Deano Posted February 22, 2023 Report Share Posted February 22, 2023 Me and my brother used to help out on practice days at Weymouth Cycle Speedway. I think it’s gone now, it was a nice outdoor shale track at the athletics track in the shadows of the old railway embankment. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted February 23, 2023 Report Share Posted February 23, 2023 10 hours ago, OveFundinFan said: There must have been hundreds of tracks made up just like that around the country, providing hours and hours of fun. I started racing on a quick made up track in Partington in the Manchester cycle speedway winter league 1963-64, a very cold winter as well. Then, for the 1964 summer league I signed for Belle Vue Gladiators in the very competitive Manchester League.. We raced on the BV speedway car park opposite the pits entrance. Full car park Saturday evenings, a quickly marked out cycle speedway tack on part of it Sunday afternoons. Wonderful. For 1965 (until I finished), I was with Wilmslow Hammers. That was a proper permanent track, again in the Manchester League. Derek Garnet and Vic Hinchcliffe both rode for Offerton Devils and were two of the very best riders in the country. Great days. Stockport now ride on the Offerton track... My lad rode for them for a few years until his football took over... A great sport which encourages fitness, resilience and a will to win... All valuable traits you would want to take forward in life... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Meldrew Posted February 23, 2023 Report Share Posted February 23, 2023 13 hours ago, OveFundinFan said: I started racing on a quick made up track in Partington in the Manchester cycle speedway winter league 1963-64, a very cold winter as well I rode for Carrs Wood Hunters in that winter "Satellite" league - very cold weather indeed, as I recall. Then rode for the main team in the following summer seasons. Happy days!! I remember the marked out track on the waste ground (car park) near the BV pits entrance. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fromafar Posted February 23, 2023 Report Share Posted February 23, 2023 Nice track in Redbraes Park in Edinburgh,still in use I believe ,but not as much since the New National facility in Fife. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OveFundinFan Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 21 hours ago, Vic Meldrew said: I rode for Carrs Wood Hunters in that winter "Satellite" league - very cold weather indeed, as I recall. Then rode for the main team in the following summer seasons. Happy days!! I remember the marked out track on the waste ground (car park) near the BV pits entrance. Carrs Wood in Gately, south Manchester, was the first track that I saw cycle speedway. That would be late summer 1963. It was for an individual championship, Bob Duckworth had been invited to present the trophies and had he took along mum, dad and me. I got a program and it was advertising the 1963-64 winter league and inviting applicants. I followed it up expressing interest. Partington Flyers came into existence. Mum made the race bibs from sheets of plastic with vertical red and yellow stripes of insulation tape whilst myself and friend sorted a “track”, very primitive. As we were still new to cs and no knowledge, the track was too big, very long straights. Again, being new to cs, for the first few meetings we rode bikes with Sturmey Archer 3 speed gears, low-medium-high and wide bars. Completely against the “norm” but we were very green. I think Peter Collins, Dave & Chris Morton etc we’re at least 6 years younger then me and the rest of Partington Flyers, so we didn’t really mix with them, they were only kids! Partington was then only a small village, and everyone knew each other. We did though “hire” the Bedford dormobile off Peters dad, Bill Collins, to get the team and bikes to away fixtures. PC does mention his dads dormobile in his recent book (a large part of his family life), and also Partington cycle speedway (chap 6, para 3) which was a surprise to me. I remember one visiting team, Gorton, visiting for a winter league meeting. Gorton is the area of Manchesters BV Hyde Road speedway track, approx 10+ mile from Partington. This was a Sunday, and the lads got a train(s) from Gorton to Urmston, still about 4 mile away. They then cycled on their cs bikes, remember very low fixed gear, to Partington, raced on a largish track, then did the return journey. That is commitment, very commendable. One of their riders in that winter league, Johnny Watchman, became one of the all time greats of British cycle speedway, top man. Some of you may remember him. I cannot remember the result of that winter league, which probably means Partington Flyers finished last (highly probable) and I would think Gorton may well have topped the league - they had a wealth of junior riders, most if not all, became very good riders in the Manchester league summer of 1964. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve roberts Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 22 minutes ago, OveFundinFan said: Carrs Wood in Gately, south Manchester, was the first track that I saw cycle speedway. That would be late summer 1963. It was for an individual championship, Bob Duckworth had been invited to present the trophies and had he took along mum, dad and me. I got a program and it was advertising the 1963-64 winter league and inviting applicants. I followed it up expressing interest. Partington Flyers came into existence. Mum made the race bibs from sheets of plastic with vertical red and yellow stripes of insulation tape whilst myself and friend sorted a “track”, very primitive. As we were still new to cs and no knowledge, the track was too big, very long straights. Again, being new to cs, for the first few meetings we rode