00:00:00:06 - 00:00:12:23 Speaker 1 This is Giuseppe Barresi conducting an interview for the speedway at Wimbledon Stadium oral History Project on the 21st of April, 2026. Start with some sort of biographical question. Sure. What's your name? 00:00:13:00 - 00:00:14:04 Speaker 2 It's Marc Jones. 00:00:14:10 - 00:00:15:09 Speaker 1 Where were you born? 00:00:15:10 - 00:00:17:08 Speaker 2 I was born in Balham. 00:00:17:10 - 00:00:18:12 Speaker 1 What year were you born? 00:00:18:13 - 00:00:20:06 Speaker 2 1967. 00:00:20:08 - 00:00:23:17 Speaker 1 What did your parents do for a living? 00:00:23:19 - 00:00:31:02 Speaker 2 So my father was a welder and an engineer, and my mother was a registrar. 00:00:31:04 - 00:00:38:14 Speaker 1 Okay, we're going to start with a few questions around the early days. Sure. What year did you go to Speedway at Woodlawn Stadium? 00:00:38:18 - 00:01:04:05 Speaker 2 So I was first taken to Wimbledon Stadium to watch the speedway team, when my mother had her first date with my dad, and she remarried and she couldn't find anybody to look after me, so she took me along aged four. So that was in 1971. So my first ever trip to Plow Lane was with my mum to meet my dad, who obviously eventually ended up being my dad, and they got married. 00:01:04:05 - 00:01:11:23 Speaker 2 And after that he used to bring me to speedway all the time with him. He was a huge speedway fan. 00:01:12:00 - 00:01:17:21 Speaker 1 So that was your first visit as a baby. But do you remember your first visit? They actually remember. 00:01:17:23 - 00:01:36:14 Speaker 2 So obviously I don't remember being four years old, but I do remember that the best bit about coming to Plow Lane for the Speedway was it was almost like a scene out of Oliver Twist. The kids would all kind of like meet up. And I, you know, I remember being told that the Creed was always be back by the final race, so we would just kind of run wild and disappear. 00:01:36:15 - 00:02:00:16 Speaker 2 It was the 70s after all, right. So, you know, keeping children safe was only sort of only went so far. So obviously everybody knew where you were. He was within the stadium. It was obviously a very safe sort of place to be. But from that. So I don't remember that very first time, but I remember it kind of like almost being like a weekly or twice weekly, however often meets were we would want to come. 00:02:00:21 - 00:02:21:17 Speaker 2 You know, it was never that we were dragged there because it was just such fun. It was so kind of visceral, loud, you know, the sights and smell. I'm sure everybody spoken to us. Told you about the smell of speedway. So it was really kind of like very, very different and even compared to kind of other sports. It was it was very one off. 00:02:21:19 - 00:02:28:08 Speaker 1 You touched on the sounds and the smells, but and the other early impressions that have kind of really resonated with you. 00:02:28:09 - 00:02:51:12 Speaker 2 I think it was all there was. You was always aware that it was a dangerous sport, that it was a kind of, you know, there was bravery involved in those taking part in it. And I always loved the dynamics of the sport in those individuals and also teams involved, which I think is completely unique for Speedway. And, you know, for those of are watching this now without any real idea about his history of speedway, it was huge. 00:02:51:16 - 00:03:10:05 Speaker 2 You know, it's a massive sport, especially in the local area. Wimbledon were a famous, successful side and it was really good to have, you know, a team that you would go and watch and you knew they were good. That definitely helped. And as I say, because you supported Wimbledon Speedway. But there was it was always about individual riders. 00:03:10:06 - 00:03:22:04 Speaker 2 And from that very, very early age, I was a massive Tommy Jansson fan, which again, I bet that's a name that's cropping up over and over. 00:03:22:06 - 00:03:30:23 Speaker 1 You touched on your mum and dad obviously going to the speedway. Are there any other sort of family ties or history around the speedway? 00:03:31:04 - 00:03:51:04 Speaker 2 So I never really quite, quite worked it out. My dad sadly no longer with us, so I can't ask him on this one, but he was kind of semi involved in speedway, so there'll be occasions where I'd come and he kind of walked to the pits and say, stay there a minute and jump over and go into the pits and talk to all the riders, you know, and I'd just sort of be standing waiting for him to come. 00:03:51:04 - 00:04:08:12 Speaker 2 But I was always really impressed that he had this some sort of prestige where he was allowed to do that. But he had a factory locally just over the road, and I know that he used to work on kind of tow bars for the speedway riders. So he knew he knew some of the riders had some sort of relationships with them. 00:04:08:12 - 00:04:26:04 Speaker 2 But obviously as a child it was, you know, I was never involved in that. I never sort of was introduced to them. And I don't think it was necessarily if it was football, you know, you'd have got autographs and you'd want you to meet the sort of the player. But, you know, I was very happy just to see them bombing around the track. 00:04:26:06 - 00:04:33:10 Speaker 1 Touch on the experience now of going to Speedway. Can you describe the stadium? 00:04:33:12 - 00:04:59:15 Speaker 2 Yeah, it was very industrial feeling. So I always remember that the grandstand, the big glass grandstand, he's a place we never used to go. We used to sit on the last bend just before the finish line on wooden, very, very cold, very splintering wooden seats. And I remember kind of sitting there and there was no sort of thrills to come in and watching Speedway, as I say, it was sort of more about the noise and the sort of the smell of the site and the sounds. 00:04:59:15 - 00:05:18:01 Speaker 2 So nobody was really looking for, you know, I know there was probably a place for the grandstand and people enjoyed it, but it was it was definitely not where my dad was going to go and watch Speedway. So we didn't go in that bit. But I remember sort of seeing it in thinking there were two worlds here, you know, there's the kind of there's the track and then there's the sort of spectacle and the dinner and the glasses of wine. 00:05:18:01 - 00:05:38:13 Speaker 2 I imagine that we're in that, that grandstand at the time. But we were very much. You know, I remember queuing up, going through turnstiles and the bit that interesting is, you know, I'm a very closely linked to the football club work at the football club. But I went to speedway before I went to football. And I remember saying to my dad when I heard that there was a Wimbledon football team, why don't they play football at the stadium? 