1972 A Truly Dismal Season
Close Season Action
While there was no training track at Coatbridge this close season, there was plenty of alternative action for the fans. On 2nd January there was a long track meeting at Motherwell and it may well have been instrumental in persuading the BSPA that the Motherwell promoters would be fit and able to stage speedway racing at the venue – wrongly as it would turn out! The long track event featured Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger and Don Godden, all proven and experienced long track experts who pitted their skills against various locals, some being little known second halfers. Unsurprisingly many races were very strung out given the wide disparity in the skill levels. Still it was a pleasant way to have the last traces of a New Year hangover blown away.
A week later the first of a series of ice racing meetings was held at Murrayfield Ice Rink. It attracted a capacity crowd and the meeting had to be held up for over half an hour while they filed in. The racing itself was a cross between cycle speedway and roller derby but on ice! It had a certain novelty value but crowds fell with each successive meeting and the experiment wasn’t repeated the following year. However it was probably the only bright spot in a singularly dark time. The miners’ strike had so reduced the supply of coal to electricity generating power stations that electricity had to be rationed. By rotation your local area had scheduled power cuts that meant you were in the dark and in the cold shortly after nine o’clock at night. To add to the gloom, Harry Nilson’s turgid and depressing “Without You” topped the charts for five consecutive weeks – not a happy time at all!
However it was probably the only bright spot in a singularly dark time. The miners’ strike had so reduced the supply of coal to electricity generating power stations that electricity had to be rationed. By rotation your local area had scheduled power cuts that meant you were in the dark and in the cold shortly after nine o’clock at night. To add to the gloom, Harry Nilson’s turgid and depressing “Without You” topped the charts for five consecutive weeks – not a happy time at all!
The End of Two Dynasties
Two famous speedway families ended their association with the Tigers before the season started. It has to be said that most fans were pretty indifferent to these departures. The Hoskins family, Johnnie and Ian, sold their shares in the Tigers promotion to team manager Neil MacFarlane. Tigers’ fans were delighted that Neil, a Tigers man through and through was now a director. Only a few were concerned that men as experienced in speedway as the Hoskins had seen the writing on the Hampden wall and decided it was a good time to get out. There may have been more to this than was first apparent. At the end of the season it was revealed that an offer had been made by an English promotion to buy the Tigers’ licence. Neil may have secured the tigers future by buying out the Hoskins’ interest. Who were interested in a first division licence? – probably either Workington or Ipswich. John Berry in his book “Confessions of a Speedway Promoter” devotes a few pages to Ipswich’s purchase of the West Ham licence makes no mention at all of approaching Glasgow, so it seems more likely that it was Workington.
The Templeton brothers, Doug and Willie, announced their retirement, although they would quickly sign for second division Berwick. Fans had been critical of the Templetons’ performances particularly away from home during the 1971 season and were unconcerned about their departure. However the fans were to change their tune after the season was just a month old! – see below.
Team building Plans Go Astray
The Tigers promotion obviously had plenty notice of the Templetons’ departure and had planned to bring in Wayne Briggs and Brian Collins as replacements. Wayne was allocated to Glasgow by the Rider Control Committee but could not be persuaded out of retirement. Brian Collins ended up at Poole. John Berry whose Ipswich promotion bought the West Ham licence found that Christer Lofquist, whom he had expected to be joining Ipswich as part of the deal, had been spirited away to Poole and pointed out that Charles Foot of Poole was a leadimg member of the Rider Control Committee. It looks as he also helped himself to Brian Collins.
Tigers were allocated Paul O’Neill and were given a foreign rider permit to cover the other vacancy. The season was a couple of weeks old before they signed Kjell Gimre, an unknown Norwegian rider, who had had trials at Exeter but had not been offered a team place – may be there was a clue there!
Opening Meeting Disappointment
Every year the opening night of the season sparks its own excitement. Even mature fans find themselves running down the road to get in. well this years’ opening night was a real disappointment on just about every front. First the program looked pretty austere. The cover no longer had a photo but instead had a red thistle superimposed on a Saltire, hardly an inspiring design. The printing throughout was now in black whereas it had previously been blue. This seemed quite gloomy. The listing of officials was now in a vertical panel on the editorial page, giving the impression that the editorial had been reduced.
On entering the stadium fans were aware something was missing. No music. A local resident had complained to the council during the winter and music was now banned. Les Whaley was planning to appeal this decision but that would be a few weeks off – so far so bad.
