1973 Coatbridge Our Last Stand
The Move to Coatbridge
While the 1972 season had closed with speedway at Hampden at a very low ebb, it was still a big surprise when it was announced that the Tigers were moving lock, stock and barrel to Coatbridge, previously the home of the Monarchs for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Not everyone was pleased about this move but most fans were relieved that our First Division status had been retained. Neil MacFarlane was unconvinced about the move and surrendered his team managers role, with Jimmy Tannock taking over.
The promotion arranged a number of early season challenge matches, against Halifax, Sheffield and Coventry, a good move as it let our riders get a feel for their new home track. Indeed, had we opened with league fixtures, I’m sure we would have lost them all and probably ended up at the bottom of the league.
We’ve signed who?
It would be fair to say that most Tigers fans were aghast that Kjell Gimre had been re-signed, after his poor form in 1972. However, unlike others, he was prepared to come to Scotland, and mounted on better equipment, he made most of his critics eat their words, being a virtual ever present and taking his average to over four.
Karl Korneliusen, a completely unknown Dane rode in pre season practice and got a couple of second half outings, but was no better than our resident juniors. Family member Tim would later turn out briefly for Tigers at Shawfield circa 1990.
Christer Sjosten, younger brother of Soren, proved to be a great signing and easily filled the third heat leader role.
Monk replacement Saga
The Rider control Committee was finding its work getting more problematic as riders were flatly refusing moves. Belle Vue had won the league by quite a margin, losing only two league meetings in the process, and were in line to lose a rider of heatleader
standard. However despite lengthy discussions they were no nearer deciding who was to be released. Initially Tigers were allocated Jan Simenssen but he was unavailable. Next was Bert Harkins but he preferred to stay in the south. Soren Sjosten was the next nominee but Belle Vue decided that he would not be the one to be released. While all this was going on, Tigers were allowed a guest.
So who actually replaced Charlie Monk? – a good question!
The program
Glasgow’s previous printer, Hough of Bradford, was forsaken in favour of a local company who had produced the Monarchs program.
The cover featured a strange photo of a very young Bobby Beaton, taken it seemed from far too close. Of all the photos available, this one would give new spectators very little idea of what racing was like. It featured in the first eight issues and was then replaced for the next five, by an excellent starting gate shot of Christer Sjosten, about to loop, and Garry Middleton. Thereafter a different pic appeared each week.
Then on the 28th September, disaster! No programs appeared, possibly the only league meeting for which no program was available. The following week a far better production by Hough’s of Bradford was again for sale.
What’s VAT?
Value Added Tax was introduced in the UK in April 1973 at what was considered an exorbitant rate of 8%! VAT was to mess the speedway about in more ways than one!
The first meeting at Coatbridge was held at the end of March and consequently was free of VAT complications.
However the second meeting saw terracing entrance charges raised from 40pence to 45 pence. Strictly speaking the raise should have been limited to 44pence but it was felt the higher price would be easier to administer at the turnstiles. One person complained to the authorities and while Customs and Excise were unconcerned, the Weights and Measures department took the complainants side and charges had to be reduced. There were also problems over the Stand transfers but this is too boring to explain!
As you will see VAT will again feature later in this record of the 1973 season
Disco Fracas
The promotion had organised after the meeting discos in the nearby community centre, with admission by production of the speedway re-admission ticket. A local gang took umbrage at being refused entry and quite a fracas broke out with Kjell Gimre and Robin Adlington sustaining facial injuries. Further nights were cancelled and most fans decided that downtown Coatbridge after dark was not the place to be!
World Champions Knock Us Back
Belle Vue eventually decided that Ivan Mauger was the rider to be released. It seemed a strange decision but it was taken with an eye on the costs involved. For Mauger, it was a straight choice between Coatbridge and Exeter.- and he chose Exeter. He would later claim that had the Tigers ridden on a Monday then he would have signed for us. He felt that our Friday night racenight would have caused more complications for his continental weekend trips. Exactly why, I’ve never been sure! By the end of March, the well-organised Mauger no doubt already had his European Sunday meetings listed in his diary. At this time he was expecting to ride for Belle Vue, who raced in Manchester every Saturday night, and he presumably had no problem if fixing up flights either late night Saturday or early morning Sunday to get to the continent. Racing for a Friday night track would obviously have simplified these arrangements. Indeed, it was his RETURN journey that was to pose problems, such that, at one stage, he felt it would be impracticable for him to ride at Exeter on a Monday night! He would arrive at Heathrow early on Monday afternoons and then face the long drive to Exeter on non motorway roads. It was always going to be a rush and even if he made it on time, it wouldn’t be the best preparation for racing. Exeter came up with the highly innovative, and no doubt highly expensive solution. – a private jet would fly him from a small airport near Heathrow to Exeter, and would fly him back to Manchester after the meeting. In his book “The Will to Win” Mauger says the net worth of his Exeter contract was four times greater than his previous Belle Vue one! Exeter no doubt considered it money well spent as his seasons there were a real boom time for the Falcons. Would it have been boom or bust if he had come to Coatbridge? Curiously when Mauger returned to Exeter for a final year in 1984, he made it a condition that they moved to a Friday night! Make of that what you will!
