Preston Park As It Was

Recently this news page was all about the development of Preston Park Track and it’s future (you can still read that article here) but now we have an opportunity to look back at how it was.  Now that may seem strange for what is supposed to be a “News” page but if without an eye on the past we may well get the future wrong.  So when Ken Wells sent in his memories of Preston Park track racing this seemed the right place to put it for now.

KEN WELLS REMEMBERS

Some of you may have noticed a small group of old codgers chatting in the track centre.

I thought you might like to know how things were when we started. I started racing at Preston Park 60 years ago this year.

We started in the late 1940s, and the present attendees include Roy King, Brighton Mitre president and leading sprinter in the 1950s until attacked by polio (pre polio vaccines), Fred Johnson, Prestonville, leading sprinter, and holder of 1-lap track records for many years, Alan Limbrey multi track record-holder and winner of several Sussex track titles, and Frank Blake SCRL president and good time-triallist and track rider.

Cycling clubs at the time were primarily social clubs, where many of us first met our wives.

There were three strong clubs in Brighton, and strong clubs with track riders in Worthing, Bognor, Uckfield, Tunbridge Wells and Hastings, who all provided riders each week.

Club activity was centred on club-runs, racing being almost a sideline. Most clubs had a pub as headquarters, Brighton Mitre and Brighton Excelsior used one at Preston Circus, and Prestonville had one in London Road (long since gone).

A typical club-run turnout (1953)

Most clubs did not accept members under 16, and there was only a limited number of junior events (I started at 17).

A coach was something you hired for an away event. We hired coaches to take riders to other tracks (no-one had cars). If you needed advice on training you asked the best rider in the club.

Sunday club-runs were the centre of club life. All day if there was not a TT event in the morning (no road racing allowed) or afternoon to a club tea at a country pub, and a stop at a pub on the way home. Motor traffic was minimal, petrol was still rationed, a 30-strong club-run could ride two abreast and shout “car up” when a rare car was overtaking. Anyone who did not come out on the club run after riding a time-trial (even a “100”) was a wimp.

Sussex Cycle Racing League had re-started in 1946 after the war and there was such a large number of entrants when I started in 1949 you only got a ride if selected by your club. Most of us were only allowed two events a night.

Pre-television (just imagine that) spectator numbers were huge. We employed paid

gate-keepers, and takings were often over £1,000 per evening at 1950s prices, with spectator entry fee a shilling (5p) or 1/6d (7½p) in the stand. This eventually went up to 2/6d (12½p).

One of the few events I won was a half-mile handicap in 1951, 1st prize £3 which was about 2/3 of my week’s wage at the time, that probably equates to about £200 now (fat chance of that). Cash prizes were not allowed (international amateur rules), so prizes were often clocks or barometers. I knew one rider who won three clocks at a grass-track meeting. Cycle-shops gave vouchers that could be spent on equipment.

There were also grass-track meetings at Worthing, Littlehampton & Lewes, sometimes as part of Police Sports. One senior Police Officer spent virtually all his time organising Police Sports, until that was banned, and the Police Sports ceased.

One snag was National Service. Many promising riders were posted overseas with no prospect of taking a bike, and many did not resume after service. A few (Frank Blake included) managed to ride for their units and actually got time off for training. I did manage to take a bike on three postings and rode a few time-trials and one grass-track meeting in Scotland. I also managed the odd event at Preston Park while on leave from the RAF.

In the early 1950s, there was a series of international track meetings sponsored by Dunlop featuring world champions including Reg Harris, Sid Patterson (Australia) and others, and Preston Park was allocated one of them. On one occasion the gate was over 6,000. Brighton & Hove Albion were playing at home on the same night and had a gate of, 3000. Those days will never return.

The start of a 10-mile event in 1949. Ken is third from the right, Roy King is pushing off the rider on the outside, note the BACK-STRAIGHT crowd, the stand would have been full

I rode one of the later meetings, when Russell Mockridge, Australian World Sprint AND Pursuit Champion, was riding. I actually won my heat of a handicap, of course unplaced in the final, but as that was one of my last events on my entry-form for a grass-track meeting in Scotland, I found myself on virtual scratch.

The League ran events but many Wednesdays were taken up with open meetings either promoted by clubs or on behalf of outside organisations. Gate takings were high enough to raise significant amounts for charity. Several meetings were run for Brighton Retail Fruit Federation in aid of Cancer charities. For example, I have a 1958 Whitsun Bank Holiday meeting programme, which shows only 6 league meetings, the rest being open ones. One league championship was won with about 30 points (only three for a win).

In the winter, the League ran roller races on the stage at the Brighton Dome. Spectator tickets were usually sold out early. Gears were restricted to 99” (48 x13) and races were usually 440 or 880 yards. Some were handicaps. There were also unrestricted gear record attempts, and there was huge publicity when the first 100mph ¼-mile was achieved, on something like a 60 x 9 gear. The annual prize presentation and DANCE was held at Brighton Corn Exchange, usually also a sell-out event.

We are much encouraged by the recent increase in rider numbers, and the keenness of the youth riders, but it would be nice if we could get more spectators to give more atmosphere.

We used to get free posters on Brighton Council poster sites all over the town, which helped, but publicity now is expensive.

Recent national success is great. We did have some in the past, a national pursuit finalist   in the 1950s, a Junior Sprint Champion, and more recently Richard Smith, multiple Youth Champion in the 1980s.

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Thank you Ken for this piece.  We hope to feature more on the history of the track at Preston Park on the website.  If you have any recollections of your own or any information on the history of racing at Preston Park and in Sussex in general please let us know.  You can use the contact page.