Requiem for a Speedway Team.

[Robert Rogers]

This week, forty years ago in 1972, finally saw the end of Speedway at West Ham, and it was a sad end.

Although the First Division Hammers were no more and their racing Licence had been sold off to Ipswich, speedway had one last fling.

2nd Division Romford had long running problems with complaints from the local residents, about the noise of racing, (which was not helped by the fact that their Brooklands Stadium was in the middle of a Housing estate), also had came to an end.

A final court action had forced them out of the stadium, and they were looking for a new home.

The stadium at Custom House had a stay of execution, so Romford moved in, becoming the 2nd Division`West Ham Bombers`, after their Romford team name.

The stadium was not looking its best, because of the planned closed down, very little work had been done on it during the winter and it was showing its 40 plus years of age.

The track also was in poor condition; Stock car racing was doing a lot of damaged to the one time superior raceway.
West Ham track was renowned for being good, and no less a man the New Zealand’s four times World Speedway Champion (so he must know what he is talking about), Barry Briggs had said that it was Britain’s outstanding racing track, fast and wide with plenty of room to overtake.

The team carried on till May, then after 44 years, it was all over, the rumoured closer finally happened.

The last match was on the 23rd of May against Hull.

It saw a lot of the old Supporters come to show their respects, but the match was more of a wake as Speedway was finally laid to rest.

It was not helped by the fact in the first heat both West Ham riders’ engines failed, giving a 5-1 to Hull, which was nearly a 5-0, but for Kevin Holder pushing his bike for over half a lap.

The Hammers lost 38-40, which really summed up the last year of the sport.

The second half saw the Alf Weedon Farewell Trophy, and Kevin Holden became the last man to win a Race and a Trophy at West Ham.

West Ham had one more match as a team, which was an away match at Workington, but just to finalise it all, the match was rained off!

The team moved off to Barrow, only to disappear completely at the end of the season.

In the end there was yet another delay in the demolition of the Stadium and it turned out they could have completed the season there.

The following Tuesday saw the remains of West Ham Speedway sold off to the highest bidder, Speedway had finally died.

The stadium is long gone and a Housing estate covers the old site.

[dellann]

 Tuesday nights at West Ham Speedway.Eric Chitty, Aub Lawson. Malcolm  Craven, the stadium was always packed, why did it lose it's attraction?

[ALANF]

dellann

There is plenty of Speedway shown on television. There is at least one meeting televised every week. Unfortunately numbers of spectators are not great. When 'Grande Prix' meetings are held, in different European countries, the crowds are much greater.
If you look back at 'Speedway memories' you will find lots of memories of the old days. The site is closed to new postings, but it is still receiving hits, mainly from the internet. At the last count, it was 11,242 hits.

Alan

[Robert Rogers]

Speedway had started to show a decline in support in the 1950’s and by 1955 various reasons forced West Ham to close down.
Amongst these were Entertainment Taxes, Cinemas & Television.

The team returned in 1964 and finally closed in 1972 when the stadium was demolished, a path that many London teams followed.
 
There are two great DVD's currently out on the local Clubs West Ham and Hackney, by Retro Speedway.

There is no longer any Speedway in London, the closest team being Lakeside who continued with the Hammers name and are one of the top Elite Teams in the Country.

There is a small display of some items at the Temporary Newham Museum, plus on the 17th August there is a presentation on the Hammers at the Museum.

[ALANF]

Robert

I think it was mainly television that killed both Speedway and Cinema. At the same time that Speedway was losing spectators, the Cinema was also dying. Look at the number of Cinemas that closed in Newham during this same period. I can remember the big crowds at the Custom House Stadium, as I can also remember queues outside every cinema every night. Many a Friday night my older Sister would take me to the cinema and join a queue. The attendant would come out from time to time to say "Room for 2". More often that not, it would be for just one. My Sister would push herself forward and tell the attendent that her "brother would sit on her lap", and that's what I did.
What a different world it was.

Alan