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WIMBLEDON - Plough Lane Home of Wimbledon Dons since 1928
Pictures courtesy of John Hyam
Pictures courtesy of Richard Hollingsworth
This article was first published on 24th December 2008
"In or around 1976 I was managing Alvin Stardust. At the request of a music publisher friend called Terry Noon, Alvin and I attended a meeting at Wimbledon Speedway to present something or other. Obviously being a speedway fan, prancing around the pits and chatting to Dons manage Cyril Maidment and captain Barry Briggs I was in my element. Briggo took Alvin around the track on his bike, after which Alvin had his photograph taken with the great x times World Champion.....the pic features in one of Barry's books. Alvin had to leave before the end of the meeting to do a radio interview....but Briggo told me he was going to do 20-30 laps after the crowd had left. He took me out onto the centre grass area and stood me on the start to a bend....I nearly panicked when on his first lap he threw the bike over into a power slide....hence he was initially coming straight at me but of course drifted into the bend.....brilliant!" "Does anyone recall a speedway match way back in the 1950 s when on a dreadful night of torrential rain Wimbledon went to the unbeatable Wembley and won 42/41? I recall that Mike Erskine scored 11 points. I got absolutely drenched and it turned me off the stadium for life." "The speedway has been there since 1929, and the people who live there and have been there 5 minutes and they think they own the place. "
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