Brian John Collins (born 13 May 1948 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland) is a former

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 ...

rider.

Career

Collins spent the first four years of his British speedway career with

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish speedway team based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess and also runs a ...

from 1966 to 1969, although they were known as Coatbridge from 1968 to 1969. In 1968, he top scored for Scotland against England in a test match. In 1970 and 1971, he rode for Wembley after the London team bought the Coatbridge licence. In 1972 Wembley sent their entire team out on loan due to extra football fixtures stopping the speedway at Wembley and Collins moved to

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by l ...

for two years. He joined the Coatbridge/Glasgow Tigers in 1974 and won the Scottish Open Champion in 1975. Also in 1975, Collins finished runner up in the 1975 The National League Riders Championship at Wimbledon. After two unbeaten rides, Collins came out against the only other unbeaten rider

Paul Gachet Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (30 July 1828 – 9 January 1909) was a French physician most famous for treating the painter Vincent van Gogh during his last weeks in Auvers-sur-Oise. Gachet was a great supporter of artists and the Impressionist movement ...

. In their third heat, both Collins and Gachet were cut up before the first bend, Gachet's wheel being struck and, in holding his machine steady, the young Eagle found himself at the back. As he managed to pass Collins, his bike reared on the notorious second bend of Plough Lane and both he and Collins fell. Gachet was carried off and, in the re-run, Collins scored 3 points. Collins went out in the final heat needing only 1 point for a run-off and 2 for the crown. Lying second behind

Les Rumsey Leslie John Rumsey (born 27 July 1955) is a former speedway rider from England. Speedway career Rumsey rode in the top two tiers of British Speedway from 1972 to 1983, riding for various clubs. Rumsey signed for Canterbury Crusaders in 1972 ...

, he fell on the third lap, remounted, but was too far behind to catch up. Then,

Brian Clarke Sir Brian Clarke (born 2 July 1953) is a British Painting, painter, architectural artist, designer and Printmaking, printmaker, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, symbolist paintings, set designs, and collaborations w ...

, in third place, fell off in the same spot and Collins went past him for the vital 1 point. With just two riders in the run-off Laurie Etheridge rode across Collins before the first bend and Collins picked himself up from the track and watched from the centre green as Etheridge completed four laps to become champion. In 1978 and after spending three seasons with Glasgow, where he became the team captain, he returned to Edinburgh, which was his first club and rivals to Glasgow. Collins rode the remainder of his career for

Berwick Bandits The Berwick Bandits are a British speedway club, based in Berwick-upon-Tweed. They currently compete in the SGB Championship, racing at Shielfield Park, with home matches usually taking place on Saturday evenings. They also run a second team ...

and Glasgow again.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Brian 1948 births Living people British motorcycle racers British speedway riders Scottish speedway riders Berwick Bandits riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Glasgow Tigers riders Poole Pirates riders Wembley Lions riders Sportspeople from Edinburgh