With Speedway celebrating it's 80th year, and West Ham 80th Anniversary of the opening of both the sport and the stadium at the end of July, I though it would be nice to go back 40 years and see what the Hammers were doing in the 40th year of Speedway racing.

When the 1968 season opened, the team had returned to celebrate 40 years of Speedway in Great Britain.

The first match on 2nd April was our normal opener, the Supporters Trophy against the Dons, which we won 48-29, the odd score being caused by both Reg Luckhurst and Alan Cowland falling in the same heat giving us a 5-0.                                                          In the programme notes, Dave Lanning said that he felt the team sprit had never been stronger, and one of the unsung hero’s of the team was Dave’s Wife, Leona. She did a lot of work behind the scenes, and no less a publication than the Speedway Star & News, had named her the `First Lady of Speedway` during the closed season.                                       The match had something else I will never forget, snow on the centre green! It is the only time at a British Speedway match I had seen snow, in fact there was a rumour that a photo had been taken and would be used to produce Christmas cards for the Supporters Club, although I do not remember it actually happening. The only other time I had seen snow at Speedway was in Holland in 1976, when I ventured out in a very cold March for my only continental speedway match at the 2-day World Ice Speedway Championship Final at Assen in Holland. Now if you think normal speedway is dangerous, just try it on ice, both the front and back wheels of the bikes have spikes in them, plus the bikes are of a slightly different design, more like the old Dirt Track bikes with turned down handles and a low centre of gravity. The barriers are made of straw and the edge of the track has a blue line on it (well, you would not see a white one!).                                                  The West Ham match had not been the first match of the season. On the 28th of February we all went of to High Beech in Essex, the legendary home of British Speedway for the 40th Anniversary meeting. The meeting had a parade of many old time riders and bikes, plus a few display riding events on these old bikes. My mum had something else to remember the match for, she tripped over a low fence in the forest and although seeming just knocked up a bit from her fall, she woke up the next day with a slip disc in her back and spent the next month flat on her back lying on one of the doors from the house, as a normal bed was too soft. Again, what a price to pay for supporting Speedway!                                           Back to the racing (Sorry Mum, could not miss the pun!), the team seemed to have settled down after the winter as we took on the Belle Vue Aces. Another victory and another odd score, we got a 5-0, after Belle Vue’s Norman Nevitt was excluded for knocking off his own teammate, Tom Owen. Captain Ken got a maximum, but slightly worrying was the fact the Aces scored two 5-1`s against us in heat 7&8.              Our first away match was the 2nd half of the Supporters Trophy, although we lost 33-44 to the Dons we won on Average 81-73, so the first trophy of the season.                                                         Our next match was a K/O cup match against Hackney and I missed it, I was too ill to go, ILL, I must have been DYING to miss a match, especially against Hackney! Despite me being missing, the lads still just managed to knock the Hawks out of the K/O cup by 55-52.                                                            As I had said before, Speedway engines are highly tuned, and can fail at the most inopportune moments. A Speedway bike is quite a simple mechanical object, which means that you were able to change an engine in mid-match, but you had to go some to beat the West Ham record. Sverre Harrfeldt and his Mechanic, Brain Lokes, could change an engine in Four Minutes flat, now that takes some doing.                                                                          Although local rivals, both West Ham and Hackney fans would regularly go to watch each other’s team, although they would rarely admit to it, “O` we only went to watch them lose” was the normally reply if asked. The rivalry was mainly friendly and as I have mention before both Dave Lanning and Len Silver had been given nicknames by the opposition’s fans. As Dave’s `proper job` was reporting Show Business news, he attended many events, and at one he meet Hilda Baker. As the Hawks fans had given him the name `Cynthia`, he posed with Hilda and presented the framed photo to the Hackney Supporters clubs for their raffle.                                                         Our old enemy, rain won our next match against Oxford. Edinburgh had moved stadiums, so our next match was against the now `Coatbridge` Monarchs. Their manager was Tommy Hughes, but still promoted by Johnny Hoskins. We won 43-35, but I was still not 100% so we did not stay for the second half, therefore I missed an historic moment.             