19
50Hunt bows out & Heathens Lift Cup
Season Review
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L to R. Bill Clifton, Gil Craven, Les Tolley, Phil Malpass, Harry
Bastable, |
Les
Marshall returned as speedway manager and Dick Wise became team manager,
signing Yorkshireman Eric Boothroyd and Londoner Brian Shepherd, both from
Third Division Tamworth. Harry Bastable had emerged as a promising new
squad member from a winter training school with Alan Hunt and he was given
chances at reserve along with Frank Young. Phil Malpass, Gil Craven, Les
Tolley and Bill Clifton remained, but Jack Arnfield managed only a handful
of matches all year due to a series of injuries, eventually returning to
Australia. His place was later taken by Laurie Schofield, again brought in
from Tamworth.
Hunt was head and
shoulders above the rest of the Heathens team, and sharper than most in
this division, despite having some troubles with Dudley Wood's new
concrete starting pad. Whenever his inspired scoring was given any serious
support from the rest of the team, the Heathens were a force to be
reckoned with. Shepherd and Boothroyd settled well and added a missing
link to the middle of the team where Craven had been struggling to match
his form of previous years. Once again, the Heathens fought their way up
the league table, and rare away victories at Yarmouth, Plymouth and
Ashfield in the closing stages of the season helped to propel them into
the top three. They were left to rue costly home defeats against Coventry
and Plymouth, as they finished incredibly just one point behind champions
Norwich. Glasgow (White City) sneaked between the teams into second spot,
pipping the Heathens on match points. Just as in Cradley's first ever
season in 1947, one point separated the top three teams in the league
table. Alan Hunt had achieved a remarkable average, exceeding 10.00 and became the first second division rider to represent England in a test series, making his international debut against Australia at New Cross. He had proved too good for the second tier of league racing and the end of the 1950 season saw him make the move up to Division One with Birmingham. He led the Heathens in his last year in his usual style, often claiming points from the back but notching a number of maximums and track record times. The signings of Boothroyd and Shepherd gave the team enough bite to mount their title challenge and both riders were good value for 6.00+ averages. Les Tolley continued his improvement and Phil Malpass regained confidence after his 1949 dip in form, but an injury ravaged year for Gil Craven and Jack Arnfield saw their averages plummet. Two riders made their breakthrough in very different ways; Harry Bastable took his opportunities and improved throughout the season showing great potential for the future, while Frank Young exploded onto the scene with some notable performances before fading in the Autumn and losing his way. Laurie Schofield proved a reliable late signing to steady the bottom half of the team and faithful Bill Clifton worked as hard as ever for his 3.22 average. |
statistics taken from
the Cradley Speedway database for NL matches only.
for a more comprehensive look at Cradley's statistics for 1950 we recommend The
Speedway Researcher - statistics by Nigel Nicklin & Roger Beaman -
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National
Trophy
Midland
Cup
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South
Shield |
cont.
Cradley
49 Norwich
35 |