1957 The Poles At Wimbledon

[Guest]

by John Hyam

THE arrival of the Sparta team at Wimbledon on Good Friday April 19 1957 virtually drove promoter Ronnie Greene 'up the pole.'

Plough Lane boss Greene had been expecting the Polish national side and was far from happy to find his visitors were only a Warsaw-based league team. Their appearance in the capital that day is still very much a talking point.

In the opening races it was soon evident that the Sparta riders were struggling against a strong Dons' side. So much were Dons in command that, after six heats, Greene decided the fairest way to keep the Poles in contention was to give them a 40 yard handicap start. The Poles, renowned as a proud race, were furious with Greene's unilateral decision. Greene's deed hotted up the cold war situation then exisiting between the west and Eastern Europe.

Edward Kupczynski, one of the Poles better riders, was especially angry when he went on to the starting grid and found only his Polish team mate beside him while Dons, riders Split Waterman and Cyril Maidment were further back.

Up went the tapes - Kupczynski's team mate and the Dons' riders blasted off. To the amazement of the crowd, Kupczynski sat on the grid. The race was stopped and a major row erupted. The Polish team demanded a restart of heat seven and threatened to pull out of the match if it was not done.

The bewildered fans watched as the on-track activities continued. For a while, it looked as though the match would be abandoned. Then, so far as the Poles were concerened, common-sense prevailed. It was decided that all races would be off the scratch mark and the Poles also had heat seven restarted. So, the one-sdided match against the Poles continued, ending with a massive 73-34 defeat for the visitors.

Kupczynski vindicated himself. In the 18 heat match. He was the only Pole to win a race with victories in heats four, 10, 13 and 16. He also top scored for his side with 13 points. The best of the other Poles were Tadeusz Teodorowicz with two seconds from five rides, while Alois Frach and Jerzy Bloch had one second from their five rides.

The only other historic note from the match was the Wimbledon debut of a 17-year-old New Zealander. Ivan Mauger tasted British track action for the first time with a second and third from four races.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Guest

[arnieg]

The Poles were from Wroclaw not Warsaw.

[norbold]

So was it 1956 or 1957?

[Lefty]

I was always narked that Ronnie Groane used to introduce Ivan Mauger as 'Maw-ga'.

 

So to think that Wroclaw and Warsaw could be confused with a National team is par for the course!

[Guest]

So was it 1956 or 1957?

 

It was 1957 norbold. Ivan Mauger's first UK season was 1957. I have amended thread title accordingly.

The Poles were from Wroclaw not Warsaw.

 

I think pre-match publicity cited Warsaw as being the team's base. Wrongly as you claim. I seem to recall however that pre-match publicity MAY have said the team was from Warsaw - probably because it sounded more attractive than Wroclaw, a place that then few Brits would have heard of maybe? And prior to that, there was also some mix-up as to if the visitors were to be Poland's National side instead of which a club side came to the UK.

I was always narked that Ronnie Groane used to introduce Ivan Mauger as 'Maw-ga'.

 

So to think that Wroclaw and Warsaw could be confused with a National team is par for the course!

 

Ronnie Greene was annoyed because he understood that the team to appear at Wimbledon was Poland's National team, then subsequently found a club side was to be the visitors. It wasn't a case of Greene being confused - he was given the wrong information originally in regards to the origins of his Polish visitors.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Guest