Post by Administrator on Nov 9, 2017 22:53:23 GMT
THE event that had the most profound shock on my speedway life was the closure of New Cross in June 1953.
To me, it had always seemed that speedway there would go on forever. Such is the innocence of life in its formative years. I had been a regular at the track from the opening meeting of the 1946 season and there had always been New Cross speedway...it even followed me through my two years National Service in the RAF between 1951 and 1952.
Then one day - New Cross had gone from the sport. It was the first departure from the British scene of a major club, a track which had staged many England-Australia tests matches. Some of speedway's greatest riders had worn the orange race jacket with the black Maltese cross. From the pre-war giants like Tom Farndon, Jack Milne, Geortge Newton, Ron Johnson and then, in post-war seasons, the famous Roger brothers - Cyril, Bert and Bob, Eric French and many more.
Then on that June day, the month that the Queen had her Coronation, it was no more.
The crux of the matter was that promoter Fred Mockford had been refused permission to sign then emergent Swedish star Olle Nygren. He told the Control Board that if Nygren could not join the Rangers on a permanent basis he would close the track.
I don't think that officialdom took his threat seriously. They refused to let New Cross sign Nygren and that was the end. I know there were later attempts at a revival, bridging 1959 into the early 1960s to revive speedway down the Old Kent Road, but it was never the same, It was something akin to the more recent Conference League revival at Wimbledon in 2002 which, despite honest promotional endeavours, never matched the truly great days of the Dons and again a host of legendary riders - Barry Briggs, Ronnie Moore, Tommy Jansson and many more.
It has always been my opinion that when New Cross closed in 1953, the big decline of speedway followed. The sport imploded. It crashed like a house of plaing cards. The New Cross closure led on to a fateful period when from a time with near 40 tracks running in three leagues, just a handful survived. And, but for the advent of Mike Parker and his organisational ability to found the Provincial League in 1960, speedway might well have died out in Britain.
Unusually, when Parker arrived on the speedway scene his primary interest was midget car racing and it was his intention to stage the four-wheel sport on many of the then closed Northern tracks. He then opted to trying to stage mixed formula meetings with speedway, sidecars and midgets on the programmes but again had little support.
In the end, he was persuaded to concentrate on speedway and the big 1960s revival took place. It ended seven seasons in the sporting wilderness for the sport and counter- balanced a decline that could be traced back to the shutdown of New Cross when a blinkered Control Board refused them permission to to strengthen its side by signing a Swedish speedway rider.
To me, it had always seemed that speedway there would go on forever. Such is the innocence of life in its formative years. I had been a regular at the track from the opening meeting of the 1946 season and there had always been New Cross speedway...it even followed me through my two years National Service in the RAF between 1951 and 1952.
Then one day - New Cross had gone from the sport. It was the first departure from the British scene of a major club, a track which had staged many England-Australia tests matches. Some of speedway's greatest riders had worn the orange race jacket with the black Maltese cross. From the pre-war giants like Tom Farndon, Jack Milne, Geortge Newton, Ron Johnson and then, in post-war seasons, the famous Roger brothers - Cyril, Bert and Bob, Eric French and many more.
Then on that June day, the month that the Queen had her Coronation, it was no more.
The crux of the matter was that promoter Fred Mockford had been refused permission to sign then emergent Swedish star Olle Nygren. He told the Control Board that if Nygren could not join the Rangers on a permanent basis he would close the track.
I don't think that officialdom took his threat seriously. They refused to let New Cross sign Nygren and that was the end. I know there were later attempts at a revival, bridging 1959 into the early 1960s to revive speedway down the Old Kent Road, but it was never the same, It was something akin to the more recent Conference League revival at Wimbledon in 2002 which, despite honest promotional endeavours, never matched the truly great days of the Dons and again a host of legendary riders - Barry Briggs, Ronnie Moore, Tommy Jansson and many more.
It has always been my opinion that when New Cross closed in 1953, the big decline of speedway followed. The sport imploded. It crashed like a house of plaing cards. The New Cross closure led on to a fateful period when from a time with near 40 tracks running in three leagues, just a handful survived. And, but for the advent of Mike Parker and his organisational ability to found the Provincial League in 1960, speedway might well have died out in Britain.
Unusually, when Parker arrived on the speedway scene his primary interest was midget car racing and it was his intention to stage the four-wheel sport on many of the then closed Northern tracks. He then opted to trying to stage mixed formula meetings with speedway, sidecars and midgets on the programmes but again had little support.
In the end, he was persuaded to concentrate on speedway and the big 1960s revival took place. It ended seven seasons in the sporting wilderness for the sport and counter- balanced a decline that could be traced back to the shutdown of New Cross when a blinkered Control Board refused them permission to to strengthen its side by signing a Swedish speedway rider.