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Former Rider Reappears in Australia
25th January 2008
FORMER Middlesbrough rider Dave Cheshire made a successful comeback recently by finishing runner-up in an individual meeting back home in Australia.'Chesh', now 41 rode for Middlesbrough between 1990 & 1992 competed in the Ron Johnson Memorial staged at Pinjar Park, Perth, Western Australia.
He turned back the clock against former Sheffield rider Greg Bartlett in Heat 15 that lasted the entire four laps and according to the Speedway Star was, 'a classic piece of two wheel dirt track action'. At the end of the night 'Chesh' had accrued 12pts with Jason Doyle unbeaten on 15pts and Trevor Harding on 14pts. 'Chesh' finished second in his semi final to qualify for the final. Unfortunately Harding, who rode for King's Lynn in the Premier League last season, clashed with Doyle in the final itself on the first bend and broke two vertebrae. Doyle made sure he remained unbeaten in the rerun ahead of 'Chesh' and Leigh Boujos. Also appearing in the meeting was Corey Blackman who rode for Workington in 2006.
McPhie Celebrates His Birthday
1st December 2007
FORMER Teesside second halfer Malcolm McPhie celebrated his 60th birthday earlier today by staging an enduro kart racing at South Tees Motorsports Park in South Bank, Middlesbrough. The racing was marred by an incident involving Derek Garbutt and an argument he had with a piece of curbing.
Among the competitors were several people with speedway connections including Barry Simpson, Tim Nichol, Stuart Collin, Jamie Swales, Jason Pipe and Steve Harland. Barry and Tim rode in the same Scottish Junior League side at Teesside in 1977 whilst Stuart had several second half rides at Teesside, Belle Vue and Workington, as well as helping run training schools at Stoke. Perhaps he is better known for providing lodgings for both Roger Wright and Tom Black in the early 1970s when both New Zealanders came over to ride, on his farm near Picton. Spectators included Jonathan Swales and Ashley Johnson.
A good time was had by all. Jason, who has been on a Slimfast diet for three weeks yet looked exactly the same as he did before he started it, managed to square things up with Steve as the big fellas kart wheel fell off after six laps when out in front, having worked themselves from 10th of 12 teams off the grid. Though it should be pointed out that it was Derek who achieved this position. Steve's team consisting of Derek Garbutt, who had travelled up from Lowestoft and Jill Hunter from Thirsk, had the consolation of recording the fastest time of 53.1. Harland was much faster than on his previous appearance though he was not happy at all about the shunt, I said shunt, he received from.Barry Simpson halfway through the final stages which saw him heading home to Marske before the race had finished
Congratulations to the Redcar Bears
3rd November 2007
CONGRATULATIONS to Brian Havelock and the Redcar Bears for winning back to back trophies - the Jack Young Shield at Birmingham and then the Tyne Tees Trophy against Newcastle at South Tees Motorsport Park. A fantastic achievement when you think of all the injuries the team has suffered this year.
The Bears overcame Glasgow, Workington and finally Birmingham to clinch the Young Shield in grand style at Perry Barr on Sunday evening. The icing on the cake though was defeating the arch enemy from up the road to win the Tyne Tees Trophy for the second consecutive season.
So well done to Gary Havelock & James Grieves and all the lads who have ridden for us this season. It is just reward in Chris Van Straaten's decision to bring speedway back to Teesside in April 2006. It was encouraging to see Cleveland Bays rider Martin Emerson make his senior debut against Newcastle - and score a point in his first outing. Well done Martin!
Nagy Comes Out of Retirement
3rd November 2007
FORMER Middlesbrough rider Robert Nagy came out of retirement to ride in two meetings recently. The first took place in Germany at Diedenbergen last month when Robert Nagy's Hungarian All Stars were well beaten by 57-33pts. Nagy who used to ride for the German club scored 8pts whilst Norbert Magosi, who had a trial at Workington three years ago, top scored with 9pts.
Nagy then took part in the Hungarian Championship at Gyula on November 3rd and finished in second place with 10pts. Nagy joined Middlesbrough in 1995 at a less than successful period for the club.
