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Wigan
Speedway
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Poolstock Stadium, Wigan, Lancs. This Wigan track
operated in 1947 and 1960. The venue was redeveloped in the 1970's.
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Poolstock Stadium |
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Poolstock Stadium showing the greyhound track with the
speedway track inside
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Wigan Poolstock
1947 |
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Courtesy of George Winstanley
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One of these riders lining up at
Poolstock in 1947 was Jack Winstanley. George Winstanley thinks his
dad Jack will be one of the riders
John
John Coombs: says this is Wigan and George says it is 1947
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Courtesy of George Winstanley
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Handwritten memories of 1947 from Jack Winstanley
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George Formby at Poolstock |
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Laurel & Hardy
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The following programme scans
were sent to me by Malcolm Hill and by coincidence it mentions
Laurel & Hardy as does Jack Winstanley's letter shown above. Does anyone know if
they were speedway fans? |
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Wigan Team |
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Courtesy of Graham Gleave |
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Possibly Poolstock?
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Paul
Littler of Brentwood, Essex Says: I found a very small photo amongst
my parents possessions which I think was taken at a speedway meeting
in Wigan. I have no idea when it was taken. I have scanned it and
blown it up and this is the largest I can get it up to without it
getting to blocky.
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John says: I have tweaked
Paul's picture a bit more. Not certain of the venue but Wigan
Poolstock had track lights like those shown above so let us assume
the track is Poolstock. If you can confirm email me please
John |
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Paul goes on to say: There are no riders in the photo and you can
only just make out the track but I just wondered if any-one could
confirm if it is Wigan Poolstock? It could be late 1940’s going
with the age of the photos that it was with, in my mums handbag!
Too bad there are no photos of riders.
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My first speedway meeting was at Wigan must have been early 1960’s
when they re-launched the track but I just cried all the time, I
couldn’t understand what we were doing and what was the point of
it and all of the noise. I was about 5 years old. The only bit I
liked was the tractor! |
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My mum and dad went regularly to speedway in the 1940’s and 1950’s
and when I was a teenager we went to Belle Vue in the 1970’s when
Ivan Mauger and Soren Sjosten and the Aces were unbeatable. Happy
exciting days and I was old enough then to understand but I was
thoroughly spoiled at all the success of Belle Vue 1969-1975. |
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I live in Brentwood in Essex now and haven’t been to Speedway for a
long time. I tried Arena Essex at Lakeside Thurrock but it
is a tiny tiny track and after Hyde Road it always just makes me
sad. |
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Someone told me I should try Rye House. I think I will, if only for
the smell of burned fuel and dust. |
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I Love your website, best wishes. Paul Littler |
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Paul Littler's Scans |
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Paul Littler says: Hello John, My name
is Paul and a few years ago I sent you a picture that I had found
in my mum’s handbag of what I thought was Poolstock Speedway
Stadium in Wigan.
The picture was put on the
Defunct Speedway Tracks Website and I’m very pleased I was able to
contribute something.
I still have
a lot of my mum and dad things to sort through and recently when
I was looking at a book of poems that had belonged to my mum I
found inside were the enclosed cuttings from the newspaper The
Wigan Examiner from the 1st – 22nd August
1947.
I wondered if you would find
these useful or interesting and possibly want to add these to the
page about Wigan Speedway. (John says: the 4 clippings
are shown above).
Thank you for the Defunct Speedway Tracks website it’s great to be
able to see all of this Speedway history in one place.
Thank you. Best Wishes, Paul Littler, Brentwood
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Wigan v Newcastle 1947 |
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Courtesy of Graham Gleave |
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Courtesy of Graham Gleave |
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Wigan
1947
Race Jacket |
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This Jacket belonged to Wigan rider Jack Winstanley
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Wigan v Stoke |
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Wigan
Programmes |
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Courtesy Of Peter O'nions |
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Wigan Promoter's Trophy |
24th June1960 |
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Courtesy of Tom Roe |
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Rylance Bros John & Keith |
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St. John Rylance has been in touch. He is the son of
John Rylance. John and older brother Keith Rylance both rode for
Wigan. St. John has supplied the following items and some text too. |
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1960 Wigan Warriors
Back Johnny James, Dave Anderson, Don Potter (Promoter), ray Day and
Keith Rylance
Front Gordon Mitchell, Frank Malouf (Captain on bike), Bill Bridgett
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St.John Rylance
says: 1960 Wigan Warriors team
pictured at Poolstock stadium Captain Frank Malouf on bike, my uncle Keith
Rylance standing far right, promoter Don Potter standing in the middle.