As a special treat for the second half, the Youth Motorcycle Sport Association, based in Kent, which was a schoolboy-racing club, did a display. Mostly grass track, it had two groups, one under 12 and one for the under 15 years of age, so West Ham let them try their luck at Speedway on their smaller bikes. The following weeks programme was praising two of these youngsters, Dave Jessup and Barry Thomas. They were both to end up riding for England, as well as West Ham, Dave at Eastbourne, Wembley & Reading and Barry was to captain Hackney for nine years. They also both became London Rider Champions, Barry twice, 1973 & 74 and Dave in 1975.                                                          The `Father` of Speedway, Johnny Hoskins held the fans in high regard, and it was mutual, everybody felt they `knew` John. He had been a Manager at West Ham, and I had met the great man on a few occasions. When the idea of a Second Division in the sport was discussed for the 1968 season, Johns name was linked with a brand new club at Canterbury in Kent. This was one of three local clubs to join this new venture, the others were Crayford in Kent, and Rayleigh in Essex, although there had been racing on and off at Rayleigh over the years. At the Coatbridge match, John was spotted walking around the Pits area by some Hammers fans, and a good old cockney voice rung out, Oi, Oskins, what this about you `Aving a new team? John stopped to explain in his usual way, remember he had been a showman for many years and was used to addressing a crowd, that he had plans for this team and they were all fantastic! It was suggested to him that as West Ham now had a good selection of junior riders it might be a good idea to build his team up from them and some of the Hackney juniors. This had a two tier effect, firstly it meant well trained youngsters who were used to racing with each other, and secondly, would mean that fans of both West Ham and Hackney would go and watch the racing at Canterbury, especially as most home matches would be on a Saturday. As it turned out most of the Hackney juniors went to Rayleigh, so any matches between these two teams were nearly a 2nd Division clash of Hammers vs Hawks. As a showman in Australia, he had invented a new attraction for the county shows in 1923, motor bike racing. The first ever-recorded meeting was at West Maitland at the ‘1923 Electric Light Carnival’. A rough oval track would be marked out on the grass and the locals would be invited to race their bikes around the track, this racing would quickly destroy the grass creating a `Dirt Track`, giving a name to this new `Sport`, DIRT TRACK RACING. To make their bikes quicker, the locals would remove everything possible such as lights etc to make the bikes lighter and therefore faster. A prize would be given for the winner of these races. Some of the lads soon realised that they were pretty good at it and could make money from it, so begun to follow these shows around the country. They would have bikes made purposely for the racing to save them from having to keep stripping them down, plus would tune the engines up to gain extra speed, this in turn meant better racing which encourage more to watch, the Professional Speedway Rider was born. It was an Englishman who brought the sport officially to this Country. The Ilford Motor cycle club chairman, Jack Hill-Bailey, had seen the racing out in Australia and felt it could work in England. He had tried various places to lay a track; these included the new stadium being built at Custom House in East London and Parsloes Park in Dagenham using the trotting track there. In the end, a track was placed behind the Kings Head Pub in Epping Forest at High Beech in Essex. February 1928 saw ‘Dirt Track Racing’ for the first time in England. Other parts of the country claim to have held the first racing with Manchester having a very good claim for a meeting in 1927; but the problem is none of these previous events were recognised by the Auto-Cycle Union of Great Britain (The ACU) as formal Dirt Track racing. There were Australian Riders at the first meeting, and slowly as the news of the sports success filtered back to Australia more arrived John H in fact did not arrive in the country until 1930; 2 years after the sport had first been launched, but what an arrival, and nearly 40 years later he was still making plans and running teams, what a man!                                                The Canterbury team looked like a `mini` West Ham through 1968, with the following all appearing at one time or another for the Crusaders. Barry Crowson Tyburn Gallows John Hibben (who’s `day job`, was a motorcycle patrol office for the Metropolitan Police. He was born in Plaistow). Graham Miles Martyn Piddock. Neville Slee Frankie Wenden Even the race jacket had a West Ham ring to it, instead of crossed Hammers on Red and Blue, it was crossed Swords on Blue. They opened on the 18th of May, they were managed by Johns other son Lionel. In their first year managed to win the 2nd Division K/O Cup.           