McPhie Stages Karting Event to Celebrate his 60th
3rd November 2007
FORMER Middlesbrough second halfer Malcolm McPhie is staging a go-kart event at South Tees Motorsport Park in December to celebrate his 60th birthday. Mal rode second halves at Cleveland Park in 1969/1971 but found the tight turns a bit tricky. He did however win the Stars of Tomorrow event at Berwick's Shielfield Park in 1971.
Details of the event can be found below.
Hutton Rudby 13th Karting Grand Prix.
Date Saturday 1st December 2007
As I’m 60 on this particular weekend, what better way to celebrate that have a
“Super Enduro Team Event!!!”
£39 per driver (that’s discounted from the normal £45)
Time 1.00 p.m. sign on.
Race Format:-
Drivers grouped in teams of 3.
In total, each team will have 30 minutes practice followed by 90 minutes racing.
The intention is that each driver gets 40 minute track time (10 minutes practice before the event plus 30 minutes racing during the event).
Following practice and the race start, the racing continues for 90 minutes with drivers rotating throughout the event.
The winning team being the one that covers most laps.
Teams can rotate drivers as often as they wish.
Now for the interesting bit!!
To even things up a bit I will select a third of the drivers who have previously driven the fastest so that there is only one of them in each team.
Then I’ll ask each of them to draw the other 2 drivers out of a hat to make up their team of 3 drivers.
Nobody will be allowed to pick their own drivers (and that includes me!)
Having done this twice before I know it creates a good atmosphere in the pits, so lets give it a go.
To provide some additional interest, I’m putting up a trophy for the driver achieving fastest lap of the day. The trophy will be engraved “Fastest Lap” and retained by the winning driver until the next event.
This trophy will be competed for at each event in the future.
Anybody who wants to join me for a pint, I’m planning to go to the Wheatsheaf, Hutton Rudby after the event.
Prewar Middlesbrough pioneer dirt track riders dies
26th June 2007
ONE of Middlesbrough's pre-war pioneer dirt track riders has died. Jack Ormston was well known post-war as a successful racehorse trainer but before the war Jack was just as extremely talented on a speedway bike He rode in the very first dirt track meetings at Cleveland Park in 1928 alongside such riders as Charlie Barrett, Phil Blake and the Creasor Brothers: Fred & Walter & Harry Whitfield.For more details read the excellent tribute in today's Daily Telegraph copied below:
REPRODUCED FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Jack Ormston, who has died aged 97, was one of the pioneers of speedway - the sport that took Britain by storm in the decade before the Second World War - and later became a racehorse trainer.
Although there had been speedway on dirt tracks in Australia and parts of North America from the early 1920s, it was not until 1928 that the first meetings took place in Britain. In that year the meetings were spasmodic and individually promoted, but in 1929 proper leagues and championships were established.
The big, successful clubs were mainly in London, with Stamford Bridge, Wembley, Wimbledon, Harringay and New Cross the leading protagonists, although all of them struggled to overcome Belle Vue, Manchester, which frequently topped the national league. Huge crowds flocked to cheer on their teams and the leading riders. Of the top dozen riders, around half were from Australia and the United States; most of the English competitors, Ormston among them, were from the North.
Crowds of 50,000 or more turned out for the big ties and the championships. The riders had a glamorous aura, and were by some margin the best paid sportsmen in the country. (In the 1930s the leading footballers were paid around £6 a week, earning a £2 bonus for a win.)
The entrepreneurs setting up the speedway clubs knew they could prosper only by winning and that meant getting the best riders. The riders knew their value, and their demands were met. Top performers like Ormston rode five or six nights a week during the six-month season, and would get £100 appearance money at provincial meetings plus any prize money won in the match races. He would expect to earn as much as £15,000 in a season at a time when the average annual wage was £200. Ormston's preferred residence in London was the Park Lane Hotel.
John Glaholme Ormston (always known as Jack) was born on October 30 1909 at West Cornforth, Co Durham, the only son of a prosperous farming family who also had a butchery business. He was a boarder at the North Eastern County School (later re-named Barnard Castle). From the age of 14 he was borrowing a friend's motorcycle and driving the family's Buick, posing a constant challenge to the school authorities and the local police.
