Malcolm Simmons
Malcolm Simmons (20 March 1946 – 25 May 2014) was a British speedway rider. Career Simmons was born in Tonbridge, Kent. After starting in second-half races at New Cross, he made his Provincial League debut at Hackney Hawks in 1963 aged seventeen but was unable to break into the Hackney team regularly so moved to the newly re-opened West Ham Hammers for the 1964 season.Rogers, Martin (1963) "Hackney Hawks Here to Stay?", ''Speedway Star'', 1 June 1963, p. 16 In 1965 Simmons won a British League and British League Knockout Cup double with West Ham. In 1968 he moved to the King's Lynn Stars and stayed there for the next seven seasons. He was consistently at the top of the Stars averages and scored over 2112 points for the club. Simmons signed for the Poole Pirates in 1975 from King's Lynn. In his first season for Poole in 31 league matches he achieved 16 maximum scores (15 full and 1 paid) and he became the first Poole rider to secure a 10-point average in the British League. S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tonbridge
Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population of 41,293 in 2018. History The town was recorded in the Domesday Book 1087 as ''Tonebrige'', which may indicate a bridge belonging to the estate or manor (from the Old English tun), or alternatively a bridge belonging to Tunna, a common Anglo-Saxon man's name. Another theory suggests that the name is a contraction of "town of bridges", due to the large number of streams the High Street originally crossed. Until 1870, the town's name was spelt ''Tunbridge'', as shown on old maps including the 1871 Ordnance Survey map and contemporary issues of the Bradshaw railway guide. In 1870, this was changed to ''Tonbridge'' by the GPO due to confusion with nearby Tunbridge Wells, despite Tonbridge being a much older settlement. Tunbridge Wells has ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Motorcycle Speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only one gear and have no brakes. Racing takes place on a flat oval track usually consisting of soil, dirt, loosely packed shale, or crushed rock (mostly used in Australia and New Zealand). Competitors use this surface to slide their machines sideways, powersliding or broadsiding into the bends. On the straight sections of the track, the motorcycles reach speeds of up to . There are now both domestic and international competitions in a number of countries, including the Speedway World Cup, whilst the highest overall scoring individual in the Speedway Grand Prix events is pronounced the world champion. Speedway is popular in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe and to a lesser extent in Australia and North America. A variant of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Conference League (speedway)
The Conference League was the third and lowest division of motorcycle speedway racing in the United Kingdom governed by the Speedway Control Board (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). The other leagues being the Elite League and Premier League. The League consisted of eight teams for the 2008 season. In 2009 it was replaced with the National League. History The British League Division Three had been created in 1994 as a replacement for the second-half junior leagues that were scrapped when British League matches were extended to eighteen heats. The league was renamed the British Academy League in 1995, but many of the teams that took part experienced severe financial problems. In order to reduce costs, the league was re-launched as the Conference league in 1996 and was an entirely amateur competition. The revamped competition proved to be successful, with several new teams joining and some tracks attracting crowds on par with the Premier ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mildenhall Fen Tigers
The Mildenhall Fen Tigers are a British speedway team, founded in 1975 and currently riding in the National Development League. History 1971–1989 The original track was built in 1971 on farm land owned by Terry Waters, with chef Bernie Klatt the driving force behind establishing speedway in Mildenhall.Butt, Randall (1980) "Dream Come True", '' Speedway Star'', 15 November 1980, p. 7 Klatt had been the head chef at the officers club at the nearby air force base, and later established a restaurant at the track. The track moved to a second area on the same farm in 1973. After running as a training track, the Mildenhall team entered the New National League (division 2) in 1975. The team competed in division 2 for 15 consecutive seasons from 1975 to 1989. Their best season was the 1979 National League season, where the team won the league title. 1990–2005 The team disbanded after the 1989 season but the track remained open from 1990 to 1991. The 1992 season started with fixtu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gordon Kennett
Gordon William Kennett (born 2 September 1953) is a former motorcycle speedway rider. In 1978 he won the World Pairs Championship with Malcolm Simmons. He also finished runner-up to Ole Olsen in the 1978 Speedway World Championship at Wembley. Gordon's career spanned twenty four years including spells with Oxford Rebels, and moved with them to form the White City RebelsLawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. and then a return to Eastbourne Eagles. With Oxford he was a member of the Midland Cup winning team (1975) in a dramatic competition that saw home and away draws with Swindon Robins requiring reruns and a home and away victory over Wolverhampton Wolves to secure the trophy. In 1977, he rode with the White City Rebels to top the British League Tables. Since retiring in 1995, he worked as a car mechanic and was not involved with speedway, although he would watch matches and support family members. Gordon lives in Brighton with his wife, Susan. Family Bro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Louis (speedway Rider)
