Post by Administrator on Jul 20, 2012 9:53:47 GMT
My first speedway meeting....
My first meeting was as a 13 year old at New Cross on April 17, 1946, when the Rangers beat The Rest 46-37 in a challenge match. From the start, I was captivated by the noise, the dimming of terrace lights and the bright track lights for the racing.
I saw the riders leave the pits and thought they would speed into action as they toured the track. I had no idea that they had to line up on at tapes and then roar into action. When they did, my breath was taken away and from then onwards my main sports dedication was to speedway.
It was a night when I saw my all-time English favourite Jack Parker in action, but the names that were tannoyed and which most captured by imagination were ‘Crash a Day’ Jack Cooley, ‘King of Crash’ Phil Bishop (later to be a close and dear friend) and Mick Mitchell. The latter because we were told he was a local lad from Lee Green in Lewisham.
For the record (thanks Jim Henry, Hugh Vass and Matt Jackson!) the teams were -
New Cross: Ron Johnson, Phil Bishop, Les Wotton, Eric French, Geoff Pymar, Jack Cooley, Mick Mitchell, Jack White.
The Rest: Jack Parker, Ron Clarke, Tommy Price, Oliver Hart, Wally Lloyd, Mike Erskine, Ed ‘Crusty’ Pye, Bob Wells.
And my quirk: for many, many years, I was convinced that Mick Mitchell had won a second half-race, mainly rcalled by me because announcer Cecil Smith joked that the winning time was “66.6 seconds - clickety click point click.”
Decades later, that myth was destroyed when I checked on the meeting on ‘Speedway Researcher’ and saw that Wally Lloyd and Ed Pye were the only finishers in a scratch race with that winning time. In his scratch race, Mitchell had finished third behind Eric french and Bob Wells.
:::::NOW look back to your first-ever speedway meeting, when and where was it? And what highlight from it do you especially remember? Clickety click point click!
My first meeting was as a 13 year old at New Cross on April 17, 1946, when the Rangers beat The Rest 46-37 in a challenge match. From the start, I was captivated by the noise, the dimming of terrace lights and the bright track lights for the racing.
I saw the riders leave the pits and thought they would speed into action as they toured the track. I had no idea that they had to line up on at tapes and then roar into action. When they did, my breath was taken away and from then onwards my main sports dedication was to speedway.
It was a night when I saw my all-time English favourite Jack Parker in action, but the names that were tannoyed and which most captured by imagination were ‘Crash a Day’ Jack Cooley, ‘King of Crash’ Phil Bishop (later to be a close and dear friend) and Mick Mitchell. The latter because we were told he was a local lad from Lee Green in Lewisham.
For the record (thanks Jim Henry, Hugh Vass and Matt Jackson!) the teams were -
New Cross: Ron Johnson, Phil Bishop, Les Wotton, Eric French, Geoff Pymar, Jack Cooley, Mick Mitchell, Jack White.
The Rest: Jack Parker, Ron Clarke, Tommy Price, Oliver Hart, Wally Lloyd, Mike Erskine, Ed ‘Crusty’ Pye, Bob Wells.
And my quirk: for many, many years, I was convinced that Mick Mitchell had won a second half-race, mainly rcalled by me because announcer Cecil Smith joked that the winning time was “66.6 seconds - clickety click point click.”
Decades later, that myth was destroyed when I checked on the meeting on ‘Speedway Researcher’ and saw that Wally Lloyd and Ed Pye were the only finishers in a scratch race with that winning time. In his scratch race, Mitchell had finished third behind Eric french and Bob Wells.
:::::NOW look back to your first-ever speedway meeting, when and where was it? And what highlight from it do you especially remember? Clickety click point click!