[00:00]:
Okay.

[00:01]:
Okay, so I'm gonna do some basic introductory stuff first and get into the proper questions. So this is Dermot Jones conducting an interview for the Speedway at Wimbledon Stadium or history project on 21st April, 2026. So what is your name?

[00:19]:
It's Ray Dearman.

[00:21]:
And where were you born?

[00:24]:
I was born in 35 SW Swaffield Road. SW18. Free AQ in 1959.

[00:33]:
That's the next question. Thank you. And what did your parents do for a living?

[00:38]:
Oh, well, my dad worked at the OK Sauce factory in Kimber Road. Racket in Coleman, I believe. And my mum, she. She was a housewife sort of thing, you know. But me shag, I'll know about my dad.

[01:01]:
Yeah, it gives a little bit.

[01:02]:
Yeah. My dad also was a track raker at Wimbley, a racked Wimberley track, but then moved to Wandsworth and he ranked the women track, you know, and he knew all the riders, you know, and the. The whole family were speedway supporters, you know. And I was introduced to the speedway in 1959 and one of my favorite riders of all time was Ronnie Moore.

[01:51]:
Okay, I might. I might stop you because we've got some really specific questions. But I'd love to hear about more about Ronnie Moore in a bit.

[01:57]:
So your first year here was 1959.

[02:02]:
When would you say, what was the full span of your coming to speedway at Wimbledon?

[02:08]:
Well, mum and dad would push me in the push chair and bring me as a baby. And I sort of grew up with Speedway. 5 foot 19. Yeah. And then I got older and I used to come with my dad and he'd tell me where to sit on the first bend sort of thing.

[02:38]:
And yeah, he used to go off rake the track sort of thing. And he said, you'll find me where the rake has changed. So I used to wait for him and he'd come out and we'd have. We'd have seafood at the store that was just round towards Garret Lane sort of thing. And Don Miller's seafood store.

[03:08]:
Yeah.

[03:15]:
And so when would be the last year that you would have come to speedway here?

[03:20]:
Well, the Last year was 2017 when the stadium and, you know, it was announced that the stadium had gone completely sort of thing. But before it, they put on stock cars and speedway sort of thing. Put on the end of, you know, good, goodbye, Wimbledon Stadium sort of thing, you know. Thank you.

[03:51]:
So tell us about this. I'm going to modify this question slightly. Tell us about your first visit to Wimbledon Speedway that you can remember my

[04:00]:
first visit as a baby. Ronnie Moore, I was told by my mum and dad, took me around on his bike. How that was done, I don't know. I was just a baby. I don't, you know, I don't remember it.

[04:27]:
I don't think any young baby would sort of thing. But my mum and dad always told me, you know, and my dad was obviously friends with Ronnie, you know, and. Yeah, so I had a lap around the track and I walked. Well, Ronnie had hold of me sort of thing. But I believe that was the truth.

[04:55]:
Me mum and dad told me sort of thing.

[05:01]:
That's a lovely family story, isn't it?

[05:03]:
And I'm proud of it, I really am. You know. Ronnie was a proper gentleman, you know, not only loved so much by every, every Wimbledon supporter and I dare say every supporter of speedway sort of thing, you know, he had that effect on people, you know. Yeah. Annie was from New Zealand, you know.

[05:34]:
Yeah. Then you know, Barry Briggs, also from speed from New Zealand. And they brought a six times world champion, Ivan Major with them. And Ivan started well, so, so my dad, mum and dad used to say Ivan used to start off just racing around the track and he'd come off, he'd come off his bike sort of thing. But he's six times world champion.

[06:05]:
But. So he learned it the hard way, sort of, you know, coming off. Yeah.

[06:24]:
Okay. And from the age that you can remember, can you remember the first time that you were consciously at Wimbledon, Women wouldn't speak.

[06:34]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This. You never forget the, the matches, the, the not matches. You never forget the, the times you were here sort of thing. You know, the meetings.

[07:04]:
That's it, you know, different, different teams sort of thing. And the, you know, it won't you want here to, to just support your team. You were here to support speedway. Something where it was a win or lose sort of thing. You were here to support speedway and you know, that added oh well raced, you know, and you'd clap sort of thing.

[07:35]:
And he's. You'd so well done sort of thing, win or lose.