bikes with Sturmey Archer 3 speed gears, low-medium-high and wide bars. Completely against the “norm” but we were very green. I think Peter Collins, Dave & Chris Morton etc we’re at least 6 years younger then me and the rest of Partington Flyers, so we didn’t really mix with them, they were only kids! Partington was then only a small village, and everyone knew each other. We did though “hire” the Bedford dormobile off Peters dad, Bill Collins, to get the team and bikes to away fixtures. PC does mention his dads dormobile in his recent book (a large part of his family life), and also Partington cycle speedway (chap 6, para 3) which was a surprise to me. I remember one visiting team, Gorton, visiting for a winter league meeting. Gorton is the area of Manchesters BV Hyde Road speedway track, approx 10+ mile from Partington. This was a Sunday, and the lads got a train(s) from Gorton to Urmston, still about 4 mile away. They then cycled on their cs bikes, remember very low fixed gear, to Partington, raced on a largish track, then did the return journey. That is commitment, very commendable. One of their riders in that winter league, Johnny Watchman, became one of the all time greats of British cycle speedway, top man. Some of you may remember him. I cannot remember the result of that winter league, which probably means Partington Flyers finished last (highly probable) and I would think Gorton may well have topped the league - they had a wealth of junior riders, most if not all, became very good riders in the Manchester league summer of 1964. Great post! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Meldrew Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 HelloOveFundinFan - The Satellite leagues were split into North and South sections - Partington in the North and Carrs Wood in the South so I do not think that our paths ever crossed. I think that Carrs Wood track built and maintained by Brian Moston was one of the top tracks in the League at that time. Now sadly gone. I think that you may have witnessed one of the Manchester Grand Prix held at Carrs Wood. I am attaching a copy of the more or less final league tables for both divisions. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OveFundinFan Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 1 hour ago, Vic Meldrew said: HelloOveFundinFan - The Satellite leagues were split into North and South sections - Partington in the North and Carrs Wood in the South so I do not think that our paths ever crossed. I think that Carrs Wood track built and maintained by Brian Moston was one of the top tracks in the League at that time. Now sadly gone. I think that you may have witnessed one of the Manchester Grand Prix held at Carrs Wood. I am attaching a copy of the more or less final league tables for both divisions. Thanks for that. Your correct in saying Brian Moston built the Carrswood track, he lived very close by I believe, more or less the bottom of his garden. And, yes, it was probably the Manchester Grand Prix I was spectator at. Thanks too for the league info. I had completely forgot it was split North/South. Just shows how vibrant cycle speedway was in those days, attracting so many youngsters. My mistake when I was mentioning Gorton in my previous post. It was actually Openshaw who had the good riders, including Johnny Watchman, and it was Openshaw who came by train/cycled to Partington. Openshaw was a bit further away than Gorton which really shows their commitment. Down at the bottom I also see the result of the leagues North v South. The North won, and I was in that team. Looks like Moston never got going. The league table shows Partington didn’t finish bottom but next to bottom on points difference - success! Yeah! The Strangeways track was actually in the “shadow” of Strangeways prison. Creepy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmauger Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 (edited) While editing post it vanished, TE issues.... Edited February 24, 2023 by martinmauger post vanished (!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beirao Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 I was part of a Glasgow 4 when we not only rode at CarrsWood in the Manchester 21st Anniversary weekend in May 1969 but we also slept in our transit van there that night. A really wet weekend, we ended up in a laundromat on Saturday afternoon drying out our gear - not quite like the denim adverts in the 70s! The sliding door fell off on the way home on Sunday night which delayed us somewhat. Great times a life time ago! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve roberts Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 Some great posts on here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OveFundinFan Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 2 hours ago, Beirao said: I was part of a Glasgow 4 when we not only rode at CarrsWood in the Manchester 21st Anniversary weekend in May 1969 but we also slept in our transit van there that night. A really wet weekend, we ended up in a laundromat on Saturday afternoon drying out our gear - not quite like the denim adverts in the 70s! The sliding door fell off on the way home on Sunday night which delayed us somewhat. Great times a life time ago! I did the Edinburgh Festival a couple years running both with Wilmslow and as an individual. Probably 1965 and 66. The first year I had a Reliant 3 wheeler van. I could drive that by myself on a motorcycle licence. So two of us travelling up together, the driver side engine mounting sheared. That resulted in every time we had to slow down the engine vibration would cause the engine to drop that side. The fan blade was obviously lopsided and was chopping at the fibreglass bodywork. I had to get on my back on the nearside and push the engine from the oil sump whilst