Newcastle Cycle Speedway Club
re-launched mid-2011 by the Sixties Kiddies 
An archive of its life from the 1940's to present Day
Hey, You there!
This page contains the results of the questionnaire George Taylor and I bashed together before Christmas 2011 from those who've responded so far. If you want to say more than the Questionnaire allows you, PLEASE write something and have your own page on here.
If there's anyone out there from ANY cycle speedway club who'd like to add their own list, please email it to me..
George Taylor
| favourite local track? | Eastfield Old |
| favourite away track? | Bedworth (Coventry) |
| what was your favourite starting position? | 2 or 3 |
| what preparation did you have before a meeting ie didn't eat a large meal or drink a lot of water? | |
| who were you apprehensive about racing against? | The Scots (hard buggers!) |
| did you like racing in the wet? | 50-50 |
| how do you think we would compare to todays riders? | If I was fit and the same age, equal to anyone. |
| if you could go back in time would you change anything about your time in cycle speedway? | bring in more young riders |
| of all the riders you raced against who do you think was the best home and away? | Stuart Baxter (Edinburgh) |
| who do you think was the best rider in Newcastle In the 60s and 70s? | Jim Graham |
| in your opinion who is the best rider of all time who rode for Newcastle? | Jim Graham and Frank Auffret |
| in your opinion who is the best rider of all time outside of Newcastle? | too many to pick one |
| how did you first start off getting involved with cycle speedway? | watched Speedway and copied it on my pushbike |
| what did you think after watching or taking part in your first meeting? | a great day out |
| why did you stop? | females |
| thinking back we never encouraged many new or young riders - why? | we didn't expand or advertise |
| did you ever get excluded unfairly when you hadn't done anything wrong but the referee said otherwise? | yes yes yes! |
| did you have a starting ritual or superstition like favourite socks? | top with blue stripes (see Nomads emblem) |
| what was your worst injury? | nasty fall landing on the starting grid and my elbow wouldn't heal |
| were you nervous at the tapes? | no, I always tried to guess the tapes going up! |
| did you ever KNOW you were going to win a particular race, and how did you know? | yes against crap riders |
| did you ever team ride in an individual event? | yes |
| did you ever let an opponent beat you? | yes |
| apart from practice matches did you ever do any extra training? | yes, practising starts in back garden or front street |
| what's the best local team you ever raced in? | East End Robins |
| did you ever think "he'll never be any use" and if so, who was "he", and were you right? | Geoff Brownless and Bruce Hiscock and I was right |
| which did you enjoy the most - winning from the gate or coming from the back? | both |
| did you ever try to deliberately hurt somebody in a race? | no |
| did anyone ever hurt you badly in a race? (and do you or did you hold a grudge?) | no |
| which was your most memorable meeting? | Tyneside Opens and Bedworth on borrowed bikes |
| do you or did you ever regret packing it in? | oh yes, but the fillies were calling and you cn't get intimate with a CS bike |
| do you or did you ever regret starting it? | no, I loved it |
| ranking from 1 (best) to 10 (worst) where would you place yourself at your peak amongst Newcastle riders? | no 3 |
| what did you like best about being a rider? | good laugh - jokes and bnter |
| what did you like least? | snide remarks |
Terry Kirkup
| favourite local track? | Fawdon Black. I ended up with the track record and could beat anyone on it. |
| favourite away track? | Rowlinson (Sheffield)
|
| what was your favourite starting position? | four. I knew I could gate well if I really wanted to but things changed tactically at the first bend in the 1980's and I began to prefer being able to either gate over everyone or be able to stay clear of trouble if I didn't. |
| what preparation did you have before a meeting ie didn't eat a large meal or drink a lot of water? | didn't eat during the early years but later on for away matches I would eat rice pudding with currants and dessicated coconut, hot from a fat flask about 15 minutes before we arrived at a track. |
| who were you apprehensive about racing against? | Manchester sides, didn't matter what they were called or who was riding! |
| did you like racing in the wet? | yes, more skill needed and I always thought I had plenty |
| how do you think we would compare to todays riders? | just as good, maybe better as we only raced decent oppo once a fortnight at best when the rest of the CS world was hard at it at least every weekend. |
| if you could go back in time would you change anything about your time in cycle speedway? | Yes. I would use a thinner but stronger chain and avoid all the crushed bollox I collected when I snapped many of them. Thinner because my moped chains sapped too much power, and I would have been a lot faster up to the late Eighties! I didn't discover this until I was forced to borrow a bike for a race at Eastfield - Fred Mitchell's - and it absolutely flew compared to mine. I felt so stupid and all I could think about was the hundreds of past races I could have won. |