After leaving school in 1926 Jack bought his first motorcycle with the help of his mother and launched himself into grass track racing in the Middlesbrough area. Soon he was making a name for himself and being sponsored by Shell on the new Middlesbrough dirt track, which opened in 1928. It was not long before he was signed by Wembley, one of the new professional speedway clubs in London.
In 1930 Ormston won the inaugural London Riders' Championship, beating the leading Australian rider Vic Huxley along the way. That same year Ormston represented England in the first ever Test series against Australia. In 1931 and 1932 he captained the Wembley team which won the National League and most of the knockout championships.
In the winter of 1932-33 he led a British team to Australia, winning the individual unofficial world series in Sydney. As he paraded the trophy around the track he was roundly booed, a reflection not only of the traditional Aussie reaction to being beaten by a Pom, but also of the anti-English feeling whipped up that winter by the "bodyline" cricket series. With the Australian rider Frank Arthur, Ormston then formed a company, with the support of the manager and promoter Johnnie Hoskins, to take a group of riders to New York with a view to operating speedway at Madison Square Garden.
Despite the harassments of Tammany Hall and the Mafia (everyone wanted a share of the action) they succeeded in getting an option for "the Garden" and prospects looked good. Then Ormston received a telegram telling him that his father was seriously ill; he immediately left for England, arriving home in time to see his father, who died that same evening. Without Ormston's leadership and money, the New York venture collapsed.
Ormston missed the 1933 English season, as he was involved in revitalising the family's butchery business. He converted two vans into mobile butcher's shops which covered all the local villages; and he slaughtered all the cattle and sheep himself, whilst his mother made 1,500 pies a week, plus black pudding and sausages. That achieved, he returned to speedway for the 1934 season.
For a year Ormston rode for Tom Bradbury Pitt (owner of the Harringay and Hall Green tracks), having been signed for a £2,000 fee. He then spent four years at Harringay with Jack Parker, England's captain for many years.
Ormston got through to the World Finals four times - in 1935 he was beaten by only one point. He represented England in six Test series against Australia, and in another against the Dominions. He also toured Australia with the official British team in 1936-37 and 1937-38. He retired in September 1938.
Throughout his speedway career Ormston had pursued his hobbies of flying and hunting. He owned a succession of planes, and twice competed in the King's Cup air race, completing the course both times; he also came second in the Grosvenor Cup. When he was not touring Australia in the winter, Ormston hunted several days a week with the racehorse trainer Willie Stephenson.
After retiring from speedway, Ormston took on Lane Head Farm near Richmond, Yorkshire, and in 1940 married Jean Manners, who hailed from a well-known Durham farming family. He then established himself as a racehorse trainer.
He was a fine judge of a yearling. Among the fillies he bought were Hardiemma, who went on to be the dam of Shirley Heights, winner of both the English and Irish Derbies; and Manfilia, who was a great success at the Irish National Stud. When buying yearling colts Ormston often went for the big, backward types which he would put away until they were three-year-olds; then, if they showed promise, he would sell them on as jumping prospects. Peter Cazalet was a good customer and ex-Ormston horses won a Scottish Grand National and came second in a Champion Hurdle.
His gambling exploits were infrequent, but brilliantly executed. Not being burdened with heavy gambling owners who would spoil the price, he could wait until the weight, the going and the price were all in his favour. He was particularly adept at exploiting postal betting whereby, provided the postmarks were before the time of the race, the bet was valid but the bookmaker was unaware of his liabilities until the next day, and thus unable to hedge and force down the starting price.
On one occasion he had four horses running on the same day, two each at Hamilton Park and Newcastle. The horses were well-prepared, were "expected" and the money was down. All four won.
Ormston trained only about 400 winners before retiring in 1976; but he will be remembered for his brilliant handling of Le Garcon d'Or, who holds the 20th (and 21st) century record for flat races won -34.
In 1983 Ormston and his wife passed the farm to their son, John, and went to live in Spain, where they remained for a decade before returning to live near Darlington.
Jack Ormston, who died on June 22, is survived by his wife and by their son and daughter. Another son died in a riding accident in Australia in 1968.
