Now you have to delete the comment not appropriate - I have decided to continue to lighten people's lives/ I have continued to bore people by continuing the daily blogs until such time as I am finding it difficult to think of things to write. One person has already told me that this will never happen and another has asked how many millions of words I write in a year.
Verbosity is my catchword. I simply love writing, love expressing things through the written word and love (hugely) the fact that there are people reading this who find some joy from it. That is my primary aim. So I'm afraid you are stuck with me for the foreseeable future. Although of course you could ignore my blogs (I wish I could).
And so onto today's main topic and this one is about cycle speedway.
My grandson fell out of a tree a few days ago and broke his arm in two places (what has this to do with cycle speedway I hear you ask - well stick with me and all will be revealed)? So I was talking to him about it and he asked me if I ever fell out of a tree when I was a youngster.
"I never climbed trees. I just rode my bike," I replied.
And I did. I rode my bike on the roads, rode it through forest tracks and rode it round the outside of Norwich Speedway at the Firs Stadium despite being chased by the owner who didn't like us using a speedway stadium for what was essentially cycle speedway but this was round the outside of the stadium anyway. For some reason, I seem to think the name of the owner/promoter was Parkins or something similar. He was the bad man in our games!
Apart from riding a bike, my other main pleasures were playing football, cricket and tennis over Hellesdon Recreation Ground. At the back of the Rec was a play area with a very high slide with a large cage at the top before the start of the actual slide. We played a game whereby those on the ground had to lob a football into this cage (it had an open top) and attempt to hit those in the cage - a pretty pointless pastime when you come to think of it.
Even further back and about as far as you could go on the Rec was a cycle speedway track and I believe that's where Norwich Stars Cycle Speedway Club raced. So I looked up Norwich Stars Cycle Speedway Club on the internet and found some interesting details - not the least of which was that the club secretary was one Mike Parkins - so was he related to the speedway owner? It seemed a distinct possibility as both clubs used the name Stars. And when I saw that his address was given as Firs Stadium, well that confirmed my suspicions.
The cycle speedway club started in the Heartsease area of Norwich and then moved to Scottow before finding its home on Hellesdon Rec. it raced from the early 1960s until it was disbanded in 1992.
British Championships and even a World Team competition were held on the track and one name I remember from those days was Phil Pilbrow who research tells me won the World Masters title in Australia in 1982.
If anyone is interested in the club's history you can find it at:
https://www.cyclespeedwayhistory.org.uk/340.shtml
As usual I have digressed from my original intention. I can't ever remember watching cycle speedway in Hellesdon - probably too keen on playing sport. Fast forward many years and we had moved to Hethersett where they also have a cycle speedway club - Hethersett Hawks. This was preceded by Hethersett Hornets.
Hawks was founded 55 years ago by my good friend Mel Perkins MBE. Mel's contribution to sport in Hethersett and further afield has been nothing short of monumental. As well as founding Hethersett Hawks, he also started Hethersett Athletic Football Club. Both clubs are still prospering and Hawks seems to be enjoying a renaissance.
A few years ago I met up with Mel and two other Hethersett Cycle Speedway luminaries from the early days - Brian Denmark and Bernie Platford. Over lunch we spoke about the early days of the sport in the village and I subsequently wrote a large article with photographs on that which I will hopefully publish in some form or other one day.
Hethersett Hawks currently has 70 members of all ages with many joining over the past couple of years. It has now launched a £50,000 track and facility upgrade fund which would give it the chance of hosting international matches, British Championships and even World Championships and what a feather in the cap that would be for a relatively small place like Hethersett.
The improvements would bring refreshment facilities, a first aid area, an officials' room and toilets and much more to the Memorial Playing Field. I wrote a piece on this for the local press and if you want to read more about the improvements just go to.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/speedway-club-near-norwich-to-upgrade-track-facilities-7802574
As well as building a first class track, the club is also looking to launch the delightfully named Wonky Wheels which is a charity-based initiative aimed at providing free education, training and support to allow people to get into cycling and also learn how to maintain their cycles.
It's exciting days for a club that could soon be establishing itself once again as a top venue for the sport.
This should give people some more peace of mind and also as one in three people with COVID don't have any symptoms but can still pass it on it will be good for people to find out whether they have the virus or not.