SPEEDWAY

British motorcycle speedway began its life back in 1923 in Australia. It took the country by storm. High powered lightweight motorcycles on the confines of a dirt oval was the simple recipe and it worked. It wasn't long before it had swept its way back across the globe to Britain, where the first official meeting took place at the Kings Oak Hotel in Epping Forest on 19th February 1928. 30,000 fans saw the event on a track laid down on an old athletics field behind the hotel.
And five months later Birmingham held its first speedway meeting on the 12th of July at the Alexander stadium, Perry Barr. Some seven thousand fans turned up to watch the meeting on a sunny summers evening with music relayed from a gramophone in the enclosure to speakers on the centre green. Coloured cuffs were used to identify the riders to the crowd who for the most part seemed somewhat bewildered by the spectacle. Not even the colourful American "Sprouts" Elder's demonstration of broadsliding captured their imagination. Instead of wearing a 'pudding basin' helmet, goggles and leathers, Sprouts wore just a scarlet jersey and leather helmet but his new style of riding caused large amounts of dust which somewhat obscured his antics. In the main events Harry Taft took both 350cc and 500cc final wins beating Charlie Bowers by quite a margin in both races. However Bowers took the top prize by winning the Sunbac Golden Helmet with Taft finishing in second place due to mechanical problems. The stadium continued to hold open meetings throughout the 1928 season but then closed to speedway until 1946.