasted 8 years during which time I took up sidecar speedway racing as well and even dabbled with sidecar road racing. I raced all over Britain including on numerous speedways, all over Europe and twice in Oz. I appeared in the World Sidecar Speedway Final three times. At 56, having trouble making the weight, I decided it was time to retire. I resumed my solo fanaticism and resumed my time on here.

And finally. Your user name. I think you can change it. You might need help from Phil or one of the moderators. I've never tried. Don't set up a second one. We have a few people who morph into different disguises and it's not considered the done thing.

David

[Celticman]

David, thanks for the great feedback

Sean

[iris123]

Have to say reading the reports etc from Hoskins' time at Maitland and one thing you have to say is he was highly respected and managed to get the Carnivals in the newspapers. Before a meeting there was a little snippet every day and a decent Ad also. Also a report on him entitled 'Born organiser' and how he since he came to the Society their membership had doubled etc

Report say's he left though to go to the RAC in Sydney !!! And wasn't their too long before a better opportunity opened to be secretary at Newcastle speedway 

[mickthemuppet]

Surely Sir Arthur Elvin without whom there would be no  Wembley Lions or World Individual Championships

[norbold]

1 hour ago, mickthemuppet said:

Surely Sir Arthur Elvin without whom there would be no  Wembley Lions or World Individual Championships

He wasn't the promoter. He owned Wembley Stadium.