It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog, afraid work has
kept me busy. I’ve been planning this one for a little while, about a passion I’ve
rekindled for a sport I used to watch when I was young. It has nothing to do
with fitness, so apologies to anyone wanting to find out the latest gimmick on
the fitness front, or what’s been going on in my running world, rather it’s an
opportunity to introduce you to a sport that is relatively cheap to watch live,
you get to see every inch of the circuit without having to move and it is full
of drama. The sport I am referring to is Speedway, have you heard of it? Well
it would appear that most of my friends haven’t, as they draw a blank when I
say I’m going to a speedway meeting. I find this a real shame because I feel it
is an exciting sport to watch and the fans, generally, create a friendly
atmosphere. Plus it’s a sport whereby you can actually get to meet the
competitors on a regular basis.
For the benefit of those who do not know anything about speedway
here’s a quick synopsis:
Speedway is a sport where four riders race against each
other on motorbikes that have a fixed gear and no brakes. They race over four
laps of a shale/dirt covered circuit, oval in shape, each circuit varying in
size but not much different to that of a running track (one circuit). That is a
slight generalisation, if you want a more in-depth explanation here’s an
extract from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_speedway
For me speedway was something I was into during the 70s and
80s but when I got caught by the running bug, 1989, that, and the fact that
speedway started to disappear in London, it spelt the death knell for my
speedway spectating. It’s only this year that I’ve got back into it, prompted
by seeing a facebook friend was a member of the ‘Speedway Friends’ group, set
up by former rider, Karl Fiala. I thought I’d join and, like a running group I’m
in, it features many pictures from the past, and has many ex and current riders
on it’s membership. This prompted me to start going along to my nearest track
and the rest will become apparent towards the end of this blog.
I don’t have much recollection of my earliest involvement
with speedway, my dad would take us along to Belle Vue and I have occasional
flashbacks of some of the more stylish leathers that were on show, but as for
actual memories of races I don’t have any until the mid 70s. In fact one of the
things that sticks in my mind from those early days was a brawl between the
Belle Vue and Leicester riders, and fans, hardly endorsing my earlier comments
about friendliness. But then it’s a tough sport, riding a motorbike at high
speed around a short course surrounded by a fence and riders can, and do, crash
frequently. Thankfully, I’ve never seen a fatality, though I have seen some
serious crashes. Of course, over the years there have been many fatalities and
riders leaving the sport disabled, even recently, despite all the safety measures.
But it’s such an exciting sport to watch, and must be even more exciting to
ride, that the danger doesn’t seem to put off new riders coming through, just
as in the early days of the aeroplane people sought excitement, despite the
risks.
Whilst Belle Vue was my first experience of speedway, it was
at Ellesmere Port, home of the Gunners, where I grew to love the sport. We
started going to watch Ellesmere Port in 1976 and I became an avid fan. I have
many memories of watching The Gunners in action at Thornton Road, and on the
few times that we travelled to watch The Gunners away. Ellesmere Port were in
the 2nd tier, whereas Belle Vue were a top tier team, but that
didn’t matter to me, what we may have lacked in household names we never lacked
any enthusiasm or commitment. Another major difference in this division was
that you felt you could get closer to the riders, who, at Thornton Road, had to
walk through the crowd to get to the showers.
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| My Ellesmere Port Gunners Scarf |
Initially Ellesmere Port were quite successful, finishing 2nd
in the league, to Newcastle. It was Newcastle who knocked us out of the knock
out cup, in the semi-finals. John Jackson, our top rider, was 2nd to
Newcastle’s Joe Owen in the National League riders championship, but came out
on top, with Chris Turner, in the National League pairs, against Newcastle’s
Joe and Tom Owen. Plus we were 3rd in the final of the National
League four team tournament. It was also the year that Belle Vue’s Peter
Collins won the World Speedway Championship, the first Britain since Peter Craven
(another Belle Vue rider) in 1963.