00:05:38:15 - 00:05:55:12 Speaker 2 Because to me it was like a huge sporting place, you know? And he was like, oh, they're up the road in a little place along the road sort of thing. But I mean, you know, you'd go past and you'd see the numbers on the outside that were for the greyhounds. But it, I really like the way that you could not guess what was inside until you actually went in there. 00:05:55:12 - 00:06:16:03 Speaker 2 So that queuing up that procession to get in, you know, it was they really cherished memories for me, not just because I used to go on my father, obviously, but it was very, very different. So atmospheric. It was. It was crazy. You know, I can remember it like it was yesterday. 00:06:16:05 - 00:06:22:02 Speaker 1 A particular place in the stadium that you like to kind of sit and watch the races from. 00:06:22:08 - 00:06:40:17 Speaker 2 Yeah, we definitely used to see it sort of halfway up on the last sort of turn. And that was because my dad was kind of a proponent of like whoever's whoever's leading at that point, it's pretty much won. It wasn't always the case, but I think that was sort of deemed where it all fell into place. You know, the last lap on that last bend sort of thing. 00:06:40:17 - 00:06:56:06 Speaker 2 So we would be hiring the sort of start line, you know, we didn't used to see the start as such. And I know the start was obviously very important for a speedway race. But yeah, we liked being on that, that like kind of last, last been the last little piece of the puzzle almost. 00:06:56:08 - 00:07:05:15 Speaker 1 I mean, you were a child, but did you visit the track as you got older and do you remember how affordable it was? Was it something most people would afford? 00:07:05:16 - 00:07:26:22 Speaker 2 I don't think it was ever perceived as kind of an expensive place to go. I know that one year my mum and dad went to Wembley to watch Speedway and came home and remarked about how expensive it was compared to going to Wimbledon. So I guess, you know, not you know, some things never change. You know, most people go to Wembley now and say it's expensive, but I suppose that kind of like nods towards our big. 00:07:26:22 - 00:07:44:00 Speaker 2 The sport was, you know, they went off to watch, you know, speedway elsewhere, somebody, you know, in a different stadium for a different sort of setting. But, you know, I'd be given five to go off and buy a bag of blackjacks. That's the only bit I remember good currency back then, because I think you got two for a penny. 00:07:44:01 - 00:08:03:16 Speaker 2 So, you know, we'd be running around with a bag of sweets, and then when they ran out, we'd, you know, we'd pop back and go and sit down and pay attention to the speedway. But I did keep coming, especially when they tried to resurrect the speedway. I was, you know, I was I was desperate for that to succeed because I had such sort of cherished childhood memories, brought my own son along, but I think it was a little bit out of time by then. 00:08:03:17 - 00:08:22:20 Speaker 2 You know, he was he was it wasn't quite the same. And I'm sure anybody that talks to you about that second coming, the track wasn't quite right. And, you know, lots of riders falling off. So it didn't really sort of land, but I desperately tried to sort of pass on the appetite for speedway to my son. It didn't quite work. 00:08:22:22 - 00:08:27:12 Speaker 1 Can you give us an idea of how busy a race night was at the end of the. 00:08:27:14 - 00:08:44:22 Speaker 2 Really busy. I mean, you turn up and see cuz there'd be traffic outside. The car park was full up and there was definitely an element of my, you know, my dad saying, stick close by, you know, don't go missing, don't get lost. Until once he was in, I guess he was deemed a little safer, but it always felt like a big event. 00:08:44:24 - 00:09:03:21 Speaker 2 Lots of people there, you know, lots of interest. And I guess that's why it's sort of holds that place in my heart that it was going somewhere that was so very different to just plotting around, you know, parkland and sitting around on street corners or bombing around on a, on a push bike. You know, when you went there, you knew that it was a big occasion. 00:09:04:00 - 00:09:18:15 Speaker 2 And I guess that all feeds into the sight of the sound of smells, the spectacle and the fact that women were so good. So there is you was very aware that he was going somewhere that was that was busy and prestigious, even if it wasn't quite, you know, salubrious surroundings. 00:09:18:17 - 00:09:24:23 Speaker 1 Can you tell me a little bit about merchandise that was available, or did you buy a program, for instance? 00:09:25:00 - 00:09:42:17 Speaker 2 Oh, we would definitely have never come without getting a program that would have bought a program straight away. As soon as we got here, we would buy Speedway Star magazine as well. And then the bit that I really enjoyed was the merchandise was essentially a guy standing there with a, you know, a board with rosettes and pin badges on it, which I've still got. 00:09:42:18 - 00:09:58:08 Speaker 2 I've still got the pin badges at home. I used to make my own rosettes as well, but you could always, you know, there was mostly it was a scarf, a rosette and a badge. You know, there was there was no real kind of merchandise as you'd get now. You definitely couldn't buy a breastplate for. 00:09:58:10 - 00:10:03:22 Speaker 1 Do you have any recollection of the food and drink that was available, and what sort of food and drink was available? 