| of all the riders you raced against who do you think was the best home and away? | Roger Farrell. Rocket starter, dead fast and smooth, and hard as nails if he needed to be. |
| who do you think was the best rider in Newcastle In the 60s and 70s? | Jim Graham |
| in your opinion who is the best rider of all time who rode for Newcastle? | Michael Parr |
| in your opinion who is the best rider of all time outside of Newcastle? | Derek Garnett |
| how did you first start off getting involved with cycle speedway? | My Dad told me about it and persuaded me to give it a go, so I went and watched a practice at Monkchester Road from a safe distance before plucking up the courage to go and talk to the riders. |
| what did you think after watching or taking part in your first meeting? | I'm sure I can go faster than these lads! |
| why did you stop? | all the lads either found girlfriends, beer glasses or gentler hobbies and simply stopped racing |
| thinking back we never encouraged many new or young riders - why? | I thought I did my bit bringing Benton and Wallsend kids in, but the Club management in the 60's did nowt |
| did you ever get excluded unfairly when you hadn't done anything wrong but the referee said otherwise? | absolutely, but I tended to stay out of trouble and probably had fewer exclusions than most. |
| did you have a starting ritual or superstition like favourite socks? | Yes. I'd ALWAYS be the first up on my pedals ready to go. This was easy because everyone else fannied around at the gate for ages. Used to LURV gating across from the outside after the other three had slavered about wasting their time! felt like poetic justice to me. |
| what was your worst injury? | broken wrist at Eastfield around 1986, Darren Kent of Heckmondwike chopped me up nicely going into third bend at New Eastfield as I was diving underneath him, probably one of the fastest places in the North to crash. I finished my other race (or was it two races) in a wee bit of pain and got no sleep that night! Boss sent me to hospital next morning, 6 weeks in plaster. |
| were you nervous at the tapes? | sometimes. If the team was depending on me I felt the pressure but didn't suffer performance-wise. Only ever had a handful of gate exclusions. |
| did you ever KNOW you were going to win a particular race, and how did you know? | Yes, because I knew I could produce amazing gates if I had to. Unfortunately that's how I snapped most of my chains, pedals and a few cranks! I remember going to Tameside and knew we'd get pummelled on their big Longdendale Sports Centre track so I put 34-17 on my bike (2 to 1) and won my only race from gate 4 over Graham Dent, no slouch but I figured he was their weakest gater and that was my best chance! I even read up about a human's physical attributes when I realised I was one of very few left-footed gaters and was sure this gave me and others like Mick Hoult an edge. |
| did you ever team ride in an individual event? | yes, in 1979 Newcastle Riders Championship at little Eastfield. There, I've confessed, I'll go to heaven now! It was part of a cheeky strategy Ashie, Mick Hoult and I plotted to completely snuff out Dave Armstrong's lads in every NRC for years to come! |
| did you ever let an opponent beat you? | yes! I did it for several reasons. To give newer riders confidence, to get a particular score for practice match levelling, as part of an evil plot (see above) and because I couldn't be arsed to go any quicker (practice matches). |
| apart from practice matches did you ever do any extra training? | yes, particularly gating practice but it just wasn't the same without a starting gate. |
| what's the best local team you ever raced in? | East End Robins 1968 or 69! |
| did you ever think "he'll never be any use" and if so, who was "he", and were you right? | yes. Gordon Dominy, Gordon Stobbs and Gordon Greer. I may have a Gordon phobia, but I was right every time anyway. |
| which did you enjoy the most - winning from the gate or coming from the back? | definitely from the back as I thought it was too easy from the gate. |
| did you ever try to deliberately hurt somebody in a race? | no, wouldn't dream of it. I was one of the few who religeously stuck to the rules which had always said CS was a non-contact sport, I wanted it all clean. Of course I accepted that leaning was OK but battering, chopping or legging, no way. |
| did anyone ever hurt you badly in a race? (and do you or did you hold a grudge?) | yes, see above. And yes, I do. I was extremely bitter while my wrist was in plaster to allow the scaphoid to rebuild, and all because another rider had no respect for the rules. The upside was I didn't miss any work as BT gave me a chauffeur and dogsbody for six weeks to keep me going! |
| which was your most memorable meeting? | KO Cup at Heckmondwike. we had to share 2 shirts we'd bought in Leeds on the way down after forgetting to bring the proper team shirts. We were simply stunning and even the extremely biased home Referee couldn't stop us drawing. They were stunned and we were ecstatic. |