With out and out National League star, Joe Owen, due to move
up to the top division in 1977, it was looking like Ellesmere Port could
challenge for the top spot, especially as we still had the services of John
Jackson, alongside a youthful, but talented team. It was not to be, Eastbourne
emerged as the successors to Newcastle, with a very solid squad as the Gunners
dropped to 3rd place. Perhaps too much youth was the problem but it
was the policy to try to bring riders through the Saturday morning training
school, and it did produce some great future speedway riders. Again we were
defeated in the Semi-final of the knock out cup, to Eastbourne. Not getting
past the first round of the pairs and only to the semi final stage of the
fours, and with Jacko only managing 6th in the individual event, it
was a bit of a downer compared to 76, but third place was not to be sniffed at
and the racing at Thornton Road was always enjoyable. 77 also saw the emergence
and rapid rise of the third of the five Collins brothers, Phil. Peter was world
champion in 76 and runner up in 77, Les would be runner up in 1982, Phil had
tough acts to follow.
With the same solid backbone of Jacko and Steve Finch and
the improving Phil Collins, 1978 looked like it could be the Gunners year, but
in the league it was once again disappointment. Unbeaten at home but with only
5 away wins we could only manage 5th in the League. We were still
good entertainment and I’m sure opposition teams looked forward to our visits.
Jacko was again top dog, in the best form ever for Ellesmere Port he was 3rd
in the overall National League averages (Steve Finch was 12th and
Phil Collins 20th, both showing great improvement), 2nd
in the National League Riders Championship and together with Steve Finch he won
the National League Pairs Championship, remaining unbeaten on the night, with
Steve Finch only dropping a point in one race. We made the final of the
National League Fours competition, finishing joint 3rd with
Canterbury. Once again we failed to make the final of the cup competition,
losing to Canterbury in the quarter finals. Phil Collins really made his mark
this year, improving all year, he, like his elder brothers, Peter and Les,
before, won the Junior Championship of the British Isles and was promptly
picked up by Cradley Heath for the following year, going for a British record
transfer fee of £15,000.
Without Phil Collins for 1979, but still with Jacko and
Finch what were our prospects going to be? Paul Tyrer, a star at Ellemere Port
before my time, had rejoined the previous year but hadn’t shown consistent form
and in 1979 he appeared to struggle, it wasn’t long before he retired. The rest
of the team consisted of young up and coming riders and it was left to Louis
Carr to take over the heat leader role vacated by Phil Collins. Whilst not
quite matching Phil’s point scoring, he did a pretty good job. Steve Finch did
a great job all season, knocking Jacko off the top of the averages for the
first time since Jacko joined, finishing 6th in the overall
averages. Perhaps this is where Jacko’s gradual decline started, he was well
down on the average he’d achieved the previous year, though still 9th
ranked in the overall averages across the National League. Jacko was still the
king around Thornton Road, but was struggling more with his form away from
home. With Jacko misfiring a little away from home, a third heat leader who
wasn’t quite ready for the responsibility and more youngsters getting their
first opportunities of team action, understandably Ellesmere Port didn’t have a
great season, they could only manage a mid table 9th and were
knocked out in the 1st round of the cup competition by league
champions elect, Mildenhall. Jacko was once again our representative at the
NLRC, but didn’t feature on the podium. On the bright side though Jacko and
Finch nearly managed to hold onto their National League Pairs championship,
finishing 2nd to Milton Keynes and on a far brighter note, we won
the National League Fours championship, for the first time. So not a great
season but we had things to cheer and, the racing at Thornton road was always
exciting. This was also the year Ivan Mauger became the most successful rider
in World Championship history, winning his 6th, and final, world
individual title.
1980 – Jacko’s gradual decline continued, no longer the king
of Thornton Road as both Steve Finch and Louis Carr surpassed his home average.