00:10:04:02 - 00:10:22:16 Speaker 2 Definitely sold. Blackjacks. I remember the Blackjacks, but that was about it. You know, I never used to sort of see my dad go off and buy food and drink that that really didn't kind of like land. And I guess we probably would have got away with bringing our own food as well. You know, it may well have pulled a sandwich out I'll throw through the evening, but it wasn't. 00:10:22:17 - 00:10:41:11 Speaker 2 It was a very kind of it felt like a very working class sport, a very accessible sport. As I say, there was that big element of the grandstand peering over at us, you know, with people dressed up a little bit more refined, but it felt a very accessible sport, very affordable sport and, you know, a sport for everybody. 00:10:41:13 - 00:10:47:23 Speaker 1 Could you describe to me in your own words a typical race like in your through your eyes? 00:10:48:04 - 00:11:05:22 Speaker 2 So I clearly would have been home from school waiting to go, when are we leaving? When are we leaving. And then my dad would get the car and we would drive and park and one of the streets. You know, we didn't always go in the car park. We would park nearby. And for the last little part, cue to get in in a sea of people, click through a turnstile. 00:11:05:22 - 00:11:23:17 Speaker 2 That felt very, very different. And then we would kind of move around the insides of the stadium to our sort of part that we would normally sit in. And then once you was kind of out trackside, you stayed there, as it were. You know, there wasn't a lot of it was definitely no, like half time break where you disappear somewhere else. 00:11:23:19 - 00:11:38:09 Speaker 2 I mean, you'd sit there and we always have a clipboard, which was the other part that loads of people did. You know, you'd see it with your pen and clipboard and keep score of what was going on. And I would remember asking my dad, you know, are we going to win? Who needs to win the next race? He would do the sums for me. 00:11:38:10 - 00:12:01:09 Speaker 2 I would, you know, work out who to keep an eye on in the next, sort of the next heat, as it were. And then by the end of the night, there was quite a bit of sort of tradition around it, you know, like they came out to the same tune and there was a piece where, you know, the, the, the tractor with the sort of scoop on the front would go round with a, with a rider sitting in it, with laurels or whatever it might be, you know, or wherever they'd won that evening. 00:12:01:09 - 00:12:18:16 Speaker 2 And then we'd go off home and it was like straight to bed, as it were, you know, school the next day. But it was, it was it was definitely an occasion and an event that, you know, I would look forward to and sort of was desperate to get there as quick as possible once I knew it was a race night. 00:12:18:18 - 00:12:27:22 Speaker 1 Okay. We're going to move on to some questions. More about you being a fan. Can you tell us about any particular riders that you followed? 00:12:27:24 - 00:12:44:23 Speaker 2 Yes. It's interesting. So my little brother would come with me. He's two years younger than me, and even today we were trying to remember some names. And it's, you know, I'm not great with names, you know, in day to day life. But we were sitting there kind of throwing names backwards and forwards and kind of going, you know, they all sort of blur into one a little bit. 00:12:44:24 - 00:13:01:10 Speaker 2 You know, I wouldn't apart from obviously the big one, you know, Tommy Jenson was the superstar and I, I try and describe him to people and say like it's a bit like that. He was a bit David Beckham, you know, he was that young, kind of like Dashing Rider that that everybody kind of dreamt of being or, you know, or adored. 00:13:01:10 - 00:13:19:03 Speaker 2 And of course he had that really, really sad, untimely death, which just sort of like completely cast him into that sort of like tragic sort of hero figure, as it were. But it was, you know, as I said, I'm a football fan as well. We don't necessarily have the biggest players playing for Wimbledon, but we definitely had the biggest riders riding for Wimbledon. 00:13:19:05 - 00:13:36:09 Speaker 2 So you was very aware of kind of other riders within the sport. You know, I remember my mum hating Ollie, Olsen said. He was rude, you know, like so he was aware that there were other characters even if they didn't ride for Wimbledon. You know, as I say, it was a huge sport for those that knew about it. 00:13:36:10 - 00:13:55:19 Speaker 2 And when we moved into this stadium and there was kind of, you know, speedway was long gone and people didn't really understand how big it used to be. For my part, as part of the football club, I was desperate with the statue out the front to kind of pay tribute to how huge the sport was and then point it was to the people of Wimbledon. 00:13:55:20 - 00:14:05:08 Speaker 2 So yeah, riders, there was individuals that you kind of like rooted for, but you also had that benefit of the team winning as well. 00:14:05:10 - 00:14:08:17 Speaker 1 How accessible were the riders to funds? 00:14:08:19 - 00:14:23:24 Speaker 2 My memory is they weren't very accessible because they were busy. So they would obviously get here, go in the pits and you could wander around. There was a bit like, I suppose that football matches, if you could wander and sort of sit by the dugout and I know that, you know, football used to be like that. Now you get if you get a seat by the dugout, that's where you are. 00:14:23:24 - 00:14:45:03 Speaker 2 But it was very much similar in that the riders, the reserve riders, you know, the the mechanics would all be down there and obviously the bikes revving up while they were tuning them up, ready to go out and race. It was kind of really noisy. And, you know, it was a bit gladiatorial almost, you know, like a little pit full of people getting ready to fight lions, as it were, you know? 00:14:45:04 - 00:15:00:22 Speaker 2 So we would I would always want to go over can we go to the pits and just peer over the top? But I don't really remember kind of seeing riders wandering around or being accessible for a while, graphs and stuff like that. I was happy to leave them doing their thing. 00:15:00:24 - 00:15:07:16 Speaker 1 Do you remember in the crowd what the general Journal graphic was? Were there more women were than men? Children? 00:15:07:18 - 00:15:24:21 Speaker 2 It was very mixed. There was a woman that I would call an old woman. I'm sure she was a lot younger than I remember. Her called Mrs. Bateson that my dad always used to go and say hello to. And he was like, oh, you know, she's like Wimbledon, Roy. She's always here. So it wasn't a kind of male preserved sport. 