BRITAIN'S POPULAR NEW SPORT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5305, 18 January 1947, Page 6

BRITAIN'S POPULAR NEW SPORT

LONDON. Fourteen speedway tracks in Great ; Britain have just put up the shutters for the winter after another successful season which has placed the sport still higher in the affections of the British sporting public. More and more fans are flocking to the speedways. During the season just closed it is estimated that over 350,000 attended tracks throughout the country on about three nights of every week. Of his number approximately 60 per cent. were women. Their loyalty to Britain's newest sport is unswerving. It amounts to a degree of devotion not even accorded to soccer. The Speedway is a phenomenon of the British sporting world. Unlike greyhound and horse racing, no betting is allowed to attract the crowds. The only gambling is in thrills' and the riders who supply them are heroworshipped, showered with flowers and fan mail. , For more material reward, a •hampion rider can earn up to £200 veekly during the season; an averge rider as much as £20 a night. A night of screaming and skidding round the cinder tracks — as many as eight races in an evening and in each race the chance of injury and even death around the corner. To protect him, the rider has the Auto-Cycle Union, controlling body of the speedways, and his own, new, Speedway Riders' Association. Both compensate him financially for injury. The Speedway Riders' Association, formed only last year, has now started a benevolent fund to insure riders against incapacity when their riding days are over. The association hopes to top a bank balance of £10,000 for this purpose. It will need every penny of it.