Last year the Blog brought you interviews with two of the main track staff at Swindon, Track Curator Gerald Richter and Rod "Punch" Ford.
On every Thursday we are joined by Roy Hicks, another retired school teacher, and I took the opportunity of a day shortened by rain and howling winds to speak with Roy about his memories of a lifetime supporting the Robins and of his recent involvement with the track team at Blunsdon.
This is his story :
My first meeting was when I was 6 years of age. My parents took me to the second ever meeting at the Abbey Stadium. My most vivid recollection was that we came away from there pretty black because the track surface was made up of black cinders. It was long before my father had his first car – it was also before I could cycle properly – so we cycled from the council house in Pinehurst, where we lived, with me sitting on a seat that my father had bolted to his cross bar. In fact, we cycled from Pinehurst for many years. A very proud moment for me was the first time that I was able to cycle all the way there on my own.
Crowds were big in those days. We used to stand on turn 3 on the banking in those days and my father had to make a sort of collapsible seat / stand for me so that I could see. Looking out at turn 3 these days, even though the crowds are growing at Swindon, you wouldn’t really need something like that just to be able to see the track.
I seem to recall that the surface changed very quickly from the black cinders to the red shale. I can remember walking up onto the banking and seeing that the track magically had turned itself red.
The promoter in those days was a man called Reg Whitcombe and the captain was Reg Lambourne, who was a portly fellow as far as I can recall. Then there was Bob Jones, Mr Speedway at Swindon for many years, Ginger Nicholls, George Craig, Mick Mitchell and I think there was a guy called Bonnie Goode who rode in those early days. Ginger Nicholls was an interesting chap. I seem to remember that he got married in the afternoon and then rode for Swindon in the evening. Mick Mitchell was the only out and out leg trailer that I could remember seeing at the Abbey Stadium; he had a most peculiar style.
The bike was over at an extreme angle while he held himself upright. I am sure that Mitchell was actually disqualified from one race when his crash helmet flew off while he was still racing.
I can’t remember too many of the visiting riders from those days although the name Dudley Green comes to mind. We used to call him “Deadly Dudley” because he always seemed to fall and bring off one of our riders. Another one was Oxford’s Pat Clarke who was a very hard rider. Oxford meetings were always hard fought affairs, local rivalry and all.
I went to college in Loughborough but only saw the Robins when I was home. My parents stopped going on a regular basis in 54 or 55 and my visits were intermittent. I started up again in 65 and 66 and have been a consistent fan ever since.
The outstanding riders of the 60’s were headed by Briggo. He was just outstanding all the time. Sometimes I got the impression that he used to miss the gate at home on occasions so that he could practice riding through a field.
I must have missed out on the time when they introduced handicapped racing but I did feel that sometimes Briggo would handicap himself just for the hell of it. Of the others from that era Martin Ashby, Mike Broadbank with his red leathers, and then the likes of Bob Kilby, who I really enjoyed watching. Broady and Kilby team rode amazingly well – they had such an understanding of what the other was doing.
I can’t remember much about the title winning team of the 70’s. It was a good year but I don’t think that anyone could imagine that we’d still be waiting 40 years on for another championship. It does seem amazing looking back to think that we had a team that included so many English riders – Briggo was from New Zealand but he was classed as being British. Now we’ve just finished a season at Swindon where we only had 2 English riders in the team and actually had more Poles than Brits; it’s been an amazing transformation.
Everything seemed to go pear shaped in the 1980’s. I can’t remember much of those days – I suppose you blank them out of your mind. I think the most notable time for me in those days was watching young Jimmy Nilsen making his debut with the local MP, Simon Coombes, standing on the centre green. He had got involved to get Jimmy a work permit after the authorities had turned Jimmy down for one. Jim was about 18 at the time and he made a real impression.
I think his first proper meeting at Swindon was in a pairs meeting, where they teamed him up with Malcolm Simmons. We had a batch of good young riders but we just never seemed to get them all going at the same time. In addition to Nilsen we had Brian Karger, Peter Nahlin, Andrew Silver – they were all good but somehow just never clicked long enough to get us into a title winning situation. There were the Andresen brothers, Jan and Bjorn at the start of the 1980’s and then there was Phil Crump holding it all together.
The 1990’s weren’t any better. We were relegated and I was very disappointed when we went down to the Premier League but I think that the racing then was much closer than it is now. You look at the modern Elite team and you see someone like Leigh Adams at one end, with massive sponsorship and lucrative contracts all around Europe, and young Andy Moore at the other, with basic equipment and only riding once or perhaps twice a week – the difference is enormous and is reflected in the racing.
