"50 YEARS YOUNG"

50 years, that sounds such a long time, especially when you are starting your Speedway career as a young novice, but 50 years is how long our Association has been going and  50 years is how long our new President, Ivan Mauger and his good lady, Raye, have been married. Doesn't time fly when you are having fun!

Our Association was founded by journalist, the late Peter Arnold  as 'The Veteran Dirt Track Riders' Association', later to become the 'Veteran Speedway Riders' Association' and now the 'WORLD Speedway Riders' Association' so there have been a few changes in the past 50 years.

Speedway may have changed, but in a changing world, some things remain the same,..........Ivan is still running his training schools, or Academies as they are now known and still showing the youngsters how to throw a 500cc Speedway bike into the corner and how to "out-think" your opponents. His Academies are a cross between a Speedway school and a Paul McKenna Hypnotist show, but Ivan is able to translate his experiences of 50 years of Speedway into the modern racing world and help to train a new breed of champions.

Having worn the kilt for the first time at the Scottish Dinner the previous week, Ivan elected to give his knees a rest and wear a proper suit, but there were still plenty of kilts on show, especially at the pre-dinner drinks party in "The Scottish Suite" where everyone was invited to have a "wee dram" before dinner.  This annual event has turned out so popular that last year, Freddie Williams' wife, Pat, hung a sign around Freddie's neck saying,..."No drinks from the Scots".

The whole WSRA weekend at the Coventry Hilton was a great success with over 360 guests present to see the three Kiwi World Champions, Ivan, Ronnie Moore and Barry Briggs, with a fourth World Champion, Freddie Williams flying the flag for Wales. Ivan was enrolled with his Chain of Office by outgoing President, Jack Geran and our Guest of Honour was another Belle Vue legend, Alan Morrey. Alan never rode Speedway but he was an integral part of Belle Vue for many years and most of us who rode at the old Hyde Road track, felt the blast of his authority as he tried to get us onto the track almost before the previous race had finished. 'Two Minutes All Riders?", with Alan is was more like 'Two Seconds All Riders!'  We did, however, reckon that he was on commission from the Belle Vue Fairground to get everyone out of the Speedway and onto "The Bobs" and other sideshows to spend their money before closing time!

The dining room looked great, with the flags of many nations hanging from the walls and the top table also decked out in New Zealand and Australian flags. The place mats on each table had been designed by Terry Stone and each one depicted one of our past presidents for the last 50 years, a nice touch to remember past heroes. There was also a display of trophies and photographs and out in the main foyer of the Coventry Hilton, we had bikes depicting our 50 years of Speedway. We had a Douglas and a Rudge from Dirt Track days, courtesy of Jim Gregory, and plus a modern lay-down belonging to Coventry and 2007 GP star, Chris Harris.

Terry also had a unique display of almost every menu from the Association's dinners, dating right back to the early days when the event was held in London. They made very interesting reading, with by-gone stars such as Jack Parker, Frank Varey, Phil Bishop and many more all supporting the Association and giving entertaining speeches. It's a pity there were not any video cameras in those days as it would be good to see and hear the likes of "El Diablo Rojo", Frank Varey spinning his tales of racing in Argentina and his punch-ups with Lionel Van Praag.

With the Association name change from 'Veteran' to 'World', I think our membership will increase, especially as none of us wants to be thought of as 'old'  and we still think we could emulate Ivan and jump on a fire-breathing Jawa or GM and do 100 laps until the fuel runs out. It was good to see riders such as Eric Boocock, Dougie Templeton, Malcolm Simmons and current Glasgow skipper, Shane Parker joining us along with someone I had not seen since leaving Wembley back in the early '70s, Tony Clarke. Another "Blast-From-The-Past" was Kiwi, Colin McKee who came over from his home in Perth, Western Australia  to attend both the Scottish and the main WSRA dinners. Colin had ridden at Edinburgh & Hackney and was presented with some Edinburgh programmes from the days when he was a Monarch. He said that he had really enjoyed his visit back to the UK.

The Kiwis were out in force as, apart from Ivan, Ronnie and B.B.(Briggo), former Ice Racing and Speedway star, Bruce Cribb enjoyed the dinner and Joe Hicks had flown in from New Zealand to join in the fun. Joe had originally come over to UK with fellow Kiwi, Bruce Ovenden back in the '60s and was promptly signed by Ian Hoskins and Trevor Redmond to become a Glasgow Tiger at the old Glasgow White City track. At that time, Londoner, Terry Stone was also riding for Glasgow, so he and the two Kiwis shared a flat in the south side of Glasgow, so Joe & Terry had plenty to talk about at the dinner about their time in "Sunny Glasgow." I was a struggling novice at the time and used to hang around the lock-up garage to try to pick up some tips. (Speedway, not money!) .

So, that is what our annual get-togethers are all about, if you haven't attended one, just give it a try and you are sure to enjoy yourself and why not book early for next year as, to paraphrase Len Silver's Hackney motto,......."Make it a Date,....In 2008"

Here's to the NEXT 50 years!

Bert Harkins "