When the racing started things went from bad to worse. This was the grand opening challenge and after six heats Glasgow were 26-10 down to the visting Sheffield. Surely no one loses their opening challenge match. Scripts were given out in the pits and Glasgow made a comeback that even Lazarus would have been impressed by! However only the most gullible of fans could have believed it was for real.
Tigers on TV
STV were again looking for a sport to show on the Saturday afternoon of the (English) FA Cup Final, which the rest of the ITV region would be receiving. They chose the Tigers v Poole meeting. With Dick Barrie sharing the commentating duties with STV’s Alex Cameron, time keeper Stan Gardner took over the announcing role while I was co-opted to mark up a program for Alex Cameron and generally keep him informed about what was going on. I even got paid for this – two guineas - £2.10 – not enough to give up my day job!
TV Script
Tigers fans watch TV …. In Brierley Hill High Street
Tigers’ fans travelled down to Cradley for the league meeting there during the Glasgow Fair fortnight. The supporters bus arrived in early afternoon and most fans spent a few hours wandering about the town centre. Just after 3.00pm ITV’s “World of Sport” program was featuring the England versus New Zealand World League fixture and a local TV showroom had a television showing this in is window. A few Tigers fans gathered to watch and within a few minutes their number was swelled to quite a crowd. Undaunted, the manager invited us in and turned on a few more sets and turned up the volume too – what a gentleman!
Oh Templetons We Miss You
The Templetons had ultimately been replaced by Paul O’Neill and Kjell Gimre. By mid May their replacements were struggling badly and both had averages well under three, roughly half of what the much criticised Templetons had achieved the following year! Yes, you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone!
Wet! Wet! Wet!
The Hampden track had an enviable reputation of draining really well and few meetings had been rained off in the preceding three years. However this was to change, and how, with an incredible three meetings out of five being cancelled in May. The first actually got started and visitors Sheffield were leading by ten points at the time of the call off, obviously home fans weren’t too disappointed by this! Two weeks later and the meeting against Oxford was the next victim without a wheel being turned. Les Whaley was incensed by this, writing “ The rain ceased at 6.45 and by 7.00 the track was cleared of puddles. The referee declared the track fit, not only for RIDING but for RACING. However certain riders had made up their minds that they were not going to ride, and that was that. It is situations like these, which make me think I must be mad to promote speedway. You, the supporters, are the ones who have to suffer!” George Hunter seemed to take the view that on a wet night the right course of action was to cancel the meeting and restage it later when the weather might be better. With Jim McMillan and Charlie Monk readily backing him up, the promotion were up against it. Hunter certainly was a pragmatist. At a Motherwell long track meeting there was considerable rain but when it became apparent that the meeting would not be restaged at a later date, he, and indeed all the other riders, got on with riding without any complaint.
A couple of weeks later, the World Championship qualifying round was the next victim but this time all parties seem to accept the referees decision.
Flaming June
June started off brightly with the Tigers figuring prominently in their home World Championship qualifying round. Bobby Beaton scored a maximum with Jim McMillan weighing in with thirteen and both made the cut for the semi-finals. George Hunter, not for the first time in his career, was left ruing a last race tapes exclusion, and finished on ten which was only enough to gain the first reserve spot at the Leicester semi. Also finishing on ten points at Hampden were John Louis, Tony Lomas and Phil Crump, oh that Crumpie had signed for the Tigers the previous season!
The following night saw the Tigers put up a determined show at Belle Vue in a KO Cup tie before going down 41-37 in a last heat decider. Tigers certainly gave the Aces a real fright and things were decidedly fraught before the last heat decider, so much so that the Belle Vue announcer was fined £2.00 by the referee for disparaging remarks made about the Tigers prior to the race. Tigers’ fans seem to have missed these remarks. They were too busy singing an amusing little ditty about a Belle Vue rider who it would seem “walks like a woman and wears a bra”
Supplies of new JAWA bikes were delayed at the start of the 1972 season and it took until mid May for Jim McMillan to take delivery of his new bike. However just over a fortnight later, his lock up went on fire and he lost all his equipment and riding gear – and none of it was insured, in all about £3000 worth went up in smoke. Tigers’ fans had a collection for him and a number of English fans also sent donations, but it was still a huge financial blow and it would take him until mid summer to get all his equipment and gear just the way he wanted it.
On the second Saturday in June, Les Whaley’s Bradford travelled to Berwick for a league match. A heat three crash saw Jim Beaton sustain such severe injuries to his right arm that the surgeon initially recommended amputation. It is a tribute to the surgeon’s skill and Jim’s determination and perseverance that after many operations Jim would make a track comeback some years later despite limited movement in his arm. Feelings were running high after this incident and it would lead to a major rift between Glasgow promoters Les Whaley and James Beaton in the coming weeks.
