Wimbledon Dons
| Wimbledon Dons | |||||||||||||||
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| Club information | |||||||||||||||
| Track address | Wimbledon Stadium Plough Lane Wimbledon London | ||||||||||||||
| Country | England | ||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1928 | ||||||||||||||
| Closed | 2005 | ||||||||||||||
| Club facts | |||||||||||||||
| Colours | Yellow Star on Red | ||||||||||||||
| Track size | 355 yards (325 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Major team honours | |||||||||||||||
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The Wimbledon Dons were a professional motorcycle speedway team who operated from the Wimbledon Stadium, Plough Lane in London from 1929 until 1991.[1][2]
History
Origins
The speedway track opened during the pioneer days of speedway in the United Kingdom on the Bank holiday of 26 May 1928 with an open meeting.[3]
They were closed during the Second World War but upon their reopening in 1946 there were 42,000 people in attendance with an estimated 10,000 more locked outside. The club were very successful at the highest level of British speedway during the 1950s and 1960s, and attracted numerous famous riders.
Having been defunct for eleven years, the team was reopened again in 2002 by Steve Ribbons & David Croucher in the Conference League[4] but were forced to close in 2005, with Ian Perkin, Dingle Brown & Perry Attwood being joint owners of the club, when the stadium owners insisted on dramatically increasing the rent paid by the team to the stadium.[5]
Honours
National League
Champions: 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961
National Trophy
Winners: 1938, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1960, 1962
KO Cup (formerly National League Trophy)
London Cup
Winners: 1938, 1939, 1961, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985
RAC Cup
Winners: 1954
Britannia Shield
Winner: 1959
Gauntlet Spring Gold Cup
Winners: 1979
Conference Pairs Champions
Winners: 2004, 2005
Notable riders
-
Cyril Brine -
Barry Briggs -
Dicky Case - Billy Dallison
- John Davis
- Vic Duggan
- Andy Grahame
-
Bert Harkins -
Sverre Harrfeldt - Oliver Hart
- Trevor Hedge
- Ron How
- Vic Huxley
- Gerry Jackson
-
Edward Jancarz -
Tommy Jansson - Dave Jessup
- Roger Johns
- Gordon Kennett
- Jim Kempster
- Gus Kuhn
- Billy Lamont
-
Wilbur Lamoreaux - Reg Luckhurst
- Cyril Maidment
- Geoff Mardon
- Ivan Mauger
- Ronnie Moore
- Ray Morton
-
Kai Niemi - Göte Nordin
- Olle Nygren
- Bobby Ott
- Norman Parker
- Geoff Pymar
- Colin Richardson
- Larry Ross
- Claude Rye
- Malcolm Simmons
- Kelvin Tatum
- Ray Tauscher
- Roy Trigg
- Todd Wiltshire
Season summary
References
- ^ Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). Homes of British Speedway. ISBN 0-7524-2210-3
- ^ Jacobs, N. Speedway in London, ISBN 0-7524-2221-9
- ^ "1928 season" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
- ^ Findon, Ben (1 May 2002). "Speedway: Rebirth of glory club". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
- ^ . Oakes, P (2006). Speedway Star Almanac. Pinegen Ltd. ISBN 0-9552376-1-0.