Wigan Warriors has also run at Poolstock in 1947. My dad, John Allen
Rylance (known mostly as Allen) went to all those meetings as an 11/12
year-old. But the promoters were from Blackpool and wanted a team in that
town. Although unable to find a site in Blackpool the team was moved to
Fleetwood the following year. In 1952 Wigan had another team (the
Panthers) at Woodhouse Lane stadium. My father raced at Woodhouse Lane
aged 16. My dad and uncle were very much involved in bringing speedway
back to Wigan in 1960, doing a lot of work on the track etc.
St.John Rylance |
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John Rylance
1960
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Keith Rylance
1960
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Wigan v Norwich 1960 |
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Bryan Tungate says: Hi John
Interesting to see the Wigan v Norwich item from
10 June 1960 on the site. This was the opening meeting for the season. I
note that no replacements are shown in heat details. My records show
John Rylance rode in heat 10 in place of Frank Malouf among
replacements.
In the second half John had a second & a third
placing in his two races.
A report on the match says the crowd was 2000.
After it was over there was a big sit down meal, in the changing
room, prepared by a chef who came from Blackpool for the occasion. All
riders & officials were in attendance for this event. Must have been a
big changing room.
Every local child who attended the meeting got a
stick of "Warriors" rock with the name through it. The report stated
that "any promoter who thought that up will not be beaten for a very
long time".
Mike Parker and Ken Sharples objected to a licence
for Don Potter to open the track and this delayed work preparing for the
opening meeting against Norwich. The track was layed and prepared in
three weeks. The report said it was cinder surfaced but would need
plenty more work before it could be described as smooth.
All the best
Bryan Tungate
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Wigan v Bradford
1960 |
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Courtesy of Tom Roe |
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Jack Winstanley |
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Dave Anderson |
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St John Rylance has been in touch and sent this photo.
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St John Rylance says: Hi John, I've done some research on the photo shown
above. It's of Dave Anderson receiving the Wigan Promoter's Trophy on
June 24th 1960. A note on the rear of the photo (which I bought quite
recently) says that Don Potter (the promoter) is giving him the
trophy, but I'm pretty sure it's not Potter. Do you have any idea who
it is? |
John says: Email if you know who the guy in the shirt and tie
is
John
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Andy Reid suggests it could be the Co promoter Percy
Firth) |
Terry Stone says: The white shirt looks like Maurice
Morley |
Peter Kearns says: I
think the guy in the shirt presenting the trophy at Wigan could be
Maurice Morley who was involved in most of the Northern tracks in
the 60's. He worked for Mike Parker at Newcastle at one stage as
team manager. I could be wrong!
Cheers, Peter Kearns. |
St John Rylance says: The Promoter's Trophy was the third meeting of
the season. Twelve riders had four races each, the top eight then had
semi finals and a final. Tony Robinson (of Sheffield) won the first
semi final from Ray Day. My uncle Keith Rylance was third and last was
Vic Lonsdale. Terry Betts (aged 16) won the second semi from Dave
Anderson. Frank Malouf was excluded and Bill Bridgett fell in the
re-run.
For some reason Ray Day didn't make the final
and was replaced by Keith Rylance. Tony Robinson had won all his five
races that evening but he fell and was excluded. In the re-run Terry
Betts also fell and Dave Anderson won from Keith Rylance. There was a second half after the main event.
Jim Yacobi won the novice race with John Rylance 2nd. Frank Malouf won
the final of the Poolstock Scurry. More to follow as time permits. St John |
Thanks St John, we are looking
forward to future installments John |
Reg Fearman says: It is Maurice Morley presenting the Trophy,
Maurice popped up everywhere and just about worked for every
speedway management, be it part time or full time in the circa 1960s
/1970s. Don Potter came to the opening of Stoke on the 15th April
1960 and a number of meetings afterwards - we were good pals from
being team partners at Stoke in 1952/53 - Don saw what tremendous
crowds we had at Sun Street and decided he would 'have some of
that'. He lived in Blackpool and had a big car hire business, at
one time he was on the Council and I believe Mayor. Unfortunately
Wigan was not a success story, aka Liverpool. There are some places
that speedway racing has never really taken off. Don retired to
Tenerife and went home to Blackpool very poorly to die in about
2000. Maurice Morley is very much alive and living
in Essex at the last 'count'. Cheers, Reg
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John says: Thanks Reg. Maurice was involved at my track, Newcastle
and I can confirm that it is him |
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Have you any pictures of either Wigan track, programmes or badges if so please email me
John
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The contents of the site are © and should not be
reproduced elsewhere for financial gain. The contributors to this site
gave the pictures and information on that understanding. If anyone has
any issue or objections to any items on the site please
e-mail
and I will amend or remove the item. Where possible credit
has been given to the owner of each item. |