Former Rider Dies
24th March 2007
One of our former riders sadly lost his life on 6th March after a mercifully short battle with cancer.
Northampton-based Colin Pestell made 31 appearances for Teesside Tigers in 1974/5 season for a 2.89 average under the promotion of Ron Wilson. He began riding at Coventry training schools in 1970.
We send his family our condolences at this sad time.
S.H
Doug Underwood Interview
20th March 2007
BACK in 1975 Middlesbrough’s Cleveland Park was not a happy place to be. A number of established riders had decided to quit the club just a few weeks into the season commencing. Captain, Bruce Forrester, was the first to ‘jump ship’ citing business interests and the travelling from his Leicester base as the main reasons. Bruce ran a motorbike shop in his home town and had missed an away meeting, much to promoter Ron Wilson’s displeasure. Bruce left and joined Sunday track, Boston. Next to leave was New Zealander Roger Wright, who was living locally on a farm at Picton near Yarm. Wright caused uproar by stating that there was ‘no team spirit’ and transferred to Workington.
Replacements were quickly needed and the first to sign was an old favourite. Lichfield-born ‘Tiger’ Tom Leadbitter had spent three seasons (1968-1970) with Teesside before moving up into the British League with Leicester and then eventually on to Midland rivals Wolverhampton. He was an accomplished all-round motorcyclist who often competed in televised motocross events on BBC that would feature the likes of Dave Bickers, Vic Allan, Vic Eastwood, Jeff Smith, Bryan Wade, etc. He was also an accomplished grass track performer with an excellent sponsorship deal from Strongbow Cider. Promoter, Ron Wilson, signed Tom on the basis that he could still compete in grass track meetings on Sundays. This meant that Teesside’s No.1 would often be missing from Sunday speedway meetings, a point picked upon by Eastbourne’s Dave Lanning who commented how disappointing it was to see a Teesside team turning up to Arlington without their recognised No.1. Wilson quickly countered any criticism by explaining that the club wouldn’t have had Tom’s services at all if his lucrative grass track commitments could not be met.
Also arriving on the scene was a bearded Aussie from Perth that nobody at Teesside really had noticed before. Not surprisingly in three previous second half rides Doug Underwood had failed to impress and searching for a team place had wound up at Scunthorpe’s Quibell Park, who were staging there first league season of speedway in 1972. Scunthorpe fans won’t have too many fond memories as they finished well adrift with just five victories and one draw in 32 matches. Captained by Brian Maxted, other riders to feature included Terry Kelly, Ray Watkins, Phil Bass, Rod Haynes, Ian Wilson & John Bowerman. The team morale wasn’t good but it was somewhere to ride and learn…..
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: So tell us a bit about your career before speedway. You were a 'scrambler' weren't you and pretty good at it too?
DOUG: I started riding my fathers 125cc Cz around the back yard when I was about 11. When I was 17 I bought a 350cc Panther rigid frame to ride to work and after going to a few Motorcycle racing events started to get interested in racing. Later I bought a 58 Triumph Thunderbird and rode that to events around the state, mainly R/R events but had met some people that rode scrambles and decided that was the go for me. In 1965 joined the Lightweight Motorcycle Club of WA and got hold of a 250 sprung heel Jawa (pictured) that was a heap. This resulted in a fast learning curve of how to completely strip a bike, rebuild it and make it reliable and on apprenticeship wages. Thing progressed from there and I got a BSA DB 350 Gold Star factory scrambler and made "A" grade by the start of the start of the 68 season. In 1968 I purchased a new 360cc Husqvarna and had a good season in scrambles. In 1969 I sold the 360 to my brother and bought a 400 Husky and finished second in the State Championship Unlimited class. 1968 also saw me get talked into having a go at road racing. This meant changing the front wheel on the 360 and fitting road tyres on it. The first event I went in was the Australian TT. It was a around the houses course in Albany WA, a little bit like the Isle of Man type course only about 4 miles a lap. I finished Fifth in the 500 and Fourth in the unlimited class. I can tell you now the WA road racing blokes were not very impressed with me but we partied on big time with the scramble blokes.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: What made you decide to move from motocross to speedway? According to the information we have you began riding speedway at Perth's Claremont Park during the winter of 1971/1972, how did that go?