my mate was pushing the engine from the top offside. That effectively was revolving the whole engine until it settled on the engine mounting again. So off we would go again. Everything was fine so long as we could keep going, the constant engine revs kept things stable. Problem was when we started to enter the outskirts of Edinburgh we encountered traffic lights. When we had to stop the engine on tick over would shake off the mounting again, so it was the same procedure as before. The fan chopping away at the fibreglass every time. So what I was doing then was after seeing traffic lights in the distance, I would either speed up a bit to get through them, or slow down hoping they would change to green. I may have driven through when I shouldn't have once or twice. Ooops! This I had to do over the Festival weekend. Going home on the Sunday was fine once I cleared Edinburgh. The following year on the day before I set out for Edinburgh Dad said I could use his car (I had my car licence by then but still the Reliant Van). Of course I said accepted. It was a Mk1 Cortina and I loved that car, so was made up. The things we do for the love of cycle speedway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejb Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 Remember watching Brian Buck riding many times, main man at Sandwell Lions using the Brummies red and yellow colours, great times. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Stadia Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 With the many great memories of cycle speedway and the fact it's a relatively cheap sport, motorised speedway is missing a trick, by not being more supportive towards the sport, as it's a great introduction to methanol speedway, from so many angles. From little acorns! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris116 Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 When I was in my early teens my father took me to a cycle speedway meeting at a track in a park just off Garrett Lane near Wimbledon Stadium. A very enjoyable afternoon but we didn't manage to get to another meeting as it was very difficult to find out when they were being held. I don't think the track exists now but if it did I would love to watch a meeting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Meldrew Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 6 hours ago, OveFundinFan said: Down at the bottom I also see the result of the leagues North v South. The North won, and I was in that team Here is a copy of the match report which should bring back some happy memories. Steward - the great Vic Hinchliffe. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmauger Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 (edited) Cycle Speedway in Hull area: http://hullcyclespeedway.co.uk/news Edited February 24, 2023 by martinmauger TE remain 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OveFundinFan Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 (edited) 25 minutes ago, martinmauger said: Cycle Speedway in Hull area: https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr.ilF0FvljrUsPyUpLBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzMEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1677297397/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fhullcyclespeedway.co.uk%2fnews/RK=2/RS=.K.mwcbqGETKA9a5epem.2Z2rdk MM - link not working for me. The other link is working. Edited February 24, 2023 by OveFundinFan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OveFundinFan Posted February 24, 2023 Report Share Posted February 24, 2023 19 minutes ago, Vic Meldrew said: Here is a copy of the match report which should bring back some happy memories. Steward - the great Vic Hinchliffe. Thanks for that “Vic” - nice one. Can’t remember the event but would have been my first visit to Offerton. Obviously a day I couldn’t keep the bike upright (J. Hatton). Mind you, Frank Finnigan (South) wasn’t the type to help keep you upright, the opposite more like. lol. Derek Benyon rode for Hopwood (North), near Middleton. A long way from Partington, but we became good friends and I went on my motorbike a few times up to Middleton that winter and helped build a track one Saturday. Reg Massey (North) became a team mate in 1964 summer season when I joined Belle Vue, and John Hopley North) became a team mate in 1965 when I joined Wilmslow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmauger Posted February 25, 2023 Report Share Posted February 25, 2023 (edited) I mostly don't copy / paste links as they mostly don't work, try again : If no joy type: hull cycle speedway club http://hullcyclespeedway.co.uk/ http://hullcyclespeedway.co.uk/news https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr.hBWHYvlj4FsSYH5LBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1677316871/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fhullcyclespeedway.co.uk%2f/RK=2/RS=FU.DfKvVFd53XcjR5JfiubToN2k- https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr.hBWHYvlj4FsSbX5LBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzMEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1677316871/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fhullcyclespeedway.co.uk%2fnews/RK=2/RS=vjFg26UmYllh4_4E9gFBzlCmHgw- https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr.hBWHYvlj4FsScX5LBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzUEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1677316871/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fen-gb.facebook.com%2fhullcyclespeedway%2f/RK=2/RS=rPukhgUOgxUTR8EFChWMDjtbdBU- Apparently a recent-ish new member was Frank Auffret, yes THE Frank Auffret.... Edited February 25, 2023 by martinmauger bad links, usual spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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