Steve Finch produced consistently good results away from home, showing further
improvement from last year and a near 10 point overall average again placed him
6th in the National League averages, with Jacko slipping to 29th
and Louis Carr not far behind in 33rd. Looking through the Speedway
Yearbook there were lots of high scores for Jacko, but it was the end of season
that saw his average go down, for what reason I do not know but from 17 Aug to
the end of the season he only had one double figure score, and that was from 5
rides, plus an 8 paid 10 from 4 rides. His average ended below the 9 point
mark. The second stringers and reserves were now more experienced but there
were just too many meetings narrowly lost, which meant we finished even lower
in the league than last year, 10th. In the cup we were again knocked
out in the first round, to a Berwick team that went all the way. In the pairs,
Jacko and Finch narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals and in
the fours it was 3rd place in a narrowly contested final. Steve
Finch made his debut in the NLRC, finishing a fine 3rd, my brother
was working for him at the time and I remember Steve dropping him off, very
late, that night. This was also the year Mike Lee became the next British Rider
to win the World Speedway Championship.
Having sold off Louis and Peter Carr to Belle Vue, in 1980,
for a new record fee (surpassing that of Phil and Neil Collins), it was another
case of rebuild for 1981. The sale agreement gave Peter another year in the NL
with the Gunners, but would he be able to replace his older brother? Newcomer,
loaned from Halifax, Australian Rob Ashton started in reserve and produced some
great results from the off, quickly moving up into the team and providing solid
work. Peter Carr struggled at first but by the end of the season was scoring
well to improve his average. Billy Burton came in from Stoke, as Pete Ellams
went the other way, another solid scorer at home. Steve Finch was once again
top man, but with a reduced average on the previous year and Jacko, whilst
scoring well at home, didn’t seem to travel as well and also seemed to suffer a
number of uncharacteristic engine failures at home which kept his average well
down on his usual and even led to him moving from his traditional no. 1
position, sometimes filling in the 2nd string role. Phil Alderman,
Paul Embley, Pete Ellams (before his Stoke move) and Eric Monaghan were solid
riders and there were some big scores at home. But away form and three home
losses and a draw meant we only finished 11th, the worst league
position since I started supporting. In the cup, now run over 16 heats we were
pretty poor, in the first round we lost at home to Wolves, but managed to beat
them away to go through but in the second round we were absolutely trounced at
home, 30-64, to Mildenhall, before suffering worse at West Row, 76-20, to go
out. I went up to watch the National League pairs championship, only to come
away disappointed after seeing Jacko and Finch lose each of their three rides
by 5-1, and we didn’t qualify for the Finals of the 4s. All in all a pretty
poor season, which is why there were some changes coming in 1982.
The league races format changed for 1982, clearly the 16
heats in the cup had been deemed such a success that the league matches were
increased from their traditional 13 heats to match this. Teamwise it was still
nearly the same team as the previous year for Ellesmere Port, Rob Ashton had
moved on and Peter Carr was now in the Belle Vue team. We started the season
with Billy Burton, Steve Finch and newcomer Rob Maxfield leading the team. Eric
Monaghan took on the captaincy, with Jacko down as a second stringer, due to
his drop in average from the 1981 season. The experienced Phil Alderman was
back in reserve position, joined by Rob Tate, until Glen Parrott broke into the
team and made an exceptional start. It was probably a bit of a kick in the
pants for Jacko, starting the season as the 4th best rider in the
team, based on averages, and he was soon piling up some big scores, ending the
season back in the top position, it was great to see him riding so confidently.
Another notable change was Mike Lohmann taking over the team manager role from
long term manager Joe Shaw. As the
season went on Jacko seemed to relish being no1. Again and was scoring solidly,
though he still encountered a few gremlins with his engine along the way. Ably
backed by Steve Finch and Rob Maxfield and with Eric Monaghan, Phil Alderman
and Glen Parrott scoring well we were generally able to cope with a mid-season
misfiring Billy Burton, who found himself relegated to reserve. We suffered
uncharacteristic home losses against Mildenhall and Newcastle, but it was a
much better season for us, finishing 3rd in the league. We made it
to our first cup final, but lost to the mighty Newcastle. There was another
cup, the Super Nat Koc, we reached the semi finals of that and rode against
Mildenhall, but then my stack of programmes comes to an end so I don’t know
what happened next and I have no recollection of how we fared in the pairs or
fours that season.