[07:47]:
So what were your impressions then as a young person? What was it like?

[07:52]:
Oh, it was the place to be, the place to be. Hopefully if it does come back, you know, that joy of being in the crowd sort of thing and taking part, doing the supporters stuff, you know, I, I dare say, you know, well, I've been to AFC women football match and it's the entertainment. It's the, you're all together solving a good crowd. You know, I'm more away you know, and that's what sport is. It's being together and cheering and clapping and you know, if you meet footballers or speedway riders, say up in the club bar sort of thing, after the meeting, you know, well done, you know, okay, good racing, good football, you know, that's, that's what sport is all about sort of thing, you know.

[09:29]:
So for someone like me who hasn't been, what would the kind of sights and sounds and smells.

[09:35]:
Oh that. Now you got it. The, the track. Well, my first debut for the, for the football, you know, the, the pitch, the. When the players came on the, the coach Johnny Jackson.

[09:56]:
But for skip, for speedway.

[09:58]:
Oh, the track. The Smith the track. Then naphanol, the fuel in the bikes, the, the levers, the, the racing, you know, all, it's all in it together sort of thing. All adds together and you know, it's just the thrill. No brakes, no fear, you know, it, it just, it's just a really entertaining.

[10:25]:
Well, speedway is evening sort of thing. Doesn't have to be. Sometimes we race in the afternoon sort of thing, you know. And that's, that's the fun of it. Yeah.

[10:53]:
So my neighbor told me that he could hear it from three miles away.

[10:56]:
Yeah.

[10:57]:
So what was it like in the stadium?

[11:00]:
Oh, electric, you know, the same as the football. You know you're here and you know you're here to see the match sort of thing. But when it was a speedway meeting, you're here to see the speedway meeting and to take part as a supporter, you know. And yeah, I do open, pray that it does come back, you know. And then you know that first time watching football live at AFC Women, you know, that was electric as well.

[11:44]:
And the Womble who runs around. Ah, fantastic.

[12:03]:
So I'm going to do a bit more about the experience of being here. Can you describe what the stadium was like?

[12:10]:
Oh well, you had the glass and cup collage a bit. You had the everyone knew it, everyone else sort of thing. You like a little family sort of thing. The stadium there was the stands where you'd stand sort of thing. Then there's, there's a seating area.

[12:47]:
This was the back straight sort of thing. The starting tapes were over on that side sort of thing. That was where the riders, you know, the tapes would go up and the out of the gate, you know, first bend where the loonies stood behind sort of thing. The. These safety fence sort of thing and you know, so electric and it's all about the gating and the riding riders know the track, you know, they me in that where the good gripper is sort of thing, the dirt sort of thing.

[13:23]:
That's all comes in good raking sort of thing. So you're all a team sort of thing. The rakers, the, the supporters, the, the. Even the manager of the team sort of thing. Yeah.

[14:02]:
Was there a particular place that you would always be?

[14:05]:
I used to. Well, when it came back in 2002, 2002, I threw myself into it because my sister who unfortunately died, she was a speedway supporter as well and she loved it. She used to meet all the riders, you know, and that they loved this sort of thing, you know, my sister, Chris, Christine, they loved it and she loved them, you know and. Oh, that's tiny sister sort of thing, you know, even the away riders, you know, the opponents sort of thing that they all. You're on a little family sort of thing and family of speedway sort of thing, you know.

[15:04]:
And I, I checked as I said, chuck myself into if things needed doing. I was friends with the promoters, Dave Croucher, Steve Ribbons and you know, then we, we had the supporters getting involved sort of thing. Directors I think one would call them, you know. And you're all friends, you're all sort of related in this sport sort of thing.

[15:50]:
Yeah, you'd say it was kind of a like community or a family.

[15:54]:
A family, yeah, community, family. You know, all the supporters, whether you're away, you know, opponent supporters, they're all like a family. You're supporting the speedway? Yeah.

[16:14]:
And did you introduce your sister to speedway?

[16:18]:
I used to take me bring my sister. Dad had died in 1970. Chris wasn't old enough, You know, she didn't really. She wasn't into it at that time. But I used to bring her and then she used to come on her own with some friends.

[16:48]:
One special friend, Margaret and Margaret and Chris loved it sort of thing, you know. Yeah.

