Ake Andersson Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 4 19 5 24 16 6.00
Away 3 0 0 0 7 0.00
Total 7 19 5 24 23 4.17
Oyvind Berg Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 16 156 6 162 70 9.26
Away 16 103 6 109 63 6.92
Total 32 259 12 271 133 8.15
Russ Dent Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 17 81 23 104 68 6.12
Away 14 67 13 80 57 5.61
Total 31 148 36 184 125 5.89
Lars Jansson Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 10 60 8 68 37 7.35
Away 6 34 3 37 34 4.35
Total 16 94 11 105 71 5.92
Bo Josefsson Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 9 62 5 67 33 8.12
Away 10 50 5 55 37 5.95
Total 19 112 10 122 70 6.97
Bill McMillan Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 13 57 10 67 46 5.83
Away 16 43 9 52 57 3.65
Total 29 100 19 119 103 4.62
Jim McMillan Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 18 184 6 190 80 9.50
Away 18 136 9 145 81 7.16
Total 36 320 15 335 161 8.32
Willie Templeton Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 18 95 16 111 74 6.00
Away 18 56 6 62 68 3.65
Total 36 151 22 173 142 4.87
Alf Wells Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 4 25 3 28 16 7.00
Away 4 17 7 24 12 8.00
Total 8 42 10 52 28 7.43
Brian Whaley Meetings Points BP Total Rides CMA
Home 11 15 2 17 29 2.34
Away 11 9 4 13 23 2.26
Scottish speedway was rocked by the tragic news that Danny Taylor had passed away following a brain haemorrhage in late October. His family vow to keep Berwick going and to this day the Bandits are his legacy.
Compared with 1967 when Edinburgh were looking for a new track and Tigers were having riders asking for transfers on a regular basis, this close season seemed fairly uneventful. The first news was of a training track was being set up at the Gyle in Edinburgh. It is now hard to envisage that there was once a campsite and trotting track on what is now prime estate, housing a large hotel and various financial institutions. Guys like And Meldrum, Jimmy Gallagher and Jim Beaton got some of their earliest rides on the oval, which was protected by straw bales. Ian Hoskins was hoping to run Second Division challenge meetings at Coatbridge on Sunday afternoons, featuring the visitors from the previous night at Berwick. Unfortunately this proposal fell foul of “Lords Day Observance” legislation, with Presbyterian Sundays still very much the order of the day in the 1960s.
An event that went almost unnoticed at the time was the fire at Hampden Park, which caused extensive damage to the main stand in late October. I can remember seeing the flames and smoke from my bedroom window, but never thought that it would have a great bearing on the future of speedway in Glasgow. Queens Park were in a pretty poor financial state and when Tom Fagan introduced his guest Ian Hoskins to various Queens Park dignitaries, their ears pricked up, particularly as Fagan said that Hoskins speedway had saved his club. . There was an item in the Speedway Star suggesting that Tigers were looking at Cathkin, the former home of the now defunct Third Lanark football club. I always felt that this was just a bargaining chip that Hoskins had played to point out there were alternatives and to squeeze a better deal out of Queens Park. Despite all this, Tigers fans remained fairly certain we would still be back at the White City for 1969 as there seemed no likelihood of the White City being demolished in the next couple of years. Indeed Les Whaley had confirmed this in a letter to Tigers fan, Peter Colvin - many thanks to whom for this prioceless historic item.
However the Tigers promotion may have decided to strike while the iron was hot - both literally and metaphorically! - and do a deal with Queens Park at a time when they had little other option.......and so the deal was done and the Tigers would nevder return to the White City
The rider reallocation prior to the 1969 season was one of the most far reaching carried out. Not just heat leaders but genuine super stars were moving around, usually at their instigation. Newly crowned World Champion, Ivan Mauger had demanded a transfer from Newcastle and also insisted he was going to Belle Vue, OR he was going to retire. Charlie Monk wanted to return to Glasgow and Bernie Persson wasn’t coming back to the UK, or at least he wasn’t coming back to Coatbridge. Jim Airey and Norman Hunter were looking for moves while the projected return of Ronnie Moore had the Dons jettisoning Olle Nygren at a rate of knots.
In the end Mauger went to Belle Vue, Monk to Glasgow, Persson to Cradley, Hunter to Wolverhampton, Airey to Sheffield, Moore to Wimbledon and Nygren to West Ham….and Newcastle? Incredibly they got no one!! Initially they got Gary Middleton but after a couple of meetings he was released to Hackney and the Diamonds were allowed a permanent guest facility for the rest of the season. Yes, they lost the World Champion and got a different rider every week, and we thought we got a terrible deal the previous year!
Bill McMillan and Brian Whaley had headed off to Australia and Canada respectively and weren’t planning on riding in Britain in 1969. Bobby Beaton would become the Tigers number seven for the new season