Ivor John Hughes (28 February 1939 – 23 August 1966) was 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 ...

rider from Wales, who rode for the Cradley Heath Heathens team during the 1960s. He died following a track accident at the Dudley Wood Stadium on Saturday 20 August 1966 in the final heat of the British League match against Sheffield Tigers. His off-track occupation was a plumber in his home town of Berriew, Powys, Wales.

Career

Born in Middletown, near Welshpool Hughes started motorcycling with the local Clive Motorcycle Club, being a founder member, before turning to speedway with the purchase of a JAP machine at the end 1963 and after-the-meeting rides at Stoke. During June 1964 he made his first team appearance riding for Wolverhampton Wolves and then joined Cradley. By the end of 1965 he achieved an average of 2.89 for Cradley and 6.00 for Exeter Falcons. His breakthrough year was 1966 and on 21 May, he top scored for Cradley and challenged the three time World champion (soon to be 4) Barry Briggs for the Silver Sash. On 10 August in a match against Swedish team Vagarna he beat the current world champion at the time

Björn Knutson Björn Knutson commonly spelt Knutsson (born 27 April 1938 in Sweden) is a former motorcycle speedway rider who won the Speedway World Championship in 1965 and was a four-time winner of the World Team Cup. He gained the nickname 'The Crown Princ ...

in a scratch race. Hughes would never fulfil his potential because ten days later going into the final heat of the match against Sheffield Tigers he was involved in a crash with

Bob Paulson Robert Wilfred Paulson, (born 1958) is a former Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He retired from the RCMP at the end of June 2017. Life and career Paulson was born in Lachute, Quebec in 1958. His father was an Icelandic Can ...

and

Jack Kitchen Christopher John Kitchen (2 August 1938 – 21 July 1990) was a motorcycle speedway rider from England. Career Kitchen started his British leagues career in 1958 as he captained the Bradford Boomerangs junior side and in the 1958 Speedway Nat ...

. He suffered a serious head injury and died three days later in hospital. After his death an Ivor Hughes Memorial Trophy has been presented annually in his honour by the Cradley club, either raced for or awarded.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Ivor 1939 births 1966 deaths British speedway riders Welsh speedway riders English motorcycle racers Cradley Heathens riders