Great Blakenham Cycle Speedway in Suffolk

A look at the Great Blakenham Cycle Speedway track.

Ever since our friend John Moore took us to watch the British Veterans over 50s and over 60s Cycle Speedway Individual Championships in Edinburgh's Redbraes Park back in 2011 we've kept our eye out for other cycle speedway tracks.

A couple of years ago we found the track at St Thomas' Recreation Ground in Stockport and yesterday afternoon we saw the one at Great Blakenham in Suffolk.

We'd only stopped off at the village hall as we'd seen a sign for a car boot sale that was starting there at 1pm.

The Great Blakenham Cycle Speedway velodrome looked to have a very nice track.

Related blog posts:
- Cycle Speedway
- Suffolk

Link:
- Great Blakenham Cycle Speedway

Cycle Speedway in Stockport

Finding out about the Cycle Speedway track in Stockport.

Our friend and minigolf rival John Moore is a big fan of Cycle Speedway. Back in 2011 he took us to see some races in Edinburgh at the British Veterans over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships in Redbraes Park (home of the Edinburgh Falcons). What a sport it is!

Cycle Speedway action in Edinburgh

We were having a cycle around Stockport on Sunday and found ourselves at St Thomas' Recreation Ground - a bit of the town we hadn't explored before. Riding through the park we spotted a Cycle Speedway track! It's home to Stockport 2006 Cycle Speedway Club.

Visit the Stockport 2006 Cycle Speedway Club website for more information about the sport and upcoming fixtures (the season runs from March to October).

Looking at the results from this year Stockport and Edinburgh are local rivals!

At the start of the year The Friends of Alexandra Park in Edgeley set a challenge to its members to get and about to visit as many Green Spaces in and around Stockport, based on a list from Stockport Nature Watch. The Green Spaces list showed 33 places to visit - of which we've so far made it to eleven. On our travels around the borough we've also been to another eight parks and green spaces! You can see the list on The Friends of Alexandra Park's Facebook Page.

St Thomas' Recreation Ground has two styles of sign - one looks really old. It's a pretty big park too

Cycle Speedway in Edinburgh - The British Veterans over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships

Blog post about spectating at a Cycle Speedway in Edinburgh - The British Veterans over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships in August 2011.

On Saturday 20th August 2011 we flew to Edinburgh for a nice weekend away. We’d managed to get the flights on easyJet incredibly cheap via a very good use of our Nectar Points and with us being on the first flight of the day we arrived in the city centre at 8.30am.

Ahead of the trip we’d spoken to our friend, Midlands Minigolf Club team mate and minigolf rival John Moore who told us he was also going to be up in Edinburgh on the Saturday and that he was heading to a great sporting event – Cycle Speedway!

Ever on the lookout for new and unusual sports to take part in, or spectate at, we met up with John and headed to Edinburgh’s Redbraes Park (home of the Edinburgh Falcons Club) and the British over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships of Cycle Speedway!

With ‘Tapes-up’ at 2pm we arrived in time to see the introduction of the riders who would be competing in the first event of the afternoon, the over 60s Individual British Championships.

According to the Edinburgh Falcons Cycle Speedway Club website the sport of Cycle Speedway came into being in the late 1940’s and grew out of Motorbike Speedway. Races take place on oval tracks 60-90m long and racers ride around the circuit in an anti-clockwise direction. In each race four riders race each other over four laps with the winner picking up four points, runner-up three, third-place two and fourth place picks up one point.

There was some great strategy in use in the races with riders battling to get the best of the track positioning and a few restarts due to some physical contact between riders. We saw a couple of crashes too. The event was great fun and free to attend! There were programmes for sale as well as T-shirts, along with refreshments. If you’ve never been to a Cycle Speedway event (and I’m guessing a lot of readers haven’t) it’s well worth a watch.

Full results and report from the British Cycle Speedway over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships

Edinburgh Falcons website

Photos from the over 50s competition

Photos from the over 60s competition - with us here and here

During the interval between the over 60s and over 50s events we went to a nearby pub for a quick drink and then on to St Mark’s Park and the Powderhall Bowling Club, which uses one of its three Bowling Greens as a 9-hole Putting Course! This would become the 266th Miniature Golf course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

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