First Ever Speedway Meeting??

[miserableoldgit]

Amazed to find this on Youtube:-

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVTdukYh7M

[St Landrew]

Went to your link at Youtube. Lovely stuff. Saw a link for Briggo, and inevitably found this:

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Eek6tgQHJ_8

 

I expect You and Bungle have probably seen this before, but I'd like to know that one or two purely Saints football fans have had a look too. Perhaps it'll come as a surprise to hear the narrator call the spectators Saints fans, and notice that the riders wore red & white striped tunics. And the fans had all the typical Saints regalia. I think it's fair to say, that upto the point where Southampton Speedway Stadium at Bannister Court was sold off, the Saints speedway team were every bit as famous as their football cousins. Probably even more so. After all, in 1962, they were the Man U of their sport, and I feel that speedway had a much greater popularity than it does today.

 

On a personal note. At my first match at The Dell in 1966, I held and swung a Saints rattle. It was painted in red and white stripes, and made quite a racket. But it was actually a Saints rattle of my elder brother's from the speedway era.

[bungle]

Speedway's heydey was certainly in the 60s and 70s. Certainly it is not as popular nationally now, but we are getting a few more tracks opening again. Exeter are coming back, and there is talk of a Bristol team again. Would be great if Southampton could find somewhere to ride again, could have a proper South coast derby with Poole then!

[bridge too far]

I can remember going to watch Southampton at Banister Court.

 

I still love the smell (of the bikes).

 

Oh happy days

[St Landrew]

I can remember going to watch Southampton at Banister Court.

 

I still love the smell (of the bikes).

 

Oh happy days

 

That's the Castrol 'R' oil, the bikes used. Also, in those days they were unsilenced, and the wind would carry the roar and the smell across the city. I have several memories of being in the garden in the evening and that gentle noise would float over the rooftops.

 

A couple of years back, I was stuck in a traffic jam behind an old car. It obviously had a tuned engine, because through the ventilation system came that familiar Castrol racing oil smell. I was whisked back to my childhood in an instant.

[Handyman]

The first time I went to Bannister Court was when Alf Kaines was the team captain. Other members of the team I think, were, George Bason,( it was still a cinder track then and he used the leg trailing style) Bert Croucher, Cyril Roger, I'm not sure when the likes of Alby Golden, Jim Squibb, Cecil Bailey, Peter Vandenburg, Bob Oakley, came into the team, but their names still bring a glow of nostalgia to mind.

[miserableoldgit]

http://www.classicspeedway.co.uk/southampton.htm

This is quite an interesting site.