St Austell Cornish Stadium Speedway

Cornish Stadium Par Moor St Austell Cornwall.  Speedway took place on this 360yd circuit between 1949-1964

St Austell Gulls 1963.  1962 saw the Neath Welsh Dragons promotion under  Trevor Redmond close and the majority of the side moved with Trevor to St Austell.  Speedway briefly returned to the area at Trelawney which is also currently defunct.

Gull Trevor Redmond leading Oxford Cheetah Alf Hagon You probably remember Alf was a well-known frame builder. He was also a top grass track rider winning 11 National Grass Track Championships.
 

Glyn Chandler

Glyn was a member of the Welsh side, Neath Dragons which transferred to St. Austell in 1963.  Glyn's wife Sally has been in touch from their Channel Island home and has sent me a number of photo's all including Glyn during his days as a "Gull".  The following photos are from Glyn/Sally:

1963: St Austell: Freddy Powell and right Glyn Chandler

Glyn's wife Sally Chandler says:  When Neath closed in 1962, Trevor Redmond transferred most of his team to St Austell. Whilst there, Glyn was paired with Trevor most of the time and at home meetings they proved hard to beat. A team mate who also transferred from Neath at the same time was George Major. The round trip from Glyn’s home in Cirencester, Gloucestershire to St Austell was about two hundred and forty miles so to save on expenses George and Glyn would travel to meetings together. An away meeting in Scotland could mean up to a seven hundred mile round trip (no motorways in those days) and if there was a home meeting the next day they would just drive straight pass Cirencester, sleep in the van and then on to St Austell for the next day’s meeting; Also to save on travel costs, Trevor once decided the whole team would travel to a Glasgow meeting by train and as he had not reserved seats, the return trip was spent sleeping in the corridor!!
The pits and the rider’s facilities were about as basic they had been at Neath, but all this was part and parcel of riding in the provincial league in those days. Unlike today's riders who have meetings in Poland or Sweden the following day, the riders in those days had time to meet the supporters after the meeting for a chat and a Cornish pasty (supplied by Trevor!) and Glyn has remained friends with some of those supporters to this day.                                                                      

1963: St Austell: Glyn Chandler on bike and Chris Blewett with what looks like a broken arm

1963: St Austell pits with Glyn posing in the foreground

1963: St Austell v Stoke L-R Ron Sharp, Gull Mike Keen (breaking the tapes), Ken Adams and on the inside Glyn Chandler

1963: L-R Clive Hitch, Gull Glyn Chandler and Trevor Redmond

1963: L-R Trevor Redmond, Colin Pratt and Glyn Chandler

1963: St Austell v Middlesbrough? Gate 3 Trevor Redmond and Gate 1 Glyn Chandler.  The opposition is thought to be Middlesbrough and Glyn does not remember whom the Middlesbrough riders are?

1963: St Austell v Edinburgh.  Gate 4 is Trevor Redmond and Glyn Chandler Gate 2.  We do not know whom the Monarchs riders are

St Austell's crowd looks health enough by 2011 standards but I suspect it wasn't enough to keep the club going in the 1960's

St Austell V Cradley Heath

Twelve point maximums to Glyn Chandler and Ray Cresp best for the Heathens was Ivor Brown

Are you able to scan your St Austell photos, programmes and badges?  If you can please email me John