[17:01]:
And you said that there are people really supportive of you after your sister died. Sorry, did you say people really supported you?

[17:07]:
Yeah, yeah. You're a family, you know, You support them as well, you know. And there's many ways to support people. I'm doing a peer support work off my own back. I'm retired.

[17:25]:
But in, in the. It's not actually about speedway. In the openness of Richmond Park. Yeah. Hello.

[17:43]:
Good morning. How are you? And what a difference that can make to people. You know. I've had suicide sinal cases as well, but that's not about swing.

[18:01]:
That was a welcoming place.

[18:03]:
Yeah, it was welcoming here. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

[18:07]:
And. Oh yeah. So how affordable was it to get

[18:10]:
in well 25p which is 5 shillings. I, I was, I had a Saturday. I was still a school kid but I had a Saturday job and I, I, you know I could afford that. So then I left school and went into work. I still came.

[18:38]:
Yeah. And okay. Because I became an adult 18 sort of thing. I had to pay the IR sort of thing. But it wasn't all that much, you know and it to come to the family sports sort of thing, you know.

[19:05]:
Just fantastic. Yeah, thank you.

[19:16]:
How busy was it?

[19:19]:
Oh, we had a lot of supporters. Numbers. I don't know. But you know the stadium was packed. Towards later on.

[20:06]:
You know you'd see cemented seats but mostly if it was a big meeting and the UAE contingent, you know would bring their fans up on these speedway coaches if they put speedway coaches on sort of thing and you know it would increase the attendance at the speedway meetings, you know. But anyone who didn't come would definitely miss a really good match sort of meeting.

[20:26]:
Thank you. So can you tell us about any merchandise or programs or what was on

[20:31]:
sale where you got, you, you got the programs. You, you. There was the speedway club kiosk sort of thing. You could, you could purchase away trips on the coach seats sort of thing. They had all the scarves and the hats and the mugs.

[21:00]:
Supporters kiosk sort of thing. And there used to be the Speedway Star magazine sort of thing. People used to go around selling them special. Special people used to go around selling them at the White Overalls on if I remember rightly, you know. And the.

[21:29]:
There was some. Something else they used to go around selling as well. Oh there used to be the, the photographs of the riders. Yeah. Everything to do with speedway was on, you know, as a supporter.

[21:58]:
You could join up into this supporters club at the kiosk, you know and. Yeah. Key rings I believe. Yeah.

[22:23]:
And what sort of food and drink could you get when you were here?

[22:27]:
Oh, a gastronomic halting. No. Yes. To do the burgers there. I believe there was a restaurant as well.

[22:44]:
You could get high class food there. But you could get chips. Chicken. I think you could get chicken. I'm not sure.

[23:01]:
I used to have the burgers from the, the back. No, the first spin sort of thing. It used to be a fantastic burger place there up at the top sort of thing. And in the grandstand there was stuff there sort of thing. And the bars, you know, you could get, you could get alcohol sort of thing.

[23:17]:
I'm not an alcohol person. I don't actually like it. So that's me, St. John's Ambulance. We were actually stopped by police.

[23:34]:
Could you help us? Could you help us? Traffic, is that a standstill? We've got life and death cases sort of thing. So.

[23:51]:
And it was called through people just ignoring, no drink or driving sort of thing, you know. So. Yeah.

[24:03]:
Thank you. And can you describe a typical race night?

[24:08]:
Oh, right. 7:45, the meeting would start and there'd be the parade of varieties and track staff. The. They would come out, march out with the riders and the team managers sort of thing and good evening all would come over the T. And oh, also the music.

[24:39]:
You had all the pop music, the. The rock and roll sort of thing, you know. Well, remember Elvis being played sort of. Oh, that's another story. But no, it was thrilling.

[25:09]:
It was. It made it all more exciting. The wonder of you from Elvis sort of thing, you know, and other 50s 60s music sort of thing, you know. Just a fantastic evening and you know, you'd see the. Throw a coin up to choose the gates to.

[25:39]:
Not the gates, the. Yeah, you started from inside, inside. Then you'd have one gate, one gate, two gate, three gate, four. Four riders and they'd all be at the starting tapes. Everyone.

[26:09]:
And everyone's electric sort of thing. Come on, come on women, you know, and come on you dons and. And the way supporters would cheer their team on sort of thing. Yeah, just did electric, you know, remembering the. No breaks.

