Peter Arthur Smith (born 11 July 1942, in

Hanworth Hanworth is a district of West London, England. Historically in Middlesex, it has been part of the London Borough of Hounslow since 1965. Hanworth adjoins Feltham to the northwest, Twickenham to the northeast and Hampton, London, Hampton to the ...

, England) is a former international

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 from England, who spent his entire career with the

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 ...

. He earned seven international caps for the England national speedway team and two caps for the Great Britain team.

Career

Smith began riding speedway motorcycles at the training track at

Rye House Stadium Rye House Stadium was a speedway and greyhound racing venue in Rye Road, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated adjacent to the River Lea Navigation. Origins The name Rye House originates from a collection of medieval building ...

in the early 1960s. In 1962, Smith took part in a number of second-half meetings at

Wimborne Road Poole Stadium is a motorcycle speedway, speedway and former Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing venue located in the town centre of Poole, Dorset in England. The stadium is owned by the Borough of Poole. It was built in the ...

and made his first full appearance for Poole at a challenge match at Rye House. He continued to improve at Poole and by 1968, Smith had become the Pirates third heat-leader. Poole won the

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 British League Division Two, second division starting i ...

championship in 1969 and Smith rose to the number one position at the club with an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 9.52. Smith also made his first international appearances for England in 1969 against Australia, New Zealand and Scotland. He was made Poole's captain in 1971 and continued to ride for the club until his retirement from the sport in 1977. He made 620 appearances for Poole Pirates during his 15 years career establishing a club record.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Pete 1942 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers Poole Pirates riders 20th-century English sportsmen