Newport Speedway 1965 – THIS IS NEWPORT

1965

The British Speedway League was formed in 1965. It created a tier above the National League structure, comprising an 18 team competition. This was a combination of the old Leagues and listed Oxford, Coventry, Belle Vue, Swindon, Wimbledon, West Ham (all from the old National League), along with Newport, Wolves, Hackney, Exeter, Poole Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Cradley, Edinburgh and Long Eaton (from the old Provincial League) together with newcomers Halifax. Newport retained much of their 1964 team with the addition of 43 year old Australian international Jack Biggs and North Walian reserve Bob Hughes. Biggs and Dutchman Peter Vandenburg were Newport’s heaviest scorers with ten full or paid maximums between them in the new season.

Their first League meeting on April 9th at home to Exeter was abandoned after four races due to rain. Their second meeting at Wimbledon was a narrow defeat to the eventual runners up by 40 to 38 Biggs got a full maximum but the Dons took the lead after Jon Erskine was relegated to last place in Heat 12 to give the home team a vital 4-2. In the return fixture two weeks later the Wasps won 49-29 with Geoff Penniket and Jack Biggs scoring full maximums against a team including Swedish ace Ollie Nygren. For much of the season the Wasps generally held their own, finishing the season unbeaten at home and picking up two victories at Cradley Heath (43-35) and Long Eaton (46-32). In October they suffered a record defeat (64-14) at Wolverhampton with Alby Golden picking up the sole second place. But their home form was emphatic with their biggest winning margin – 56-22 – coming against Hackney and Cradley Heath. Newport fought hard to beat West Ham 42-36 at Somerton Park in an exciting clash. The Hammers’ Scottish star Ken McKinlay beat Jack Biggs in the Silver Sash match race at the end of the night. By the end of the campaign West Ham were champions, their first League title since 1937.

In the Speedway Star Knock Out cup Newport were beaten away at West Ham in Round 2 by 56 to 40. Swedish team Vargarna of Stockholm beat Newport 39-38 on August 11 with Gote Nordin top scoring for the Swedes with 11 points. He joined Newport in 1966. Vagarna were managed by Ollie Nygren, they were one of two overseas club sides to tour Britain, Polish champions Gornik Rybnik toured also.

Stalwart Alby Golden represented the Wasps in the League Riders Championship at Belle Vue scoring only two points. Barry Briggs won the final, the first of six consecutive wins. Briggs also won the second staging of the Welsh Open Championship at Newport. Peter Vandenburg qualified for the British Final winning one race and finishing last in the other four at West Ham. Nigel Boocock (Coventry) topped the averages on 11.09 ahead of Barry Briggs (Swindon) 10.92 and Ken McKinlay (West Ham) 10.72.

Newport’s were as follows –

Rider	Matches	Rides	Pts	Bonus	Total	Average	Full Max	Paid Max
Jack Biggs	34	136	292	14	306	9.00	4	2
Peter Vandenburg	35	140	257	25	282	8.06	3	1
Dick Bradley	21	84	145	21	166	7.91	0	0
Alby Golden	35	140	240	33	273	7.80	0	1
Geoff Penniket	35	140	163	34	197	5.83	1	0
Jon Erskine	32	128	142	31	173	5.41	0	3
Vic White	16	64	52	17	69	4.31	0	0
Bob Hughes	33	132	99	17	116	3.52	0	0
Ray Harris	4	16	10	1	11	2.75	0	0

BRITISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP 1965

	TEAM	M	W	D	L	For	Against
1	West Ham Hammers	34	23	1	10	1430	1215	47
2	Wimbledon Dons	34	22	2	10	1396	1245	46
3	Coventry Bees	34	20	0	14	1384	1258	40
4	Oxford Cheetahs	34	19	2	13	1308	1340	40
5	Halifax Dukes	33	18	3	12	1322	1240	39
6	Newport Wasps	34	19	0	15	1360	1288	38
7	Wolverhampton Wolves	34	18	1	15	1429	1216	37
8	Hackney Hawks	34	18	1	15	1327.5	1319.5	37
9	Exeter Falcons	34	18	0	16	1325.5	1323.5	36
10	Poole Pirates	34	17	1	16	1378	1266	35
11	Sheffield Tigers	34	16	2	16	1300	1346	34
12	Newcastle Diamonds	34	16	1	17	1363	1282	33
13	Glasgow Tigers	34	15	1	18	1315	1329	31
14	Belle Vue Aces	34	15	0	19	1328	1312	30
15	Swindon Robins	34	13	2	19	1345	1300	28
16	Cradley Heath Heathens	33	11	1	21	1132	1438	23

17	Edinburgh Monarchs	34	11	0	23	1173	1428	22
18	Long Eaton Archers	34	7	0	27	1107	1534	14

Soviets wow Somerton Park

The Soviet Union international side rode at Newport on July 16 in front of a large crowd as part of a British tour. They were comfortably beaten by Great Britain by 63 points to 45 but provided great entertainment. The British side included New Zealander Barry Briggs. Great Britain won the series 5-0.

Prior to the match the surface of basic slag at Somerton Park was replaced with red brick dust. Leslie James in the South Wales Argus stated that track experts were predicting some quick times.

The meeting started on a sensational note. Igor Plechanov out-gated Barry Briggs. Briggs went off in hot pursuit but entered the third bend at the Cromwell Road end of the ground too quickly and crashed in to the fence. Plechanov won the race by seventy yards from George Hunter. The defeat was the first for Briggs in eighteen races at Somerton Park. Igor Plechanov equalled Alby Golden’s track record in the opening ride (68.4 seconds).

James reports “twenty year old Gennady Kurilenko, blond haired and blue eyed, had the large crowd roaring with a furious ride in the third heat, which he won in a record time of 68 seconds. Four heats later his captain, Plechanov, who was second in the world final in Sweden last summer, outpaced his opponents to equal the new record.”

The crowd were so impressed by the wholehearted Russian team that they turned on the match referee for excluding a Russian rider (Moiseyev) after Charlie Monk had fallen.

Great Britain 63 (McKinlay 15, Briggs 14, Monk 11, Gooch 8, Hunter 7, Boocock 6, Golden 1, Vandenburg 1) Soviet Union 45 (Kurilenko 14, Plechanov 12, Sokolov7, Moiseyev 5, Chekranov 5, Kadirov 2)