00:15:24:22 - 00:15:42:14 Speaker 2 My mum and dad were both into speedway. There were loads of kids there because I would run around, you know, with kids that I never knew their names, but we were all kind of, I suppose, you know, speedway tearaway as it were. So my, my recollection of it was that it was a sport for everybody. You know, there was definitely no real class sort of system. 00:15:42:14 - 00:15:55:17 Speaker 2 There's no barrier in terms of cost. But I definitely remember being there, being plenty of, you know, girls and women. There. It was. It was definitely not, you know, just a track surrounded by men who liked motorsport. Not at all. 00:15:55:19 - 00:16:05:07 Speaker 1 You touched on Tommy Jansson obviously being Swedish. There were probably other foreign riders racing at Wimbledon. Did they bring their own fans as well? 00:16:05:09 - 00:16:23:19 Speaker 2 I don't remember there being kind of like car loads of sort of individual rider sort of fans, but, you know, to go back to that kind of merchandise thing, those rosettes were riders, you know, you would go and pick, can I get a Tommy Jansson rosette, please? And it would just be like a little black and white photo of them in the middle and, you know, a bit of red and yellow around the outside. 00:16:23:19 - 00:16:43:24 Speaker 2 So there was definitely that kind of like, I have a favourite rider. And as I said, you know, my mum had a very unfavourable rider, as it were. But yeah, he was aware of that and I think he was always possibly it was in the program, but he was always aware that somebody was kind of like, you know, from New Zealand or, you know, that kind of international jet set of different riders all coming together. 00:16:43:24 - 00:17:06:18 Speaker 2 And I think for me that was partly the appeal that it was so many kind of elements to sort of try and wrap your head around as a kid, you know, where's that rider from? How old is that? Right. Is he any good? Is he a junior? Is he coming through the reserves? And, you know, looking back on it, I was probably a bit more into it than I realised on a day to day sort of, you know, manner of remembering Speedway. 00:17:06:18 - 00:17:20:20 Speaker 2 I was, as I say, you know, I was probably went from the ages of 4 to 12 was when I was really sort of going, yeah, I must have been really into it. If I'm still remembering it this long. This, this fell forward in time. 00:17:20:22 - 00:17:26:16 Speaker 1 Can you tell us about any sort of rivalries between riders or teams? 00:17:26:18 - 00:17:45:01 Speaker 2 You would often see riders cutting each other up and arguing afterwards. You know that somebody had pulled them in over they shouldn't. Do you know, you'd often see helmets thrown down a little bit, ice hockey, but not quite as sort of crazy as that. I don't think there was ever a real any concept of rivalry with other teams, partly because women were good. 00:17:45:02 - 00:18:10:19 Speaker 2 And I knew, you know, I knew of like, you know, Ipswich witches and whole tigers. So that obviously sort of as a kid that helped that they were sort of such sort of visceral names and sort of, you know, painted all these sort of pictures. And then the other bit that I think is really strange if you don't understand or followed Speedway, is that the riders dressed as motorcycle riders and then just chucked on a little piece that made you realise which team they were riding for. 00:18:10:20 - 00:18:28:19 Speaker 2 You had different colour helmet covers, so, you know, they'd be they'd be different each time. It wasn't sort of people didn't have their own colour and such to my memory. So he was aware that you was kind of like competing, but it never really felt like it's a big meet because we're riding against somebody else that's really good. 00:18:28:20 - 00:18:51:15 Speaker 2 They very much felt like one off kind of sporting events to me, rather than a kind of an accumulative sort of quest for anything. You know, it was just I was going to watch Wimbledon. I didn't care if they were riding against at all. So I'm sure there was some of that, perhaps for older people and people who understood the sport a bit broader, but as a spectacle, as a kid it was like, I'm going to watch Tommy HJansson in the story. 00:18:51:17 - 00:18:59:07 Speaker 1 Can you tell me a little bit about how one wooden speedway impacted on your social life? 00:18:59:09 - 00:19:14:09 Speaker 2 So it was interesting. It was big for the family. My cousins used to come with me as well, my aunt and my uncle and my mum and dad. We'd all kind of go together, but it's only in later life when I talk to people and they go, oh, I used to go to Speedway, so I didn't really make any friends there. 00:19:14:09 - 00:19:30:04 Speaker 2 It was very much a sort of family event. We'd all go and sit together as a family, and it pretty much felt like, you know, the business interest is there were gaps. She wasn't sort of tight in a seat next to somebody. It was like a bench. So you could have your little spot that you always sort of went in. 00:19:30:04 - 00:19:53:08 Speaker 2 And I think everybody did that because I can remember my dad saying hello to people that, you know, who's that? Or that guy sat there forever. You know, he's always that guy, always there, don't even know his name sort of thing. But it wasn't somewhere where I kind of made powers for life, as it were. It's only later in life that I realised the powers that are my powers for life were probably at the same speedway races as me. 00:19:53:10 - 00:20:03:13 Speaker 1 So this leads me to my next question. Really? Did you kind of build up any relationships with other people that kind of went to speedway, maybe in fan clubs or outside of the stadium? 00:20:03:15 - 00:20:23:20 Speaker 2 No, it was completely family led that way, you know, and the bit that was interesting was, you know, everybody in the family went. So as you know, if I like a that now to football, it's not like that. You know you wouldn't you could drag my wife to football if you tried hard enough. Whereas I think if it was speedway you'd just be kind of like of course you're coming it speedway, you know, and everybody just went together. 