A couple of days later, Motherwell staged their first, and as it turned out only, challenge match, when the local Golden Eagles lost to Teesside. The meeting, promoted by the stadium owners, was a complete fiasco. The speedway track was separated from the low rise terracing by no fewer than three circuits, - a trotting track, a derelict circuit, said to be intended for a motocross track, and a tarmac stockcar track. The speedway track had a board fence, which hid large parts of the track from the spectators view! By the second heat, most of the sparse crowd had clambered onto the stockcar track to view the racing from there. The track was soft and deep and precluded any meaningful racing. Unsurprisngly, no further meetings were ever staged.
Tigers were represented at the British semi-final at Leicester which featured both Bobby Beaton and first reserve George Hunter. Beaton and Howard Cole were involved in a nasty heat one crash and neither took any further part in the meeting. Hunter replaced Cole in all five of his programmed rides and gained sufficient points to qualify for the British Final… or so it seemed! The following day, it was announced that Hunter was ineligible. His appeal against this decision was being supported by the Tigers promotion.
The city magistrates upheld the earlier decision to ban the playing of music during meetings. This was a real blow as meetings really seemed to drag on without any music and it really deflated any atmosphere. There was more bad news, this time from
the Evening Citizen, Glasgow’s evening newspaper, which had produced a Speedway Special Edition every week since the sport returned to Glasgow in 1964. It had a special front page devoted to speedway, generally with little editorial and with many often quite dated photographs, but it was still very much part of “speedway night”. It always amazed me that a special print run of this nature could prove economic. Sadly sales were dwindling and it ceased production, yet another indicator of speedway’s downward spiral at Hampden.
Jim McMillan beat Terry Betts at Kings Lynn to annexe the Golden Helmet. Unfortunately the next three fixtures were all away from home but Jim did a sterling job in making successful defences against Edgar Stangeland at Newport and Geoff Curtis at Reading but hopes of a defence at Hampden were dashed when Christer Lofquist narrowly beat him at Poole.
The visit of Hackney brought yet another wet night, and yet again the usual suspects weren’t prepared to race despite the referee ruling the track rideable. The promotion, reportedly, were prepared to track four juniors in their place. Fortunately it never came to that as Hackney also decided against riding. A disgusted Les Whaley wrote in the program “Well, once again a rained off meeting and this makes four rained off meetings out of eleven. Riders blandly decide they are not going to ride despite the referee’s decision that the track is rideable, so how long do they think that a promotion can keep a track open under these circumstances. Last Saturday I attended Halifax speedway where conditions were exactly the same as for our Hackney.This meeting started at 7.30pm and continued to the end, completing a total of 24 heats. ”- obviously disenchanted with life as a promoter.
Hunter appeal
On July11th, Les Whaley travelled down to London to present George Hunter’s case against the SCB ruling that he was not eligible to qualify for the British Final. He argued for over an hour, but the Control Board told Les that the referee had been wrong to allow Hunter to replace the injured Cole in the rerun of heat one, and were adamant in refusing Hunter’s appeal. Whaley would write in his program column “I was amazed to find them (the SCB) admitting that a referee could be wrong”
Les Whaley Leaves
Like the previous year, Les Whaley seemed to opt out of running the Tigers after the Glasgow Fair break. Neil MacFarlane wrote the program editorial from the beginning of August but made no mention of Les’s absence. A couple of weeks later, observant fans would have noticed that the Whaley name was no longer included in the Directors listing in the program. Again no reference was made to this and it was not until mid September that fans were told that Jim Wallace had bought Whaley’s shares.
It is believed that the rift with James Beaton following incidents at the Berwick – Bradford meeting, together with his disillusionment over rained off meetings, were the major factors in his decision to sell up.
So Does George Hunter
Unlike 1971, George Hunter was not a settled Tiger. Indeed some would argue he was both unsettled and unsettling. He had personal reasons for wanting to be based in the Midlands and was always the first to push for a rained off decision. His controversial elimination from the World Championship couldn’t have helped either. Things came to a head when he was excluded for tape breaking in heat twelve of the Tigers versus Coventry meeting in mid August. Hard words were spoken over the referee turning down Tigers claims for his reinstatement, and ultimately it led to him demanding a move. The promotion agreed to this instantly, and were to write in the program that “George’s actions of late have been undermining team spirit”. Somewhat controversially he was SOLD to Wolverhampton. The intention was to buy a replacement, although whom and from whom was never clear.
