The Odsal Tudors or Bradford Tudors were a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

team based at

Odsal Stadium Odsal Stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, is the home of Bradford Bulls Rugby League team. It has also been used by the Bradford Dukes speedway team, BRISCA F1 and F2 stock cars, the football team Bradford City, following the Valley ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

from 1950 to 1960.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''.

History

At the end of July 1950 the Odsal Tudors replaced the

Odsal Boomerangs Odsal Boomerangs were a motorcycle speedway team based at Odsal Stadium, Rooley Lane, Odsal, Bradford, West Yorkshire, from 1945 to 1950. The team became the Odsal Tudors during the 1950 season.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of Britis ...

. At the time it was said that the name change was due to the riders hating the Boomerang nickname, or maybe they believed that a change of name would herald a change of fortune following the events of 1 July. On 1 July 1950, 47-year-old Joe Abbott was killed instantly following a crash at Odsal Stadium in a league match against

West Ham Hammers The West Ham Hammers were a speedway team, first promoted by Jimmy Baxter in 1929. History They operated from the West Ham Stadium until the outbreak of World War II under several different promotions, most successfully under the control o ...

. After falling and hitting the safety fence he was hit by a rider behind. A second rider was killed on the same night in a division 2 fixture. The Tudors of 1951 repeated the feat of the

Boomerangs A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

of 1948 and finished bottom of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

. One bright spot was Arthur Forrest, a local rider who was the product of the Monday night training school, finished third in the 1956 world final. With the decreasing attendances it was not a surprise that at the end of the 1956 season that it was announced that league racing would not be staged at Odsal in 1957. In 1957 former riders Oliver Hart, Ron Clarke and Ron Mason took over as promoters and staged a number of open meetings and when in August, the

Birmingham Brummies Birmingham Brummies are a British speedway team founded in 1928. They were inaugural members of the Southern League in 1929. The team have twice finished runner-up in the highest tier of British speedway, during the 1952 Speedway National Lea ...

withdrew from the National League as a result of internal

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

politics, Clarke and Mason took over their remaining fixtures riding as the Bradford (the Odsal name was dropped) Tudors.

Season summary

Notable riders

*Al Allison *Guy Allott * Jack Biggs *

Nigel Boocock Nigel Boocock (17 September 1937 – 3 April 2015) was a British speedway rider who appeared in eight Speedway World Championship finals and was a reserve in one other (1962). Career Born in Wakefield, England, Boocock started his career with t ...

Ron Clarke Ronald William Clarke, AO, MBE (21 February 1937 – 17 June 2015) was an Australian athlete, writer, and the Mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012. He was one of the best-known middle- and long-distance runners in the 1960s, notable for ...

* Arthur Forrest * Oliver Hart *Jack Hughes *

Dent Oliver John Walter Denton Oliver (13 April 1918 in Crook, County Durham, England – 1973) was an international speedway rider who qualified for the Speedway World Championship finals three times.Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the Wor ...

* Eddie Rigg *Arthur Wright

References

{{reflist Sport in Bradford Defunct speedway teams in the United Kingdom

History

Season summary

Notable riders

See also

References