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EXETER'S 80th
ANNIVERSARY LUNCH by BERT HARKINS "Once upon a time, in the not too
distant past, the road down to Exeter was known as Speedway's answer to
The Bermuda Triangle. Riders en route to race at The County
Grounds either fell ill on the way or their cars broke down and they
were never seen in that part of the south again. Were YOU one of those
missing riders? Rumour has it that the big, fast and
narrow Exeter track with the steel fence around it, had something
to do with the missing riders, but there was no shortage of travellers when
Exeter staged their 80th Anniversary Lunch. Tony Lethbridge and Allen Trump did a
great job of organizing the get-together which had been intended as a
pre-season celebration lunch for the new Falcons, but that has been put
on hold until 2010. Allen had designed the souvenir menu/programme
for the event and 110 guests arrived at the Thistle Hotel in Downtown
Exeter to show that enthusiasm for the sport has not diminished since that
80 year stint at The County Ground Stadium came to an end. 'Way back then, in 1929, the new
promoter, Leonard Glanfield invited the Mayor of Exeter and other City
figures to a dinner to launch the opening of the new Speedway at The
County Ground and this year, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Exeter, Kevin
Mitchell, himself a keen Speedway fan, was Guest Speaker at the 80th
Anniversary lunch. Falcons past and present turned up for
the lunch (and also a hungry non-Falcon Scotsman) and exiled ex-Falcons
such as Tony Olsen, Scott Autrey and the great Ivan Mauger all sent long
letters extolling the enjoyment they had riding for that famous Devon
club. The World Speedway Riders' Association
was well represented with no less than THREE Presidents attending, with
ex Presidents Jack Geran and myself plus the new 2009 President,
former Exeter Falcon, Terry Stone. Aussie Jack and former team mate, Ron
Swaine were deep in conversation reminiscing about their early days in
Exeter where they shared the same 'digs' and workshop and how, after
cleaning their bikes on the Tuesday after the home meeting, the local
fans at the cafe would treat them to free food, tea and coffee. Jack,
still looking fit and well at 80 years old, also admitted that,
although heading home to Melbourne every couple of winters, he has now
been living in Devon for 57 years and the locals are beginning to accept
him now! Not that the Lunch was dominated by
older riders, as The Bomber, Chris Harris came along before his Coventry
practice day, Richard Green drove down from the Kings Lynn area and
Peter Jeffrey, Mark Lemon, Mark Simmons and the up & coming, Matt
Bates were all in attendance. Exeter legend, and he IS a Legend down
Devon way, Vaclav Verner flew over from Prague in the Czech Republic to
celebrate with his old club and help to drink the bar dry of whisky. Apart from Vaclav, furthest travelled
was ex-Glasgow Tiger, Joe Hicks who flew over from his home in New
Zealand with his Edinburgh-born wife, Helen. They had completed a round
trip of dinners and lunches from the Scottish WSRA Dinner in Livingstone,
to the main World Speedway Riders' Association Dinner at Leicester and
now the 80th Anniversary Exeter Lunch 'way down in Devon. A long way to
come for a "Free Lunch"! The Referee's Association was
represented by Tony Silk, who travelled from Swindon with ex-Robin, Ian
Williams, whilst the promoters were represented by Peter and Pam Oakes, so
all in all, we had a good representation from the whole Speedway
'Family.' And so everyone looked forward to next
year's Lunch when hopefully it will be a celebration of the return
of the Exeter Falcons at Haldon where there will NOT be a steel
safety fence and NO "Bermuda Triangle" of missing riders" Bertola |