Cycle Speedway in Hethersett - The beginnings
CYCLE speedway in Hethersett evolved from humble beginnings with a few mates “scratching out a track” at the old gravel pit. Their reasons were simple as one of them explains over 60 years later:
“What boy in those days didn’t want to hurtle around on a bike?”
Bernard “Barney” Platford and Brian Denmark are now both well into their eighties but still remember the thrill they got from riding home made bikes without brakes at breakneck speeds around a “scratched out track.”
It all came about because of the couple’s love of speedway. Both were ardent fans of Norwich Stars – one of the best speedway teams ever to take to the cinder/shale track - at their Firs Road, Hellesdon, home.
Barney and Brian called together some mates and met at Barney’s home in The Crescent, Hethersett, and formed the Hethersett Hornets Cycle Speedway
Club. They adopted the gravel pits as their home, marking out a circuit with their boots:
“Nobody gave us permission to use the gravel pit. We just went ahead and did it,” said Barney who is now a sprightly 85-year-old. Barney took on the mantle of club captain and they were joined by friends who included Ted Eaglen, Harry Dearing, Reuben Woolner, Timmy Folkard, John Poll and Willie Warnes amongst others.
Hornets started with the youngsters building their own machines, often from scrap or women’s bikes. They were given workshop facilities at the Greyhound Public House in Henstead Road:
“I think the landlord got so fed up with us hurtling around that he decided to give us somewhere we could work on the bikes rather than ride them,” Barney and Brian joked.
After two or three years of impromptu riding, Hornets joined the thriving Norwich League, one of the top leagues in the country.
Hornets proved extremely successful and it is rumoured that after 1952 they withdrew from the league because other teams refused to ride against them – they were that good.
By that time, the team had left the gravel pit for a new home at the Great Melton end of New Road:
“Kenny Woods gave us permission to use part of what was a meadow. We built a track by digging the turf out and building banks around it. At the time football was also played on the same meadow,” Brian Denmark said.
In the late forties and early fifties, cycle speedway was a “big deal” in the village. Sunday afternoon action attracted crowds of over 100 with many people coming from the Meltons to watch them take on the likes of Hellesdon and Norwich.
“The village was very much smaller in those days, so it was a good percentage of the population who came out to support us,” Brian added. “We would go round with a hat and collect a bit of money.”
Sadly by 1952, things were beginning to get in the way of Sunday afternoon cycle speedway. Brian and a couple of other club members were called up for National Service. Brian went to Korea and Japan and others to Malaysia. Then there was the question of the opposite sex which suddenly held more appeal than a home made bike with no brakes.
“We just started drifting away and I got married,” said Barney.
Today both Barney and Brian have very fond memories of their days with the Hornets. They even managed to spread their wings on one occasion when they answered a plea from a Battersea team in the Daily Mirror Newspaper for fixtures. That resulted in the Hethersett boys loading their bikes and themselves onto a coach and travelling to London – something not taken on lightly in those days.
Eventually Brian returned from the army and joined a club at nearby Wicklewood. Sadly the Hornets were no more and the village would have to wait another 14 years before a new club was born, although Rod Nickalls, who was born and bred in the village, remembers using the scratched out track at the gravel pits in the late 1950s, once again suggesting that impromptu racing was taking place.
It was in 1966, however, that a bright, shiny new Hethersett club was formed – one that would continue throughout the seventies, the eighties, the nineties and into the 21st century. This was the birth of Hethersett Hawks.
Click here for part two
“What boy in those days didn’t want to hurtle around on a bike?”
Bernard “Barney” Platford and Brian Denmark are now both well into their eighties but still remember the thrill they got from riding home made bikes without brakes at breakneck speeds around a “scratched out track.”
It all came about because of the couple’s love of speedway. Both were ardent fans of Norwich Stars – one of the best speedway teams ever to take to the cinder/shale track - at their Firs Road, Hellesdon, home.
Barney and Brian called together some mates and met at Barney’s home in The Crescent, Hethersett, and formed the Hethersett Hornets Cycle Speedway
Club. They adopted the gravel pits as their home, marking out a circuit with their boots:
“Nobody gave us permission to use the gravel pit. We just went ahead and did it,” said Barney who is now a sprightly 85-year-old. Barney took on the mantle of club captain and they were joined by friends who included Ted Eaglen, Harry Dearing, Reuben Woolner, Timmy Folkard, John Poll and Willie Warnes amongst others.
Hornets started with the youngsters building their own machines, often from scrap or women’s bikes. They were given workshop facilities at the Greyhound Public House in Henstead Road:
“I think the landlord got so fed up with us hurtling around that he decided to give us somewhere we could work on the bikes rather than ride them,” Barney and Brian joked.
After two or three years of impromptu riding, Hornets joined the thriving Norwich League, one of the top leagues in the country.
Hornets proved extremely successful and it is rumoured that after 1952 they withdrew from the league because other teams refused to ride against them – they were that good.
By that time, the team had left the gravel pit for a new home at the Great Melton end of New Road:
“Kenny Woods gave us permission to use part of what was a meadow. We built a track by digging the turf out and building banks around it. At the time football was also played on the same meadow,” Brian Denmark said.
In the late forties and early fifties, cycle speedway was a “big deal” in the village. Sunday afternoon action attracted crowds of over 100 with many people coming from the Meltons to watch them take on the likes of Hellesdon and Norwich.
“The village was very much smaller in those days, so it was a good percentage of the population who came out to support us,” Brian added. “We would go round with a hat and collect a bit of money.”
Sadly by 1952, things were beginning to get in the way of Sunday afternoon cycle speedway. Brian and a couple of other club members were called up for National Service. Brian went to Korea and Japan and others to Malaysia. Then there was the question of the opposite sex which suddenly held more appeal than a home made bike with no brakes.
“We just started drifting away and I got married,” said Barney.
Today both Barney and Brian have very fond memories of their days with the Hornets. They even managed to spread their wings on one occasion when they answered a plea from a Battersea team in the Daily Mirror Newspaper for fixtures. That resulted in the Hethersett boys loading their bikes and themselves onto a coach and travelling to London – something not taken on lightly in those days.
Eventually Brian returned from the army and joined a club at nearby Wicklewood. Sadly the Hornets were no more and the village would have to wait another 14 years before a new club was born, although Rod Nickalls, who was born and bred in the village, remembers using the scratched out track at the gravel pits in the late 1950s, once again suggesting that impromptu racing was taking place.
It was in 1966, however, that a bright, shiny new Hethersett club was formed – one that would continue throughout the seventies, the eighties, the nineties and into the 21st century. This was the birth of Hethersett Hawks.
Click here for part two