00:20:23:20 - 00:20:29:19 Speaker 2 Nobody was left at home not watching it. 00:20:29:21 - 00:20:34:18 Speaker 1 Do you have any speedway heroes? 00:20:34:20 - 00:20:52:09 Speaker 2 I mean, you was aware of good speedway riders that had won world championships and were kind of like top of their game. And I think the other bit that was really interesting about speedway riders is you was aware of how old they were, and you knew that young riders wouldn't be as good as riders that had been riding a bit longer, and some riders were getting towards the end of their career, as it were. 00:20:52:11 - 00:21:08:05 Speaker 2 But in terms of heroes, I remember kind of thinking some riders were better than others. And as much as I kind of like hate to bore people to death with it, you know, when you've got a star in your universe like Tommy Jensen idolise for nobody else, you know, he was everything you wanted to be when I grew up. 00:21:08:05 - 00:21:13:05 Speaker 2 I'm going to be Tommy Jansson. 00:21:13:07 - 00:21:21:18 Speaker 1 Do you have a memorable night that stands in your memory? That a special night at the speedway that you can tell us about? 00:21:21:19 - 00:21:44:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, they were all. Most speedway meets were very, very similar. They were always. They always felt like they were freezing cold. But the one night that was massive for me and my brother was firework night because they used to put a firework display on after the meat or it was before half time, you know, all I remember is, you know, whatever firework display you went to was never as good as the one that was a Wimbledon stadium. 00:21:44:06 - 00:22:00:20 Speaker 2 So we were desperate to go today every year. And the highlight was they used to put kind of like these two ships either side in the middle, and they would fire kind of fireworks at each other, which is the sort of thing you wouldn't see anywhere else. So, you know, like we go to like the local council, one in the park and they'd all just be firing off into the sky. 00:22:00:20 - 00:22:21:16 Speaker 2 And I'm like, that's rubbish compared to the Speedway one. So every year would be like, when's firework night? They had winds fire working on it. So, you know, I suppose that's not a great advert for the actual sport, you know, a big event in terms of sport. But it's interesting that they would, you know, in this day and age when they're trying to kind of add stuff to sporting events, that they were doing it that that long ago. 00:22:21:17 - 00:22:28:08 Speaker 2 They were set off a few fireworks for the kids and that would be fun. But yeah, definitely, definitely around that time of year. 00:22:28:10 - 00:22:34:12 Speaker 1 It sounds like that was like a yearly event. Was there any entertainment at Speedway nights on a weekly basis? 00:22:34:13 - 00:22:51:15 Speaker 2 No, I mean, you knew the tune that they would play, and my dad had a song that went along with it, with lyrics to it about lump of bread pudding flying through the air, and he would sing along to it. And, you know, my memories of him are still. He would sing that all the time. He'd sit at home sort of singing that Wimbledon tune. 00:22:51:17 - 00:23:14:00 Speaker 2 So it was quite processional, you know, there was stuff they did every single week in terms of the way they came out, the way they celebrated wins. What happened at the end? Very kind of like formulaic, but like, you know, heartwarming to sort of that comfort of that familiarity of the way that they did things. 00:23:14:02 - 00:23:17:00 Speaker 1 Did you ever travel to away meetings? 00:23:17:04 - 00:23:36:10 Speaker 2 I never did, and that's the bit that's kind of strange is that they were, I think partly they were quite far away. I think secondly, they were mid-week and I had school the next day, and I don't remember my dad ever talking about going anywhere else to watch Speedway. And I'm really struggling to remember if it was kind of weekly or whether we were away one week and home the next week. 00:23:36:12 - 00:24:02:18 Speaker 2 My memory as a kid is that I was just always going every single week, you know, like it's speedway, let's go. And I don't really remember kind of circling the calendar like you would with a football team, for example. And pick matches to go to. It was just we're all going but yeah, I never, never win. I've seen other tracks as I grew older and would go to places and realised I had a speedway team, but no, we didn't kind of like, I don't know that there was much concept of a way support. 00:24:02:19 - 00:24:14:01 Speaker 2 You never really had any feel that there was anybody in the stadium watching. The opposition felt like it was all Wimbledon fans watching when would and ride. 00:24:14:03 - 00:24:24:00 Speaker 1 You touched on the fact that you work here for AFC when speedway was happening. How did that fit in with the other sports available in Wimbledon? 00:24:24:02 - 00:24:43:21 Speaker 2 So by the time Wimbledon Speedway kind of tried to resurrect itself, the kind of second version after it had gone to Eastbourne. And again, the interesting part there is it was kind of, I guess you could argue it was franchised, same way that happened to the football club. You know, I remember it being Eastbourne Dons and my dad had wanted nothing to do with it and kind of going it's not the same. 00:24:43:21 - 00:25:07:14 Speaker 2 So obviously when history repeated itself somewhat with a football team and they were moved up the road, same sort of feeling. But by the time that second wave of speedway, when they tried to resurrect it, I was, you know, fully involved with the football club at that point. And in my role at the football club, I was doing kind of like kit designs and programs and stuff, and I did the actual speedway program when the speedway came back. 00:25:07:14 - 00:25:37:13 Speaker 2 So I've got the kind of honor and privilege saying that I did program for the football club and a program for the speedway team as well. It wasn't great. You know, I've got better at it since when I look back at it, but I was desperate for that second version to work. And of course, as I mentioned, very mixed feelings when the stadium was replaced with what's there now, in an ideal world, they'd have been both, you know, and Speedway would have still been massive and everybody would have still loved it sort of thing. 