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Arena-Essex
Lakeside
Speedway |
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| Courtesy of John Spoor |
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Arena-Essex Raceway, on the A1306 Arterial Road, Thurrock, Essex
RM19 1AE first staged speedway in 1984. The "Hammers" had a
name change to do away with the hyphen before becoming Lakeside.
They later went to the wall with builders moving in and
redeveloping the site for housing which means the track will not
be making a comeback. |
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Andrew Gallon says: I saw speedway on four occasions at
Arena Essex (Arena-Essex, originally). Sadly, to witness the
stadium packed to the rafters, I had to watch a banger meeting
there. Like many speedway followers, I was intrigued to hear
the track was constructed without a conventional safety fence.
As I discovered, on my first visit, in 1990, for the final
fixture of a nine-matches-in-nine-nights 'speedway holiday',
the outer edge of the speedway track was denoted by short
rubber pipes, with a run-off onto the adjacent tarmac stock
car circuit. It seemed to work well, though a collapsible
fence was put in eventually. In common with many speedway
venues in the South East, Arena Essex fell prey to crazily
inflated land values. The site, destined to become houses, was
sold to a developer for a reported £8m. Who would snub an
offer like that? My chief memory of Arena Essex is the amount
of traffic one had to negotiate on the clockwise M25 to reach
the track in time for Friday evening matches. The traffic was
bad enough in the 1990s. It must have been horrendous during
the final seasons of the track's existence.
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Arena's 1987 Team |
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Courtesy of Graham Gleave |
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The 1987 Essex Radio Hammers. Standing: Ian Humphreys, Gary
Chessell, Peter Thorogood, Andrew Silver, Nigel Leaver, Mark
Chessell, Kneeling: Steve Bishop and Martin Goodwin |
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Arena-Essex v Wimbledon |
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28th July 1990 |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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| Arena-Essex v Coventry |
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1st July 1994 |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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Arena-Essex v Cradley Heath |
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30th June 1995 |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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| Courtesy of Andrew Gallon |
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| Arena-Essex Badges |
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| 1990 |
1992 |
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| The contents of the site are © and should not be
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gave the pictures and information on that understanding. If anyone has
any issue or objections to any items on the site please
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and I will amend or remove the item. Where possible credit
has been given to the owner of each item. |