[26:39]:
No, no fear. No breaks. You got me there. I think I've said it before though, and it's all good atmosphere sort of thing. You're there for the meeting sort of thing and ah, fantastic racing.

[27:10]:
Unfortunately, sometimes there was injuries, you know, some would not be severe, they'd just come off sort of thing and the. It. The meeting would continue sort of thing. Maybe not with the four riders. Maybe if an injury, really bad injury, they wouldn't rate that rider wouldn't be it obviously racing sort of thing.

[27:40]:
But you know, it all added to the thrill, you know, and we would wish the rider did get injured. A speedy recovery sort of thing. If it was that serious, you know. Sometimes the injury wasn't that serious, you know. Yeah.

[28:11]:
How would the evening end?

[28:13]:
Well, you might have a win, you might. You might be slaughtered. So, you know, it's about the teamwork like in football, you know, but the all riding together sort of thing. All doing their best for the supporters. Yes, you're all part of a family sort of thing, you know, and you want your team to.

[28:49]:
To win sort of thing. But sometimes it was a draw and you know, you'd be excited that, you know, we didn't lose a draw sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, nice.

[29:11]:
Thank you. I've got some going into a section called Being a Fan. So can you tell us about any particular riders or teams that you follow? You mentioned a couple already. Of course.

[29:24]:
Right, you can mention them again. Yeah, I. Our downshrink women. No, because swimming packed up in 91 I believe till it came back in 2002. I was on holiday with friends that I used to come with to Wimbledon.

[29:49]:
They had moved from Southfield to. Which is Wandsworth sort of thing to down in Dorset near Poole. And they. They went to Paul Speedway, you know, and not to. Just to see the racing, you know, because I missed Wimbledon, you know, long way to come from Dorset to.

[30:14]:
But Wimbledon wasn't right racing sort of thing. So they just went to Paul and I was on holiday with. With them. They had a little caravan in the three acres of garden sort of thing. So I was down there.

[30:39]:
I went along. They asked me, would you like to come to Paul with us? So I said yeah, why not?

[30:55]:
So probably need to bring it back to when you were at Wimbledon. Sorry for the focus of the documentary but yeah. So when. When you're at Wimbledon, who were you kind of following teams and riders.

[31:08]:
Well, when it packed up but before then, I mean. Yeah, well it, you know, we, we. We had different riders. When I started coming, I remembered jim tebbe, trevor ridge, Reg Luckhurst. I'm still in touch with Reg and his son as well.

[31:31]:
Trevor I haven't seen but I. I'd reckon it recognize him straight away sort of thing. Reg. Reg was also a record at records. You know, he used to sing and you'll see now.

[31:53]:
Thank you, Reg. Voice sort of thing. Then there was obviously Tommy Yans and was. Everybody's in the 70s, I believe everybody's. Especially at Wyndham.

[32:15]:
Number one rider. Something. Ronnie came back having a. A car. He used to ride cars sort of thing.

[32:38]:
And he had a. An accident and there was a question mark whether he. You know. But he came back in the 70s. Yeah.

[33:00]:
He introduced another New Zealand rider, Larry Ross. Brilliant guy. Barry Croson wrote for us. Oh, there was another New Zealand rider. Can't think of his name at the moment.

[33:22]:
He. He was an electrician by. By trade. But he used to. Patrick Paulson.

[33:45]:
It came to. It came to me. Brilliant guy, you know, really good rider as well. And then we had Ann Mogridge, obviously John Stevens. Brilliant, brilliant rider.

[34:07]:
I remember sponsoring. Sponsoring him with tire. Tire sort of thing, you know, one meeting sort of thing.

[34:23]:
Does that mean you paid for a tire?

[34:24]:
Yeah. Okay. It's the things supporters do sort of thing, you know.

[34:30]:
Tell me a little bit more about that. So how, how would that happen? Well,

[34:38]:
I don't know how it happened, but I just done it sort of thing, you know, it wasn't all that much and I, you know, I had obviously gone on to higher paid work, you know, so I just done it. It's what speedway supporters do, you know, you get behind your team. Yeah. So, yeah. Thank you.

[35:10]:
And can then can you tell us about the kind of different teams or leagues that were.

