Coventry Speedway

You are correct, along with Jack Young, Les Owen, Ron Mountford, Rick France, Jim Lightfoot and Ken McKinlay.

Mitch Shirra, Ole Olsen, Ian Hindle, Mick Blackburn, Nigel Boocock, Frank Smith, John Harrhy, Alan Molyneux

Wasn't the John Harrhy in the picture the same one that ran the Windmill Farm Hotel on the A45 years ago? My late husband and I used to go there often and have a meal in the Cellar Bar and he had his bike out on display. Maybe he still owns it, not sure if it still has the same name.

Quite correct - John now owns West Midlands Golf Club at Barston, near the NEC. I met him a couple of years ago, he still suffers enormous pain and is virtually blind in one eye from the track crash in 1973 which very nearly claimed the lives of both him and Les Owen Dear Old Les never recovered and was killed in 2004 on the now-gone level crossing at Canley

That was a tragedy about Les Owen. I did not go to the Bees very much but I do remember him from the visits I DID make. RIP Les.

Thanks Midland Red for many, many happy and just a few sad memories. Do you have any more photos of the Nigel Boocock, Les Owen, Ron Mountford era?

Thanks for that, we used to go for meals quite regularly at the Windmill Farm and John Harrhy used to take our order. I recall his wife as looking a lot younger than him, or maybe she had just aged well. Sorry that he is in pain a lot of the time now, such a shame.

What can I say - when I saw all those photos of the Bees team I thought all my Christmases had come at once! I thought those photos had disappeared a long time ago, but thanks to you we can re-live them. My wife and I supported them in their finest years for most of our teenage lives before leaving the U.K., home and away, every Saturday night. Remember those old buses that took fans like us without a car to Brandon - some didn't make it and we had to walk the rest Thanks a lot for taking the time to upload, Midland Red

I lied about my age (I was 14) to get a raker's job in 1961. The money had gone up to 10/6d, I think. I also remember the 1952 team, and still have most of a jigsaw my aunty Beatty gave me. Back row: Charles Ochiltree (Promoter), Peter Brough, Johnnie Reason, Reg Duval (still going strong, and on Facebook!), Jack White, Charlie New, Vic Emms; on the bike - Les Hewitt, Stan Williams. Bob Fletcher had retired the previous year. I took a Canberra Bulls team to Wollongong in 1984, and met Les Hewitt. Oh, the Memories!! My all-time favourite was Ron Mountford - the bravest rider I ever saw.

Thanks for posting that, JW Pity there's some pieces missing or that could be quite a collector's item

Yes, thanks for the jigsaw photo. Interesting to see the normally immaculately dressed Charles Ochiltree with what look like oil stains on his coat

Yes - but the suit and tie are there under the raincoat! He also appears to be holding a milk bottle, but it is actually a broken-off bit of the piece. By the way, that is Jack Wright, not White, and Derrick ("Dabber") Tailby, not Reg Duval, at the back. My apologies for the mistakes - I was only 4 years old at the time!

I didn't notice the "milk bottle" until you mentioned it and thought it so funny . Ron was always so brave and stood no nonsense out on the track. I remember when he had the terrible track accident in which he so badly damaged his leg. Afterward, he seemed to always struggle to even mount the bike and hobbled around the track. It didn't make any difference to the points he continued to pile up. Think he was paired with Rick France when I started supporting the Bees and off-track they ran a garage between them.

I was at Brandon the night he returned after the crash. There were rumours that he would be having a ride after the meeting and a big crowd turned up. Nobody left after the meeting, and he got a standing ovation after he did a few promising-looking laps. Very emotional. About ten years later, I met one of his mechanics on a flight back to the UK - recognised the Brummie accent - and had a long chat about Ron. The garage was in Bloxwich, near Walsall.

Ron never concerned himself about reputations and he and Les Owen were a formidable pair if either thought they had been riden against unfairly. It makes one wonder what he was like off the track at the end of his career - maybe not for this forum, though?