Little did I know that this was the beginning of the end,
not just for Ellesmere Port, but for my own speedway watching. Ellesmere never
made it to the tapes for the 1983 season. The loyal, but dwindling crowds just
didn’t make it a viable option for the promoters. So for the 1983 season we
found ourselves watching our local rivals, Stoke Potters, though it felt a
little like home with Jacko having joined them.
Jacko seemed to start well but, if I recall correctly,
seemed to lose his spark a little and ended the season on an average around the
6 point mark. He was there again at the first meeting for the following season,
was on paid 5 after two rides, came last in his next ride and didn’t take his 4th
ride. For some reason I didn’t go back again until the 6th meeting
by which time Jacko had retired. I went to Stoke a number of times that year,
they had a great team with Tom Owen and Nigel Crabtree leading the way and it
was good to see Paul Thorp starting to make his way in the speedway world. It’s
also interesting to see that a young Tony Atkins was emerging in the junior
races, I would come across Tony many years later when I got back into speedway
after my break, he remains a Stoke asset and will ride for them in 2016, a the age
of 50, I think (I know how that feels).
At the start of 1985 I moved to London, the beginning of a
20 year stint. By the time the speedway season started I was living in Ealing
and working in Aldwych. I went a few times to watch Hackney, but of course the
big news for me was that Ellesmere Port were back, had a great team and had
changed their body colours to gold and blue. I couldn’t afford to go back up
north to watch Ellesmere Port, I was working for the BBC and they didn’t pay me
very well, so I had to keep in touch via the Speedway Star magazine. I managed
to catch them at Rye House, my first and only visit to Hoddesdon, which I can’t
remember much about other than one of the Rye House riders playing silly begger
trying to upset Louis Carr, something to do with his tyre. Anyway that
particular tactic didn’t work but I can’t remember the result. The only other
thing I remember about that meeting was meeting up with a small bunch of
travelling fans, who were great fun. The only other meeting I can remember was
the National League Pairs, which Joe Owen and Louis Carr won in a spectacular
final race, though Louis came off on the run in to the line and was unable to
parade his trophy. I actually lost my voice that day, shouting for Louis and
Joe, I said I was passionate about it, and it was such an exciting meeting.
Ellesmere Port won the league that year, the first and only time. Unfortunately
Joe Owen suffered paralysing injuries in the last match of the season and
Ellesmere Port closed down for good. There was one final meeting at Thornton
Road, a benefit meeting for Joe, held on Boxing Day, I was up for Xmas so went
along. It was a strange atmosphere, and the track was too slick for decent
racing and that was it. Ellesmere Port Gunners were no more. The track has
remained but there has been no speedway racing since, this year the track was
sold for housing development.
After that I lost interest in speedway a little, too busy
partying with my new found friends in London. I did go to Wimbledon once, with
my landlord, but then I started having proper relationships with girls and I
was hard pressed to find one who was interested in speedway. I moved to
Wimbledon in 1988 and went to a meeting at the Dons stadium in 1989, but,
despite the great weather, it never took place because the St. John’s Ambulance
man hadn’t turned up. I’d also discovered running by now and the Rosenheim
League took place on Wednesday nights, same night as Wimbledon speedway, so
that was the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with Speedway.
Years later, 2005, I moved to Edinburgh. I was interested to
see that Edinburgh still had a speedway team, albeit operating from Armadale. But with the shifts I was working I couldn’t
muster up the interest to go along, plus I was still racing at a high level so
put all my energy into my running.
Move on a few years and I found myself back in Cheshire.