Back to the Hammers again, and away at Kings Lynn we won 38-40. At home our next challenge was Coventry, and we wanted revenge for the `Bees` knocking us out of the K/O Cup final. We won 46-32 and another 2 British League points. Match No.6 on the 7th May and we just scrapped home 39-38 against Cradley Heath, caused a by a 2-3 result when Tony Clarks engine failed and Chris Julian fell off, Brain Leonard came home second behind Ken Wakefield. Three 1-5 gave us a bit of a fright. West Ham show business contacts showed when our special guest for the match was the Australian Singer, Frank Ifield.                                                 The next match, our guest was Mr Piano, Joe Henderson (no, he was not riding for us!), but the Poole `Pirates` were out of tune and lost 45-33. George Barclay who was now a full team member scored his first race victory in this match, but he had two others `biting at his heels` for a team place, Barry Crowson and Tyburn Gallows who were both gaining experience with Canterbury. We tried out four new `juniors` in the 2nd half of the match, Chris Yeatman, Bob Newman, Mike Holmes and Freddy Sweet.                                                                   Match 8 was on Saturday the 18th May, the reason for that was the Long Eaton `Archers` had become the Leicester `Lions`, and they rode on a Tuesday night. Both Ken Mckinlay and Norman Hunter rode for Leicester when they used to be the `Hunters` in the early 1960’s. We disposed of the Lions 50-28 with a 12-point maximum for Sverre and 11 for Norman.  Our next match was an even higher score, 53 –25 against Wolverhampton, another midland team like Leicester. Both Sverre and Norman got maximums and Ken got 11. It was a very wet evening with some heats nearly 8 seconds outside the track record, the old programme I have is in a poor condition due to getting wet.                                     A break in league racing saw the World Championship Qualifying Round. Norman Hunter won it with a 15pt maximum, 2nd with 13 was West Ham track record holder Nigel Boocock and 3rd with 11 was the young New Zealand ace, Ivan Mauger who was to go on to win the World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden that year.                             Our next meeting and Ivan, yet to be a six times World Champion, was back along with the yet to be three times World Champion, Denmark’s Ole Olsen and the Newcastle Diamonds. Ivan’s 15pt maximum was still not enough to answer the Hammers 44-34. In a bad crash, Goog Allen hit the pits gate on the third bend and brought down a large section of the safety fence trapping George Barclay by the neck. George had laid down his bike to avoid Goog. George was lucky, if it had not been for the actions of Norman Hunter and Tony Clarke who by an act of pure strength had managed to lift the safety fence up, he could have been very seriously injured.       We are now lying second in the league behind, dare I say it, Hackney! Catching up with our away matches, we went back to Glasgow White City beating them again 41-31, with Norman getting 12 and Ken and Sverre 11 each, but sadly we went down 44-64 at Belle Vue, which ended our K/O cup campaign despite 13 for Sverre and 12 from Norman. Back home and for a change we beat Hackney at home. Sverre got a 12-point maximum, but the Hawks gave us a bit of a fright with 1-5 against Ken & Norman in heat 12, by Bengt “Banger` Jansson and Hackney Captain Colin Pratt. We only just won 41-37. The match highlights were on ITV World of Sport at the weekend with Dave Lanning acting as commentator, and was seemingly a major success. Our next meeting against Wimbledon saw a Maximum for Ken and 11 each for Norman and Sverre. Norman was now riding as our number one; Sverre was 2nd heat leader and Ken although still captain was riding as our no.3. The Dons were plagued with Engine failures and falls, plus their new No.7, the young Australian Garry Middleton managed to get him self excluded in heat 8 for some very dodgy riding, but despite all of this they only went down by eight points, 43-35. Garry was making a name for himself and it was not the right type, he was nicknamed ‘Cassius’ after the World Boxing Champion Cassius Clay, because of the scraps he would get into. Later he was to become a star at Hackney, the funny thing about him, he was a nice guy off the track.                                                       Our two young `Stars` Dave Jessup and Barry Thomas were getting better and now 16 officially old enough to ride in a speedway match.                       We are still second behind Hackney, with the poor old Dons who were having a bad season, lying last but one at the bottom of the League.                      The following Saturday was a World League Match, Great Britain vs Russia, and again Norman was top scorer with a 12-point maximum. He also brought the track record down to 70.8. The score was 52-26 to GB and they went on to win the World League. World League lasted just one season and was not a success. In the second half, Martin Ashby won the World League (West Ham) plaque.                             