John "Tiger" Louis (born 14 June 1941) is an England international Motorcycle speedway rider who rode for Ipswich, Newport, West Ham, Oxford, Wembley, Halifax and King's Lynn during his career. He is the father of Great Britain International Chris Louis. Career history Ipswich born Louis started his motorcycling career in scrambling and was tempted to have a go at speedway when Ipswich re-opened in 1969. He made his debut in 1970 and by the following year topped the national Second Division averages. In 1972 Ipswich gained admission to the top flight by purchasing West Ham's licence and Louis spearheaded the Witches team, making his World Final debut at London's Wembley Stadium in 1972, finishing in 5th place. Louis finished fourth at the 1974 World Final at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden and improved to third in the 1975 World Final at Wembley - becoming the first British rider to stand on the World Championship podium since Peter Craven in 1962. Louis was p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Speedway World Championship
The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championships were held in 1936. Today, this official FIM championship is organised as a series of Speedway Grand Prix events, where points are awarded according to performance in the event and tallied up at the end of each season. However, up to 1994, it was run as a single-night event after qualifying rounds during the season, leading up to a big final of 20 heats, where points were awarded according to riders' heat placings and then tallied up at the end. Before the World Championship received its formal recognition from the ACU and the FIM in 1936, other unofficial Speedway World Championships were staged between 1931 and 1935, in Europe, South America and Australasia. Organization 1929 to 1935 – Unofficial Championships 1929 to 1935 E ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peter Collins (speedway Rider)
Peter Spencer Collins MBE (born 24 March 1954) is a former speedway rider who spent his whole career (1971–1986) with the Belle Vue Aces, the team he supported as a child. The only other club he rode for was the now defunct Rochdale Hornets (Belle Vue's nursery team), with whom he spent the first season of his career on loan. During his career, Peter Collins won 10 World Championships in speedway competition (one Individual, four Pairs and five World Team Cups) making him the most successful British rider in history. Early life Collins was born on 24 March 1954 at the Davyhulme Hospital in Urmston, Manchester.Lanning, Russell (1985) "Rider Profile: Peter Collins", '' Speedway Star'', 18 May 1985, p. 20-21 He worked at a market garden while at school to save up for a bike, and spent two years as an apprentice fitter with Shell before leaving to concentrate on his speedway career. Career Belle Vue Aces Peter rode his first full season for the Aces in 1972 attaining an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Speedway British League
The British League was the main motorcycle speedway league in Britain from its formation in 1965 until 1995 when British speedway was restructured. It initially had a single division, with a second division starting in 1968 (which was renamed the New National League in 1975 and subsequently the National League). The British League was formed in 1965 following the merger of the National League and the Provincial League. Matches were held over a series of races, with two riders from each team taking part in each race. In 1995 it was replaced by the Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ... for two years before the sport was restructured into three tiers with the formation of the Elite League in 1997. The Championship was decided on a league table basis. C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tempus Publishing
The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 books per year and with a backlist of over 12,000 titles. Created in December 2007, The History Press integrated core elements of the NPI Media Group within it, including all existing published titles, plus all the future contracts and publishing rights contained in them. At the time of founding, the imprints included Phillimore, Pitkin Publishing, Spellmount, Stadia, Sutton Publishing, Tempus Publishing and Nonsuch. History The roots of The History Press's publishing heritage can be traced back to 1897 when William Phillimore founded a publishing business which still carries his name, however the company itself evolved from the amalgamation of multiple smaller publishing houses in 2007 that formed part of the NPI Media Group. The large ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Speedway Star
Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race courses * Cycle speedway, a form of bicycle racing * Dirt track racing, known as speedway in Australia and New Zealand *Motorcycle speedway, a form of motorcycle sport *Oval track racing, motor racing on an oval track which turns in one direction *Sidecar speedway, a form of sidecar racing Geography *Speedway, Indiana, a town in Marion County, Indiana, home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway *Speedway, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in Mercer County Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Speedway'' (1929 film), a silent film * ''Speedway'' (1968 film), a film starring Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra ** ''Speedway'' (soundtrack), 1968 *** "Speedway" (song), a song by Elvis Presley *Speedway (band), a Scottish band who entered the UK ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |