Wembley Lions | |||||||||||
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![]() Wembley Lions Speedway Badge | |||||||||||
Club information | |||||||||||
Track address | Empire Stadium Wembley London | ||||||||||
Country | England | ||||||||||
Founded | 1929 | ||||||||||
Closed | 1971 | ||||||||||
Club facts | |||||||||||
Colours | Red and White | ||||||||||
Track size | 378 yards (345m) | ||||||||||
Major team honours | |||||||||||
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The Wembley Lions were a motorcycle speedway team which operated from 1929 until their closure in 1971. Their track was located at Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park, London. [1]
The original stadium which hosted speedway has been redeveloped.
After opening in 1929, the Lions joined the Southern League (1929-1931), winning it in 1930 and 1931. The 1932 season saw them join the National League which they won at the first attempt. The Lions continued to compete in the National League until the outbreak of World War II . [2]
After the war Wembley continued in the National League, winning the title in the opening season in 1946. The following season they retained their title. The Lions operated until the end of the 1956 season, winning the title a further five times (successive titles between 1949 and 1953) but in 1957 they withdrew from the league before the season started due to the death of Sir Arthur Elvin, the chairman of Wembley Stadium. Many of the Wembley "home" meetings in 1948 were staged at Wimbledon as the Empire Stadium was used for the 1948 Summer Olympics. [3] [4]
During this era, speedway went through the biggest crowd "boom" in its history. Wembley, who ran league meetings every Thursday, had by far the biggest crowds. The average weekly attendances were around the 60,000 mark from 1946–1951, with one meeting of note, a London Cup match between Wembley and West Ham, drawing an estimated crowd of 85,000 with 20,000 locked outside, listening to a BBC radio commentary of the match via loudspeakers set up in the car park. Towards the mid-1950s speedway crowds fell away dramatically and Wembley's last season in 1956 saw average attendances of around the 15,000 mark.
In 1970, Wembley speedway returned, entering the British League. Promoters Trevor Redmond and Bernard Cottrell bought their licence and the contracts of some of the riders from the Edinburgh Monarchs promoter Ian Hoskins who was operating at Coatbridge. The Lions only managed to stay in operation for two seasons due to the stadium not being able to support speedway at all times due to commitments to other events being held there. [5]
Wembley staged the Speedway World Championship Final continuously from 1936 to 1938 and then when it was re-introduced after World War II from 1949 to 1960. It went on to stage the championship a further nine times before the last contest at Wembley in 1981. Lions riders won in 1936 (Lionel Van Praag), 1949 (Tommy Price), and 1950 and 1953 (Freddie Williams). Wembley also hosted the British Riders' Championships Finals 1946 to 1948.
Lionel Maurice Van Praag, GM was an Australian motorcycle speedway champion, who won the inaugural Speedway World Championship in London on 10 September 1936. Van Praag's victory saw him established as Australia's first ever motorsport World Champion.
The New Cross Rangers were a Speedway team which operated from 1934 until their closure in 1953. They also rode as the New Cross Lambs from 1934 to 1935 and then the New Cross Tamers in 1936. The team were League Champions in 1938 and 1948.
The West Ham Hammers were a speedway team, first promoted by Jimmy Baxter in 1929.
Arthur George "Bluey" Wilkinson was an international speedway rider. Wilkinson was Speedway World Champion in 1938 after narrowly missing out on winning the inaugural Championship in 1936.
Eric Kemp Langton was an English motorcycle speedway who won the Star Riders' Championship in 1932, the forerunner to the Speedway World Championship.
Thomas Price was a motorcycle speedway rider from England. In 1949 he won the first Speedway World Championship to be held after the Second World War.
Victor John Duggan was a motorcycle speedway racer who won the London Riders' Championship in 1947 whilst with the Harringay Racers.
John (Jack) Parker was an international motorcycle speedway rider who made his debut at the Whitsun meeting at High Beech in 1928. He won the British Riders' Championship in 1949 and finished second in the 1949 World Championship.
William Kitchen was an international speedway rider who started his career with the Belle Vue Aces in 1933.
William Mowbray Longley was an Australian international speedway rider who began his British career with the New Cross Rangers in 1937, where he remained until the outbreak of World War II, winning the National League Championship in 1938.
Frederick Owen Williams was a motorcycle speedway rider from Wales who was World Champion on two occasions. He was the winner of the Speedway World Championship in 1950 and 1953 and runner-up in 1952.
The 1947 National League Division One was the 13th season of speedway in the United Kingdom and the second post-war season of the highest tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.
The 1948 National League Division One was the 14th season of speedway in the United Kingdom and the third post-war season of the highest tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.
The 1936 National League Division One was the eighth season of the highest tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.
The 1946 National League was the 12th season of the highest tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain and the first post-war season.
Harry Riley Lees was a former international motorcycle speedway rider who rode in the first ever Speedway World Championship final in 1936. He was born in Bury, England.
Trevor John Redmond was a motorcycle speedway rider from New Zealand, who mainly rode for the Aldershot Shots, and the Wembley Lions. Redmond also opened a speedway track in Neath, Wales in 1962. He later became a promoter of stock car and hot rod racing, mainly in southwest England, through his Autospeed organisation.
Hackney Wick Wolves speedway opened in 1935 at Hackney Wick Stadium, Waterden Road, London, and operated until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Many years later the Hackney Hawks and Hackney Kestrels rode at Hackney Wick Stadium.
Squire Francis Waterman, better known as Split Waterman, was an English speedway rider who twice finished second in the Speedway World Championship final. Waterman took up speedway while serving in the British Army in Italy and went on to become one of the top riders of the post-war era. He made the headlines again in the late 1960s when he was convicted of gold smuggling and firearms offences.
Arthur Atkinson was a former international motorcycle speedway rider and promoter who appeared in the first Speedway World Championship final in 1936.