The history of Peterborough Panthers speedway starts with the turbulent 1960s and 1970s

Over the next few week’s Holeshot Media will look back at the history of the sport in the city and talk to some of the personalities who played their role in establishing speedway as a major spectator attraction in Peterborough and the occasions that played a crucial part in the city’s riich sporting tapestry.

THE story of speedway in Peterborough started long before the first race at the East of England Showground coincided with Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’ crashing into the number one position in the record charts of June 1970.

You have to go much further back in time – to the immediate post-war era of 1946 when King George V was the reigning monarch, the Labour Party’s Clement Attlee was Prime Minister, while in the sporting arena first class cricket resumed after being suspended throughout the Second World War and Derby County beat Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.

LEAGUE LAUNCH

Speedway was also in vogue, as the league programme was re-launched with 12 different teams in two leagues, six in the London-centric National League and a Northern League that, perversely, including Norwich.

Coaches ran from Peterborough to Norfolk and on Thursday, May 23, a challenge match between the Stars and Birmingham Brummies was put on at the old Eastfield Showground, where the Peterborough Agricultural Society’s had been putting on an annual show since 1911.

A circuit, principally grassed but worn through by the tyres of the motorcyclists, was described as ‘grass speedway’ and in that first year the Peterborough & District Light Car and Motorcycle Club, under an Auto-Cycle Union licence, staged eight meetings, the first with a team labelled ‘Peterborough’ against an Eastern Counties Select at the end of July and on a variety of evenings, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Many household names took part and a further eight meetings went ahead the following year.

It is believed there were further occasional meetings at the Showground as well as a quickly aborted attempt to stage amateur racing on a field on North Street, Stanground, right up until 1950.

PANTHERS BIRTH

But it wasn’t until 1967 that there was any serious attempt to establish league racing in the city.

A mini-boom saw new tracks blossom all over the country and in 1966 there was a 19-strong league set-up, with teams as far afield as Glasgow and Poole, Exeter, and King’s Lynn.

The resurgence encouraged former rider turned promoter Ron Wilson to approach the owners of the greyhound track at Fengate to accommodate speedway and they agreed, and the intention was to include a Peterborough side in a Second Division that was due to start in 1968.

OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS

Local residents lodged objections and they were backed by Northamptonshire County Council who refused the planning application and even though the prospective promoters lodged an appeal on February 7, 1967, the Minister of Housing and Local Government upheld the County Council’s refusal to grant planning permission for the laying of a speedway track.

So, the hope of introducing speedway to the city was dashed, but suddenly a new avenue opened up.

The East of England Agricultural Society had moved from Eastfield to their current home at Alwalton in 1966 and long-serving secretary and life vice-president Roy Bird offered some encouragement in the wake of the collapse of the Fengate project.

He confirmed that the Society had been approached to put on stock car racing in the arena but said: “Stock cars are liable to cause a good deal of damage when they leave the track, and this is a big problem.

“On the other hand, speedway racing provides no problems, since little damage is done should a machine leave the track.”

That public statement was music to the ears of the directors of promoting company Allied Presentations Limited – one of whom was the Leicester-based Ron Wilson – and they began talks with Mr. Bird and eventually, early in 1970, it was all systems go.

Because Ron was already a named promoter at Second Division Middlesbrough, Danny Dunton, who was running top-flight Oxford, would be the man in charge of Division Two newcomers Peterborough Panthers.

However, the club hit a major snag when they were refused a place in the Second Division and told they could only run a season of open meetings.

TOP-SECRET TALKS

But, incredibly, a week of top-secret talks saw Allied Presentations Limited agreeing a deal which saw them take over Plymouth’s league licence a fortnight into the new season.

What they didn’t do was buy the Plymouth rider assets so Dunton, who would remain at the helm for 15 seasons, was faced with having to build a team from scratch.

Somehow, he managed to assemble one from a combination of committed riders who didn’t have a team place elsewhere, second halfers, one or two who had been in retirement, plus several well-known grass track racers who were tempted to have a go at speedway.

Danny also oversaw the building of the track with one of Panthers’ first signings, John Poyser, in charge of the construction work.

Work lasted until the beginning of June after a string of unseen problems which meant Panthers spent more than two months on the road, travelling to Rayleigh (Essex), Long Eaton, Ipswich, Workington (for a rain off), Reading, King’s Lynn (they operated a team in both the top league and the Second Division), Eastbourne, Berwick, Doncaster, Plymouth (for a challenge) and Canterbury before the riders even had a lap of the Showground.

The first team to wear the red, white, and black of Peterborough was Poyser, Joe Hughes, Pete Seaton, Andy Ross, Pete Saunders, Richard Greer, and Alan Palmer.

Seaton and Saunders were in the second half at Oxford, Poyser had spent a year in retirement and Ross and Greer, who lived within a few miles of Alwalton, Hughes and Palmer were all recruited from the grass, with varying pedigrees.

And by the time the opening home meeting, on Friday, June 12, came around the Panthers were already out of the Knockout Cup (beaten at Rayleigh in their first ever match) and second bottom in the table with three points, by virtue of a 39-39 draw at Doncaster and a controversial historic first league victory at King’s Lynn where they lost 35-43!

The Starlets’ Russell Osborne, who scored six points at reserve, was ruled ineligible by the authorities, his points were deducted, and an on-track defeat was turned into a 41-37 boardroom win.

HOME SWEET HOME

By the time fans witnessed Panthers’ first home match, Poyser, who had built the track, had quit again after breaking his foot.

The other changes from the team that rode at Rayleigh some nine weeks earlier saw Brian Davies, Australian John Stayte and another grasser Mervyn Hill succeed Poyser, Hughes (who returned to the side three nights later) and Palmer.

Rayleigh were beaten 51-27 in front of a reported 3,200 opening night crowd and Home Counties based Saunders recalls: “In 1969 I was on loan at Crewe, another of the Allied tracks, and because of the travelling when Peterborough came along it made a lot of sense to go there.

“Even though we rode so many away matches first it didn’t really bother me because we knew the opening date was coming. I was still second halfing at Oxford and getting the odd ride at Leicester, so I was riding twice a week any way.

“I remember we had a midweek practice at Peterborough and it was freezing. I don’t know why, maybe the wind was coming across.

“The only reason I remember the actual meeting was because I had a good one and the only person to beat me was Rayleigh’s Hughie Saunders, it made me smile dropping my only point to my unrelated namesake!

“The big grandstand was full and there was a buzz about the place. One of the things that was different was it was quite a walk from the changing rooms to the pits.

“That first season we had two meetings during the East of England Show and the gentleman farmers, who had probably never seen speedway before, were right up against the fence and got absolutely covered in shale.”

Saunders spent three seasons with Panthers before retiring to concentrate on his car exhaust business.

But it wasn’t the end of his connections with the city as he opened a branch of his company, Euro Exhaust Centres, in June 1976 on London Road, close to the football ground.

And it is still there after Pete and his business partners sold their company to Kwik Fit some years later.

UPS AND DOWNS

In that first season, the Panthers finished 10th out of 14, losing only twice in 16 home matches at the Showground. In all they used 18 different riders, with only one, local lad Dickie Greer, being an ever present at the start of his glittering Peterborough career.

Throughout the rest of their initial decade, they only mounted one serious title challenge, finished three points adrift of the champions Crewe, but did avoid the wooden spoon although they were next to bottom in their second season, four points ahead of Sunderland.

And they did parade some silverware as they were crowned Four Team Champions on their home track in both 1977 and 1978.

NEXT WEEK: The eighties and two legends depart the Showground.