Hello, and a very warm Geordie "Welcome" to our site, which is intended to inform, bring back some memories and maybe even entertain.  You may find another site with similar content, but this one is run by enthusiastic ex-riders, no middlemen and no third parties, and is purely not-for-profit; it's a diary. We are thus hosted within the Web servers of NMBC (Newcastle Mountain Bike Club) for financial and historical reasons. Several ex-Cycle Speedway riders have gone on to take up mountain biking in one form or another, with a few more "Old Boys" still keeping in touch  and their existing web sites mean a free ride for the Phoenix-like NCSC, if I may still refer to it as such, as it makes yet another re-appearance, albeit for purely historical and sentimental reasons. As the Club's last Secretary I still haven't been voted out of office, hence the "Official web site" claim!

This whole thing has been inspired this time around by two NCSC "Old Boys", Jimmy Smith (leading in banner photo) and Keith Dyer (portrait right), one time skipper, statistician, manager and publicity man of the 1960's through 1970's Newcastle Vikings. These two are  the driving force behind a plot to map out the complete history of Cycle Speedway in our fair City from it's organised inception in or about, we guesstimate, 1949. What, you don't believe the date? Well feast your eyes on this >

What you see here is the track that stood at the top of the Fossway in Byker, Newcastle, in 1949. Probably a bigger crowd than the Motor Speedway attracts these days! Brough Park is behind the houses in the background right (Tunstall Avenue). The coach is from Edinburgh and it brought their riders down to the Toon for this match and at least one other. Unfortunately we don't have the scores or riders' names, but we're working on it. Photo courtesy of Jack Hiscock, ex-fifties rider and 60's Chairman who's son, the late Bruce, rode in the sixties. Eternal gratitude to Jimmy for taking the time to chat with Jackie, now in his eighties, and for digging out this and some more absolute treasures of the immediate post war Newcastle CS era.

Jimmy and Keith started Cycle Speedway in 1965, together with George Taylor, Norman Carson and a few other Walkergate, Newcastle locals. They began on a patch of ground at the end of Moorland Crescent, just sliding around on the grass until they wore an earth oval in it. Cowhorn handlebars, 46-18 gearing and brakes were still used until they visited Edinburgh that year in their first historic away friendly match at Pilrig Park. Racing there against already established and knowledgeable riders with a proper League setup they soon learned they needed to fettle their bikes and construct a proper track to progress and enjoy this new (to them) sport. The 1940's and 1950's will, for fairly obvious reasons, have to remain a sketchy outline although Jimmy has uncovered some really fantastic pictures from those two decades. And of course we've ahd a little help from technology in our quest. OK then, e-mail and Google!

These four above mentioned historians have been joined by Mick Hoult (photo left) who signed up in 1967 as a youngster from Fawdon, and Terry Kirkup (whose dad Ernie was Track Manager at Brough Park and the one who persuaded him to take up the sport in 1966) to begin the task of compiling some sort of record of the Club's life. The plan is to scrape together as much nostalgia as we can and put it on public display, for your delectation and delight! more...