00:25:37:13 - 00:25:57:11 Speaker 2 But I guess some things kind of fall away in time. And as we all know it, speedway's still very popular with those that follow it, but it isn't that kind of huge sport that it once was. I guess the biggest example is it's a bit like snooker that at one moment everybody knew snooker, loved snooker. It was on TV all the time, and it kind of isn't as much now. 00:25:57:15 - 00:26:12:11 Speaker 2 So maybe, maybe, you know, Speedway had sort of had its time as it were. But yeah, both of them hold a very sort of special place in my heart. The football club and the speedway team. 00:26:12:13 - 00:26:17:07 Speaker 1 How did the speedway change over time? 00:26:17:09 - 00:26:38:07 Speaker 2 So I never really understood the bit about speedway moving away, the politics of that, or whether that was financial or whether people had just stopped coming, and probably because I had maybe walked away before that happened. You know, I was getting to the age where I could sneak into pubs and stuff, so I'd sort of other pursuits aside from speedway. 00:26:38:08 - 00:26:56:22 Speaker 2 But I do remember kind of like one minute it was here, and then the next minute it had just disappeared and it felt like a big loss to the area, you know? But it kind of came around with that sort of changing in eras. And, you know, I think motorsport and those sorts of old kind of like sporting spectacles had kind of moved away a little bit. 00:26:56:23 - 00:27:10:15 Speaker 2 You know, we used to come to stock cars as well quite often, and even that had kind of like, you know, started was on the wane a little bit. So, so yeah, I guess I've lost track of that last bit of the question is sorry. 00:27:10:16 - 00:27:16:08 Speaker 1 I was just asking how how things changed at the speedway. 00:27:16:10 - 00:27:33:13 Speaker 2 So the other thing is I don't think they modernised speedway. The bit for me was it very much felt like the same sport all the way through. I remember my dad making a big play about the bikes, you know, and how they sort of the same. There was only a certain, you know, couple of like, you know, manufacturers of speedway bikes. 00:27:33:14 - 00:27:51:03 Speaker 2 You know, they weren't bikes that you saw anywhere else other than going around a speedway track, you know, No Brakes was obviously the big one that everybody spoke about. So I don't think Speedway kind of modernised at all and changed in that sense. And I don't think it was kind of left behind because of any sort of progress. 00:27:51:05 - 00:28:07:18 Speaker 2 And maybe that's the bit that appealed to so many people that it was kind of it felt like a very old sport. Even in the 70s, you know, it spelled like it felt like it had been going since the 30s and 40s. But all the better for it, you know, that it didn't try and kind of, like, changed the rules and changed the regulations very much. 00:28:07:20 - 00:28:09:22 Speaker 2 It felt like, you know, business as usual. 00:28:10:02 - 00:28:14:22 Speaker 1 Do you feel as though the fact that it didn't modernise was its demise? 00:28:15:03 - 00:28:34:08 Speaker 2 I don't think so. I think people just kind of moved on. I mean, if you liken it to football, same sort of thing happened. You know, we were told that we wanted a different sort of sport. And then seats came in and kind of, you know, a bit more corporate entertainment and stuff. And yet I would say that speedway was very much like non-league football still is. 00:28:34:09 - 00:28:56:19 Speaker 2 So it's kind of like it's the same sport. It's played by the same amount of people, the same scoring system, same officials, etc.. But it's, you know, I can imagine somebody's going to non-league football and saying, I've got no interest in going and watch Chelsea play Liverpool. This is kind of where it's at for me. So I think that's why when it came back, it almost failed because it was slightly different. 00:28:56:19 - 00:29:10:15 Speaker 2 And most of that was because they struggled to keep the cinder on the track, you know, and get the track right. I know that because I was obviously close to the guys that were trying to make it work, and they were just saying, like, it's so difficult for us to keep the track how we want it, and the riders just can't ride on this track anymore. 00:29:10:16 - 00:29:33:08 Speaker 2 But I'm fascinated by the idea about what might have happened if it had been like for like in a slightly different era. You know, there's an irony now that I wonder what it would feel like now when we've got so many people watching so many sports remotely and on TV. I remember the first time I took my son to football in the flesh, and he was kind of like blown away by how, you know, it was almost within touching distance. 00:29:33:08 - 00:29:50:13 Speaker 2 You could hear the players talking and stuff, things that you can never get across on televised sport. And I don't think there could be a bigger difference between watching Speedway on TV and actually standing next to the track. So maybe it would have had a, you know, would have had a big chance. Maybe it still has a chance to rise from the ashes, as it were. 00:29:50:15 - 00:30:07:12 Speaker 1 We heard from another interviewee that it could lend itself to today's age, with the fact that all the breaks within speedway would allow for adverts, and also the short lecturer race would be perfect for social media. Have any thoughts on that? 00:30:07:13 - 00:30:25:20 Speaker 2 Yeah, it would be. Yeah, yeah. And again I think the other bit that's very, very different is that whenever sports talk about individuals it kind of feels a little bit quirky. So football and they'll keep coming back to it is a very good modern example of now there are young fans who are kind of fans of footballers. And they don't care what team they play for, they follow them around. 00:30:25:21 - 00:30:44:07 Speaker 2 So if you love Lionel Messi, you don't care what team he plays for. You're a line or Messi fan. Speedway kind of accommodated that. You know, I think if riders had moved away I wouldn't have followed riders, but you kind of had your cake in it. You know, you could be a Tommy Jansson and a Wimbledon fan at the same time sort of thing. 