Back to British League racing, we beat Kings Lynn 48-30; Sverre scored 12, Norman11& Ken 10. Because of George Barclay’s injury, Barry Crowson had taken his place in the team. This meant he was riding for both West Ham in Division I and Canterbury in Division II, but we had first call on him, much to Johnny Hoskins displeasure! Despite our winning ways, we still cannot knock those Hawks of their top perch. Away to Oxford we lose 32-46. Another new member joins the team. Martyn Piddock who was a junior is promoted to a team place because of injuries to George Barclay & Tyburn Gallows.        Tyburn had nearly killed himself riding for Canterbury at Middlesborough, when after he catapulted off his bike during a race; he flew over the greyhound track and landed in the crowds!                                   Match 17 on the 9th July in heat one, Norman Hunter collided with Halifax rider Denis Garvos and ended up being carted of to Hospital. Despite this we beat Halifax 43-35, and in heat two, Severe equals Norman’s track record, now just 0.2 seconds outside Jack Young’s Record Time. Ken scored 11, Sverre 10, and Tony scored nine plus a fall. Match 18 was affected by rain, but this time it was although it was abandoned after heat 7 the result stood, West Ham 24 – Sheffield 18. We are now in joint first place in the league, what do we have to do to shift those Hawks? Next match, Newport and with a Maximum for Ken & Sverre, plus a 10 from Norman we beat the `Wasps` 50-28. Now we ARE top of the league. Can it last? No, away to Coventry and we lose 42-36, and go back in second place, behind the Hawks again! 30th July, and it is the 40th Anniversary meeting, the first meeting having been on the 28th July 1928. Dirt Track Speedways Ltd ran the meeting with the match being officially open by the Mayor of West Ham Alderman Jack Jones MP. The first meeting was for the West Ham Invitation Handicap, which was won by Australian Paddy Dean, with America’s Sprouts Elder coming second, so the international flavour was at West Ham from day one. The West Ham track was described as bumpy. For us, there was no better team to have for the 40th Anniversary than Wimbledon; sadly they spelt the fun by drawing with us 39-39, although proving the close and exciting racing there had been at West Ham over the years. A maximum for Ken, but the improving Tony Clarke had two engine failures. The second half was split between a Junior and Senior Anniversary Trophy. Don Smith Motorcycles sponsored the junior event. Although Don no longer rode for West Ham, he did a lot behind the scenes and allowed the team to use his workshop; he was also a regular in the West Ham Pits. The junior trophy not only had Hammers, it had riders from Canterbury `Crusaders`, Crayford `Highwaymen` and Rayleigh `Rockets`. The winner was Tony Clarke. Sverre Harrfeldt won the senior event.                                                                  August was a very busy month both Home and Away. 3rd August away to Belle Vue, lose 34-44. 5th August away to Newcastle, lose 29-49, Norman blows two motors, one in heat 1 and one in heat 7, and takes no further part in the meeting. 6th August, the Nordic-British Final, (also known as the European Semi-final) of the World Championship, the winner was to be 1968 World Champion, Ivan Mauger, with a 15-pt maximum. This meeting shows how the speedway world was expanding; it used to be British Final, then straight into the World Final, now there is this and the European Final to go through. Nigel Boocock was second, and Norway’s Reidar Eide was third, both with 13 points. A very off form Barry Briggs only just qualified as 1st reserve, with Norman as 2nd reserve. 8th August, we are away to Sheffield, losing 37-41, although Ken scores a maximum. 9th August away to Leicester lose 37-41. 12th August and some of the Hammers are in action in Holland, for the Dutch ‘Best Pairs’ Golden Helmet. Sverre is riding for Norway, paired with Odd Fossengen, Norman for England paired with Roy Trigg, and Stan Stevens is a non-riding reserve. Out of the eight teams, Norway were forth and England seventh. At Home on the 13th against Hackney, we win 59-49 in the London Cup. 16 for Sverre, 16 Norman, 11 for Stan, the trip to Holland must have done them good! 14th August Poole, we lose 37-41, again very close score but no league points and we start to slip down the league slightly. 15th August at Wimbledon, we only just lose 52-56 in a London Cup match after leading nearly the entire match. 19th August at Exeter, were we got beat 29-49; I think the lads need a rest. 20th August at home, Wimbledon, our second London Cup Match. We beat them 60-48, 16 for Ken, 14 for Norman and 12 for Sverre plus an engine failure. 23rd August away at Hackney where we lose 31-47, but as it was only a challenge match, it did not affect our league results. We are now lying 2nd in the League, but then suddenly it all goes terribly wrong! 