Living near Sandbach we were ideally situated to pay another visit to Loomer
Road. I took a risk, last time I took a girlfriend to speedway she dumped me a
few days later, what would happen with Carole? We’d been together two years and
I’d moved down to be with her (though I tell my parents it was so I could be
closer to them), surely she could cope with one meeting! Turned out she liked
it, it was an exciting match Stoke vs Sheffield, but, for some reason we didn’t
go back.
This year, as I already mentioned, I decided it was time to
have another go. We, Carole (still with me), myself and my dad ventured to
Stoke on May 9th, to see Stoke Potters vs Buxton Hitmen. The track
wasn’t in great shape and it brought back memories of 1977 when Louis Carr and
John Williams both fell in a heat two and took no further part in the meeting.
This time it was Stoke reserves, Ryan MacDonald and Shaun Tedham who fell,
Shaun in the rerun too. Both reserves were out for the rest of the meeting,
leaving Stoke with only one rider in six of the heats. They fought well, but
went down 44–45 in a last heat decider. Who should be involved in that last
heat decider, scoring the 2 points for Buxton that sealed their win, only Tony
Atkins, who I saw riding at Stoke back in 1984, at almost 50 he’s definitely
stood the test of time. That was it, not hooked, but we were going to come back
for more. The meeting with Buxton was a Sunday afternoon, which suited us more
than a Saturday night, so it was a few weeks before we did make it back for
another Sunday afternoon meeting, against Mildenhall. It was a dry and dusty
track this time, and more fallers, visibility got so bad that the meeting was
abandoned after heat 14’s original run saw three riders go down. With the
result at 50-27 to Stoke, there was no point continuing.
The idea of Sunday afternoon racing was becoming quite
appealing so the next speedway we went to was at Buxton, the Hitmen vs Kent
Kings. This was a meeting full of surprises. For starters the track, whilst not
difficult to find, is in the middle of nowhere, down a long lane. Secondly,
there was bangor or hot rod racing going on at an adjacent track, at the same
time, which surely reduces income for both as some fans would surely watch
both. Thirdly, it was the most open circuit I’ve ever visited, not much shelter
from the elements at all, but the view was pretty good. Fourthly, the track is
on a slope so the back straight is lower than the start/finish straight and
finally only four members of the team I’d seen at Stoke were still in the
Buxton team, in fact one of that original team was now riding for Kent. One of
the best things about it for me, was that you can get up really close to the
track, no greyhound track between you and the action. Of course this does mean
that you get a bit muddy at times but you do really feel like you’re part of
the action. I got talking to a few fans and introduced to former rider Ken
Eyre, which was interesting but I didn’t really know what to say as he was
slightly before I started watching properly. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves
but it left us debating where we should watch our speedway, Stoke is nearer and
less exposed, but Buxton you feel much more of a part of it.
I went to a few more matches, we couldn’t get into a pattern
because we had other commitments and the British weather meant there were a
number of cancellations, Stoke had at least 5 home matches postponed and Buxton
2, but as the season went on we were getting more into our speedway, not quite
to the level I used to be at, and I still don’t understand all the new rules,
but then I’ve not really had the inclination to research them. By October it
looked like the season was over, but by now I had something else to look
forward to. I’d come across an Ellesmere Port Gunners reunion in October, 30
years after the last speedway took place at Thornton Road. Well I couldn’t
resist it, even though I was a little unsure about what it would be like. I
didn’t really know any of the fans, I just happened to be one. Who of the
riders would be there and what would I say to them anyway! But I bought a
couple of tickets, I thought it might interest my dad and would give me some
role reversal, taking him after all the years he’d taken me. It also turned out
that a couple of local friends used to go to Thornton Road so they took a
couple of tickets too.