| do you or did you ever regret packing it in? | I haven't packedt it in, it won't let me. I always regretted it when the Club died and I was powerless to save it. I also hated it with a vengeance for giving me so many nasty injuries and some of them have developed into Arthritis and Rheumatism, not good. But as most of us Old Timers will readily claim, once you've done it, it tends to get into your blood. |
| do you or did you ever regret starting it? | only because of the vast number of injuries I picked up along the way. I never had much flesh on top of my bones to cushion the falls. Although I'll still claim to bear a grudge against it, I loved it all anyway, and look at the great mates I collected in each era. |
| ranking from 1 (best) to 10 (worst) where would you place yourself at your peak amongst Newcastle riders? | 1 in the late '60s and 1 in the late '70s. About 9 in the late '80s and about 6 in the '90s. |
| what did you like best about being a rider? | visiting other tracks. Scoring the odd point. Beating some Really Big Names. The crack while travelling away was always hilarious. Meeting the odd decent lad. |
| what did you like least? | organising an ungrateful bunch of blissfully thick youth riders in the '80s. Packing stuff away after meetings. Cleaning and returning hire vans and minibuses late at night/early morning. Riders promising to turn out but not keeping their word. Sress levels of trying to run a one man show at times. Almost complete lack of gratitude or respect from home riders. Bad language. Having to Referee and miss out on a few matches I thought we'd win if I'd been riding in the late '80s in particular. Oh, and being relegated to Division Two or Combination team status when my time was up! |
Gavin Parr
| favourite local track? | Has to be the old Fawdon track before my legs grew. It was the only track with its tricky, slippy surface that I could keep up with the others. Once my legs grew I loved the new Eastfield track with its long straights and tight corners. |
| favourite away track? | Hull – I loved the 3rd and 4th bend. On many occasions I managed to pass Andy Schofield by cutting back up the inside off the 4th bend. |
| favourite starting position? | Gate 1 always made it easier but I loved gate 4 and cutting back up the inside coming off the 2nd bend. |
| what preparation did you have before a meeting ie didn't eat a large meal or drink a lot of water? | In the early days I used to have my whole packed lunch ate before Washington services on away matches which was not the best pre match preparation. In the later days I used to have boiled pasta and can remember burning my fingers on my stove in the services on the way to a meeting ! |
| who were you apprehensive about racing against? | Has to be Frank Finnegan because I knew he would try and attack me on the first corner resulting in many new spokes in my front wheel on numerous occasions. |
| did you like racing in the wet? | When I was small it certainly helped as it slowed everyone down to my speed but later on once I grew I didn’t mind the wet or dry. |
| how do you think we would compare to todays riders? | I would imagine our late 80s team including John, Millsy, Paul, Andy, Terry, Mick, Jason and myself would still compete at a decent level. |
| if you could go back in time would you change anything about your time in cycle speedway? | Not much apart from try harder to have kept the sport alive up here in Newcastle. |
| of all the riders you raced against who do you think was the best home and away? | Between Roger Farrel and Brian Eaton. 2 riders who when we were at the top I had some superb fair battles against. |
| who do you think was the best rider in newcastle In the 60s and 70s? | Pass. I didn’t ride until 1980 / 1981 |
| in your opinion who is the best rider of all time who rode for newcastle? | I would have to say Michael ( Parr ). Sadly his temper let him down and turned a few people against him. Without this I’m sure he would have got a lot more than the 1 England cap which he got along with finishing 2nd in the League averages and rides representing the North of England. |
| in your opinion who is the best rider of all time outside of newcastle? | Jimmy Varnish was always my idol and he went on to be British and World champion. |
| how did you first start off getting involved with cycle speedway? | My Dad brought my brother and myself along to a meeting after he had been to watch the Newcastle Riders Championship in 1981 ish |
| what did you think after watching or taking part in your first meeting? | At 9 years old and about 2ft 6 I thought the tracks were all FAR TOO BIG !! |
| why did you stop? | I got married and playing Cricket on a Saturday meant I was spending all day on a Saturday away from home and not getting back until after 9pm. Then at the time we were riding for heckmondwike so it meant a 10am start for a Sunday and not getting back until about 7 or 8 pm. Susan (my wife) never once wanted me to stop but I just felt it was unfair to be away all weekend when we only got 2 days together. One had to go and I chose Cycle Speedway rather than Cricket. |
| thinking back we never encouraged many new or young riders - why? | I think we (me and our Mick) tried most of the kids in our area and they all had a shot at one time or another. However at the time BMX was big and I think they all saw Cycle Speedway with no brakes as a little mad!! |
