Other Local Ventures

There have been other local ventures but none with the fan base or longetivity of Newcastle’s Brough Park. However this site is not just about Newcastle Diamonds!

Sunderland had a team in 1964, known as the Saints, then later they were called the Stars and the Gladiators Sunderland Speedway operated from the East Boldon greyhound stadium .

What is the ultimate event on Tyneside? A match of any kind against the "enemy" from Sunderland!.. Here is a copy of a programme that signalled the rallying call. Sunderland v Newcastle circa 1964

A great programme cover, art work excellent and the price too! It would be great to get Sunderland back in operation in the same league as Newcastle what great local derbies we could have against the Saints (Stars Gladiators).

This is Sunderland Speedway Stadium now, alas only the Greyhounds race around this track now. There has been no speedway here for 31 years at the time of writing this in 2005: -

Action from Sunderland Russ Dent gate 2 and George Barclay gate 4, 1972 were you there? let's hear from you if you were

I attended the 2005 Sunderland Re-union and here are some pictures from the re-union night.

Ove Fundin's Jap from early 1950's John (ginger) Abigail is the current owner of this machine.

Above: Newcastle History Site webmaster John Skinner with Ove's bike, (it is nearly as old as John) wishing he owned it!

Pictures from Colin Poole: left ex-riders, Ray Day & Norman Redmond. right Russ Dent & Brian Havelock

Sunderland diehards Bob ferry and Ian Martin have a website for Sunderland devotees. If you want to go there now click this link: Sunderland Website Otherwise note it for later browsing and continue the Newcastle tour on this site.

Ashington Arrows too staged speedway at the towns Portland Park stadium in 1972. They only managed 2 meetings, these are their 2 programmes: -

Ashington's Portland Park. Big and fast but the people of Ashington didn't turn out in sufficient numbers to keep the sport going at Portland Park.

Admission 35p. Anyone reckon that it was a lot cheaper going to speedway in the early 1970's than it is now, by comparison? I wonder what the price of a haircut was in them days ? Personally I can't remember going to the barbers much from 1967 to 1977 ish? (My hair was waist length then. Ha, Ha!)

What has happened to the admission price structure? No wonder crowds are not what the used to be. Oh, but then Margaret Thatcher came along and made us all prosperous!! Brilliant idea? we all grow our hair long and the money saved on going to the barbers can be donated to the BSPA who then can subsidise the promoters to allow us in for 35p now! Youngsters now are wasting cash getting their heads shaved every week!! Ok, ok, I know this is supposed to be about speedway.

Felton near Amble in Northumberland, operated an unlicensed, behind closed doors training school venture and also had some drag racing there too.

Anyone got any pictures of the Drag Racing from Felton? My workmate Bob Armstrong (lost touch with him) had a dodgem car with a mini engine, anyone remember that?

Paul Brassell came up with the goods here, no picture of Bob's mini-engined dodgem but two shots of drag racing at Felton

I first got involved with the North East Hot Rod Association in the early 70's, meetings were at the Bridge Hotel in Newcastle, Drag Racing had already started at Felton and was run on an 1/8 mile straight due to insufficient shut down area.

There used to be a fair turnout of local cars and bikes, drag cars were Big Geordie and Geordie Pride, altered cars were The Incredible Hulk, The Stripper, Slack Alice and an assortment of others as far as I can remember.

Rickie Bookes ran The Stripper with a Jaguar 3.8 with a Mini body !, last saw him at Santa Pod spectating at least 10 years ago and lost contact. We built a Jaguar powered, roof chopped Viva van for a while until the infamous bumps caught us out, named Yorkshire Pudding, it handled like one. Moved on from there, raced a dragster at New York Raceway for a while and then family and work commitments forced a change, now living in Shropshire, still go to Santa Pod occasionally, anybody got any photo's of Felton ?

Aycliffe stadium near Darlington and Barford known as the "Barford Foxes" near Barnard Castle should have been other homes to speedway but ventures into speedway at both venues never got off the ground and they are better known for stock car racing.