00:30:44:09 - 00:31:03:05 Speaker 2 But that's a really interesting point that, yeah, it was kind of like the original short attention span sport that kind of like built up over the evening. And to go back to that kind of scoring system, totally unique in that, you know, somebody won a race, but then there was implications broader than that single individual race that mattered for the next one. 00:31:03:06 - 00:31:18:02 Speaker 2 So yeah, be a fascinating experiment to be able to watch it, you know, live on a live on a phone in your pocket and see it compartmentalised into sort of very short bursts that it will build up into a bigger, bigger picture. 00:31:18:04 - 00:31:28:06 Speaker 1 Just a question on the closure. How did that affect you personally when you found out that this was going to be the last night of speedway? 00:31:28:08 - 00:31:46:01 Speaker 2 So there was almost those two versions of that. So I don't remember the first time Speedway kind of like disappeared. But I do remember my kind of like all of a sudden my dad wasn't going to speedway anymore. And he kept going, you know, he was you know, he's obsessed with speedway as anybody could be. And I was aware that it had gone. 00:31:46:02 - 00:32:04:00 Speaker 2 And the local paper was kind of like still reporting on Eastbourne Dons. And it just felt really, really weird. But that second version, when they tried again, it was really sad because they would desperately and as I say, I was quite close to them. So I know how much effort those guys put into trying to make it work and bring it home. 00:32:04:02 - 00:32:24:24 Speaker 2 And it was just a shame. It didn't quite sort of like catch, as it were. So when that kind of failed, you could see that it was struggling to kind of land. So I guess it was kind of like a slightly soft, soft landing in terms of we gave our best shot guys and it wasn't quite right. But yeah, he left us with a stadium that was kind of like falling to pieces. 00:32:24:24 - 00:32:54:00 Speaker 2 And you know, the sports that were that were they were kind of failing in terms of, you know, attendance and attention, gaze of attention. So whilst I completely and utterly every, you know, minute for people who say, you know, you took that stadium away, I think it was going anyway. My own personal version of it is that it's nice to come here and see a community surrounding itself around a sporting team in this part of the world, and it wasn't lost to housing or a retail park. 00:32:54:04 - 00:33:13:00 Speaker 2 You know, it's still a place where people can come and be together and, and all sort of find an excuse to get together and bring the family down. So, so, you know, that's nice and its own way. I like to think that us playing football here is still a little bit of a tribute to all those people who went and watch Speedway here as well. 00:33:13:02 - 00:33:24:05 Speaker 1 Looking back at your time going to Speedway, can you tell us a little bit about what it meant to you to be a Speedway family? 00:33:24:07 - 00:33:49:03 Speaker 2 I think the big part was I was a woman and fan, and it made me really aware of my local area and kind of civic pride and kind of like, you know, I live around the corner from a speedway team that are really good. Was a great feeling. And again, that kind of sense of it was almost like a Lowry painting, you know, seeing all those, you know, little stick figures, all kind of like being drawn towards the lights and the sound of the speedway track. 00:33:49:05 - 00:34:08:09 Speaker 2 And even if you didn't come to speedway, by the way, and you lived within a couple of miles, you knew speedway was on because you could hear it ringing out around, you know, from miles around. So, you know, I was very aware that it kind of belonged to us. And it was a local sport. It didn't really feel like people were traveling from miles and miles away to come here. 00:34:08:10 - 00:34:22:00 Speaker 2 It felt like everybody who lived around the place had all come out to watch the speedway team, which is to say, would always be a really sort of like a dear memory of mine. 00:34:22:02 - 00:34:31:24 Speaker 1 Is there anything you'd like to tell us that we haven't covered about the Speedway? Any more memories or special moments? 00:34:32:01 - 00:34:53:02 Speaker 2 No, I mean, I think I think mostly my most, my strongest abiding memory is, you know, having said that, you know, I've, I've lost my dad. I haven't got him anymore. It's really kind of like, warm to sort of take a little trip down memory lane and might not think of speedway every single day, but when I do, it's kind of full of so many warm memories of how much my dad loved it and how much I loved. 00:34:53:03 - 00:35:08:21 Speaker 2 Kind of like sharing his passion for it. But it wasn't a difficult sell, you know? It made sense to me. You sat down and those bikes went screaming past with that, you know, red breastplate with a yellow star on. It was also like a really cool, sort of like brand, right? We didn't have a little which or a tiger. 00:35:08:21 - 00:35:13:06 Speaker 2 We had a big bright star which felt very, very fitting. 00:35:13:08 - 00:35:22:08 Speaker 1 Just one quick question. So obviously you went as a child. Did your friends in school, did they know about speedway? Would they ever attempted to go along? 00:35:22:09 - 00:35:39:21 Speaker 2 I don't remember anybody in my class or anybody in my peer group going to the speedway at all. It was a little bit different, and I think partly your parents and, you know, as a kid, your parents needed to be in it, into it. And my dad was always into kind of like motorsport. And he'd written for cycle Speedway team at the stadium he used to ride for Wimbledon. 00:35:39:21 - 00:35:58:14 Speaker 2 Wolves and my cousin rode for South London Rangers, so the family were quite aware of speedway and cycle speedway. I remember my dad made me a cycle speedway buy it. That was my pride and joy till til some rotter stole it, which still breaks my heart, you know? I don't know where it went. And my dad had spent so much time sort of building it. 00:35:58:14 - 00:36:14:24 Speaker 2 So, you know, when I rode my track bike around and used to talk about cycle speedway, other people used to just say, you know, I don't know what you're talking about. So not in my immediate peer group at that time, but it is amazing how I've got friends who are a couple of years older than me, so I think that might make a difference. 