[35:15]:
Right. We were in the British League and they had a place in Trinity Road, the Promoters association that had been there for quite a long time now I believe it's a care home. So. Yeah, long story there. But.

[35:45]:
Sorry, what was the kind of teams or leagues within the.

[35:48]:
Right.

[35:50]:
We're like juniors and seniors and stuff like that.

[35:52]:
I don't think we, I don't. When we were doing the British League, I don't think we had a junior league. Thing sort of thing. But when, when, when we went into the conference league. That's it.

[36:39]:
That was when the, When Steve Ribbons and DA Crowtra took over, we were in the conference League and we, we seem to have a junior team. I don't know, we could call them as reserves sort of thing, but I don't think they actually raced against over conference teams sort of thing. Not like AFC women.

[37:08]:
Right.

[37:10]:
You know, and they've been quite successful, thank God. Yeah. So. Oh, there's knockout cups. The.

[37:35]:
Oh, and another thing, the London cup, you know, then we had. I, I remember the, the White City. The West Ham. Not the West Ham. Sorry, that, that was before.

[38:00]:
I think that packed up about 1970, But we're definitely Acne west, not West End, White City, Who was the other one. But we used to race against the London tracks, you know, for the London cup, so. Yeah.

[38:15]:
All right, thank you. Didn't know that. So you've talked about this a little bit, but how accessible would you say the riders were to the fans?

[38:24]:
Oh, you didn't have one. You did not get any rider not wanting to spend time with, whether it's a home supporter or away supporter, you know, the riders. That's what being part of a family is. You spend time, you make time, you know, whether you're busy getting your bike tuned up sort of thing. You know, I can't thank the riders enough.

[39:13]:
You know, I mentioned last time about when my sister was in Atkinson Morley Hospital, she was in a coma as she'd been knocked down on a, on a traffic lights crossing sort of thing by a woman on a motorbike. Like she, she been on drugs, drink and because she had money she got away with it. You know. She blamed my sister for walking out. Not that she'd come through a red light sort of thing.

[40:02]:
But my sister was in the Atkinson Morley laying in, in a bed and I just took a photograph of the women team. They done it special for me and I remember it so well. I sat by a bed with this photo and all of a sudden Chris came, Chris came out of the coma. You know, the doctors, the nurses rushed up to my sister and as one would hope for sort of thing, you know, and she didn't know anybody else, she only knew me. And the photograph.

[40:51]:
The riders that she loved, you know, she, whether they were her own riders or whether they were away riders, they all had time for her, you know. Yeah.

[41:14]:
Oh, thank you for telling us, sharing that.

[41:17]:
Thank you, thank you.

[41:21]:
More straightforward question. What was the general demographic of the fans at the time? So kind of race, age, sex.

[41:32]:
Right. The, the. At an elderly impact. Obviously it had a young impact. Family I would say younger, old, middle aged, Male, female.

[42:00]:
Known as the sport. They loved being at Wimbledon. They, they loved the sport. Speedway. They loved the riders, they love meeting their friends here sort of thing that even relations had relations that came to speedway, you know.

[42:31]:
And now can you tell us about any rivalries between the different teams?

[42:37]:
Rivalry? Oh well, The, the, the only thing I can think of is what I said before. The manager and Kim stated that it wasn't seal maiden, it was the manager of Wimbledon. He said to me, guard that gate. Don't let anybody through.

[43:16]:
Thinking about it, it could have been Dave Croucher. Guard that gate with your life. Don't let anyone through. David seen, I'm sure it was Dave now actually David seen one of the away riders take our rider into the fence and all the fans, all the first spin loonies wanted to get that rider and I would not let anyone. Again, I'm only 5 foot 19, but I would not let anyone through that gate.

[43:55]:
And it was Dave thinking about it now. Dave told me to guard that gate and I did. And he said thank you, Tiny. That was my nickname and still is.

[44:27]:
So yeah, that was a rare kind of incident.

[44:32]:
Very rare. You don't get, you do not get trouble in. You didn't get trouble in speedway. The, there was a few police but they didn't have nothing to do sort of, you know, you had the stadium security, but they, you know, they, they were all. They joined in the Speedway, you know, the thrill of this, the meeting, sort of.

[45:09]:
So this question. Well, actually, this is slightly separate. How important would you say that Wimbledon Speedway, was it in your social life?

