Garry Middleton

"What happened to Garry Middleton?" Whenever speedway folk meet this is often a conversation topic. At last the truth on his resting place known, through an amazing set of circumstances, Christmas Eve saw me in a Brisbane cemetery where I took the photos that ended the years of myths and mystery.

"Garry Middleton passed away on November 23 1994. He lays at rest with his mother and stepfather in a secluded part of a Brisbane cemetery".

I have been researching the Garry Middleton story for six years, the trail took me from England, to New Zealand USA and back to Australia.there were many twists and turns. Little did I know that all this time Garry was at rest in my local cemetery, a place where I had attended the funerals of Syd Littlewood and Jeff Ryrie in the last year, and in fact sat in an area only metres from Garry's grave!

The closure came a few days ago with another set of amazing facts. Allan of SpeedwayPlus, who had run my Garry Middleton story three years ago, forwarded a message advising me to contact Martyn Adams, son of Halifax identity, the late Doug Adams. Martyn who now lives in South Austraila where he runs an engine restoration business, is a Garry Middleton admirer. Now the story gets even stranger, Martyn had attended the Brisbane funeral of former Halifax rider Rob Ashton in early December. I was also there, we must have rubbed shoulders, but never met! Whilst in Brisbane Martyn discovered the whereabouts of Garry's resting place but ran out of time to check out the finer details.. I took up the trail, visited the site which is only 5 minutes from my home and took the photographs. I then enlisted the help of John Williams who is good on family history, to check out the dates on the headstone.

The final result is a great co-operation by dedicated speedway folk around the world. As far I am concerned this is closure, he is at peace.

The words on the headstone state

"Close to our hearts always"

© Tony Webb 25-12-2011

In 2005 Hackney Speedway once again came alive on a Friday night of course at it's traditional eight o’clock start time. Not at its spiritual home in Waterden Road, but at former Hawk Pete Sampson Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne Hertfordshire. It was a fantastic evening of pure nostalgia. The former stars of Hackney Speedway flew in from around the world for this very special occasion including Zenon Plech Poland, Bent Rasmussen & Bo Petersen Denmark, Malcolm Brown USA, Finn Thomsen Spain, Bengt Jansson Sweden, and Dag Lovaas Norway. Also in attendance where a whole host of former Hackney riders including Colin Pratt, Ted Hubbard, Paul Whittaker, Graham Miles, Mancunian Dave Morton who incidentally relived the journey he got so used to when he rode for the Hawks in the mid seventies, once again fighting his way through the M6 and M1 Friday traffic.
One of the many highlights of course was the tossing of the coin done by Len Silver,[see picture below] ably assistant by Dag Lovaas and of course Mr Hackney Speedway himself, the skipper for many years, Barry Thomas!

Well….I extremely please to say another Hackney Speedway reunion will take place in 2012, once again at Pete Sampson’s Paradise Wildlife Park. The date has yet to be confirmed, we won’t know that until the 2012 speedway fixtures are published. We hope to have a large number of former Hackney riders in attendance once again. Pete Sampson has agreed to extend the opening hours of the wildlife park, so the early birds can visit the large array of animals on site and of course travel on the miniature railway! Paradise Wildlife Park is also home to the Speedway Museum, well worth a visit just those alone…..

Then at eight o’clock it will of course be tapes up! The Magnificent Seven is played over the PA system. Len Silver will once again be asking Barry Thomas to call either heads or tails and will be throwing the lucky 50p into the crowd!

There will be a BBQ in the evening, which will be included in the ticket, plus several other exciting surprises. Details of these will be released in the New Year.

The 2005 tossing of the coin