00:36:15:03 - 00:36:28:03 Speaker 2 All used to talk about, yeah, we used to go speedway every week sort of thing, and they would have probably been about sort of like 12 or 13 at the time. And again, they're all now frames from football, but they were all definitely Wimbledon speedway fans. 00:36:28:09 - 00:36:32:02 Speaker 1 Did you did you ever harbour any dreams of being a speedway? Why then? 00:36:32:05 - 00:36:50:21 Speaker 2 No. So my cousin, who was very, very good at cycle speedway, you know, got to like British championships. And if you Google him he's, he's pops up straight away Tony Birch if anyone wants to go. He once tried my dad got him down to go round on a speedway bike saying you know you're good at cycle speedway. This is this is where you go next. 00:36:50:23 - 00:37:07:05 Speaker 2 You know, you get on a proper bike. And I think you went around one lap and got off and went, I'm never doing that again. So as much as I love the kind of the glamor of it and the sort of the real sort of the glitz of, you know, speedway riders, and now they were real kind of rock stars on two wheels, as it were. 00:37:07:05 - 00:37:13:08 Speaker 2 I don't think I ever harboured any pretensions of being brave enough to fly around that track. 00:37:13:10 - 00:37:21:02 Speaker 1 Any other questions? Yeah. Can you tell us a bit more about your dad's link? Well done with the Speedway. 00:37:21:05 - 00:37:39:24 Speaker 2 Yeah. So my dad knew the riders and would talk about, you know, talk about them by name because they used to come to his factory, which was around the corner called Machine World, where they would get their tow bars fitted. So the riders used to take the bikes themselves. I don't even think footballers take their own boots to football now. 00:37:39:24 - 00:37:57:05 Speaker 2 I think someone probably does it for them, but you would see the riders turning up with their bikes on the back of their car, you know, coming in and parking is sort of a particular place and, and taking their bikes off. So my dad as a welder and was like very local to the stadium, it was probably very easy for them to go, where do we get that done? 00:37:57:06 - 00:38:15:10 Speaker 2 There's a guy over the road that does it. And I remember at his funeral, a friend of the family recalled a story where he said he went past my dad's factory one day and looked for his gates, and there was a speedway bike in there. He was obviously helping to fit on a thing, and he said he was staring through the, you know, the gates, like, wow, that's a real speedway bike. 00:38:15:11 - 00:38:28:06 Speaker 2 And then my dad came out and said, do you want to come and sit on it for a minute, son? Because the ride is, you know, the guy who owns it's not here. And he let him sit on the speedway bike for sort of five minutes, and then off he went. And they became friends kind of later in life when he grew up. 00:38:28:08 - 00:38:42:09 Speaker 2 But I think he pieced that story together after my dad had died. I don't think he kind of quite put two and two together. It's only when we were talking about his old factory that he was kind of like, hang on a minute. You know, I didn't realise Roy Jones was the guy that let me sit on a on a speedway bike. 00:38:42:09 - 00:39:03:03 Speaker 2 So as I say, it's really nice because if you Google the cycle Speedway, there are Peters of my dad in his cycle speedway team. It feels like a sport that's got the people that held it dear to their hearts, never let it go. And there were some really nice, kind of like repositories of old, you know, black and white photos of those cycle speedway teams and those speedway teams. 00:39:03:04 - 00:39:18:16 Speaker 2 So it's a real joy to sort of be involved, almost on behalf of my dad, to take part in this. And I'm sure that, you know, there will be plenty of people that will be rummaging through all these tales and getting those memories brought back like it was just yesterday. 00:39:18:18 - 00:39:22:15 Speaker 1 Do you think it's important that the story is told hugely? 00:39:22:17 - 00:39:38:15 Speaker 2 Yeah, it's hugely important because it was. And I say this to everybody at the football club, you know, women and speedway team was something else, you know. And it's nice that we've now got the statue out the front of the stadium, even if it's just to kick off those conversations about, you know, what's, what's that bike all about. 00:39:38:17 - 00:39:49:03 Speaker 2 And the difference now will be, of course, instead of just saying go and read that, I'll be able to point people at a website and say, go and watch this, because it's there's some stories to listen to.. 00:39:49:05 - 00:39:53:21 Speaker 1 That's pretty cycle speedway exactly what I think it is. 00:39:53:23 - 00:40:21:19 Speaker 2 So basically, postwar cycle speedway was gangs of kids getting push bikes with no brakes and going around a very, very small version of a speedway track. It's essentially speedway on a bike, and it was massive throughout the country. And that's why I say if you go on those websites, the three teams here like Wimbledon, Wolves, there was Malden Monarchs, South London Rangers were literally just around the corner at Garrett Park. 00:40:21:21 - 00:40:41:17 Speaker 2 So those teams, like they were lots of kind of men of my dad's age. You would have known Cycle Speedway would have taken part in it. It was usually done on kind of like seemed a tracks, you know, in kind of bomb sites. And it was a very kind of low heeled sport. You got a bike, you tucked your trousers in so you didn't get them caught in a chain and you bombed around. 00:40:41:17 - 00:41:02:11 Speaker 2 But it was exactly the same scoring, exactly the same types up around you go. So it was I guess he was like kind of almost like kids playing at being speedway riders. Although when I say kids, they were quite old, you know, they were like young men, you know, they were I think my dad stopped Cycle Speedway to do his national service and probably came home and carried on a little bit. 00:41:02:12 - 00:41:10:08 Speaker 2 So it was huge, you know, like again, in the 70s, most people listening to these stories about speedway will probably know cycle Speedway as well.