**Jonathan Stevens** (b. 1983, Croydon). Historian, former rider, and founder of the Dons Den memorabilia organisation.

**Speedway background:** Provides an overview of speedway's rules, scoring, team structure, home advantage, and race procedures before covering Wimbledon-specific history.

**Club history:** Traces Wimbledon's origins to May 1928 (the stadium having been taken over by the Kearns family after an American greyhound company failed to pay for its construction). Discusses the club's colours (red and yellow, introduced by promoter Ronnie Green in the 1930s — origin unknown). Covers the sport's postwar peak popularity (crowds of 20,000–30,000), subsequent decline as television and pop culture competed for audiences, a partial revival in the 1970s, and Wimbledon's drop to the National League in 1985. Identifies the club's fundamental vulnerability as its tenant status, which led to closures in mid-1991 (high rent) and again in 2005 after the 2002–05 comeback. Regards Tommy Janssen's death in 1976 as a pivotal blow to the club's trajectory.

**Key figures mentioned:** Ronnie Green (promoter), Ronnie Moore (double world champion, raced exclusively for Wimbledon in the UK), Cyril Bryan, Roger Johns, Tommy Janssen, Trevor Hedge, Barry Briggs.

**Stadium:** Notes the multi-sport use (greyhounds, stock cars, boxing, markets), the logistical challenges of shared track preparation, and the gladiatorial atmosphere created by the enclosed stadium and glass grandstand.

**Personal career:** Introduced to speedway by his father in the late 1980s; started riding at Eastbourne (1997), trained at various tracks, raced for Rye House, then joined Wimbledon for the 2002–05 reopening after prior knowledge of the plans. Describes the opening night (2 May 2002) as both best and worst: a good points score in difficult conditions, but his father was hospitalised with e-coli and missed the meeting. Scored around 4–6 points per meeting; considers the club's near-miss second place in 2005 a high point. Bike maintenance was handled largely by his father, drawing on a family background in mechanical engineering.

**Post-closure activity:** Founded the Dons Den to preserve memorabilia and provide an organisational voice for Wimbledon Speedway. Organised reunion events and, in 2024, a four-team London tournament (Wimbledon, Hackney, White City, Kent) at Iwade, including a double-decker bus from Wimbledon Stadium.

**On speedway's future:** Sees the sport at a crossroads nationally — still hampered by tenant insecurity, lack of TV coverage, and declining media profile — but points to Poland's 20,000-strong league crowds as evidence the sport can thrive under the right conditions.