No Rosenkilde but we do get Kaasa
At the end of July, Tigers released Kjell Gimre in order to sign Preben Rosenkilde. Gimre’s release was certainly no surprise. His average was just over two and many felt the promotion had been more than patient in giving him an extended run. “Benny” made his debut at Hackney, a track for whom he had previously ridden. If his failure to score in four starts was disappointing, then worse was to follow. The DMU banned him following an incident at a meeting in Denmark. Tigers then turned to Svien Kaasa, a young Norwegian, who won his debut race at Hampden in the meeting against Ipswich.
World Final High spot
Possibly the only bright spot in an otherwise truly dreadful season was Jim McMillan’s qualification for the Wembley World Final, albeit as first reserve. This truly caught the Glasgow supporters’ imagination and over a dozen supporters buses were booked to travel to London. Most supporters had bought tickets for the terracing high up at the third bend and they raised the roof when Jim took two rides in place of Barry Briggs who was taken to hospital with severe hand injuries following a second race crash. Definitely the highlight of the season and possibly the most iconic moment in Tigers history. Certainly one that will never be repeated.
Double Tragedy
While Jim McMillan’s Wembley appearance gave the club a boost the events of the final weeks of the season were to leave both the supporters and the promotion completely shattered. Svien Kaasa crashed in heat eleven of our meeting against Swindon. As crashes go it didn’t look particularly bad. Svien was attempting to pass Martin Ashby as they raced into the first bend. As Ashby began sliding his bike, the gap Svien was going for disappeared and he clipped Ashby’s back wheel and was thrown into the fence. He was taken off, face down, on the stretcher trolley. The meeting continued and it was only at the end that a distraught Neil MacFarlane announced that his injuries “had proved fatal” A truly horrible feeling descended on the crowd. Everyone wanted to get out of the stadium quickly but also quietly and without jostling. Once outside no one wanted to leave. People were milling about aimlessly. Guys that I thought were pretty hard were sobbing their hearts out. It was a desperate night.
The Svien Kaasa Memorial stone which is housed in the Hampden Football museum
Two weeks later, another blow. George Beaton, eldest of the Beaton brothers was killed in a car crash. Only days before, he had turned out for short handed Oxford at Hampden.
Neil MacFarlane summed up the year: “Our 1972 season will go down as one of misfortune and tragedy. We have been unsettled by team changes and management changes and fate just hasn’t been on our side”
The End of the Sheffield Saga
Visits from Sheffield were certainly never boring. They opened our season with a highly unusual defeat in a challenge match. A couple of months later, they seemed well on course for the league points, leading by ten points…then the rains came! Undaunted a restaging date in August was duly arranged, and again it wasn’t without its talking points! This time Bert Harkins arrived mid meeting and referee Cuthbert refused to let him take his remaining rides. Sheffield appeal against this decision was subsequently upheld but, in turn, Glasgow decided to appeal against the appeal! - hope you are following this! Almost predictably, Glasgow’s appeal was dismissed – making three in a row! – the music ban; Hunter being ruled ineligible for the British Final; our counter appeal.
The Sheffield fixture was staged as the second leg of a double header, after the Oxford meeting. It would turn out to have been our final ever British League fixture at Hampden, and not one to remember. The double header event dragged on badly and some fans who stayed to the bitter end were reported to have had to walk home. Those who left for last buses certainly didn’t miss much. Sheffield won by a staggering 50-28, our largest ever home defeat in BL Division One. Apart from Jim McMillan who scored twelve from five rides, there was little Glasgow resistance – what a way to end league racing at Hampden!
The League Season at a Glance:
Home Defeats: Belle Vue 34-44; Kings Lynn 38-40; Reading 37-41; Sheffield 28-50:
Home Draws: Cradley 39-39; Leicester 39-39:
Away Win: Wimbledon 40-38:
League Position: Fifth bottom, with 26 points from 34 meetings
Bleak Winter Ahead
The season closed with rumours, once again, suggesting that Charlie Monk would be looking for a move. This rumour had circulated before but this time it had a lot more credence. Monk had not been in good form or good health and the long drive to home meetings had been taking its toll. If the rumour was true then within eighteen months the Tigers would had lost a complete team in Oyvind Berg, George Hunter, Charlie Monk, the Templeton brothers and Bill McMillan - as well as promoters Hoskins and Whaley.
Things looked really bleak with the Tigers only having four riders that they could be certain would return for 1973 – Jim McMillan, Bobby Beaton, Jimmy Gallagher and Robin Adlington. There were troubled times ahead – and how !