Barford Raceway is definitely worth the trip from Tyneside. Cyril and his team are a friendly bunch of people who will welcome the Speedway Fan to their stockcar circuit. No reason why Stocks and Bikes can't co-exist in the North. The stock car boys have a website so check out Barford Stock Cars if you are interested.

Burnhills Race Track near Greenside in Co Durham was at its height in popularity from 1928 until the mid 1930's and the stars were Tiger Sanderson, Parsons and Fewster. They rode in race meetings for the Golden Helmet and Silver Gauntlets. Here is the evidence from the local newspapers archives.

Buses were laid on from Bewick Street in Newcastle and left at "frequent intervals for the Greenside track". The meeting took place on Whit Sunday 1929 to avoid clashing with Whitley Bay who had a meeting on Whit Monday.

Bob Grainger informs us that 1928 had eight meetings at Greenside run by the Newcastle and District Motor club with Jack Ormiston the star, this track operated for several years without league status being applied for and has apparently slipped the net as far as most authors are concerned. Perhaps it was more grass track, scrambling than speedway. I intend researching the track, so watch this space!

Well Burnhills never was a speedway it was a pre war grass track & scrambling venue.

This programme from 1928 shows the rider list and the bikes they were mounted on.

Belmont Park Race Track near Durham Operated pre war and in the 1950's and 60's it was Grass and scrambling.

Sidecar racing from Belmont Park, It drew large crowds. I believe this picture was taken in 1961

The map was drawn by ex Newcastle speedway rider Harry Huntly who was heavily involved at Belmont

Middlesborough was the closet of the successful teams to Brough Park (38 miles away down the A19). The “Bears”, like the "Diamonds", have been around since 1928/29 although both clubs have closed down and re-opened on a number of occasions. Rivalry is fierce between the 2 sets of fans, but speedway fans are not hooligans and most derby matches are enjoyed in a noisy atmosphere with rival fans exchanging nothing more than friendly banter. The Bears have made a return to speedway in 2006 under the name Redcar Bears. You can count on my money through the turnstiles from time to time, or you can let me in for free for advertising your club on the is website ha ha, some history of the bears follows but Middlesbrough have a top class history site of their own, visit it here Middlesbrough Speedway History Site

Middlesborough's influence in the North East was immense in 1929. Johnnie Hoskins under the name Albion Auto Racers Ltd., had been operating at Middlesborough before the Tyneside tracks got under way. The Boro's first track in the back end of 1928 was 410 yards then for the English Dirt Track league campaign of 1929 it was resized down to 335 yards. The first race meeting took place in August 1928 before a crowd of 15,000. Tees-side based riders Walter and Fred Creasor, and Phil Blake were in Newcastle's team for 1929 and as can be seen from the above clipping were responsible for Newcastle beating their home town team in the first ever Tyne Tees local derby clash held at Cleveland Park.

My first visit to the new track was Redcar V Newcastle. The track produced some good racing but needs time to settle down. The stadium facilities also need time for permanent fixtures to be installed but the many mobile units served the large crowd well. Welcome back middles er Redcar

There were beaches used in the region for practise sessions, I will add details when time permits. if you have any pictures or memories then get in touch John

The Image on the left was supplied by Paul Brassell, thanks Paul and on the right by the Vast Collection/ Ian Huntly

There was little going on in the North East for the speedway fan. Newcastle closed at the end of 1951 season. So events on the sands at Druridge Bay on the Northumberland coastline would have been supported by speedway fans from Newcastle. The sands were used by Newcastle riders in the 1960's Don Wilkinson ran training schools in the early 60's and Mike Hiftle did the same in the late 60's. I believe the bay is now in the hands of the National Trust who are very unlikely to allow any bikes there now!

I am looking for some pictures taken at Druridge Bay, the only sand racing picture I have is this one from St Andrews in Scotland taken during the 1930's.