And then, because of the postponements, there was more
speedway. Initially there was Buxton vs Kings Lynn on Sunday 11 October, the
day after the Ellesmere Port reunion, and then, Stoke popped in a meeting,
against Rye House, on the Saturday afternoon (had it been the usual evening I
would have missed it as it clashed with the reunion) and also they were due to
take on Kings Lynn at home the day after, after Kings Lynn had competed at
Buxton. With Buxton originally going to be the last meeting of the year, that
was my original focus, but I decided I’d also go to Stoke on the Saturday. It
turned out to be one of the best matches of the season, another last heat
decider, which Rye house won to take the lead for the first time in the
meeting. Stoke were a bit unlucky, but that’s speedway.
That evening I went off to the Ellesmere Port reunion. I
felt a little out of it, not being a local and knowing any of the fans, but I
settled down a little, had a look at all the memorabilia and got talking to a
few of the riders, though I was disappointed more didn’t turn up, I would’ve
particularly liked to talk to Steve Finch. However I had a couple of good chats
with John Jackson, such an ebullient rider and yet such a quiet and modest man.
A brief chat with Colin Goad, who had been and gone from Ellesmere Port before
I started watching them, I left my dad to chat with him, as they were more of
the same era, and went off to chat to Eric Monaghan, another quiet and
unassuming guy. Finally I chatted to Chris Turner, who, along with Jacko, had
won the National League Pairs in 1976.
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| NL Pairs Champions in 1976, still holding the trophy with pride 39 years later |
The next day was a bonus, we (Carole, myself and Carole’s
mum, hit Buxton for the meeting against Kings Lynn. More speedway bad luck, on
both sides, and another last heat decider, in which Kings Lynn prevailed for a
win. Two meetings and a reunion in one weekend, I couldn’t justify the evening
meeting at Stoke. So that was the end of my season, as far as I was concerned.
However…..I got wind of what really would be the end of season
meeting, a double header at Coventry against Eastbourne and Mildenhall, two
weeks later. Carole and I were doing nothing so I somehow managed to persuade
her that we should go. I’d never been to Brandon before, the closest I got was
living in the same village as Coventry legend, and three time individual world
champion, Ole Olsen. As a child I remember going round the back of his house to
look at all his trophies, which were displayed in a shed of some type. So this
was going to be interesting.
We arrived and managed to find a seat, there was plenty.
Interestingly Coventry is one of the clubs that hosts teams from both the top
division (Elite League) and the third division (National League). The crowd
wasn’t big and it made me wonder how big it would be for an Elite League
meeting. The first match was against Eastbourne. I hadn’t seen Eastbourne
during the season, but they were clearly a top side, finishing 2nd
in the league and winning the Gold Cup, National Trophy and, the night before,
the KO cup, so I was expecting a close meeting. Unfortunately, despite good
performances from Bradley Wilson-Dean and Ben Hopwood, Eastbourne never really
seemed to get started, struggling with a number of engine failures, and were
defeated by a large margin of 57-32. The second meeting against Mildenhall was
also a big win for Coventry, 55-36, where guest Danny Ayres was top scorer for
Mildenhall.
Buxton’s Liam Carr had guested for Coventry, scoring well,
and it was only a few weeks later I was to find out he would be a Coventry
rider for 2016. The rider I was most impressed with, on the night, was Coventry
captain, Martin Knuckey, he’ll also be back at Coventry next year.
So that really was the end of the season, a season which saw
me rekindle my love for speedway and a season that gave us another British
World Individual Speedway Champion, in Tai Woffinden, having won his first in
2013. I’m hoping to be back watching speedway next year, but I’m not yet sure
where I’ll go, Stoke, Buxton, Belle Vue or even Cradley Heath (who ended up
being the only team I didn’t see in 2015). With the introduction of IoW and
Belle Vue to the National League it should be an interesting season, but who to
support, I really don’t know, I miss not supporting a team but I quite enjoyed
being a neutral, a supporter of speedway rather than a supporter of a team.
I’d recommend you try it, if you haven’t before, or even if
you haven’t for some time. Compared to some nights out it’s relatively cheap at
£10-12 entry for National League speedway, going up only slightly for the
higher divisions. With a, usual, 15 races, that works out at less than £1 a race.
Written by Roger Alsop
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