DOUG: In OCT 66 I spent 3mths working up the bush and got word that a mate of mine had started riding in the stockbike section at Claremont Speedway and knew that he had never raced anything before, so I thought I should have a go myself. I started racing in Jan 67 and finished third that season. I had caught the bug. (stockbikes were rigid road bike frames with a motor up to 500cc and no brakes allowed).
The 69/70 season saw a rule change and some of us built solo frames and I fitted my 360 Husky motor in it and later the 400 and won the championship that year. That was the last time that stockbikes ran at Claremont for many years. 70/71 season I started racing the 400 Husky in a solo frame in the solo division for a couple of meetings but had a big crash in the last scramble meeting of the year and broke an arm and scaphoid and tore neck ligaments and only managed to ride a couple of meetings at the end of the70/71 season. ( I just kept changing the motor from scrambler to solo and back all the time) For the 71/72 season I bought a new Jawa and raced it until the end of Jan 72 then had to pack it up to send to the UK
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: And then you made the decision to travel to England to ride in 1972 so how did that all come about?
DOUG: When the Poms came out I used to give Chris Pusey a hand in the pits along with Nigel Boocock and Tony Lomas. One day I got to ride in a meeting against the Poms and they cruised around the line and I scraped around the fence and took a week to get the splinters out of my body. It was then that I thought that if I’m going to keep racing speedway that I had better learn how to turn. I went home and thought about it and then announced that I was going to England to learn to ride speedway and the Girlfriend Sue said "guess what we are getting married before you go and I’m coming with you". We got married in March and left the next day.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: Did you have a team to ride for in 1972 or did you just come over to ride in reserve races hoping to impress and get a team place?
DOUG: No I didn’t have a team to ride for. Nigel Boocock had said to me that if I ever go over to England to ride to give him a ring and he would get me a ride at Coventry as he ran a training session after the meeting at Coventry on Saturday. This is where I had my first ride on English soil and got as far as the third bend!
I bought an old 61 Consul and had to repair the brakes on it before I could drive it anywhere. We stayed at the Mother in laws place in Norfolk for a while and I got second half rides at Coventry, Scunthorpe, Hull and Long Eaton travelling around the country with the bike in the boot and sleeping on the seats of the car with Sue from track to track. Coventry on Saturday, Scunny on Monday (via Boston, Sun) Hull Wed, Long Eaton Thurs and back to Norfolk for a bit of maintenance then start all over again. I had 50 quid to travel around the country with for petrol from Easter 72 and it lasted until I got into the Scunthorpe team at the start of July by picking up a few places in second half rides. A lot of Aussies were all doing the same at that time. I managed to get my team place at the expense of Brian Osborn who had crashed that week and later became the Promoter of Scunthorpe.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: According to our records you rode once for Hull Vikings and 19 times for Scunthorpe Saints, do you remember anything about your debut season in England?
DOUG: I don’t remember riding for Hull but could have done by a rider braking down on the way to the meeting. I only remember riding in the second half races.
The first 2 meetings I had with Scunthorpe were away meetings and that was Sunderland and Berwick which made it a bit hard to make an impression as I didn’t even know where they were let alone race on them. That was to become the norm for all away tracks for that season and the start of a big learning curve.The last race of the season saw me crash and bruise both knees and bend the frame. Ah well something to do in the off season.
CLEVELANDPARKLIFE: Now Quibell Park was quite a big track so that must have been like riding on similar tracks back home. It seems you adapted quite well returning a 5.08 average from those 19 appearances. Can you recall how you felt at the time?
DOUG: Quibell was a big track (440 yds) but it was an athletic track with no camber on the bends and that meant at the blink of an eye and you were in the fence, something that I managed to achieve on many occasions.
I was a bit disappointed with my starting as at Claremont we mainly had handicap starts and I rarely had the chance to start with tapes. This meant that I had to come from the back all the time and often caused a blast from the War Office on the way home from a meeting.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: Scunthorpe finished well adrift at the bottom of the league that season with Brian Maxted top of the averages on 6.36, but it must have been a steep learning curve particularly on the smaller tracks?
