In Memory

Don Barker

Speedway is as we all know a family sport, when we loose someone the speedway family rallies round. Many Hackney speedway fans will remember the former pits marshal and HSSC committee member Don Barker who has sadly passed away. Don was a larger than life character, never afraid to have his say and I can remember Don having several disagreements at committee meetings with dear old Snowy Beattie. Don’s son Graham is always helping out in the pits at Rye House and Dons daughter Jeannette [Birdbrain refers to her as the punk rocker girl, you’ll know he she is now] is very often seen at Newcastle, now her adopted home.
I first got to know Don when he was, like many of us were to start with, just a Hackney supporter. He would always be helping out and joined the HSSC committee. He could be seen perched up high on the fourth bend kiosk with Paul Tadman’s excellent programme shop, selling club membership, dinner dance tickets, river boat disco tickets ticket’s to name just a few roles he did. He then stood down at the 1989 AGM of the supporters club and went on to be pits marshal starting that role in 1989 until its close in 1991, although the HSSC programme notes of the first meeting in 1989 said Don was to be pits security!      
After Hackney closed, Don I think I’m correct in saying did a stint a Rye House and he then moved from his London home to leafy green Cambridgeshire, where he became an excellent bowling green bowler, to which he excelled and got to represent Cambridgeshire I believe. Sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong.
Deepest sympathy to Don’s wife and family from all at Hackney Speedway. It was a pleasure knowing you and we’ll all catch up with you one day, RIP Don Barker.

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.

Snowy Beatie

Hackney Speedway Supporters Club Secretary Snowy Beattie died on Thursday 10th July 2007, he was 87.

