The most famous Speedway rider in Canada was Eric Chitty, who for many years rode for the West Ham Speedway team.

He was called the Custom House Cannonball by the fans.

Eric was born in Toronto, Canada in 1909.

He started working life as an Electrical Engineer, but had been an amateur racer in Hill Climbs & Trails from 1928.

He took to speedway racing in the early 1930`s in America at Detroit, Chicago and New York.

In 1930 he was a runner up in the Canadian Speedway Championship.

He retired in 1931 due to illness, but returned in 1934 to become the Canadian Speedway Champion.

In 1935 he came to England and had trials at West Ham, but proved a flop.

He attempted to get a job in the newspaper industry and was lucky to meet `The Broadsider` which was the trade name of Tommy Morgan, Sports Editor of `The People` Newspaper.

Tommy asked Johnny S Hoskins, the father of Speedway Racing to give Eric another chance.

Johnny did this and after a hard struggle with the Hammers he reached Stardom.

Eric rode for West Ham from 1936-1939, and was member of West Ham’s 1937 National League Champions.

In 1938 he became the first ever West Ham Rider to win the London Riders Championship held at New Cross.

Eric rode Speedway during World War Two at Belle Vue.

He won the unofficial British Individual Championship in 1940, 1941 & 1942.

He won the Belle Vue Grand Prix, the Northern Championship & the Hundred Guineas Trophy all in 1942.

He won the `All English Best Pairs Championship` in 1941 with Ron Johnson (New Cross).

He won it again in1943 with Fred Tuck (Odsal).

In 1944 he won the National Trophy (a solo event, not to be confused with the National Trophy which was a team event both before and after WWII)

Also in 1944 he won the British Empire Best Pairs with Ron Clark (Odsal)

In the winter of 1945-46 he toured Germany as the Captain of the ENSA Speedway team.

Although called a team, it seem it was more of a Speedway Circus with Solo events being put on in various parts of occupied Germany, and challenges against the local Army Dispatch Riders, many of which were Speedway riders before the war.

ENSA was an organisation that put on shows for Service personnel, known to the troops as ‘Every Night Something Awful’!

He returned to West Ham when it re-opened in 1946 as the Captain and rode for them from 1946-1951, although he had missed half of the 1948 season owing to injury he received racing in Australia, during the winter of 47/48.

He retired from racing after another serious injury in1952.

As West Ham had also lost the Australian Aub Lawson, who had taken over as Captain after Eric’s 1948 injury through retirement, they brought the 1951 Australian World Champion Jack Young from Edinburgh for a record transfer fee.

In the all time West Ham top twenty riders poll held when West Ham closed he was voted No 7.

Eric was also capped in Test Matches against England.

Although Canada could not raise its own team, a collation of Canadian, New Zealander and South African rode as an OVERSEAS Team in 1937.

They rode a five match series.

The Overseas team won 3, England won 1 and one was a draw.

Eric rode in 3 of them and therefore was `capped 3 times.

The comment about a Canadian Team may not be quite true; Eric’s son Raymond kindly sent me a photograph from his Dad’s private album, which shows Raymond at the age of three with his Dad and a Canadian National Team at West Ham. Sadly he has no information on the match, but his age would have made about 1948, but I have been unable to find any record of the meeting (see Photo).

West Ham had taken on National teams before, the first time was on 18th July 1929 when they rode against Wales, and on the 16th September 1952, they rode against Scotland. In that match the Scottish No.6 was a certain Ken Mckinlay, who went on to Captain the Hammers in their 1965 Triple Championship winning season.

There were two other Canadians who rode for the Hammers, Jimmy Gibb and Bill Matthews

Eric Chitty was not only a Speedway Rider; he was a Singer, Writer, Speedway Announcer and Businessman.

SINGER. Eric used to sing to the fans during the half time interval. This was a John S Hoskins idea, as Eric apparently had a good voice.The event was billed as a `Ditty from Chitty` (Typical Hoskins, who was a showman in the Barnum spirit).

WRITER. Eric wrote a column for the Speedway Gazette Newspaper in 1948.

ANNOUNCER. He would sometime be the Track Announcer at Hackney Wick.

BUSINESSMAN. Eric had a company called Eric `Ricky` Chitty LTD.It shows the Directors as E.F Chitty and E.M Chitty (his wife). They run a shop at Plaistow in Barking road (Approximately a mile from Custom House Stadium).It sold everything thing from Children toy bikes up to the real thing, Speedway Bikes. They also sold racing leathers, and had a motorcycle repair service.

After he died he was made a Member of the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame. The sport authority contacted the Newham Local History site for information on his time in England. The Information received from this was used as a part of the citation for his membership.