Speedway Champions

  SUPPLEMENT 3   -  UK local Helmet Trophies

 
- Staffs. Silver Winged Helmet *   
- Heathersfield Gold Helmet     
- Eastbourne Silver Helmet *
-   Teesside  Silver  Helmet *    
* include both Gold and Silver competitions 

plus
- Brandonapolis at Coventry    - Olympique  at Wolverhampton

   - The Laurels  at Wimbledon    - Blue Riband at Poole                  


Staffs Silver Winged Helmet,      Eastbourne Helmets,      Heathersfields Gold Helmet

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Staffordshire / Wolves Silver Winged Helmet
   In a short period of the Provincial League between 1962 and '64 a Silver Helmet Match Race event was initiated for competition between riders from the Staffordshire tracks of Stoke, Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton. Held exclusively at Monmore Green the best-of-3 MRs title was changed from a Staffs. to a Wolves Helmet, (fluctuating possibly because of no more than programme printing errors,  -?) and from Helmet to Wings, being perhaps more correctly to have been called the Silver Winged Helmet, - see photo rt, of holder Ivor Brown in 1963. In that second season participation was extended to Mssrs Hunter (Norman) and Mauger, and in the pirate league of '64 the Wolves MRC took the form of a 1-heat race for a Golden Helmet. Successful Helmet holders were Harry Bastable, with the best run of 3 consecutive wins, Tommy Sweetman with a win in each of the 3 seasons operated, and Ivan Mauger with 5 wins across 3 sessions over 2 years.
  n.b: In 1968 this helmet was raced for at another Parker/Bridgett track, Crayford, when Highwaymen's skipper Mick Handley defeated Canterbury's Peter Murray in a best-of-3  'Silver Wings' match race event. It was the only staging of this MRC.
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Eastbourne Silver Helmet

   Other tracks have staged the occasional individual meeting for a Gold or Silver Helmet over the years, including Eastbourne on a number of pre- and post-war occasions. This table includes the earliest reference to Ivan Mauger on this website! 
 
Lt: Bob Andrews at Arlington in 1955
 wearing their Silver Helmet.



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  Heathersfield Gold Helmet
A Scottish Golden Helmet competition, the Heathersfield G.H. trophy was initially created by goldsmith Ian Grant in classic style for an 'Open' Linlithgow competition at Conference Lge. level. Since that track's closure it has been presented at Armadale and Ashfield, including for the "Scottish Riders Championship",  "Junior Individual Championship of Glasgow", and latterly along with the George Beaton Memorial Trophy for the "Scottish Junior Championship".  (see UK Regional Championships.) 

 

Teesside Silver Helmet
Teesside stage an annual Silver Helmet Open meeting at Redcar Raceway, having commenced pre-war at Cleveland Park as a Golden Helmet competition and resurrected there in 1968 . Though primarily run at second tier speedway level, in the past decade premier stars have been invited, 2008 winner Jason Crump becoming the most auspicious holder of the title.

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                             Teesside Silver Helmet winners spanning the generations:
                                  Brain Havelock (1978) & Ty Proctor (2009)
  Four further UK speedway classics
      featuring pre-war and post-war stagings.
           - Brandonapolis at Coventry 
           - Olympique  at Wolverhampton
           - The Laurels  at Wimbledon 
           - Blue Riband at Poole

   The Coventry Brandonapolis was traditionally held on the Wednesday following the Wembley World Championship and hence was the first appearance of the new champion and a revenge opportunity for the other challengers, with the chance to be the first to beat the World Champ.
                                               Top rt, Brandonapolis 1967:
                                Michanek (1st), McKinlay, Mountford.

   The Olympique, first contested at Newcastle but subsequently transferred to Wolverhampton, is a handicap event whereby each rider is handicapped according to his preceding position, i.e. a first place: back 30 yds next race; second: back 20yds, etc.
Ctr rt: 1994 Olympique winner,      
a young Jason Crump.      
    In the new millennium Wimbledon Stadium closed for redevelopment and the owners opened at Sittingbourne where, after 7 decades of world class racing the Laurels shield became a third division competition.

     Not surprisingly, all 4 competitions have been dominated by home riders, even when handicapped:
- Boocock 3x, Olsen 4x Brandonapolis winners;
- Olsen 6x, Freddie Lindgren 5x, Mikael Max-Karlsson 4x,
       Peter Karlsson 3x Olympique winners;
- Malcolm Simmons 4 consec. times Blue Riband winner;
- Ronnie Moore 4x, Barry Briggs (ex Don) 4x Laurels winners.

                Bot.rt, The Laurels, (at Kent,) 2018, Jon Armstrong.



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