| did you ever get excluded unfairly when you hadn't done anything wrong but the referee said otherwise? | Every time you got excluded you thought it was unfair!!! |
| did you have a starting ritual or superstition like favourite socks? | No. I just wanted to be able to gate everyone else. |
| what was your worst injury? | Broken collarbone at Tameside. I also broke my thumb at the same track the year before but we drove all the way back to Newcastle with me in the back of the car feeling every single bump in the road, It was agony and the cheeky buggers ( My Dad and Mick ) even stopped at the services for a coffee on the way back ! |
| were you nervous at the tapes? | Yes. I was never the best gater so I was always nervous to make the best start possible. When I was racing the best you don’t get many chances to pass them from the back ! |
| did you ever KNOW you were going to win a particular race, and how did you know? | When I started at 9 I never thought I would ever win a race. Later on I had it in my head that I would win every race. Sadly it didn’t always happen but my mind set was that no one could beat me….. WRONG! |
| did you ever team ride in an individual event? | Yes. North Individual Semi Final at Eastfield. I had won my first 4 races and Andy Murray and our Michael both needed a win and second place to ensure they qualified. I missed the gate and Andy went on to win it with Mick finishing second with me third. It went down a storm with Martin Kent from Heckmondwike who I think needed the points to qualify!!! Oops |
| did you ever let an opponent beat you? | Never apart from the above |
| apart from practice matches did you ever do any extra training? | When I was younger and racing at the top I also played regular Football, which kept me fit alongside Cricket and Swimming. I still tried to get across the School Field to practice my gating at least twice a week. |
| what's the best local team you ever raced in? | Winter Local League team when we had 4 a side. I was with Jason Keith, Dave Lamming and AN Other and we won it by miles. Being two of the young ones Jason and me really started to shine during that winter. |
| did you ever think "he'll never be any use" and if so, who was "he", and were you right? | Too polite to name names but you could tell within a few months if a rider had the speed and bottle to make it. |
| which did you enjoy the most - winning from the gate or coming from the back? | From the back every time. I loved passing riders. |
| did you ever try to deliberately hurt somebody in a race? | Never. I always raced hard but fair. At the end of the day we all had to go to work / school the next day. |
| did anyone ever hurt you badly in a race? (and do you or did you hold a grudge?) | Neil Brocklehurst at Tameside. He put his foot in my front wheel which resulted in me head butting the surface at a rate of knots and breaking my collarbone. |
| which was your most memorable meeting? | My England caps. The 2 Young England ones where I only lost once in the 2 meetings and all the Southerners stood up and took notice of this unknown youngster from Newcastle and my senior cap in the home internationals. |
| and the one you'd prefer to forget? | British under 21 (I think) semi final at Poole. Travelled millions of miles overnight and were fancied to qualify for the final with ease which was on the same day and even make the rostrum. Sadly I fell off 4 times in 5 races and had the long journey home when riders I had beaten week in and week out managed to cruise to the final and finish high up the field! |
| do you or did you ever regret packing it in? | Not at the time as the travelling to heckmondwike and further became a bit of a pain. Years later however I’ve always thought in the back of my mind how far I may have got with a little more dedication. |
| do you or did you ever regret starting it? | No never. I had a great time along the way and met some fantastic people. I will always owe a lot to Terry Kirkup who became like a second Dad to me when I was younger, helping me enormously with travelling and support. Getting to the top in the sport also meant I met people from all over the country. |
| ranking from 1 (best) to 10 (worst) where would you place yourself at your peak amongst Newcastle riders? | I guess you would have to say 1. Winning the Newcastle Riders Championship, finishing top of the British League North averages and representing England at junior and senior levels. Promise I’m not being big headed! |
| what did you like best about being a rider? | simple……. Winning was everything but passing from the back I found the biggest and best thrill of them all. |
| what did you like least? | Losing. Simple as that I hated losing from a very early age and used to come home and tell my Dad nearly every week that I didn’t want to go back when I was little. Thank god he kept me going to end up doing what I did. |
Get Your Own here
HOT NEWS!
We have a track! It's at the Sporting Club, Cramlington, Northumberland and we used it for the first time on Saturday 5th November 2011. 1:00pm for an hour or so every week weather permitting, all welcome - experienced, half dead or otherwise. Just behind the buildings, next to the cricket nets.