[45:19]:
Oh, gosh, very important. Very important. I never really had friends at school, but I knew I had friends at Speedway. When I really, really started to come to Speedway, you know, there was a few years that kept me away from it, couldn't afford it sort of thing, helping Mum keep house sort of thing. But when I really, you know, really started coming, You know, you know, everyone was pleased to see me and I was pleased to see them.

[45:54]:
And it's again, like the little family sort of thing. Yeah. Thank you. And you.

[46:23]:
So can you tell us about, further to that, specific relationships with other people in the Speedway community?

[46:32]:
Well, you've met Kim.

[46:34]:
Yeah,

[46:36]:
Kim had a little family and I think they idolized me. And when I was struggling, when I started working at Remploy, people with special needs, disabilities. I should have said people with disabilities. They hadn't heard of what a social club is. So I suggested we get a social club up.

[46:57]:
And they asked me what a social club is. So I told them what social club is. We could have trips to the coast during the summer. Well, it boosted morale. It boosted output.

[47:18]:
Hang on. I think I should have been an mp, sort of, you know. But no, it boosted output. We even had the factory manager come with us and he said, my gosh, what have I been missing? He brought his family, you know, and we, like a little family.

[47:40]:
We were at REM boy. We enjoyed the seaside trip. Yeah. And that's like, oh, I, I include. Always included.

[48:01]:
I'd ask Kim, I. You up for a trip to, say, Brighton. The kids loved it. A nice sandy beach. What kid doesn't like playing with the sand, you know?

[48:22]:
And Kim Skids, loved it, you know.

[48:26]:
And do you think that what you did at Room Point was directly influenced by your experience being amongst people at Speedway?

[48:37]:
Well, I was very, very lucky. When I was at Renfloi, I had a chap who was also a women supporter, Speedway, you know, and Bob Matthews, his name was. Unfortunately, fortunately, Bob's passed away sort of thing. Bob was always on the coaches, you know, he brought his mum on the coach trips and they'd thank me for, you know, for the trick. I said, no, no, no, thank you, you know, and like, I did Kim.

[49:06]:
Thank you. And Kim brought a Junior rider. Oh, I can't think of his name, but no, thank you. 


[52:15]:
So we've heard about that Cubs had supporters clubs, but what about any fan clubs for particular riders? Be aware of those.

[52:21]:
Oh, right. The. I. I loved all the riders. You know, I think also one year we actually saw some flight.

[52:46]:
Female riders. Okay. I think that in one of the meetings that was introduced. I don't remember much about it sort of, but did happen that, you know, there was female riders in speedway and. But I don't think there was a meeting for actually got up for that sort of thing. You know, women speak fair play to them. You know, if there ever is a team with women speedway riders. Fantastic.

[53:43]:
You know, I don't think they'd be allowed to race against the male contingent of riders sort of thing. Yeah.

[53:57]:
Thank you. And can you tell us about your Wimbledon Speedway heroes? They don't have to be riders, just people who might immersed you as hero.

[54:06]:
I think. Well, I think any rider at Wimbledon who's rode the women's circuit and any other circuit, you know, it's. It's been a supporter of speedway. So, so yes, there's your team, your own own team. But then there's.

[54:35]:
We didn't. We wouldn't have a league or. It's, it's like football as well, you know, if you didn't have opponents. If you didn't have opponents, there wouldn't be matches on sort of in. So every team in speedway is important because, you know, it makes the league up, it makes the conference up, it makes the.

[55:03]:
Whatever. Yeah, it's called something. Yeah, that's great.

[55:20]:
Thank you. So can you tell us about science? Single memorable night for you. One that stands out at Wimbledon.

[55:28]:
For me or for the team?

[55:29]:
For you.

[55:36]:
Well, the, the laurels. End of term, the laurels would be a fantastic evening. And afterwards we'd have firework this and the management would pay a thank you to all the speedway supporters and you know, the volunteers that came forward, you know, speedway, your football or whatever sport. If you didn't have volunteers, where would you be? You know, I, I say that I.

[56:23]:
Under Dave Croucher and Steve Ribbons and the. What did I say they were? Directors or, you know, we, we actually had the supporters taking a real in, in a, you know, they, they become the management sort of thing and. Directors. Yeah.

