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Post by greenrover on Dec 2, 2010 8:03:33 GMT
I was only active between 65 and 68 but what years they were!
Then again in 76 but in between I was in Sydney and NZ watching speedway there
The new tracks when the Second Division started up gave us London based fans somewhere to go within reach every night of the week.
Rayleigh, Crayford, Canterbury, Reading, West Ham, Rye House, Wimbledon, Hackney and many meetings a bus ride away like Coventry, Kings Lynn, Oxford or thanks to supporters buses Belle Vue, Halifax, Newport, Swindon, Cradley and many more.
Can't imagine it's as easy to get in as many meetings these days should I ever go back but I was never a fan of one team just enjoyed the variety of all tracks
Paul G
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Post by thebaldeagle1932 on Jan 3, 2011 9:54:51 GMT
I was only active between 65 and 68 but what years they were! Then again in 76 but in between I was in Sydney and NZ watching speedway there The new tracks when the Second Division started up gave us London based fans somewhere to go within reach every night of the week. Rayleigh, Crayford, Canterbury, Reading, West Ham, Rye House, Wimbledon, Hackney and many meetings a bus ride away like Coventry, Kings Lynn, Oxford or thanks to supporters buses Belle Vue, Halifax, Newport, Swindon, Cradley and many more. Can't imagine it's as easy to get in as many meetings these days should I ever go back but I was never a fan of one team just enjoyed the variety of all tracks Paul G They certainly were great days. And what about London in the late 1940s, Wimbledon, West Ham, New Cross, Wembley, Harringay on the nights between Monday and Friday, followed quite often by the train ride from Liverpool Street on a Sunday to see some action at Rye House? Those days will never return, sadly.
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Post by bobbath on Jan 5, 2011 22:25:37 GMT
In summer 1967 I was working in Basildon, Essex, Used to catch the train from Laindon to Barking then on the subway to West Ham on Tuesdays, Hackney on Fridays and Wimbledon on either Mondays or Thursdays-can't remember which. On a recent trip to UK went to all the old sites-got off Underground at Plaistow and walked to West Ham-down Greengage Lane??-saw the old Duke of Nottingham still there., got off at Tooting Broadway and walked up Garratt Lane-see the old speedway stadium still there-lets face it the poulation mix has totally changed-what happened to the old white working class people-salt of the earth -who used to live there and support the local track?? In some of the places I walked e.g. around Plaistow did not feel comfortable at all.
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Post by thebaldeagle1932 on Nov 27, 2011 21:00:50 GMT
i used to travel by tube (we called it the underground in those days) from Surrey Docks to Whitechapel, then change for Plaistow, walking from there to Custom House and the reverse to get home again. That was in the 1950s - I doubt that if there was still a West Ham nowadays and I still lived in Bermondsey I would contemplate such a journey these days. Especially the walk from Plaistow to the stadium and back again. My last trip to the area was in daylight hours about 10 years ago to see the street nameplates dedicated to Hammers speedway heroes. I doubt very much if the local residents have any idea as to who Hoskins & Co. are. To them they are "just the name of the street where I live." So very sad but then speedway is dying as a top flight sport - excitement when there's a 4,000 crowd somewhere. That size attendance at West Ham in the golden days would have set alarm bells ringing.
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