At the end of April, new signing Egon Muller came over to make his debut at home to Cradley, one of our easiest fixtures as it would turn out. Arrangements were made for him to borrow junior John Wilson’s number two bike. Perhaps the promotion were unimpressed with his “transport difficulties” that precluded him bringing his own bike, or perhaps they didn’t consider him to a potential star, but you would have thought they could have got him a “higher spec” bike. Muller scored only one point, beating Bruce Cribb in his opening race and fared even worse with no score from three starts the following night at Swindon, before “returning homeward to think again” – as that song would tell! Apparently he was involved in a minor car crash on his way to the airport to fly over for our Northern Riders Championship round the following week … and that was the last we heard of him! While his interval cabaret act was quite amusing, the promotion decided he was unlikely to be worth the cost and aggravation in bringing him over each week. It would be ten years later that he was a surprise winner of the World title at Norden in his native Germany. However it would be stretching a point to suggest he was “one that got away”
Dave Gifford Joins the Tigers
Early June saw Dave Gifford have a major fallout with the Wolverhampton management and Rider Control made him available to a grateful Tigers side. Unlike George Hunter’s transfer in the opposite direction the previous year, it is not thought that he was bought, so may be the answer to “who replaced Charlie Monk? Is in fact – Dave Gifford!” He was a useful addition to the side and was so popular with supporters that he won the Glasgow Supporters rider of the Year Award.
.Curiously though our results didn’t improve following his signing, with home defeats at the hands of both Poole and Wolverhampton, neither power packed sides.
The Track that Grew!
The opening night program showed that the track length was 380 yards and the track record holder Reidar Eide with a time of 64.0 set in July 1969. From the outset, it seemed obvious that this time was never going to be challenged, never mind beaten. The track was marginally different from the Monarchs era, when successive (and indeed illegal!) incursions over the corner flag areas had worn away the football pitch and allowed the track to adopt its natural shape. However since the Monarchs departure, Albion Rovers had reinstated their pitch and laid a permanent inner edge. The best time was Eric Broadbelt’s 66.4 during the Northern Riders Championship round in May. Quite unannounced, and with no explanation, the program for the Newport meeting at the beginning of September showed the track now being 409 yards and that a new track record had yet to be established. Jim McMillan would be the first holder of the new record with 68.6 which was shortly bettered by Mike Hiftle’s 68.0, before Jim reclaimed it with 66.8. It seems incredible that the relatively minor changesto the track added a staggering 29 yards to the track length and the most plausible explanation seems to be that the initial track measurement was wrong. It is believed it was carried out with a piece of string 10 yards long and two keys to use as markers!
An Away Win at Last
Following the Tigers away from home wasn’t a very rewarding experience this season. Apart from Fair Friday, when the Tigers managed 36 at Wolverhampton, most meetings were over well before the final heat. There must have been something in the Black Country air, for the Tigers returned in early September and beat Cradley, then nicknamed “United” 41-37 on a very wet night. The Tigers cleaned up in the second half, supplying all four of the Rider of the night finalists.
The two league wins over Cradley were vital in that they were all that stood between the Tigers and the wooden spoon.
Ettienne Oliviere
Robin Adlington had spent the winter riding in Rhodesia and was accompanied back to Britain by Ettienne Oliviere, a young South African, a nationality that was not permitted to ride in the Second Division. Neil MacFarlane signed him for the Tigers but his registration forms were saying that it was not possible to register a South African rider but there seemed to be little problem in him riding in our second half races. At least no action was taken to stop him. However, when he rode for the visiting Bert Harkins Globetrotters at Coatbridge at the beginning of July, it all kicked off. Harkins and the Glasgow promotion received letters from the Control Board why this foreigner had been allowed to ride without a work permit. Tigers were also informed that he was not to ride in any second half races. It is thought that a certain “J. Smith” appeared in some second halves thereafter, athough this may be another speedway myth! A petition, demanding that he be allowed to ride, was organised by Joyce and Ronnie Young and collected over 1000 signatures. This was sent to the SCB and provoked a rather “snotty” reply from Rowena Blackbird, secretary of the BSPA, which Coatbridge were obliged to print in their program. However it had brought the matter to the attention of a wide audience, and after talks between the SCB, the BSPA and the SRA, Ettiennes registration was accepted. He never actually rode in Tigers colours although he did ride in the Scottish Open before going home for the winter Sadly he never returned.
Things Seemed To Be Looking Good….. then!
While the latter weeks of the season saw the “Straight Talking” columnist regularly exhort fans to buy Development fund tickets and warn that crowds were still “less than satisfactory”, there was no real panic amongst supporters and the promotion were pretty up beat, writing in the final program “ All the boys announced they would be back…if we are permitted to sign a middle of the road rider who has expressed a desire to come to Coatbridge… we will be a force to be reckoned with next season” . All pretty positive, no need to worry!
Then it all went wrong! On the eve of flying out to Australia to ride for the British Lions, skipper Jim McMillan posted in a transfer request. This was a real blow to the promotion who readily realised there was little hope of getting a suitable replacement.
From the rider’s point of view it was quite understandable. He no longer had brother Bill and his uncles, the Templeton brothers, as travelling companions to share the driving to away meetings, and perhaps this explained how his scoring had reached a plateau. The days of 10.00 averages in the early years at Hampden had given way to a struggle to break the 9.00 barrier. Perhaps a new track and being based in the Midlands would be the change he needed.
The real killer blow, though, according to the story of the time, was that the promotion had misunderstood the VAT situation. The veracity of this is not known, but it has to be said that VAT was a completely new form of taxation that bemused a lot of businesses in its early years. The promotion thought that, despite everything, they were not too far from break even on the season. It seemed that way, until it was pointed out the VAT on gate receipts had to be remitted to the authorities. They were in some trouble and they took the only realistic way out, selling the first division licence to Ian Thomas who took his Hull Vikings, rather than the often touted Workington, into the top league. Jim McMillan and Bobby Beaton were included in the deal and headed off to Hunberside………and for Tigers, our time in the First Division sun was over.
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