[57:09]:
And you know, they, they want to thank the volunteers who, you know, and you know, the volunteers who they announced on the microphone, you know, We, we had a ride on the tractor sort of thing. I think that I didn't do it for that, you know, I done it for the sport. But I think that would be most. What did you say?

[57:46]:
Memorable. So what was it like going around on the tractor?

[57:50]:
Oh, Evan. Ice sorting. It felt like, you know, and I was pointing at the supporters. Not thanks to me, thanks to you. Get the supporters beyond the team and you know, it could lift the team.

[58:20]:
Thank you. I'm going to move on to some questions about changes. I'm aware that we're quite short of time. A couple more questions. Okay.

[58:34]:
So I suppose how did it feel to cover your very last visit to Wimbledon speedway?

[58:37]:
I was absolutely gutted. But you know, one had to think of the riders, how they were feeling. Because without a team, they'd have to find a new team and they'd have to find a new team. Maybe they wouldn't find a new team. You sort of lose all round sort of thing, you know.

[59:20]:
Yeah, I, I really feel. Felt gutted that, you know, and I, I knew a little bit about the football as well. And if I, I voiced it that we should all work together, you know, I don't know if it's true but Sam and ma' am has got a lot to answer for. When it was, you know, in its original place. I don't know if this is true but British Rail step forward and wanted to build Salmon Lamb a stadium.

[01:00:03]:
How much that going to cost me? Said Sam and man and British Rail said nothing, just let us put a station there. It would have been great for the football and the speedway, you know. And Sam, Sam said no, although it wouldn't have cost him anything.

[01:00:38]:
I've got one final question for you. Looking back. What does or did Wimbledon speedway mean to you?

[01:00:47]:
Oh, Everything. It was the sport my dad loved and my family, you know they was, they were women's speedway supporters and as I said after the war they life returned sort of thing. Life picked up and it picked up with the speedway. And women's speedway. Won meetings, champions, you know.

[01:01:48]:
So they came back and you got to remember the war years, you know and there was new riders. It was like a buzz you know here in the stadium and oh, Buzz Burrows is another rider. Oh my gosh.

[01:02:22]:
Trying to finish off quickly. Tell us about Buzz.

[01:02:25]:
Ah, Buzz Burroughs. Great rider, great team man, you know. Loved the supporters and we loved him, you know, a gentleman just like Ronnie. Well, just like all the riders, you know. So that is speedway.

[01:02:55]:
Thank you, thank you very much. Any other questions? I know we're short time.

[01:03:00]:
Oh, come on, come on, come on,

[01:03:03]:
open up the floor. Oh, one more thing.

[01:03:06]:
Tell Derma about you being a pitman loony. What you would do the chance, all that sort that you would call stuff like that. Oh, the old war cry. Yes, 246. I do.

[01:03:39]:
We appreciate deepness dance, you know and the away matches, you know I'd have me hand knitted scarf, you know iron netted it and a really you know it was so big, you know. Yeah, it just thrilled to to be be in attendance like you know it speedway. I I used to tell other people and oh what's he going? Oh, let's go and see. So they came to the speedway, you know.

[01:04:15]:
Anything that you wanted to tell us that we haven't asked

[01:04:22]:
When's it coming back?

[01:04:24]:
Okay, fantastic. Can I say no?

[01:04:26]:
Is it coming back back?

[01:04:29]:
We don't know.

[01:04:30]:
Come on.

[01:04:32]:
Would what would you like it Would you like to see SPE returning to Wimbledon?

[01:04:37]:
Most definitely. And I'd say wan council do although it changed D but to together with labor when conservatives were in power. They put a petitioner that the stadium should be going. They owned part of the stadium. There was a question mark.

[01:05:08]:
What part? Sort of thing. But, you know, together with Merton and together with the football and the speedway, all working together, I dare say we could maybe even ground shared, you know, why didn't that happen? You know, I'm no diplomat, I'm no MP or Prime Minister, but where I've come from being a shop steward, it's working together. I even had my factory manager running to me.

[01:05:39]:
Help, help. I need your advice, you know, and whatever problem he had was sorted out, you know, and we had contracts all the. From all over the world. But the Labour government just shuts down. They didn't want rimp.

[01:06:11]:
Thank you very much. Thank you for your time.