Tribute from Hawkeye. Taken from the 1976 Hackney v Wimbledon programme

This is speedway’s most famous supporters club secretary, Snowy Beattie. Hackney Speedway has been fortunate to have a few key men working behind the scenes who carry on the good work year after year. Snowy comes into this category having been elected to serve under Ron Dyer on the original post-war committee in 1936, and remaining a loyal servant with an unbroken run up to the present time.
However, before we look at Snowy Beattie the speedway secretary, lets find out something on the personal side. He was born in Shoreditch, the son of an insurance broker and when I interviewed him I had memories of the time I asked him his age under similar circumstances in 1970, when he told me to “mind my own business!”
It was with little trepidation that I said
“How old are you?”
He paused for a moment and then said
“All right, let them know, I’m 55!” He certainly doesn’t look his age does he?
Snowy, who has a married brother, has lived in Shoreditch district all his life and currently has a bachelor flat. He went to school in Shoredich and upon leaving took a job in the engineering trade, making loose leaf metals, which is still his profession today.
He was chistened Arthur Richard Beattie and it was at that time he started work that the nickname of Snowy was bestowed upon him. It transpires that the young Mr Beattie had pure white hair and his boss re-christened him.
Snowy served in the Royal Air Force for three years from 1944 and his two permanent stations were in Derby and North Wales.
It was soon after starting work at the age of 15 in 1936, that some workmates talked him into accompanying them to Harringay Speedway. He was a regular at the Green Lanes until the outbreak of war and also held a staff post at Rye House, where he used to cycle to the meetings.
Snowy also attended the occasional meeting at Belle Vue during the war but it was his demob in 1947, which coincided with the re-opening of Harringay, that saw him begin to make his mark as a backroom boy in the world of speedway racing.
He approached the late George Kay-at that time the Harringay promoter- with a view to running a cycling section of the Harringay Speedway Supporters Club and permission was duly granted. He also started to work for the Harringay promoter and used to sell badges, rosettes, photographs, etc until the demise of his beloved Racers at the end of the 1954 season.
Snowy was a always a keen cyclist and if you want evidence of this, he points to the occasion in 1948 when he and another eleven of his colleagues cycled to Perry Barr, Birmingham to watch the Racers in action against the local Brummies. It is worth mentioning that one of the other cyclists was current Hackney committee man, Reg Stracey.
During the days of Harringay Speedway there where two separate clubs, one a social club, and the other majoring on travel. After the speedway closure the two clubs amalgamated with Snowy as the secretary and the club still runs today, meeting every Tuesday at Wood Green.
When Harringay closed, Snowy watched his speedway racing at West Ham in 1955 and then Wimbledon and Rye House. It was at the latter track, when doing a security job, that snowy relates an amusing story. It appears that he was so positioned to stop people bunking in via the River Leas and amongst those he regularly sent packing were a few names that might be familiar to you, Mike Broadbank, Dingle Brown and Colin Pratt!
Snowy’s links with Hackney started at a staff meeting prior to our 1963 season opening. He was elected to serve on the committee and for the initial season he sold our novelty lines from a tray, before we opened kiosks as we have today.
The original committee was disbanded during the winter of 1963/64 and wasn’t reformed until after the 1964 season when Len Silver took a hand in the proceedings, Snowy was elected secretary at a supporters meeting and has held the position ever since. Indeed Snowy is one of only a handful of people who have worked behind the scenes at The Wick continuously since 1963.
Such is the devotion to The Hawks that Snowy will travel anywhere to watch them. He never misses a Saturday away fixture and in 14 seasons has only missed a handful of mid week ones. Many riders who have worn the Hackney colours have been grateful to snowy for his assistance in the pits on their travels when their own mechanics have been unable to make the trips. He has travelled abroad to World Finals in Poland and Sweden and to other parts of the continent for international events. He is a great friend of Danny Leno and played no small part in clinching the Warner’s sponsorship deal on our Champions Chase Knock –Out and Superama classics.
He was instrumental in popularising the sale in the sale of ‘old programmes’ from which at Hackney go to the Riders Equipment Fund. However probably his best known brainwave was the launching of the London Speedway Honours Ball, involving Hackney, Wembley, West Ham and Wimbledon.
Apart from his secretary’s duties, Snowy’s has also acted as Chairman and Treasurer on occasions when these posts have fallen vacant. He spends every Sunday at Hackney during the close season assisting with track and stadium maintenance.
Snowy owns a small piece of land at Laindon, which he often been the venue of barbecues, organised for the Hackney riders and their friends. His ambition is to see a much stronger social side to Hackney Speedway and he feels that our dinner / dance in October could well be the platform for swift developments in this particular area.
There have been many riders at Hackney who Snowy has idolised including Colin Pratt, Bengt Jannson, Barry Thomas and Zenon Plech. How ever when I asked him who he thought was the ‘all time great’, I was not too surprised when he plumped for Vic Duggan.
Nobody has served Hackney Speedway better than Snowy Beattie. Such is the respect that he commands here, I think we’ll be seeing him around for a good few years yet!

Tony Kasper 1962 - 2006 a tribute by his former mechanic and friend Chris Callaghan

Tony waiting for the tapes to rise in the famous Hackney Hawks body colour

Tony Kasper (I never could get my head around the Toni spelling, and told him early on it was a ‘girlie’ version any way!), was always, to me, a very humble guy. I remember the first time I saw him. It was at a Hackney training school on a Saturday afternoon when I was having a go myself. Tony had turned up in his old Lada car. He got himself ready and cued at the back of the line, two by two, awaiting his first chance to try the Waterden Road circuit. It was an impatient Len that summoned him to go straight onto the track and by-pass us ‘potential’ speedway champions! It was also around this time that Tony was the European (or world) under 21 champion. Now that’s humble!

That first season Tony stayed with Jan Verner, and Len asked if I would help mechanic for Tony, as Zenon, who I had been helping previously, wasn’t to return that year, due to some political barrier I think.
I helped Tony at all the home meetings and as many away ones as I could, as I was also working shift work. I swapped shifts wherever I could to help out. That first year Tony was establishing himself, gaining knowledge and experience. I admired him though as a 19 year old I think he was, living miles away from home with us in Essex, following his dream to be a champion. I think he could so easily have been a world champion, but saw his dream marred by a big crash at Reading where he broke his pelvis and noticeably lost a lot of confidence, which I’m not sure if he ever recovered from.