25th August, Sverre is in the European Final in Wroclaw, Poland. In heat 12 Sverre crashes and is seriously injured, there was even a report he had been killed. He had been advised by the Norwegian Government not to ride as a part of a political protest against Russia because there were Russian riders in the final. Sport and Politics should never be allowed to meet, and Sverre rode in the match. Tuesday 27th a match against Glasgow, the full facts of Sverre was announced. He was still alive, but in a very serious condition in the spinal unit of the University Hospital, Wroclaw, Poland. But there was worse to come for the Hammers. In a freak accident in heat five, Ken and Stan collided and are both taken to hospital, the report was that Ken was also seriously injured with a fractured skull. Add to all of this a very off form Norman, saw us lose 36-42. For the Tigers, Jimmy McMillan scored a maximum 12. For the Hammers, Tony got 9, Brian got 8 plus a fall and George got 8 from 5 rides. Our last August match was on the 30th were we got a draw against Newport, 39-39 at Newport, with a much-depleted team. Once a Hammer, always a Hammer, with all of this, one of the first people to offer help was Len Silver who had begun his riding career at West Ham and had been nicknamed `Quick Silver`, offered one of his juniors to act as reserve to shore up the team. He also offered us no less that his own Captain, Colin Pratt, to act as a guest rider for the team when available. (Remember we were challenging his team for the League Title) Our next match was against Sheffield, we had our old friend Terry Betts as Guest, both he and Norman scored 12 points, backed by an 8 from Tony saw a 48-29 victory, but despite this we slip to 3rd place in the league. Match 26 against Swindon, we lose 37-40, Norman gets a 15-point maximum, and true to his word, Len loans us Colin Pratt who scored 11. Our No’s 5-6 & 7 are now George Barclay, Barry Crowson & Martyn Piddock, they try hard, but with engine failures and falls, between them they only score 1 point.                                                  Our League hopes had gone, but you could expect no less, losing 2 out of your 3 heat leaders to injuries in less that a week.                                                 Sat 21st September, off to Wembley for the World Cup final. Great Britain is the favourite nation to win it, which they do, adding the World Cup to the World League title for 1968. Norman is 1st reserve, but although only getting one ride, he wins his heat. Great Britain for Speedway purpose included Australia and New Zealand, so technically should ride as British Commonwealth. Ivan Mauger back’s up his solo World title with a 12 pt maximum, and the final score was GB 40, Sweden 30, Poland 19 and Czechoslovakia 7.                                                    The last home league match on the 24th September saw Captain Ken’s return, riding against Doctors advice; he scored 11 points as we beat Oxford 41-37. Norman scores another maximum 12.                 Our final Home match was a Challenge, Hammers vs Former Hammers, and what a line up. The Hammers were, in riding order, Norman Hunter, Stan Stevens, Brian Leonard, George Barclay, Ken McKinlay, Tony Clark and Barry Crowson, with Phil Bishop as team manager. The Former Hammers (year of riding) were, Bengt Jannson (64), Reg Trott (65), Reg Luckhurst (64), Peter Murray (a junior who was now with Canterbury), Jack Biggs (50’s) & Bob Dugard (64). Alf Hagon from the 1964 team should have rode but had to pullout at the last moment, so Martyn Piddock became a former Hammer for the night. Their team manager was Don Smith (66). The score was 55-23 to the Hammers, but the Former Hammers were plagued with falls and engine failures all night. Our last British League match was away at Cradley Heath, were again we only just lost, 38-40. The final match was away at the Hackney, another draw in the East End Trophy, 39-39.                                   This was not the last match of the year. The Speedway season started in February with a meeting to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the sport, and the last match of the season on the 26th October was also a celebration of 40 years. So for one night only, Hackney reverted to their old name of Hackney Wick, where the `Wolves` raced against the Lea Bridge `Saints`, whose skipper was Ken McKinlay. Hackney 40 years.jpgRacing the original 9 heat formula, the Saints won 39-14. The second half saw some old timers in action in a solo event, called the ‘Veterans Invitation Challenge Cup’. The programme notes summed it up, “Heats will be run as two laps to preserve both Men & Machine, but the final will be four laps and prayers will be said in the pits before hand! Bill Watson of the New Cross `Rangers` won the final.                                                                Must mention Hackney, because for them it was also `so near`. They ended up in joint First position in the league with Coventry, but lost out on point’s differences. Despite all our problems, it was an `O so near` season, and apart from being knocked out in the K/O cup at an early stage, we nearly won the league, and we nearly retained the London Cup for a fourth year in a row. We lost through back luck, not bad riding. We were plague with engine problems and injuries most of the season, and to lose two of your heat leaders at the most important time of the season, no club could survive. All we needed was a bit of luck, just that extra heat win would have seen as winning about 10 of our away matches, perhaps 1969 would be the year.

What we did not realise as winter closed in was this was our last year of glory, and our luck would turn even worse for the next three season.