Cardiff White City speedway

For the Cardiff speedway team 1950 to 1953, see Cardiff Dragons.

Cardiff White City speedway
Club information
Track addressWhite City Stadium
Sloper Road
Cardiff
CountryWales
Founded1928
Closed1936
LeagueProvincial League

The Cardiff White City speedway was a motorcycle speedway organisation and later a league team. The speedway operated from 1928 until its closure in 1936. The venue was the White City Stadium also known as Sloper Road, Cardiff.[1][2]

History

Speedway took place at Sloper Road during the inaugural British speedway season of 1928.[1] A speedway track was constructed in November 1928 by the Provincial Dirt Tracks Cardiff Ltd, with the first meeting held on Boxing Day 1928.[3][1]

After two more seasons of speedway meetings in 1929 and 1930,[1] it is evident that speedway ended for a four year period. Bill Clibbett won the 1930 track championship.

Although speedway returned to Cardiff in 1935, there was no league affiliation until 1936, when Mr B. Southouse (the Cardiff speedway manager for the Greyhound Racing Association) proposed that a new league be formed and organised a syndicate, including Nottingham and Liverpool speedway.[4] The Cardiff White City team duly competed in the newly formed Provincial League.[5][6] During the 1936 Provincial Speedway League season they were knocked out of the National trophy by the eventual winners Southampton Saints. This two legged fixture was incidentally the first two matches ever held by the team, on 10 and 13 April respectively.[7][8]

In early June, the GRA announced that due to poor attendances there would be no further meetings held at the track. The star riders, Ted Bravery, Cliff Parkinson, George Greenwood and Tommy Price all joined Nottingham.[9] A few days later, the team without their star riders suffered an embarrassing 57–15 defeat at Plymouth on 9 June. This was their last fixture and the team pulled out of the Provincial Trophy and Provincial League, having their season record expunged.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Cardiff White City". Defunct Speedway. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  2. ^ "Gone but not forgotten, White City and Penarth Stadiums". Cardiff History. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  3. ^ "Dirt Racing track". Western Mail. 13 November 1928. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Dirt track racing in Nottingham again". Nottingham Journal. 15 January 1936. Retrieved 3 August 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Cardiff track preparations". Western Mail. 6 March 1936. Retrieved 3 August 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "Rider averages 1929 to 2009" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  7. ^ "Year by Year, 1936" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  8. ^ "Speedway rider's escape". Daily News (London). 11 April 1936. Retrieved 3 August 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Speedway Shuts Up". Gloucestershire Echo. 5 June 1936. Retrieved 3 August 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ "1936 fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 August 2023.