DOUG: I did like riding the smaller tracks but didn’t do to well on them because I couldn’t start from the tapes and that is very critical on a small track. The morale of the riders was pretty low in 72 and I think Brian Maxted just wanted to retire from speedway and Ivor Brown the promoter, with all his experience as a rider, didn’t do anything to coach the team or point out mistakes they were making or to encourage anyone. He just wanted to sell the track licence to anyone who came along with the money.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: There were a few fellow Aussies at Scunny that season wasn't there?
DOUG: The Aussies that were at Scunny were John Bowerman, Phil Bass and myself. All the Bass clan would be in the pits and would give you a hand if you needed it. Phil and I rode as team partners for quite a while and I’ve still got the marks on the backside to prove it. Phil was a trapper and was in front of me most of the time but used to fall just as much as me, so I would lay the bike down for him and finish with the same amount of gravel rash. (note) Germaline makes your leathers stick to your bum. John Bowerman won free board and lodgings by compliments of Her Majesty after he found out that a 50p made of lead fitted petrol bowsers in Scunthorpe.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: So in 1975 did Ron Wilson sign you for Leicester Lions with the intention of loaning you out to Teesside or was it something you were unaware of? As soon as you were asked about joining Teesside what went through your mind, bearing in mind Cleveland Park was much tighter and trickier than Quibell Park? Did you come to Teesside as a direct replacement for Bruce Forrester who had quit so that he could concentrate on his business in Leicester, later to join weekend track Boston?
DOUG: At the end of 1974 season I asked Scunthorpe for a bit more money and then I came back to Aus for the summer and returned in March75. I rang Brian (Osborn) to ask if he wanted me to ride for Scunthorpe and how much he was prepared to pay. The answer was Second Division rates. I also rang Ron Wilson to ask him if he wanted me to look after the Leicester Track as I had done since late 72. He told me to come up to his place as he wanted to talk to me. When I got there he said that I could do the track and also said would I be interested in riding for Teesside. This was a shock to me as I had only asked for more money from Scunthorpe and now I’m asked if I want to transfer to another team by another promoter. I rang Brian back and asked his decision and it remained the same. Ron had already offered me more money, so I said I would talk it over with Sue. After all I had been to Teesside 3 times before and not scored a point even in the second half.I bet a lot of supporters thought the same! I went back to Ron and told him that I would sign for Leicester and go on loan to Teesside that way if things didn’t go well at Teesside at least I had a chance to go somewhere else. He agreed and I rode at Teesside. I don’t know if I was to replace anyone as all the above happened within 4 days of getting back into the UK. It was then time to put the head down and learn to race this place if I was to earn a quid
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CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: First impressions riding at Cleveland Park on your debut, any particular memories? A sticky start but once you got going you, Tom Leadbitter and a young Alan Emerson saved our season, especially away from home?
DOUG:My first impressions of riding Teesside was, Hell what have I let myself in for, the track is so tight you couldn’t swing a cat , it’s black and bloody cold and snow going down the neck of me leathers on the start line. The team was all doom and gloom and riders changing teams faster than a $20.00 note at a two up school. After a few meetings I started to get some points on the board, much to the delight of the supporters and myself, but it want until Cradley came up for a KO cup round that I got going. John Boulger was the Captain of Cradley and after the meeting with Ron's permission he let me have a ride on his bike that had a new magneto system on it that Mauger and Olsen were using. By the next meeting I had that system on my bike and you could really feel the difference. Later I bought a second engine off John. Tom (Leadbitter) and Alan (Emerson) were doing ok and Pete Reading was having his moments, so it was good to be up there to support them.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: So were you and Tom vying for top position in the averages? You told us a very amusing story about Tom when you were riding up at Paisley could you tell us again?
DOUG: Yes, It’s the ambition of all riders to be the top in the team and I was a bit annoyed that Tom only rode at weekday meetings because he spent weekends racing Grass on the Continent and I rode another 8 league meetings, all away from home. I don’t know how that would equate if I dropped those meetings but it might have made a difference. Water under the bridge now and a good bloke has gone.