Back in the old second division days that difference wasn’t so apparent and it did lead to closer, if marginally slower racing. Nowadays it is a case of “To those that have shall be given more; to those that haven’t shall be given precious little.” I’ve really admired what Andrew Moore has achieved this year – he’s really battled and I would have dearly loved to have seen him achieve more. He’s made a lot of friends at Swindon and I, for one, would be more than pleased to see him back at Blunsdon for another season.
The last four years, our Elite League time, have been frustrating. There have been teams with so much potential that have underachieved – fallen away at the end. This year has been a case of so near and yet so far. I know that a lot of fans would willingly swap our relative success for theirs in the last year but what I think was particularly frustrating was that when the crunch came some of our riders went missing. Why it all went like that I don’t know, but Coventry got it right and they won it all.
I enjoyed the speedway all the more this last season because at long last I’ve been able to put something back into the sport. I’d toyed with offering my help for a couple of seasons. I talked with my wife and she said I should volunteer my services. I went to the pre season track staff meeting this year with the idea that I might be able to assist during the meetings, raking or whatever. But then I talked to Gerald and he indicated that if I was free on a Thursday during the day then he’d welcome my help. I’m retired now so I thought, go on, give it a go.
It can be frustrating at times but I’ve enjoyed the involvement and I’ve enjoyed the company of three very interesting people (Gerald, Punch and Graham) and I really look forward to Thursdays up at the track and all the banter that goes with it. I’ve learnt a lot. I know that I’m a million miles away from Punch and Gerald but I now have an appreciation of what goes into the preparation before a meeting and what happens after the last race. And now I’m learning about all that goes on during the closed season. I wonder whether we can get all of the work done before next March when it all starts up again. We only need a bad spell of weather and we’ll be under real pressure to get it all done.
It’s an exciting time because next year will be our last at the old stadium and I’ll get a chance to see the new one being built. I know that I’d like to see some very effective drainage between the greyhound and speedway tracks. I understand that they don’t want shale on their sand track; but we also don’t want sand on our speedway track. I’d also like to see the safety fence at the same height as our present one. I was at Coventry when Seb Ulamek’s bike went over their safety fence and it could so easily have gone into a spectators’ area with disastrous consequences.
I’d like to see Charlie Gjedde back next year because, like it or not, he pulls the crowds in to the track. I know he went through a dodgy spell and doesn’t appear to perform as well away from home as he does at Blunsdon. I’d also like to see more young British riders – the likes of Bridger, Kennet, Wright and so on who need to make a name for themselves and might not be so knackered at the end of the season through criss crossing Europe in search of meetings.
My ideal seven riders – everyone has a dream team, and here is mine. Leigh Adams, Peter Collins, Michael Lee, Bob Kilby, Mike Broadbank and Ivan Mauger. And the 2008 World Speedway Champion? I’d love Leigh Adams to win it (I’d also like to see Rune Holta do well – great pick Roy!) If he can stay clear of injury then I think he could do it. I know he’s a family man and he is coming to the end of his career but I really hope that he could do it finally.
Roy Hicks was interviewed by the Chairman of the UK Branch of the Rune Holta Appreciation Society – go Rune!!
From Robert Bamford’s excellent “Swindon Speedway: The definitive History of the Robins” (ISBN 0-7524-2748-2):
The first meeting at Blunsdon was a challenge match against Oxford. On Saturday 23rd July at 6.30pm the new Robins took to the track against their rivals from Oxford, eventually losing out by 45 points to 39. Ginger Nicholls was married earlier in the day in Poole before traveling up and winning the first race at the Abbey, establishing the first track record in a time of 82.8 seconds.
That first Swindon team comprised: Bill Downton 5 (4 races); Ginger Nicholls 11 (4); Reg Lambourne 7+1 (4); Harry Hughes 6+3 (4); Bob Jones 0 (4); Ivor Atkinson 4 (4); Paul Best 0 (1); and Tom Wilson 6+1 (3).
The attendance for the first meeting was put at 8,000 although many believed it to be closer to 10,000.
The second meeting, Roy’s first, was another Challenge match, this time against Poole when Poole’s Alan Chambers smashed the track record, taking 1.4 seconds off the old mark and bringing it down to 81.4 After another meeting, this time against Hastings, the surface was changed to a red shale compound.
The first “red shale” meeting was against Plymouth and Bob Jones set a new track record of 77.4 seconds.
Arthur “Bonny” Good actually only rode in 1 meeting in the league in 1949 and failed to score from 3 rides.