The following season Len asked if I would be willing for Tony to actually live with me and my wife for the whole season. As a young 20 year old, a year older than Tony, and with a mortgage, I was grateful of a little extra income. We became such good friends, like brothers really. I remember one night, whilst I was doing a night-shift, Tony stayed up the whole night putting together a radio controlled buggy that I had bought. We used to race it around the pits and track at Hackney before the meeting, and started a bit of a trend!
Now borrowing his dads’ diesel Mercedes with a bike on the back we travelled all over the country for Hackney, and to Europe too, whenever Tony represented his country or was on world championship duty. We travelled to Pocking for Tony’s first world final that year.

Tony and Chris with his Tony's dads diesel Merc

Occasionally we would return to Prague, Tony’s home town. I remember meeting his mum and dad the first time, staying with them under the strict Communist conditions that used to exist in those days. His mum and dad used to make me feel so welcome.

At the Marketa stadium we would sometimes do some preparing but Tony always had time to help others that needed his advice. I never got to see Prague properly in those days as we would literally drive from England to Prague and back, usually in a long weekend, just over a thousand miles each way! None of this flying business like today.
Back at home in England Tony would relax when we would pop down to the local for a drink and a few games of pool. Tony loved a Bitter shandy which was so different from the Czech ‘lager’ beer he had been used to, although we always stocked up when we went through Plzen on the way back from Czecho!

Sadly we lost touch as I moved away from the speedway scene altogether for various reasons and I hadn’t even seen a speedway meeting for quite a few years. About 6 years ago I noticed that Sky was doing a good coverage of speedway which rekindled my interest. On TV, I saw Tony riding in the World team cup, doing well at Peterborough and was very tempted to go and see him. Sadly again I didn’t make it on that occasion and missed the chance. It was in 2004 that I made a real effort though, through his Prague club, to make contact with Tony. I had been following speedway GPs on TV for about 3 years, although only attending the Cardiff one with my daughter Emma who Tony hadn’t ever met. Tony contacted me by email and we arranged for me and Emma to go and visit Tony and his family. We linked it with the 2004 Czech GP and had a brilliant time, staying with Tony four or five days, V.I.P. treatment at the GP, and meeting his wife Iveta and his two daughters, Denisa and Gabriella.
For the first time I saw the beautiful city of Prague properly, shown around by a true local, all of us together looking at the sights of Tony’s home city, including his school! We hadn’t seen each other for almost 20 years and had a great time reminiscing over those earlier days. My daughter Emma commented that Tony didn’t have a normal Eastern European accent and she spoke of his ‘cockney’ version, which he had picked up from me all those years ago. She also marvelled at his knowledge of cockney rhyming slang too, especially when Tony asked us to ‘come and have a Butchers’ at some new trees planted in his garden!

The tree in Tony's garden

Tony and Chris meeting up in Prague catching up on old times

It was so nice to see he had been successful though. Speedway had been good to him and he was also blessed with a beautiful family. He was still involved on the scene when I saw him, with a printing business and various engine tuning jobs, both speedway related.

On that last day, when Tony took us to back to Prague airport, I some how wondered if I would ever see him again. His daughters wanted to visit England some time, and we spoke of meeting up again then. Our last contact was when Tony sent me a hilarious email at Christmas 2005. I wasn’t even aware that he had cancer, although he must have known. His wife Iveta later told me that it had been discovered towards the end of 2005 and that he had an operation in January, which initially seemed to be very successful. Around April 2006 Tony felt unwell again and was told it was now terminal. He wanted to stay at home, but eventually had to be admitted to hospital during July, two weeks before he died. He finally lost the battle to cancer on the 31st July 2006. Iveta said those last two weeks had been the worst time of her life.

It seems so sad that we will never see him. His big cheeky grin and his Cockney/Czech accent! He was such a lovely guy who had so much laughter around him wherever we went. God bless you mate.

My thoughts and prayers got out for Tony’s wife Iveta, and his two beautiful girls, Denisa and Gabriella.


Chris Callaghan

The Kasper Family. Tony, his wife Iveta, and his two beautiful girls, Denisa and Gabriella.