We were up at Paisley and the place was well known for green light starts. Before the start of the meeting the Ref was down in the pits and wearing glasses thicker than the base of a champagne bottle when he fell over one of the bikes and it caused a domino effect and all the bikes fell over. We all knew we were going to have a great meeting. Tom got excluded from one of the races for tape breaking and was straight on the phone and quite loudly telling the Ref that he shouldn’t be excluded if he can’t turn the green light on fast enough. Tom had a grin from ear to ear and anyone near the phone was lying on the ground laughing, but Tom kept arguing until the Ref hung up. Later in the meeting Tom and I were riding a 5-1 in what had to be the slowest time of the night by at least 5 secs any slower and the local copper would have booked us for loitering and you could hear Tom laughing over the noise of the bikes and the supporters. The Paisley track was around a football square and very hard to pass on.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: You only rode the one season at Cleveland Park was there any particular reason why?
DOUG: Yes, I only rode one season at Teesside and can now say that maybe I was a bit to ambitious to get into Div 1. In retrospect I should have done at least another season at Teesside and Ron Wilson suggested that I stay, but that was my decision and I wear it
.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: Of all the clubs you rode for, you told us previously that riding for Teesside were among some of your favourite speedway memories because of the fans, any particular stories to tell there?
DOUG: Riding for Teesside was good to me because of the good team spirit that had developed between Tom, Alan, Pete and myself as the back bone of the team. The others seemed to be changing on a regular basis, mostly through injury, but others who were there like Colin Pestell, Harry Maclean and David Levings all contributed too. Even on a bad night Harry looked like he had just won lotto, and our world famous Team Manager Tony Coupland always had a joke to tell in the change rooms. Also the improvement in my riding made it a memorable time for me, and the birth of my daughter Wendy in September. The supporters were always there to state their case, but they paid to get in and were entitled to have there say. Personally I had very little to do with the supporters because of the distance that I lived from Teesside meant getting home between 1 and 2 in the morning if I left straight after the meeting. Sue used to sit in the stand and I don’t remember her getting any flak from them. They kept it all for Ron Wilson!
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: 1977 you were in the Leicester team weren't you? After a couple of years at Blackbird Road didn't you request a move to Reading for the 1979 season? And you doubled up with Weymouth in the National League?
DOUG: Yes, I rode for Leicester in 76 through to Aug 77 and then agreed to do a swap with Boleslaw Proch from Reading. I rode the rest of the 77 season with Reading and there was really good team spirit there too. 1978 saw me again sign for Reading and the birth of my second daughter Kelly in August but there was some infighting in the Reading management and that reflected in the results of the team, and there was a different team manager (Mick Blackburn). I didn’t have a very good season and the tyre situation was getting out of control. A lot of the top blokes started using a new edge every race and I could not afford it. In 1979 I asked to step down to Second Division as I could not afford to race First Division. Reading said I could ride at Weymouth. I objected to that as it was a 400 mile round trip to there every Tuesday and I had an offer from Oxford but Reading wouldn’t let it happen. Eventually I did a deal with Reading to compensate the travelling to Weymouth each week.
CLEVELAND PARKLIFE: So did you make a conscious decision to retire and head off back home to Australia?
DOUG: I had decided to retire and return to Australia at the end of 79. I was then 33 and Wendy would start school in 1980. I was starting to get tired of all the goings on in the speedway scene and Sue and I had decided to let the kids have an uninterrupted education in one country. That decision turned out to be a good thing as Wendy now works as a journalist in Vancouver BC and Kelly is a librarian in Perth WA. Unfortunately Sue and I split up in 1991. She is working as a travel agent in Perth and I work as a fitter around the gold mines in Kalgoorlie. I would have to thank Sue for the effort that she put in to keeping the scrap books of my speedway racing as a lot of the above was retrieved from them.
Special thanks to Doug’s daughter, Kelly, for retrieving what we thought was an interview that had been deleted. I would like to thank Doug himself for taking the time to talk. First published on the Cleveland Parklife website in February 2003.
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